February gardening tips

Spring is round the corner…

February should see the first glimmers of spring around the corner, and is a time where you can get busy in the garden preparing for the warmer weather. This is a perfect time to get those clippers out and prune hedges, shrubs and climbers.

What to do in the garden in February

Plants and Flowers

Plant any new bulbs that will flower in spring, such as snowdrops and daffodils.

Fruit

Check on fruit trees and protect any early blossoms from the cold in order to get the best crop possible come summer. These early stages are crucial for making sure your fruiting plants are successful.

Vege

Get your vegetable plot ready by turning over the soil and adding a good compost or mulch. Sow your vegetable seeds but also cover them to protect them from the cold. This will have the added benefit of shielding your plants from insects and critters that might want to eat them before you get a chance!

 Top 5 February Gardening Tasks

• Get pruning – cut back evergreen hedges, winter flowering shrubs and climbers.
• Invest in nets to cover your young vegetable crops, protecting them from wily birds.
• Remove any old deciduous grass from your garden.
• Cover fruit trees to protect them from the cold.
• Chit potato tubers.

For helpful tips and advice throughout the year you can Download our full 12 month calendar here

January gardening tips

A chilly start to the year…

January can often be the coldest month of the year, and your garden may well need some love and care to keep it from being damaged by the unforgiving weather. Snow and frosts, blustering gales and torrential downpours are all possible in January.

Give your garden the best chance of holding its own by securing any stakes, and other supports and checking them regularly (particularly after adverse weather). Move plants to where they are most likely to get sunlight and consider covering your soil to protect any bulbs and plants from damaging frosts.

What to do in the garden in January

Plants and Flowers

If it’s a particularly cold January consider moving more delicate plants inside to keep them safe from the frost and snow. Conservatories are a fantastic way to give plants a lot of light whilst keeping them warm, but if you don’t have one placing plants on windowsills or other areas that get natural light will do the trick too.

Fruit

Give your fruit trees a makeover and prune them back to keep them neat and tidy, and ready to flourish when the warmer weather kicks in. It’s a wonderful feeling to quite literally reap the fruits of your labour and you can maximise your yield with good pruning.

Vege

While not much planting is advisable during January, it is the perfect time to start considering what you’d like in your vegetable plot this year. A well timed planting plan will mean you can enjoy a variety of veggies throughout the year.

Top 5 January Gardening Jobs

• Recycle your Christmas tree  - you can shred it and use it for mulch to help your soil stay nutrient rich, or simply take it to your local recycling centre.
• Organise and clean your greenhouse and sheds.
• Plan your veggies for the coming season.
• Create shelters for more vulnerable plants.
•  Get your lawn looking neat and tidy.

For helpful tips and advice throughout the year you can Download our full 12 month calendar here

September in many respects is one of the most important months of the year for many keen gardeners around the UK. The summer season is drawing to an end and it is time to start planning ahead for the longer nights, colder wetter weather and winter frosts beginning to bite the ground.

Having said that, the prospect of preparing your garden for autumn is a tremendously exciting one, so here at Bury Hill Landscape Suppliers we have put together autumn gardening tips for getting your garden ready for a change in the season.

Like most things in life, it’s better to get ahead of the game and start as early as you can – and the same is true of preparing your garden for the autumn / winter season. It’s important to give yourself plenty of time and get yourself and your garden organised.

10 Tips for Preparing your Garden for Autumn / Winter

1. Dig Up Those Annual Flowers

Quick and easy to grow, Annuals are fantastic for bringing vibrant colours and visual diversity to any garden in the UK. It may seem counter-productive to uproot up these plants that looked so good during the spring and summer months, but it needs to be done.

Annuals are great for a single season, but tend to struggle in the winter months and can be a real liability to maintain during Autumn. Get the most out of your Annuals by uprooting them just before the seasons turn and adding them to your compost pile.

2. Add Fertiliser to your Lawn

Why would you add fertiliser to your lawn? Do you need to add fertiliser to your garden’s lawn? All plants and lawns need good quality fertiliser or nutrients in order to maintain healthy growth. The majority of plants tend to absorb their nutrients through their roots, but you can give nature a helping hand by adding a good quality lawn fertiliser before your garden faces the autumn / winter season.

3. Cover Your Garden’s Pond

As long as your garden’s pond is a manageable size you should have any issues here. If it’s large and you’re unable to effectively maintain it during the winter months, it’s best to do a cleanse of leaves, gunk and other undesirable materials before it gets too cold. This will reduce the amount of clearing work you’ll have when spring comes around.

By covering your pond with a net you’re preventing the majority of autumn’s falling leaves from polluting the water. In severely cold weather, try to prevent the whole pond from freezing over to give any wildlife the best chance of survival during the winter months.

4. Cut Your Garden’s Perennials

Perennials will grow and survive almost all-year round. Surviving ground frost and growing like it’s nobody’s business. To some they can be a pain, so it’s important to cut them back ahead of the winter to prevent your garden from being dominated by them.

Before winter kicks off just cut your Perennials back to soil level and dispose of all of the cuttings to prevent further growth in other areas of your garden.

5. De-Weed Your Garden

Weeds are a pain for most gardeners in the UK and if you don’t get them under control prior to the beginning of winter you could face a massive de-weeding job on your hands come springtime. Whether they’re populating your garden’s flowerbeds or lining the cracks between your patio pavement, make sure you attack those weed by removing them from the root. Weed-killer solutions are OK but using it against other plants will have a negative effect on them.

6. Cover Your Garden Furniture and Store Your Tools

It’s important to keep your tools in a safe, dry and secure place all year round anyway, but never more so in winter when the wet and cold weather can cause rusting and general deterioration to your, no doubt, expensive gardening gear.

Use covers to keep your garden furniture safe from the elements as well. Unless you’re using it every other day it’s not such a big deal to remove the cover when you need to use your outside furniture. Better to keep it looking in top condition by covering it during the months where the weather can have a detrimental effect on it.

7. Sow Cover Crops into your Soil

A cover crop is essentially used to manage and hopefully reduce the amount of soil erosion, its quality, fertility, diseases and other negative problems your garden may experience during harsh winters. Cover crop growers can reduce the pressure on some herbicides, potentially, and reduce fertiliser costs, while also increasing the organic matter content and structure of the soil.

Need a couple of ideas? Annual ryegrass, winter legumes (winter peas, vetch) and oats will all do a very good job indeed.

8. Protect Young Trees and Plants

Just like us, young trees need plenty of attention and protection as they grow. This is particularly true during the winter months when the weather takes a turn for the worse. Start off by getting a few rolls of tree-guarding wraps to protect the trunks.

Click here for more information on how to effectively protect young trees during winter.

9. Organic Compost & Mulching

Give your garden beds a few inches of compost all over and finish off the process by adding a later of mulch. This effective strategy ensures your lot is given appropriate protection from rodents in addition to plenty of nutrients.

10. Keep an Eye on Those Roots

Novice gardeners often make the mistake of removing plants completely, including the roots. The preferred method is to cut the plant at the surface, giving the roots the chance to aerate your garden soil.

Extra Tips for Maintaining your Garden in Winter:

1. How to Maintain Your Greenhouse

For many UK gardeners the greenhouse is an essential  part of their garden, sheltering the more fragile and exotic plants from the sometimes harsh British climate and accelerating the growth of others. It is always wise to give your greenhouse a bit of tender loving care a few times a year, especially ahead of the winter season taking hold.

As much as anything else, you will need to give the glass panels a good clean to remove any dirt or grime that could potentially block the flow of sunlight hitting your plants. Due to there being less sunlight to work with during the winter, you will want to ensure that you get the most out of what is available. Similarly, you will want to ensure that any overgrown trees that could possibly put your greenhouse in the shade are trimmed back.

2. Emptying Your Compost Containers

No doubt you will be adding plenty to your compost bins, as you make provisions around your garden for the onset of winter. The autumn months are the perfect time of year to use all the compost you have collected over the preceding months.

As we all know, compost is an invaluable resource to use around the garden, so use it generously and give what is left in your bins a little stir, so that the decomposition process occurs faster. If there is one golden rule of gardening, it is that you simply cannot ever have too much compost.

3. Look After Your Gardening Equipment & Tools

Autumn is the perfect time of year to give your garden equipment a general health check and service where required. Should anything need to be replaced, you can strike while the iron is hot and head down the garden centre to fetch some replacements. Give your lawn mower a service to ensure it is in crisp working order for when you next need it.

You may also wish to check your shears and trimmers to ensure they are still sharp enough to do an effective job of keeping the garden in check. Same goes for forks, spades and rakes etc. Give them a clean if they need it and take time to ensure they have not been subjected to the onset of any rust. It would also be wise to apply some oil both to the wooden parts of your manual tools and also to the moving parts of your electronic machinery.

To purchase high quality topsoils and other landscaping and gardening supplies please contact us on 01306 877540 or visit our online store.

Environmentalists and nutritionists have been nagging us for years, and despite the severe growth in obesity in the UK and America – there are many of us who, actually, prefer taking the healthy option when eating. Exercise is on the rise, reflected by a 144% increase in the amount of people who cycle to work in London from 2001 to 2011.

The good news is that the amount of adults and children that are regularly consuming their recommended daily portions of five fruit and vegetables is on the rise.

That’s a positive for sure, but how can we continue this trend and continue to eliminate bad eating habits amongst the UK population? Well, what about growing your own super healthy foods in your garden at home? You don’t need a degree in nutrition, you don’t even to be an experienced gardener to grow your own fruit and vegetables – you simply need the know-how and ambition to succeed.

For healthy gardening a little education goes a long way. How else are you supposed to know what’s out there and what’s easy for you to grow in your own garden. Below is a list of ten super healthy fruits, vegetables and herbs that are not only incredibly good for you and your family to eat, but don’t necessarily require you to have a ‘green thumb.’

1. Broccoli – Nature’s Super Hero

Health Benefits of Broccoli

Broccoli is one of the world’s best ‘super-foods,’ a real super hero of the vegetable world; filled with vitamins and nutrients that reduce cholesterol (when steamed) and help remove toxins from your body.

It’s also packed with vitamin D to keep our metabolism in good working order. The list of health benefits of broccoli, which include anti-inflammatory benefits, strong effective antioxidants and strong evidence to reduce the risk of caner, goes on and on. Not only is broccoli

How to Grow Broccoli at Home

Broccoli seeds are to be planted in an indoor container first, then transplanted outdoors when the seeds sprout once they’re roughly 4 – 6 inches in height. For best results use high nitrogen fertiliser with well-drained, moisture-retentive soil.

Make sure you water every 10 – 14 days during dry periods. It usually takes about two to three months of growth before you can harvest your broccoli, with that in mind it’s best to sow your seeds in March / April with a view to harvesting them in June / July.

2. Cauliflower – Nature’s Nutritional Powerhouse

Health Benefits of Cauliflower

Like broccoli, cauliflower is another nutritional powerhouse that doctors strongly recommend as a key part of a healthy diet. Cauliflower is rich in absolutely loads of vitamins and minerals; namely very healthy 77% dose of your daily recommended value of vitamin C, a fantastic source of vitamin K, protein, magnesium and so on.

Additional benefits include digestive assistance, antioxidants and detoxification support as well as containing sulforaphane which, like its green cousin Broccoli, has been shown to fight cancerous cells – win/win!

How to Grow Cauliflower at Home

First things first – cauliflowers flourish in very fertile soils, so we’d recommend you dig in a bucketload of well-rotted manure or organic compost prior to planting your seeds. We have a good selection of high quality soil conditioners, organic composts and mulches in our store. Make sure you firm your soil well (treading it down is fine!) before you plant your seeds.

Aim to space your cauliflowers roughly 2ft apart and water well every 10 days if you’re suffering from particularly dry weather. Similar to broccoli, cauliflowers are ready for harvest in about two months.

3. Carrots – Do They Really Help You to See in the Dark?

Health Benefits of Carrots

Remember when you were a child and your parents told you to eat carrots to help you see in the dark? Well, they weren’t lying to you because carrots are absolutely loaded with vitamin A, which is vital for good eyesight and to boost the immune system.

Additional benefits include slowing down the ageing process due to high levels of beta-carotene acting as an antioxidant to skin cell damage done by regular metabolism. High levels of vitamin A assists with body cleansing, healthy teeth and gums, preventing heart disease as well as being a powerful antiseptic.

How to Grow Carrots at Home

It’s best to grow your homegrown carrots in open ground rather than containers, but luckily they don’t need too much TLC to grow effectively. Carrots are particularly drought resistant and don’t need watering as much as your other homegrown vegetables, however if they start looking a little wilted you can always give them a good soaking every 2 weeks or so.

You can plant carrot seeds in fertile soil, and typically, they take anywhere from a week to three weeks before they sprout. Best time to sow your carrot seeds can be anytime between February to July, and then full growth will take about two to three months.

4. Lettuce – More Than Just ‘Rabbit Food’

Health Benefits of Lettuce

Unfairly dubbed ‘rabbit food’, lettuce is so much more than simply a boring weight loss alternative. With surprisingly incredible health benefits a more fitting name for lettuce would be ‘monster food’.

Lettuce comes in all shapes and sizes but by far Romaine Lettuce is our out and out winner here. Romaine Lettuce has almost zero fat, it’s low calorie, and therefore hugely helps with weight control and loss. Complete with tonnes of protein, Omega-3 and vitamin C lettuce is, without a doubt, a real superfood and rightfully deserves its spot on our list of super foods!

How to Grow Lettuce at Home

Lettuce is easy to grow and flourishes both in indoor containers and in an outdoor vegetable garden. Thin your lettuce seedlings once your first leaves start to appear and continue doing so until the plants are roughly 30cm apart. As with all vegetables it’s advised that you water well during dry periods every 2 weeks.

5. Broad Beans – Ultimate Health Booster

Health Benefits of Broad Beans

Broad beans are a vegetable staple and packed with vitamin C, potassium, iron and fiber. They’re one of the easiest foods to grow. All you need is the seeds, good soil and an area where there’s loads of sunlight.

We’re not joking when we say that broad beans are some of the healthiest vegetables that you can eat. Eaten raw, steamed or stir-fried, broad beans are a fantastic source of many nutrients that can help you boost your health.

How to Grow Broad Beans at Home

In fertile and well-drained soils, that has been well-dug and ideally improved with organic compost, with plenty of sunshine broad beans can be sown in early November or February for harvest as early as May and June. Sow your broad bean seeds roughly 2 – 3 inches deep and hoe regularly to avoid weeds.

In dry periods soak plants well at the start of flowering and continue every 10 – 14 days or so. Staking may be required for taller cultivars, use string attached to tall(ish) stakes in the soil for the broad beans to follow.

6. Basil – Ideal for Indoors Gardeners

Health Benefits of Basil

Basil is a herb that enhances flavour and gives foods an aromatic, pleasant taste. There are over 60 varieties of basil, so you have a lot of options here. A great source of vitamin A, magnesium, copper and vitamin C – basil’s nutrients are essential for positive cardiovascular health.

How to Grow Basil at Home

Basil is really easy to grow at home. All you need are the seeds, and even if you don’t have a garden, you can grow it indoors with a small pot or container with well-drained soil. It takes about six to eight weeks for the seeds to harvest for use, and you’ll need lots of sun for the basil to grow, but avoid intense heat or it could damage the herb.

7. Tomatoes – Sweet, Juicy and Delicious!

Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Another ‘superfood,’ tomatoes are rich in lycopene and antioxidants, and are used in everything from pasta sauces to salads. Packed with vitamin A, C, K, potassium and easy to grow yourself – tomatoes have rightfully earned their place amongst our list of super foods you can grow at home.

Full of beta-carotene, tomatoes help protect your skin from sun damage, build strong bones and have even been proven to fight cancer with high doses of Lycopene. Also a great fruit for diabetics as they can assist with keeping your blood sugar levels in line.

How to Grow Tomatoes at Home

Tomato seeds are best planted outdoors in a spot that gets a lot of sun and require watering several times a week. Tomatoes can take as much as two months to harvest. You can grow them in either planting bags, outside soil or even hanging baskets. Similarly to broad beans, tomatoes can also be grown against stakes. Tie the main stem with string (once stemmed) to a vertical stake in the ground and water regularly to keep your soil/compost moist.

Tomato seeds can be sown from February – April and can be harvested anytime from August – October.

8. Beetroot – Nature’s Hormone Booster

Health Benefits of Beetroot

Beetroot isn’t known for being a child’s best friend, and you may have unpleasant memories about your parents making you eat them, but they’re one of the most nutritious foods out there. Beets contain vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and iron, all vital building blocks for good health. Add it to a salad or blend it with apple and orange juice for a refreshing smoothie – ideal for a full body cleanse.

A surprising fact about beetroot is that it’s nature’s viagra – we’re not even joking! The plant contains high amounts of boron, which is directly linked to the production of human sex hormones.

How to Grow Beetroot at Home

Plant your beetroot seeds outdoors several inches apart, and make sure you water every day, and twice a day if the temperature is hot. The vegetable will be ready to harvest in about two months if you ensure your soil is well-drained and fertile.

Seeds can be sown from March to July, and then harvested from July to October. As with most vegetables it’s important to water them well during dry periods, every 10 – 14 days.

Well, there you have it! Our list of 10 super healthy foods you can grow at home ends here we’re afraid. Keep an eye out for more gardening and landscaping advice from our blog, and if you’d like any further information, topsoil, organic compost or landscaping supplies please get in touch with us.

If you have any questions about growing healthy foods at home or need some gardening advice, contact us at www.buryhilltopsoilandlogs.co.uk. We are one of the leading topsoil suppliers in London and would be glad to help you grow vegetables yourself.