Horkys Gardening Tips

Colour & Scent

Early April is the ideal time to plant the wonderful climbing
Sweet peas,they are easy to grow,                                                                                                                                                    
Flower from July to September and reward you with masses of great flower colour with a wonderful heavenly scent. Sweet pea flowers will provide you with great cut flowers for the home from early summer, the regular cutting of the flowers encourages continuous flowering until early autumn. 
When planting add organic compost, Composted farmyard manure is a good option, simple dig a small trench, add in the organic compost and plant your sweet peas six inches apart. Place some light wire or trellis for the stems to climb on and enjoy a summer filled with colour and scent.

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The Following Key Gardening jobs can be completed this week

My tips for this week

1. Blight resistant Potatoes should be planted now, Sentanta, will reward you with beautiful red skinned white fleshed potatoes that produce a floury texture ideal for steaming, chipping or baking , Sapro Axona and Sapro Mira are the two most popular blight resistant varieties ideal for organic growing. All early and main crop potatoes should be planted now

2. Cabbage F1 Minicole is an excellent summer cabbage variety that produces solid round heads of cabbage which once mature remain ready for cutting for up to two months. This is a great variety to grow as it is very slow to run to seed.

3. Summer flowering Lupins can be planted now to add colour and interest to your garden, this old cottage favourite is so easy to grow, and ideal for filling gaps in existing shrub beds and borders. Remember Lupins will flower this and every summer.

4. Lawns will benefit from a dressing of moss control followed by a dressing of Renovator 3 in 1 treatment for the lawn. Renovator greens your lawn, kills moss and weeds and creates a rich green colour without forcing growth. Apply renovator now evenly over the entire lawn area

5. Plant Duke of York Seed potatoes into potato pots using good quality organic                                            compost –  Plant The seed ptoatoes in a double layer to increase yield.                                                     Kids will love growing their own early seed potatoesnow for great tasting new potatoes in mid summer.Remember to feed your potato tubs with ONE liquid feed during may and June.

6. Remember to continue to feed your garden song birds, hang up some wild bird or peanut  feeders in quite locations in your garden. Many of our garden birds are very helpful in early summer for the control of greenfly and caterpillars. Feeding your garden
song birds now will help to retain the adults and encourage them to nest and produce their young in your garden.

7. Plant some foliage and flower colour in shrub borders or containers – Plant the lovely Forest Flame, it produces a mass of dainty white flowers followeby the rich pink and oregano foliage grow. Pieris Forest Flame is a  welcome sight in any garden and loves to grow in patio planters.

8. Arum or White trumpet Lilies can be planted now for lots of colour this and every summer.  Arum Lilies are now available for planting and are ideal to fill gaps in shrub borders and beds.Arum lilies for a dense clump of colour and are easy to grow.

9. Campanula blue star is a wonderful perennial border flower which blooms from April right up until late summer. The dainty blue flowers are produced on mass and are ideal for planting on a rockery, border or in containers for colour this and every summer.

10. The medicine plant or Aloe Vera is renowned by gardeners for its healing qualities. It produces a special medicinal sap which is used to treat Scratches, bruises, rashes or skin irritations. Simply cut the stem and rub the sap liquid onto effected areas.

11. Interested in sowing a new lawn? April is the ideal month to start a new lawn in your Garden.Use a weed killer to remove unwanted weeds, till the soil, add some preseeding supergrow fertiliser and then sow the area with green velvet dwarf lawn seed. A lawn sown now will reward you with a quality lawn by early summer.

12. Sow a selection of summer flowering plants to attract Butterflies and beneficial insects into your garden. Collections of mixed flower seeds are now available for sowing directly into your garden which when in flower will help to attract a wide range of beneficial insects into your garden  to hover up all the nasty greenfly, black flies and caterpillars