News - Page 132
Give your containers a pre-winter once-over to make sure they survive the cold weather in the best possible condition and perform for you again next season.
Excess winter rain is the worst enemy, flooding containers and drowning roots beyond recovery. Pot feet, available from our garden centre here in Lymington, are easily slipped under the bottom of containers to raise them up off the ground just enough to allow excess water to drain o...
Test your soil to find out what will grow best in your garden. Whenever you take on a new garden, finding out the acidity – or pH – of your soil should be high on the priority list. Even if you've been growing on the same spot for a while, testing soil regularly keeps tabs on any gradual changes.
Soil acidity has real practical implications because it affects the nutrients different types of plants can absorb. Some plants do best in aci...
Heel in leeks and other winter veg to make sure you aren't caught out in a cold snap when the ground can freeze so hard it's impossible to get a fork in, let alone harvest anything.
Several crops happily stay in the ground over winter until you need them – leeks, parsnips and celeriac, for example. But it's a good precaution to lift at least a few of them early and move them somewhere more sheltered, where you can keep them protected un...
Plant tulips in great drifts through the garden for your best display ever next spring. These spectacular bulbs are planted a little later to avoid tulip fire, a disfiguring fungal disease. But now it's quite safe - so stock up from the great range now on sale from our garden centre here in Lymington!
Tulips look best planted by the dozen in blocks of colour winding through your borders, so give plenty of thought to the colour scheme and effect you want...
What to do in the garden in November:
Early winter is a time for planning, and for making sure your garden is tucked up snugly for its winter rest. Here are your jobs to get on with this month:
General tasks:
- Clean nest boxes removing old nesting material which can harbour parasites. Give bird baths and feeders a good scrub too.
- Check bonfires for hibernating hedgehogs, moving established heaps to a ne...
November's plants of the month are trees, in all their bewildering variety. There's one to suit every gardener among the comprehensive range at our garden centre here in Lymington - so to help you choose, here's a selection for every situation, from containers to rolling acres.
Container gardens:
- Olive (Olea europaea) for gnarled shapes and slender, elegant grey-green leaves
- Japanese maples like 'Dissectum Atropurp...
Bring in pelargoniums for the winter and you can keep them going through into next year - a great way of saving your favourites, whether it's a particularly good scarlet, or some choice scented-leaf geraniums like 'Attar of Roses' with their dainty flowers and powerfully perfumed foliage.
Dig plants up carefully and cut back tall, leggy shoots by about half. Trim off dead flowers and any damaged growth and pull away dead leaves. Shake off surplus soil...
Grow winter salads for a supply of fresh, crunchy greens to add the taste of summer to salads and sandwiches right through the coldest winter months.
The secret of keeping your salad supply going right through even the very coldest months of the year is to make the switch from summer to winter salad mixes from October onwards.
You'll find a great selection of spicy winter baby-leaf salad mixes on the seed racks in the garde...
Plant winter tubs as soon as the summer bedding is cleared. Biennials like wallflowers are available as bare-root bundles right now in our garden centre here in Lymington, offering fantastic value: team them with cheery daffodils or tulips in matching colours for a display next spring which will take your breath away.
During winter itself there's a wide selection of plants which will give you plenty of colour to cheer you up even on the coldest days. Pa...
Grow your own horseradish for an unusual addition to your herb garden that's very easy to look after and will give you spicy roots to use in the kitchen for year after year. Peeled and grated into vinegar and a little cream, they make a real knock-your-socks off accompaniment to roast beef.
Horseradish is a rugged plant and needs firm control to stop it spreading into neighbouring beds and borders. Once you've bought your plant or root - now on sale in...