Pennells Garden Centres

As spring breaks and the garden comes alive, the state of your lawn is a critical factor in the appearance of the whole garden. Bring your lawn up to scratch now to realise its full potential. The grass will start to grow and now is the time to start to give it its first cuts. Start off with the mower set so that it cuts just the top third of growth.  Don’t cut the lawn if it is frosty or very wet.

If your lawn has moss in it March is the ideal time to treat it. Ask at the centre for advice on what to use. 

Now is the time to start sowing vegetables such as carrots, radishes and lettuces outdoors. Plant out onions from sets as well as your first early potato’s. Weed the fruit and vegetable beds so that they have a good start.

Sweet peas should be sown now so that they establish well. Sow in John Innes Seed and Sowing compost in small pots under cover. 

Other things to do:

Prune bushes and shrubs to encourage new growth

Plant Gladioli and Lily bulbs around the borders for summer growth

Divide and replant congested herbaceous plants

Sow hardy outdoor flowers such as Love-in-a-mist, cornflowers and calendula

Gardening in January and February does rather depend on what the weather is doing. Hopefully after all the cold and snowy weather we had before Christmas it will be a mild start to the year.

If the ground isn't frozen outside then it's a good time to start your winter digging on the vegetable patch, taking care to remove any perennial weeds such as couch grass you may find. Before you start to dig spread a layer of compost such as farmyard over the surface. As you dig the area the manure will get worked into the soil enhancing its nutrition.

Indoors prepare seed potato for planting later in the spring. Place the seed potato's in old egg cartons with the rose end (where you can see tiny buds) upwards. The trays should be kept in a cool but light place for four to six weeks prior to planting. This will encourage the buds to start to grow but they should remain short and dark green. If they turn white and become elongated they aren't  getting enough light. 

Other things to do:

• Prune Apple and Pear trees
• Keep an eye out for weeds in the vegetable garden
• Start to sow seeds under frost protection such as a greenhouse.
• Check that the snow and frost hasn't loosened newly planted shrubs.
• Prune back overgrown shrubs
• Plant summer flowering bulbs
• Plan for the spring
• Winter pruning of Wisteria - for more advice see below

Plants to add colour to you garden in January and February:

• Dogwoods
• Gaultheria
• Snowdrops (these can be divided soon after flowering)
• Helleborus varieties
• Hardy Cyclamens

Its important that you continue to feeding your container plants - as the plants get bigger they soon use up any nutrients in the compost. We recommend Miracle Gro Pour and Feed.

Use water wisely, consider setting up a waterbutt to collect the rain fall from your roof. If the tap water in your area is hard then using rain water will be of great benefit to acid loving plants.

Prune late summer flowering shrubs after flowering.

Prune Wisteria now to encourage the development of new flowering spurs for next year's display of flowers. For more information on how to do this see the article below.

Keep an eye on any new plants in the garden and be sure to water them. At this time of year any rain we do get soon dries up - so remember to give at least two or three litres a plant until they become established.

In the vegetable garden nows the time to be lifting onions and drying them on rack. Continue to harvest veg such as peas and runner beans. Keep an eye on your apples and pears as they will soon be ripening. Nows the time to start to propagate new strawberry plants by selecting runners.

Continue to tie in and support tomato plants, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and melons as they develop, especially as fruit starts to swell or they will quickly topple over and be damaged

Water and feed tomatoes - Tomorite is designed to ensure that your plants continue to thrive

Protect salad plants from slugs and snails. Now the weather has turned wetter then the slugs will be out looking for a meal. We recommend Eraza as one of the best methods for control. This new product is five times more effective than conventional pellets.

The Wisteria is one of the most spectacular flowering climbing plants. They will cover walls in a cascade of flower in dark purples, blues or even white which will cause the casual passer by to stop in their tracks to admire its glory!
However sometimes they can disappoint with lots of growth and not many flowers. So here are a few tips on getting that avalanche of flower!

Ensure that you choose a grafted plant. Seedling wisteria can take up to 20 years to start to flower. Choose a free flowering variety. Here are a few suggestions:

• Wisteria floribunda ‘Macrobotrys' - Scented violet flowers in very long racemes
• Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific' - Lots of scented blue flowers in racemes up to 2ft long
• Wisteria ‘Black Dragon' - Dark blue scented flowers
• Plant in a sunny position
• Water well especially in the first few years.

Wisteria will need some support to become established. The simplest method is to use strong wires between vine eyes or a heavy trellis to create a frame for the plant to climb up.

One of the keys to ensuring lots of flower is correct pruning. Wisterias are pruned twice a year, at this time of year and again in January and February.  

When a wisteria has finished flowering it produces lots of long whippy branches. In the early years tie these stems to the trellis or wires to create the framework for the plant. As the plant grows it becomes necessary to prune in the July or August to control the size of the wisteria and prevent it spreading onto roofs and gutters.  The pruning also encourages the plant to form the flower buds for the following year. Use a pair of secateurs to cut each of the unwanted long stems back so that they have five or six sets of leaves and tie them back to the support.

The winter pruning is carried out in January and February when the plant isn't in leaf with the aim of tidying the plant and ensuring that the flower isn't obscured with leaves. Any long stems that grew after the summer pruning should be cut back to five or six buds from the main stem. The stems that were pruned back in the summer should be pruned back to two or three buds.