Ok Ok, I know it?s New Year, but here are your gardening tips anyway!

[Gardenman]

A very Happy New Year to all my lovely customers & those of you in need of a cure for insomnia :-))

I hope you all had a great Christmas & are ready to work it all off with these annoying reminders that there?s plenty to do out in your garden if you want a great looking garden from Spring onwards & a body to match!!!!

So please try to stay awake for as long as you can

1. This is absolutely the best time of year for planting hedges & plants. Especially around our front doors & Gardens.

WHY? I hear you ask; By doing so, we create a micro climate producing oxygen from those plants & hedges around our homes which spreads out across London. Pollution is a big problem in our beautiful city right now especially in the tamassic energy of winter. The levels of particulate matter & nitrogen dioxide are at dangerous levels. Unlike our politicians, I do mean to scare you for a good reason :-)) The levels of benzene, lead & carbon monoxide are not going down! This is a case where we can take matters into our own hands when we can. And as a gardener, I would like to convince you of the benefits of a beautiful garden full of plants, trees, shrubs & hedges in the form of our health, mental, physical & spiritual. To the benefits for our children?s health & connection to nature. I had the good fortune to be born on a beautiful fruit farm in Kent :-)))) I?ll climb off my soap box now & just say there are many choices for hedges now, they don?t all have to be Privet! In the last year I have planted Pittosporum, evergreen Jasmin. Photinia, Roses & honeysuckle. There are many others to experiment with, so ask your nursery or me if you want to be adventurous! As for shrubs, choose your favourites & mix them up with different flowering times & scents. All of these will encourage you out into the garden to work or to just sit & enjoy without going too far.

2. Don?t foot recycle your Christmas tree. There are still collections going on.

3. Dig over any unturned borders & add some good compost or manure & cover with a mulch of composted leaves or organic material.

4. Put out good quality seeds, fat balls & fresh water for the birds

5. Clean & disinfect glasshouses & pots

6. Plant Roses, winter flowering honeysuckle, Apples for & fruit you will enjoy. Also cherries, preferably Japanese varieties as they produce fabulous blossoms, Euynemous for Autumn colour, Cotoneaster for white flowers & berries in autumn/winter. And the very hardy Rowan ash for white yellow orange & red berries.

Still with me or have I cured you insomnia yet???

7. You can move deciduous trees & shrubs now if you want to help those that are not doing so well in their current positions. You can also prune them too. Leave Evergreens, ornamental cherries, plums & Almonds to avoid Silverleaf & tender plants until later.

If the trees are too big to tackle call a locally recommended tree surgeon. I?ve given that job up. Didn?t have enough patience to wait til Autumn to get down :-)))

Cut back Russian vines no matter what Mr Putin tells you!! Clear away from windows & gutters. This is one of 2 months

to cut back Wisteria, cutting back the thin whips to the 2nd 3rd or 4th bud before the main branch & all invasive or rotten main branches. Give them a good potassium feed & hopefully you will get beautiful flowers this year.

8. Still a good time to lay or repair lawns. Aerate if waterlogged & if you need to patch up, apply some sharp sand & Rich loam or compost. Brush off all worm casts & leaves

Nearly done )) Honestly

9. Good time of year to install paving, patios decks & fences. I would say that wouldn?t I? But soon we gardeners will be busy & telling you we can get round to you in Autumn!!!

10. I have mentioned house plants before as they are a good source of scents, energy & oxygen throughout the house & especially in offices to keep you refreshed & alert. Let me know if you would like me to recommend or supply these as my nursery is now supplying them.

That?s it if you haven?t fallen asleep. Quite a lot to do, but as always, if not inclined, don?t have the time or don?t need the exercise, then please use the well recommended gardeners on this forum or my good self before I disappear off to Kefalonia & Courcheval this winter & summer to run my holistic retreat either in the snow or on the little beach below my idyllic log cabin. Jealous? You don?t have to be. Just give me a call if you want to join me, but hurry, it?s getting booked up. Give me a call/text if you have any questions. Happy gardening & have a really good New Year

Nigel

07759862191

9 Sunderland Rd

SE22 8JX

[RouxRussell]

Great tips! Thank you!

[Gardenman]

Thanks Roux. You?re very welcome

Just a reminder to get your lawnmower & other garden equipment & tools serviced before you pull them out of the shed in spring & find they don?t work (((((

[Gardenman]

Weather warning!! We have some very cold & frosty weather arriving at the end of the weekend the weather forecast is to be believed , so please put fleeces or some kind of protection over your soft plants & take water meter devices off your taps & store them indoors, especially all the ones I fitted this year. It?s not like I didn?t say )))