Well, August already, where does the time go. Its been a fab start to the month, what with the fabulous sporting activities and the warm weather.

Our gardens are still looking great, especially the lilies,  michelmas daisies, Echinaceas, Dahlias and chrysanths which are all bursting with colour. Here are a few jobs to be thinking  about.

 To be seen in conjunction with July’s tips.

 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.

1. Continue to deadhead roses and other perennials to prolong flowering.
2. 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.
3. Identify and mark gaps in your borders now for planting of autumn bulbs before the perennials die down.
4. 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.
5. Put stakes around autumn flowering perennials such as dahlias, chrysanthemums and michaelmas daisys to keep them supported.
6. 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.
7. Continue to feed and water tubs and baskets.
8. Make sure houseplants aren’t left on windowsills in the summer sunshine as they can scorch in direct sunlight.    
9. Trim back leggy annuals to give them a new lease of life such as petunias, nicotianas and nemesia.

Where has the summer gone!  Although the recent weather has been diabolical in most parts of the country the rain has been really good for our gardens so we shouldn’t complain too much. At least the hose pipe ban has been lifted . Note to water companies; build more reservoirs and invest in your companies rather than creaming off the profits for shareholders!

A garden that we designed and planted has done really well as a result of all this rain

1. Although we have had a tremendous amount of rain recently it doesn’t take long for things to dry out so 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. Ideal time to trim back oriental poppies, cut them down and they will soon green up again.
3. Keep an eye out for weeds and 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). Watch out for snails and pick them off at night.
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. Rain water is best if you have water buts as nitrites in mains water can turn ponds green, but needs must.

HERE we are in June, The Chelsea Flower Show has come and gone and we are now looking forward to The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and Tatton Park. We were delighted with our own Artisan Garden at Chelsea, ‘The Plankbridge Shepherd’s Hut Garden’ (Silver Medal) and to our mind it was the best garden we have ever created and it certainly got loads of attention.

 Back in the garden, the recent hot weather has certainly stimulated the plants into rapid growth and if it keeps up the top job this month has got to be watering, watering and oh yes watering.

 Here’s a few other jobs to think about:

 Pull up your dead daffodil, tulip and bluebell foliage now that they have died down enough.

1. Now is a good time to plant up your hanging baskets and containers if you haven’t already done so. Remember that they will need watering twice a day and feeding once a fortnight. If you can it’s a good idea to use special hanging basket compost as it tends to have water retaining granules to reduce the need for watering.
2. Now that the birds have flown their nests now is a good time to get your hedges cut and trimmed. We always try to resist the temptation to do it earlier so we don’t disturb them.
3. It’s also a good time of year to trim your box hedging into shape. Traditionally, people say Derby Day is the time to do it. Make sure you choose a cloudy day so that the tender shoots don’t get scorched by the sun.
4. Prune back Forsythia, lilacs and Choisyas now that they have finished flowering. You can also trim back Kerria, and towards the end of the month ceanothus and Spirea arguta.
5. Keep an eye out for pests.
6. As blooms start to fade towards the end of the month keep dead heading (roses, Scabious etc.) to prolong flowering.
7. Cut back oriental poppies once they have finished flowering, they will produce new green growth which will look more attractive than dying leaves. Also cut Geranium phaem and Geranium sylvaticum right back; they will re-shoot in no time and you will get some more flowers if you are lucky. You can do the same with Brunneras.
8. Continue to sow out your veg including tomatoes, runner beans, sweetcorn and courgettes. If grown in pots remember to keep them well watered especially runner beans. Thin out earlier sowings so they have plenty of room to develop.
9. Some early potatoes should be ready for lifting this month. Wait until the first flowers start to open and then do a test dig to see if they are ready.
10. Support larger herbaceous perennials such as paeonies, so that they don’t flop when in rains. I use hawthorn or hazel twigs as they look more natural than plastic or bamboo canes.
11. Feed tomatoes and bedding plants once a week with tomato feed to keep them happy.
12. It’s a good time of year to take softwood cuttings on shrubs such as Hydrangea, Deutzia, Philadelphus and Spirea. (see propagation tips).
13. Keep mowing your lawn regularly, at least 5-7 days (or less), if you want it to look neat and you can cut a bit lower now. Remember to get the sprinkler out if it starts to dry out.
14. Keep on top of the weeds.
15. If you do have gaps in your border fill them with colourful bedding plants– think geraniums, dianthus and petunias for sun and busy lizzies and begonias for shade.

Top 10 Tips for Coping with the Hose Pipe Ban

With the prospect of hose pipe bans soon becoming a reality in many parts of our region we have put together our top 10 tips to help you cope. Living without your hose pipe isn’t the end of the world; now’s the time to embrace your watering can, your new best friend.

1. Collect rain water with water butts- some plants such as rhododendrons and camellias actually prefer it. If you haven’t got one it’s a really good idea to get one if not two.

2. Water at the right time of day – Water either first thing in the morning or later on in the evening. This will reduce water loss from evaporation.

3. Recycle bath and washing water for watering the garden– (so-called ‘grey water’) – If you want to recycle this sort of water it’s best if you use organic or environmentally friendly natural products for washing in the first place so that it doesn’t harm your plants when you reuse it.

4. Group pots together in the shade and stand them in saucers. If it gets really hot you might also have to take down any hanging baskets  and stick them in the shade as well.

5. Dig in plenty of organic matter to help the soil lock in moisture when it does rain and consider mulching your borders with manure or garden compost.

Dig in plenty of manure and consider mulching

6. Don’t worry too much about watering your lawns. Established grass is incredibly tough and will green up again in the autumn. (You will still need to water newly laid turf if you can. If not you’ll have to leave any turfing jobs until the autumn).

7. Water the base of the plants, not the foliage – This way it goes straight to the soil where it’s needed. Make a puddle around each plant and water slowly to allow the water to seep down to the roots.

8. Choose plants that tolerate dry conditions. Examples below;

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.

Stachys spp. - Good for dry sunny sites

Bedding Plants

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

Dry and Shadey -

A 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.

Euonymus 'Silver-Queen' - Once established can tolerate dry and shady conditions

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.

www.woolcottandsmith.com

Well,  there’s a whiff of spring in the air! The soil is starting to dry out and we can finally get onto the borders to do some gardening. Herbaceous plants are starting to emerge, the blackthorn blossom is nearly out in the hedgerows and the daffodils are bringing some much needed sunshine into our gardens.

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. Ceanothus have been particularly hit badly with the cold; be patient although they are looking brown now, they should come back.
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
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.

We had quite a few questions on looking after orchids and poinsettias on our Radio Show on Sunday so here’s a few tips on caring for them post-Christmas.

 Moth Orchids (Phalenopsis spp.)

These are probably the most common and widely available orchids that you can buy and they aren’t all that difficult to look after so there’s no need to panic. They need bright, but not harsh sunlight and do best if placed on an east or west facing windowsill. Like most houseplants keep them away from draughts and radiators and don’t put them on top of the telly.

 Don’t worry about the strange ‘white wormy things’ coming out of the top of the pot, these are just the aerial roots of the plant and are perfectly normal.  In the wild, Phalenopsis orchids are epiphytes, which means that they cling to trees and rocks rather than growing in the soil so they don’t need a lot of compost.

 Regularly check the compost and when it starts to feel dry, run tepid water through the pot until it runs out of the bottom. Don’t overwater it as the leaves will fall off and it will rot. Too little water will lead to the leaves withering and turning yellow. You can get specialist orchid feed from garden centres and DIY sheds and feed from April to September to encourage growth.  Sometimes misting the leaves, but not the flowers, to increase humidity can also help with plant growth.

 The flowers are spectacular and can last for up to 12 weeks. Once they have gone over, cut the flower spike off just above the second joint below the spent flowers and if you’re lucky another flowering side shoot will develop.

 Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima)

I always have a love hate relationship with poinsettias. It probably goes back to my DEFRA days when I spent days on my hands and knees inspecting thousands and thousands of individual plants looking for Tobacco Whitefly.

 Poinsettias are native to Mexico and so love lots of light. Don’t panic if you do get some yellowing and leaf drop, this is normal and due to our reduced light levels in the UK. They can be quite tricky to look after.

 Keep them in a well lit location but not in direct sunlight and keep them away from draughts. Don’t let the temperatures fall below 13 degrees C. Water thoroughly but wait until the compost is dry before watering again. Overwatering is the most common cause of death for poinsettias.

 Poinsettias are cheap enough in the shops. We saw some on sale for £1 over Christmas so it’s really not worth keeping them once they’ve gone over and trying to get them to bloom again for next Christmas unless you want a challenge. But if you want to have a go here’s what you do;

1.  In early spring cut back the stems to 10cm, keep the compost dry and place somewhere shady

     2.     In May, water and re-pot the plant

     3.   Next is the tricky bit. You need to carefully control the amount of light it gets. In Sept/Oct cover the plant with a black plastic bag from early evening until the next morning so that the plant is in total darkness for 14 hours. Continue daily for eight weeks. Then hopefully it will flower again.So remember 14 hours of darkness for 8 weeks

 If you really can’t be bothered with all this kerfuffle just pick another one up next Christmas.

 (One thing to remember, poinsettias can cause a skin reaction to some people so better wear gloves if you touch them)

SOMETIMES autumn can feel a bit depressing but walking around Kew Gardens last Saturday we saw a really uplifting sight. This wonderful Gingko biloba really shorn. Also known as the ‘Maidenhair tree’, it can grow quite tall (up to 20 metres); it prefers full sun but is also quite happy in partial shade. If you have the room it’s well worth including in your own garden. You really can’t match it for autumn colour!

1. Think about what you want and what you like and don’t like. Do you like contemporary or traditional gardens? To some extent this will depend on the type of house you have. A cottage garden may look out of place next to an ultra modern house.

2. Who will use the garden, children, pets etc? Do you want a big lawn for playing with the kids, a large patio for entertaining or somewhere to grow your own veggies?

3 Think about how much time you have to look after it and what your budget is.

4. Measure up the garden as accurately as possible, to scale if you can using graph paper. This helps you to get things in proportion and helps you organise what you have.

5. Play around with shapes and features on the paper. Maybe increasing the size of a flower bed, adding a new gravel path or a different shaped lawn.  Generally, gardens are designed using a combination of rectangles and squares or circles and curves as a theme. If you already have a very angular house then a formal recti-linear design might work. If you have a house in a rural setting then informal curves might look better. Go with your gut instinct.

6. Use shapes to give the impression that the garden is bigger then it actually is. Curves, zigzags or diagonal paths can make the garden appear longer or wider. Horizontal lines make a garden look wider, whilst vertical lines make a garden look longer. If for example you have a long narrow garden, then plan a curved or zigzag path, a straight path down the middle will make your garden look longer and narrower.

7. You will need to follow a few plant rules such as aspect (sun and shade) and soil type (light and free-draining or heavy clay) and pH. But other than that grow whatever you want to grow; it’s your garden so you have what you want

8. If you have a small garden, don’t include too many varieties of plants. It can look over fussy. Group a number of the same variety of plants together (this includes bulb). We try to plant in groups of 1,3,5,7 & 9. Single plants of mixed colours can confuse the eye. But don’t worry about colours clashing in the garden, remember they don’t clash in nature.

9. When choosing your plants remember that red and oranges can make the garden look smaller whereas softer colours can lengthen the garden. You can create a false perspective by planting vibrant colours near to the house and muted tones at the end of the garden.

10. Give the garden different views and vistas with trees, benches or statues. This will give the impression that the garden is larger than it actually is and give you plenty of interest.

11. Don’t forget wildlife and ensure there is room for birds and butterflies as well as for you.

12. Use reclaimed materials such as old bricks or paving they have more character. Try to use natural stone if you can and if your budget allows for it. It looks fabulous wet, which is most of the time in our British climate.

13. Keep your design simple. Over-designed complicated designs can look too fussy. Don’t get put off, everybody is capable of designing a garden, you just need passion and enthusiasm. The more you put into your garden the more it will suit you and the more soul it will have. A garden should be felt not just seen.

WELL June was a weird old month, dry at the start with stormy showers at the end. At least in our part of the world the drought has broken and the grass is greening up again. We can’t believe just how quickly everything is growing away now; blink and you miss it. The long term forecast seems good for us here in Hertfordshire so be prepared for a sunny July and keep your watering can handy.

 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.

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. Keep dead heading your plants to ensure continued flowering, e.g. roses, valerian and pelargoniums.
4. Fill gaps in your borders with bedding plants. Red geraniums really lift your borders and give a touch of the Mediterranean.
5. Divide bearded irises now that they have finished flowering.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.

 Top up your ponds and water features now that the weather is warming up as water is being lost to evaporation. Rain water is best if you have water buts as nitrites in mains water can turn ponds green, but needs must