Garden News April 4

IDEAS FOR THE BANK HOLIDAY!

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IDEAS for a BRILLIANT bank holiday!

Grow the symbol of spring Fill a fantastic new container Make your lawn luxuriant Transform boring borders Beautify your patio Prune a perfect climber

A beautiful garden in one weekend Great holiday ideas for kids Outwit pesky slugs & snails!

Inspiration

Your

Easter action plan!

The Easter weekend is when many of us do our first ‘proper’ gardening of the year. Make it count with our plan to get your plot in shape

Good Friday: Start on the patio EASE YOURSELF INTO the weekend, with a session to perk up your patio. The patio is always the part of the garden

that’s most visible from the house, permanently on show, so anything you do to improve its appearance will make the biggest,

K eep patios semedasrtanbdy re moving w paving moss fro m 4 Garden News / April 4 2015

most immediate impact. Start with the paving.

Clear everything off it, or at least to one side to make the job easier, and get to work smartening up the paving. Sweep away fallen leaves that tend to build up in corners and put them on the compost heap or in the green waste bin. Use a weed scraper to gouge weeds and moss out of the cracks between slabs. If the slabs themselves are green and slimy, a pressure washer will blast this away very effectively and make the job much quicker, but a stiff brush and a patio cleaner such as Green Off works too. The other thing to watch with pressure washing is that you don’t blast loose pointing away. Do the same with decking, which can get especially slimy after a wet winter.

When it’s clean and dry, put

Scrub decking to keep it free of slimy algae

furniture and barbecues back in position. Climbers around the edges of your patio may need a prune, either to tidy rampant growth, or to encourage better flowers this summer, so do that next (see the panel on the right for how to prune the most popular kinds).

Three ideas for new containers So long as you can make drainage holes in the bo om, pre y much anything can be pressed into service

GAP Photos

Honeysuckles only need pruning to keep them within bounds

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Put a row of painted tin cans down the centre of your patio table, or line your windowsills with them. You can leave them to rust for a natural finish or paint them different colours with spray paint. Fill with small bulbs or individual bedding plants such as primroses.

If you’re bored of your plain terracota pots, mosaic them with broken tiles. Pick cheap tiles up from DIY stores and use mosaic adhesive glue to stick them on before grouting.

Wear safety goggles when you break the tiles into pieces.

GAP Photos

Garden World Images

GAP Photos

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Line wicker baskets with a piece of plastic before you put the compost in, to help the basket last longer. A cut-up compost bag will do the trick. This also works with wooden containers such as old wine boxes and crates. Great for rustic-looking displays!

Got time spare?

If you’ve done all that and still have time and energy, here are some more ideas for patio perfection: ● Re-point paving gaps if your pointing is old and has worked loose. ● Level and re-cement any loose or wobbly paving slabs. ● Give decking a fresh coat of wood stain. ● If you have gravel, make sure it’s free of weeds and topped up so any fabric membrane below doesn’t show through. ● Remove a few slabs to make planting pockets, perhaps to grow a climber against the house wall or low-growing aromatic herbs among the paving such as chamomile or thyme.

If your patio has borders around it, have a look at those. Pull out any weeds and cut back any dead stems still remaining from winter.

Then it’s time to titivate! Adding just a few pots with fresh spring bedding or beautiful bulbs will go a long way to turn a drab patio into a delightful one. New pots needn’t

Spring pruning climbers

cost a fortune – look for offers in the garden centre or give cheap, not-that-attractive containers a make-over with paint or a decorative covering. Recycled containers also bring the cost down and there are plenty of deals to be had on the plants to put in them.

First check that there aren’t any birds building nests in your climber – if there are, it will have to wait until their youngsters have gone. If it’s bird-free, you can prune these now: Clematis, winter-flowering kinds such as C. cirrhosa Just give them a light trim after they’ve flowered, if they need a tidy.

Clematis, Early Large Flowered kinds such as ‘Nelly Moser’ and ‘Mrs Cholmondeley’ Lightly prune these from the top downwards, cutting back to a bud.

Clematis, Late Large

Flowered kinds such as ‘Perle d’Azur’ Prune these hard back, cutting each stem right back to just two pairs of buds from the bottom.

Climbing roses Prune main shoots now to keep them within their area and reduce side shoots by two thirds.

Honeysuckles Trim now, if necessary, to keep them in their allotted space.

Ivy Trim now, either to tidy stray shoots or keep them to size.

Passion flower Lightly prune now, just to keep it in its space or to tidy it up.

Wait to prune these: Akebia Wait until after it has flowered and then tidy stray shoots and reduce its overall size if you need to.

Jasmine Wait until after flowering then thin out old or overcrowded shoots if you need to keep it in check.

Wisteria Should be about to spring into growth now, so leave it until summer when you should shorten any whippy shoots to leave four to six leaves on each one.

Don’t prune jasmine until it has flowered

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Passion flowers can be lightly pruned now

Cut back clematis ‘Nelly Moser’ now

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EN IN THE FLOWER GARD

Plant summer fowering bulbs They’ll reward you with several months of wonderful flowers

F

OR A SPECTACULAR display in your garden this summer, try planting a selection of summer fowering bulbs. Apart from their beautiful fowers, some are also scented and have attractive foliage. They are ideal for planting in borders to fll gaps between herbaceous perennials or shrubs for some extra summer interest.

Most can also be grown in containers for use on a patio or around the garden. And, of course, many summer fowering bulbs also make excellent cut fowers, so consider planting a row in the veg garden to pick during the summer.

The majority of summer fowering bulbs aren’t hardy and need to be planted each year from now through until the end of April.

Those grown in large containers can be protected over winter in a frost-free greenhouse or shed.

At this time of the year you will fnd a good selection in garden centres such as lilies, begonias, hymenocallis, Crinum powellii, calla, gladioli and hedychium to choose from. The bulbs, corms or tubers should be frm and have no visible signs or damage or rot anywhere on them.

Plant them in the garden or in large pots using a trowel and, as a general guide, plant at two to three times their depth.

22 Garden News / April 4 2015

3 summer flowering bulbs to grow

Lilies

Gladioli

Lilies are colourful and are suitable Perfect for creating pockets of tall for borders or containers. Their flowers in borders from midheight varies from 45cm (18in) up summer or for growing as cut to 1.5m (5ft) and some have richlyflowers. Plant corms 10cm (4in) scented flowers. Many are hardy deep and stagger over several weeks and can be left in the garden where to extend the flowering season. they will multiply and form a Corms will need lifting before winter. clump. Plant bulbs from October Also consider species such as to April. Good drainage is essential.

G. murielae and G. Byzantinus.

Zantedeschia (calla lily) Very exotic looking plants with brightly coloured spathe-like flowers and many also have spo ed leaves. Varieties such as ‘Black Magic’, ‘Mango’ and ‘Cameleon’ are readily available for planting now. Plant in pots or the garden where the soil is damp and protect rhizomes in winter.