Timely Advice

Jobs for the garden this week.

Spread a Little Magic

bulb magic
I’ve been sent information about an interesting new product from the de Jager Bulb Company. Their Bulb Magic liquid feed has been specially developed for bulbs, with ingredients that include nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and boron. It is fast acting, easy to use, environmentally friendly and promotes vigorous growth to produce bigger and better blooms. Used by professional growers, it is designed to establish a root system quickly, encourage strong, healthy growth and produce bigger and better blooms. Bulbs will benefit from feeding with Bulb Magic at planting, every 2/3 weeks once growth has emerged and right through until after flowering and the foliage has died back.  One litre of Bulb Magic dilutes to make up to 180 litres and costs just £9.95 (inc. VAT).

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Going Undercover

Aeonium in its winter quarters

Aeonium in its winter quarters

With the sudden onslaught of cold weather I enlisted help and got most of my tender plants into the (unheated but sheltered) conservatory for the winter.  The citrus trees got upgraded though and will spend a comfortable winter  on the kitchen windowsill where we can occasionally (and a touch smugly) pick a lemon or two.

Safe from frost

Safe from frost

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Seed Saving

Seeds for next season

Seeds for next season

I’ve been out in the garden collecting seeds that are ripe and ready to harvest.  The cornflowers sown last autumn excelled themselves, flowering from late spring, and still producing flowers now, so it is well worth propagating from them.   Then there’s  Silene ‘Blue Angel’ which was a gift from Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter and  seemingly unavailable in this country, as well as Mina lobata and the Lab Lab bean – all three have performed well and I would like to grow them again next year.  I will store them in brown paper bags to dry, then clean them and put them in packets.

Silene Blue Angel

Silene Blue Angel

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Timely Advice for August

  • Keep an eye out for blight on your potatoes and tomatoes (large brown spots on leaves and stems).  Cut and remove foliage on potatoes and harvest and use as many tomatoes as possible.
  • Sow salads for autumn and early winter use
  • Start sowing biennials and hardy annuals
  • Prune out old stems on climbing roses and tie in new growth to flower next year
  • Give lavenders a haircut – cut off flowered stems and reduce the bush to a neat mound
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Timely Advice for July

  • Dead-heading  flowering plants to keep them in flower
  • Liquid feed in the greenhouse, vegetable plot and flower garden
  • Prune sideshoots on gooseberries and redcurrants back to four leaves to encourage next year’s buds.
  • Sow parsley now for a winter crop
  • Harvest first-early potatoes
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