Top 10 Tips for Coping with the Dry Spell

1. Recycle bath and washing water – Grey water – best if use organic environmentally friendly natural products for washing hands etc so doesn’t harm plants when reuse it.

2. Water at the right time of day – morning/evening to reduce evaporation.

3. Collect rain water with water buts- some plants prefer it such as rhododendrons and camelias

4. Group pots together in shade, and take hanging baskets down and stick in the shade in heat of the sun

5. Stand Pots in saucers, doesn’t dry out so quick

6. Don’t worry too much about lawns, they will green up again in the autumn. Unless it is newly laid turf

7. Water the base of the plants, not the foliage – goes straight to soil where its needed. Make a puddle around each plant

8. Choose plants that tolerate dry conditions

Dry and Sunny-

Perennials

 Generally, plants with a tough, silvery leaf such as cistus, lavender, lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina), Russian sage (Perovskia), dianthus, phlomis, rosemary and thyme will all do well in the sun and many will give the added bonus of a fabulous scent. They originate from the Mediterranean and they all are used basking in the sun. Other plants that will do well are iris germanica, alliums, thrift, coreopsis, agapanthus and gaillardia.

Bedding Plants

Geraniums and osteospernums and petunias are the most draught tolerant of the summer bedding plants.

Dry and Shadey -

Bit more tricky. But it is not impossible to overcome. Top of the list is the Epimedium rubrum, a great little plant with a pinky purple flower, and then there is Mahonia aquifolium or Oregon Grape which is an evergreen shrub with fragrant yellow flowers in late spring.  Periwinkles (Vinca), elephant’s ears, liriope and butcher’s broom (Ruscus) will also do O.K. For foliage colour go for the many euonymus varieties such as ‘Emerald and Gold’ or ‘Silver Queen’ or try the Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Album’ which has a great white flower and will do well in dry shade.

9. To try to reduce the need for watering in the first place get the secateurs out and cut back the excess foliage on your perennials, this will keep them bushy and reduce the watering burden.

10. Keep the weeds down as much as possible as they can be nutrient and moisture robbers, taking away much needed water from your cherished perennials.

Well, August already, where does the time go. We always find August a bit depressing as autumn is on the way and all those darker evenings aren’t far behind. Combine harvesters come out, herbaceous perennials are starting to die back and leaves are starting to loose their lovely verdant green colour. But don’t despair we can still get a lot of out of our gardens, the michelmas daisies are looking at their best and echinaceas, dahlias and chrysanths are bursting with colour. Here are a few jobs to think about.

1. August is a good month to summer prune wisterias. We normally trim back the wispy spurs by about a third or to about 5 or 6 buds from the main stem. To help flowering next year feed with tomato feed to give it a boast. The main pruning time for wisterias is the middle of winter (Jan / Feb) when you trim the spurs back to 2 or 3 buds from the main stem.
2. Continue to deadhead roses and other perennials to prolong flowering.
3. If you want to save seed from your perennials for growing on next year, now is a good time to do so. Cut heads of hardy geraniums, aquilegias and poppys for drying out. Collect the seed in paper bags or envelopes and keep somewhere cool and dry.
4. Identify and mark gaps in your borders now for planting of autumn bulbs before the perennials die down.
5. Once this year’s raspberry canes have finished fruiting cut canes down to the ground and tie in the new canes. Pin strawberry runners into pots of compost to create new plants.
6. Put stakes around autumn flowering perennials such as dahlias, chrysanthemums and michaelmas daisys to keep them supported.
7. As soon as lavender has finished flowering take the shears to it and reduce it back to about ½ inch into the new growth but no lower. Keep the seed heads for their fragrance and use indoors.
8. Continue to feed and water tubs and baskets.
9. Make sure houseplants aren’t left on windowsills in the summer sunshine as they can scorch in direct sunlight.
10. Trim back leggy annuals to give them a new lease of life such as petunias, nicotianas and nemesia.

Phew what a scorcher! At last we have a summer to speak of. Although great for us, these soaring temperatures are not great for our gardens. Already the grass verges are turning brown and I’m struggling to keep my pots watered ! I’ve got a fabulous Elecampane (Inula helenium), a large moisture loving wild flower, and as I’ve been re-organising my garden recently it’s ended up in a pot. Big mistake! It absolutely guzzles water and if I miss a day with the watering can it lets me know.

1. As the weather has been so warm and dry our main advice this month is to keep your pots, baskets and containers watered; once a day for your containers and pots, and twice a day for hanging baskets. Don’t forget to feed your bedding plants and baskets every fortnight to ensure they last through the season. Tomato feed or ‘Miracle-Gro’ is ideal for this. You may have to get the hose pipe out to give your borders a good soaking. If you are growing runner beans in pots it is especially important not to let them dry out.
2. Cut back the spent flower stems of perennials that have gone over such as lupins, delphiniums and aquilegias if you don’t want them to seed everywhere.
3. Keep an eye out for pests, especially caterpillars and aphids and either pick them off or treat them with something such as ‘Provardo’ (Based on thiacloprid) or try out biological control if there aren’t that many of them such as nematodes (for caterpillars) or parasitic wasps (for aphids and whitefly).
4. Keep dead heading your plants to ensure continued flowering, e.g. roses, valerian and pelargoniums.
5. Fill gaps in your borders with bedding plants. Red geraniums really lift your borders and give a touch of the Mediterranean.
6. Divide bearded irises now that they have finished flowering.
7. Tidy up trees that have started to send out suckers by cutting them back to the base of the trunk. Also cut back rose suckers and parts of variegated plants such as elaeagnus that may have started to revert, i.e. turn back to green and loose their varigation.
8. Keep a look out for blight on your potatoes and tomatoes. There is a forecasting system for blight called a ‘Smith Period’ – this is defined as 2 consecutive days starting at 9am in the morning where temperatures are over 10 degrees C for at least 11 hours and the relative humidity is over 90%, in other words blight will spread when it is warm and wet. You will start to see brown patches on the leaves (potatoes and tomatoes) and tomato stems may develop black patches. Prevention is better than cure, avoid growing potatoes and tomatoes in the same spot, try not to water with sprinklers as spores can develop on wet leaves. Grow resistant varieties and grow early potatoes so you can harvest before blight takes hold. On potatoes it is a good idea to remove the haulm or foliage if blight arrives late in the season so that the tubers do not get infected as blight will spread from the leaves down to the tubers by rain splash. The only sure fire way to keep tomatoes and potatoes free from blight is to spray the leaves with a protectant fungicide before blight appears and then spray regularly to keep it away.
9. Give your lawn a summer feed if it didn’t receive a spring treatment and keep it well watered to ensure that it stays green as we haven’t had enough rain this month.
10.  Top up your ponds and water features now that the weather is warming up as water is being lost to evaporation.

WELL spring has finally arrived. The daffodils are looking glorious, the leaves are starting to appear on the hawthorns and willows, herbaceous perennials are starting to push through in the borders and the grass is starting to shake off its depressing winter yellow colour. This is a wonderful, invigorating time of year for a gardener and now that the clocks have changed we also get an extra hour in the garden!  Lots to do this month;

 1.      Plant evergreen trees and shrubs now that the soil is starting to warm up. It’s a good time to plant other flowering plants such as roses, climbers and herbaceous perennials.

2.      If you haven’t pruned your roses by now, make sure you finish this month. It’s also a good idea to feed them with a granular rose fertiliser.

3.      Hard prune the forsythia after flowering.

4.      Start hoeing to keep weeds down between your plants. Take care not to cut the tops off hostas, lilies and other plants that have tender shoots.

5.      Keep a look out for pests, especially slugs and snails if the weather turns wet and take speedy action. If you don’t want to use sprays then pick off as many as you can. Try using the organic slug pellet based on ferric phosphate. Keep an eye out for the dreaded lily beetle as the lilies start to push through. We are hoping that the cold weather has reduced their numbers.

6.      Continue sowing selected vegetables outside such as carrots, radishes, beetroot, cabbages, Brussels sprouts and lettuce. Brussels and cabbages do better if they are sown in a seed bed first then transplanted into their final positions in May / June.

7.      Plant second early potatoes (such as Maris Peer, International Kidney & Charlotte) from early to mid April (ready July/August) and main crop towards the end of the month (ready September/October). First early potatoes are usually planted late March but it doesn’t matter if they run into April

8.      Sow pumpkins, squashes and tomatoes inside with protection. When it has warmed up in May and frost risk has gone then they can be planted outside.

9.      Don’t be tempted to fill in the gaps in your borders just yet; some plants are still coming through.

10.  Start your spring lawn treatments to keep them in tiptop condition. Continue to aerate, scarify, feed and weed. There are a number of all-in-one weed and feed granules available at your local DIY store or garden centre and it is worth using them.

11.  It is also a good time to start turfing or seeding new lawns.

12.  If you have winter bedding such as pansies continue to deadhead them to extend their flowering season, and keep containers and hanging baskets well watered. They should start to look their best from this month onwards.

13.  Take basal root cuttings from things like delphiniums, dahlias, phlox and chrysanthemums. These are created from the little tiny shoots coming from the base of last years old stems. Try to remove from as near as possible to the main root and before they are 2 or 3 inches tall and root in nice sandy, gritty compost.

14.  Take soft wood cuttings from fuchsias and geraniums.

15.  Hoe in slow release fertiliser between your plants to get them going.

16.  If you want dramatic leaves on some shrubs and are happy not to get the  flowers you can cut back hard on catalpas, acer negundo and pawlonias

17.  Carefully remove dead and damaged fronds from ferns. Take care not to damage the new, unfurling fronds in the crown of the plant as they are very brittle.

18.  Be patient with perennials that may look as though they have been killed by the frost such as salvias and verbenas. There is a  good chance that they may re-shoot from below ground level.

19.  Start watering your house plants regularly. Pop them in the bath and give them a blast with the shower head to get rid of dust and cobwebs. You will find that this will invigorate them and help them to photosynthesise properly.

20.  It’s a good time to start planting summer flowering bulbs such as gladiolis, fresias, ixias, sparaxis and lilies.

Hoorah! No rain for the last couple of weeks which means that the soil is starting to dry out and we can finally get onto the borders to do some gardening. As with last year we are coming to the end of one of the coldest winters for the last 20 years some things may be a few weeks late or may run in to April. The spring bulbs are running 3-4 weeks and to date we have only seen a few clumps of daffodils in flower. Not many bunches for Mothers Day this year I’m afraid. Sorry mum x. 

1. Prune your roses. Now’s the time to prune your rose bushes if you haven’t already done so. Don’t get too stressed about the technical side. What you should do is prune back to an outward facing bud, taking the bush down to about half to a third of its height. You should also prune away any dead or diseased stems and burn them and prune away any stems that cross each other. You are aiming for a good open bush. This isn’t something to worry about too much – I know of at least one rose grower who does his rose pruning with a hedge trimmer and it doesn’t affect the flowering one bit.
2. Tidy up frost and snow damaged plants. Prune out the dead bits from tender shrubs and climbers such as choisyas and solanums. Cut out bent leaves from phormiums and take out the dead brown leaves.
3. Prune buddleias and dogwoods. Ideal time  for cutting back Buddleia davidii to encourage flowering. Some plants that have got out of hand may need to have quite a bit taken off. Cut back the colourful stemmed dogwoods such as the red Cornus Alba. If you cut the stems back almost to the ground (15cm) it will ensure a new lot of colourful stems for next winter.
4. Trim your grasses. We always give our ornamental grasses a haircut this time of year, ready for the new verdant growth to push through. Don’t cut too low only down to about 15cm. Good time for trimming back pampas grasses; we take a hedge trimmer to it or if you are in an appropriate location set light to it to take it to take off the dead bits and encourage new growth.
5. Lift and shift your perennials. Good time for dividing and moving herbaceous perennials such as Phlox, Asters, Rudbeckia and Alchemila
6. If you want to transplant Snowdrops, a good time to do this is after they have flowered when they are still ‘in the green’.
7. Get out and dig over your bare soil now that the conditions are right if you haven’t already done so. For most vegetables you want to aim for a consistancy of coarse breadcrumbs before you sow.
8. Start to sow some veg seed outside such as lettuce, raddish and cabbage
9. Onion sets can be planted out now.
10. Chitting Potatoes – To get your potatoes growing away better, you should chit them to encourage sprouting. To do this place in a tray or egg box and keep somewhere bright and cool for a couple of weeks. Put them ‘rose-end’ up (The end with the dormant eyes upwards). Earlies you can think about planting out at the end of the month. Remember to add some Grow More fertiliser as you plant.
11. Get the mower out and make sure it works. You may also want to think about a spring lawn treatment for next month.
12. Plant lily bulbs ready for the summer.

With the weather being so ghastly at the moment, nothing is so urgent that it can’t wait until March, but if you do have itchy feet then there are a few things you can do.  

1.  Make a start pruning your roses but don’t get too hung up about the technicalities, it often doesn’t make too much difference to the number of flowers you get. With bush roses, reduce them down by about a third, just above an outward facing bud, cutting out any dead bits or crossing stems.  

 Whilst you’ve got your secateurs out, don’t be tempted to get too trigger happy. If you can’t remember what a plant is, it’s probably best not to cut it back as you might be cutting off this year’s flowers. As a general rule if a shrub flowers before the end of June cut it back after it has flowered (such as forsythia, lilac, mahonia, viburnum bodnantense etc.) but if it flowers after the end of June cut it back in the autumn (such as spireas, potentillas and hypericums).

 2. Tidy up any dead herbaceous perennials, if not already done so, and dig-in any well rotted garden compost that you made last year. 

 3. It’s also the ideal time to prune your wisterias to give you maximum flowers in the spring. You can be quite harsh, cutting those whippy stems right back to two buds away from the main stem and cut away any dead wood.

 4.  As it is quiet in the garden right now, take the opportunity to give your greenhouse a thorough good clean (if it is empty). Scrub the frame and glass to get rid of any fungal spores or any over-wintering pests and clean and disinfect any seed trays and pots to give your seedlings a clean and healthy start.  

 5. If you have been storing bulbs or any other types of tubers, now’s a good time to check them over to ensure that no rots have set in.

 6. Remember to get your gardening equipment serviced early. Take it out of the shed now to make sure it all still works. Don’t’ wait until March or April to take your mower in for a service; we know from experience that if you leave it too late to take your mower in, you might have to wait weeks to get it back, just at the time when you need it the most. Everyone else leaves it to the last minute.

 7. Get ahead of yourself now by digging over any bare soil and breaking-up any clods to give you a fine crumbly seed bed in preparation for sowing. It’s still too early to sow most things outside but you could have a go at planting a few radishes, leeks or parsnips if you are really keen. Inside, you can start sowing a few tomatoes on your window sills to get an early start.

 8. One last thing I would recommend to do this month is to try to find a snowdrop walk and enjoy them before they go over. It will really lift your spirits and get you in the mood for gardening when it does warm up. Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge, has a great winter walk that goes on until the last week in February.

One of our favourite horticultural jobs at this time of year must be choosing our Christmas tree. Real trees don’t suit everyone but for the people who do want one, you generally have a choice of Spruces (such as the traditional Norway Spruce) or Firs (such as the Nordman Fir or Douglas Fir). They each have their own pros and cons; the spruces tend to be cheaper but the firs don’t drop their needles so readily. What ever you go for, just remember to treat the tree like a cut flower, cut the bottom couple of inches off and make sure it has plenty of water. Don’t put it next to a radiator and keep it outside in a bucket of water until you are ready to bring it in.

1.      Clear the remainder of the leaves, most would have come down already. Last to come down are normally weeping willow leaves followed by the alders.

2.      As with last month make sure your tender plants are protected, either fleeced or brought indoors.

3.      You shouldn’t need to do any hoeing but if you do get the urge be careful not to hoe off any emerging bulbs. It’s easily done, I did it twice last week !

4.      Continue planting deciduous trees and shrubs. It’s a good time for planting both fruit trees and fruit bushes. You can still just about get away with planting any bulbs if you didn’t get time last month.

5.      This time of year is traditionally the best time to prune your apples and pears. Cut off any dead or diseased branches and any crossing branches to keep an open shape. With apple trees I was always told that they should be nice and open so that a pigeon could fly right throw the tree without knocking into any branches. Remember don’t prune cherries, plums and peaches until the spring/ early summer.

6.      Don’t be tempted to feed your plants at this time of year. Most are not actively growing so they don’t need it. Any soft growth that may be promoted could get hammered by the cooler temperatures.

7.      Give your compost heap a good stir to ensure that it gets mixed thoroughly.

8.      Caring for Poinsettias. If you get a poinsettia for Christmas, make sure you keep it well lit, away from draughts and don’t let the temperatures fall below 13 degrees. Don’t over water and let the compost dry out between waterings. To get it to colour up again for next Christmas, cut the stems back to about 10cm in the early spring and then  re-pot and water in May. At the start of October cover the plant from the early evening so that it gets 14 hours of darkness. Do this for 8 weeks and then the bracts should turn red. Remember, the key is 14 hours of darkness for 8 weeks.

9.      Clear away any dead anuuals, runner beans, bedding, sweet peas etc.

10.  Dig over vacant areas; the winter frosts should help to break down the soil ready for working in the spring.

Fabulous, Fun and Spooky Planters for Halloween from Woolcott & Smith

Autumn is a fab time for planting and also for those spooky Halloween pumpkins. So  this year, why not combine the two and enjoy your pumpkins as planters a few days before Halloween. Then simply convert them back into the traditional Halloween lanterns on Halloween night. Easy to do, you can get the kids involved, enjoy your plants presented in a fun way and then plant them out in the garden once you have finished.

Step 1 -           Choose a large pumpkin

Step 2 -           Draw your design on the pumpkin, the scarier the better

Step 3 -           Cut the top off and scoop out the flesh and seeds

Step 4 -           Carve out the design with care

Step 5 -           Choose a grass or spikey plant such as a phormium and drop it

                        into the top of the pumpkin to make it’s hair

 ( If the pot is too big remove the plant from the pot, cut the pot in half, place one half at the back of the carved out face to create a black screen, then remove a little compost from around the root ball of the plant, place the root ball in a freezer or sandwich bag and simply drop into the pumpkin behind the black screen).

 Step 6 -           Once you have finished with it simply take the plant out and

                        plant it out in the garden. Don’t forget to recycle the pumpkin on

                        the compost heap, or wash it out and make into soup.

Meet The family –  (Back row left to right, then front row left to right)

‘Witch Doctor ’ - We have used Carex ‘Comans Bronze’

‘Spike’              - We have used Phormium ‘Rainbow Queen’

‘Scarecrow’       - We have used the red grass Uncinia rubra

‘Banshee’           - We have used Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’

‘Smiler ’             - We have used Acorus gramineus ‘Variegatus’

Have Fun !

1. Now is a good time to start thinking about giving your lawns some TLC with an autumn lawn treatment. Rake out any thatch of dead brown grass and improve drainage by spiking or aerating. On heavy soils brush sand into the holes to improve drainage and on light sandy soils brush in compost or top soil to improve the moisture retention. If the weather permits you can keep mowing for a few weeks to keep the lawns sharp. 
2. Try to keep on top of the leaves if you can, especially if they are on the lawn as they can turn the grass yellow if left to rot. Don’t get too worried about leaves on your flower beds as these will eventually rot down or you can dig them in giving extra nutrients. Diseased leaves should be burnt to stop any infection from carrying over to next year. 
3. We try to give roses a light autumn prune, just to put them to bed before Christmas. If you prune down by a third it will stop wind rock which can reduce the rigour of the plant. Rake up and burn old rose leaves, especially if infected with black spot. 
4. Tidy up Buddleias now that they have finished flowering. Cut back by a third, just above a pair of leaves. You can cut them back hard in March. 
5. Keep lifting and dividing perennials such as Michaelmas Daisies, Alchemila, Campanula and Phlox if required. 
6. As deciduous trees are now becoming dormant you can start planting new fruit trees and ornamentals. Peaches and nectarines always do better if planted in the early autumn when the soil is still reasonably warm, apples and pears aren’t so fussy. 
7. If frosts have destroyed the last of the summer bedding or you are just fed up with them, pull them up and get rid of them. Think about planting autumn / winter bedding such as Violas and pansies, Bellis, Cyclamen and wall flowers. Pansies and Violas always do better if planted early autumn and I always prefer Violas to pansies as they flower better, look neater and don’t need so much dead heading. 
8. Raise your pots up with pot feet to stop them sitting in water over the winter and give some of your more tender plants a bit of protection. If we get some harsh frosts remember that you need to properly fleece your plants; one layer of fleece is not enough you need several layers and cover the pot itself as well. 
9. Keep planting spring bulbs.  
10. In the veg garden, harvest your pumpkins and squashes. Once cut you will help storage if you leave them in the sun for a couple of days to let the skins  harden before storing somewhere cool, dark and dry. 

     If your tomatoes are still refusing to turn red, try pulling them up and hanging

    them up side down in the greenhouse or somewhere bright. It should help them

    to ripen.

1. Make some notes on the position of your herbaceous perennials in your borders. Now is a good time to think about where to move them to later on in the autumn if you are not happy with their current position or height in the border etc. It is always a good idea to mark them with a stick as they die down so that you don’t dig them up by accident in the spring.

2. Lift and shift. Towards the end of the month you can lift those perennials, divide them and then move them somewhere else. 

3. Start thinking about buying and planting spring bulbs. Daffodills are pest planted towards the end of the month and tulips are best planted in November. 

4. Cut summer fruiting raspberry canes down to the ground once they have finished fruiting if you didn’t do so last month. The new canes which will still be green will provide fruit for next year so leave these and tie in for next year. Pick autumn flowering raspberries.

5. Continue to collect seed from perennials and annuals once the seed pods have dried out to either give to friends or re-sow yourself.

6. Don’t be tempted to forget about your hanging baskets and pots; keep watering, feeding and deadheading to prolong flowering. Most will flower quite happily until the first frosts.

7. If you are thinking about re-turfing your garden or re-seeding your lawn, now is a good time to do it as the soil is still reasonably warm and there tends to be more rainfall.  

8. Continue to harvest your veg, potatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans and tomatoes. If, god forbid, there are any light frosts at the end of the month, cover your outdoor tomatoes with fleece for protection and don’t forget to keep feeding them with tomato feed. Don’t forget keep picking runner beans, ideally when they are young and not stringy, to keep encouraging continued cropping.