With spring just around the corner, having the right small garden ideas is a useful way to transform your garden. I suspect many of you just cannot wait for the bulbs to bloom, the buds to open and for the bulbs to fill the garden with colour, fragrance and beauty.
So whilst we are all waiting, now is a great time to just get out their and have a good tidy up and prepare for the coming season.
The greenhouse/shed are always good places to start with your small garden ideas, clear away any old crops, spread the old compost on existing beds and borders. Go through old chemicals and fertilizers and discard of anything that is old. Do the same with seeds, if they are out of date they probably won’t germinate. Give the paths, driveways and patios a good sweep and clean, using weed killers if necessary. Rake up any old leaves and debris but don’t put them on the compost heap, old leaves breakdown in cold conditions so a traditional compost heap is to warm and hot.
* Cut back hedges before the birds begin to nest.
The best way to shape a hedge is to give them a gradual slope to the sides. The
Bottom should be wider than the top this allows the light and water to fall through more evenly.
* Plant new trees, hedges, climbers, roses and also summer fruiting raspberries.
* Prune roses and remove any dead, diseased or damaged stems.
* Start to divide clumps of hostas before their leaves start to show.
Dig up the clump, then using a spade, slice the clump into several sections, replant around the garden keeping them at their original level.
As we all know with small garden ideas hostas are a magnate for slugs and with spring fast approaching and new fresh shoots starting to appear, it is a good time to think about a little protection. A barrier of either grit or eggshells is a good alternative as the slugs find it difficult to pass over.
Beer and milk traps are easily made by sinking small containers filled with either liquid into the ground. Slugs are attracted to these, fall in and drown!! If you do like to use the good old favourite ‘slug pellets’ then why not try the ‘Growing Success’ pellets, they are good for organic growers and as they contain no poison they won’t harm wildlife such as hedgehogs, frogs and not forgetting our cats and dogs.
* Plant bulbs such as Lilly and gladioli, make a 4inch hole, pop in the bulb, cover with soil or compost, firm down gently to ensure no air pockets as these may cause rot. Then water, sit back and wait.
* Give trees, shrubs and fruit bushes a bit of a feed by adding fertilizers containing nitrogen, potassium and prosperous.
There is still a good risk of frost in march so make sure to keep ponds from freezing over completely, gasses can build up under the ice and be harmful to wildlife. A tennis ball or other floating object should do the job but if the pond does freeze over then melt a small patch with hot water, breaking the ice causes shockwaves and so could harm any fish and other inhabitants of the pond.
Keep of the grass after a frost however tempting it is ‘to crunch’ on it, the grass can be damaged and turn off any outside taps, draining any water in hoses etc so that the pipes don’t freeze.
Finally, start tender crops like tomatoes and peppers from seed indoors and plant cold season crops like cabbage, leeks and cauliflower outside.
So whatever you decide to do this March, whether its lunch for Mothers Day (15th) or just waiting for the clocks to go forward (29th), have fun outside and happy gardening.
For more small garden ideas you can call me or the best garden centre in Essex for more advice.
This is to your beautiful garden.
Ruth