Gardening tips and advice Database

Photinia or red robin problem with be one of two causes Firstly when a large plant is moved because a lot of its roots are damaged it drops or shuts down a lot of the top growth i.e the leaves and branches. This is to try to balance its self so that the volume of [...]

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How to water a dry compost Sometimes when a compost becomes very dry it’s hard to wet again the solution is to stand the planted containers in bowles of water so the compost sucks the water up from the base. This should happen over about 4 hours. In edition to this you can water with [...]

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Often moss growing on top of a garden border tends to suggest the soil is to acid and lacks humids and organic matter. The best course of action is to test the soil pH and if the border has acid soil to top dress with spent mushroom compost which supplies both organic mater and lime [...]

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Composting plants with mildrew it’s better not to place them on the compost heap as it might spread to other plants in the garden when you use the compost better to burn the clippings or remove it from you garden and take it to the tip

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Be careful when watering plants in hot weather as you can do more harm than good. It’s better to water layering in the day as the sun is going down. This is because if you water when the sun is at it’s hotest the water droplets can magnify the suns rays and burn the leaves. [...]

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During July and the start of August it’s a good idea to lightly prune back your apple trees cutting back the spring growth by about 60 percent or 4 leaf nodes created in the current season. This growth is seen as long stems normally at the length of between 100 to 200 mm long. Cutting [...]

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To grow a standard wisteria Take a large pot fill with a loam based compost and plant a wisteria idealy with a single stem. Keep training the main stem up the cane until it’s the height you want cutting the side shoot of below this point. Then take three canes place them around the side [...]

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Green water – July and August are the time of year when ponds and fountains can be effected by green water were the water turns into something along the lines of a pea soap. This is due to increased light levels at this time of year because of longer days. This combined with a higher [...]

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After a time natural stone steps and paving such as flag stones tend to build up a layer of algae and litchens which become slippy in wet conditions. These are in effect small micro plants feeding on the build up of humids and nutrients on the natural stone over a period of time. The best [...]

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Growing roses in containers is not an easy gardeing project. Although they will grow in most composts the quality of the flowers can be different. The best potting compost for roses in containers is a soil or loam based compost such as John Innes number 2 or 3 compost with 25 percent added clay loam. [...]

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