I am often asked what pruning should be done in autumn and the answer is “very little”. The main aim of autumn pruning is to prevent damage to tall shrubs during winter storms and wind rock. This falls into the category of Housekeeping pruning. It applies to late flowering shrubs that have produced tall, whippy stems such as Buddleja, Hydrangeas...
Providing shelter for overwintering wildlife: You will know that I am keen on encouraging wildlife in the garden and there is good news for anyone struggling to find time for all that autumn cutting and tidying. Leaving herbaceous perennials and grasses standing through the winter instead of cutting everything down to ground level provides great shelter for insects and amphibians. They...
By October it really is time to pack away your summer bedding and prepare a couple of pots of winter colour to sit beside your front door. But whereas summer planting schemes were once exclusively made up from half hardy annual plants that were simply composted in autumn, I have noticed in recent years a move to mixed planting even...
Pastel or hot colours? Try out colour schemes before committing to permanent planting. Many gardening columns will be talking about summer bedding plants as we reach the start of May and are able to plant out half hardies with confidence. I have written on this topic before and this time I am encouraging you to expand your view of what summer...
The first of my Camellias has just burst into flower and it looks like being a good year with all the Camellias that I have seen having plenty of fat flower buds. Plants such as Camellia, Rhododendron, Azalea and Acers are ‘ericaceous’ and are often described as acid-loving plants. But I garden on a neutral clay soil so why...
There are plenty of green buzzwords around in gardening at the moment such as eco, sustainable and even ‘green’ itself, although how you can have non green gardening is a bit of a mystery! I am sure that all of us would like to live our lives in a way that protects our planet but does not require sitting in...
We are usually still enjoying summer at least at the start of September but soon gardeners’ thoughts will turn to the autumn planting season. Once air temperatures drop and we have some steady rain (theoretically after a warm, dry summer!) there are a few weeks when conditions are ideal for splitting, moving and planting new perennials and shrubs. The soil...
Just because the flowers are over it is important not to ignore your spring flowering bulbs if you want another great show of flowers next year. Flowering early in the year takes more energy than the plant can produce from photosynthesis with short days and low light levels and the food stored in the bulb is...
Plant type abbreviations are simple once you understand them! The first letter(s) refer to the hardiness and the final letter refers to the lifecycle. Thus HP is a Hardy Perennial and HHB is a Half Hardy Biennial. Of course there are trees that do not withstand freezing conditions, but apart from a couple of frost hardy palms they are not...
Making compost at home The aim of mulching is twofold: to retain water in the soil by reducing evaporation and reduce weed growth by excluding light. You can mulch with a variety of materials including stones & landscape fabric, but the best is well rotted organic matter as this brings a 3rd benefit: over time worms will drag it down into...
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