May 2014
GARDEN
Style
Garden Advice•Expert Tips•Exclusive Offers
New
How to plant a hanging basket
Lawn mowing tips
Delicious lamb recipe inside
The Edit A New Dawn Capital Gardens is pleased to welcome you to our new and improved website. We have worked painstakingly hard to ensure that the new site meets and exceeds the standards expected of us. Working with You From the start we were adamant that customer input would be integral to the sites development. Working closely with our customers helped us to hand pick features which would make our website more intuitive and user friendly. Simplified The main issue we faced on our old website was site navigation. To tackle this issue we invested a vast amount resources on site testing. Site testing was carried out by a selection of Capital Gardens customers and employees. This ensured that the website would be easy to navigate, user friendly and responsive. Secure At Capital Gardens security and data protection have always been an area where we have excelled and our new site is no different. Secure payment is handled by sage pay. The website is also SSL certified for added security. One Page Checkout Just like a supermarket, online shoppers are looking for the shortest route to check out. Our research shows that our customers want fewer clicks and less fuss when checking out. We have implemented a one page checkout process which is quick, easy and secure. Smart Search Our smart store search feature enables users to search by brand, weight, colour, size, fuel type etc. No more trawling through page after page just to find what you want. Quote The Capital Gardens Internet Department values its customers and their opinions. With this at the forefront of our redevelopment project we used our customers feedback and suggestions to help deliver a simple, friendly and clean cut website. My personal favourite feature on our website is the new refined and simple to use search facilities. You can now search for your favourite products via their brand, size, colour and many many more. If we supply what you're looking for, you will find it! Ecommerce Manager Exclusive Alexander Rose Range Along with our fantastic new site, Capital Gardens has joined forces with premium garden furniture brand Alexander Rose. The new partnership will see a host of Exclusive Capital Gardens furniture ranges. Exclusives ▬
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Bistro 2 Seater Set Dubai Miami 4 Seater Miami 6 Seater
Alexander Rose Dubai Lounge Set A fabulous Lounge Set which provides the perfect chill out spot for your garden. This fabulous set ensures seats for you and up to 3 of your friends. The set comes with 2 high quality rattan arm chairs which are each completed with ‘latte’ seat cushions. The rattan sofa set is finished off with a small coffee table which provides the ideal place to put snacks and drinks. RRP £1499.00 Our price £999.00
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Lawn There isMowing such a choiceTips of plants available for hanging baskets,
A simple lawn care programme will give you a lawn to be proud of, keep it in perfect condition and make friends and neighbours green with envy. The secrets of success to a great looking lawn are: ● ● ● ●
Regular and correct mowing. Feeding with a spring and summer lawn fertiliser. Treating weeds and moss. Dealing with bare patches.
Mowing The most important lawn care job for a fantastic lawn is correct and regular mowing. You need to cut the grass whenever it is growing - which is likely to be weekly or even more frequently as the weather warms up in spring. The aim should be to keep it at the same height throughout spring. For most lawns this should be about 2.5-4cm (1-1.5in) high. For lawns that take a lot of wear and tear the height is better raised to 5cm (2in). For very shaded areas, mow at a height of 7.5cm (3in). Mowing too short and, as a consequence weakening the grass, is the quickest and easiest way of allowing weeds and moss to become established and spoiling the lawn. Lawn feeding. To feed the lawn in spring, use EverGreen Cut & Feed. On very small lawns or to give a quick ‘fix’ and help bring out green in your lawn, use EverGreen Complete Soluble or EverGreen Spray & Feed.
We recommend
This spring get the best out of your garden with our carefully selected special offers. With our team of gardening experts, we have reduced the prices of these staff favourites. These fantastic prices will remain for the entire month and are limited to stock availability so visit your local Capital Gardens store today or click the links on this page to grab a bargain online.
Flower Magic 4M² Miracle-Gro Flower Magic is the without too much effort or previeasy way to grow beautiful flowers ous experience. All you’ll need to from seeds. This unique all-in-1 do is just sprinkle, water and enjoy! flower seed mix has extra MiracleGro ingredients that promise to let anyone grow beautiful summer flowers from seed guaranteed,
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Slug Killer 575g An effective solution to eradicating slugs, Growing Success Advance Slug Killer contains the naturally occurring active ingredient; ferric phosphate, a water absorbent granule favoured by slugs. Once the slug bait is consumed, slugs will cease to feed, causing them to crawl to a secluded environment to die
leaving no corpse to collect. No longer fall victim to slanderous, leaf eating slugs, with this 575g tub of rain fast Slug Pellets.
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Growmore 2.5kg Manufactured to the original 'Dig for the growing season at the Victory' formula, Vitax Growmore recommended rates. contains the three major nutrients essential for strong and healthy growth. Growmore promotes heavy crops of fruit and vegetables, balanced vigorous plants and beautiful flowers. It is the ideal fertiliser to use before laying turf or sowing grass seed. It should be applied throughout SHOP NOW
Azure Blue
Remove spent blooms from your plants two to three times a week to encourage plants to produce a succession of flowers.
Editor’s Choice These gels usually come in crystal form and can soak up over 100 times their own volume of water. However, do not let them give you a false sense of security and think you can avoid watering. Regular watering is absolutely essential.
There isto suchplant a choice of availablebasket for hanging baskets, How a plants hanging
At soil level, make three cuts, 2cm (0.75in) across, through the sides of the basket. Select your plants for the sides of the basket and to prevent damage to the roots and
There is such a large choice of plants available for hanging baskets. To start with choose your colour scheme such as tropical reds and oranges, pastel light pinks with blues or sophisticated whites and greens.
Make sure that you have all the materials easily to hand - the hanging basket frame, basket liners, compost, plants, slow release fertiliser and water retaining gel. It is a good idea to have a pot or bucket to hand to position your basket on, keeping it steady.
stems, individually wrap each in a tube of paper. From the inside of the basket, push the tube through one of the holes until the rootUse a good quality potting compost to fill ball is snug against the liner. Unwrap the your basket to about a third of the way paper and add the other plants. Firm the soil from the top of the basket. around the rootballs. Water the basket thorIt is always advisable to add one of the oughly to ensure the compost is completely many slow release fertilisers which are wet through and display the basket on a hook available. Overwatering should have no effect on the release period. Most fertilis- or hanging basket bracket. ers are ‘soluble’, so that each time you water your basket you will wash out (i.e. waste) some of it. Azure Blue Light blue semi trailing Lysimachia Aurea Goldilock
Long trails of citric gold foliage Fit your hanging basket with a good liner, our Garden centres stock a variety of liner materials and fibres. On top of this liner place a plastic liner and cut around the edges where it overlaps the basket, making sure none of the black plastic is visible. This plastic will act as a reservoir to aid water retention.
Wetting agents can be used to minimise the need for watering and avoid the risks of the soil drying out during a hot day. The gels can be added to the compost when assembling the basket or later as a top dressing. This is important as on a very hot day a basket in full bloom can require watering 3 or 4 times in order to keep the compost moist.
Bright orange flowers with a yellow centre Bright red flowers with a white star Soft pink flowers with a red eye, trailing habit
Large pure white flowers For plant news please click here
Lamb Breast with Boulangerie Potatoes
This is a wonderful Easter dish and is a must try for any meat lover. If you chat to your butcher you'll be able to get them to prepare the breast and maybe even throw in the ribs for you. Use the bones as a trivet to roast the lamb, then simmer it with some vegetables to make a fantastic stock for soup. This makes for great economical Easter treat. 1 large lamb breast 1/2 pack of mint, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tsp Red wine vinegar 400g Desiree potatoes, thinly sliced 1 finely sliced onion salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 230째C (or as hot as it'll go). Spread your lamb breast on a chopping board and trim any bits of sinew and thick pieces of fat. If you ask your butcher, he'll do that for you. Mix the chopped mint, garlic, vegetable oil and vinegar in a bowl. Season well with salt and pepper - it's seaoning the meat too. Spread the mint stuffing over one side of the lamb and roll it up. Tie securely with string. If you don't have string, I've used cocktail sticks with some success before!
Put the lamb in a roasting tin and pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, layer the potatoes and onion slices in an ovenproof dish, seasoning as you go. Pour water over the potatoes until it just reaches the top layer. After 30 minutes are up, turn the oven down to 160째C and put the potatoes in too. Cook for a further 2 hours. When the 2 hours are up, remove the lamb from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing. If the potaoes need to crisp up a little, leave them in the oven for a bit longer. You can vary the herbs in the stuffing to suit whatever herbs you happen to have, parsley and rosemary work well too. Likewise, if you'd rather use leeks instead of onions in the boulangerie potatoes, they'd be great.
Weber
£79.99
Go Anywhere BBQ
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Back by popular demand! The Go-Anywhere® Charcoal’s unique space saving design makes it simple to transport and use. Perfect for camping and the beach! The Go-Anywhere® Charcoal’s folding legs are triple-plated steel to prevent it burning the surface it stands on. They also fold over the lid to hold it in place during transport meaning that you can clean it out when you get home.
1 Townsend Yard, Highgate Village, London NW6 5JF Editor’s Contact Details s.dontoh@capitalgardens.co.uk
www.capitalgardens.co.uk