‘Summer Takes A Bow’

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I don’t know about you but I have had a fantastic summer, the weather has been amazing for gardens and gardener’s too, warm sunny days sprinkled with occasional rain showers have kept the plants growing, light balmy evenings perfect for eating outside and relaxing with a large drink of your choice.
Most people I talk to have seen incredible growth on trees, shrubs and perennials, along with stunning displays of annual flower displays and crops from the vegetable garden. I guess the only down side is that the weeds grow just as fast.

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We are approaching the end of the garden show season, with many local garden societies holding their annual autumn show, a chance for gardeners to enter their prize blooms or vegetables in the competition classes.
It’s a very British tradition showing flowers and vegetables, and a great community event with teas, refreshments, plants and the customary raffle. If there is a local show near you please pop along, there are lots of enthusiastic and knowlegable gardeners keen to share their successes and advice.
Family activity and weekly mowing takes its toll on the lawn and its a good idea to undertake a little restoration and repair especially where the grass is thin and the soil is a little compacted. Sowing seed at this time of year works very well as the soil is still warm and providing you water in dry spells it should germinate in about two weeks. Push the fork to about half its depth into bare areas to relieve compaction, then lightly scratch the surface with a wire rake to create an open surface. Buy new lawn seed as it doesnt keep well and if you have any left from last year the chances are it is past it. Sprinkle the seed evenly over the area, you will need about 100g (2 ounces) per square metre / yard, (thats about a small handful), rake in to the surface and water if the soil is dry. Continue to water daily if there is no rain and in a couple of weeks you should see the seedlings emerging. Wait until the grass is at least two inches (25mm) which before the first cut, setting the mower to take only a third of the height off.
It’s also a good idea to start tidying up, cutting straggly perennials back by half, and making a start on removing overhanging branches from trees and shrubs. Final cutting back and formative pruning can be done later, in autumn and winter.
Next Month, Sowing seeds of perennials, Autumn lawn care and start to tidy borders.
Happy Gardening,
Martin
Q & A
I am often asked if it is possible to grow perennials from seed, and of course the answer is yes. Trees and shrubs can take up to five years to develop into a plant large enough to make an impact, but hardy herbaceous perennials can make established flowering plants in two to three years. Indeed some perennials can flower within a year if they are sown early enough. It is considerably cheaper to grow from seed if you need quite a few of the same type or have a very large garden to fill. Although seed can be sown in a carefully prepared seed bed in the garden I prefer to start them off in pots as I can move them to a sheltered area or cold frame to give then the best start.
Perennials do take longer to germinate so you will have to be patient, sow them in good quality compost, I use a compost comprising of 75% loam based and 25% soilless. Fill a 10cm (4 inch) pot to about 1.5cm from the rim, sow the seeds thinly onto the surface and cover with a sprinkling of compost. I normally place them in a cold frame, or if you don’t have one an old propagating tray with the plastic top on will work too. Many can be sown now and overwintered in the pot as seedlings, potting up in a cool greenhouse or sheltered windowsill next spring. Perennials to sow now include, Lupins, Sea Holly (Eryngium), Maltese Cross (Lychnis) and Peruvian Lily (Alstromeria).
Happy growing, Martin

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