News - Page 125
Act now to keep your veg beds productive and prevent the notorious midsummer lull, when suddenly your early harvests finish with nothing to follow. It’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of your first harvest as you dig up your first succulent new potatoes or pick the first fat broad bean pods to eat as fresh and tender as possible.
But unless you're careful, after you've eaten your way through the harvest you'll be left with an empty patch...
The next highlight of the show season opens its gates this week as BBC Gardeners’ World Live gets under way at the NEC Birmingham (11-14 June, bbcgardenersworldlive.com) . It’s an incredibly exciting and busy show with loads going on, from the inspirational show gardens and spectacular floral marquee to tips from TV gardeners and advice from the Royal Horticultural Society.
Among the inspirat...
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Flaming June is a month to relish the results of all your hard work in the garden – but don't rest on your laurels for too long s it's also time to get the show going for autumn fireworks.
General tasks:
- Keep weeding and dead-heading to maintain beds, borders and container displays at their absolute best
- Give tired lawns a boost with a liquid feed to green it up and boost growth.
Orname...
The plant of the month for June is the rose, the undisputed holder of the title of Britain's favourite flower – and no wonder.
With thousands of varieties to choose from, and over 150 types of species (wild) roses too, you're spoilt for choice. Whether your passion is for perfume, petals or performance – there's sure to be a rose that's perfect for you.
Clothe your pergolas, walls and fences in climbers such as the pale cream 'Madame Alfred...
Plant water lilies to enjoy one of the most beautiful sights of the summer as their heartbreakingly lovely blooms open and bring your pond to life.
It's a great time of year to invest in these spectacular water plants as the water has now warmed up enough to get them off to a flying start. You can grow waterlilies even if you only have a half barrel on the patio: just choose one of the dwarf varieties, spreading to just 60cm across.
Plant i...
Protect your cabbages as this is the season when dozens of pests take to the wing, intent on making a feast of your brassicas. If you don't like to spray against pests, it can be difficult to keep on top of them, and though you can patrol your crops daily squishing offending caterpillars, mealybugs and aphids you may not catch all the culprits.
Much better to prevent the little critters reaching your crops in the first place. Act now to cover your newly...
Take on the giant pumpkin growers and start off a whopper in your own back garden. It's a great green-fingered activity to get the kids involved in, too – you could even hold your own giant pumpkin competition either at home or at school!
You'll find seeds of show-stopping behemoth 'Atlantic Giant' on the racks at our garden centre here in Lymington: plant one seed to a 10cm pot of good quality seed compost in the greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.
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Fill a container with annual climbers for a statuesque and beautiful centrepiece for your patio display. There's just enough time to sow seeds direct into a roomy pot full of compost – late flowerers like the cup and saucer vine, Cobaea scandens, and lovely deep purple rhodochiton still have plenty of time to race up their canes. Or take the easy option and choose from the annual beauties potted up and ready to plant at our garden centre here in Lymington.
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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 Lymington 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...