Your Garden Questions Answered
Episode: #1 10/03/07
Presenter: Kim Syrus
Marie of Hove has placed plastic pots inside large decorative ones and wants to mulch the plants, trouble is, most of the mulch disappears down the side of the pots and she wants to know how to stop this happening. Well, a simple piece of corflute will help solve this problem.
How to:
The second question Kim answers if from Steve of Westbourne Park, he has a couple of tall confers that broke off in a recent storm. He wants to know what he can do to encourage them to produce the same growth as they did before and match the other trees in the garden.
Conifers rely on having a central leading tip to keep their thin upright growth. Unfortunately, because Steve’s trees have lost the tip, any new growth that develops now will be evenly distributed through the side branches, producing thick bushy growth and not the single tall leader.
Since these trees are not going to match the wonderful upright growth of the other conifers, Kim advises to remove them and replant with some advanced specimens to give them a head start.
WATERWISE TIP:
A smart way to save water and feed your lawn at the same time - wait until the next rain before applying fertiliser to your turf.
Select a good quality fertiliser like Yates fertiliser and spread it evenly over the lawn. It is best to apply when the grass is dry, as some fertilizers can stick on wet grass and burn the blades. Once applied, the rain will quickly wash the fertilizer off the lawn and into the root zone to get your grass greening up, growing beautifully and, importantly, all without turning the hose on!
The autumn edition of the Garden Gurus newspaper is out now. Filled with interesting articles, loads of information, and great garden advice, so Do not miss out, Pick up a copy now from your local garden centre.
Presenter: Kim Syrus
Marie of Hove has placed plastic pots inside large decorative ones and wants to mulch the plants, trouble is, most of the mulch disappears down the side of the pots and she wants to know how to stop this happening. Well, a simple piece of corflute will help solve this problem.
How to:
- Remove the plant and place the corflute over the top of the decorative pot.
- Using the inside lip as a guide, follow along punching holes through the corflute with a screwdriver or similar - take it nice and slow.
- When you finish, join the dots and cut along the line to finish with a shape that fits snugly to the pot.
- Now, cut out a small circle from the centre of this piece and make a long straight slit from the inner circle to the outer edge.
- Place the plant back into the decorative pot and carefully open the corflute, slide it around the base of the plant so that the corflute fits inside the larger pot.
- With the top of the decorative pot covered you can now spread whatever mulch you want, like pine fines, pea straw or gravel without loosing any down the sides.
The second question Kim answers if from Steve of Westbourne Park, he has a couple of tall confers that broke off in a recent storm. He wants to know what he can do to encourage them to produce the same growth as they did before and match the other trees in the garden.
Conifers rely on having a central leading tip to keep their thin upright growth. Unfortunately, because Steve’s trees have lost the tip, any new growth that develops now will be evenly distributed through the side branches, producing thick bushy growth and not the single tall leader.
Since these trees are not going to match the wonderful upright growth of the other conifers, Kim advises to remove them and replant with some advanced specimens to give them a head start.
WATERWISE TIP:
A smart way to save water and feed your lawn at the same time - wait until the next rain before applying fertiliser to your turf.
Select a good quality fertiliser like Yates fertiliser and spread it evenly over the lawn. It is best to apply when the grass is dry, as some fertilizers can stick on wet grass and burn the blades. Once applied, the rain will quickly wash the fertilizer off the lawn and into the root zone to get your grass greening up, growing beautifully and, importantly, all without turning the hose on!
The autumn edition of the Garden Gurus newspaper is out now. Filled with interesting articles, loads of information, and great garden advice, so Do not miss out, Pick up a copy now from your local garden centre.
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