Garden Checklist ...

Good Morning!
I hope you have all had a lovely Easter weekend, typically we have torrential rain today so it doesn't look like I'l be able to do anything in the garden!
However if the weather is fine where you are here's a few things that you can be getting on with today and over the rest of the week ...

1. Transplanting  -If you have plants in the wrong place or they've simply grown too big for the space that they are in now is a good time to dig them up and relocate them. Avoid doing this however if the ground is frozen or water logged. If your wanting to move a plant but don't have anywhere for it to go then pop it in a pot until you have found the right place.
Below you can see that I have taken out the Hardy Fuchsia which was in the middle to the right and moved the Salvia to the centre as it has put on some good growth since I first planted it. I finished the spot off by under-planting with some Snowdrops and the Fuchsia has been relocated elsewhere in the garden!

2. Sowings - Now is a good time to get on with some more seed sowing! For example yesterday I sowed some Cosmos 'Xanthos' and 'Double Click Snow Puff' along with some French Marigolds in 'Vanilla Cream' and 'Spanish Brocade'. 

There's also still time for you to sow Greenhouse crops such as Peppers, Cucumbers and Tomatoes.

Cosmos 'Xanthos'

3. Strawberries- If you are growing Strawberries outside you can encourage early fruits by covering the rows with Cloches. Alternatively you can grow them undercover in a Greenhouse which will also encourage early fruits! This year I am growing 'Mara des Bois' which is a perpetual strawberry so hopefully I shall have more strawberries for longer throughout the year!

4. Potatoes - If you are growing Potatoes this year then the Easter weekend is traditionally the time to get them planted. If you are limited on space but want to grow this crop then large bags with drainage holes and containers can also be used. Ensure when planting that each seed potato has healthy shoots and give the soil a water after planting.

5. Dahlia Tubers - Dahlia Tubers can also be started off now. Plant them in pots of multi purpose compost and place in a cold frame or Greenhouse. Once you spot them green shoots emerging from the soil give them a water.

6. Basket Plants - Garden Centres will be getting in plug plants of Basket plants now, if they haven't already! If your only wanting a couple for your Summer Bedding this year then it's a great way of getting just a couple for a cheap price. Of course it's still too cold for them to go outside so it's best to keep them in a Greenhouse right now. Pot them up into 9cm pots of multi - purpose compost as soon as you get them home. Once they have filled these pots you can plant your baskets / containers up and keep them undercover until it's time to go outside.

One of our nearby Garden Centres has them on offer for 6 for £5 so of course I had to pick up a few!

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget you can find all the previous Checklists on the page tab above.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Plant of the Month ... Pulmonaria!

Good Morning!

I started this series last month and today I am back with the next instalment.

The PLANT OF THE MONTH for March is ... PULMONARIA!

Pulmonaria (or Lungwort) is an attractive early flowering Hardy Perennial which provides eye catching colour at this time of year and will continue well into Spring. Perfect for woodland areas, flower borders and beds the clump forming perennial also provides ground cover throughout the year.
The variety I have and I am sharing photo's of below is called 'Silver Bouquet' but there are also other variations in strictly blue, pink and even white.
This plant is ideal for a first time gardener as you can pretty much leave it to itself for most of the year!

CULTIVATION 

Pulmonaria are ideally planted in either a North, East or West facing sheltered position and are happy on moist well drained soils that are chalky, clay or loam in part shade. The ultimate height and spread of this plant in approx 2-5 years is 0.5-0.5 metres.
Any tattered leaves should be removed after flowering and you can divide the plant every 3 - 5 years at this time or later in Autumn.



PROBLEMS
Pulmonaria can be prone to 'Powdery Mildew' during dry weather conditions. You can find more info on this particular problem at the top of the blog under the
'Problem Area - Plant Diseases' tab.
If your Pulmonaria is affected by this cut the plant down to ground level, feed and water,
the plant will produce new foliage later in the year.

HAPPY GROWING!
XXX

Garden Checklist ...

Good Morning!
Here's a few things that you can be getting on with in the garden over the coming week ...

1. Spring Bulbs  -If you had any leftover bulbs from last Autumn that you potted up into small pots then now is the time to find a spot for them. You could simply put them together into a decorative pot as a focal point or use them to plug any gaps in your borders!

2. Herbs - Fresh herbs are important in the garden if you like to cook or simply love the scent. Right now Garden centres have small pots of herbs at an extremely low price so now is the time to get stocked up! I recently purchased some Apple & Chocolate Mint, Hot & Spicy Oregano, Marjoram and my favourite of them all ... Lemon Thyme. 

Pot them up into pots the next size up and finish with a layer of grit.

3. Soil - If your hoping to get started on sowing direct soon then it's worth helping your soil to warm up. You can use Cloches or if you don't have any a layer of fleece, I have kept mine in place with plant stakes.

4. Pests - This may be something I mention a lot but it really is worth checking daily for pests in a Greenhouse. As you can see here some Aphids have taken a liking to one of my Fuchsia's! The easiest way to deal with this is to squish them with your fingers!

5. Re Potting - If you have permanent containers featuring Shrubs / Evergreen it's worthwhile re potting them every 2 or 3 years into fresh compost. The easiest way to do this is to scrape away the top layer of compost and ease the plant out of the container. Pot them on into a pot slightly larger if the roots have filled the previous container, not forgetting a layer of crocks at the bottom. Use John Innes no.3 or Ericaceous compost if the plant prefers acidic conditions (such as Hydrangeas, Rhododendrons). 

I also like to add a little Fish, Blood and Bone into the mix to give the plants a bit of a boost! Water well and cover the surface with a layer of Horticultural Grit to prevent weed seedlings .... plus it's a nice finishing touch!

4. Borders - This time of year is also a good time to get any borders mulched that you didn't get the chance to do in Autumn. You can use good quality garden compost or composted bark. I always like to mix in a little Blood, Fish and Bone in too to give the plants a Spring feed. 

This also gives you a chance to see if there are any gaps that could be filled with Spring flowering bulbs instead of just having bare spaces of soil next Spring! You can also remove any plants that you're not overly happy with any more which is something I will be doing after looking at the below photo lol

NOTE - Always mulch when the soil is moist, never dry.

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget you can find all the previous Checklists on the page tab above.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Wakey Wakey ...

Good Morning!

Apologies yet again for the blog being so quiet over the past couple of weeks. Due to work and undesirable weather conditions I haven't really been able to do much in the garden! We did however get a couple of days sunshine recently (although now it seems to have greyed back over) which seems to have helped wake the garden up! There will be more details on the jobs I managed to do during this brief spell of sunshine but I am saving it for this weekend's Garden Checklist.

Today I thought I'd share some snaps of how the garden is looking now, some plants are starting to wake back up and I've had a little bit of a shuffle around. 

The first and biggest change you will notice though is that there is a new addition .... 

a cold frame!

Made with some left over wood from the raised bed and a second-hand pane of glass, my Dad managed to fit it all together at the end of the raised bed. You can open the lid at different stages via the metal at the front or hold the lid back completely with some chain on warmer days. It's currently housing my Auriculas and potted Herbs, the auricula's don't like too much rain and the pots the herbs are sitting in aren't frost proof!

I've also moved the eyesore of the bins to the driveway and replaced the area with some large potted shrubs which makes the sitting area a much more pleasant place to sit! 

The Ribes in the centre is starting to form it's flowers and I can't wait for the perfume to arrive.

The various pots of plants near the raised bed have been repositioned and you will spot that the Belfast sink is still waiting to be planted up ... I have some of plants that I intend to use but they need to produce a little bit more growth before I plant them in position.

The pots next to the conservatory have been reduced and just like above I am waiting for some of the smaller ones at the front to produce more growth before I will be completely happy with how they look.

Finally the Hellebore's are producing some pretty and colourful blooms. One of the things I love about these plants is that the faded blooms look just as beautiful as the new ones!

Thanks for stopping by, I'l be back on Saturday with the next Garden Checklist!

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Problem Area - Plant Diseases ... Damping Off!

Good Morning!

Plant disease is a fungal, bacterial or viral organism which interferes with the normal growth rate of plants, producing visible symptoms that reduce economic or aesthetic quality.

The focus of today's post is a Fungal Disease and these have visible symptoms such as -
Leaves producing spots, wilting & curled leaves, dieback, enlargements (galls) and stunted / dead plants. Some fungi's produce other visible signs such as rusts, mildew & sooty moulds.

DAMPING OFF

Damping off is an extremely common problem during the upcoming weeks as gardeners start their seed sowings! Damping off can affect most seedlings and is caused by several soil-borne Fungis.

Photo from Google

SYMPTOMS

Here are a few things you can look out for ...

- Attacks young seedlings, specially those grown under glass. This is particularly common if the seedlings are in areas of high humidity and poor ventilation, along with thick amounts of sowings.

- Failure of seeds germinating.

- Seedlings collapse, often white fungal growth is visable.

PREVENTION 

Here are a few things you can do to help prevent this ...

- Ensure seed sowing compost is fresh and of a good quality. Also make sure that any seed trays or pots are cleaned before use and hasn't been used with sowings that have succumbed to damping off before.

- Sow your seeds thinly.

- Use mains water when possible to water seedlings and do not over water.

- Enusre seedlings have good ventilation to reduce humidity.

I hope you have found this helpful.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Garden Checklist ...

Good Morning!
Here's a few things that you can be getting on with in the garden over the coming week ...

1. Borders  -If your borders are showing a few gaps due to plants that haven't survived the winter, now is a good time to fill the gaps! As long as the ground isn't frozen you could fill the space with plants such as Hellebores or Snowdrops which have been divided into smaller clumps. 

2. Tomato Seedlings - If you have sown Tomato seeds and they have reached a height of around 2.5cm it's time to pot them on. When doing this make sure you hold the leaf, not the stem. Pot the seedlings into small pots such as 7.5cm and bury the whole of the stem.

3. Feed - Carrying on from the first tip mentioning borders now is also a good time to give your plants situated there a good feed.Sprinkle some Fish, Blood & Bone feed onto the ground and work into the soil. A mulch will also help improve your soil but make sure you add it when the ground is moist and not dry. 

4. Summer Flowering Clematis - Prune any Summer Flowering Clematis, cutting back to a pair of healthy buds. It will also soon be time to prune any early flowering Clematis as the best time to do this is after they have finished flowering. 

5. Roses - If you haven't done so already it's time to finish pruning roses over the start of this month. 

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget you can find all the previous Checklists on the page tab above.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Problem Area - Plant Diseases ... Rose Blackspot!

Good Morning!

Plant disease is a fungal, bacterial or viral organism which interferes with the normal growth rate of plants, producing visible symptoms that reduce economic or aesthetic quality.

The focus of today's post is a Fungal Disease and these have visible symptoms such as -
Leaves producing spots, wilting & curled leaves, dieback, enlargements (galls) and stunted / dead plants. Some fungi's produce other visible signs such as rusts, mildew & sooty moulds.

ROSE BLACKSPOT

Even to non gardeners this disease is pretty well known!
This is the most serious disease of Roses which infects the leaves and greatly affects the plant's vigour from Spring onwards. This disease freely spreads if left untreated from the diseased material to healthy leaves all through the Summer, especially in damp weather.

Photo from RHS website

SYMPTOMS

Here are a few things you can look out for ...

- As the picture shows above infected leaves often turn yellow and fall off by early Summer. This also affects the ripening of flower buds. If your plant has a serious loss of vigour this can affect the whole bush for the following year.

- Dark irregular spots may appear on the leaf stalks and stems, especially on soft growth.

PREVENTION 

Here are a few things you can do to help prevent this ...

- Remove affected material from the plant as soon as it is spotted and keep checking your plants for any signs throughout the season. All affected material on the plant and any that has fallen to the ground should be collected up and burnt right away.

- Choose Roses that are resistant varieties to plant in your garden, such as Rosa Rugosa.

- Mulching Roses and giving them a feed in Spring can be beneficial against preventing the disease.

Chemical Control can be used with products such as Rose Clear. Spray at the first sight and repeat as per the instructions throughout the season. Try to use these products when pollinators are least likely to be about, example before 8am or after 8pm.

I hope you have found this helpful.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX