Winter in an unheated Glasshouse – creating some colour – 

If you have on and the thousands of unheated Glasshouse in the UK and wondered what you could do with them in the winter months then planting a few stock plants will provide you with some scented cut flowers for your home in the late winter early spring. Easy to grow and very hard its not a plant that is as common over resent years but well worth a try. Its best purchased as plugs or grown from seed on a window sill and then transferred to a pot or bed in your greenhouse. For extra protection you can planting them under bell jars or small cloches just to get them started. 

Other plants for the cold greenhouse which will produce early colour are spring bulbs in pots, primula and violas. 

We are often asked about pests and disease in Greenhouses and often our answers involve biological control methods but by far the most effective methods to control pests and disease in a new or existing Greenhouse is to start with a clean house. This means cleaning the inside and outside with a horticultural disinfectant or some Jeyes Fluid disinfectant using a hand spray to create a jet of water/disinfectant and small brush or long handled broom to get into cracks and gaps where pests and diseases create of eggs and spores that over winter. Then once the Green house is clean use a sulphur candle which produces a sulphur gas to help kill the pests and diseases that have managed to get themselves into inaccessible places.

This simple task will make sure your GreenHouse is as clean as it can be before you start to sow the new season crops. 

A GardenAdvice gardening course member growing her first crop of edible grapes 

Grow your own fruit and vegetables and beat the Brexit panic next spring. With the uncertainly of the way forward with the Brexit negotiations the GardenAdvice team are noticing that a lot of our Agricultural clients in the East of England have switched from growing salad crops to the crops such as sugar beat which have a longer shelf life and can be harvested with machinery rather than labour – the labour from Eastern Europe has already gone home and looks unlikely to return in the spring.

So it looks as through in the short term fruit and vegetable prices will start to rise. So if you have every fancied from your own fruit and vegetables now would be a good time to start. The GardenAdvice one day gardening course on growing your own is. good place to start, our courses cover the following

Basic gardening techniques such as digging, seed sowing, pruning, planting and watering.

Organic principles  How to work with your soil and keep it producing good crops year after year.

Basic construction methods How to build raised beds and hot bed and other useful structures.

Pest and diseases how to control them by using organic methods and creating a natural balance in your garden to keep them under control.

Creating special areas in your garden including a organic veg plot, fruit garden, perennial borders and water features.

Planning  a  years crops Making the most of the space you have available

Get some professional help with your fruit trees

The GardenAdvice team winter fruit tree pruning service which is available from November until the end of February. The service includes pruning your fruit trees and bushes, removing the prunings, tar washing the fruit plants, applying grease bands and feeding the fruit trees or bushes. The cost is £40 for the first fruit tree, £35 for next fruit trees and £30 for every fruit tree in the same garden after the first two. For futher information email us at admin@gardenadvice.co.uk  More

Come and join us for a one days gardening course in the GardenAdvice walled garden Nr Colchester and learn how to grow your own fruit and vegetables 

If you fancy growing your own veg then this course is a great place to start. The course lasts for a day and takes you through all the basics you need to know to get you own organic vegetable garden started . The following areas are covered –

Basic gardening techniques such as digging, seed sowing, pruning, planting and watering.

Organic principles  How to work with your soil and keep it producing good crops year after year.

Basic construction methods How to build raised beds and hot bed and other useful structures.

Pest and diseases how to control them by using organic methods and creating a natural balance in your garden to keep them under control.

Creating special areas in your garden including a organic veg plot, fruit garden, perennial borders and water features.

Planning  a  years crops Making the most of the space you have available

After the course and included in the cost you will be added to our MyGardenTeam system for a year to receive expert help from your very own GardenAdvice gardener 

Course costs £165 for the day including our MyGardenTeam service for a year and lunch. If you wish to come by train we can collect you at Colchester or Manningtree railway station. 

As the climate in the UK becomes warmer many of the more marginal crops are starting to become mainstream crops. In the GardenAdvice garden this year we had our largest crop of nectarines so far and some of the grapes we grow outside produced enough sugar to become very edible. These results have been achieved even with the late spring earlier this year – yet more evidence that the climate has changed in our garden

A GardenAdvice gardening course grows her first salad crop from Seed – excellent iceberg lettuce 

We will show you how to grow your own vegetables through the year with our one day home gardening course focusing on vegetable, fruit and salad production. No experience needed Just an interest in growing your own for you and your family.  For further information ring 01225 637218  or Click Here for further information

If you wish to grow your own vegetables then our One Day Gardening Course on growing organic vegetables is a great place to start to gain the knowledge and support you need. You as a course in your own garden by one of our gardening experts for you and up to 12 of your family and friends or at our walled kitchen garden near Colchester

Available as gift certificate as a Christmas present for the gardener in your life. Organise your own dates to suit you with our expert gardening staff to suit you after Xmas

All our courses include a years membership to our MyGardenTeam service which provides you with your own expert gardener on the GardenAdvice Staff to help you with advice on growing your own vegetable and fruit plus your other gardening projects through the year.

The course is tailored to your gardening ambitions  and covers the following

• Basic gardening techniques such as digging, seed sowing, pruning, planting and watering.

Organic principles  How to work with your soil and keep it producing good crops year after year.

• Basic construction methods How to build raised beds and hot bed and other useful structures.
• Pest and diseases how to control them by using organic methods and creating a natural balance in your garden to keep them under control.
• Creating special areas in your garden including a organic veg plot, fruit garden, perennial borders and water features.
• Planning  a years crops Making the most of the space you have available

All the GardenAdvice courses are available in the following formats. Click Here 

Home course for a day in your own garden for you or you and your friends for up to 12 people. One of our GardenAdvice garden advisors comes to you and carries out the course costing £165 per day. We tailor the course to your gardening interests and the person organising the course gets 12 months membership to our MyGardenTeam service included in the cost. Available to purchase as a gift voucher as a xmas or birthday etc.

Our youngest GardenAdvice gardener started earlier this year with Mum and Dad on a GardenAdvice home one day gardening course. Seen here making sure her sunflower seeds got of to a good start

Your are never to young or old to start to learn about gardening and a great place to start is a GardenAdvice gardening course. Our course last for a day and are normally carried out in your own garden on a date to suit you. After the course and included in the cost we transfer you onto our MyGardenTeam service which provides you with back up and advice from your own personal gardener on the GardenAdvice Staff. For more details on GardenAdvice gardening courses  Click Here 

Our one day courses also make ideal Xmas presents for the gardener in your life or maybe the several gardens in your life. The GardenAdvice courses can be organised online and over the telephone so you are already to go with a very special gardening gift in the form of a voucher on Xmas day and you can organise the date to suit you schedule after Xmas For Further details Click Here 

If you’re looking to add a deck to your garden, you may be surprised by the number of different choices available to you. Hardwood, softwood, composite wood, plastic…there are many different options to choose from, and each one has its own unique set of benefits and drawbacks.

Today, we’ve teamed up with TimberTech UK to take a closer look at composite decking, which is an increasingly popular choice among British homeowners. Composite boards are made by combining natural wood materials with synthetic polymers, resulting in a material that’s somewhere in between hardwood and plastic decking.

So why are so many people turning to composite decking these days? What advantages does this material have to offer?

Minimal maintenance

Perhaps the most-trumpeted benefit of composite wood decking is the fact that it requires very little maintenance. Timber decking has to be treated every couple of years to keep it from becoming unsightly and – in the end – unusable. Composite deck boards, on the other hand, don’t need to be stained or painted, and unlike timber boards, they’re not prone to rotting, warping and splintering. Occasional washing is all that’s generally required to keep a composite deck looking good.

Improved slip resistance

Wood decking tends to become very slippery when the weather takes a turn for the worse, but happily, this is less of a problem for composite deck boards. Composite deck boards are less absorbent than their hardwood counterparts, so surface water dries quickly instead of seeping into the wood and creating a favourable habitat for mould and algae.

Environmentally friendly

The hardwood decking industry is a notorious contributor to deforestation, and in recent years, we’ve even seen reports of UK shops stocking the by-products of illegal logging activity in the Amazon rainforest. Composite decking is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional timber decking – TimberTech boards, for example, are made using waste wood from the furniture industry that would otherwise have gone into landfill sites. The plastics used to create composite decking are increasingly coming from environmentally-kind sources (e.g. recycled plastic bottles) as well.

Are there any drawbacks?

We mentioned at the beginning of this article that all decking materials have both benefits and drawbacks, and the one disadvantage of composite decking is its price. Good-quality composite decking is somewhat more expensive than wood decking and plastic decking, so you should be prepared for the initial cost of your garden deck to be a little higher if you do choose to use composite boards.

That being said, composite decks last for decades and – as noted above – require very little maintenance. Be sure to factor this in when selecting your preferred decking material; as an example, TimberTech decks are guaranteed for 30 years (10 years for commercial projects), and you’ll save a lot of time and money over those three decades because you won’t have to paint, stain or seal your boards even once.