how-to

Aerate your lawn now before winter sets in. Either use a lawn aerator or simply insert a garden fork at regular intervals and lean it back slightly to let air in. Continue to clear fallen leaves off the lawn to keep it healthy using a light rake. Set your lawn mower to a higher cut-height for winter. Prevent containers becoming waterlogged by raising them off the ground for the winter using bricks or ‘pot feet’. Encourage hungry birds into your garden by investing in bird baths and bird feeders. Our feathered friends will keep garden pest numbers down and bring joy on a bleak winter’s day.

Some Broad beans and pea varieties (such as Aquadulce Claudia and Pea ‘Douce Provence’) can be sown now for an earlier crop next year, along with spring cabbages and spinach (which might need to be covered from frosts).
Onions and garlic can also be planted now for harvesting next year. There is still time to sow some salad crops such as winter lettuce mixes and mizuna, and why not put in a row or two of radishes as they are quick to mature.

[Read more…] about September Gardening Tips by Wellie

Watering is key this month, particularly container-grown plants and border plantings not yet established. Keep Camellias and Rhododendrons well-watered now to ensure good flower bud formation next spring. Top up ponds and bird baths regularly. Stake tall or top-heavy dahlias and lilies to prevent wind and rain damage.

Regular feeding and dead heading keeps the garden looking its best until autumn, dead-head lilies for a better flower display next year. Dead-head annual bedding plants and perennials to encourage them to flower into the autumn and stop them self-seeding, but it’s a good idea to leave some to form seedheads, providing a nutritious food source for birds. [Read more…] about August Gardening Tips by Wellie

Divide congested clumps of bearded iris after flowering. Dead head bedding plants, roses and herbaceous plants to encourage more flowers. Trim evergreen hedges, including conifers. Feed dahlias and cannas every two weeks with a high potassium fertilizer, such as tomato feed. Prune early-summer flowering shrubs, such as Philadelphus, once they have finished flowering. Cut back flowered growth to a strong lower shoot and thin out up to a fifth of old, woody stems.

20th June is the longest day this year bringing extra sunlight hours (and perhaps warmer weather).

Gardens will be full of flowers and the veg gardens producing lots to harvest, but the weeds will be having a merry time as well and need to be kept in check.

[Read more…] about June Gardening Tips by Wellie

Plant out summer bedding once the risk of frost has passed. Keep an eye on the weather forecast, and protect with horticultural fleece if necessary.

Dahlia plants can be planted out at the end of the month. Stake any herbaceous plants that will flop over or be damaged by high winds. Evergreen hedges can be cut from this month, but check for nesting birds before getting the shears or hedgecutter out. [Read more…] about May Gardening Tips by Wellie

Hydrangea flowerheads left for winter protection can be cut off now. Remove old flowerheads of mophead and lace cap hydrangeas to just above a pair of buds, cut out any thin, weak stems around the base of the plant and remove one or two of the largest, oldest stems as low down as possible to the base to promote new shoots. Hydrangea serrata and quercifolia are lightly pruned, just removing old flower heads.

Hydrangea paniculate and aboresens, which flower on this year’s growth can be pruned back harder without losing this year’s flowers.
[Read more…] about April Gardening Tips by Wellie

Dead head daffodils as they fade, but allow the foliage to die down naturally.

Plant in the garden any forced bulbs that you had growing indoors such as hyacinths and daffodils so that they can add more colour to your garden next year. Feed borders with a general purpose fertiliser, but feed acid loving shrubs such as azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias with an ericaceous fertiliser.

[Read more…] about March Gardening Tips by Wellie

Bulbous and tuberous plants kept in containers over winter can get damp and rot. Pots of dahlias, agapanthus and lilies should be stacked on their sides, one on top of the other, in a cold greenhouse to stop moisture getting into the roots. When the weather improves in February or March, stand them the right way up, water well and start them growing again.

Cut back herbaceous perennials and deciduous grasses left for winter interest before new growth commences. Prune shrubs hard such as Cornus and Salix grown for winter coloured stems. Winter flowering jasmine can be pruned after it has finished flowering. Prune Wisteria and Campsis by cutting back side shoots to 2 or 3 buds. Prune late summer flowering shrubs such as Buddleja, Lavatera and Fuchsia hard. [Read more…] about February Gardening Tips by Wellie

If the weather is cold and wet, why not sit inside with a cup of tea and a slice of Christmas cake and plan what you would like to do in the garden for the rest of the year. Look at seed catalogues for ideas of what to sow. Apple and pear trees can still be pruned now, if there is no risk of frosts, by taking out any diseased, crossing or dead branches. Aim to end up with an open tree that allows light and air into it.

Prune outdoor grapevines by mid January, rising sap ‘bleeds’ from pruning cuts later in spring. Buy and start chitting early potatoes. Chitting will help to bring on a slightly earlierand heavier crop. [Read more…] about January Gardening Tips by Wellie

Clematis pruning guide

Group 1 – Spring
No pruning needed except to control the size or shape of these clematis.
If necessary, lightly prune, back to a pair of healthy buds, immediately after flowering

Tip: Early flowering clematis can become overgrown as they age. A hard pruning can rejuvenate the plant but the next seasons flowers will be lost. In early spring, cut stems back to a pair of healthy buds several inches above the ground to encourage new growth

[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – December 2021

I thought this month, instead of talking about what needs doing in the garden I would talk about petrol and using it in garden machinery.

On the 1st September unleaded fuel was changed from E5 (5 % ethanol) to E10 (10% ethanol). The reason for the change is to help tackle climate change and to reduce CO2 emissions.

Sweet peas can be sown now indoors for an early flowering next year.

Prune tall shrubs that will be hard pruned in the Spring, eg Lavatera and Buddleja, by half now to reduce wind rock. Cut down herbaceous
perennials that have finished flowering and are looking untidy.

[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – October 2021

Make the most of the warmth in the air and soil, before the temperatures drop at the beginning of Autumn. Some Broad beans and pea varieties (such as Aquadulce Claudia and Pea ‘Douce Prvence’) can be sown now for an earlier crop next year, along with spring cabbages and spinach (which might need to be covered from frosts).

Now is the time to summer prune your wisteria, which will have put on lots of wispy tendrils. Unless they are pruned twice a year, it will grow very large and soon outgrow its allotted space. Cut the wispy growth back to five or six buds from the main stem.

Once your lavender bushes have finished flowering they can be given a good hair cut to get them back into shape. This can be done by reducing the section of green growth that exists between the wood and the bottom of the flower stem. French lavender needs to be treated slightly differently, they just need to be dead headed throughout the summer. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – August 2021

Dead head plants regularly to keep them looking good and make their flower display last longer.

Don’t forget to keep watering newly planted plants, because until they have established a good root system their roots will be shallow rooted and small.

[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – July 2021

Cut lawns once a week, apply a lawn weed, feed and moss killer if not applied last month. Check that herbaceous perennials that need staking have some support otherwise they can flop over and the stems can then be damaged trying to bring them upright again.

[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – June 2021

When I wrote this column last year I talked about how we were all at home, keeping social distances and struggling to get any seeds to sow, compost or plants for our gardens. A year on, we have a little more freedom, and garden centres have been open, but even they are struggling to source stock due to covid and Brexit.

Lawns – now is the time to start looking after your lawn.

Every gardener knows, trimmed edges can make all the difference! Apply a spring lawn feed now. Any bumps and hollows on lawns can be repaired by peeling back the turf and either adding or removing soil. Sowing new lawns, or reseeding patches, can be started this month, depending on the weather.

[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips – April 2021