Flower Garden Tasks in Early Spring

Lawn treatment The lawn at this time of the year always looks rather sorry for itself, thin, limp and messy with leaves and twigs. As the temperature rises and the grass starts to grow, you can help to revive it more

The Flower Garden in Mid Spring

This season can be one in which plants really start to grow, so that you can be very busy, both outdoors and in the greenhouse. Sometimes, on the other hand, new growth is slower to appear and extend, because the weat

Mid Spring Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing seed outdoors One of the bigger jobs to do in the spring is producing a lawn from seed. The soil should have been thoroughly dug in autumn or early winter and most of the

Flower Garden Tasks in Mid Spring

Mowing A new lawn which has been grown from seed may need its first cut by the end of mid-spring, if conditions for germination and growth have been good. The grass blades will then be about 5cm (2in) long. Before cut

The Flower Garden in Late Spring

The season of late spring is probably the busiest one of the year in the flower garden. It is an in-between time; the spring display is finishing and these plants need to be tidied up and allowed to rest. Those which

Lawn Care in Late Spring

Lawn care During normal weather conditions in temperate climates, the grass on lawns will need cutting every seven to ten days and every five days if the grass mixture is a really fine one and the turf of bowling-gree

Late Spring Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing seed outdoors You will need to fork and rake the soil into a good condition for sowing various seeds, mostly in beds and borders, and it should be much easier to do than it w

Flower Garden Tasks in Late Spring

Staking/training The herbaceous perennials will be growing fast and many of them will need supports. There are just as many that can be grown without staking, but the older, more popular perennials usually need some s

The Flower Garden in Early Summer

Early summer can be one of the most attractive times of the year in the garden. Plant growth is at its lushest and freshest, leaves and flowers are clean, bright and not yet battered by summer thunderstorms and many o

Early Summer Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing- seed outdoors With the summer season officially here, the main seed-sowing period is over and you may in fact have more than enough work on your hands without adding to it. H

Flower Garden Tasks in Early Summer

Feeding Pot-plants which were repotted in early and mid-spring will have used a good deal of the nutrient in the compost, and regular liquid feeding can start from now on, unless they have grown so much that repotting

The Flower Garden in Mid Summer

Like early summer, this is a good season for a colourful display in gardens grown mainly for ornament. The herbaceous perennials will still be in flower and the annuals and bedding plants will really start to come int

Mid Summer Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing outdoors This is only a case of preparing for one group of plants, which are to be transplanted, so a small seed-bed can be got ready in the nursery-bed; it will not be long i

Flower Garden Tasks in Mid Summer

Starting Freesia corms can be started off in J.I. Potting compost No. 3, planted with their own depth of compost above them. Put ten in a 20cm (8in)pot; they should begin to flower in early winter. Once potted, the fr

The Flower Garden in Late Summer

Much of the work necessary in the ornamental garden in late summer is the same as that for mid-summer but the quantity of work is probably, on balance, less in this season. The daylight hours will now be perceptibly r

Late Summer Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing outdoors If you would like to have annual flowers in bloom in late spring and early summer next year, early autumn is the time to sow them and you should therefore prepare th

Flower Garden Tasks in Late Summer

Disbudding The remainder of the early-flowering chrysanthemums can be disbudded and the late flowering varieties can be treated towards the end of late summer for flowering late in mid-autumn and onwards. Deadheading

The Flower Garden in Early Autumn

With the beginning of autumn there comes a quite definite change in the tempo of plant growth. As plants reached their peak in early and mid-summer, they ceased to develop and remained static but the often fresher, co

Early Autumn Jobs in the Flower Garden

Jobs to do Preparing the soil for sowing seed outdoors The soil can be prepared for sowing seed in beds and borders, in a nursery bed and on a site designated for a lawn. The preliminary digging and levelling where n

Flower Garden Tasks in Early Autumn

Potting There is still time, early on this season, to pot bulbs for winter flowering, by the methods described in late summer. Also pot colvillei gladioli. For early-spring flowering, put five into a 15cm (6in) pot, a