Amateur Gardening 4-May-2019

“I love the bank holidays — when everyone else is queuing in traffic on the motorways, or queuing at the garden centre, I’m going to be in my garden. There are lots of small jobs to do, and that extra day makes a big difference — but it’s not all about jobs. When I feel like it, I’ll stop, take a break and just look at the garden. Sometimes, just sitting and looking provides inspiration. Let your mind wander and your imagination roam free. I’ve had an idea about creating a new border at the end of the lawn. Will it work? I don’t know, but I’m going to give it a try. Don’t be afraid to experiment.”…

THIS first May holiday isn’t as long as Easter, but it still gives you plenty of time to get out into the garden. This month contains some of the busiest weeks of the year, when everything in the garden really gets into its stride. The soil is warming up and is still dampened by showers, making now the perfect opportunity to sow hardy annuals directly where you want them to grow. Rake and clear the soil and protect seeds with a pet-deterrent spray or a lattice of twigs, then keep the site weeded and watch your plants flourish. Birds are busy raising their young now, so don’t forget to provide clean water and nutrient-rich food, including sunflower hearts and mealworms. Don’t, however, leave out mealworms for hedgehogs as they offer little nutritional value…

1 Move your leafy begonia tubers into pots of John Innes No2 or quality multi-purpose compost. Grow them on and harden them off before planting out. 2 Prick out seedlings that have grown ‘proper’ leaves (not germination leaflets) into John Innes No1 or multipurpose compost and watch them grow. 3 Pot on plug plants so they are ready for this summer’s bedding and containers. Tease out any circling roots and harden off this month. 4 For an unusual patio container, create a half-barrel pond and fill it with waterlilies and other plants. It will soon attract dragonflies! Bright and beautiful: It’s all about summer bedding at the moment, so buy next week’s AG (in the shops 7 May) for everything you need to know for a colourful summer garden.…

Take softwood cuttings of perennials now and they may even give you a second flush of colour later in the summer. Pelargoniums and penstemons are both suitable plants. Simply remove 4in (10cm) of healthy new growth using sharp, clean secateurs. Strip off the lower leaves and dip the cut ends in rooting compound. Insert cuttings around the edge of 4in (10cm) pots containing dampened cuttings compost and perlite. Seal inside a plastic bag and place somewhere light and warm and the cuttings should soon root and grow.…

SOME fantastic new plants are arriving at garden centres and online retailers over the next few weeks, just in time for this year’s planting. Hereford-based Wyevale Nurseries, the Garden Beauty website and Wyevale Garden Centres, which have no connection with the nurseries of the same name, have all launched new varieties for 2019. Wyevale Nurseries, a family-owned retail business and one of the UK’s leading commercial nurseries, has unveiled a new agapanthus and several other new plants for 2019. These new additions will be available from garden centres nationwide in time for summer. Garden Beauty has launched two new hebes and Wyevale Garden Centres has released two new dahlias. Colin Stanley, retail sales manager at Wyevale Nurseries, said: “Agapanthus ‘Fireworks’ is a brand-new agapanthus with glorious bicolour blue and white blooms that explode into…

BRITAIN in Bloom is back with a bang this month. Seventy towns, cities and villages will compete in this year’s UKwide RHS competition and will spend May laying the groundwork for gold medal success. St Helier, Durham, Perth, Kingsbridge and Castlecaulfield will battle it out in the much-coveted Champion of Champions category. Early planning is exactly what Truro say helped them clinch the title last year. Conscious of our changing climate, Liam Shoesmith from the city’s parks department said they decided to shake things up and ‘take a punt’ on new plantings perfect for their mild and sunny south-westerly clime. Out went traditional bedding and in came more exotic planting schemes, including the unusual puya with its huge flower spike, dainty saxifrage and architectural agave. With the UK set to see drier, warmer summers,…