A new hedge wanted?

When you want a new hedge around your garden now is the best time to plant it.

Losen the ground and get rid of weeds and stones and other unwanted stuff.

Add compost and good ground from the woods.

Then plant the new plants and water them until you see they take hold and are doing well.

Cut them regularly to get a nice spread of branches.

Starting again your old compost heap

An old compostheap might have "died" during the winter, and it will take a long time for nature itself to start it again.
A bit of help consists of:

New leaves and grees waste on top.
Raking the old compost and new additions together.

taking compost from the bottom and adding that to the top.

And throwing a few buckets of hot water over it.

When it's an open air compost heap adding plastic on top to have the heap "breed" for a few days will help.

Air for trees

Some people think trees don't need any attention, appart from cutting branches that grow too long.

Well, they do some TLC.

A few times a year you can air the ground around the tree by plowing the ground a bit.
Don't make the ground too loose around the branches though, They need to get a hold.
Adding some compost will be great too.

Gardening in februari - 1

This is a good time to give the plants which are kept in large pots a new pot and new soil.
Be careful, only pot over the plants which are not in frozen soil and those which are not standing too wet. These last ones can wait a while.

You can also give another place to shrubs that lose leaves during the winter
and plants which are longer in your garden than a few years.
Again: only those plants without froozen roots which are not standing too wet.

Compost in the garden

When the temperatures are below zero don't do it, but when they are above zero, you can take the compost and mix it with the topsoil of the garden. Be careful not to harm bulbs or plants.

Only use the compost that is ready, which means that it's sandy and doesn't smell.

Weed killer

It gives life to your laundry and home, and it takes life on your gardenpath.

Yep, it's vinegar.

Use it pure on weeds and you'll see that they can't cope with the acid.

That's another clean gardenpath.

Plants with flowers for christmas

Right now is the time to be in contact wth your gardener if you want to have flowers in your home at christmas.

Some plants only need to be put into light a week to a fortnight and they'll flower during christmas. It takes an expert to know precisely what to do.

Ofcourse you can gamble and buy plants in the supermarket, But my experience is not do good.
Yours?

Be aware of frost

Not all plants are able to deal with frost, we all know that.
But often we forget which plants need to be put inside before the first frosty night.

So today is the perfect day to look up on internet or in books which plants of your collection need to go inside.

When you're in doubt, take a leaf anf d go to your gardencentre to ask.
They won't think you're stupid.

You're only stupid to let your plants die when it isn't necessary.

Water and leaves

Water and leaves results in rotting junk.

When you've got a birdpool, or other water in the garden put a net or roster over it so the leaves can collect there and they're easy to remove.

This is more pleasant than removing the stinking rotting junk that forms when leaves stay in the water.
Apart from the fact that the quality of the water is badly affected by leaves.

Remove the leaves very regularly.

hanging baskets

Some people put their hanging baskets away when autumn starts, but there's no need to.
Even when there's a bit of frost at ground level the temperature at the basket is above zero.

You can plant ivy at the sides of the basket to keep the green look.

When you keep the flowering plants in their own pot when you add them to the basket you can exchange them without problems, and it's also more easy to keep the water in the basket when watering the plants.

planting and trimming trees

Planting and trimming trees depends on a lot of aspects.

It's best to go to your gardencentre and have an expert advice you.
He'll know the tree in question, and he'll know the conditions in your garden.

There's a fast difference here between parts of town here.
One part has great soil. Sand, with lots of woodland compost in it. The layer of soil in the gardens is very deep, because it's the natural soil there. It used to be a forest.
The cold won't get in the ground as fast as in our part of town, so there they can plants trees later in the year too.

Here we have heavy clay. We're living on a former swamp, and it means that rains transform whole areas in a mess. In summer the toplayer dries out and changes into a firm layer that kills plants easily. Rain stays on top of it for a long time.
In the winter the humidity causes the cold to get into the soil early and deep.

Some trees can't be planted in oktober any more, because they won't invest in good rooting anymore. Maybe they'll survive in containers, but the chance is they won't have a wide rootsystem in the future and can be blown flat easily.
They'd better get a good chance and be planted in spring.

Other trees will do fine when they're planted in a large hole with good soil.
They'll be able to grow roots for quite a while until it's really winter.

As climats change and local conditions are all different, I'll stick to the advice not to plant now anymore, unless you really have to.
It takes a lot of a plant to survive winter, so why not give it the best start you can give?

Autumn in the garden - 4

It's too late to plant trees this year, but you can still put them in containers.

Plant bulbs for early flowers next year.

Remove leaves from the grass, but leave them alone elsewhere unless it are leaves from the willow.

When you want to mow the grass, do it for the last time of the year and at a height of 4 to 5 cm's. Remove all mowed grass. If you don't it will rot and cause the underlayer to go brown.

When you want to cut trees and shrubs read good information first, because some needs to be left alone uintill spring.

Autumn in the garden - 3

It's time to take your gardenequipment inside.

Remove all the dirt and apply a bit of for instance silicone oil to prevent rust.

Take the gardenhose and remove all the water.
Hang it out in the wind to be sure every small drop is removed and hang it inside.

When you have taps outside, switch off the water and let those taps run until all the water is removed.

Close them and turn the wauer on again if you need water elsewhere.
Sometimes the fgatdentaps have their own distributionswitch. When it's in the shed, be sure the pipes towards the garden are empty. Then cover the distributionswitch with isolationmaterial, because water runs towards that point and the pipe might break when it freezes.

Autumn in the garden - 1

Now autumn is taking over you need to work in your garden to prepare it for winter and the new year.

One of the first things to do is collect seeds.
You can only do that when the seeds are ripe.
So read about your plants and find out how you can see the seeds are ready for harvest.

It's best when you harvest the seeds after a few dry days, but that's not always possible.

Put them on a flat surface and allow them to dry.
First take any leaves and twigs away, and if possible everything else around the seeds too.

Sometimes seeds are in pods that are very easy to remove when they are dry, then dry the seeds and the pods together and remove the pods later.

Let the seeds dry more time before you store them.
Maybe in an envelope with the name on it.

Save money on plants

When you want to save money on plants for your livingroom go and buy them now.

Many plants have been flowering and not the flowers are gone they want to get rid of the plants. So they sell them for very low prizes.

All you have to do is take care of them well during the next seasons and you'll see them flowering again in spring.

ofcourse you can buy your plants then. But you'll pay double of triple the amount you'll pay tomorrow.

September and grass

When you have grass in your garden you can mow it until the end of september.
After september the growth stops.

When you have bare spots you can sow new seed this month.
When the weather is dry you have to add extra water to enable proper growth.

When your grass doesn't look well you have to do more than sow some seeds.
Go to your local gardencentre and ask for advice.
I think they'll advice a whole package. Don't thin it's too expensive, because in spring your grass will look healthy again. And that's what you want.

When autumn reigns, take the fallen leaves from the grass and use them elsewhere in the garden. For instance in the border between the plants. There it'll protect the roots of your plants, whereas on the grass they'll cause nasty stains and bare spots.

Hiding some bulbs in the grass might surprise everyone with some nice springflowers in the garden.

Enjoy!

Cats in your garden?

We used to have many cats in this neighbourhood.
They all had bosses but considered themselves to be their own boss.
During the day they couldn't enter their won homes and they used to tiptoe around and enter gardens and even houses.

There are plenty of good tips how to keep the cats out of your garden, and an electric fence is one of them.
Not very friendly though.

Go to the woods and collect pine cones.
When you place them around your plants the cats won't use them as their personal loo.

When you place them at the spots where the cat enters your garden he might not even enter your space anymore.

Have a try!

Fallen leaves

Many people sweep away fallen leaves or remove them from the garden completely.
They forget that leaves have a function in nature too, just like everything else.

Leaves are the perfect place for small animals to hide.

They also provide a good layer above the roots of the plants to protect them against low night temperatures. And...they're a fertiliser.

When you don't like the colour, don't like what I wrote above, consider putting them on a compost heap.

You shouldn't put too many leaves on top of each other, but you can mix tehm with sand and other items.

Collect seeds

It's time to collect seeds from the plants in your garden.

Put them in a plastic container when you take them from the plants and inside the house spread them on white paper or t-towels.
Not on newspaper, because the ink might cause problems.

Let the seeds dry a bit.

Popping seeds can best be put in a box with a t-towel over it.

After a few hours to a day take the seeds themselves and put them into another container to dry a bit more.

Then store them in an envelope with name and date on it.

Seeds

Some plants already have seeds waiting to be harvested.

Take an envelope, write down the date, place where you gathered the seeds, and the kind of seed.

Harvest the seeds and let them dry.

Close the envelope and put it at a dry place.

Until next year spring.