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Spring, Moving into Summer in the Garden.

Hints & Tips for your Garden in Spring. Part 1

A good feed of humus-rich compost and organic feed will help to give these plants a start as the ground dries out. Use a granular fertiliser or other general feed to enrich your bulbs before the leaves die back.
Spread feed onto flower borders and keep removing perennial weeds.
Keep warm in the greenhouse or potting shed by preparing pots and seed trays. Start to sow early seeds for the flower or vegetable garden.
Ensure that the greenhouse gets ventilation on warm days. It would be worthwhile fitting an automatic vent opener if you haven’t got one and also to check that an existing one is still operating correctly.
Clean down any staging ready for setting out propagators and seed trays. Pot on any young plants into the next size up pot. Re-pot and divide any plants that are in containers ready to be put out as the weather improves.
Set up some hanging baskets and buy the frames, liners and compost. Decide which colour scheme and plants to use this year. Check that the hooks on walls and posts are still sound. Re-paint them or replace them if they are looking old and shabby.
Consider setting up an automatic drip feed watering system for you hanging baskets and pot grown plants to ensure good growth this year even if you are away for a few days.
A simple timer or moisture controlled watering system can be installed into your borders to keep your plants watered and fed throughout the growing season.
On nice spring days it is a great feeling to get outside and finish tidying up the garden. In the flower borders cut back the dead flower stems on perennial plants as far as the new bright green growth just poking through.
Make sure that all prunings are mixed in with other vegetable waste and grass cuttings and added to the compost heap. All material should be cut up small or use a shredder if you have access to one. It may be an idea to club together with your neighbours to buy one to share.
If your weather is warming up and the worst of the icy cold, snow and freezing wet has passed you can cut “Penstemmon” plants back to about one third on old growth. This will allow the new shoots at the bottom to push up and also the side shoots to make the plant become bushier.
If your lawn is growing then you can now give it a first cut of the season. Set your mower blades slightly high to leave about 30 to 40mm (1.25 – 1.5 inches) of grass length for the first few cuts until the weather really starts to warm up.
It will be a good idea to spike the lawn and grass areas to aerate them and get some exercise at the same time. If you have a large lawn area, hire an aerator and remove the plugs to the compost bin. If you feel energetic and in need of some exercise after the winter, use a four-pronged digging fork to 'spike' the ground to a depth of about 100 – 150mm (4 -6”) at about 150 – 200mm (6 – 8”) spacing. This will help compensate for the compaction that occurred last season and will help to let air into the ground and assist drainage. It is also a good time to apply even handfuls of coarse grit sand and brush it into the holes made along with fine compost feed. Try to keep off the ground while it is still wet or you may do more harm than good.
In about 3 weeks time (Early April to End of May) you can use a proprietary weed and feed application of fertiliser. Make sure that it is evenly spread by using a push or pulled hopper-fed applicator otherwise you can over-feed patches of lawn that may suffer as a result. Follow the instructions on the packaging with regard to mowing before applying the feed and suitable weather conditions.

Hints & Tips for your Garden in Spring. Part 2

Don't let your precious container plants drown! Pots standing in saucers full of water are likely to cause the plant roots to rot. Plants in containers are much more susceptible than plants in the ground. Ensure that you regularly empty out excess water after rain. (Better still treat yourself to that watering system!)
Plants in pots, timber planters and other small containers can now be unwrapped and brought out from under cover. Beware of late frosts on tender plants and ensure that these are covered with horticultural fleece or other protection at night. Do not allow strong early-morning sunlight to burn away frost on young plant growth, as the tips will be damaged.
Plants such as Camellias and Magnolias are particularly susceptible to frost damage to their new flower buds that are developing now. Protect them, if you can and ensure that the early morning sun is kept off by placing them in shady conditions. A light spraying from a hosepipe can be used if the air temperature is above freezing to wash off the frost.
Put back nutrients. Flooding and excessive rainfall can leach nutrients out of the soil. Feed and protect plants by mulching with homemade compost and bark. Use a general granular slow release fertiliser applied at the rate of a small handful per square metre, or as directed.
Using a timber plank to stand on will help to protect the lawn if you are weeding or working on a flower border. It can be better to use planks to push barrows over soft areas to save forming ruts. I find that using a large expandable purpose-made canvas bag or tarpaulin sheet to carry light cuttings easy when slung over one shoulder in manageable loads.
Wisterias can have a final pruning now to remove wispy tendrils and reduce any excessive growth. It is also a good time to set up new supporting wires and to tie-in branches of all climbers and trained plants on walls and fences to avoid wind damage.
Protect new growth from frost. Frost is most damaging when it follows a period of unseasonable warmth. The newly encouraged growth will suffer unless protected. Horticultural fleece and bark or compost as a mulch will help protect susceptible plants. Some delicate dry climate plants should be protected from excessive rain on their crowns. They may also be wrapped in hessian or horticultural fleece to protect them from severe wind chill in exposed areas.
Hose off frost. Frost can be washed off tender subjects with a gentle spray from your hosepipe or watering can. Do it before the sun hits, but make sure it is not still freezing hard.
Avoid frost-damaged blooms. Make sure that Camellias, Rhododendrons, Azaleas and similar subjects in containers, are moved away from the early morning sun. This will avoid those frost-damaged blooms. They generally prefer areas of light shade to grow in anyway.
Prepare for summer. Most container-grown plants hate being too wet and will tolerate being dry for short periods. Young plants in particular often die in these conditions.
Top up bark or other mulch on your borders and around trees or shrubs. Apply a general fertiliser to your borders at regular intervals.
In early spring keep weeding around plants and use some of your well-rotted compost to work into the soil around them as you work.
Do Not add weeds to your compost heap.
Don’t let Bamboo plants dry out. Because they have a large leaf area, Bamboo can dry out, particularly in windy, dry weather. The tell tale sign is leaf curl. If it occurs the Bamboo needs a good drink but don’t leave the plant sitting in water. Apply a normal plant feed.
Box plants in containers often get yellowish leaves. This is usually due to lack of feeding and nutrients in the soil. We have found that a diluted liquid tomato feed really helps to quickly liven them up again. It will be worth re-potting them into new compost if possible or at least removing some soil from the top of the container and replacing it with new compost and a slow release granular fertiliser. Do not trim your box to shape until after June as we have experienced unexpected (and unexplained) dieback.