Creating our veg/flower plot

We’ve been growing veg for quite some time now but I’d been thinking for a while how lovely it would be to grow my own flowers to cut and bring into the house without ruining the look of the boarders. So as part of my planning I’d decided to have a veg plot with space for cut flowers.

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A quick tip for ensuring summer colour in your garden this year

I know it’s only February but it’s time to be thinking about the summer garden. I had a little mooch around the garden this weekend despite the strong winds and drizzly rain and was very shocked to see that one or two of my perennials, which were trying to throw up new shoots, had already been eaten! Oh no disaster! if these plants can’t get started we are certainly not getting any summer colour from them.

Tip – get out there this weekend and put slug pellets around any emerging plants. Snails have been hibernating all winter by burying into the soil and slugs which have been dormant whilst the temperatures have been below 5° are suddenly starting to emerge already. If you can kill them now before they lay eggs …..double wammy!Now I know the purists amongst you may disagree with slug pellets, harmful if birds eat the dead slugs and snails. Although I’ve never actually seen evidence of this for myself, I do still go out each morning and pick up any dead slugs and snails and put them in the bin. Result – I put the slug pellets around on Thursday evening, Friday morning I collected at least 10 adult slugs and snails, hmmm maybe my perennials are safe again….for the time being.
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Want a colourful garden this summer? – plan now, seeds, plugs or trays of bedding plants 

It’s that time of year again, if we are going to have lots of colour in the garden this summer we need to make plans.

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In my garden, I have shrubs which provide structure and greenery all your round. Some of them also flower at different times in the season. I also have perennials which come up every year without too much maintenance, they provide lots of lovely colour and some of those have a long flowering season, all throughout the summer.

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But I also have some areas of the garden which just need an injection of colour. This I provide with bedding plants (annuals) Bedding plants are very tender and do not survive frost so are grown and replaced each year. Bedding plants have the big advantage they provide lots of colour and can be placed wherever there is a gap.

I tend to fill pots with bedding which I can move around the garden to the gaps as well as planting others within the border.

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At this time of year we need to make a decision how we are going to get our bedding plants, there are 3 options.

From seed – a pack of seeds costs around £1 and can be sewn in a propagator at this time of year on a windowsill in the house. They will germinate producing lots of seedlings which will need to be pricked out into trays as soon as they get big enough.

From plug plants – you order them now and they will be grown by the merchants until they get big enough to be sent out, normally the end of March

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They still need potting on but the growth success rate is much greater. Each plug plant cost between about 20p to 50p although if you buy in bulk it does bring the price down. This year I would like to grow some Cosmos,

I can get 60 large plugs for £16.99 delivered w/c 14th March

Or ready grown plants which are available in packs of 6 or so available in the garden centres ready to plant out after May. Typically a pack of 6 bedding plants costs £4.99

Of course although they may be pricey all the hard work is done for you and all that is left is to plant these exactly where you would like them to grow anytime after the last risk of frost, normally around middle of the May.

My personal choice is plug plants and I have just placed my order. I look forward to lots of colour in my garden all through the summer….