General gardening tips and hints
Sugar snap and mangetout can escape pea moth caterpillars when they are eaten small. White maggots feed inside the pods so damage is only spotted at harvest. Pea moths Cydia nigricana attack legumes including garden peas, sweet peas and vetch.
Pea weevil Sitona lineatus eat the edges of leaves and cause havoc with seedlings. If necessary a bug spray may be effective
Pigeons can destroy a crop and if they are a problem netting is the answer.
Regal Pelargoniums or exotic Geraniums are getting more fancy and colourful. This pink frilled flower is called Reba Regal. I grow Regal pelargoniums for in house but they can go outside after the last frost although some flowers are a bit susceptible to rain damage.
The leaves of this Hydragea Aspera are one of its key features. As with other Aspera subspecies the branches and leaves are ‘strigose’ which botanically means ‘beset with appressed straight and stiff hairs’ that means rough and furry to me.
This specimen shrub is 4-5 feet tall and whilst it comes from the Himalayas some plants can be a bit tender.
The Purple flowers open to a clear white (that is almost burned out on this photo) but the overall effect is pleasing. The flowerheads make good internal decorations.
The colouring of Hydrangea Aspera is not affected by aluminium or acidity of the soil.
Other Hydrangea species that are closely related include H.Involucrata, H. Strigosa and H. Villosa.  H. Sargentiana is a taller more leggy coarse shrub brought from China by E H Wilson with a low growing H. Longipes and H. Galbripes.
For Complete Hydrangeas book click here and for cheap colourant click this link
Hydrangeas available from Thompson & Morgan
There are two great uses for Geraniums that make it worth growing these fine flowering plants. Outdoors they make fantastic border plants and the red varieties are very popular in formal bedding schemes. The second use is as a long flowering houseplant and if you deadhead and feed you plants you will get lots of geraniums from one windowsill plant.
Grow from seed, plug plants or cuttings. They root quite easily from spring cuttings.
Plant out when the danger of frost has gone.
Geraniums can go straight into a border/bed or be put in containers, troughs or baskets.
Pinch-out the growing tip in April to encourage bushy plants.
Feed in summer with a high potash fertilizer to encourage more blooms.
Geraniums can survive with little water so can be planted in dry conditions but they do appreciate a drink like the rest of us.
Use one variety or colour and plant together to get a bold swathe of colour. …
The Royal Horticultural Society produce many books and this one, RHS Gardening Month by Month by Ian Spencer contains over 1,300 seasonal tasks. Covering tasks for every part of the garden, expert plant advice and lists of star plants from January to December it is a great confidence booster. When you have finished those tasks it will be time to start a new year!
Whether you are a green-fingered guru or are just starting out enjoy 12 months of successful gardening. With help on what to do when to ensure your plants are well cared for and your garden blooms all year round.
Easy-to-follow, this guide not only tells you what to do when, but shows you how to do it.
You only need to browse and not follow slavishly.
Ulex europaeus better known as Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a very prickly shrub of the pea family. Western gorse Ulex gallii is frequent in the western side of Britain and is relatively low growing yet robust. Dwarf gorse or Ulex minor is a low growing, sprawling shrub.
Read about other Prickly Shrubs
Many common weeds found in lawns and grass are appealing wild flowers. They look best in a meadow setting and not in a manicured lawn.
Lawn with stripes nor weeds
Dandelions produce prodigious amounts of fertile seed that seems to germinate well amongst grass in the lawn.
Their deep tap roots need to be fully removed or killed to prevent a reinfestation of Dandelions. They can be spot weeded by hand or by using a spot-touch weed killer.
The common Daisy is a low growing weed that hugs the ground too smother the grass. They can develop large colonies and are often left untreated as they ‘look pretty’ and can make daisy chains.
Clover has tight heads of pink, yellow or white flowers with shamrock shaped leaves (Why sham rocks and not real ones?). It thrives in poor soil and runners can be intrusive. Feed the lawn and mow regularly and treat with selective weed killer if these treatments do not work. (pick the four leaved clover for luck!)
Plantains (bottom left)have large leaves that compete for soil nutrients depriving the grass.
Buttercups stunt neighbouring plants and creeps quickly over a lawn. There was not much stunting going on in this picture.
Most Common Weeds
Uncommon Weeds
Weed control of Avens
Horsetail and Mares-tail
Why war with weeds
Credits
Four-leaf Clover by dalcrose CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Buttercups by R~P~M CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A sea of Dandelions
It is the time of the year where dandelions are popping up everywhere. This shot of Dandelion flowers is quite attractive (taken by Oxford Castle Mound). But, in the border and lawn dandelion is classed as a weed. In particular dandelion leaves will smoother the grass and make it weaker in the long term.
It is a tough weed, but definitely beatable.
For a small number of dandelions, I do recommend digging out the tap root with a trowel or custom weed trowel. The secret is to try and get as much of the root as possible. In practise, it is hard to get everything. But, it means that when it regenerates from a small bit of root, it will much easier to finish off with weed killer.
It is best to dig dandelions when the soil is dry as this makes it easier to shake off the soil surrounding the dandelion root.
If you don’t have time or energy to dig up dandelions, you can resort to a weedkiller which is designed for broad leaf weeds. You can either spray or paint it directly on to the leaves. It may need 2 to 3 treatments to finally kill them off.
Now is a good time to act, as if you let them go to seed, it will be just storing up more work for the future.
Dandelions aren’t the end of the world. This makes quite an attractive picture.
Another option is just enjoy the flowers and pick the leaves and flowers for salads. If you are really keen, you could roast the dandelion root to make a healthy organic dandelion coffee.
Related
Weedkiller for Dandelion
Roundup Weedkiller concentrate. Good for large areas which need treating at Amazon.
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