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The Garden

Preparing the garden for winter

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Preparing the garden for winter

Garden jobs for winter, jobs in the garden for winter, your garden in November, preparing the garden for winter

As the flower garden slows down for the year, the door opens for next year. Now is the time save plants for next year, plant for spring, and let winter help you out with the hard work.

When dahlias blacken with the first frost cut back the foliage, then lift the tubers, clean and trim off the thin long roots. Stand them upside down to make sure they’re dry before storing them away in dry compost, or wrapped in newspaper. Or if frosts don’t touch your garden, mark where they are and leave them in situ.

preparing the garden for winter
Dahlias should be cut back when blackened by frost

There is still time to buy and plant spring flowing bulbs. Choose your supplier carefully and you’ll get quality and a bargain to boot; wholesale suppliers are already reducing prices on remaining stock. My favourite is Gee Tee (gee-tee.co.uk), I’ve used them for nearly 20 years. You can continue to plant bulbs into the first weeks of December.

If your soil is heavier, get it turned before the frosts come. Just dig, lift and leave, and let the frosts break down the clods for you. As the temperatures drop these lumps will form a perfect growing medium, ideal for areas where you’ll be sowing seed – vegetable beds or borders for annuals.

Dormant season is busy for gardeners

The dormant months – from leaf fall through spring budding – are also the perfect time to prune trees and shrubs. Christopher Lloyd maintained that the best time was when you had time and secateurs in your hand. And I agree, but the down side is that you may have to sacrifice the plant’s crop of flowers or fruit.

Timely pruning will encourage flowers and fruit, create better shape and promote strong growth. Trees that will benefit most are those that will “bleed” if pruned when sap is flowing—including apples, pears and figs, acers, most deciduous ornamental trees, and vines including grapes and wisteria.

Many roses can also be pruned when it gets cold, floribunda, hybrid tea and climbers. In fact if it’s not rambler, you can prune it in winter.

Those ornamental deciduous shrubs that have doubled in size this year can be brought back into line while dormant. They’ll look like a skeleton for a few weeks, but will come back with better shape and vigour.

The golden rules of pruning are the three D’s – dead, damaged and diseased – remove them all while creating an open and uncongested shape. For roses that is usually a “goblet”. With fruit trees Monty Don advocates the should be open enough that a pigeon can fly through.

And if you need any extra guidance, the RHS website explains everything very clearly. Enjoy your garden this winter.

Garden task for November, preparing the garden for winter

 

The Garden

Stop bamboo spreading

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Stop bamboo spreading

How to control bamboo. Stop bamboo spreading. Bamboo runners taking over. Clump formers spreading out, bamboo spreading, bamboo gone mad. Control bamboo, bamboo removal. Bamboo eradication.

From the ground up has had several cases through May and June of bamboo plants that were otherwise well behaved clumps spreading wide by sending out runners. This was when it was relatively hot and notably bereft of rain. The symptom and prevailing conditions are not unrelated. The plant is spreading  out in search of moisture, but you can stop bamboo spreading.

This happens with otherwise well behaved clump forming plants as well as the more notorious running forms, and can have taken over the garden before you realise how bad it is.

In some forms the runners are strong enough to push through paths and tarmac, and to undermine walls or other structures with shallow footings.

Stop bamboo spreading
Bamboo can be managed to look smart and effective.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. There is no water local to the plant, so it looks for more to sustain itself. At the same time it may drop leaves to reduce transpiration.

The result in your carefully planned border is bamboo shoots where you don’t want them and brown paper leaves adorning everything.

You can take preventative and corrective action to stop bamboo spreading.

Prevent bamboo spreading runners

If the reason for sending out runners is to find water, then pre-empt it by making sure there is adequate supply. That does not mean just leaving a hose pipe on next to it, but also reducing its requirements.

This involves thinning out the main clump, removing up to one third of the stems so that it needs less to survive. This exercise also keeps the clump tidy, as any dead or damaged stems can come out at the same time.

You can also concentrate water at the plant by mulching,. This wil both maintains moisture close to the plant and helps to prevent evaporation.

You can also employ various physical and mechanical barriers, all of which are effective. But they may not be conducive to the easy care regime bamboos propose.

If bamboo has already spread

If the bamboo has already sent out runners you have a choice to make. First is to take a long view and starve out runners. Just like any other weed if you reduce its capacity to absorb energy it will eventually weaken and die. So keep cutting off the stems as they show themselves.

Stop bamboo spreading
The detail of pruning bamboo

Or you can take more radical action. They can be cut out, or even just pulled out. They should come out with the assistance of a fork or lever such as a pick axe. If stems are rising in places that can’t be dug or disturbed, within established borders, through a priced rose bush or such, then this is what to do. Bamboo Botanicals has further useful information.

Let the stem grow until it has a width of 6mm or more. Then cut of the stem leaving a portion behind. To this stump apply a glyphosate weed killer. With larger stems the liquid will sit inside the hollow stems and kill the runner.

The treatment may need repeating. There is always the danger that it will knock back more than just the runner you want rid of. So in some cases dig around the runner to expose it and cut as close to the main plant as possible. Don’t spray weedkiller around  the plant. It takes much more chemical to effect a result than letting it soak through the stem.

Once the stem and runner are dead they become quite tough and can usually be pulled out.

The best choice?

In this case prevention is better than cure, and the argument for a maintenance regime is strong. It takes only a couple of hours per year to keep the plant neat and limit its need to go searching.

From the ground up garden, Bourne End gardener, garden services Marlow, Taplow garden care, local garden service Bourne End

 

The Garden

The weed suppressing membrane myth

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The weed suppressing membrane myth

Using fabric to suppress weeds, low maintenance gardening weed fabric, weed membrane, weed suppressing membrane myth
Clients often ask me to lay a fabric membrane to “suppress weeds”. This is usually as part of a plan to minimise maintenance, or specifically weed growth.

But what the client expects, and what they get, may be very different, even though I might provide exactly what they request.

The concept that a membrane can be used to suppress weeds for long is not real. It’s the weed suppressing membrane myth. Let me qualify that further. If you want to be able to plant in or around it, and have your plants survive or thrive, it does not work.

In fact a fabric or membrane  can often makes things worse.

If you want to lay a path or hard standing of aggregate that will not contain plants then it may work for a while.

Here’s why I don’t believe the weed suppressing membrane myth

If fabric is laid to cover the area between plants, be it mulched or not, the area will eventually become fertile above the membrane. As material decomposes and provides a base for seeds to germinate, the ground below deteriorates as it becomes starved of nutrients.

The weed suppressing membrane myth
Weed control fabric is not suitable for permanent planting

And as a layer of compost like material forms on top of the fabric, the first things to germinate will be those with tough roots – like ash and dandelion – that penetrate and anchor it. Now try digging them out.

And those covered with aggregate that looked so smart for a while. Now there is detritus gathering between the stones, enough for seeds to germinate. And once they penetrate the fabric… it’s a familiar tale.

Meanwhile the soil below is unable to benefit from the nutrients laying above. Worms working the soil cannot reach the materials to drag it into the soil. It will gradually become lifeless.

Weed suppression is for me in the same category as the no or low maintenance garden. It is feasible,  but subject to many caveats and just as much work to make it effective.

Low maintenance is possible, in particular growing conditions or by compromising on the plants you might want, choosing instead from a more limited palette.

So what does work to suppress weeds then?

Several things are better than the weed suppressing membrane myth.

Less stress about weeds helps, just accept that they will grow. Even if you eliminate every one in your garden, the seed will blow in from next door. Or a therapeutic hoeing regime, leaving the cut weeds to cook in the sun.

Mulch works– plenty of it will suppress weeds. Until it starts to break down, at which point it nourishes the soil. So renew it at least twice a year.

Best of all is a  dense planting plan that prevents weed seeds getting to the soil to grow. Include plants who’s presence will kill off the seedlings of anything else around it. This is called allelopathy, and is a fascinating subject for those with time to consider the potential.

Weed fabric, weed control, weed barrier, weed suppressing membrane

 

 

 

The Garden

How to water pots

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How to water pots
watering potted plants, how to water plants, watering plants, watering pots

It may seem like the simplest thing in the world, but a few simple ideas potting up plants for patio or indoors will make watering easy. Here we discuss how to water pots.

We all like to have the bright colours and exotic foliage offered by summer bedding and annuals. But looking after them when there has been no rain, or you’re away for a week or more can cause concern. After all, they are not cheap, and who wants a pot of dead plants on their doorstep?

When planting, consider the shape of the pot. A “standard” or traditional flower pot, be it clay or plastic, has a lip at the top. This usually represents about one tenth of the pot volume. And quite by chance, the volume of water required to soak the pot. It doesn’t matter what size the pot is, the proportions are the same.

How to water pots
A traditional plant pot with space for watering

So when you are potting up the pelargoniums and cannas, plant them below the lip, and pack the soil or compost only to that level. Water it in by filling the pot to the rim with water. That water should have reached the bottom of the pot. A regime that applies water before the compost is bone dry will allow that to be reliably repeated. Mostly.

How to water pots properly

Water won’t be able to easily penetrate the soil if its dried out. Or just run down the side of the pot where the soil has contracted. A simple test is to stick in a pencil or finger to a depth of two inches. If soil sticks to it then it has water enough for now. If nothing sticks then its time to water. It is also possible to break down the dry surface tension by adding washing up liquid, just a drop will do. That will help stop a tension forming and allow the water to soak in.

Watering of pots can be done weekly, if one properly; more frequently in severe heat or the prolonged absence of rain. Frequent shallow watering, in pots or in the ground, will stimulate the roots to grow to where the water is, near the surface, rather than deep into the soil where you want them to be. Water running out through the drainage holes tells you its done thoroughly.

How to water pots
Water pots thoroughly but less frequently

When you water also matters. Water in the morning or later in the evening, preventing the immediate evaporation that could occur in extreme heat. The reason most usually given was that leaves may be scorched in the sun, the water droplets magnifying the sun. This myth was debunked by tests as long ago as 2010.

How to water pots check list

Fill your pots to the correct level with  compost; leave room for water.

Test the soil to establish if water is needed.

Water less frequently but more thoroughly.

If the pot has dried out, apply water in parts gradually soaking the root ball enough for the water have got all the way to the bottom pf the pot.

If need be add washing up liquid to the water.

Bourne End gardener, garden services Bourne End Taplow Marlow, Loudwater Flackwell Heath

 

The Garden

Look after lawns in drought

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Look after lawns in drought
cutting grass in dry weather, drought, top tips for lawns in summer

It’s been a bit dry lately, but grass is growing strongly.  But now is the time you must manage it carefully, by adjusting how and when you cut. This is how to look after lawns in drought.

Grass is tough, and though it may start to turn brown it will come back when the wet stuff finally arrives.  When that is we don’t know. If there has been no rain by Friday 23rd this drought will be as long as the famous hot summer of 1976.

While grass is growing try to change your outlook. Rather than approaching it as a  “shortening, consider it to be an “evening up”,  making it all level. Raise the blade height and consider leaving the clippings behind to help retain moisture and, if its clipped fine enough, actually feed the lawn too.

There is always a tendency to try to cut the lawn short. Like Wimbledon, or Lords.  But they have staff to fuss and care over it, t lavish water and replacements for the food it can’t create by photosynthesis.

The blade of grass is the plant’s leaf,  where the chlorophyll uses the sun to create its food. By removing the blade you reduce its ability to grow, in effect , weakening it.

Three rules to look after lawns in drought

So, Rule 1. Cut your grass long.

And the industry is fairly much agreed on the view that you should only ever cut 1/3rd of the leaf.

But what if you have a “lawn” that has grass growing at different lengths? Then what you are doing is making it level, rather than cutting the whole thing. There are ways to improve the vigour of the rest of the grass, thereby making it grow more evenly.

Rule 2 Only reduce the blade length by 1/3rd.

And more topically, what about the heat, or lack of rain? If you can’t water your lawn then it’s in the hands of the gods. But you can look after lawns in drought by preventing the loss of any water that is present. Leave the collecting box off the back of the mower, even if it is every other cut. That way the trimmings are left to shelter the roots of the grass a little, and they may also be able to return some nitrogen to the soil too,

Rule 3. Don’t collect the clippings when its hot, leave them to mulch the grass.

Look after lawns in drought
Scalping weakens the grass, leaving t vulnerable to weeds and heat. Cut the grass long!

There are views that over cutting the grass can create more problems. Scalping leaves soil open to weed seeds, shorter weaker grass can’t compete with them. And there may even be benefits to some invading insects.

My favourite resource on lawns has to be Lawnsmith, where you get a no-nonsense view on what is right and what’s not. If you care for your lawn you’d be wise to take a look.

 

The Garden

Your garden during a hose pipe ban

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Your garden during a hose pipe ban
how to get around a hose pipe ban,
how to water your garden in hose pipe ban

Although it has not yet happened, a hose pipe ban seems almost inevitable. Prepare yourself now to water more efficiently, and more important, legally. It’s been a big investment, know what you can and can’t do in your garden during a hose pipe ban.

According to the Met Office, April 2017 in the southern region where we are saw less than 20% of the average rainfall for the last 30 years.

That has implications for those trying to undertake the regular scheduled garden jobs that we’d expect to do at this time of the year. Planting and dividing perennials, planting large shrubs or trees sowing or repairing lawns – try aerating a lawn with clay underneath right now – are all jobs having to be delayed. Unfortunately we don’t know until when, making planning projects quite difficult.

Your garden during a hose pipe ban
Rainfall in April was at a 35 year low. Source: Met Office

The lack of rain suggests a ban on hose pipes. They use 900 litres an hour, so are an easy way to save water usage. But they don’t consider your garden during a hose pipe ban.

There are ways to get around it, though I don’t advocate using hose pipes willy nilly. If you are a blue badge holder you can register to continue to use your hose pipe. But for everyone else the watering can beckons. You can fill and empty the watering can as many times as you like.

Every cloud has a silver lining

But those with extensive gardens this may be an opportunity. Invest now in an irrigation system, to save water now and still be able to keep your plants alive. And to save you time and water in the future. An irrigation system, especially with automated or timed watering can also be an asset that adds value to your garden and house.

There are several makers to consider, and they start from simple leaky hose pipe laid across flower beds to complex pipes with dropper or spray valves. Only the ones that drip onto soil are exempt, so no no sprays or misters.

Leaky pipe systems use the same connectors as your regular hose. Installing now makes sense, while plants are still not too big. They get water down onto the ground where plants need it most. This cuts out the wind drift and evaporation associated with sprinklers.

Mulching over the top with leaf mould will help keep that moisture in, and also help stop weeds. Some of them can grow  regardless of how much water we get.

I personally use leaky pipes in the greenhouse and in the main flower beds, and can’r recommend them enough.  They can really make a difference to your garden during a hose pipe ban. Get them ordered and install now before the garden centres run out.

The RHS still have their advice from April 2012 on their website, describing strategies to cope with drought.

 

The Garden

Revitalise a flower bed

Revitalise a flower bed for next year

revitalise a flower bed, Planning new flower beds, reworking a flower bed, redesign flower bed, design a flower bed, revive a mature bed
Not so much planning a flower bed, but I have had a plan to rework and revitalise a flower bed for 9 months now. But I could not recall what was growing in there, and was loath to just dig it out and discard anything. So I waited to see what all seasons provided and find out for sure what grows there.

In that time I have grown some Iris and Sedum that I knew would thrive there, and about 40 Buxus plants to use as a backdrop and border. So the time has been useful and saved me about £60 in new plants.

I also used the project as a cost exercise, timing how long each aspect took.

I had to:-

  • remove existing planting
  • clear any weeds and roots
  • rejuvenate the soil with compost
  • dig it over
  • and plant the new plants

Clearing out existing plants took two hours, involving the lifting of huge blocks of Crocosmia, and an invasive ground cover Campanula. The area is overshadowed by a large Pyracantha, which has both sheltered the ground from rain and deposited a deep mulch of dead leaves, making sure no water penetrated.

Revitalise a flower bed
Overgrown border in need of re thinking
Revitalise a flower bed
A small toad emerges during the disturbance. I do everything I can to encourage these slug and snail eaters.

Dig deep

Then digging it over, deep enough to crack the “pan” that has formed about 8 inches down, and adding 200 litres of compost, 3 wheelbarrows full from the compost heap, took another hour. Digging it in so it was well distributed consumed another hour.

It was then ready for new plants. The Buxus where laid out in two tiers, one that will eventually grow higher than the other. And the other plants dependent on where the sun would strike most in the afternoon.

Planting box in straight lines and evenly spaced is essential. If you have concerms about box blight, a reasonable alternative to Buxus for such framework is euonymus microphyllus, I saw it used in some national trust gardens recently.

My plan calls for a small space in front of them for the Iris and Sedum, Digitalis and Lysimachia firecracker. There was also some Convallaria that was salvaged to add back in.

Finally I added about 10 Echinacea plants that I have grown from seed. Six hours in, revitalising a flower bed is not as easy as it might seem.

Plan now to revitalise a flower bed

Draw up plans to show what is growing, what you want to keep and what will be discarded. Consider when is best for you to do it. Allow for weather and how much compost you can generate from your heap. And also plan to have plants ready to fill the empty space.

If you need a flower bed replanted or revitalised, call us for a quote. Or email us here.

hedge trimming cutting Bourne end

 

Gardener Bourne End, cutting high hedges Bourne End Marlow Flackwell Heath

Garden Workshops

Poisonous plants in your garden – from the ground up

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Poisonous plants in your garden workshop

Poisonous plants in your garden
This workshop will be held on May 14th

Parents, especially mums, fear that children might find poisonous plants in your garden, and worse, come to harm from them.  And they are right to be concerned as there are lots of very common plants with dangerous leaves, seeds and sap.

But knowing what they are and quite what level of risk they pose can put your mind at rest, and allow you and your children to enjoy the garden without worry.

The poisonous plants in the garden workshop will introduce you to the most common plants that pose a risk, and show you how to recognise the most dangerous ones that are perhaps not so common, and may not even be in your own garden.

poisonous plants in your garden
Foxglove, a common cottage garden plant, can be harmful

Remember that in the vast majority of cases your child would have to sit down to three courses of plants to cause much harm, but there are few that can be quite nasty.

Many of these plants contain substance used in medicines, and so contact with or ingestion is dangerous.

Some parts of plants are dangerous to your pets. Unlike your children, they won’t learn to avoid them. Know what can hurt your pets and protect them.

The poisonous plants in your garden workshop will cover:

The most dangerous plants likely to be in your garden
How to recognise them
Handling poisonous plants
Do you need to remove them
How much has to be consumed to cause illness
The most dangerous top 10
How to treat ingestion of berries or leaves
How to treat contact poisoning

poisonous plants in your garden
Wolf’s bane or monkshood was used to kill whales

About the poisonous plants in your garden workshop, and further garden workshop events

My garden workshops will only be able to host a limited number of guests on each occasion, on a first come or invitation basis, and are intended to impart and share knowledge, not as a commercial venture. They are an introduction to me. This workshop will cost £2 per person.

Some events will be covered presented by myself, but I also hope to introduce other local garden enthusiasts with particular passions and specialist knowledge.

This garden workshop will be held on May 14th

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Garden Workshops

Making a compost bin – from the ground up

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Making a compost bin –
from the ground up

Making a compost bin – from the ground up.
Making a compost bin must be the first consideration in any garden. It will provide a place to lose all the natural waste generated. And no matter how much it is neglected, that will turn into good useful compost or soil conditioner.

The product of the compost heap is where I start my thinking. I need mulches for beds of perennials, which protects and nourishes as well as conditions the soil. I also need soil conditioner for vegetable beds and for any new flower beds. And I need the finer components to bulk out other composts when potting on seedlings or divided perennials.

So if there was no compost heap, I would be facing a hefty bill from the garden centre.

Home made compost limitations

Compost from the heap is not a complete replacement for purchased compost. You still need that assured standard throughout the year. My personal favourite is B&Q’s own brand Verve, which I tried after reading it was rated number one by Which? magazine. I have not since had cause to try anything else.

But making a compost bin and the implied management of it can put people off. It will take space, and it will take time to “turn”, as we are continually told in the garden media.

But I think there is a way that is relatively simple to manage – including the required “turning”. And it takes a fraction of the time that a standard compost bin might.

I have tried this in the smaller of my two bins, and it really works.

Rather than having a set amount of space and filling it all with garden waste, you have a longer and thinner enclosure. This is two to three metres long, by up to a metre wide, depending on the space available and the amount of material likely to be added. Making a compost bin using easily available wooden pallets is easy. One at the closed end, and two or three along each side secured together with some of that surplus timber that every household seems to have.

Pallets: perfect for making a compost bin

Using the 1.2 metre “europallets” gives a good length but not the height, so are easier to lean over to manage. Pallets used to deliver paper to printers are also OK.

Filling starts at the closed end and after a month is “rolled” into the middle section. Meanwhile any new material is added at the first stage. One month later the process is repeated, with the contents of the middle section rolling to the open end. Then move section one to the middle, leaving an open space at section one to start filling again.

Some points to remember that may not be obvious.

  • Leave the bottom open to allow worms and insects in.
  • If under a canopy or in shade, leave the top open, but if in full sun or exposed form some sort of cover, something like carpet. there are times to cover, and times not to. This extract from Gardenweb sums up the conflict.
    If the weather forecast is calling for 25 millimetres (or more) of rain and your pile already had adequate moisture, throwing a piece of plastic over it for the weather event will do little, if any, harm and will likely save some grief in the long run.If the pile had adequate moisture to begin with, throwing a tarp over it will not add more moisture and make the pile too wet, this is not logical.
    In extremely dry or windy weather, throwing a tarp over it may conserve what moisture it had.
    If the pile is made up of very dry leaves, covering the pile with a tarp for a few days seems to help those leaves absorb the moisture, through the high humidity.  But a tarp thrown over a pile isn’t a ziploc bag, so water may be needed.
    There are numerous reasons why one might want to cover a pile, as there are numerous reasons why one might not want to cover a pile.
  • When adding to the compost pile try to mix the addition by the composition, some nitrogen based, some carbon based etc.
    The “what to compost” section at eartheasy.com has a great table explaining the various components.
Making a compost bin
Like this, but longer, open one end, closed at the other

Keep it balanced for good compost

That may then imply that some materials wait for a while before being added, either next to the compost bin, or if there is just too much put it in your green garden waste recycling bin.

To the obvious question “do I use this myself?” The answer is no.  I inherited compost heaps in a particular place, and had no need or desire to move them. But I did clean them up and make a two bin arrangement that takes just an hour or so each month to turn. I move new usable compost into tonne bags, rolling the next section forward and filling up from an adjacent bin. But I enjoy the workout!

Making a compost bin will be part of a garden workshop later in the year, as will what to do with all those leaves in autumn.