The days are now noticeably shorter, and the changes of the season are all around us. Deciduous ornamental trees are beginning to shed their displays of autumn foliage and the landscapes around us are being transformed. There are lots of flowering annuals to plant now to continue a fabulous colour display as winter approaches.
As we head into the planting season, now is the perfect time to get started on your garden. This month, consider planting cool-season crops such as broccoli, spinach, winter lettuce, kale, and turnips, all of which thrive in cooler temperatures and can often withstand light frosts. Don’t forget to sow garlic and broad beans; these hardy choices can be planted directly into well-drained soil that receives ample sunlight. For those of you looking to add variety, snow peas, spring onions, and salad onions are also ideal for sowing now.
We're currently waiting for our first delivery of certified seed potatoes, expected to be available towards the end of May. It's important for gardeners to be cautious as some retailers might already be selling seed potatoes that don't seem to have been certified. Always look for the red certification sticker on seed potatoes, which confirms they are disease-free and have passed rigorous inspections.
This label ensures that you're planting high-quality seeds and less likely to encounter problems like blight or potato scab, leading to a healthier and more successful crop. Stay tuned for the arrival of our certified seed, and ensure your garden starts off on the right foot!
Be sure to harvest basil and pumpkins before frost strikes. Tomato plants can be pulled from the ground and hung upside down in a protected place allowing the green fruit to continue ripening.
- Move Cymbidium orchids into a protected sunny position and feed with an orchid blooming fertiliser, which will help encourage good flower spikes.
- Its your last chance to repair or sow new lawns prior to the cold weather arriving. If sowing a new lawn be sure to add a lawn starter fertiliser as each lawn seed will benefit from the nearby fertiliser granules and the result will be better germination, rapid root development, balanced leaf growth and a much healthier, stronger new lawn.
- Winter will also see the attack from lawn grubs. Try and avoid cutting your lawn too short as this often leads to a less healthy lawn, which is attractive to lawn grubs...ask us how to treat
- Treat for shot-hole disease on stone fruit after harvesting and repeat prior to bud swell with a liquid copper fungicide
- If your soil is heavy clay then add powerfeed or gypsum to help improve water penetration and soil aeration.
- Aerate lawns and improve drainage with coarse sand. Apply moss killer to lawns; moss will increase its spread through the lawn over winter.
- Lift and divide lilium bulbs, remove any diseased or dead material and prepare the ground to replant in June.
- If you don't have a compost heap, it's time to start one. Autumn leaves are a fantastic source of nutrients and organic matter and they are now plentiful!
- Our winter flowering pansies, violas, dianthus, sweet peas, nemesia, primula and polyanthus can be planted now along with new season Camellia, Daphne, Rhododendron and Azalea for a harvest of colour over the months ahead.
- If you have a pond now is a great time to give your pump a clean and prepare the pond for winter by cleaning up decaying foliage and removing excess string algae and sludge.
- Now is the time to tidy up your houseplants by removing any old leaves or debris from the surface of the potting mix and feed with the fantastic plant runner fertiliser. Begin reducing the water to your indoor plants as the weather starts to cool off.
Did you know?
Most hydrangeas form their flowers on second year
growth. So as we prune we need to follow some simple steps. Cutting back too
much of the established wood will increase shoot development, but it will
also reduce the number of flowers on your hydrangea.
If you are pruning, then start by removing any dead branches right to the
ground, then continue by simply following the length of the branch you are
about to prune until you find a pair of leaf buds parallel to each side of
the stem, prune on a 45 degree angle about 20mm above these double buds.
