News - Page 109
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Prune rosemary and other shrubby herbs like thyme and lavender after flowering to prevent them getting leggy and keep them neat.
Rosemary is a real asset in the garden, making a handsome and spicily fragrant evergreen shrub with pretty lavender-blue flowers in early summer. In common with other Mediterranean herbs like lavender, though, it's prone to getting leggy without regular pruning, making long straggly stems with sparse, patchy foliage that's no...
Plant ornamental grasses now that the soil has warmed up, as many hail from much warmer climates than ours and only really get going once the ground is at the right temperature in early to mid May.
There are dozens of different grasses to choose from so do visit our garden centre here in London to have a browse. Among the best are the tall, statuesque evergreen Stipa gigantea, with elegant oat-like flowers reaching to 1.5m tall, and soft, strokeable Des...
The plant of the month for May the pelargonium, one of Britain's best loved bedding plants.
Commonly known as geraniums, they come in upright, trailing and dwarf varieties so as long as you can supply a sunny spot and a free-draining soil or compost, there's sure to be one for every spot in the garden.
Among the most reliable varieties for the garden include pure white 'Arctic Star', 'Crimson Unique' with black splashes on its deep red peta...
What to do in the garden in May:
With the sun shining and the garden full of colour and life you'll want to be outside from dawn till dusk at this time of year. Here are a few things you can be getting on with:
General tasks:
- Harden off tender plants before moving them outdoors, taking 7-14 days to get them gradually used to cooler conditions
- Water pots daily to make sure the compost stays moist...
Sow sweetcorn now for the luxury of just-picked cobs through late summer and autumn. You'll find a huge choice of seeds on offer now at our garden centre here in London; for reliable cropping even in cooler summers choose early-maturing varieties like 'Sundance', or look out for super-sweet 'Applause', bred to hold its sugars for longer. Or go for a fun crop with 'Red Strawberry' popping corn – deep burgundy to cook in hot oil for home-grown popcorn.
Fo...
Trim English lavender to keep it neat and also delay flowering time – ideal if you want to prolong your display of lavender right into summer.
Normally English lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia), like old favourites 'Munstead' and 'Hidcote' are pruned in late August to keep it neat for winter. But a second haircut now promotes lots of new growth, filling it out nicely ready for summer, and delays flowering a little: combine with earlier-flowering French...
Fill gaps in your borders as they become obvious among newly-emerging spring growth. With the worst of winter over, it's a good time for damage assessment – inevitably you'll find some plants haven't pulled through the cold weather, either because they've succumbed to chilly wet soil (a more common cause of plant loss than cold alone), snow breakages or pest damage.
Don't worry: it's a good excuse to plant some more! Be careful about replacing like for...
Earth up container-grown potatoes to keep them growing on strongly for your earliest-ever crops. Potatoes form tubers along their roots underground, so the more root the plant grows, the bigger your harvest. Adding more compost as they grow also keeps tubers buried deep underground: if they form too close to the surface and light reaches them they'll turn green and inedible.
After you've planted your two or three seed potatoes and covered them with a fe...
Split up your herbs to keep them young, healthy and productive for many years to come.
All clump-forming herbs including marjoram, mint and lemon balm tend to sprawl and die out in the middle as they get older, leaving you with an unsightly mess and making the plants less productive, too.
To keep your plants healthy and promote lots of strong new growth – best for cooking as it's tender and full of those essential oils which carry the herb...
Happy National Gardening Week! There's a packed seven days ahead as the country's biggest celebration of all things to do with gardening gets under way.
We'll be enjoying lots of special events here at our garden centre in London, joining dozens of gardens around the country marking the occasion. Go on a guided walk in the company of the head gardener at the Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens in Buckinghamshire, Nymans in Sussex and Dyrham Park near Bath, amo...
It's National Beanpole Week – and we're celebrating here in our garden centre at London with a fine range of natural coppiced woodland products for your garden.
You can use all sorts of materials for supporting your plants, but coppiced hazel is a natural-looking and environmentally-friendly choice, as well as supporting local woodland industries. Hazel is a British native tree which can be regularly coppiced (cut to the base) each spring, its long ramr...
Now is the time to prune buddleja - and you can be really brutal. Cut it right back and you'll encourage loads of fresh growth to explode from the base this spring, and since buddlejas flower on this year's new branches that means lots of flowers.
Best known as the 'butterfly bush' the buddleja is a must-have for wildlife gardens, covered with hundreds of butterflies in late summer, sometimes so densely you'll hardly be able to see the nectar-rich flowe...