Long summer evenings provide lots of time to complete displays of summer bedding plants, get the inevitable weeds under control and provide a well tended lawn to give a great foil to the flowers and foliage that should be bursting through. Get your kids to grow a few delicious vegetables and tasty herbs as a way to broaden their eating horizons. Dress the patio with attractive containers filled with summer colour so that it's ready to impress your guests at the next barbecue.
FLOWER GARDEN
Complete planting of garden beds and borders with bedding plants, fuchsias, geraniums and pelargoniums. Your garden centre will have a varied display of potted plants that are already in bloom. Treat them well and you will be rewarded with plenty of flowers for the rest of the season.
Plant your summer visitors with some care. Firstly water the plants with a dilute solution of Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food so that the roots are well watered and the plant has a reserve of plant foods to absorb. Dig the whole bedding area incorporating well-rotted garden compost or Levington Soil Improver & Mulch into the top 15cm (6in) of soil. To ensure there is a reserve of nutrients for maximum growth, dress the soil with a suitable controlled release plant food such as Miracle-Gro Shake & Feed. Dig individual planting holes and fill with a planting mixture made up of soil mixed with equal quantities of well-rotted garden compost or other organic matter. Leave a slight indentation around the plant so that extra water remains in the basin and goes down to the plant roots.
If you omit the addition of a controlled release plant food prior to planting, then your bedding plants will need to be fed every couple of weeks, over the leaves and around the roots, to make sure they thrive after their move. Dilute the Miracle-Gro Plant Food in water, either using the traditional blue crystals or the new liquid concentrate in a bottle called Miracle-Gro Outdoor Plant Food. A fine rose will help to get smaller droplets onto the leaves and if this is applied in the late evening then more of the plant food will get into the leaf before the sun dries up the tonic.
The new fresh growth of bedding plants will provide ideal conditions for greenfly and blackfly to thrive. They suck the sap, weaken growth and cause twisted stems and curled up leaves. Control them early to reduce the harm they cause with a spray from the ready-to-use BugClear Gun! or Nature's Answer Natural Pest Control. Use in the evening when bees are less likely to be on the wing.
Protect your hostas from slug and snail attack. You can either sprinkle SlugClear Advanced Pellets under the leaves or water a liquid concentrate called SlugClear over the leaves and around the roots. The benefit of the liquid concentrate is that it leaves no visible bait for curious pets or wildlife and it ensures that snails venturing on leaves are controlled as well as the slugs that are hiding under ground. Covering the soil around shrubs, bedding plants and perennials with a decorative finish provides a clean visual background that makes plants and flowers shine through. Applying a layer of organic matter to soil surfaces (called a mulch) does more than make your garden look attractive. It helps to retain soil moisture, suppresses weed growth and will gradually improve the structure of your soil. Cocoa shells will also help to deter the movement of slugs and snails and of course they smell great, especially to chocoholics.
The best surface mulches for modern gardens are those that are attractive, rot down slowly and are free of weed seeds. That's where Levington Decorative Chipped Forest Bark and Levington Mini Chipped Forest Bark score so highly. The bark chips are a good rich colour, last for months and are practically free of weed seeds. Obtained from renewable timber used in Britain's paper making process, the bark will also help to keep down weeds. Flying seeds that land on its craggy surface don't find germination too easy and those that do sprout can easily be pulled out as roots are not too firmly anchored.
Deadhead roses and other shrubs as the flowers fade. A second feed with either Miracle-Gro Rose 'Plus' or Miracle-Gro Shake & Feed will ensure that your roses have sufficient nutrients to produce a second flush of beautiful blooms. Keep an eye out for the first signs of powdery mildew on roses and other flowering ornamentals. To control the spread of the disease, spray with a systemic fungicide such as FungusClear or with a combined insecticide/fungicide such as RoseClear 3 or RoseClear Gun!
Timely Tips
It's time to sow seed of spring flowering biennials such as Wallflowers, Forget-me-not, Sweet Williams, Bellis and Canterbury bells. Sow in shallow drills in a sunny nursery bed where the soil is rich and fine.
SHRUBS AND TREES
When rhododendrons and azaleas have finished blooming, pinch off the individual flower heads to prevent seed pods developing. Be careful not to damage the developing stems and leaves that are sprouting just below the flower head. Other shrubs that benefit from deadheading, this time with a pair of sharp secateurs, include lilacs, brooms, spiraea and exorchorda. Harder pruning of flowering stems are needed to keep shrubs such as ceanothus, kerria, deutzia and weigela within bounds and this is best done just after blooming.Topical Tips
Summer flowering shrubs and plants will benefit from a liquid feed of Miracle-Gro Plant Food, applied over the leaves and around the roots. The Miracle-Gro Feeder fits on the end of a standard hosepipe and will feed the whole garden in minutes.THE LAWN
It's barbecue time again and the lawn needs to be in tip-top condition to impress family and friends. If your lawn is looking pale and tired and you are having friends around at the weekend, don't despair. Ordinary lawn foods will normally take a week to do the job, but new EverGreen Spray & Feed will green your lawn in 24 hours under normal growing conditions. Spray today and green tomorrow! Now isn't that an exciting prospect for tomorrow's barbecue?
The new hand-held dispenser is ready to use - just attach to a hose and turn on the tap to feed and water your lawn at the same time. Dilution is automatic according to water pressure and, in10 minutes you can treat a 100m2 lawn. Feeding and greening just couldn't be easier or quicker. You are not sprinkling 'fairy dust' over the lawn, but dissolving fast-acting plant food ingredients that will green up the lawn in just 24 hours.
Clean, sharp edges are more important in the visual stakes than close mowing. In fact grass that is left at least an inch long (2.5 cm) will look greener, feel softer and eventually grow thicker than the lawn that is scalped down to 1cm at irregular intervals. With this in mind cut the grass regularly, but not too short.
Broad-leaved weeds are more than a visual hiccup to a lawn. They rob the grass of moisture and available nutrients - spreading out to take over the growing space that should be used by grass plants. June is an excellent time to get rid of white clover, daisies, buttercups and other broad-leaved weeds that spoil the look of a summer lawn. Granular lawn fertilizers such as EverGreen Complete or EverGreen Lawn Builder plus Weed Control include selective weedkillers or you can use a product such as Verdone Extra to dilute in a watering can or pressure sprayer and apply in liquid form. Whichever product you use, see that the soil is moist and the weeds are actively growing and then fit the weeding in between lawn mowings. Apply about three days after the last cut so that the weeds have a good leaf cover and can absorb plenty of weedkilling ingredients. Leave another three or four days after application before mowing again so that the weedkiller has moved down to the roots of the weeds.
Timely Tips
If you only have a few single weeds dotted around the lawn, spot treat them with Verdone Extra Ready to Use.
VEGETABLES
It's time to sow runner (kidney) beans and dwarf French beans ready for summer crops. As runners set better in cool summers and French beans do better in hot weather, I tend to grow both so the kitchen is never short.
Most people can find a sunny trellis or fence beside which the runner beans can grow trained up canes, strings or other device with the French beans growing in front of them. Both appreciate a cool root run and a good reservoir of moisture that can hold plenty of nutrients. Dig a trench beside the fence and add a couple of bags of Levington Farmyard Manure or two barrowfuls of home-made garden compost at least 30 cm (1ft) below the surface.
Sow the seeds where they are to grow and protect the seedlings from slugs and snails that would otherwise eat into the stems. Sharp sand or eggshells may have some deterrent effect, although a light sprinkle of SlugClear Mini Pellets is a surer way of protecting your beans. When the stems are about 25 cm (1ft) tall loosely tie them to sturdy canes to encourage them to climb unaided.
Weeds between seedling vegetables are more than unsightly. They will eventually swamp your wanted plants and in the process deprive them of the necessary light, moisture and nutrients they need to grow to their maximum potential. Root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips need close attention as soon as you can clearly differentiate between plant and weed. After the initial backbreaking toil of close hand weeding you should be able to control the remaining annual weeds and grasses growing between the rows with a weedkiller such as Weedol 2. Use a small dribble bar attachment to your watering can to give you the precise application needed and go up and down the rows to wet the weed leaves. Weedol 2 is quick to apply and fast-acting. Weeds die within days and unlike some other fast acting weedkillers, light rain falling ten minutes or more after application will not reduce weed control.
Check your shed for any stock of Weedol you may have purchased in previous years and use this up first.
Topical Tips
Cabbage white butterfly will soon be laying their eggs on the underside of leaves of any of the cabbage family. Crush any eggs seen on the underside of leaves and keep an eye open for emerging caterpillars. When holes start to appear on the leaves of cabbages, sprouts or cauliflower spray the plants with BugClear or BugClear Gun!
FRUIT
Apple trees are becoming more popular now that dwarf varieties are available that can be used to edge borders and can be grown in patio pots. Small green fruitlets will be forming on apples and pears and it's time to spray them to protect against maggots. These pale pink grubs bore into the developing fruit to eat on the central core and ruin the crop for eating. Spray apple and pear trees with BugClear in mid-June and again early in July to give control of several pests including caterpillars and greenfly.
Strawberries will be flowering and setting the first of their tasty fruits. To keep the fruits clean, place strawberry mats or fresh straw around each plant after applying a light sprinkling of SlugClear Mini Pellets on the soil. Topical Tips
Don't water strawberries too much once the fruits are set as excessive watering helps to produce large fruits that do not have a lot of flavour.
PATIO GARDENING
Complete planting of all pots, tubs, urns and barrels with flowering and fruiting plants. If they have been used before remove all old compost and replace with fresh material that is rich in plant nutrients, trace elements and a quality wetting agent.
Not all composts are the same. A Multi-Purpose compost is a compromise that gives satisfactory results when you want one compost in which to sow seeds, take cuttings and pot up plants. However it is not as rich as a real potting compost that should be used when planting hanging baskets, window boxes and patio planters.
The nutrient reserves of a Multi-Purpose Compost are set at "medium" so that there are just enough nutrients for the first few weeks of growth, but a specialist potting compost contains much more nutrients, so plants are encouraged to put on stronger, healthier growth and produce many more beautiful flowers.
Pick of the premium blend potting composts today is either Levington Container & Hanging Basket Compost or the new Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Compost. Both are ideal for patio containers. Levington composts guarantee results and promise stronger, healthier and more colourful plants whereas Moisture Control Compost is enriched with Osmocote Controlled Release Plant Food that will steadily and surely feed your potted plants for up to six months. It also absorbs up to 20 per cent more moisture than ordinary multi-purpose composts, releasing it to the roots as needed. Choose either one for tip-top results.
Don't forget that the hard edges of containers are best softened with trailing plants such as lobelia, bidens, petunia and verbena. Foliage plants mixed with the flowering ones will also add a contrast of leaf shape and texture. The silver leafed Cineraria maritima is popular and so too are the elegant cordylines and trailing ivies. Flowers aren't always essential for interesting patio planters. Hostas, begonia rex and coleus will provide colour and texture throughout the summer. Pot up in the best compost you can afford - Miracle-Gro Plant & Gro is extremely rich in available nutrients and trace elements and will get your plants off to a flying start.
Herbs planted together in a large pot are also very handy when placed near the kitchen door and can be decorative too. Purple splashed sage, variegated thyme, chives, basil and marjoram are all suitable pot-mates to cram in together. When it comes to the more rampant applemint, peppermint and the common spearmint, keep the roots restricted in a pot, preferably sunk up to its rim in the border, otherwise its roots will run throughout the garden like a weed.
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
SlugClear™ Advanced Pellets contains metaldehyde. Roseclear® 3 contains bifenthrin and myclobutanil. Roseclear® Gun!™ contains flutriafol and bifenthrin. Evergreen® Mosskil contains ferrous sulphate. Evergreen® Complete contains MCPA, mecoprop-P and ferrous sulphate. EverGreen® Autumn contains ferrous sulphate. Levington® Outdoor Container Compost with Insect Control contains imidacloprid. Polysect® Ready To Use contains bifenthrin. Weedol® contains diquat and paraquat. Weedol® 2 and Weedol Gun!™ contain diquat.
® ™ and Miracle-Gro, Levington, Tomorite and Scotts are trade marks of The Scotts Company or its affiliates.
GARDENING INFORMATION FROM The Scotts Company (UK) Limited
WRITTEN BY JOHN CLOWES
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