If you are an expert garden designer y our garden will be carefully planned to have colour and interest all year round. Most of us are not, however. The easiest way is to take a look at your garden and, as the colour fades, come and buy a few things to brighten it up. If you do this every few weeks, you will soon have a garden with colour all summer long. There are still plenty of colourful herbaceous perennials at the Nursery – Heleniums, Monardas, Echinaceas, Alstroemerias and more.
The Spring bedding is pretty well gone but we have some 1.5L “Summer Shiners” which will brighten up your patio pots or add an instant fix to a dull border. Antirrhinums, Asters, Zinnias, Gazanias all grown especially for mid-summer sales. Also, we have potted some patio plants – all sorts – Angelonia – Verbena.
In the vegetable garden, those runner beans should be at the top of their canes now. Pinch the tops out and keep doing it. This will encourage new growth from the base and avoid that end of season mess when all the fresh beans are tangled up at the top. When you start picking it is important to take all the beans. Do not leave any odd ones on the plants as they will quickly turn the new ones stringy. If you save your own seed, choose a few good plants to take seed from – do not wait until the end of the year and gather up whatever is left.
We still have leek plants in stock and it isn’t too late for planting them. We also have cabbage, sprouts and kale. The plants may look a bit sad but they will be fine when planted out. Too late for cauliflowers, though – they resent a check and would certainly ‘button’ if planted out now.
Fennel, lettuce and spinach still in stock.
Don’t forget our plant list as at the beginning of the season is on our website.