With the hot weather we have been having recently you will need to be watering your hanging baskets and containers, as well as any new plants that you have planted this spring. Don't be tempted to water your plants in the heat of the day as you will find most of the water soon evaporates. The ideal time is in the evening just as its getting dusk.
In order to keep your tubs and baskets growing well its necessary to keep feeding them as the initial nutrients in the compost will soon get used up at this time of year. Use Miracle Gro or All Purpose Soluble Plant Food.
Another beneficial action is to spread a mulch layer of organic matter such as decorative bark chips or soil conditioner over the soil surface. For best results use Westland Decorative Mini Bark. These long-lasting chips will help soil to retain moisture six times longer than ordinary garden soil.
Sweet peas will be producing new flowers every day and will need to be cut regularly to fill your home with delicious scents of summer. If you leave plants for a few days to set seed then they usually stop producing new buds and flowers. So keep those scissors handy and feed these plants over the foliage and around the roots with Miracle-Gro Liquafeed.
Watch for pests attacking new plant growth and treat them as soon as the first culprits are noticed. Red lily beetle adults and their grubs will be a summer nuisance. As soon as you see the first adult spray with BugClear Ultra Gun! - just one treatment will protect your lilies for up to three weeks. You can use the same spray on all your decorative flowers including roses, philadelphus, lupins and other plants that are susceptible to aphid (greenfly and blackfly) attack.
Roses may be showing the first signs of powdery mildew on new buds and leaves. If that's the case spray them with a systemic fungicide such as FungusClear Ultra or FungusClear 2 Gun!
If you allow weeds to take over the gaps between flowers, shrubs and annual bedding you will be encouraging competition that will rob these wanted plants of soil moisture, soil nutrients, space and light. To see off the weeds without back-breaking hard work spray them with Weedol Max Gun! or Weedol Rootkill Plus. Weedol Rootkill Plus is best for weeds that have deep or wandering roots such as bindweed, couch grass, dandelions and nettles. But if you've only got small annual weeds such as chickweed, groundsel and meadow grass then Weedol Max Gun! will give a fast-acting kill. In fact on a warm day you will see the weeds begin to wilt and die in just one hour.
