Horkans Lifestyle & Garden Centre

Add colour from foliage and flowering Climbers

Flowering and foliage climbers can be planted this week in your garden, the range and choice of plants has never been better. Climbing Hydrangea is just coming into flower now and is ideal for covering walls, trellis or to cover damaged or dead plants in the borders. The beautiful flowering Clematis Boulevard with its large lilac and white flowers is a beautiful free flowering clematis that flowers from May to early Autumn and is ideal for covering a trellis or too scramble over existing trees and shrubs in the garden Click here to see our Climbers

Free flowering Wisteria is a welcome site in any garden; this fast growing climber produces its lilac flowers on mass from mid may and is ideal to cover a house or garage wall Click here to see our Wisteria plants


Mid May is an excellent time to plant a selection of foliage and flowering climbers, remember to prepare the soil well by adding some growise organic farmyard manure to the planting hole Growise Organic Farmyard Manure and feeding your new climbers with ONE liquid feed ONE liquid plant food every two weeks.

Gardening Jobs to tackle this week

1. Plant blueberries and rhubarb plants this month, soil conditions are ideal at present Click here to see our Fruit Plants Add some organic compost Click here to see our Compost to the soil before planting and feed monthly with Vitax Q4 for strong growth Click here to see our Vitax Q4.

2. Kill mares tail or horsetail weeds in patios and borders with Tree stump treatment – simply mix with water and apply o the foliage of the mares tail for a rapid kill.
   
   

3. May is the month when strawberries start to flower and set fruit, its also an ideal time to plant young strawberry plants into strawberry pots or window boxes for tasty fruit in mid summer – remember strawberries are fun to grow and will fruit this summer if planted now Click here to see our Strawberry Plants

4. Potato blight can be a problem on young potato and tomato plants especially in wet humid weather protect your plants with a dressing of traditional copper fungicide applied to the young foliage every two weeks.

5. Plant your borders and shrub beds with summer bedding plants, French marigolds, border petunias, dahlias, antirrhinums and begonias can be planted out in late may and June for a welcome splash of long-lasting colour all summer long. Remember to protect your bedding plants from slug and snail attack – I use slug clear liquid to give excellent protection from slug damage.

6. Sow all year round lettuce seed now out of doors in shallow drills, lettuce seed sown now will reward you with lots of salad lettuce in July and august. Greyhound cabbage, white Lisbon lettuce and early Nantes carrots can also be sown from seed this month Click here to see our Vegetable Seeds

7. May is the ideal time to sow a new lawn or wild meadow area. Weather conditions and soil tempetures are just right for excellent germination and strong growth. Clear the ground of wed growth with a dressing of scutch out weed killer – Scutch out will kill existing weeds with out contaminating your soil. Add some preseeding Scott’s fertiliser to the soil and finally apply green velvet lawn seed for a quality hard wearing lawn this summer Click here to see our Fertiliser

8. Plant a selection of roses in well prepared garden soil for strong colour this summer. The top red flowering rose has to be Trumpeter. It produces masses of vivid red blooms in large bunches from June to early winter. Trumpeter has excellent disease resistance, produces lovely bronze foliage and flowers its head off all summer long. Plant trumpeter in groups of five or seven to create a strong show of colour in your garden this summer Click here to see our Roses

9. Summer flowering climbers including Clematis, honey suckles, climbing roses, wisteria, flowering hydrangea and sweet peas can all be planted this month Click here to see our Climbers. All climbers enjoy well prepared garden soil – I recommend you add Super grow compost Click here to see our range of Compost to the planting hole with two handfuls of organic chicken manure before planting Click here to see our Organic Chicken Manure. Summer flowering climbers planted now will put on strong growth and many varieties will flower this summer.

10. Trees, shrubs and hedging plants are putting on strong growth during May, An application of grow more fertiliser applied now will help to promote strong growth and flowers in many garden plants. Simply sprinkle a handful of grow more out from the base of the plants. The grow more granules will be absorbed quickly and add a much needed boost to your garden plants Click here to see our Fertilisers

11. Check your fruiting gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants for Greenfly attack; green fly can cause severe damage to many fruiting plants in May and now is the ideal time to apply a dressing of bug gun. Bug gun kills unwanted garden pests without damaging the fruit or plants and is ideal for all fruiting plants.

12. Slug and snail damage is very visible at the moment, the wet start to may have encouraged a lot of damage on soft garden plants. I use Slug clear liquid to protect my garden plants, its easy to apply, invisible to pets and garden birds once applied and very effective at controlling both slug and snail infestation.

13. Apple trees have flowered well this spring which will hopefully mean a strong crop of apples later in the summer. After all the flowers have set with fruit lets feed the trees with a handful of organic chicken manure pellets Click here to view our Organic Chicken Manure Pellets and spray the trees with a dressing of Bug clear to help protect the young apples from greenfly or caterpillar attack.

14. Late may is the ideal time to plant up and stock your garden pond. There is a wide selection of garden pond plants and fish available. Add some oxygenates to your garden pond this will help to support both plant and fish life and add interest to your garden pond Click here to view our Pond Products

Join Paraic Horkan this Saturday and every Saturday morning from 9am to 10am on 96.1FM on Midwest radio for the gardening programme. Text your gardening question to 0879004141 or email your question with photo to garden@midwestradio.ie