Guide to Gardening
Create your ideal garden and learn how to look after it all year around; Choose the right flowers, plants and trees for your garden; Grow your own delicious vegetables, fruits and herbs.
Create your ideal garden and learn how to look after it all year around; Choose the right flowers, plants and trees for your garden; Grow your own delicious vegetables, fruits and herbs.
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Buy NowIdeally just before your spring bulbs start to pop up, clean the plant debris out of your garden beds. This includes fallen branches, matted down leaves, last year’s perennial foliage, ornamental grasses and perennial hibiscus, and any annuals you didn’t remove last fall. Maintaining good hygiene in your garden beds will help to keep pests and diseases at bay.
Experts recommend testing your garden soil every 3-5 years to see what nutrients or organic materials it needs and which it has too much of. You might learn, for example, that your soil is very high in phosphorous, so you would avoid adding fertilizers that contain a lot of it. Or you might find out your soil is naturally alkaline, and need to add aluminum sulfate around your evergreens and acid-loving shrubs like hydrangeas.
Once you know what your garden soil needs based on your test results, talk with someone at your local garden center about which specific products to use, always following package instructions for best results. A good general practice is to topdress the soil with an inch or two of compost, humus and/or manure in early spring just before or as your bulbs are starting to emerge.
Keep an eye on your garden and remove any diseased, damaged, or dead debris as they block airflow and growth. If you notice a plant with dead blooms, cut them back now to ensure it grows healthier next season. Light pruning all year encourages steady growth and builds a healthy plant.
Bugs can be abundant in the summer months, so much so that it can be overwhelming. It is important to know which types of insects you are dealing with and which products to use. For flying insects, such as yellow jackets, Japanese beetles, and wasps, try placing traps, like the RESCUE Reusable Yellow Jacket Traparound your yard, making sure to avoid doors and high traffic areas.
If an area of your yard or garden is exposed to strong sunlight for the majority of the day, find a way to create shade. You can use a stunt plant, such as a tree or cluster of bamboo to provide shade for your flowerbeds.
Applying an autumn lawn fertiliser will encourage a stronger, healthier lawn that will need less looking after. Rake out the dead grass or ‘thatch’ first, to ensure feed gets through to the roots. Weed and reseed any patches that need it.
Autumn is a good time to plant or move hardy plants like trees, shrubs, roses and perennials. Warm soil encourages speedy root growth and autumn rain should keep them well watered. Your plants will become established over winter and will romp away in spring.
Planting dormant, bare-root roses, trees, shrubs, hedges and perennial plants in autumn and winter is not only economical – the plants will establish quickly too.
To protect plants from cold winter temperatures, water the garden thoroughly before the first hard frost. Once the ground has begun to freeze, mulch around the base of more tender plants with several inches of shredded leaves, ground bark or evergreen boughs. Newly planted trees or shrubs can be wrapped with a layer of burlap stuffed with insulating material such as straw or dried leaves.
Just because it's winter doesn't mean you can't have fresh food from the garden. Greens such as lettuce, arugula and mustard, along with cold-weather crops including kale and Swiss chard can be grown in a cloche or cold frame. Many root crops and brassicas will overwinter for a spring harvest.
Make sure your feathered friends have a steady source of food and water so they'll stay year-round to help with pest control and balancing your garden's ecosystem. Place nesting houses by February if you want to increase your bird population.