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Tasks for the garden in June
Gardeners and gardens have been battling the elements over the last few weeks: Heavy rain, sizzling sunshine and gusty winds. Hopefully you and your plants are still intact. Here's a list of tasks to attend to in the garden throughout June. Happy gardening!

1. Deadhead spent flower heads on bulbs, and as long as more than 6 weeks have passed since the bulbs flowered, cut back tatty foliage too.

2. Try the ‘Chelsea Chop’ ,( traditionally undertaken in the last week of May or first week of June). Cutting plants back by a third should make them more floriferous, (  as a result of more side shoots), keep plants compact, and delay flowering until later in the summer. A clever compromise for larger swathes of the same plant is to cut back some and not others, hopefully ensuring staggered flowering over a long period.Sedum, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Helenium and other late flowering perennials are suitable.

3. Feed summer flowering bulbs in containers such as Agapanthus and Lilium with a liquid potash feed. A feed every three weeks during the growing season will promote flowering. Keep a look out for lily beetle . Inspect plants regularly and remove bright red adult beetles by hand.

4. Deadhead roses and perennials, cutting off spent flowerheads. Deadheading enables the plant’s energy to go into producing more flowers later in the summer and even into autumn. Don't just nip off the flowers on roses - cut back to a bud in a leaf axil lower down the stem.

5. Take a good look at garden ponds and remove invasive plants such as blanket weed before they choke other plants.

6. Regularly water any new areas of lawn and ensure that newly laid turf doesn’t dry out as it will shrink.

7. Spring flowering deciduous shrubs such as Weigela and Philadelphus can be pruned now. Congested branches should be hard pruned to ground level.
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Tasks for the garden in May
I was so busy designing gardens and gardening throughout May, that I forgot to update my blog with a list of garden tasks for May. Oops!

For those who are a little behind, ( it's only the 7th of June after all), I will post the list of tasks for May below. I am then going to get ahead of the game by posting my list of tasks for June. Actually, as I have already observed, it's the 7th, so June's list is also late. Fingers crossed for July..



1. Prune evergreen shrubs and hedging. Use secateurs wherever possible on large leaved plants such as Prunus laurocerasus, as using hedge trimmers can leave unsightly and unhealthy gashes on the plant.

2. Cut back and divide spring flowering perennials that have finished flowering, such as Pulmonaria. Remove tatty leaves and replant overgrown clumps.

3. Continue to stake and tie in emerging tall perennials in the borders, as plants like Delphiniums begin growth in earnest. Tie in climbers regularly, as new
growth emerges.

4. Plant out annuals sown under cover earlier in the year, once all risk of frost has passed. Cosmos bipinnatus has lovely airy foliage, and if regularly deadheaded will produce large daisy like flowers from June - November.

5. Keep weeding borders, carefully removing the roots of perennials, and using a hoe to remove annual weed seedlings. Maintaining weed free borders enables air to circulate around plants, improving general plant health and reducing the incidence of pests and diseases in the garden.

6. Start to mow the lawn regularly, and finish sowing any new areas of lawn early in the month before the weather becomes too warm.
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Jobs for the garden in April
We are already half way through April, so this post is a little late. Still, it's just in time for the bank holiday weekend...
1.  April is a good time to plant new shrubs and perennials. Take a good look at your borders and plan changes before growth starts in earnest .

2. Save money by lifting and dividing summer flowering perennial plants that have outgrown their space in the border. Replant the divided plants into groups of three or five. April showers should take care of watering, but if it’s dry water the relocated plants regularly.

3.  Weed borders. It’s dull but it has to be done once the temperature rises and weeds start to germinate. Remove every part of the roots of perennial weeds such as dandelions because any pieces of root left will grow into new weeds. And that’s frustrating!

4. Mulch borders after weeding and replanting, to retain moisture and suppress weeds.

5.  Plant growth is really starting to take off. Put plant supports in place in the border where needed. Supports made from pliable hazel pea sticks blend in well. Tie in the shoots of climbing and rambling roses horizontally to encourage side shoots to develop along their length. More side shoots = more flowers.

6. Fingers crossed that the warm weather will continue. April is a good time to repair bare patches in the lawn by reseeding. Choose a seed which matches the existing lawn and prepare the ground by weeding, removing any large stones, levelling, and raking to a fine tilth before sowing.
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Top ten tasks for the garden in March
Spring finally seems to have arrived. The temperature is rising, days are getting longer, and best of all fresh growth is appearing in the garden.

I find that the days start to speed by in March and in gardening terms it’s important to get off the starting blocks, so to speak, as soon as possible.

Below are my top 10 tasks, which should help you to keep on top of things as the garden starts to come to life.

1.Cut down any growth left on perennial plants and grasses over winter. Even if seed heads still look good they need to be removed as they will be getting in the way of new growth.
2. Move any evergreen shrubs that have outgrown their positions. Ensure that as much of the plant’s rootball is retained as possible, by carefully digging a trench around the plants and easing the plant roots gently out. Replant straightaway in a pre dug hole and keep the shrub well watered. 
3.There is still time to plant bare root trees, hedges, shrubs and roses. When planting roses sprinkle Mycorrhizal fungi onto the damp roots and into the planting hole to help root development.
4. Prune established shrub roses by removing any dead, damaged or diseased stems and any that are crossing. Help the rose to stay healthy by thinning growth at the centre, to increase air circulation. Use a slanted pruning cut, just above an outward facing bud. Give the rose a good feed with some proprietary rose feed after pruning.
5. Prune deciduous shrubs grown for their coloured stems such as Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’. Pruning encourages the plant to produce vigorous young stem growth which will be the most brightly coloured the following winter. Wait a couple of years after planting before pruning and prune in March when you start to see buds developing. Prune back a maximum of a third of the stems hard, to about 5cm above ground level.
6. Start mowing the lawn with the mower blades at the highest setting initially. Remove thatch, (moss and dead grass), by using a spring tine rake to rake over the lawn or use a scarifier on a larger lawn.
7. Plant summer flowering bulbs such as Gladioli, Lilies and Agapanthus in sunny parts of the garden. Plant in batches over the next two months to enjoy successional flowering over the summer.
8. Lift and divide summer flowering perennial plants that have outgrown their space in the border or have stopped flowering well. A good sign that a plant needs dividing is when the centre is getting bare and all new growth is around the edges. Create a rhythm in your borders by replanting the new stock of plants in repeated drifts. Keep an eye on new plants and water regularly if necessary. Your borders are replenished without you needing to spend a thing.
9. Pests such as slugs and snails start making an appearance, so take precautions by protecting the new shoots of plants they like to snack on, such as Hostas . There are many unpleasant ways to eradicate slugs and snails which this genteel blog will not go into. Before completely annihilating all of the snails in your garden, bear in mind that they are a great source of protein for the many other animals in the garden who help to maintain its natural balance.
10. Last but not least … start weeding in earnest. Higher temperatures and rain mean that weeds really start to take off at this time of year. Weeds have evolved to survive and out compete all other nearby planting. Wage war by weeding regularly and make sure that all parts of the roots of perennial weeds such as ground elder or dandelion are removed,  (otherwise you will find that you have unwittingly helped the weed to breed by dividing it’s root into small pieces, each of which will spawn a baby weed).

If you haven’t had time to plan your garden over the winter then there is still time to take a good look at the structure of your borders before your perennial plants start to make significant growth. Take a critical look out from the house and consider your views into the garden and whether any changes are necessary.
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