Gardening tips. Just before you shut your doors on your Gardens for the winter!!

[Gardenman]

Just when you think you can forget about your garden, up pops this annoying man to tell you there's more to do!!!

And I'm afraid, there's a lot to do if you want a lovely garden for spring. So grab a cup or glass of something & start some useful bed time reading. Are we comfortable? Then I shall begin :-)

1. I'll start with the boring stuff first & try & keep your interest up as we go along. LEAVES! Rake them off your lawns, borders, patios & paths. They will ruin your lawns with their toxins ( trees take out the toxins in our air & dump them around their roots to prevent predator plants!) Clever huh? Obviously they make your patios & paths slippery

too. Scarily ( rake) your lawns & apply a potassium feed to look after them over winter. As it is still mild, give your lawn a mow, but only to 1 1/2 inches to protect the roots.

2. Planting & trans planting ( not what you're thinking!!) good time to plant out Hellebores, Christmas roses, lovely washed out flowers to give muted colour in winter. For existing Hellebores, cut away dead dead & excessive leaves to allow the flowers to come through. Plant our Cyclamen in borders & pots to give some lovely bright colour through winter. Dead head them all the way to the base of the stem & clear away dead leaves to prevent mould & give them a feed to maintain flowering. Wallflowers. Really?? A lot of effort for very little reward! But please your Selves if you must

The best time to transplant trees or shrubs you want to move to a better position in your garden, also bare root hedging should be appearing in the nurseries just now. Be creative with your choices, there are many shrubs that make an original choice. I've planted Pittosporum, Photinia,Beech & Box this year, but ask your nursery what they recommend.

Still plenty of bulbs in the shops that can be planted out for late spring & summer colour. Tulips, Dafs, Allium ( my favourite). Best time to plant out new Rose, but not in a place recently occupied by another Rose. Any disease lingers in the soil.

3. Pruning. Prune Roses hard now to give good healthy growth next year & prevent wind rock ( surpringly, not a new form of rock music!). Take or pick up all fallen leaves around the base to prevent black spot & other spore carrying diseases. Do not compost these, but put them on a bonfire if you're having one this year along with other non compostible material. A little late for Wisteria, but can still be done lightly. Prune hedges, last chance as the birds want to nest soon.

Good time to start asking your local well recommended tree surgeons to check larger trees for safety & any surgery that may need doing.

4. Borders. Still with me?? Apply a good mulch to the borders especially around non hardy shrubs & plants. This will also break up our lovely south east London clay. Don't you just love it?? No, me neither! Best time of year to weed, especially long rooted perennial weeds, so they don't re-appear next year. A good trick is to cover some areas with black plastic sheeting to prevent weed growth. Please don't use weed killers, the chemicals are not good for us, our children, pets or our environment.

5. Stay awake at the back please. Not long to go. Tie in wall shrubs & climbers . Dead head Penstemons, cut back early spring. Lift Dahlias, Cannas & tuber Begonias, store in a brown paper bag in a dry place until spring.

Clean out ponds from leaves & debris. Drop in a small football to prevent freezing over & allow oxygen

Ok, if you haven't already, you can go to sleep now if you haven't already! I'm just going to go on about the usual stuff of, if you don't have time, get a well recommended gardener to do it for you. They should know what they're doing & if they're too cheap, they probably don't, or they don't value their knowledge & skills enough. It's a good time of year for projects, like decks, patios & lawns. Well, you don't need the garden & you'll be ahead of your neighbours with a great looking garden for spring when us gardeners will be up to our necks in work! And I'll be in Kefalonia building log cabins for my summer retreats overlooking the Ionian Sea surrounded by nature & beauty. Well, somebodys got to do it! :-)

Happpy gardening, keep warm & sleep well. Oh! You already are :-))

Nigel

Exterior Design Gardens

9 Sunderland Court

SE22

07961888253

[PeckhamRose]

This is fabulous. Thank you so much. Just one question. I am 3 floors up with back and front balconies full of planting, and a wisteria which is about 10 years old and has never flowered. Should I prune that much at all? It lives in a very large pot and the leaves are great and it seems very happy on the south facing balcony.

[Gardenman]

Hi Peckham Rose. If your Wisteria has been in a pot for 10 years, it will almost certainly need re- potting. And this is a good time to do it, with a good potassium feed. Yes, still time to prune it, taking those thin whips back to 3-5 buds from the main stem & cutting any main stem that's too long or needs thinning out. It will need another prune & feed around February. Please let me know how you get on.

[Gardenman]

I forgot to mention a lovely plant to plant up through the winter, Skimmias give colour through their small red berries that turn into lovely little white flowers in early spring. Shop around as prices vary considerably

[ktbg]

A big thanks to Nigel and his team, who have just done most if not all of the above in my own garden! It looks neater than it has in years, with everything trimmed back and tidied up. There is now space for existing plants to thrive and some new ferns and hellebores have been planted. They also thoroughly cleaned the deck and patio. I?m happy to say I won?t be spending the winter looking out the window and feeling guilty for letting things get out of hand, but will soon be admiring the daffodils and tulips and looking forward to spending time outside! Thanks again, Nigel and co, for a great job.

[Gardenman]

You are very welcome Kate. It was a pleasure. Enjoy your new ferns, Hellebores & spring bulbs.

[Gardenman]

We had to pull off our current job to wait for a surveyor. So we have space for more jobs this week.

I'm considering doing bespoke Christmas trees delivered to your door as I have found an excellent supplier. Just negotiating best prices & quality. Let me know your thoughts.

[bodsier]

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