Sweet Pea Perennial (Lathyrus latifolius) In the spring of the first season after planting its recommended to cut back the existing stems by a third if the frost has not made the plant die back to the crown. This will help to create more stems and a plant with more flowers. In the following years [...]

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Algae and green water in ponds pond and water features is normally removed from a pond or water feature by a natural balance being achieved by plants and pond life however in a modern style pond with no planting etc Clear water can be achieved by the use of the following additions 1. Milton baby [...]

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Indoor Lemon and organge trees are evergreen but as will all evergreen plants they lose leaves all year at a steady rate. In addition to this they also increase leaf loss in response to low light levels so you often find that in the UK in the months of November, December and March they loss [...]

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One of the advantages turf has over seed is that on areas of perennial weed such as nettles, ground elder and brambles turf can be used straight after the area is cleared to create a lawn. Ideally before clearing the weeds they should be sprayed with Round up weed killer and left for 4 to [...]

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Indoor lemon and organge trees often suffer from red spider mite which is a very small spider like insect that sucks the sap of the plant discolouring the leaves and in some cases causing the leaves to drop.The red spider mite is hard to see with the naked eye often the first sighs that appear [...]

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Both Privet or yew Hedge can be reduced quite drastically and if care for following the reduction they will recover from dormant buds in the stems. The reduction in the height is achieved by cutting back the hedges to the height required and then cutting back by a further 150 mm this is to allow [...]

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Because of disease or simple old age over the next 5 years as many as 750,000 leylandii (Cupressocyparis Leylandii) hedges will need to be replaced in the UK. With climate change and disease it will not be advisable to plant replant with leylandii. Some more suitable quick growing hedging plants are Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus Rotundifolia) [...]

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Question: 1) Should I chop up the vegetable scraps before throwing on the compost pile? Ideally you should break up the vegetable scraps before composting them, this will help the quicker breakdown. 2) What type of accelerant would you recommend? As an accelerant any basic garden fertilizer will do the trick, its just a matter [...]

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slugs entering your conservatory or house, one method to prevent them entering your a conservatory or house is to use a copper tape in the door ways steps and drain pipes ideally using it on the outside and inside. The copper tape creates a barrier the slug find difficult to cross For further information click [...]

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Then patios and walls become green in the winter months is normally a build up of green algae on your patios and stone work etc we normally treat these areas with jeyes fluid two caps fulls to a gallon in the early autumn and the spring this keep the areas free from the algae and [...]

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Fungus as toadstools or mushrooms in your raised beds normally is not a problem and should not do the vegetables or you any harm. Most raised beds are filled with soil and compost or some other form of organic mater which is broken down by a number of elements including fungus, most of the time [...]

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How to improve sandy soils the solution is to add loads of organic matter such as well rotted compost or farm yard or horse manure or ideally spent mushroom compost thats been used to grow mushrooms in and is a bye product of this process. The reason spent mushroom compost is ideal is that it [...]

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Now in Early January is a good time to start some of your summer flowers especially with new or your overwintered begonias & dalias plus sweet peas from seed. Getting these plants started now will insure a colourful start to the summer season in the coming year. With begonias & dalias place the corns in [...]

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With retaining walls there are a number of methods bu which they can be built But the key is to remember that you are in effect retaing the soil and the water within the soil. Most retaining walls fail because they do not have the proper drainage behind them so this is the first consideration. [...]

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