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Getting started Getting to know your garden like this and learning these few basic facts will help immensely when you come to chose plants for your garden and the information about the plants on growgarden.co.uk will start to make a lot more sense. Start to Plan Once you have your plan drawn up, mark relevant information on it which you have learned about the garden already such as “Partial Sun” for areas which get the sun for parts of the day and “boggy” for areas which are wet. Now you can log onto growgarden.co.uk and start looking at potential plants and trees to purchase for the garden. If your not sure, try purchasing some of our ready made kits which take the hassle out of making borders. The two other general types of soil are Sandy and Clay soils each have there own advantages and disadvantages.  No matter what type your soil is however, there is a simple method of improving all types of soils, and this is to add organic matter. This improves nutrients, helps retain moisture and also helps break up clay. Adding organic matter is simple, you can add some farm manure, which you can purchase from our site, or compost from your composter, or a whole host of other organic matter, such as leaf mould, bark chippings etc. You won’t have instant loam, but doing this twice a year will gradually reveal good soil. Once you have decided where the flower/vegetable beds are going and what areas are to remain in grass (if your sowing a new lawn please see our other guide) you will need to prepare the soil. How you do these will depend on what type of bed you want, for instance if you are creating a raised bed for vegetables you can simply pour over additional soil, compost and farmyard manure on top of the grass. Any other type of bed will normally require some digging. Two choices here, you either dig up the grass and turn it over and leave it there for a few months, this kills the grass or you dig out the sods and fill with more soil, this is quicker, but you will need additional soil as you will lose some with the sods. Whatever method you employ remember to add organic matter to your soil to improve its structure. This is the fun bit. Once you have your flower or vegetable beds prepared it is time to start planting. Ideally you will have already created a plan, so you will have a fair idea of what goes where. If not see above, don’t just put plants in willy nilly as you’ll end up putting the wrong type of plants in the wrong location. Ideally water the plants the day before planting and leave them in their pots until your ready to plant them. Turn the plant upside down holding your hand over the top of the pot and tap the pot firmly on the bottom where the drainage holes are. This will loosen the plant and it should slide out of the pot easily. If the plant has been pot bound and there is a dense circle of roots, it helps if you tease these out a little before planting. Place the plant in a hole which is the same depth as the pot from which it came. Any deeper than this can sometimes cause the stem to root. As soon as all your plants are in the ground, go around and give them a good watering. You will need to continue to water them on a regular basis until they get established (assuming its not raining every day!). Now sit back and enjoy your new garden.
All gardens need some maintenance, unless of course you have
a concrete garden, but that wouldn’t be much fun would it! A simple lawn will need
feeding, weeding and regular cutting to keep it looking its best. In Weed control Weeds are basically just the wrong plant in the wrong place. Weeds are spread by various sources, such as bird droppings, wind, soil etc. The problem with these unwanted plants, apart from the cosmetic interference is that they complete for light, moisture and nutrients. Therefore if left unchecked they can cause other plants to suffer. They are numerous ways to attack weeds. Non Chemical Methods The traditional method of weeding is very effective, you simply walk around the garden and flower/vegetable bed and remove the weeds by pulling them up or digging. The main disadvantage of this method is that its hard work! Plus if you do not manage to get the complete weed up including the roots, the weed will usually grow again. Hoeing Using a hoe to remove weeds, typically by cutting the top of the weed, this is also effective and quicker than using your hands. The main problem is that it does not usually completely kill the weed, so needs to be done regularly. Burning Not a really popular method, but you can get blow torches specifically for weeding, this is an effective method, but can be expensive. Weed Fabric This fairly recent method works great for areas in which you do not want anything to grow apart from what you plant. You simply place the weed fabric on the ground and cut holes where you want your plants to grow. You can cover the rest with decorative stones or bark chipping. Its also used on stone driveways or even under brick paving. It lasts for years and is very effective. Chemical Methods There are two main types of
chemical weed killers, systemic and contact. Systemic weed killers are absorbed
through the leaves of the plant and travels to the roots, killing the entire
weed and ensuring that there’s no re-growth. Systemic weedkillers, such as Some general guidelines on using weed killers; · Always wear gloves and protective clothing to keep the chemical off your skin · Always read the instructions especially if the weed killer needs diluted · Spray on a still day if possible and in the evening · Don’t spray before rain as it will get washed off. · Don’t over spray, all you need is a damp coating, putting more on will not kill the weed quicker. · Be careful of the spray coming into contact with the plants that you actually want to keep! (Please note that Growgarden.co.uk will not be held liable for any damages or loss to persons or property caused by following this or any other guide on this website.) |
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