Summer Tubs and Hanging Baskets
It’s May so time to get those patio pots, troughs and hanging baskets planted and enjoy lots of flowers around the garden all summer.
Trees Trees And More Trees Please
Trees are probably the most important plant you can add to your garden.
Not only do they contribute to the air that we breath they are profoundly important for wildlife. They provide shelter and homes for insects, berries and fruits for mammals and birds and shade for some plants, ourselves and our pets.
You Really Do Get What You Pay For!
Often the wet and cold winter weather of January will put our gardening jobs on hold for a while. By February high pressure should herald less rain and even if cold the bright sunny days will finally encourage us to get some early gardening jobs done.
A Whole New Gardening Year Begins
Whopeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
It’s January and our Gardening Year begins again.
Here in the darkest winter days there’s a fresh enthusiasm and plans to be made for the garden in this whole new Gardening Year.
Venture to the Garden Centre and you will see some of the delights that could be colourful and exciting in your garden even in the middle of winter.
Winter Garden Delights
Christmas doesn’t need to be just about the traditional decorations for your house. If you look hard enough, there’s a wealth of delightful plants that will also add a festive feel to your garden during the dark weeks of December.
November: A Time For Reflection And Planning For The Future
November brings with it a firework display of Autumn colours from falling leaves to vibrant Chrysanthemums, the last of the perennial Rudbeckias and jewel-like Pansies and Cyclamen. Along with this final flower show though, there also begins a time of reflection in the garden.
Jewels of the Autumn Garden
Autumn is a perfect time for adding new plants and bulbs to your garden because the combination of high moisture and warm soil create the right conditions for good strong root growth and healthy plants. Your garden need not lose colour because summer is over. There are many brightly coloured hardy perennials and bedding plants to choose to keep the colour going at this time of year.
Prairie Planting
The fashion of Prairie Planting has encouraged the use of ornamental grasses in the garden. This style of gardening originated in mid-west America as a way of mimicking the vast wild grasslands found there but on a garden scale. Many grass species would be planted together in large blocks alongside similarly bold groupings of native plants such as Echinacea, Verbascum, Monarda, Solidago, Phlox, Rudbeckia, Asters and Helenuims.
Sizzling Late Summer Colour
By the onset of August your summer bedding may start to look a bit tired, especially if you’ve have been on holiday and your neighbour hasn’t watered those pots and baskets enough in your absence. There’s a remedy though as at this time of year there’s plenty of late summer perennials and bedding plants that you can plant to ‘perk up’ your pots and borders and that will keep on flowering up until the first frosts of winter.
Brighten up Your Borders In July
English Flower Gardens usually reach their peak for colour in May and June followed by a final floral flourish in August and September leaving a ‘flower drought’ in July when the garden can look rather flat and green in comparison. By adding a few select perennial and bedding plants the colour in your borders pots and containers can be kept going.
Gardening In June
June is usually the month of long sunny days, barbeques and sitting back and enjoying all the colour in the garden with a cold glass of your favourite tipple. The garden however doesn’t stop growing so it is important to keep a good” job schedule” going just leave them until the cooler mornings and evenings.
Grow Your Own - Mediterranean Style
There are some exotic vegetables you can grow in your garden when the weather improves that are natives of warmer climes.
Tomatoes, Aubergines, Chillies, Sweet Peppers, Cucumbers and Melons are a few from countries around the Mediterranean but with a little added protection can be grown here in UK gardens.
Tomatoes, Aubergines, Chillies, Sweet Peppers, Cucumbers and Melons are a few from countries around the Mediterranean but with a little added protection can be grown here in UK gardens.