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YOUR MONTHLY GARDENING DIARY
| www.northamptonshire.co.ukTHE internet guide to Northamptonshire UKYOUR MONTHLY GARDENING DIARY | |
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It’s mid summer and it’s time to prepare the garden for holidays and relaxing family times. Hopefully barbecues and outdoor eating will provide enjoyable get-togethers with friends and family and opportunities to show off your beautiful garden and fine looking lawn to their best advantage.
GARDEN BORDERS
As flowers fade it’s a good idea to remove the dead and dying heads of flowering bedding plants so that the plant is denied the opportunity to set seed. This dead-heading ensures the plant continues to produce even more blooms in its attempt to set seed and complete its life-time job.
CLICK HERE TO BUY CISTUS PURPUREAUSOther jobs that will increase the flower power in your garden includes watering if the soil becomes dry and feeding over the leaves and around the roots on a fortnightly basis. There are several ways that Miracle-Gro Plant Food can help your plants produce extra flowers in rich colours and on strong stems. The traditional way is by diluting blue crystals in a watering can or you can save lots of time and heavy lifting if you invest in a hose end feeder such as the Liquafeed system. This is the modern way to water your garden with plain water and to automatically dilute concentrated liquid plant food so it can be sprayed over plants with little effort at all. Most people can feed the average garden in 15 minutes and as long as you do the job in the evening when the sun is not shining directly on plants there is no chance of damaging the leaves. A Liquafeed starter kit will cost under £10 and refills for the concentrated liquid feed are available at most garden retailers.
Summertime is the peak season for plant pests and aphids are the gardener’s worst enemy. They not only suck sap from plants, weakening and twisting growth but they also excrete a honey dew that disfigures the foliage below the colony. The honey dew from thousands of aphids (whether greenfly or blackfly) is a sweet liquid much loved by ants, who often ‘farm’ aphid colonies for food. Killing the aphids will get rid of both problems and if you use a systemic insecticide that gets inside the plant such as BugClear Ultra Gun! you can be sure that all the pests are killed even if you don’t hit every one directly with the spray. After a few days you can wash off the sticky honey dew remnants with plain water. Left in place a sooty mould will form that looks unsightly and reduces the light getting through to the leaves which could weaken the plant.
But what about the ants? They are easily controlled with a light sprinkling of Home Defence Ant Stop! Granules. These contain a natural ingredient that is attractive to workers, and they take them back to kill the whole nest. For quickest results, try to find the entrance to their nearby nest and sprinkle where the ants are running.
CLICK HERE TO BUY SWEET BOX (SARCOCOCCA CONFUSA)Roses bloomed amazingly early this summer and many gardens were blessed with a beautiful display in May, four weeks earlier than in a normal season. With all this growth now over it’s time to ensure that your roses have sufficient nutrients to produce a second flush of flowers and an attractive display towards the end of the summer. A dressing of Rose Plus granules or Miracle-Gro Slow Release Rose Food will ensure that the plant has enough energy to produce another good display of roses that will be rich in colour and perfume.
Staking of tall perennials such as delphiniums, peony, phlox and dahlias is important now so that they aren’t blown down during high winds. A few sticks placed on the windward of the plant will provide good anchorage for the necessary string ties that will keep all the stems upright and protected.
To increase your collection of geraniums, start to take semi-ripe cuttings early in the summer – they will root much better now than in the cool days of autumn. Prepare the stems by cutting cleanly just below a leaf joint and removing some of the lower leaves. Place four or five cuttings around the edge of a 15cm diameter pot already filled with a compost such as Levington Multipurpose Compost with John Innes which has good drainage thanks to its mixture that includes sterilised loam, peat and horticultural sand. Place in a warm, shady spot until roots start to form in just a few weeks.
EXPERT GARDENING TIP
Sow seeds of winter pansies, wallflowers and forget-me-nots so that you will have good sized seedlings ready to plant out at the beginning of autumn.
PATIO GARDENING
As the roots of flowers and vegetables growing in containers and hanging baskets get bigger, the compost will need watering more frequently. Water evaporates from leaves of plants in greater volume on windy days, so this is when roots can dry out most quickly. Regular watering is a must and often you won’t be able to miss a day, depending on the compost you have used. Some ordinary compost are less able to hold the maximum amount of water than others, as you will soon find out if you buy cheap compost, especially if it is based on peat-free ingredients. Probably the best compost on the market for water-holding capacity is Moisture Control Compost. It is able to hold twice as much water as ordinary multi-purpose composts and also contains Miracle-Gro slow release plant food so plants get a background feed that steadily releases nutrients for the rest of the growing season.If you haven’t bought this tip-top compost then there are extra measures you can take to bring an ordinary one up to scratch. Adding Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Plant Food will fortify any compost with a slow release plant food and moisture holding granules that can absorb up to 400 times their own weight in water. And there are extra measures you can take with containers that will reduce unnecessary watering. For example if you are planting up a hanging basket slip a saucer into the bottom of the bowl before adding the compost. The saucer or even a round of polythene will hold a reservoir of water that doesn’t drain away and will become available to plants later on in the day. When planting in terracotta pots you can also reduce water loss through the walls of these porous containers by lining the sides with polythene. All these measures will save you time on unnecessary watering.
CLICK HERE TO BUY CONTAINERS & FLOWERPOTSThere is still time to sow seeds of vegetables in containers or plant up seedlings that you can buy in your local nursery. Most retailers will have courgettes, climbing French and runner beans and all manner of sweet peppers, chilli and outdoor cucumbers that will grow and crop on your patio.
You have probably planted up tomatoes already and they should be growing strongly in a giant Gro Bag positioned in a sunny spot on the patio. According to sales data just in, Britain’s favourite gro bag for the job is the Tomorite Giant Planter and our favourite plant food is Liquid Tomorite - a seaweed based plant food that promises great crops with a delicious flavour. New this year is a ready-to-use form of Tomorite that doesn’t need diluting before use. You simply add a capful every week to your gro bag and the water in the normal way. There’s no messy dilution or the risk of over or under feeding and best of all the 3 litre container will feed a giant planter all season.
It’s funny how the public instinctively know that feeding tomatoes is a given rule that can’t be ignored, yet can’t be bothered to feed other fruit and vegetables with such regularity. Peculiar, wouldn’t you say, especially when all plants respond well to extra feeding on a regular basis. For me a liquid concentrate such as Miracle-Gro Gro Your Own Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food is ideal. Its malty smell is so good my nose tells me it must be doing the plants good and the label confirms its rich in natural materials with a high potash ratio to encourage maximum fruiting. As it is 100% chemical free it really is a winner and I even use it on my flowering plants too.
Continue to sow seeds of cut-and-come-again lettuce and salad leaves in containers or tidy bags called Herb Planters. They will provide tender edible foliage for late summer salads.
EXPERT GARDENING TIP
Watch out for damage to plants such as busy lizzies, begonia, echeveria and fuchsia caused by the grubs of black vine weevil nibbling away at the roots of vulnerable plants. Check the roots for white C-shaped grubs and then drench the compost with a solution of BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer.
LAWN CARE
Watering is probably vital to a decent lawn in mid-summer when dry periods of several days are in the offing. The trick with lawn watering is that whenever you do the job you give the area a jolly good soak once a week instead of wetting just the surface regularly. Getting at least 2cm of water onto a lawn will ensure the deeper grass roots are watered and if done weekly this will ensure a healthy lawn all summer.The Miracle-Gro Liquafeed system will supply you with an efficient hose-end watering device and at the same time allow you to feed your lawn as the water. The concentrated liquid plant food is diluted automatically through the flow of water so that your lawn benefits and turns greener in just a few days. This is really the easiest way to ensure your lawn is lush and healthy throughout the summer when others are parched and brown through lack of water and nutrients.
EXPERT GARDENING TIP
If you spot a few lawn weeds invading your hallowed turf simply spray the leaves with a selective lawn weedkiller such as Verdone Extra Ready To Use. Spray a few days before the next lawn cutting is due and you will gradually see the broad-leaved invaders fade away.
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN
Picking of runner beans, French beans and courgettes should start in July although runner beans can be shy to set if the weather is hot and dry. To encourage setting many gardeners mist over their runner beans with either plain water or use a dilute solution of Miracle-Gro Plant Food to provide a foliar feed at the same time. The fine liquid drops cool the plants and helps set the pollen when applied in the evening at dusk.Training cordon types of tomatoes up a cane or other support is important as they can easily be blown down in high winds. Training like this is not necessary for bush and tumbling varieties as they produce more fruit from side shoots and do not need support. Grown in pots and hanging baskets they should crop without further attention, but when bush varieties are grown directly in the soil you need to apply SlugClear Advanced Pellets regularly or slugs and snails will eat any tomatoes that are forming at ground level.
New potatoes such as Swift and Maris Bard should be ready for an early harvest in July where they will provide a really tasty crop for a Sunday treat. Decide on your harvesting technique depending on whether you need the space to sow seeds or plant out seedlings of other vegetables. If you don’t need the space you can use your fingers to gently work away in the soil to find potatoes that are big enough to eat, leaving the plant to set others to be harvested at a later date. Digging the whole root will give you a bigger crop and the space to plant out seedlings of leeks or enough space to sow seeds of carrots, beetroot and peas for a late autumn harvest. Sow quick maturing varieties of carrots such as Early Nantes or Rondo and early peas such as Kelvedon Wonder.
Your leek seedlings should be about pencil width and about 20cm (8”) tall to be big enough to transplant to a position where they are to mature. If the ground is dry, water the day before planting and then dress with a fertiliser such as Gro Your Own Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food granules. To create leeks that have extra white stems make 15cm deep holes with a dibber and drop the roots into the hole. Water well to settle soil around the roots and leave the hole open for any further watering that may be required. Spacing of plants should be 15cm (6”) between plants and 30cm (1ft) between rows.
EXPERT GARDENING TIP
If you have the space plant out winter green seedlings such a winter cauliflowers, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts and curly kale in firm soil that has been enriched with a Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food.
THE FRUIT GARDEN
The great spring weather encouraged a massive set of plums and other fruits so we can all expect bumper crops this summer. The June drop will have done much to thin out the heavy set of fruit, although you may need to support the branches if there are lots of fruitlets still on the tree. The branches of plum trees are particularly brittle, but can be tied to an upright stem to help bear the weight.Pheremone traps set into the tree in late June and July will indicate when the adult plum moth is active and ready to lay its eggs on your fruit. Trapping the adults will reduce infection, but you can also spray with BugClear Gun! for Fruit & Veg that will help control the newly-hatched pink caterpillars if you spray at the right time.
Strawberry plants will now be sending out “runners” that carry new plants on the end of long, thin stems. You can easily propagate new plants that will extend your collection or replace plants that have become old and of low productivity. Simply fill a pot with Miracle-Gro Seed & Cutting Compost and then pin down the plantlet with a bent paperclip or other piece of wire bent into a U shape. In just a few weeks the plant will be well-enough rooted to be cut from the mother plant and planted in a new position.
EXPERT GARDENING TIP
Weeds that pop up around raspberry and blackberry canes can easily be killed without disturbing the roots if you wet the leaves of unwanted plants with Weedol Rootkill Plus.
GARDENING INFORMATION FROM The Scotts Company (UK) Limited
WRITTEN BY JOHN CLOWES
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. AntStop! Granules contain spinosad. BugClear Gun!™ for Fruit & Veg contains pyrethrins. BugClear® Ultra Gun!™ and BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer contains acetamiprid. Weedol® Rootkill Plus contains glyphosate and pyraflufen ethyl. SlugClear Advanced Pellets contain metaldehyde. Verdone Extra Ready to Use contains MCPA, clopyralid and fluroxypyr. ®, ™ and Levington, Tomorite, EverGreen, Liquafeed and Miracle-Gro are Trade Marks of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company LLC or its affiliates. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Salisbury House, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XE. Tel 0845 190 1881
