Tag Archives: garden jobs

Day Lily

August Garden Jobs

August Garden Jobs

The Flower Garden

  • – Keep everything well watered especially Camellias and Rhododendrons to promote development of buds for next year.
  • – Day LilyStake any flowers that are overly tall or heavier at the top to keep them safe from wind damage.
  • – Dead head lilies, perennials and bedding plants to help with longer a flowering period and next year’s growth.
  • – Prune wisteria and summer flowering shrubs once they have flowered.
  • – Prune rambling and climbing roses after they flower.
  • – Collect seeds and store them appropriately to plant them out next year.

The Kitchen Garden

  • Broad Bean Plants with flower showing– Harvest beans. Both French and Runner beans need to be picked early and often. This will prevent them from going to seed, stop them from becoming stringy and also encourage a second growth.
  • – Add a high potash feed like Tomorite to pepper, cucumber and aubergine plants when you see the first fruits.
  • – Water and harvest sweetcorn; harvest when milky juices come out of a corn if you pop it.
  • – Trim herb plants; cutting back old growth will allow a second growth that can be harvested before the cold weather sets in!

The Fruit Garden

  • – Feed citrus plants with a specialised feed or fertiliser.
  • – Give any container foods a high potash feed such as Tomorite.
  • – Protect your precious crops from birds with a netting over your fruit.
  • – Begin harvesting fruit trees such as plums, apricots, peaches and cherries.
  • – Remove mulching from around strawberry plants to avoid the spread of disease and plant out any rooted Strawberry runners for next year.
  • – Blackcurrant bushes need to be pruned after all of the fruits have been harvested. Only prune the stems that fruited this year.

Garden checklist

General garden checklist for May

We know it’s hard to keep on top of everything, especially when there is so much to do. To kick start a prosperous growing season this summer, we have compiled a handy garden checklist, full of tasks to get you going. Why not print it off and try to complete these little tasks throughout the month of May? Read up on our other blog posts for why and how to do many of these jobs.

Garden Checklist

⃝ Hoe off and hand weed frequently to stay on top of weed growth. Weed prevention is   better than cure so consider installing weed poof membranes and mulches to your borders.

⃝ Feed your lawn with a spring feed fertiliser.

⃝ Mow your lawn weekly and start to gradually reduce the height of the blades with each cut.

⃝ Prune early-flowering plants to promote next year’s growth.

⃝ Begin sowing any outdoor herbs that you will be growing as annuals.

⃝ Plant hanging baskets for summer, our centres are bulging with suitable pot and basket plants.

⃝ Plant summer bedding, make sure to harden off more tender summer annuals first and add slow release fertiliser when you plant out for best results

⃝ Don’t let cool temperatures fool you, regular watering is always necessary for new plants. Most pots dry out from wind/air flow.

⃝ Planting strawberries? Place straw under the plant to prevent contact with the damp soil leading to rotten fruits

⃝ If you are growing tall growing plants be sure to put supports in place before the plants grow too tall

⃝ Harvest fully grown rhubarb by pulling the stalks, take care not to harvest more than half at any time

⃝ Start harvesting any fully grown asparagus

⃝ Check for early aphids and begin pest control, think about insect mesh and slug and snail control for particularly vulnerable varieties.

⃝ Check for nesting birds before trimming and pruning hedges

⃝ Put up bird boxes for summer migrants to nest in

⃝ Top up birdfeeders to support tired bird parents whilst they feed their young.

Potatoes- what on earth?

Potatoes – what on earth?

We often hear the phrase ‘Earthing up’ whilst speaking about potatoes, especially around this time of the year. It is much simpler and more useful than it may sound!

Earthing up

Earthing up or ridging as it is sometimes known, is simply drawing up soil into a ridge above the row of planted potatoes. You can do this as soon as foliage emerges above the surface.

Why?

  •  it protects the early foliage from any frost damage.
  •  it blocks light from reaching the tubers which can have the adverse effect of turning the tubers green and making them inedible. To make sure this is always happening, we recommend earthing up in stages.
  • finally, the piled up soil can help to lock in moisture which allows the tubers to ‘swell’ and grow.

 For container potatoes

Maybe you have decided to grow potatoes in sacks or containers, if so the process of earthing up still applies- simply add layers of compost in stages as the stems begin to grow. Carry on until you reach the top of the container. A good heap of about 8 inches / 20-cm should be enough.

Don’t rush

After all your efforts with earthing up, don’t give in to the temptation of harvesting your crops too early. For early potatoes be sure to wait until the flowers are completely out and for the main crop variety you can hold back until the foliage begins to turn yellow.