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Warmer weather and longer days mean it's time to get the garden, patio and lawn in trim ready for another year of family pleasure. Few of us have enough time to devote to our garden and most need to use a quick fix instead of back-breaking effort. Modern gardening tools and products can help you have a beautiful garden with the least amount of effort.
Decorative beds and borders
While spring bulbs such a daffodils and hyacinths will be showing foliage and flower buds ready to bloom at the end of the month, weeds too will be germinating and covering garden soil. Because showers are frequent, it is little use hoeing these weeds away as they just re-root wherever they are pushed and effective hand weeding is hard work and takes a long time.
But weeding can be a quick and easy job if you have the right box or bottle of product to hand. The concentrated sachets of Weedol 2 or the ready-to-use Weedol Gun! can both be used throughout the year to give fast acting control of all weed growth. The new concentrate formula of Weedol 2 now carries for the first time a recommendation that weeds can be sprayed with a pressure sprayer. This is great news for all gardeners as applying weedkillers with a watering can be a hit or miss affair if you don't also have a very fine rose or a dribble bar that delivers tiny droplets. Only with these sorts of attachments can you get good coverage of the weed leaves and therefore a good weed kill. Much better is to apply this concentrate through a pressure sprayer. It can be directed more accurately, goes much further and the very tiny droplets from the sprayer wet the weed leaves much more thoroughly. For those people without a sprayer then the ready mixed Weedol Gun! does exactly the same job killing weeds between shrubs, roses, perennials and other flowers without affecting the soil. Use Weedol 2 on weedy soil just before sowing seeds or planting seedlings or shrubs. Just ten minutes on the leaf is sufficient time to give a reasonable kill of annual weeds and later light rain showers after that time won't reduce its effectiveness.
When weeds start to pop up, then trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials are starting into growth too. That's when they need a dose of plant food to encourage new strong growth and plenty of flower buds. People who want to feed their garden throughout the season choose modern fertilizers such as Osmocote or Miracle-Gro Slow Release Plant Food that feed steadily every warm day for up to six months. This little and often release of vital nutrients is determined by soil temperature so that the amount of food matches the needs of the plant and nothing is wasted. For once a year feeding sprinkle the clean, easy-to-use granules around the root area of the plants and gently work into the top few inches of soil. It's quick, simple and very effective.
Clematis are attractive climbers but they can soon overgrow the fence or climbing frame they are given and produce flowers only at the end of their intertwined stems. Pruning will encourage new stems from lower down that will carry flowers, but it is important to get your timing right. Clematis that flower early in spring on last year's wood such as Clematis montana and C. macropetala should be left to flower and pruned as necessary in summer after all the flowers have faded. On the other hand those clematis that flower in late summer on new shoots such as Clematis Jackmanii and the large flowered summer flowering ones such as Nelly Moser and Etoile Violette should be cut back now to ensure some new growth from lower down. Leave a few of the stems long but cut back the remainder so they are about 90-120cm (3-4ft) in length. Regular pruning like this will provide a much longer flower display as the new shoots will tend to bloom a little later than the mature stems.
Protect the new growth of delphiniums and other succulent plants with a slug killer. The easiest way is to sprinkle SlugClear Advanced Pellets around the plants. If you prefer not to use visible pellets in your garden you can get the same protection by using SlugClear, an invisible liquid slug killer that can be watered over the plants. Simply dilute in a watering can and wet the foliage and surrounding soil thoroughly. This way you will also control the slugs that are hiding underground and the snails that have already crept into the growing stems.
Once the new delphinium shoots are about 8cm (3in) tall you can cut off one or two at ground level with a sharp knife and root them in a rough textured compost such as the new Miracle-Gro Ecosense Peat-free Compost to make totally new plants. For quickest disease-free rooting, remove the lower leaves and dip the base of the cutting into some hormone rooting powder. Cover the pot and cutting with a clear plastic bag and place in a light warm place until it is rooted.
Timely Tips
Cut back last year's stems of the butterfly bushes (Buddleia) to within 30cm of ground level. This will encourage new stems that will carry this year's flower display. Feed well with a slow release plant food for rich flower colour and healthy foliage.
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ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Ant Stop! Bait Station contains fipronil. Ant Stop! contains chlorpyrifos. BugClear and BugClear Gun! contain bifenthrin. FungusClear ™ and FungusClear Gun! contain penconazole. Levington® Container & Hanging Basket Compost with Vine Weevil Control contains imidacloprid. Nature's Answer® Natural Pest Control contains pyrethrins. Roseclear® 3 contains bifenthrin and myclobutanil. Roseclear Gun!® contains bifenthrin and flutriafol. Verdone® Extra and Verdone Extra Ready to Use contain fluroxypyr, clopyralid and MCPA.
® , ™ , Miracle-Gro, Tomorite and Levington are Trade Marks of The Scotts Company or its affiliates. Roundup is the registered Trade mark of Monsanto Company. |
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