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Home > Flower and garden articles > Top Tips for your Spring Garden
Top Tips for your Spring Garden
With Spring comes a very busy time in the gardening calendar. It’s wonderful to watch the garden come alive after its winter rest, and to rediscover the joys of so many plants showing off their fresh new foliage and colourful flowers. What could be better than getting out into your garden and enjoying the warm spring sunshine while you catch up with some gardening housework!
One of the most tedious jobs in the garden is weeding. If you’ve heard the expression – “one year’s seeds, seven years weeds“ – you’ll understand how true that is! But make a point of keeping on top of this important chore, and it’s easy to keep it manageable. If you take a methodical approach to weeding on a regular basis as part of your garden maintenance routine, it need not be as time consuming as you might think. Remember, the trick is to prevent the weeds from flowering and setting seeds that will infest your garden. So try to remove weeds while they are still small – it’s so much easier than wrestling with huge ones! Weeds can be composted straight back onto your garden beds, providing they don’t have ripe seed heads. Or, if you prefer, add them to your compost bin.
If you choose to use herbicides to control weeds, follow these basic rules. Avoid spraying weeds on a windy day – the risk of drift onto your desirable plants is too high. If the spray does come into contact with your garden plants, just wash it off immediately with clean water and no harm will be done.
To apply herbicides in tight spots, don’t spray at all – apply directly to the leaves of the weeds with an old paint brush instead. This is an easy way to have total control. Another great tip when using herbicide is to add a small amount of food dye to the solution – this will help you to see exactly which foliage you have sprayed! Last but not least, be very careful that the herbicide does not drift on to your skin, and wash your hands thoroughly after applying.
Lifting and dividing perennials can still be done in spring, providing you are not experiencing high temperatures in your area. It’s never a good idea to transplant in hot weather as the heat will double the amount of stress the plants suffer, and may even lead to them dying. A great tip to help reduce the stress on plants that have just been moved is to cover them loosely with shade cloth or hessian, having watered them first. This really helps tender plants survive through the heat of the day if the weather suddenly turns hot, as it so often does at this time of year. (Note: Never use black plastic – it will cook them instead!)
Pruning and dead heading of shrubs and perennials in spring will help to refresh your garden beds and improve their appearance, as well as increasing their ability to flower. Your garden plants will welcome an application of fertiliser, compost and mulch to supply them with the nutrients they need for strong growth and greater drought tolerance in the warmer months ahead.
Now that your spring flowering bulbs are coming to the end of their season, make a note to dead head the flower stems and apply a generous application of complete fertiliser to build up their reserves for next year’s blooms. Remember it’s vital to allow the foliage to die back naturally – you must resist all temptation to cut it back! Your patience will be rewarded by a lovely display next year.
Now is the time to keep an eye out for infestations of aphids and other chewing insects that cause major damage to new foliage and buds. Early control is essential to eradicate these pests, so apply a systemic insecticide such as Confidor, which can be safely used throughout your garden.
Roses will be having some major growth activity in spring, so make sure you have fed them adequately and pruned them well to increase their vigour. Once you have a nice flush of new foliage on your roses, get into the habit of regularly spraying them with a solution of fungicide – Triforine is the most effective – to prevent any black spot. Remember, avoid overhead watering of roses at all times – use a soaker hose instead. You will be delighted to see how well your roses perform if you follow this simple routine.
If you have any trees or shrubs in your garden that have been staked or tied in the past, now is a good time to check the condition of the support. It is very common to see a good plant destroyed by a forgotten twist of wire that has slowly choked the plant to death. Remember to check regularly if you have a young tree or shrub that is growing rapidly, as its stems and trunks will increase their girth also and you will need to loosen the tie.
While it is often necessary to stake young trees until they get their roots well down, don’t tie them too high up the trunk. It’s better to secure them fairly close to the ground, so that they can move around in the wind, as this constant movement actually strengthens the young trunk. Once the tree is able to support its own weight you can safely remove the stake if you wish.
Tip of the month: With the days getting warmer, remember that the sun can cause the temperature of water in your garden hose to heat rapidly, especially if the hose has been left lying out on the ground. When you turn on the hose on a sunny day, don’t spray straight onto your plants as the water may be very hot indeed! Instead, spray the hot water into a bucket and save it to use on the garden later when it has cooled.
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