August, the last official month of summer, offers the perfect chance to appreciate your garden’s peak beauty and enjoy fresh produce of your own. As one of the hottest months, August necessitates diligent watering, particularly if the season has been dry and water butts are running low. The month also coincides with holiday season, so arranging for friends or family to care for your garden in your absence is a wise move. When you are home, make sure to prune wisteria and other summer-flowering shrubs, like lavender, after they’ve finished blooming. By staying on top of these tasks, you can ensure your garden remains vibrant and well-maintained throughout the month.

Here are our tips for making the most of the month ahead:

– Carry out a trim of your evergreen hedges.

– Keep your spring flowering shrubs such as Rhododendrons and camellias well watered as they will be setting their buds for next year now.

– Lightly trim lavender after they have finished flowering leaving 2.5cm (1inch) of the current season’s growth i.e. not into woody sections.

– Plan next year’s spring flowering bulb displays as they will be available later this month. Flowers like daffodils, tulips, crocus, snowdrops and hyacinths.

– Your strawberry plants may have produced runners (long shoots with small ‘baby plants’ along them). These baby plants can be cut off and planted in pots to establish a bigger root system before planting them out.

– It is good to allow some flowering and vegetable plants to run to seed to provide natural food for garden birds and other wildlife.

– In hot weather, ensure you keep bird baths or trays topped up to provide essential water for wildlife.

– As you cut back flowering annuals and perennials, shake their ripe seed heads over bare sol for more flowers next year.

– Indoors, you can revitalise houseplants by checking if any are getting pot bound. You can tell this is roots are bulging out the base of the pot. Choose a pot about 2cm (1 inch) wider in diameter to the one the plant is already in and fill with houseplant repotting mix. Give your pot a good tap to ensure there are no air pockets in the soil.

– Raise the height of cut on lawnmowers during dry periods and mow less frequently. This will prevent your lawn from scorch.

– Prolong seasonal container displays by feeding your plants with a high-potassium fertiliser. Continue to deadhead flowers that have gone over to encourage new flowers to form.

– Watch out for vine weevil grub damage and apply biological controls. Plants in containers are particularly susceptible.

– Take cuttings from your penstemon plants as many do not survive over winter. Fill a 9cm pot with a cuttings compost or 50:50 mix of perlite and a free draining compost. Take a cutting from a non flowering shoot that is 10-12.5cm long trim it with a sharp knife to just below a leaf node (below where a leaf leaves the stem) Dip the end in a rooting powder and place up to 5 cuttings in the pot. Label and water. Place the pot in a propagator or cover with a plastic bag and rubber band. Position in a warm light position but not in direct sunlight. Cuttings should root in about 4 weeks but can be left undisturbed over winter. Keep soil moist but not wet.

– Clear fallen leaves with black spot from around the base of roses.

– Sow spring cabbage and spring onions for overwintering.

As summer progresses, the garden is in full swing. Many gardens are at their peak in July, filled with beautiful scents and abundant produce in the vegetable plot. It’s a lovely time of year to enjoy your outdoor space. As one of the hottest months, make sure to keep your plants watered and regularly deadhead flowers to keep plants looking good and enjoy a longer display of blooms.

Here are our tips for making the most of the month ahead:

– Keep plants looking attractive and encourage more blooms in beds, borders, containers, and hanging baskets by deadheading bedding plants and repeat-flowering perennials to encourage continuous flowering.

– Water plants in pots or containers regularly during hot spells. These dry out much quicker, especially if it has been breezy too. In addition keep an eye on any plants you have planted in the last year or so. They will still be establishing themselves and so the occasional water will prevent stress on the plants.

– Cut sweet pea flowers regularly to encourage continuous flowering. Sweet peas are hungry and thirsty plants and a lot of that demand comes from the large leaves. If you cut off any large leaves that have gone matte and slightly dusty looking, you allow the nutrients and water to get to the new growth and flowers.

– Cut lavender for drying by choosing newly opened flowers for the best fragrance. Hang them in a cool, dark place. Trim lavender after flowering to keep plants compact and bushy, but avoid cutting into old wood.

– Watch out for clematis wilt, which causes wilting leaves and black discolouration on leaves and stems. Remove all affected material and dispose of it in your household waste. To add resilience against clematis wilt in the first place, we always recommend planting new clematis plants about a couple of inches deeper than the existing soil level. This helps bury some latent buds so that the plant can sprout new shoots from underground if the top of the plant wilts or is damaged.

– Pick courgettes while they’re young. Regular picking encourages more fruit.

– Harvest runner beans regularly to prevent them from becoming stringy and to make room for developing pods. Leaving mature pods on the plant can reduce your crop.

– Start picking tomatoes as they ripen. Continue to remove side shoots, and feed and water the plants. Apply tomato feed fortnightly to crops in pots and grow bags to encourage fruiting. Remove the main shoot on cordon tomatoes where they hit the greenhouse roof or a leaf ot two above the seventh flower truss.

– Get ready, we will soon have potato tubers to plant for a Christmas crop. Grow in a sheltered spot.

– Protect your brassicas with butterfly netting to prevent cabbage white butterflies laying their eggs on your crops.

– Pick herbs often to prevent them getting woody and to encourage fresh bushy growth.

– If you have a greenhouse, dampen it down on hot days to increase humidity and deter red spider mites. Open vents and doors daily for adequate ventilation, and use blinds or shade paint to prevent overheating.

– Clear algae, blanket weeds, and debris from ponds, and keep the water level topped up. Algae can cause discoloured water, green scum at the edges, or dense mats of green growth under the surface, spreading rapidly in warm, sunny weather.

– Ensure frogs, toads, newts and hedgehogs can exit ponds via shallow edges or by laying a wooden ramp at the edge.

– Mow lawns regularly, but raise the cutting height during dry weather to leave the grass longer. Don’t worry if your lawn turns brown; it will recover when it rains.

– Don’t forget to arrange care for your plants while if you are going on holiday!

With May heralding the approach of summer, it’s time to get outside and really enjoy some gardening on longer, warmer days. As herbaceous borders flourish and bulbs fade, the garden transforms and begins the rapidly grow. It’s time to be sowing and planting out bedding, ensuring timing aligns with the last frost in your region. Softwood cuttings can also be taken to propagate new plants. Embrace the wildness of the lawn, allowing it to grow freely, and relish the sight of insects flocking to feed on the blooming flowers.

Here are our tips for making the most of the month ahead:

– Apply a rose fertiliser now to any roses you have in your garden and a high potash feed to flowering shrubs.

– Tomatoes originate from South America and will suffer as soon as temperatures drop below 10C. Therefore keep them under cover until you can be sure the weather is warm enough to plant them outside. Make sure you find the warmest spot possible to give them all the help they need but allows air movement around the plants so they don’t get too humid (resulting in tomato blight). Bush variety tomatoes are great for growing in pots on a patio or terrace.

– Get tough on weeds now.  A little and often is great for staying on top of things whilst also giving you some gentle exercise without overdoing things. Prevention is always better than cure and so consider installing weed proof membrane fabrics to your open surfaces. We sell this by the metre near our tills.

– Try growing your strawberry plants in hanging baskets this year. The fruit will hang down over the side meaning that air can circulate around them (keeping them dry and preventing mould) and slugs and snails can’t reach them. Once your strawberry plants have flowered feed regularly with a strawberry or tomato liquid feed.

– Apply a spring lawn feed to your lawn if you didn’t last month and repair thin or bare patches before the end of May.

– Are you growing potatoes this year? As soon as your plants break through the surface of the soil, earth them up by covering the foliage with soil. This protects the shoots from frost damage in late spring and ensures the developing potatoes aren’t exposed to light, which turns them green and inedible. As the stems grow taller, repeat the process several times, a few weeks apart. The final height of the ridge should be 20–30cm (8–12in). But if you are unable to earth up, or don’t have time, you should still get a good crop.

– Now is the time to start planting your summer flowering hanging baskets. We have a lovely selection of plants to choose from including all your favourites like Begonias, Petunias, Geraniums and Fuchsias. Just protect your basket under cover until all late frosts have gone.

– Look out for lily beetle adults and larvae this month. Some organic methods of control include spraying the plant with sunflower oil (makes it too slippery to climb) but the best way is to place some newspaper below your plants as the adults will drop when touched. Squish them quick or they will then fly off.

– Plant your curcurbits! Curcurbits is the family names given to gourds and squashes. They include courgettes and pumpkins. By the middle of May you should be able to plant them outside here in the south west. They are greedy feeders so preparing your soil with a well rotted manure or general fertiliser like grow more will reap reward later on. Plant trailing pumpkins and squashes 1.8m (6ft) apart or 90cm (3ft) if you are planting more compact bush varieties. Give a high potash fertiliser to your plants 6 weeks after planting and then every fortnight after that.

– If you are thinking of trimming your hedges, please give a little thought to late nesting birds. Have a quick check for active nests before you start.

– Ensure your garden birds have access to fresh drinking water and clean your feeders regularly to prevent the spread of bird diseases.

– If you are picking up fallen branches from your garden put them in a pile in somewhere to provide natural shelter for garden wildlife.

– Did you plant a new tree last autumn? If so, the tree will be coming out of its dormancy now and so a little care and attention will be needed until it is fully established. Once the leaves open, make sure you water once a week. Spring rains may save you the task but just check that the soil feels moist about an inch or two below the surface and water appropriately. If we have a dry summer period you will need to water twice a week. Ensure you cover a wide area about the tree as roots go wide as well as down.

– Sow your runner and French beans from the middle of the month onwards.

– If you don’t have a conservatory or greenhouse consider investing in a cold frame to harden off your plants before planting them out in July. Hardening off effectively means you gradually introduce the young plant (with soft growth) to lower temperatures.

– If you find your greenhouse gets too hot and sunny in the day and you end up scorching your plants you may want to consider introducing shading. You can either buy shade netting (available by the metre from our shop) or we sell liquid shading which you paint onto the glass.

– If you are planting flowering perennials we always recommend planting a group of 3 together as they then create a really impactful clump. To do this dig a hole for each plant leaving enough room around each plant for them to grow out. Immerse the plants rootball into a bucket of water to give it a good soak before planting. Remove the rootball from the pot it came in and place it in the hole you have dug. Press the soil/compost around the plants, you want to ensure there are no air gaps around the roots. Repeat with your other plants and gently water regularly.

– You may want to prune back some of your evergreen shrubs. Plants like Euonymus could be trimmed now. You basically want to think of it as a hair cut and remove any bits that are sticking out. You can prune with hedge shears or secateurs. Start at the bottom and work your way to the top, removing all outlying shoots and getting the plant back into the desired shape.

By mid-March, Spring typically makes its appearance, bringing with it ample sunshine and a plethora of gardening tasks to tackle. As the days grow sunnier, it’s prime time to dive into preparing seed beds, planting seeds, pruning winter shrubs, and giving the garden a thorough tidy-up.

Here are our tips for making the most of the month ahead:

As February progresses, signs of the approaching spring become apparent, with bulbs emerging and wildlife stirring as light levels and temperatures rise. While nature awakens, there’s ample opportunity this month to ready your garden for the upcoming season. February offers a chance to lay the groundwork for a flourishing garden in the months to come.

Here are our tips for making the most of the month ahead:

– Apply blood fish and bone mixed organic fertiliser to your plants to give them a good start and for a spectacular floral display later in the year.

– Use cloches (a translucent cover) to warm up your soil for early seed sowing outdoors. In general, transparent or clear plastic is most effective for solarisation, as the heating rays from the sun will pass through the sheet and be trapped to heat the soil below.

– Start chitting your seed potatoes. Chitting potatoes means encouraging the tuber to produce strong, short, stubby green shoots before planting. It’s the practise of making potatoes start to sprout before planting in the soil. Chitting is supposed to help a crop mature quickly after planting. We suggest putting your seed potatoes in an open egg carton in a cool well lit room to do this.

– If your lawn gets waterlogged we suggest spiking the ground to improve drainage. You can use a special hollow tined aeration tool or just the spikes from a garden fork.

– Start your seed sowing. Many seeds can be sown undercover this month including sweet peas, lettuce and broad beans. Don’t forget your seed trays and compost.

– Apply nitrogen fertiliser to your spring cabbage and broccoli at the end of the month to ensure they green up.

– Plant rhubarb crowns and asparagus. .

– Add some colour back into the garden with the joyful primulas. Hardy primulas and polyanthus look great in pots or at the front of borders. If you regularly deadhead the flowers as they go over you will be rewarded with new buds and prolonged flowering.

– If your camellias are in full bloom, it is advisable to keep an eye on the weather forecast and throw some horticultural fleece over your plants before frosty nights. This will prevent the blooms from being blackened. You can hold the fleece in place with clothes pegs and remove it in the morning when temperatures rise. When camellia flowers have finished flowering and going brown they can be removed from the plant.

– Tidy up your strawberry plants by snipping away the old foliage down to the crown of the plant. This will promote healthy leaf growth by exposing the central part of the plant to light and air. You can force the plants to flower early (and therefore fruit early) by growing them undercover.

– Prune your autumn fruiting raspberry canes, close to ground level. To get a small early crop, leave a few strong shoots unpruned.

– Plant new or saved dahlia tubers. Keep them in pots undercover for the spring and then plant out in May. Other summer flowering bulbs, corms and tubers can also be planted now like Begonias, Gladioli and Lilies.

– National Nest Box week always coincides with Valentines Day as many garden birds are beginning to pair up and look for a home to raise their family. You should always site your nest box away from prey (i.e. at least 1.5m above ground level) and with the entrance facing north/north-east, away from the prevailing wind and rain

– Continue feeding your garden birds this month as they will be working hard to build nests and need all the extra energy they can get.