I hope that after last week’s advice you have spent some time in your garden dead heading your plants – I promise you that it will make a huge difference!
The other thing that will make a difference is watering your plants properly. Any of my team reading this will be laughing as I am a stickler for it, and every person who starts with me is taught how to water before anything else!
The most important thing, I believe, in watering your plants is to water the roots, not the leaves – they don’t need watered – and in some cases, watering the leaves can cause disease.
Instead of watering little and often (every day), what I do is to stick my finger in the soil all the way to the knuckle – if I feel moisture then I don’t water and if it comes out dry, I water!
I would also suggest watering early in the morning and what a great feeling it is to be listening to the birds singing, feel the sun shining and you gently watering your garden – all is good with the world!
If you are planting in containers or hanging baskets a good tip is to put water retaining gel or compost and this will save you asking your neighbours to water your plants when you go off on holiday!
Let’s hope that next week we all need to water our garden because there has been no rain! Happy Gardening!
PLANT OF THE WEEK: SALVIA ‘CARADONNA’
Savia Caradonna is a really super plant for Scottish climates – it is really hardy and has the most fantastic deep purple/blue flowers with black stems. It loves moist, but well drained soil conditions and ultimately reaches it’s full height of about half a metre in 2 to 5 years – an absolutely brilliant addition to any garden!
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