The Garden Magazine

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Once you have the vegetable garden under control it’s time to look at the more decorative aspects of your garden – the flowers and trees.  One of the things I love doing is pruning – sometimes I can be a little over enthusiastic, but generally most things will benefit from a good ‘haircut’ as my Dad would have said.

Hedges need regular clipping – especially if they are fast growing varieties and you will need to trim any shaped hedges or elaborate topiary pieces in the garden too so that they look their best.  Wisteria is something that grows well around here and that will need any excess growth taking off if you want it to be at its best next year, as will your deciduous magnolias.  One job that you mustn’t neglect either is to cut out any shoots on your variegated shrubs that have reverted back to single colour.  I used to have a running battle with a fuchsia which had self seeded – but it throws flowers in two distinct colours representing each of it’s parents, in this case the fuchsia won and I just let it do it’s own thing now.

It’s important to apply regular feeds to your containers plant and any summer bedding if you have them.  Dead-heading is also an ongoing task to keep everything looking good.  One job I will be doing this week is dividing up my Irises now that they have finished flowering.  I have some that are almost black and I want to use them as an accent colour in a couple of place in the garden.  Whilst I am planting those I shall probably also plant my crocus – they can wait a little if need be.

Continuing our garden maintenance theme now that Spring is in the air and the garden is crying out for colour, it’s time to turn your attention to ensuring that you get  your hardy annuals going by sowing them either in pots, trays or modules.  Sweet Peas can be started off too, I generally nick the seed coating to give them a start or soak them for a few hours to soften that hard outer shell.  Whilst you are busy sowing you should also start off your Summer bedding plants if you are intending to grow them from seed.  If you are going to sow in the early part of March then put them in a heated propagator or sow under glass to give them some protection from the frosts you can still get – we had an incredibly hard frost yesterday morning.

It also time to topdress your containers with some fresh compost and maybe put some fertilisers on the bulbs that are beginning to peep through now.  I also like to try and get a mulch onto some of the borders before the weeds start springing up.  I shall be using some of the material that we shredded last year when chopping down some trees, it has broken down quite well and is ready for use now.

Talking of trees it’s time to check any shrubs and trees planted last autumn and firm them in.  It’s also time for one of my favourite jobs – pruning.  I’m a great believer in hard pruning to get a plant to be the way you want it to be.  My definition of a weed is any plant that isn’t where you want it or doesn’t do what you want so I wield the secateurs with some ferocity.  At this time of year I will be looking over my summer flowering shrubs and late flowering clematis amongst other things such as climbers which have run riot over the year.  I won’t be touching my spring flowering shrubs til after they have finished flowering but they too will get a serious hair cut in due course.

I’m not a great fan of evergreens and conifers but if you do have them in your garden this is the time when you should look to move any that need a change of scenery as part of your garden maintenance plan.