The family cat prowling the garden will control its population of chipmunks, mice, and young rabbits.

Cut plastic gallon milk jugs in half lengthwise. Punch a hole in the bottom to let out rain. Set ripening melons in these contraptions. They help prevent rot and keep mice and shrews from nibbling on the melons.

Are rodents feasting on your tulip bulbs? Plant daffodils instead. Their bulbs are bitter, so mice and chipmunks won’t eat them.

If you’re determined to have tulips, interplant with Frittilaria imperialis bulbs. The two- to three-foot tall plants have pendulous red, orange, or yellow blooms. They exude a skunk-like odor that repels rodents and moles. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you water frequently? Leave a section of hose laid out down the center of the garden. Drive double stakes of wood at intervals to keep the hose from decimating the vegetables as you pull it back and forth.

Double stakes protect garden from hose

Another gardener, who has several small vegetable plots, drives a stake at the corner of each bed to protect plants while he drags the hose around. Read the rest of this entry »

The family cat prowling the garden will control its population of chipmunks, mice, and young rabbits.

Cut plastic gallon milk jugs in half lengthwise. Punch a hole in the bottom to let out rain. Set ripening melons in these contraptions. They help prevent rot and keep mice and shrews from nibbling on the melons.

Are rodents feasting on your tulip bulbs? Plant daffodils instead. Their bulbs are bitter, so mice and chipmunks won’t eat them. Read the rest of this entry »

Trees and shrubs within semi desert areas have their own defenses against drought. These usually take the form of a deciduous habit, the plants losing their leaves as the hottest season commences, together with the ability to store water within their roots and occasionally their trunks. The famous Baobab (Adansonia digitata) of Africa has an almost bottle-like stem. Other plants spend the difficult season completely dormant. Read the rest of this entry »

These are the essential tools, used during soil cultivation, sowing and planting.

• Fork For digging heavy soils, breaking down rough-dug soil and for light surface cultivation. The head of a full-size four- tine fork measures 30.5 x 19cm/12 x 7¹/2in; that of a small border fork measures 23 x 14cm/9 x5 1/2 in.

• Hoe For surface cultivation, particularly to eradicate weeds between rows of plants. There are two basic types: the Dutch Hoe, which cuts horizontally through the soil; and the Draw Hoe, which is used with a chopping action (particularly recommended for stony or heavy soils, and also for making seed drills). Both have 1.5m/5ft handles. Read the rest of this entry »

Garden compost is the next best thing to farmyard manure. There are many materials that can be composted — that is, formed into a heap and rotted down.

Setting up the bins To retain the heap of compost material construct a wire-netting enclosure 1.2m/4ft high, 1.2m/4ft wide and any length you wish. Alternatively, use a proprietary compost bin. It’s best to have two compost heaps: one for immediate use, the other in the process of rotting.

Choosing the compostable materials Mix the various materials together before adding them to the heap. You can use annual weeds, lawn mowings, potato peelings, animal manure, torn-up newspaper, soft hedge clippings, vegetable leaves and stems, tree and shrub leaves, and many other kinds of soft material — but not hard woody stuff such as fruit-tree prunings. In a separate wire bin you can also rot down deciduous leaves on their own to make soil-enriching leafmould. Read the rest of this entry »

Raising your own plants is much cheaper than buying from a nursery or garden centre. Although a greenhouse is helpful if you want to raise tender plants, a cold frame also has plenty of possibilities for propagating plants.

Six propagating aids

Apart from a greenhouse and cold frame, there are various other tools and materials which you will find useful for the successful propagation of plants.

• Cutting compost Used for rooting cuttings. Made at home by mixing equal parts by bulk of moist sphagnum moss peat and coarse horticultural sand. Alternatively use equal parts peat or coco fibre and perlite. Read the rest of this entry »

Planting techniques vary slightly according to whether you buy plants in containers from garden centres or bare-root plants (as lifted from the field) supplied by nurserymen. There are also various ways of planting bulbs. Get the technique right and plant at the right time: your plants will then be off to a good start. Some plants will need supports against the wind.

Four planting methods

These are the techniques for planting the major groups ofgarden plants: trees, shrubs, conifers, climbers, perennials, bedding plants and blubs. To get plants such as trees, shrubs, conifers and fruits off to a good start, especially if you have a poor or difficult soil, consider using a planting mixture. Read the rest of this entry »

In tubs, urns, window boxes or hanging baskets, the following plants will make a colourful show all summer and into autumn. Grow in a good potting compost either loam-based or a peat-based type.

• Floss flower (Ageratum houstonianum) Very popular half- hardy annual, useful for edging. Blue, pink or white powder- puff flowers freely produced, especially if you trim off dead blooms. 15cm/6in. Moist soil, sun.
• Geranium, ivy-leaf (Pelargonium peltatum) A classic container plant. Half-hardy perennial treated as an annual. Ivy-shaped leaves on trailing stems, producing a cascade of pink, red or white flowers well into autumn. 60cm/2ft. Easy to grow; feed well, plenty of sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Two automatic watering systems

If you cannot regularly attend to watering, consider an automatic system which runs from a header tank connected to the mains water supply (or a semi-automatic system which is supplied by a reservoir).

• Capillary watering Pots are placed on water-retentive capillary matting and take up moisture as required. The matting can be laid in gravel trays. Complete watering systems are available, with trays, matting and sometimes water reservoirs.
• Trickle watering Popularly known as the “spaghetti system”: a main plastic supply pipe with thin tubes sprouting from it. Each tube is positioned over a pot or container so every plant is watered when the supply is turned on. Read the rest of this entry »

These plants are suitable for growing around the base of winter- or spring-flowering shrubs, for bright splashes of colour in the border..

• Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) Pink and white heart- shaped flowers in spring above attractive foliage. 45-60cm/ 1¹/2-2ft. A pure white form is becoming popular. Moist peaty soil and dappled shade.

• Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) Evergreen hand-shaped leaves and white single-rdse-like flowers in winter. 30cm/12in. Fertile moist soil and partial shade.

• Elephant’s ears (Bergenia species/varieties) Large, shiny, leathery evergreen foliage and dense heads of pink, red or white flowers in spring. 30cm/12in. Foliage often turns reddish in winter. Moist soil. Sun or partial shade. Read the rest of this entry »

Three bulbs and corms for growing in grass

Grassy areas can be made colourful by planting bulbs andcorms, perhaps around the bases of trees or on banks. Do not cut the grass until at least 9 weeks after the flowers have faded, or there will be few or no flowers next year.

• Crocus, large-flowered Dutch Large, goblet-shaped flower in shades of yellow, purples, blue or white in spring. 10— 15cm/4-9in. Full sun needed for blooms to open.
• Crocus, autumn-flowering (Crocus speciosus) Lilac flowers in autumn, leaves following in spring. 10cm/4in. Full sun and well-drained soil.
• Daffodil, miniature (Narcissus bulbocodium and N. cyclamineus) Yellow flared and trumpet-shaped miniature flowers respectively, in spring. 15cm/9in. Moist soil, and sun or partial shade. Plant generously in drifts. Read the rest of this entry »

Bulbs and corms are virtually guaranteed to flower, with a minimum of soil preparation, as the flower buds are already formed inside them when they are planted. If you give them the right conditions, they will bloom regularly each year.

Because, on the whole, bulbs and corms are relatively inexpensive compared with, say, shrubs, you can afford to mass-plant them, which certainly creates the best effect. Spring bulbs are so well known that many gardeners do not realize that there are bulbs and corms that can be planted for flowering at other seasons — not just in spring, which is the peak time. Spring-flowering bulbs are planted in autumn, summer-flowering bulbs in spring, and autumn-flowering bulbs in summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Suitable for a sunny, sheltered wall, or any structure which receives full sun.

• Californian lilac(Ceanothus species and varieties) Attractive wall shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous, producing mainly blue flowers in spring/early summer, or in summer and autumn. Height variable to 6m/20ft. Not suited to shallow, chalky soils; good drainage and shelter needed.
• Chilean potato tree(Solanum crispum) Vigorous semi- evergreen climber to 6m/20ft, with purplish blue, potato-like flowers in summer. `Glasnevin’ is a good variety. Shelter and good drainage needed. Prune previous year’s shoots hard back in mid-spring. Read the rest of this entry »

An autumn garden can be highly colourful if it includes some of these shrubs. Some are grown for their autumn leaf colour and/or berries, others for their flowers. To complement them, plant some autumn-flowering bulbs and perennials, such as autumn crocuses and Michaelmas daisies. Read the rest of this entry »

Two types of turf

When buying turf, always go to a specialist supplier:then you will have a choice of proper lawn grasses and the turf will be (or should be!) free from weeds and cut to a uniform depth.

Field-grown turf This is the most popular. Usually sold in 90cm/3ft by 30cm/1ft ft pieces, each rolled up for delivery. The pieces will be of uniform thickness.

Seedling turf This comes in large lightweight rolls and is well-rooted and of uniform thickness. It’s raised on special nurseries. You can order exactly the kind of grass you want for particular uses, soil conditions or aspects (eg for chalky soil, shady conditions, etc). Read the rest of this entry »

Most flowering plants are not much at risk as long as they are well cultivated. Among the principal sufferers are bulbs, and plants grown under glass, where pests and diseases particularly flourish.

Five troubles affecting roots

A number of insect pests live in the soil and feed on the roots of plants. Usually you do not know they’re there until leaves and shoots begin to wilt.

• Chafer grub Long fat creamy-white grubs with brown heads which feed on the roots of many flowers. If suspected, water the soil with pirimiphos-methyl or dust with gamma-BHC.
• Cutworm Soil-dwelling caterpillars about 4cm/I 1/2in long, creamy brown, which feed on roots and the surface of stems at soil level. Many border plants liable to attack. Symptom: wilting. Dust soil with gamma-BHC insecticide. Read the rest of this entry »

I. danfordioe is another early dwarf, this time yellow, as is I. histrioides, of which the most commonly found variety is ‘Major’ at 4 inches high and with deep blue flowers splashed with yellow in the centre.

I. reticulate, 6 inches, comes in a range of blues: ‘Harmony’ is dark blue, ‘Cantab’ light blue, ‘J. S. Dijt’ a warm purple. A feature of these tiny irises is that they flower when the leaves are very immature and in some cases all but absent. Later the leaves can grow quite tall but by this time you will probably have planted them out in the garden. Whether they will flourish there is a matter of luck—I. danfordiae is never very robust—but it is always worth a try. Bulbous irises could be planted in a window box but I would rather see them in shallow containers— they need only be planted 22 inches deep—and close together for maximum impact. In a 12 inch pot I would plant a dozen of the tiny bulbs, then put them somewhere where they can be seen close up and also smelled. Read the rest of this entry »

Yellow King Alfreds we have seen before, many, many times, but ‘Irene Copeland’, 14 inches, cream, has petals as tightly packed as a small dahlia or chrysanthemum and ‘Tahiti’, at 15 inches, has a mix of golden yellow petals with a smaller bright orange centre.

To the expert a daffodil is always a narcissus but we tend to think of narcissus as the short-trumpeted variety, such as the poeticus species with their white perianths and orange crowns. Rather than bother about the different divisions—bicolour large cups, jonquilla, triandrus and so on—select daffodils for a box entirely on the information you can get about them. Most bulbs are sold from open boxes, or in packs, with a good illustration and details of size and colour; don’t fall for any with an incomplete description because although they may well be cheaper they cannot be guaranteed to provide the effect you want in a box. Read the rest of this entry »

Corny it may be, but there is no more heart-warming sight to a gardener than the emerging spikes of the first spring bulbs. If you plant your bulbs early in boxes of good peaty compost— not bulb fibre, some of which is about as much good as sawdust—you should see the first signs of growth soon after Christmas. As I write (in early March) I have snowdrops and crocus, both the tiny species crocus, which I prefer, and the big fat hybrids, which I like less but have to admit are a welcome splash of colour just now. Then there are Eranthis hyemalis, the winter aconite, which has buttercup flowers surrounded by a frilly ruff of leaves as early as February and so is beginning to go over now, and chionodoxa, which have blue, pink or white star-shaped flowers; C. gigantea reaches 8 inches in height and has large pale violet-blue flowers with a paler centre and C. luciliae ‘Alba’ reaches 5 inches and has white flowers. The pink form C. luciliae ‘Pink Giant’ reaches 6 inches; it is not always easy to get hold of but worth growing if you can find it. Read the rest of this entry »