News - Page 132
Plant tulips in great drifts through the garden for your best display ever next spring. These spectacular bulbs are planted a little later to avoid tulip fire, a disfiguring fungal disease. But now it's quite safe - so stock up from the great range now on sale from our garden centre here in Lymington!
Tulips look best planted by the dozen in blocks of colour winding through your borders, so give plenty of thought to the colour scheme and effect you want...
What to do in the garden in November:
Early winter is a time for planning, and for making sure your garden is tucked up snugly for its winter rest. Here are your jobs to get on with this month:
General tasks:
- Clean nest boxes removing old nesting material which can harbour parasites. Give bird baths and feeders a good scrub too.
- Check bonfires for hibernating hedgehogs, moving established heaps to a ne...
November's plants of the month are trees, in all their bewildering variety. There's one to suit every gardener among the comprehensive range at our garden centre here in Lymington - so to help you choose, here's a selection for every situation, from containers to rolling acres.
Container gardens:
- Olive (Olea europaea) for gnarled shapes and slender, elegant grey-green leaves
- Japanese maples like 'Dissectum Atropurp...
Bring in pelargoniums for the winter and you can keep them going through into next year - a great way of saving your favourites, whether it's a particularly good scarlet, or some choice scented-leaf geraniums like 'Attar of Roses' with their dainty flowers and powerfully perfumed foliage.
Dig plants up carefully and cut back tall, leggy shoots by about half. Trim off dead flowers and any damaged growth and pull away dead leaves. Shake off surplus soil...
Grow winter salads for a supply of fresh, crunchy greens to add the taste of summer to salads and sandwiches right through the coldest winter months.
The secret of keeping your salad supply going right through even the very coldest months of the year is to make the switch from summer to winter salad mixes from October onwards.
You'll find a great selection of spicy winter baby-leaf salad mixes on the seed racks in the garde...
Plant winter tubs as soon as the summer bedding is cleared. Biennials like wallflowers are available as bare-root bundles right now in our garden centre here in Lymington, offering fantastic value: team them with cheery daffodils or tulips in matching colours for a display next spring which will take your breath away.
During winter itself there's a wide selection of plants which will give you plenty of colour to cheer you up even on the coldest days. Pa...
Grow your own horseradish for an unusual addition to your herb garden that's very easy to look after and will give you spicy roots to use in the kitchen for year after year. Peeled and grated into vinegar and a little cream, they make a real knock-your-socks off accompaniment to roast beef.
Horseradish is a rugged plant and needs firm control to stop it spreading into neighbouring beds and borders. Once you've bought your plant or root - now on sale in...
Lift dahlia tubers as soon as the first frosts have blackened their stems and store them for winter.
Dig up the fat hand-like roots carefully, making sure you don't accidentally spear them with your fork. Then brush off any excess soil and trim back the foliage to leave about 10cm of stem above the top-most tubers.
Tie a label round the stem so you don't forget which variety it is, then move them indoors and stand upside down in a tray line...
Learn more about apples at one of the many Apple Days taking place around the country.
Late autumn is the perfect time to plant an apple tree or three - you'll find an excellent selection now on sale at our garden centre here in Lymington. But choose carefully: an apple tree is a long-term investment which could provide delicious crunchy fruit not just for you, but for your kids and your grandkids too.
You'll usually need a...
October's plants of the month are conifers, possibly the most versatile, easy-going and handsome garden tree you can buy.
You'll find a conifer for every spot in the garden, from tiny dwarf pines for crevices and containers, to giant cedars with magnificently sweeping branches. They're evergreen, low-maintenance, drought tolerant and brilliantly colourful: what more could you ask?
Conifers are particularly good at providing dense shelter fr...