To maintain a healthy lawn over winter, remove leaves and debris with a light rake, and prepare your lawnmower for spring by cleaning and sharpening the blades. Avoid mowing during winter as it stresses the grass. Keeping off the lawn is the best action to ensure healthy growth in 2025.
Learn the optimal time and technique for your lawn’s final mow of the season from expert gardener Ish. Discover why a December mow can benefit your lawn and how to avoid common mistakes for a healthy spring.
Discover expert advice on planting, pruning, and caring for hydrangeas, ensuring vibrant blooms and a healthy garden. Learn about soil preferences, pruning techniques, and tips for adjusting flower color.
Tired of rats invading your garden? Expert gardener Ash Read shares his top tips for deterring these pesky rodents using readily available plants and household items. Discover how rosemary, marigolds, and peppermint can send rats running for the hills, along with other helpful tricks for keeping your garden rat-free.
Give your hydrangeas a natural boost with coffee grounds! This simple trick provides essential nutrients, improves soil quality, and encourages bigger, more vibrant blooms. Learn how to use coffee grounds effectively and keep your hydrangeas thriving all summer long.
Pruning your rose bushes is essential to encourage healthy growth and an abundance of beautiful flowers throughout the summer. Here’s a step-by-step guide provided by experts to help you achieve stunning rose blooms:
Gather your tools: Before you start pruning, make sure you have sharp secateurs, a pruning saw, thick gloves, and a disinfectant to sterilize your tools.
Step 1: Remove the top growth: Cut back all the stems by about one-third, removing any remaining flowers or leaves. Clear away any suckers (growth from the root system below the graft) to make subsequent pruning easier.
Step 2: Cut old growth at the base: Remove any spindly growth, dead branches, and old wood at the bottom of the plant. Use a pruning saw for thicker stems. Discard all cuttings to prevent disease.
Step 3: Cut the framework: Select three to five healthy green branches to form the framework for next season’s growth. Remove any unwanted or old framework branches. Identify outward-facing buds to encourage growth away from the center of the plant.
Step 4: Keep the rose bush healthy: Clear away all pruning debris, fallen leaves, and flowers. Spray your roses with lime sulfur after pruning to prevent diseases. Do this immediately after pruning to avoid burning new shoots.
Step 5: Add mulch: Renew the mulch around the plant with a 5cm layer of organic matter. Water the plant thoroughly. Mulch helps retain moisture, nourishes the plant, and promotes beautiful blooms.
Horticulture expert David Denyer reveals an effective method to enhance the growth of peace lilies using a simple hack involving banana peels. By soaking the peels in water for several days, one can create a potassium-rich fertilizer. Draining the water and diluting it with fresh water provides the plant with essential nutrients, encouraging lush growth. However, Denyer emphasizes the importance of following the correct process to avoid attracting pests and insects. Regular maintenance, including watering, providing indirect sunlight, and deadheading, is crucial to keep peace lilies healthy. This cost-effective hack, combined with proper care, can prolong the plant’s life for decades.
Expert gardener Ben McInerney shares insights on the crucial pruning tasks in June for roses, shrubs, and perennials. Pruning roses involves deadheading and cutting back stems by a third to promote new growth and blooms. For early-blooming shrubs, remove dead or overgrown branches. Perennials should be cut back to encourage more blooms. Timely pruning ensures healthy and vibrant plants throughout the summer.
Gardening expert Monty Don emphasizes the importance of daily deadheading in June to encourage continuous blooming and enhance the appearance of roses. By removing spent flowers, gardeners can prevent disease development, improve plant shape, and stimulate the growth of side-shoots that will bear more flowers. The practice extends the flowering season and promotes overall rose health.
Weeds growing between patio slabs can detract from the overall aesthetic appeal of your outdoor space. To effectively remove these unwanted plants, experts recommend avoiding harmful methods like using salt, which can damage both the paving and surrounding soil. Instead, consider these recommended techniques:
1. **Manual Removal:** Use your hands or a weeding tool to pull out weeds that come up easily.
2. **Weeding Tool:** For more stubborn weeds, use a specialized weeding tool or scraper to dislodge them from between the slabs.
3. **Organic Herbicide:** In cases of persistent weeds, an organic herbicide can be applied to kill the plants. Follow the instructions carefully to avoid harming nearby vegetation.
4. **Inorganic Herbicide:** An epoxy-based jointing compound like Pointfix is recommended for concrete and stone patios to prevent regrowth.
5. **Exterior Tile Grout:** For porcelain patios, use an exterior tile grout to fill in gaps and create a barrier against weed germination.
Using these methods will effectively remove weeds from your patio slabs without causing unnecessary damage, ensuring a clean and well-maintained outdoor space.
