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Top gardening tips

20/08/2024

As summer is in full swing, there’s plenty of ways to maximise the light nights by ticking things off your gardening checklist. Whether you’re tackling an outdoor green space or trying to maintain luscious, green house plants, it can seem like there’s so much to know and so many questions to ask. 

The good news is, we’ve partnered up with Gardening Expert at IBRAN, Ted Bromley-Hall, to share some of the must-know gardening tips to help you this summer. 

How to Keep Slugs Out of Your Garden This Summer

“There’s a common misconception that eggshells are a great physical deterrent to slugs, but in reality, slugs are able to cross most sharp surfaces thanks to their secretion of a dense mucus slime. Worse still, decaying, unwashed eggshells emit a smell that attracts slugs!
“For greenhouses and sheltered spots, you could use finely powdered gypsum as the powder prevents the slugs from being able to create traction.

“Thick cuttings of spiky bramble bushes (laid horizontally) also provide an excellent physical barrier that slugs and snails will struggle to overcome.

“The problem with any chemical or substance you use to kill or repel slugs is the effect it either has on other wildlife such as hedgehogs and amphibians, as well as the effect it will have on the chemistry of the soil. For example, there are many iron-based slug repellent pellets available that are considered to be organic but are also harmful to toads and frogs. Salt is another example of this.

“Slugs are cannibalistic and will happily eat their fallen friends for the moisture and protein content. Having a singular location near their favourite spots that you make a ‘slug graveyard’ will attract them back to the same spot. If you come back and check the spot you will be able to move them away or dispose of them before they get a chance to tuck into your greenery.” 

Make Your Tiny Garden Look Bigger on a Budget 

“Focus on levels, colours and textures. 

“Bring height into the garden using vertical walls, hanging baskets and climbers. Plant out the back of your borders with taller, flowering plants and slim plants like agapanthus, lilies, verbena, and gladiolus.

“These kinds of flowers also bring rich, luxurious colours into the garden and enhance the appearance. A lot of taller plants can be grown cheaply and quickly from bulbs and cuttings. The height of these plants also benefits narrower borders, with dense lower growth and taller steam with flowering blooms.

“Gravel is an excellent, low cost choice instead of slabs or paving and can be reinforced with gravel retainers to provide the same structural performance and firm surface. With this in mind, try and keep your garden layout to a strict 50:50 layout of soft landscaping to hard landscaping.”

Summer Blooms That Beat the Heat: Keep Your Garden & House Plants Alive this Summer

“There are plenty of flowers and shrubs that tolerate heat, even in direct sunlight. Planted directly into the ground, drought-tolerant plants such as palms (Trachycarpus Fortunei and Cordyline Australis for example), lavender, rosemary and veronica provide excellent structure which can be complemented with colourful displays from plants such as Baptisia, Heuchera and Osteospermum.

“Other brightly coloured favourites that enjoy these conditions include Dahlia, Canna Tropicanna, Hibiscus and Passiflora. If you have the space inside, banana plants are an incredibly striking option as an indoor houseplant. They do need a lot of space, water and sunlight but will enjoy heat and sun, and can be moved outdoors during summer if needed.

“Your soil needs to be balanced to be freely draining for winter but also retain water in summer. Rich, organic matter such as composted manure makes excellent soil for your garden beds. Covering your garden borders with mulch or stone will help to keep the moisture locked in long after the rain has passed. The key is to prevent the sun from warming the ground up too much and quickly drying the soil out.

“With good mulching, watering your garden once or twice weekly becomes an effective routine you can start to enjoy at the start or end of your day.” 

Stay Cool While Gardening This Summer – Top Tips from an Expert Gardener

“Staying cool while gardening is a battle all keen gardeners will face at some point. The key is to pick the time of day and the right weather conditions. If it’s a bright, sunny day, the best time to tackle the garden is in the morning and evening when the sun is less intense.

“For all day gardening, it’s inevitable that you will find yourself working in the sun at the peak of the day’s sunlight. As counterintuitive as it may seem to cover up, the best clothing to wear during the peak of the day is a reflective (preferably bright white), long sleeved shirt and a hat that shades not just your head, but your neck and shoulders as well. Take inspiration from the rice farmers of Southeast Asia who are covered head to toe, even during the most intense weather conditions.

“Regular water breaks and replenishment is essential. Like the farmers on the rice terraces, taking a long lunch during the middle of the day helps reduce the risk of heatstroke or sunstroke.”

Expert Tips to Keep Your Lawn Looking Lush Ahead of the Heatwave

“Keeping your grass green in scorching conditions is a tough task, but like any plant you choose to grow in your garden, the key is to balance what it needs for healthy growth. When there is a sustained spell of heat and sunshine, the biggest stress factor your plant will face is a scarcity of water.

“For this, the simple answer is ensuring your lawn has enough water. You need to time watering it so that the grass gets what it needs without the water adding to the lawn being scorched. The best times to water any plant in summer, grass included, is early morning and late evening when the sun is less intense.

“With ample watering and sunshine, this gives the lawn most of what it needs to grow which can quickly turn your freshly clipped lawn into a dense meadow of tall grass. The key is to keep a good mowing schedule of once or twice weekly, where you only take off the top of the tallest sections of grass. This should be carried out in the morning between 8am and 10am to allow your grass time to recover before evening. Cutting the grass earlier in the day or much later in the evening is fine if you want to avoid the heat but you may struggle to cut grass that is wet with dew. Midday isn’t ideal as the grass may burn, whilst mid-afternoon between 4pm and 6pm is the second-best time of day to mow.

“When you cut the grass, you are cutting away some of the energy it has spent time growing so naturally you may want to feed your lawn. Typically, this is less of a stress factor for a lawn than a lack of irrigation, especially in an era of climate change and drought. But if you do want to maintain a well-fed, lush green turf, then a natural, organic fertiliser is a better option for your lawn. Artificial fertilisers require high energy manufacturing which undermines the idea of having a natural space you can enjoy. Whatever you choose to use though, a high nitrogen content is what’s needed for producing the green pigment, and chlorophyll is needed for photosynthesis. Apply your fertiliser to the lawn just before you water it or before rain is expected.”

Top Tips to Keep your House Plants Alive when you’re on Holiday

“Many houseplants struggle when you’re on holiday if left unkept and the biggest reason for this is lack of water. Monstera Deliciosa, also known as a ‘cheese plant’, is a popular option that originates in the Central American jungles, where it climbs other trees and occupies more shaded, humid spots. They are high maintenance as they’re not well adapted to drought conditions, so need watering once or twice a week. That being said, they also do not cope with standing in water. They need to be kept in semi shaded spots with dappled light within the house.

“Other popular plants such as the Bird of Paradise (familiar to frequent visitors of the Canary Islands) are more conditioned to short periods of drought, provided they are watered when the soil is dry. These plants need bright sunshine, humidity, and warmth. For this reason, they’re good houseplants to keep and they can be left for around a week whilst you’re on holiday.

“Potted herbs such as lavender and rosemary are great pot plants which are extremely drought tolerant, making them suitable as houseplants for regular holidaymakers. They require infrequent watering and feeding and can be left unattended when away for short periods. They also smell incredibly good and help to clean the air in your home, without being overpowering.”

Author bio: Samantha Wilcox is tombola's SEO and Digital PR Manager. She loves Italian food, open water swimming and being a fun aunty. Her articles mostly focus on surveys and taking people behind the scenes of tombola, with regular updates on the latest happenings at Britain's biggest bingo brand.

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