Hello Everyone,
The weather is warming up and Easter is the traditional time to get started on the new growing season. When you can feel the sun on your back, pottering in the garden is a pleasant way to spend a few hours. All those jobs you have been looking at from the kitchen sink for months are so achievable if you do a little at a time.
Work for a while, have a cup of coffee, a little rest in the sun, then do a little more. Your muscles will need breaking in gently. Go mad trying to do it all in a day and you won’t be able to move the next morning and it will put you off gardening. There’s no deadline, but the sense of achievement when you make order out of chaos is rewarding and will spur you on to have another session. Be realistic about what you can achieve in one go. Sometimes when I am faced with an herbaceous border about a hundred yards long, I start in the middle, then I have two smaller and manageable portions left to do.
When you start weeding, then the new compost bins you built will come into their own. Nasties like bindweed, docks, dandelions, stinging nettles and ground elder or anything that looks sick and diseased, should be burned or put in the brown bin. Turf and grass and soft green growth are nitrogenous and break down well, but they need a little carbon i.e. straw, twigs; cut up small & mixed in. Stalks and stem of old herbaceous plants rot down more easily if chopped a bit with your nice new shiny sharp spade and then mix up with the soft green stuff. I often use two bins when weeding, one for compostable and the other for burning.
You can prune forsythia and ornamental japonica now after flowering. Keep forsythia in shape with shears; cut out one or two very old stems to the ground if needed. The japonica will run amok if allowed so cut it into a shaped bush – I use the hedge cutters – or train it flat against a wall to keep it tamed. Cut out any forward facing shoots back to the main frame.
Check over roses for dead or diseased bits and cut them out, then feed with blood fish and bone or “growmore” and while you are about it give the daffodils a feed too, dead head but leave the leaves on to build next years flowers.
Dig up and divide snowdrops and spread them around to increase your stock. Take away any dead leaves around your hellebores so you can see the flowers.
Trim the old flower spikes off lavender if not done in August, do not cut down into old wood, just a light trim.
On a still, dry day “weed-kill” paths and drives. Be aware of spray drifting onto plants, into ponds or run off into borders. A pump spray is worth the investment if you have much of this work to do as it is much quicker, more efficient and saves bending with a little bottle of spray.
The weather is warming up and Easter is the traditional time to get started on the new growing season. When you can feel the sun on your back, pottering in the garden is a pleasant way to spend a few hours. All those jobs you have been looking at from the kitchen sink for months are so achievable if you do a little at a time.
Work for a while, have a cup of coffee, a little rest in the sun, then do a little more. Your muscles will need breaking in gently. Go mad trying to do it all in a day and you won’t be able to move the next morning and it will put you off gardening. There’s no deadline, but the sense of achievement when you make order out of chaos is rewarding and will spur you on to have another session. Be realistic about what you can achieve in one go. Sometimes when I am faced with an herbaceous border about a hundred yards long, I start in the middle, then I have two smaller and manageable portions left to do.
When you start weeding, then the new compost bins you built will come into their own. Nasties like bindweed, docks, dandelions, stinging nettles and ground elder or anything that looks sick and diseased, should be burned or put in the brown bin. Turf and grass and soft green growth are nitrogenous and break down well, but they need a little carbon i.e. straw, twigs; cut up small & mixed in. Stalks and stem of old herbaceous plants rot down more easily if chopped a bit with your nice new shiny sharp spade and then mix up with the soft green stuff. I often use two bins when weeding, one for compostable and the other for burning.
You can prune forsythia and ornamental japonica now after flowering. Keep forsythia in shape with shears; cut out one or two very old stems to the ground if needed. The japonica will run amok if allowed so cut it into a shaped bush – I use the hedge cutters – or train it flat against a wall to keep it tamed. Cut out any forward facing shoots back to the main frame.
Check over roses for dead or diseased bits and cut them out, then feed with blood fish and bone or “growmore” and while you are about it give the daffodils a feed too, dead head but leave the leaves on to build next years flowers.
Dig up and divide snowdrops and spread them around to increase your stock. Take away any dead leaves around your hellebores so you can see the flowers.
Trim the old flower spikes off lavender if not done in August, do not cut down into old wood, just a light trim.
On a still, dry day “weed-kill” paths and drives. Be aware of spray drifting onto plants, into ponds or run off into borders. A pump spray is worth the investment if you have much of this work to do as it is much quicker, more efficient and saves bending with a little bottle of spray.
Ponds and water features will benefit from a clear out of old leaves and rubbish. Put the debris on the ground near the edge so any creatures can get back to the water. A spring tine rake used upside down makes quite a good implement for scooping muck out.
Easter is a good time to plant seed potatoes either in a container or in the ground. There is still time to plant seeds for tomato plants but remember they need warmth. See last month’s blog for more detail. Pick up some seeds for useful annuals like cosmos, marigolds etc. Dahlia tubers can be started off in pots if you can provide shelter from the frost, if not plant in the ground in mid May, they are so useful for bright fresh colour in autumn.
I think that will keep you going for a while,
Happy gardening,
Caroline
I think that will keep you going for a while,
Happy gardening,
Caroline