News
It’s time to clean up the garden
By Debby Looney, gardening expert
This weekend was a happy time for many gardeners – I certainly heard a lot of lawnmowers on my walk!Many lawns might be damaged, so it is a good time to take the opportunity to rake out thatch, apply mosskiller or lime and tidy up the edges. There are many feed and weed products available but if your moss is not a huge problem, I always advise going with a product which does not contain any iron (feric sulphate). This will cause your soil to become acidic, which in the long run promotes moss growth. However, if you have a thick layer of moss, using sulphate of iron will kill it - however it will turn black and it needs to be raked out.
Make a newspaper pot
Applying a good quantity of lime afterwards will counteract the acidity and prevent regrowth.
Glasshouses and polytunnels should be disinfected, and any pots and seedtrays cleaned and disinfected also, if not done yet! If you are wondering what to do on a wet afternoon with the kids you could make a stack of newspaper pots. These are simple to make, just cut the top off a 500ml plastic bottle. Take a sheet of newspaper, fold it in half, wrap it around the bottle and tuck the ends into the open end. Then you can slip it off the bottle and hey presto, a pot! Free and very handy! Ideal for sowing peas, sweet peas, beans, lupins and a host of other large seeds. The pots decompose so there is no transplanting involved, keeping the roots undisturbed.
If there are any water features in your garden, it is an ideal time to drain them and clean them. Ponds can also be cleaned out. I notice that a lot of my water plants and aerators died during the cold spell, so they do need to be taken out of the pond to avoid problems later on. When you remove them, just leave them at the side of the pond for a few hours, so any water creatures can crawl out and return to the water! You can use it directly as a mulch then, as it will be fairly rotten anyway. All pond plants can be cut back and tidied up, and water lillies can be repotted if necessary. Always use special pond baskets for pond plants and aquatic soil. Cover the top of the pot with gravel and lower gradually into the water to avoid everything drifting up and out.
I notice quite a lot of frogspawn already, so take care not to disturb it too much! Wait until the weather is warmer, around 12 to 15 degrees before replacing the aerator. Also, check pumps and clean out the filters, as they may have clogged up over the winter.
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