Rockery Plants In Uk

When the best place you have to grow veggies and herbs is a sloping hillside, you can terrace your way to a garden that's beautiful, productive, and reasonably easy to maintain. Natural stone is often free if you live in a mountainous area, and as long...

Cool-season Cover Crops Parts of the garden that won't be planted until late spring are prime spots for growing cool-season cover crops , also known as green manures because they are grown to benefit the soil.

This is easy to do if you are gardening in a drier climate or under cover, but in wetter conditions one option is to sever some of the roots to slow the flow of water to the plant.

It's naturally full of potassium, which fruit and pod-bearing plants love. Top up mulches with new material. None of these techniques are exactly rocket science, but by applying each you'll almost certainly be able to eke out more from your fruiting and...

Compost any remaining plant debris from the beds once the crop is cleared to prevent pests hiding out under leaves or in dead stems, and give greenhouses and hoop houses a good clean once a year.

Unless your soil is naturally alkaline, sprinkle garden lime onto the soil either after you've dug it over, or rake it in at planting time. Wire mesh will protect seedlings against pigeons, but to stop butterflies from laying their eggs on the leaves...

Sit the smaller pot inside the larger pot, levelling up the rims by pouring sand into the base of the big pot till they are even. Bamboo contributes a welcome rustle if you haven't got many trees or shrubs nearby to sway and shuffle in the breeze.

Then factor in that daikons are a pickler's dream, whether you ferment them in a salt brine or turn them into spicy Vietnamese-style refrigerator pickles. Some people rate the leaves as edible, but I'd rather hold out for the large, red-skinned roots,...

You can also freeze home-made tomato sauces, soups and passata. Follow the steps above. Some gardeners even dry produce in the oven, setting it at its lowest temperature and propping the door fractionally open to further moderate the temperate, though...

After the first frost passes, harvest your rutabagas during a period of dry weather. Spacing is important, too, because crowded rutabagas will grow huge tops with skinny roots. The same pests that bother other brassicas can affect rutabagas, but they...

These plants readily cross-pollinate with other members of the same family, so you're unlikely to get what you hoped for. You can get a lot of seeds from just a few plants, which makes saving these seeds very worthwhile indeed.

These issues are heartbreaking when they occur, but the good news is they can usually be avoided by carefully performing one simple annual maintenance task: summer pruning. If you need to cut back to the main trunk, cut close to the raised ‘collar'...

Storing Dried Chili Peppers Dried chili peppers can be stored in any airtight container. If you are going to pick lots of fruits, or you're a little absent-minded like me, then wear a pair of gloves for the job.

Again, take care to water well before laying it. If you can offer any further tips or advice, please go ahead and share them in the comments section below. I hope you've found some of these ideas handy.

The easiest way to grow second-crop spuds is in containers . For many vegetable gardeners the humble potato is the epitome of everything that's good about growing your own: they're fun to grow, exceptionally versatile in the kitchen and they're pretty...

The main benefit of thinning to the gardener is to give those fruits that remain the space they need to grow into bigger, healthier fruits. Additional thinning of tree fruits ensures there's less chance of fruits rubbing together, which can lead to diseases...

The trouble with homemade sprays is that their effectiveness varies dramatically, and they aren't always as harmless as they seem, potentially knocking back whitefly predators too.

Alternatively, plant first thing in spring, or grow from seed and set out seedlings in early spring. Harvesting Harvest in early summer when the tops begin to fail, and the bulbs have divided into several plump bulblets.

Use yellow sticky traps to monitor populations. You can also coat the fingertips of a yellow rubber glove with petroleum jelly to make it easier to collect any beetles clustered in blossoms.

Notes Borage seedlings are only edible when very young. Borage attracts large buzzing insects that dominate their air space. Crop Rotation Group Miscellaneous ● Soil Any average, well drained soil.

They lay eggs at the base of onion plants, and the larvae tunnel into onion roots. Beneficial nematodes are the only effective treatment for this pest. Dig and move perennial onions every fall.

Often planted with low, mound-forming herbs and flowers. Feeding Not generally needed. Gather them for use as cut flowers to keep valerian from reseeding and becoming invasive. After two years, valerian will grow into a 18" (45 cm) wide clump.

Lemon balm grows into a rounded mound. Locate it where leaves can be conveniently picked, crushed and sniffed. Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.

Companions Daylily, Catnip, Bells of Ireland and Salvia. Fertilize established clumps with a balanced organic fertilizer in the fall. Notes Tulips will return for several years where winters are cold, but may rot when grown in warm, moist climates.

Companions Thyme and Osteospermum. Feeding Mix a light application of a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil prior to planting. Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.

Black patches on the bottom of fruits are a nutritional disorder best prevented by growing tomatoes in well-prepared soil with constant light moisture. Set out after the last frost has passed, when the soil is warm and settled.

Can be left in the soil through winter in many areas. Spacing Single Plants: 7" (20cm) each way (minimum) Rows: 7" (20cm) with 11" (30cm) row gap (minimum) Sow and Plant Sow direct into soil, and cover the seeded bed or furrow with a board to keep it...