Visiting a garden centre? Make sure to take these five tips with you

A Sunday spent at the garden centre is a Sunday well-spent. But it is easy to be led astray and return home without a clue as to what you’ve spent your money on. These five tips will make sure you get everything you want from a garden shop, enjoy the trip and keep a hold of the purse strings.

1. Make a list. As with any shopping visit, write a list of everything you want to get for your garden. Feel free to have a browse at the garden centre, just ensure you have some items in mind for your trip.

2. Call around. Now you have a list, you can call around local garden centres to check whether they have what you want in stock. It also gives you the chance to ask about offers and check on directions. If you don’t fancy the phone call, many garden centres have good websites, too.

3. Check the weather forecast. No-one wants to spend the day wandering around a rainy, muddy garden centre. If the garden centre has most of its produce outdoors with no overhead protection, take a gander at the forecast.

4. Find good specimens. Keep an eye out for yellowing or dying leaves, limp or discoloured stems and pests. You do not want to introduce any new pests to your garden – it may prove catastrophic. If the soil is bone dry, limpness may be due to dehydration. However, good garden centres often make the effort to ensure all their plants are watered regularly.

5. Have a maximum budget in mind. ‘Ideal budgets’ never work with me on a garden trip. Maximum budgets, on the other hand, do. How much money would you be disappointed to have spent? Sometimes we can go overboard and end up asking ourselves whether we really needed to buy the organic-farmed, linseed marinated, gold-lined dibber. Have a realistic figure in mind and go home pleased with your finds!

Do you have any other tips? Pop them in the comments below!

They live! Succulents really are fabulous. Five tips for succulents

I brought the rest of my plants back from ‘the uni house’ on Friday, most of which were succulent plants. In fact, every single one of my indoor plants were succulents or cacti.

All of the succulents and cacti had been left indoors, in front of a window, without any human assistance, for three weeks – and survived quite well.

I say quite well, because they did look a little slimmer, as their leaves had shrunk slightly. But the next day, after each had been given a thorough watering, they all looked very happy indeed.

Here is some advice for keeping your own succulents happy and plump:

1.      Soil is key. Succulents need good drainage to thrive, wherever they are. You don’t need to spend a fortune on speciality soil – I never have. Mix three parts bog-standard soil with one part sand or another drainage improver to create a succulent-savvy soil.

2.      Sun, sun, sun. Succulents have their origins in the deserts, so give them what their ancestors enjoyed in bucket-loads: sun. Britain may not be known for its Sahara-like summers, but you can still pop your succulent in a bright spot. I did have a crassula argentea on the windowsill by my kitchen sink, which doesn’t receive sun for a great length of time each day, and it survived. Once in day-long bright sun, it began growing new offshoots, and thrived.

3.      Not all thumbs fit inside thimbles. Pinterest is absolutely stuffed with pictures of tiny succulents in tiny vessels, such as thimbles or shot glasses (you can guess which we have more of in the house). Be wary, though, that these succulents won’t want to stay in those little pots forever. If your plant suddenly looks feeble, weak, or paler than normal, it may be time to re-pot your plant. Choose a pot slightly larger than its current home (two sizes is the general rule).

4.    Thirsty? During winter, succulents and cacti need to be watered every fortnight or three weeks – at the most. During the summer, they’ll need watering more often. Whether the sun’s out or the snow is falling, you’ll know if your plant needs watering by simply checking the soil. Let the soil dry out between watering. The leaves may begin to shrivel and show signs that the water stores are declining, too.

5.      Love! The reason we all keep plants – of any creed – is because we love arranging them, taking care of them, and watching our efforts come to fruition. Have fun with making the succulents look pretty, in teacups, glass vases, or even toy trucks, and get to know what your plants like.

Five ideas to keep you busy

It’s been a slightly manic few months – kept busy with exams, essay deadlines, results, work experience and general busying about whilst moving house – but it’s a jolly relief to be back.

I’m incredibly annoyed at myself for not getting a picture of the garden before I moved back home for the summer – particularly because the wild flowers were just coming into their own (there are no weeds in my garden ;) )! But, I’ll be visiting in a couple of days, so I can get snap-happy then.

In a few weeks (I say under baited breath), my parents will be moving and I’ll be given greater responsibility of the garden. At the moment, our garden is very established and I can’t imagine ever making drastic changes to it. The new house, however, has plenty of options: veg patch, edible flowers, chicken coop, flower beds – the list is endless.

For now, I’ve come up with a list of five ideas – because all good things began with a list – to share with you.

1.      Glue pennies to raised beds to prevent slugs and snails from munching on your goodies. This is genius. Slugs and snails are averse to copper. I’d toyed with the idea of wrapping copper wire around pots and things, but was put off by the price entailed. I saw this idea posted on Pinterest originally.

2.     Start a compost heap. An attempted compost heap went belly-up when a housemate’s boyfriend unknowingly swept it all up and put it in bin bags…but hey ho. Using newspaper clippings, the odds & ends of fruit & veg, coffee grounds, eggshells and lawn clippings, you can make your own organic matter for fertilising your soil.

3.  Harden off succulents. This is to be somewhat of an experiment. Whilst on a trip to Swansea’s Plantasia, I saw succulents spreading over the ground, forming into clumps and generally doing what nature does best – creating a fabulous display with no (or some, in this case) human help. Working from cuttings, once the fresh succulents become established I’ll pop them outside (still in their containers) and see how they fare.

4.   Create DIY plant markers by peeling away bark from a stick and writing the name on it. These look just lovely – and there’s nothing more I can say about them!

5.   Get rid of aphids with washing up liquid. Okay, I lied a little about the list of ‘ideas’ because I’ve used this before. Plenty of times before. In fact, I swear by it and it will probably reappear in a future list. In a spray bottle, squeeze a bit of washing up liquid and fill to the top of the bottle with water. Shake, and spray to your heart’s content on affected areas.

Taking care of your lavender

I adore lavender (Lavendula spica)! I’ve recently bought two more lavender plants – one in flower, another a bushier variety – to pot up in a large, galvanised metal tub that I received for my 21^st birthday.

Lavender is a small perennial shrub, meaning that it can continue throughout the seasons, year after year, if it’s taken care of. Lavendula likes well-draining soil in a sunny position, but can sit in partial shade. If in full sun, water frequently and regularly, especially if in flower – otherwise those lovely heads will begin to droop! Those in containers will need watering more frequently than plants in beds, because more of the water is lost to the air through evaporation.

The two newbies will be joining my year-old lavender, which has so far been housed on a sunny window ledge in a basket (one of the thrifty tips mentioned here).

Like many plants, lavender should be transplanted outside in the spring, because temperatures have become milder and you’ve passed the risk of frost that can cause damage to the roots.

For feeding, if you’ll be using your plant in the kitchen, make sure to use an organic feed that is suitable for culinary herbs (the chemicals you feed the plant with, will enter the same plant system that you use later on!).

If you’ve already got a lavender plant that you feel is looking a bit spindly, pull out those pruning shears and go to town! You don’t need to cut too much off the stems to tidy the plant up and make it appear bushier. When cutting later in the spring, after it has already had some new growth, avoid cutting away all the new growth – this is why it better to trim in early spring. Be avid and keep trimming throughout the summer, for example if growth is spindly or unsightly, to keep the plant in a good, healthy shape.

My lavender plant has been a fabulous grower. When I bought it last year from the garden centre for a mere £1.99, it was the size of my hand, and now – after only a single growing season – it has had to be transplanted to a recycled wicker basket (that was a bin in a past life, I think) after growing to an impressive 25cm in height.

See you soon, with pictures of the lavender tub and tips on how to do your own!

…

At a glance:

• Full sun or partial shade
• Frequent and regular watering in late spring and summer, or when soil becomes dry, and as needed during later autumn and winter.
• Regular pruning to keep in shape
• Fast grower during warm and sunny growing season

My top tip! Make sure you match plant to pot, to prevent it becoming pot-bound and stunted in its growth.

Soothe your ills: Five Natural Remedies

For the past month I've been combating a cough, which was nicely helped by catching a cold during the past week. So, I've been doing what we all do in times like this: feeding myself with any concoction that might help it pass.

1 Honey & Lemon

This is the classic, the epitome of sore throat and cold soothers, Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a mug, add a tablespoon of honey, and a teaspoon of sugar (to make it that little bit more satisfying if you, like me, have a sweet tooth). The honey works as a demulcent, meaning it coats the throat and soothes the irritation. By adding lemon, you're giving your body an added kick of Vitamin C, which is never a bad thing when you're immune system is on full-pelt.


2 Dandelion Tea

Probably less well-known as a remedy, and more as a pain for gardeners everywhere, the dandelion (or more specifically, its green leaves) has an array of benefits. It's a great source of Vitamin A, calcium, iron and potassium -- to name a few. Dandelion can be very useful for clearing... if you find that you're feeling a little bunged up, it acts as a diuretic. Collect handfuls of dandelion leaves, choosing younger, smaller leaves if possible, and wash them, laying them out on a tray afterwards. Leave them somewhere warm to dry, and then transfer them to a glass jar to continue drying -- storing them out of direct sunlight. Use one teaspoon of the dried leaves per cup, using a tea strainer. Be wary that it can cause allergic reactions, and may be more likely if you are allergic to chamomile or marigold, for instance.

3 Sliced Onion

Blocked nose? Quarter an onion and add to a cup of hot water, and give it a good whiff for five to 10 minutes. It'll clear that bad boy up in no time at all.


4 Chewing Parsley

Chewing fresh parsley or mint can help freshen breath -- particularly useful when it is given as a garnish for garlic-packed meal.






5 Rosemary Bath

To relieve aches and pains, add fresh rosemary leaves to a bath (either loose of in a make-shift muslin bag). If the aches are due to a long-standing cold, the rosemary bath works two-fold because the steam can help clear blocked sinuses. 

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Be wary of allergies when using natural remedies, and consult a general practitioner if in doubt. Make sure to wash herbs before using, particularly if you'll be chewing on them!

Finding the ideal location for your green mates

Positioning for outdoor plants…

When choosing plants, find out what kind of light they need: dappled? Half shade? Full sun? Most plants I’ve come across can tolerate different amounts of light, but may not thrive in certain places.

What kind of soil do you have? Is it quite dry and nutrient-poor? Is it a moisture retentive clay? Best way to find out is to have a look in your garden, surprisingly enough. Sandy soil allows for better drainage, whereas some plants like richer, heavier soil which stays moist for longer. Have a little dig and see what your soil looks like – goodness knows I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) afford a soil testing kit.

Will they be chilly? Spring is prime gardening time because the temperature is beginning to rise again, after plummeting for the few months beforehand, so you can begin planting out your veggies that can’t survive in the winter frosts. Wait until after the last frost of the season to plant out your lovelies.

Positioning for indoor plants…

Think about light. Again, have a look in the room you’re hoping to introduce a plant to and see where receives the most and least light. Spider plants are excellent for rooms that receive little light, and are incredibly easy to propagate. If you have bright sunlight you have a little more freedom, and may choose something a bit more exciting.

Is your air dry or humid? Centrally heated rooms are often drier (unless you have a problem with damp) so think about getting a water spray bottle for plants that seem to be struggling, and spritz around the plant to liven it up. Seeing as my desk is so warm, I’ll be introducing an orchid at some point. But to make sure it’s in the warm and moist air it likes, it’ll be on a pebble bed. When I manage to find to a suitable glass vase, orchid and pebbles, I’ll post a step-by-step guide for it. For now, to increase the local humidity for a plant, you can put pebbles in a tray and fill with water. Place the potted plant on top of the pebbles, and position in a warm spot.

Will they be sweaty? Perhaps not sweaty, but they might find it a little too hot for comfort. Much like my issue with the blasting radiator, make sure the plants won’t be too warm. Also protect them from draughts. Many plants can tolerate draughts, but the abrupt change in temperature don’t bode well for a happy Larry so err on the side of caution and double-think the clematis on the nippy windowsill – and instead opt for a shelf nearby. Provide fresh air, by opening a window for example, but simply ensure it doesn’t mean the plant is in a sudden breeze of cold air. Ease them in. Softly, softly, catchy monkey – so to speak.

A brief sweep…

• Light
• Warmth – but not too much (ideally no more than 20-23C)!
• Protection from frost and draught
• Keep it fresh
• Water
• Air – humid or dry?
• Drainage
• Goodness – compost, mulch and feed provides extra nutrients for your plants

Ten thrifty garden tips

Want to add to your garden without purging your purse? You’ve come to the right place!

1 Make your own seed pots. Newspaper, a glass and some string is all you need to make a whole batch of seed pots for your nursery. They’ll decompose in the ground, too, so when you transfer your littl’uns outside you won’t need to disturb the roots.

2 Propagation and patience. I saw a spider plant priced up at £4 today. £4! Spider plants can be so easily propagated if you have a friend or family member with a spawning plant. Cut off a young plant from the main, and place in a glass of water. Leave to root, which normally takes around a fortnight, and transfer to a pot of compost. Before you buy more plants, think about what you could do with your existing ones. You could even do a swap with someone – giving away a lavender (Lavandula spica) cutting for your neighbour’s jade (Crassula ovata) cutting, for example.

3 Eggshell goodness. Pass on that pricey feed and add some crushed eggshells to soil for a nutrient boost. They’re a good source of calcium, and are particularly useful for fast-growing plants. Wash and finely crush the eggshells before mixing them into the soil.

4 Veggie goodness. When you’re gorging yourself at the Sunday roast, think about your plant folk. Put aside the water you’ve cooked your veg in, allow it to cool, and water your plants with it for a kick of goodness.

5 Trellis? Ain’t nobody got time to buy that! Planting a climber and planning on buying trellis? Learn a new skill and save money at the same time, by making your own trellis or supporting frame. All you need is string and bamboo canes, and a little ingenuity. Position your canes in the design you would like – for instance, in a V shape with bars, or a # shape. Then tie the string around each joint by running above and below each cane, and knot every several wraps, to ensure a tight hold.

6 Love your charity shops. I’ve bought most my pots and glass containers from charity shops – and at no more than £3 each. My best buy was perhaps a cut glass bowl for £1, which is now home to my succulent display. If you’re looking for a larger container for an indoor plant, you can find a wicker basket or small bin (the kind you’d put in a bedroom or office) in a charity shop and adapt it. Line the bin or basket with a black bin bag (double-layer if not very thick), shovel gravel into the bottom to allow for drainage (three inches should do it…) and fill with compost and the plant of your choice.

7 Linger, then meander a little, too. Keep an eye on the plant sections in supermarkets and non-specialist shops for reduced products. Retailers don’t water the plants once they’re on the shop floor, and are forced to reduce their price when they show the effects of the negligence. It means you can find some bargains, although they’ll need a little extra watering and attention for the first week or so.

8 Size isn’t everything. Garden centres up the price for plants as they get bigger, unsurprisingly. So you might find a small thyme (Thymus vulgaris) for £3, while a more mature plant is £7. The resolution is clear: spend within your means. Although a larger plant may give you instant gratification, a smaller one can be much more satisfying to train and watch grow.

9 Tap into local resources. Local coffee shops often give away their used coffee grounds, which can then be used to invigorate your soil. A valuable source of nitrogen, as well as magnesium, calcium and potassium, the grounds can be added to the soil in the same way as eggshells – mixed in with, or added on top of, soil. Pebbles from the local beach can be used in trays to increase humidity for potted plants (by placing them in a tray, filling with water, and placing the potted plant on top).

10 Just ask. Need some storage for your tools or pots? Ask at the local supermarket to have a couple of the cardboard boxes they receive vegetables in. They’re attractive, free and practical – how great is that?! Wondering whether your local café throw away their eggshells and coffee grounds? You know what to do.

Clear it! Clear it all!

When we moved into our house in September, the back garden was very overgrown. Common ivy (Hedera helix) and brambles clung to the surrounding walls, while other weeds and thorns had spread over the patio and flower bed. It looked even more unloved because previous tenants had somehow left broken plastic furniture, saws, ladders, rusty garden tools, and even a barbeque, strewn amongst the wilderness – floating on a sea of greenery. On the whole, the poor thing looked in dire need of attention.

I was fairly brutal in the clearing.

If I could do it again, I would have been less aggressive when cutting back the ivy, as the back wall now looks a bit bare. Keep in mind when clearing a garden of your own, that you still want the garden to look established – all the best things get better with age – and a bit of ivy on a wall can create just that effect.

I had to cut back the sage (Salvia officinalis) because it had been forced under the thorns to sprawl outwards, and also had brown spots on many of its leaves. It now looks a bit rough, but as I’ve said in an earlier blog, a little time and care should slowly get it back to a healthier state. Sage is generally quite hardy, and it has come through the winter well – with a beautiful silver touch in its leaves, might I add – but can struggle when neglected for too long, which seems to have been the case for mine. I might get a younger plant to put nearby, if only to draw some attention from the current sage’s woody branches that had once been hidden by the spotted leaves (now removed to prevent further contamination).

The way I go on about all these ill plants, my garden sounds like a care home for neglected flora, but I do have some rather lovely specimens. The rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), in particular, is my pride and joy in the garden.

I use often use rosemary in my cooking, so was very pleased to find a healthy plant under the tail-ends of brambles – closest to the kitchen. There’ll be a recipe for rosemary and garlic pasta coming soon, too.

Grab some tips for your garden clearing project here.

Keep sweet,

Lara x

Taming your unruly garden

I recently spokeabout my garden’s upheaval when we first moved in, and here are some tips if you’ve got an unruly garden that you’d like to see a little tidier:

Plan ahead. Have a look at the surfaces in your garden: do you have any flower beds? Is there a lot of patio or concrete? Once you know the layout and composition, you can start thinking about what you’ll be planting once it’s cleared. At the same time as doing this, see if there are any existing plants beneath the chaos that you would like to keep.

Suit up. There is nothing that can slow you down quite like getting thorns stuck in your hands or ankles. I went into my garden thinking myself quite the fashionista, in my ankle grazers and t-shirt, only to retreat back into the house after five minutes because my ankles had (you guessed it) taken quite a battering. Be practical and wear long trousers and gardening gloves – it may sound obvious, but pricks can easily be underestimated.

Tool up. Double-check you have everything you’ll need before you start. This’ll allow you to spend your time weeding/digging/clearing, and not searching for the secateurs that ‘you know you saw last week’, while calling out all manner of blasphemous and ‘blue’ words. You don’t need to be made up like Schwarzenegger, either. I cleared our garden with nothing more than a good pair of gardening gloves, secateurs and a small hand shovel. Just be careful when dealing with the larger of garden nuisances. This is great because it means not having to spend a fortune on unnecessary equipment.

Think in stages. Clear the weeds. Prepare the soil. Plant your lovelies. This way, you’ll know exactly where you are in the rejuvenation process and will be able to get it done much faster – you can power through each part, as opposed to taking time to swap between duties every so often.

Look! Remember to stop every so often and have a look at what you’ve done so far. It can be an incredible motivator and you’ll be surprised at how much you can get done within a short period of time.

Think green. It can be tempting to get rid of weeds by spraying weed killer all over the shop, but do resist. Their use can be harmful to the other critters that call your garden home. Pull them up from the roots and mulch flower beds to hold back comebacks.

And finally the practicalities… When cutting down brambles and thorns, if you cut them into sections (working from the tip to the root) it’ll mean they’re much easier to sweep or rake up. 

Hip to be hot? I don’t think so.

In the past two weeks I have had to say au revoir to my basil seedlings, ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and daffodils (Narcissus ‘Hawera’). Why? Because of a poorly positioned radiator and ill-advised plant placement. It has engrained in me a lifelong lesson, though: it’s all about location, location, location.

When deciding on plants, whether they'll be ending up indoors or outside, you need to think about the environment they’re going into, and what suits where best.

My desk is right in front of my radiator because it’s also in front of the window (I know, top-notch efficiency planning there), so the plants can receive enough light. It was fine in summer, but as we have been plunged into the bitter cold, the radiator has been turned on full-blast. Silly me, I didn’t realise how it would affect the lovelies – which have dried out and buckled under the intense heat, despite efforts to bring them back. They certainly weren’t helped by an impromptu weekend away (to Swansea, so not quite an exotic holiday).

My succulents, however, have loved the dry, hot environment. My heather (Calluna vulgaris) seems to have survived. Though it appeared a little dry at first, it has now perked up after more frequent watering.

Find out about positioning plants here.

Let me introduce myself...

Hello! My Name’s Lara and I’m addicted to green…living. Well, plant life, that's for sure.

This is the start of a blog about gardening (shock horror) that will look at how you can create a garden from a concrete pit, turn a desk into a little natural escape, and other bits and bobs that include recipes and pictures of my cat…

It’s been around two years since I moved out of my parents’ house, and when I was suddenly faced with a dull, beige and magnolia bedroom and kitchen to lighten up – and some absolutely horrendous curtains to distract myself from (who would have ever thought of putting red, blue and green wavy stripes with orange blotches?).

Enter the plants.

I can’t get over how many plants I managed to accumulate and squeeze into my small flat last year. Windowsills were filled with hyacinths, daffodils, amaryllis, cactus, lavender and rosemary, as well as vases of cut flowers bought as a treat.

I was incredibly lucky because the flat received a lot of sunlight, particularly in the kitchen. It was so sunny, in fact, that it taught me one of my first lessons: there’s such a thing as too much sunlight. Or direct sunlight, to be more accurate perhaps. The poor forsythia I was attempting to root was scorched after being left in the bright sun over the weekend. I came back to three, very dry sticks plunged into very dry soil.

My tip? Treat your plants like people. Give them shelter from too much direct sunlight so they don’t get ‘sunburnt’ and keep them from going thirsty by watering them (little and often is usually best, as you don’t want the soil to shrink or become water-logged). For succulents and cacti, though, you can let the soil get quite dry before watering. They thrive in dry, warm environments and tolerate a lot of neglect, so will survive being forgotten over a hot weekend.

When it comes to winter and you need to keep indoor little’uns warm, cut off the top of a water bottle and use it as a cloche to keep the plant safe from frost. Just be sure to allow some airflow by removing the cap. Bark and mulch can be used outside. I have used bin bags in the past when protecting young cabbages from snow (the seasons decided they didn’t want to work like normal, and we had snow in spring), but removed them again when it was safe. Be sure to allow airflow and water to the plant when covering outdoor plants.

I was initially put off gardening by the cost. I didn’t want to end up spending a fortune (which, frankly, I didn’t have) on a pretty flowerbed or windowbox. But it doesn’t have to be expensive at all.

The first cactus I bought, a Christmas cactus (Zygocactus trunatus), has just finished its second flowering season and seems to be in a happy state. It’s a great example of how gardening – or just adding a few little plants around home – doesn’t need to be expensive. He (yes, he) was a bargain buy from Lidl, costing no more than £2.50 I think, but he’s survived thus far. If you’re willing to put in the little effort, you can raise a healthy plant without throwing money at everything.

Another great tip for making the pennies go further is to look at the reduced sections in garden centres or supermarket plant shelves. Supermarkets and other non-specialist shops, in particular, rarely water the plants once they’re on the shop floor. As a result, you can find the thirsty plants much cheaper once they lose their zest. These chaps and chapettes take a little more attention, as you slowly re-invigorate them with watering and feeding, but they can usually end up doing quite well.

My potted rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) was reduced in Tesco, to about £1.50 I think, and it’s now doing very well in a sunny spot on the windowsill in my parents’ kitchen. The rosemary was interesting, actually, because it was left in a back garden for weeks before I was able to take it to my flat. It meant it wasn’t in great shape, but with a little careful pruning and TLC it has become a nice grower – bearing in mind that rosemary is a slow grower.

Hopefully see you again sometime!

Lara,

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