Saturday, September 22, 2018
Gardening tips: how to plant agapanthus https://t.co/3u8xjuLtsl Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM
How to grow new plants from cuttings https://t.co/oZAy8Eft97 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM
Gardens: repairing summer's damage https://t.co/Q1Vf6ZRLSj Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM
Gardening tips: how to plant agapanthus
Plus why you should visit the gardens at Down House and check that your water butt is working
Plant this The heatwave was perfect for agapanthus, which love a well-drained, sunny spot and flower until the first frosts. Some can suffer in winter, so protect with a deep mulch post-flowering. Violet-blue ‘Northern Star’ is deciduous, but hardier than most; semi-evergreen ‘White Heaven’ produces large flower heads.
Visit this The gardens at Down House, near Sevenoaks in Kent, were Charles Darwin’s outdoor laboratory. Visitors can stroll through the greenhouses where he conducted experiments and take a turn on the “thinking path” walk around the estate. Open daily; details at english-heritage.org.uk/darwin.
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How to grow new plants from cuttings
It’s free and easy. Here’s how
It is a simple, but magical, act: take a little bit of stem and, with a few careful cuts, create a new plant. That magic, the ebb and flow of hormones and auxins, is on your side: once severed of its root, the plant is desperate to take hold again. All you have to do is give it a go. Right now, the window for semi-ripe cuttings is drawing to a close, but it is not shut: this weekend, for 15 minutes’ worth of effort, you can take those tired lavenders that have become leggy, or that woody rosemary, and strike a few cuttings so you have new plants for spring for free. Hyssop, thyme, bay, sage, lemon verbena, rue, scented pelargoniums, penstemons and verbenas are suitable for semi-ripe cuttings.
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Gardens: repairing summer's damage
This year’s extreme weather has left our plots struggling. It’s time to rethink how we garden
What a year it’s been. While the months of soaring temperatures provided an initially welcome ray of sunshine after a long, cold, wet winter, the two extremes have damaged our gardens – and highlighted how vulnerable labour-intensive, primped-and-pruned plots can be. Mature trees and shrubs (with deeper root structures), perennial crops and wildflower-laden areas suffered less from the heat; but potted plants, which dry out quickly, became a time-consuming burden, requiring endless watering, while salad leaves stopped growing or wilted and died. Mediterranean, sun-loving produce such as tomatoes, aubergines, grapes, cucumbers, thyme, rosemary and oregano thrived; but leeks, broccoli, onions, carrots and potatoes were hit hard, a fact mirrored in farmers’ worrying crop yields this year.
Soil erosion and heat stress left plants more vulnerable to pests and diseases, while the wet winter threatenedsoil fertility and increased the risk of nutrients being washed away. Cyclical natural phenomena, predicted to amplify the effects of global warming over the next four years, could result in greater extremes. The RHS recently partnered with Cranfield University to recruit the UK’s first garden water scientist, to research how gardeners can better deal with drought and flood; but in the meantime, what can we do to repair the damage and increase our gardens’ resilience? Here’s how to get started.
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