0115 846 5113
August 2006 >>>
While most of the country thinks of holidays, gardeners enjoy the beauty of a fully grown summer garden and the taste of home-grown fruit and vegetables. One of the good things about traditional holiday time is that heavy downpours of rain can usually be relied upon to keep the garden well watered. Watch out for thunderstorms and make sure your rain water butt is sufficient to store these heaven-sent reserves.
THE ORNAMENTAL GARDEN
Many shrubs and border plants should be in bloom providing a riot of colour. Lavatera are rampant growers, but reward you with a host of pink or white blooms that cover the shrub for weeks on end. Buddleia too will be coming into bloom, with cone-shaped spikes of purple or white flowers that are particularly attractive to butterflies. For best results in the garden select a named hybrid such as Black Knight (dark purple) or Royal Red ( (purple-red) as these have richer colours. These shrubs grow with only the smallest root system and manage to survive in pots with very limited water supply. In fact travelling by train you can often spot stalwart buddleia examples growing and blooming from the tops of walls.
Rambler roses only flower once in a season and the old stems that have carried blooms need to be cut back to where new young stems are emerging. Tie in the new growth to tidy up the shape of the plant and feed with a rose food to ensure good strong growth.
Hybrid tea bush roses and repeat flowering shrub roses will be producing buds in time for their second flush of summer blooms. If you fed your flowering border at the beginning of the season with a slow release plant food such as Osmocote then just a standard feed of Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food should be sufficient to give them the strength to produce big beautiful blooms. Some people prefer to feed flowering plants with a special tomato fertilizer such as Tomorite as it is rich in seaweed and high potassium to encourage extra flowering and fruiting. When diluted in a watering can both plant tonics should be applied over the leaves as well as onto the soil so that the plant foods get in through the leaves as well as the roots. To avoid scorch to plant leaves, water and feed in the evening or very early in the morning when the sun is no danger.
As the soil dries out in the hot summer sun and plant roots are short of moisture, so powdery mildew spreads more easily and roses should be checked for the first signs of this white deposit on leaves and buds. When first signs are seen there is little that will help the situation other than spraying with a disease control product. Using a different one each time you treat your roses will help to give good control as repeated treatments of the same active ingredients aren't always advisable.
There are several different disease control products that are recommended for use on rose powdery mildew. They include FungusClear, FungusClear Gun! or if greenfly are also a problem choose a product that also contains a greenfly killer such as Roseclear 3 or Roseclear Gun!. Treating with these products will help to reduce the existing powdery mildew infection and protect foliage against further attack.
At this time of the year other diseases may be noticed on ornamental plants in the garden. Antirrhinum, hollyhocks, pelargoniums and chrysanthemum are prone to rust, seen as yellow orange or brown raised spots on leaves and stems. Latest trials from a leading consumer magazine indicates that early spraying of decorative plants with FungusClear is your best bet, especially if you can treat the young foliage early on in the season. If your plants are showing signs of the disease pick off and burn affected leaves, before you spray them with a suitable fungicide.
Not all discoloured or mottled leaves are due to diseases - pests are often the culprit. In hot weather thrips, often called thunder flies, suck the sap and eat the leaf surface leaving a silvery flecking on flowers and leaves. Gladioli and roses are particularly susceptible, especially when planted close to south facing walls. To prevent the flowers and foliage from being attacked spray the plants thoroughly, including the underside of leaves with BugClear or BugClear Gun! (bifenthrin) or Nature's Answer Bug Killer (pyrethrins).
TOPICAL TIP
Feed all bedding plants with Miracle-Gro All-Purpose Plant Food. If your water authority still allows the use of a hose-pipe use the Miracle-Gro Feeder to feed your whole garden in minutes. If not then dissolve it in a watering can and apply by hand.
THE PATIO GARDEN
Start to take cuttings of geraniums, osteospermums, fuchsias and other plants you want to propagate. Dip the ends of the prepared cuttings into a hormone rooting powder and then place around the edges of pots of fresh Levington Seed & Cutting Compost. Place the pots in a shaded spot in the garden. Geraniums don't need to be covered, but fuchsias root more easily if a white or clear plastic bag is fitted over the cuttings to maintain a humid atmosphere. New roots should form in 3 to 4 weeks and the cuttings will show this by producing new growth. Pot up the rooted cuttings in individual pots of Levington Container & Hanging Basket compost with Vine Weevil Control so that the plant develops internal protection to greenfly, blackfly, vine weevil and useful control of whitefly.
Watch out for nocturnal vine weevil adults that may be emerging to nibble around the edges of leaves in patio pots. Use a torch to spot the adults and squash the ones you find.
Although there are now effective control measures available to amateur gardeners, the black vine weevil is still one of the most damaging pests of British gardens.
Unfortunately you only need to introduce one pot that contains the larvae from a friend or slipshod nursery and the pest can be on the rampage quickly. The only way to keep the pest from attacking your container grown decorative plants is to be vigilant and to grow susceptible plants in Levington Container & Hanging Basket Compost with Vine Weevil Control. This gives the plant roots long-term protection from the larval stages.
Don't be tempted to use dish water to water plants growing in pots, containers or hanging baskets. The root area is too small to cope with the soap and impurities. Use this 'grey water' instead on flowering shrubs or sweet peas, but not edible crops.
Ants are a regular summer nuisance both on the patio and in the kitchen. To provide the resource that will kill the whole nest, not just the workers that are looking for food, you need to use their foraging instincts to beat them at their own game. That's where the Ant Stop! Bait Station comes into its own. It's about the size of a biscuit and contains a special bait that ants can't resist. What they don't realise as they pick up the bait and take it back to feed the rest of the nest is that it also contains tiny amounts of a substance that will eventually kill off the whole nest. It's clean and simple to use. Just break off a couple of the doors to the ant trap and place where the pests are running. They will do the hard work for you, feeding the queen ant, the nurses and larvae that inhabit the hidden away nest.
You can use a Bait Station indoors in the kitchen in just the same way or you may prefer to spray around skirting boards and around doors and windows with the clear liquid spray of Ant Stop! Any ants that cross over the invisible barrier created by the spray will pick up microscopic droplets of the material that sticks to their legs. When they return to the nest these droplets rub off onto the walls of the chambers and the other ants in the nest where they gradually evaporate to steadily and surely kill off the whole nest.
TOPICAL TIP
Feed flowering patio pots every week with Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food or the liquid concentrate Miracle-Gro Outdoor Plant Food. Dead-head all flower heads as they fade.
THE LAWN
At this time of the year lawn grasses will try to set seed and will be producing rigid stems to carry the flower heads. Regular mowing will help to keep the unsightly stems that grow vertically but will probably miss the ones that are growing across the surface.
To help catch these stems with the next mowing, rake the area before cutting the grass. Watering the lawn is an environmental luxury in the south east of the country where water resources are stretched to their limit. Gardeners know that lawns will survive most normal drought periods and quickly come back green and lush whenever regular rains occur again. If your grass is looking pale and tired from lack of water there are things you can do to speed up their recovery. Spike the lawn with a garden fork now while it is dry and parched. This will allow all the rain that falls to be absorbed rather than run off the hard surface. If there are no hosepipe restrictions in your area you can then water the lawn with a sprinkler. Choose a time of the day when water pressure is greatest; early morning is usually better than evening. See that the grass gets a good soaking or nothing at all. Just wetting the surface will only encourage surface rooting and is not good for a resilient summer lawn that shrugs off drought periods.
After the water treatment feed the lawn lightly with Miracle-Gro Lawn Food applied through a hose-end Feeder. It's quick to apply and will green up the lawn in less than a week. To help the lawn survive a drought, raise the height of cut on the grass and leave off the grass box. The fine grass cuttings will help to reduce surface evaporation from the soil and water loss.
Weeds such as white clover, dandelions and daisies may be springing up and thriving while the grass is under stress. After the lawn has had a good watering, treat the whole area with a weedkiller such as Verdone Extra.
TOPICAL TIP
Spot treat the odd rogue weed with a ready-to-use weedkiller such as Verdone Extra Spot Weeder.
IN THE GREENHOUSE
Pick tomatoes as soon as they ripen. At this time of the year the skin can split allowing diseases to start if they are left too long on the vine. Continue to feed the plants with Tomorite Liquid Tomato Food. Its rich nutrient content with added magnesium and seaweed will help to produce fruit that is highly flavoured as well as big.
Throughout the month keep a close watch for whitefly and be prepared to spray plants affected. There are many insecticide products that can be used on flowering and other ornamental plants but their use on edible crops is restricted to the plants that are listed on the label. Nature's Answer to Insect Pests, on the other hand, can be used on all flowers, fruit and vegetables both in the garden and in the greenhouse. It contains pyrethrins extracted from the flowers of a member of the chrysanthemum family and gives a fast acting and effective spray.
Schizanthus seed can now be sown to provide flowering pot plants for spring display indoors. Sow in trays of Levington Multi-Purpose Compost kept shaded until the seeds germinate.
TOPICAL TIP
Continue to remove side shoots on tomatoes as soon as they are big enough to pinch out. Don't be tempted to remove lower leaves while they are still green and healthy. These are the power centres of the plant that is turning sunlight into energy
THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN
Raspberry canes that have finished fruiting should be cut back to ground level and the new canes that are emerging tied to the supporting wires. Hold in any available soil moisture by spreading a 7cm (3 inch) mulch layer of well-rotted garden compost, Levington Soil Conditioner or Miracle-Gro Ecosense Soil Improver over the widespread root area. .
August is the ideal month for planting strawberries. Feed cropping plants including courgettes, tomatoes, runner beans and French beans with Miracle-Gro Plant Food at regular intervals to encourage continuous production. Sow seed of perpetual spinach (leaf beet) to provide a useful crop from October through until April. Another vegetable that produces similar winter greens is Swiss Chard or Seakale beet. One variety called 'Bright Lights' is so decorative that the coloured stems of yellow, red and orange deserve space in the flower border. Sown immediately the seedlings should stand all winter to provide a steady crop of tasty and attractive stems.
TOPICAL TIP
Feed autumn fruiting raspberries with a plant food such as Miracle-Gro Ericaceous Plant Food that is rich in nitrogen and sequestered iron.
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL: USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Information supplied by the Scotts Miracle Gro Company UK Ltd
.........................................
Download PDF of Garden Diaries below: Or visit the archived pages:
