Seasonal Tips

January

Top gardening tips for January, from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)

Autumn

The Times article: Top 10 tips for the perfect Autumn Garden

July

Taking Cuttings - This is the ideal month in which to take cuttings of your plants. Start with some easy subjects such as Fuchsia, Pelargoniums, Weigelia, Hydrangea, Ceanothus and other early flowering shrubs. These do well in pots and should all root in a couple of weeks, giving you extra plants to pot up for planting next Spring.

Choose fairly pliable shoots (but not too soft) and cut these from the parent plant just above the leaf bud. Trim the stalk to just below the leaf bud and remove the lower leaves. Insert these cuttings into a peat and grit compost (50-50 is ideal) and water well. For some reason cuttings seem to root better when arranged around the edge of a small pot.

Place a polythene bag over the cuttings and secure with an elastic band. Put them in a good light are but out of direct sunlight (a shaded kitchen window sill is ideal) and check them regularly for water.

Spring and Early Summer

Composting Tips - Spring is when the garden starts to wake up and is a busy time for gardeners to prepare the garden, for both blooming flowers and scrumptious fruit and vegetables.

All of the autumn and winter garden and kitchen waste will have started to rot down to produce important nutrients for the new plants, and to help produce stronger new shoots on your existing plants. Remember to keep adding to the compost bin to keep a constant flow of compost for the forth coming months.