Sunday Gardener Ideas, Tips & Guides

Dead heading is important to get the maximum number of flowers and flowering time from a plant.

During the lockdown, there was a surge of interest in growing your own veg, and now we have a resurgence of interest driven in part by the rise in food prices. The price of basics is rising and one way to chip away at it is to grow your own. You do not need a big garden.  You can grow in containers on a patio, balcony even a window sill.  The cheapest way to grow vegetables is from seed. Seed is always cheaper than buying plants. 

As we look for sustainable solutions to reduce our carbon footpring, making rather than buying compost is a good starting point. According to the RHS in their recent greener gardening launch :

Bamboo is a popular, but you need to be sure what you buy and plant is not invasive.

It may be early in the year, but already gardening thoughts are turning to seed sowing. Some seeds, noteably Chillies, need a long growing season and are often start early in the year. The problem is leggy seedlings a common problem when germinating from seed, especially early on in the year.

We could learn from the honeybee. Researchers at UCL have evidence that honeybees increase social distancing when the hive is under threat from parasites.

Fallen autumn and winter leaves are not good for ponds and are best skimmed off and removed. .

Spring is just around the corner, an important time for the sowing of seeds and the growing of new crops of vegetables. Produce like broad beans, beetroot, garlic and shallots are planted, ready for the conditions brought by the warmer months. But what is becoming more of a worry is the rise of temperatures due to climate change and the damage this can bring. The unbearable heat can wilt the leaves of plants and they can literally be scorched and burnt in the sun. Here we give you some tips to help combat this:

Rather than cut down a fresh tree each year, more and more of us are opting to grow a Christmas tree outside in a container or in the garden to decorate each year.

Even in February, on mild days, you can make as start in the garden and cut back perennials. In fact, it’s an ideal time because the garden is waking up, and as the new growth comes through it can be hard to cut back all the old growth, without damaging the new.

Many of us  have been gripped by Bridgerton, the fabulous Netflix series. One of the reasons it is so enchanting is the fantastic sets which include marvellous flowers. The house above features throughout the series and is clad with a lovely climbing purple plant. What is it? A wisteria, a late springand early summer flowering climbing plant which is spectacular as displayed in the program. What cannot be seen from watching Netflix is that Wisteria also carries a powerful sweet scent.

Not all varieties of Agapanthus are hardy, and withstanding winter can depend on where in the UK you garden. Parts of Hampshire and Southern counties are H3 which is acceptable to many Agapanthus, a lot of the North of England is H5+.

March is the ideal time to start sowing tomatoes if you intend to grow from seed, or  for buying plug plants for growing on. Tomatoes are not hardy and will need to be kept under glass in a warm place until later in the year for planting out late May.

In August, when Thyme has finished flowering it needs to be trimmed back. This curtails its natural tendency to get leggy and keeps it in a neat shape. Don't throw away the prunings, they can be saved and used as dried herbs over winter. 

Group 1 Clematis montana  

This image was taken on 3rd January 2015, and it is genuine. The Daffodil was flowering in a sheltered border along side the Le Strange Arms Hotel,  Hunstanton in January.

At this time of year its all about looking forward and its a good time to check out the strawberry patch. If your plants have been yeilding less fruit it maybe time to think about replacing them.

Early autumn is the best time for saving seed.  Many plants, especially annuals, start shedding their seed quite early in the year from around August and the seed is evident on plants throughout autumn. The basic method of saving seed is to look for a ripe seed pod (see images) and cut it from the plant bringing inside in the warm to dry.

Snowdrops look lovely naturalised in the lawn but there comes a point when the flowers have faded and the lawn wants its first mow of the season. 

There are over 200 pages of gardening information and illustrations. To seach this web site use this function

Although the tradional time for planting Tulips is often suggested to be October, in fact you can  plant tulips from October, and the good news is that it is not too late to plant tulips in November and even into December. 

Sarah is new to gardening and E- mailed saying :

John e mailed asking for information about planning and planting a clematis Garden, and what a great idea!

The drought of 2022 had quite an impact on our gardens. We may not have such severe drought in 2023, but we are dealing with climate change, and this often means warmer and drier summers. The RHS did a survey to find out which plants had suffered the most damage in the drought. Good to know what not to plant.