Miscanthus Sinensis KascadeNow that new shoots are appearing on the deciduous varieties, I have been busy cutting back all of last season’s dead growth with a pair of secateurs, carefully avoiding as many of the fresh green leaf clumps as possible. The odd new shoot does get cut off occasionally, but the clumps are all robust enough to produce plenty more! My Miscanthus ‘Cosmopolitan’ is so robust that it has broken out of the back garden by growing under the wooden fence and is beginning to colonise a shady part of the front garden. Once I have cut this part down, I will be able to dig out the escapee to keep it under control! For now, last year’s tall growths provide welcome perches for the birds as they come and go from their feeding stations around the back garden; old growth from perennials and grasses is also a useful nesting material for later in the spring. A smaller and more manageable Miscanthus is a favourite of mine - M. ‘Morning Light’. This elegant grass has upright growth of pale green and white, narrow leaves making a focal point in our green and white borders. It is late flowering, often not producing the purple ‘feather duster’ flowers until November, after which the leaves bleach out to straw colours and stay in a tidy clump through the winter ready to be removed the following spring.

Molinia SkyracerOur open front garden is more exposed and is home to a spectacular clump of Molinia ‘Skyracer’ – an incredible grass that dies back to nothing in the winter. The plants literally race towards the sky from late spring to flowering time in the summer, when the wiry stems of up to 210cm, hold deep purplish red flower spikes before the whole plant assumes autumn tints of golden yellow. The plant collapses in a heap after all of the growing efforts through the year and the growth can be picked up and removed to the compost heap – no pruning required!

Stipa gigantea has the common name of Golden Oats and is a beautiful evergreen grass to grow in sun and well drained soil. It does not seed around like the annual oat grasses, but makes a large clump of mounding, needle-like leaves that our cat, Thomasina likes to jump under when she is watching us gardening! The flowers are typical ‘oats’ and appear through the summer on sturdy stems, bleaching out from reddish brown to the golden colour that gives the plant it’s name. I do not cut the evergreen grasses back, but simply ‘groom’ the dead from them with a rake or my hands, wearing a strong pair of gloves!  

Happy Gardening!

Mr McGregor

For now, Mrs McGregor and I are still enjoying our home grown winter vegetables as well as the sprouting broccoli which is now producing plenty of spears that can be cut and thrown into a steamer until tender – delicious! The thought of another season of tasty, home grown vegetables and all the ways to use them, spurs me on to keep digging, raking, sowing and weeding through the year. 

Much of the garden is still a mass of brown twigs and jumbled protective growth that I have left on the plants in case of hard weather. It is now time to prune my Clematis back to a few inches from the ground; each stem to a pair of healthy buds that are beginning to swell ready to grow away and produce the frame for beautiful flowers later in the summer.  We have a small pine tree in a corner of the garden and one of the Clematis scrambles through it to provide extra interest. I enjoy pruning the Clematis back and pulling with all my strength to bring down last year’s growth from the tree so that it can be chopped up and added to the compost heap! Sadly the tree will shortly become too tall, too close to the house, so we will take it down later this summer and the Clematis will have to content itself with the garden fence behind in subsequent years!

I planted lots more spring bulbs last autumn and the Daffodils are beginning to push through the soil and grow at an alarmingly fast rate. My Crocus have not made a good display – just a few rich orange and black flowers but many have not appeared at all. I think the problem may be mice or voles and our cat is now too old and well fed to be motivated to help out with pest control, so the culprits would appear to have got away with it for now! 

You may remember that there was much excitement in the McGregor household when the early Daffodils ‘Rinjveld’s Early Sensation’ flowered at the end of November. They have not produced many flowers this year and are somewhat buried under the Box balls in one border. I think they are congested, too dry and need a bit more light; the leaves are very healthy and copious but no flower buds. I will make sure that I lift the clumps and divide them before the leaves die back, so that they can be replanted around the garden in different spots to light up the winter borders once again.

Firstly, I will prune the bush roses in Mrs McGregor’s cutting garden by tidying up the growth back to healthy leaf buds. This usually results in taking about a third of the growth off each branch, using a sloping cut away from an outward facing bud. Some of the plants were rocked by the strong gales that we have had, so I had to straighten them up and firm down the soil with my heel! Once the area below the plants has been weeded, I will apply well rotted horse manure from a local riding stable, being careful not to touch the stems and scorch them.  Sometimes, as the plants grow away through the spring, the young leaves look a bit yellow due to cold or wet weather. I always keep a feed with iron handy for a ‘quick fix’ of nutrients to put this to rights! Maxicrop with iron is my favourite. Top Rose is a very good granular feed that I apply around the base of each plant in late spring and again in late summer or early autumn to keep the nutrient levels up in the soil. We have found that by keeping our roses well fed and watered, they are not attacked as much by disease or greenfly.

We have a beautiful old rambling rose ‘Albertine’ on the shady part of the house and it always performs well at midsummer, when it is smothered in soft pink blooms with a beautiful scent. When we moved into the house, it had been badly neglected and I pruned it so hard that it looked like a hat stand! The following year it grew away and produced vigorous growths that I was able to tie horizontally to the wire supports. Now all it needs is a tidy up in the spring and some of the old growths removed after flowering if the plant becomes congested. Rambling roses flower on the previous year’s growth so prune after flowering. Tackling my climbing ‘Iceberg’ rose, which repeat flowers through the summer is a different game. I start off by removing any weak growths now and shortening back growths that I am going to tie in, by one third. All that is needed through the summer is a bit of dead heading and watering if the weather gets dry. The white flowers of ‘Iceberg’ are a great backdrop for the deep blue Clematis that grows through it. Although it is a bit early, I have pruned this back to healthy buds about 30cms from the ground. It seems brutal because there is new growth further up the stems, but hard pruning now will reward us with copious amounts of flower later in the summer!

Some of my fellow allotment holders sow broad beans in autumn, but I wait until early March because I don’t like the plants sitting in cold, wet soil through the winter. My early spring sowings all but catch up with the autumn ones as long as the mice leave them alone!

This week I have been to my local garden centre to peruse their selection of seed potatoes. Last year, by storing our second earlies ‘Estima’ and main crop ‘Sarpo Mira’ the crop lasted us until Christmas. As well as these two later varieties, I also grew ‘Arran Pilot’ and ‘International Kidney’ (also known as ‘Jersey Royals’) as earlies, which we used from the ground as required. I have plenty of room again this year and although cheap to buy in the shops, potatoes are a low maintenance crop once they are planted and not fussy about soil. They always seem to taste so much better dug straight from the ground!  I will return to buy my potato ‘seed’ as soon as I have made my decision on varieties, before the popular ones sell out!

My next job is to start saving egg boxes so that the seed potatoes can be put into them for ‘chitting’ at the end of February.

Cavalo Nero plantsI have planned my crop rotation for the coming year and have made a cropping plan, which I first did last year. Having a record of what was planted and when has been very useful to look back on and hopefully rectify any failures! I must learn to be more patient in the spring once the ground is dug over and wait for the soil to warm up before I sow lots of seed. Sowing too early can be an expensive mistake and very demoralising when the germination is poor or non -existent!

As well as planning for this seasons bumper crops, we are still using vegetables that were planted last year, including Purple Sprouting broccoli, which will crop from now until May if the spears are cut regularly. The parsnips, which were so promising early on, are suffering with canker; I think due to the wet, cold soil so I will make it a matter of urgency to lift these now and freeze the surplus. Mrs McGregor cuts them into batons and blanches them before coating them in flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs.  They are great with any main meal roasted straight from the freezer! My leeks, although small, have been very tasty and there are still plenty for use as we need them, along with the last of the sprouts and my Black Kale (Cavolo Nero) which I will certainly grow again for its sweet flavour!

Happy Gardening!

Mr McGregor 

Sheds have a long and noble history but in recent years have been hitting the headlines as people realise they can be used for far more than merely storing tools. A new breed of architect has also meant that the basic design has been invigorated - a small shed which once only housed lawnmowers and pots can now be insulated from the cold, fitted with its own electrics, and can link you to anywhere in the world. You could even live in them... Here are some examples of creative uses of sheds to inspire you.

Plankbridge specialise in building shepherd's huts for all sorts of uses from garden offices to B&B accommodation. They are currently building a hut for the 2012 Chelsea Flower Show Artisan Garden designed by Gold Medal-winners Adam and Jon from Woolcott and Smith which is believed to be the show's first ever shepherd's hut. The garden will feature "a tranquil wildflower garden, inspired by the beautiful Dorset countryside immortalised by Thomas Hardy in his novel ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. The shepherd's hut will be placed on the banks of a stream in a water meadow.

George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion and Major Barbara in a hut built in 1906 by Stawson’s. This had a revolving base which used castors on a circular track. The hut, at his home in Shaw’s Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, could thus be moved to improve the light or change the view (or indeed just for a bit of exercise). Spectacularly high-tech for its time, it also had an electric heater and a telephone connection to the house as well as an alarm clock to alert the Nobel Prize winner to lunchtime. Shaw particularly enjoyed the isolation since it allowed the staff at the house to honestly tell callers that 'Mr Shaw is out' to prevent interruptions and he also called it ‘London’ for the same reasons (“I’m sorry Sir, Mr Shaw is in London”). Nancy Astor apparently once banged on the door, saying: "Come out of there, you old fool. You've written enough nonsense in your life.” 

Sheds need not be on the ground. Designed and built by Kent Portman, who sadly died last year, this is a 140 square feet tree house garden office in a 100 year-old Pecan tree. It features air conditioning, heating and a skylight. Kent used it as a massage therapy studio as well as a place to meditate.

Nor do sheds have to be outside. Here are the offices of Martin van der Linden’s architectural practise in Tokyo which have a shed theme throughout. “For our new office we took a house in a residential street in the centre of Tokyo,” says Martin. “We wanted to make sure that we would not end up with a feeling of being in ‘an office’. We wanted to create a work environment that expresses what we do, we are architects, we’re creative, unusual and imaginative.”

Whatever you do with your shed, remember that a shed is me space: decorate it how you like, listen to your music as loud as you like, wear whatever you like.

If you’re interested in discovering alternative ways to use an outbuilding and are searching for a new structure to place outside, why not take a look at our range of garden buildings at Notcutts?

Alex Johnson’s blog Shedworking.co.uk and book Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution provides his readers with insightful information and inspirational images of how our typical garden sheds can be transformed into art, and more than just a practical space to house gardening tools.

Gardening is a way of experiencing nature’s seasons and the life cycles of plants and flowers. A well planned garden can attract wildlife to it and is a link between us and the natural world that surrounds us. A wildlife friendly garden can show some of the activity that usually goes on away from people’s eyes.

There are several things that you can do to attract wildlife into your garden. Five ideas include:

1) Garden Birds: The most obvious form of wildlife to see in a garden is birds, flying from branch to branch in and around all day long. If you sit down and look a while, you can see birds sitting on the fence or hopping around, but if you want to keep them in the garden you need to provide them with a home and supply fresh food and clean water. A small bag of bird seed and a lid with water is a basic and affordable way of attracting birds, once they know it is on offer. It’s a good idea to try different food types to attract many different species and is a fantastic way of experimenting to find out what food source is preferred.

2) A Pond: If you want to attract frogs, newts, toads and dragonflies you might consider a pond. There are preformed liners of all shapes and sizes and are sure to suit any garden. Once you have dug the hole and placed the preformed liner, holding it in place with rocks, fill it with water. I have always found that having a few plants around the circumference of the pond will soften the edges. The pond will need a selection of oxygenating plants from your local aquatic plant seller. Watching frogs and newts in their aquatic world gives me hours of pleasure and I’m sure you will enjoy having a pond in your garden as much as I do.

3) Pollen Rich Flowers:  A good selection of flowering plants will bring in pollinators like bees, hover flies, wasps, moths and butterflies. The flowers in a garden need to be flowering for as long a time as possible and if staggered, the flowers will provide wildlife with a rich nectar diet. I have found that having flying insects present in the garden here, has tempted in the local bats at night.

4) Untidy Areas: Another tip is to have some wildlife friendly areas. A log pile or a mound of stones can help provide moist habitats for creatures that need somewhere damp to live. A patch of nettles is like nirvana to certain specimens of butterfly as they lay their eggs on them. I have always found that an untidy patch of the garden can be an asset to local wildlife.

5) Wildflower Meadow: Growing wildflowers in one section of your garden will attract pollinating insects in from miles away. We have a wildflower area that has had no soil improvement and is left pretty much to grow itself. The flowers are left to form seed heads which propagate the next year’s flowers. Any shy wildlife can hide away in that area. Year on year the flowers will change as different ones germinate, generating a different aesthetic every year it grows.

Written by Snappy Croc on behalf of Notcutts.

Edible landscaping is not new – pioneers started growing edible borders in the 1970s, but it’s becoming part of many gardens now, as people start to think about how they can balance beauty and budget! Its popularity comes from the way it provides three things: an attractive appearance, a range of edibles and a low maintenance system of gardening.

The backbone of an edible landscape is much like that of any other border, the focus needs to be on colour and form – so whether you choose annuals like mountain spinach or perennials like roses from which you can make rose petal jelly and rose hip syrup, it’s important that the landscape ‘hinges’ around the attractiveness of the edibles. Some ideas to make the look work are:

Edible climbers and ramblers

Instead of sweet peas, choose an achocha vine (cut the little horned fruit when they are thumb length and slice them on pizzas or in green salad) or runner beans with pink flowers.

Perennials

One of my favourites is the Mahonia, also known as the Oregon Grape, and once again this is a plant that gives winter interest with the opportunity to harvest fruit. The huge yellow flowers, well protected by spiky leaves, give way to small black grape-like fruit that is tart and inedible when fresh but gives a wonderful piquant flavour to jellies when cooked and is an ingredient often used in wine making to add an astringent clarity of taste to white wines.

Ground cover

Gaultheria is a pretty little ground cover plant with fascinating winter colour and the variety procumbens has the common name wintergreen for its value as a winter food. It has a minty, astringent taste which is found in some chewing gums and can be used either to make a tea with the dried berries or leaves, or by freezing the berries and adding them to less exciting summer fruits to give flavour to jams and jellies. They work particularly well with apples.

A feature of edible landscaping that mustn’t be overlooked is that you have to rotate crop plants, because if you put something from the same family in where you’ve just taken a similar plant out because it’s finished producing, you run the risk of encouraging pests and diseases. Using a simple crop rotation for annuals deals with that problem and there’s usually something pretty and edible just waiting to go in the ground like ornamental cabbages to follow bush beans, or lovely purple podded peas to take the place of handsome golden chard.

The Allotment Blogger is a keen gardener and vegetable grower who has her own blog at http://www.gardening-tools-direct.co.uk and has written a book about her horticultural adventures called Minding My Peas and Cucumbers: Quirky Tales of Allotment Life.

Bringing Colour to your Garden during Spring

The trees and large shrubs above will form the backbone of your container garden and now that your backbone is in place you need to add some colour. This is extremely easy to do and keep going throughout the year starting with spring flowering bulbs and corms then moving onto summer bedding plants then autumn and winter colour with perennials.

I have a number of pots filled with spring flowering bulbs/corms which flower year after year with not much effort at all. There are many different spring flowering bulbs/corms available which vary in size from the tiny snowdrop to the larger daffodils and tulips so it is really just a matter of taste. You can choose to either plant one type of bulb per pot or mix them up; my preferred choice.

Different bulbs flower at different times throughout the season starting with snowdrops in January, through to Crocus in February and March and Daffodils in April then Tulips. There are also many other types of bulbs which flower at different times so you will always have something in flower from January through to May/June.

When buying your bulbs look for large, firm bulbs and always buy from a reputable source.

The first step is as above, getting the compost right, the same mixture works for me giving plenty of goodness for the bulbs to thrive. Place a layer of crocks in the bottom of the pot to aid drainage then add a deep layer of compost and begin layering your bulbs/corms.

The key to success with bulbs is to plant them three times the depth of the bulb; so if your daffodil bulb is 5cm long then you need to plant in compost at least 15cm deep ensuring the tops are well covered. Also ensure you have the bulb the correct way up. With most bulbs the bottom is flat and has small roots and the tops are pointy. Corms can be more difficult but the tops tend to be concave.

If you are planting a mixed pot then start with a layer of your biggest bulb, usually daffodils or tulips then work your way up the pot finishing with the smallest bulb in the top layer of compost.

When the bulbs have finished flowering do not cut down the growth. Sprinkle a couple of handfuls of blood, fish and bone meal onto the surface and water well. Move the pots to another part of the garden and just leave them until the following spring when they can be brought out to start all over again.

Every few years it is worth emptying the pots and allowing the bulbs to dry out, throw away any bulbs which are soft or rotted. In the autumn replant and add new bulbs to reinvigorate the display

Summer colour with Bedding Plants

Bedding plants are traditionally used during the summer months to temporarily fill gaps in beds and borders but they are also ideal for use in pots and are available in garden centres during late April/May.

The choice of bedding plants is vast so you will easily find something that you like based on a colour theme or the size or shape of plant.

Most bedding plants are Half Hardy Annuals which mean that they cannot survive cold, frosty conditions so think about this when buying your plants; some parts of the UK have frost well into May so check the weather forecast before planting out. You can always plant up your pots and leave them in a greenhouse until the risk of frost has passed.

Planting and caring for your bedding plants

• I use a general purpose compost with the addition of a slow release fertiliser to feed throughout the summer and water retaining granules to help cut down on watering
• Fill your container with the compost leaving a gap at the top to allow for watering and mulching
• Plant the bedding plants into the compost leaving a small gap between each plant, not much space is needed as they will look better knitted together
• You can use different plants in the same pot to make a nice display. Different heights look good; use the taller plants at the back of the pot working down to the smaller and trailing plants at the front 
• Cover the surface of the compost with a mulch of grit or slate to keep moisture in and weeds out
• Water well and keep well watered throughout the summer
• Remove spent flower heads (deadhead) regularly to encourage new flowers
• Once all the plants have finished flowering and the autumn approaches it is time to dispose of them, don’t waste them though, add them to the compost heap or add them to your green recycle bin

Using bedding plants in hanging baskets

• Hanging baskets are useful for adding a different dimension to your display, fix brackets to fences and walls to hang the baskets around the garden
• Treat hanging baskets like any other container but bear in mind that they will dry out a lot quicker than larger pots so will need additional watering and feeding

Autumn and Winter Interest using Containers

Dahlias are my favourite autumn flowering plant and they can do just as well in containers as they can in the ground bring much needed colour to your garden at this time of year. Other good autumn plants include Asters, Crocosmia, Echinacea and Rudbeckia and they will all do well in pots if cared for properly.

Using scented plants in containers means that you can position next to pathways or doors to make the most of the heady aromas, an ideal plant for this is Sarcococca confusa (sweet box), or use Lonicera × purpusii 'Winter Beauty' (winter honeysuckle) grown up an obelisk (add some fairy lights at Christmas time).

Adding hardy herbs such as Rosemary and Bay to your autumn pots will add extra interest and, if left by the kitchen door, will come in handy in the kitchen or why not plant small holly bushes in pots and place them either side of the front door for a seasonal display during Christmas, again, the addition of fairy lights will finish off the display.
This is just a few ideas for autumn and winter interest; if you see something you like growing in a garden, try it in a pot and see what happens!

Prepare the pots in the same way as you would for trees or shrubs and plant individually or in groups. Add a few small trailing Ivy plants around the base of the larger plants for added interest.

The compost will probably need replacing after a couple of years or the plants may need dividing but if you do this they should keep going for years.

Growing Vegetables in Containers

Not everyone has the room to grow vegetables at home so growing them in containers is an ideal solution. Any container will do from a nice terracotta pot, a plastic plant pot, odd tins or even thick plastic bags.

Just remember to put holes in the container to allow water to drain away easily and to add a layer of crocks in the bottom to that the soil doesn’t get waterlogged.

Prepare the compost mix using general purpose compost with plenty of well rotted garden manure to improve the structure.

Start with something easy such as carrots or onions or a salad crop such as lettuce and spring onions or even a few herbs such as basil and parsley. Experiment with different crops to see what works for you.

You can either sow seed onto the surface of the compost or buy plug plants. Seeds will need to be thinned out and may rot off but plug plants are more expensive.

Keep the containers well watered and feed throughout the growing season. Once the crop has finished you can use the pot for something else or put it to one side and use again the following season as long as additional new compost and manure is added.

Article produced by Linda Peppin of The Gardening Register

All photographs © The Gardening Register

I am a big lover of growing plants in containers and as I look out of my office window I must say that I think my garden looks so much better for having the container grown plants.

On my bottom patio I am growing a cherry tree (Prunus avium Stella) which is in its third year and looking great and Camellia x Williamsii Debbie which is around 12 years old. I also have a rose, two containers which have clematis growing up small obelisks, a low pot containing Dianthus amurensis and another with Astilbe Fanal (× arendsii).

Finally on that patio is a small water feature which I built last year and which gives me the opportunity to grow different types of plants such as Nymphaea pygmaea rubra, Lobelia Cardinalis, Cyperus eragrostis and Myosotis Scorpioides.

On my north facing patio I grow a number of trees including Acer Orange Dream which is bright green in summer and has lovely autumn colours, Witch Hazel (Hamamelis ‘Arnold Promise’) with its scented flowers in Spring, Cercidiphyllum japonicum or the Katsura Tree with is scent of candy floss in the autumn and finally Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon' one of the best trees for autumn colour.

All of these trees would soon outgrow my small garden so growing them in containers means I have the benefit of these amazing trees without the worry.

The Benefits of Growing in Containers

•    It makes it possible to grow much larger plants than you may be able to in your own garden as the pots keep the plants to a manageable size
•    It makes it possible to grow plants which require a different soil to that in your garden. If you can’t grown azaleas or camellias in your garden then filling pots with ericaceous compost means you can enjoy these lovely plants
•    It makes it possible to grow large plants nearer to the house to take advantage of highly scented flowers or for easy picking of vegetables or herbs
•    You can take advantage of seasonal colour and interest by moving the pots around or hiding some away when they colour or interest fades and bringing others out when they are at their best

How to Grow Trees and Large Shrubs in Containers

The main point to note about growing large trees or shrubs is containers is that they will not be able to find food or water for themselves so to keep them going for years it is worth spending some time on the preparation and planting process. Once established they will mainly look after themselves needing just an annual care regime.

As you can see by the specimens I am growing there is no restriction on what you can grow in a pot, I’m not guaranteeing that every tree and shrub will thrive in these restricted conditions but I always say if you like the plant then give it a go. I tend to buy small sized, young plants so that I don’t waste too much money if it doesn’t like it.

Choosing the right pot

•   I tend to buy “plastic” pots for the larger trees and shrubs for a few reasons; they are lighter and therefore easier to move around, they keep the soil moist for longer and they tend not to break up as quickly
•   There are lots of different types of “plastic” pots available from DIY stores and garden centres and many of them look like the real thing, particularly after they’ve weathered for a couple of years

Which planting medium?

•   A lot of articles you will read about planting in containers will say to use a loam-based compost such as John Innes No 3 but I tend to use a general purpose compost and add to it
•   Take 3 parts general purpose compost, one part grit or vermiculite to open it up and help with drainage and 1 part well rotted farmyard manure also add a handful of pelleted chicken manure and a handful of blood, fish and bone meal, this should be enough to keep the plant going through the season
•   If you are planting an acid lover such as azalea or camellia use ericaceous compost with vermiculite and a specialist ericaceous fertiliser

Planting up your pot

•   Before you begin you should place your new plant in a bucket of water for at least an hour to ensure the rootball is soaked through
•   Next is to position the pot in its final position as it will be very heavy when its full, also place the pot on pot-feet to raise it off the floor; this will help with drainage
•   To help keep drainage holes clear, aid drainage and help weigh down the pot a bit place broken up terracotta pots, bricks or large stones to the base of the pot
•   You want to aim to have the surface of the rootball at the same level it was in the original pot and a couple of inches below the rim of the pot so add enough compost to the pot to bring the rootball up to that level and firm well
•   If the rootball is compacted, gently tease out some of the roots to help it establish then place the plant onto the firmed compost
•   If you are planting a bare-rooted plant spread the roots out evenly across the firmed compost
•   Add more compost around the sides of the rootball ensuring the compost is pushed well into the rootball or roots and firmed down well
•   Once the plant’s rootball is totally covered give the whole pot a good watering; bring the water up to the rim of the pot and allow it to drain down into the compost until the water runs out of the bottom of the pot; use rainwater for your ericaceous plants
•   Next you should add a good thick layer of mulch to the surface of the compost, this can be manure, gravel or bark and will help keep weeds down and keep moisture in the compost

Ongoing care and maintenance

•   Keep the pot well watered for the rest of the season, this may mean watering twice a day during particularly hot spells; water until it runs out of the bottom of the pot
•  In the second and subsequent autumns sprinkle a handful of blood, fish and bone meal onto the surface of the compost, water in and cover with another thick layer of mulch
•  Most trees and large shrubs will not require pruning but if it is getting too big or out of shape then prune to shape in the Spring
•  Every 3 to 5 years remove the plant from the pot, gently tease out the roots and loosen the compost, trim any large roots and repot into fresh compost mix either into the same pot or a bigger pot

In the next instalment, learn more about planting for the seasons, as well as growing vegetables in containers.

Article produced by Linda Peppin of The Gardening Register

All photographs © The Gardening Register

As well as garden waste, which needs to be chopped into small lengths if it is in any way ‘woody’, we add all of our vegetable peelings from the kitchen, shredded papers and some of the ash from the wood burner. Chicken manure and wood shavings are also added when I clean out my bantams and saw dust from cutting up logs rots down really well. 

This year, I am going to site a couple more water butts to save carrying water from our one outdoor tap to the outlying areas of the garden! The garden shed roof is a good place to start, so I need to put up some guttering to channel the rain off that. I may tap into one of the down pipes from the house roof in the front garden as well.

When the weather has been so wet, there seems little point thinking about saving water, but there is usually a dry spell at some point in the spring or summer and planted containers and hanging baskets don’t take long to dry out once they are established!

We have a very dry border near to the house in the back garden and planted a climbing Honeysuckle (Lonicera) there with an ornamental grape vine. Neither thrived to begin with; the Honeysuckle was always getting mildew and bad attacks of aphid, a sure sign that the plant was under stress. We decided to lay some leaky pipe irrigation around the base of the plants and during dry weather, crack the outdoor tap and leave it on for a few hours a couple of times a week. The improvement in the plants’ health has been amazing and last summer, the Honeysuckle was full of golden yellow flowers that contrasted beautifully with the claret purple leaves of the grape vine. Once I have tidied the Border Cranesbills (Geranium) that grow under the climbers, I will top dress the area with pelleted chicken manure and mulch to save as much valuable moisture as I can!

Mr McGregor