May 2007
There seems to have been a bit of a gap since my last column! Probably to do with the fact that I have been very busy sowing seeds, pricking out plants, improving this website and dealing with bedding plant and basket orders- oh yes and going to my day job four days a week! So I will recap a little on what has happened in recent months.
Here in Yorkshire April was rather dry and hot. This posed a few challenges at the Nursery as we had been waiting from March for the rain to arrive so that we could sow the grass seed in the garden. It didn't arrive and nor did it in April. I was also hoping to start planting at least part of the perennial border . We did get a few plants in but the resident rabbits manage to find the only loophole in our fencing and enjoyed them for dinner! It took us rather longer than them to discover where the gap was, which is hopefully now plugged! Hence the plans for the garden are a little behind schedule.
We also had a baby rabbit in one of the polytunnels which caused a bit of a problem for a while. Once we had managed to exclude the rabbit we appeared to acquire some field voles. Now I am all for supporting and encouraging wildlife however these little devils don't eat much but do try everything on offer, with some exceptions, they don't seem to like pelargoniums, and they have been quite destructive.
We have had a lot of early butterflies this year due to the warm weather. We also had some early bedding plant customers, at Easter, who really wanted to buy their tender annuals and perennials. I had a bit of a job convincing them that really before the end of May, unless they had somewhere to keep them protected from frost that it wasn't a good idea. They did accept this in the end and also came back several weeks later to purchase them. Despite the warm weather in April, we did actually have a frost here in the last week of May, so it just shows you can't get too carried away with assuming the weather has warmed up permanently and consistently.
We attended Otley Show in May for the first time and had an enjoyable day despite the high winds which prevented us from erecting the gazebo and creating a bit of a display on the stand (see show page).
Now, back to Horticulture, what should you be doing this month? To start with enjoy what is in flower in your garden and the lush green growth of perennials which will flower later in the year. Lawns need cutting on a regular basis now and weeding needs to be kept on top of. Once you have weeded your borders either give them a good soak, preferably with water saved in a water butt or wait for rain, and then mulch them. Mulches come in a variety of guises, mulch just meaning any material which placed on top of the soil to suppress weeds and conserve moisture. This can be as simple as home produced garden compost or well rotted manure or as elaborate as glass chippings. All mulches need to be applied to weed free soil which is well watered. Organic mulches, I think, work best as not only do they conserve moisture and suppress weeds but they are also eventually incorporated into the soil by worms and other organisms to enrich and improve the soil. Believe me this does work. I have a border in my garden at home which initially was a muddy badly drained patch containing a large proportion of clay. Over the last three years it has had a large amount of garden compost added as a mulch and it has certainly improved.
If you haven't thought about your hanging baskets and containers yet there is still time to purchase those tender plants, or if you aren't confident to do them yourself buy a ready made hanging basket. The team from Gardeners World are promoting hanging baskets this year, so why not get involved and hang one up outside your front door or over your seating area. The site and smell, if you choose the right plants, can really enhance that glass of wine you are about to enjoy in the garden!
For Links to Previous Months click below
