I have been asked many times over the last couple of weeks what the general public are allowed to do in the garden so hopefully below are a few helpful guidelines.

-   No hoses are allowed to water lawns or plants.  However you can fill watering cans and water any lawns or plants.  It will just take a lot longer.

- No cleaning of any walls, or windows, patios, paths, garden furniture or any other outdoor artificial surface using a hose.

- You are not allowed to fill or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe (unless it has fish and their welfare is at stake – lucky fish!).

- You are not allowed to fill or maintaining an ornamental fountain.

- However you are allowed to use a hosepipe for cleaning purposes if health and safety is going to be an issue.

 Ways to make the most of the situation.

 - Plant any new trees, shrubs and plants in well-rotted, water-retaining compost and cover with a heavy layer of mulch (up to 4 inches) to retain moisture.

- While you are at it cover the rest of the beds in a thick layer of mulch.

-  Deliver water directly to the base of plants through tree-root watering pipes or trickle/drip irrigation equipment.

-  Install a trickle/drip irrigation system.

-  Wherever possible, use timer devices to water early in the morning or late in the evening when evaporation is minimal.

-  Don’t worry about lawns turning brown. This shows the grass has stopped growing, but most lawns will recover completely when the rain returns

-  Install water butts to collect rainwater off greenhouse, shed, garage and house roofs

If anyone is unsure about anything or has any questions please feel free to give us a call and we will try to help in any way we can (legally!!).

2. Check and clean tools. This is one of those jobs that there is never time for.  Now is a good time to make sure everything is washed, polished, cleaned and oiled.

3. Re pot or top dress shrubs and plants in pots and window boxes.  This is the best time of year to do this, doing this before spring will give your plants and soil the nutrients for the following season and will give you a fabulous display later in the year.  You can also now change your window plants from winter bedding plants to fresh spring option such as Primroses, Hellebores and Primulas.

4. Tidy herbaceous borders (prune of old stems of herbaceous plants).This is a job every gardener loves doing. It gives you so much satisfaction at the end of a day it‘s like spring cleanign the garden. Tidy plants by cutting them back and removing dead wood.  Ideally mulch after and wait for spring.

5. Prune overgrown evergreens like Prunus laurocerasus (laurel), Acuba japonica (spotted laurel) Viburnum tinus Viburnum then feed with organic fertilizer and mulch with organic matter

Fertilizer=plant food

Manure =garden duvet

6. Manure borders.  At this time of year your garden should be cleared of all winter leaves and tidied for spring.  Once the garden is clear this is the best time to mulch your borders with fresh manure. Spring flowering bulbs will have a perfect clean and dark back drop so you be able to see them better.

Manure (composted leaves twigs and some beneficial fungi) acts like a ‘duvet’ for the ground. It helps to keep it warm and also stops those little weeds peeking through as soon as the first warmth of spring arrives. Later on in the year it can be dug in to the border which will improve the soil structure and make nutrients more accessible for the plants.

7. Apply organic fertilizers like seaweed meal, blood fish and bone and pelleted chicken manure.  Applying organic fertilizers now allows it to break down and be easily accessible for hungry plants when the weather warms up and vegetation will come back to life again.

If you are thinking of doing your garden up its well worth your while coming in to the show room here at 419 New Kings Road as we have a vast range of samples out on display.  You can plan your garden in every detail and see all the material samples available.  In addition to the usual furniture and pots we also have wide selection of stone, paving, pebbles/cobbles, decking, batoning, trellising, fencing, paint and grass samples.  To help you visualise your garden we also have a number of photo books of gardens we have created as well as gardens we have seen and admired to give you all the inspiration you need.

Please feel free to come in for a browse and chat.

We can now provide a range of drawings from simple line drawings to 3 dimensional drawings which go a long way to helping our clients visualise the proposed garden and to see where their money is being spent.  This visual aid is very useful in ironing out any issues prior to the build starting; one person’s mind’s eye picture can be very different from the next.

As a design AND build landscaping company we can overcome various issues that some garden designers and their separate contractors encounter. We are there at the inception of your dream garden so therefore understand the journey that had been taken and what your likes and dislikes are which means its quick and easy to deal with any issues.

With 50% of our design fee being waived if we build our designs too, we try to ensure the whole process from initial enquiry, through the design, planning and building stages, is as straight forward and pain free as possible. (And of course don’t forget our maintenance service too!).

• Black Rattan Sofa set – 2 seater sofa with an arm chair and 2 foot stool/coffee table – from £500
• Rattan Coffee table with 2 chairs and 2 footstools (to create a mini lounger) – from £300
• Dinning Table and 8 chairs – from £800
• Sun lounger – from £250.00
• Cushion Box – from £250

Please call us or come in and see us if you are interested.

Traditionally November is a busy time in the garden especially with regards to planting (bare-rooted and/or root balled hedging, trees and shrubs.

• Remove fallen leaf from lawn areas and use to make leaf mould, an excellent compost for planted border. Simply dampen collected leaves and store in a black plastic bag. Pierce bag and set aside for 6 months
• Check and remove (rake/scarify) any moss and thatch from lawn areas
• If temperatures remain mild, grass will continue to grow, wait for dry conditions before giving the lawn a trim
• Apply autumn/winter lawn feed (high in phosphates and potash) to encourage good root development
• November is a good month to take a critical look at the garden, correct any mistakes, determine and plan changes for spring and try something new
• With a mild Autumn so far there is still time to plant your spring flowering bulbs. Here at some suggestions for some last minute bulb planting:
o Tulip Montreux, Tulip Fantasy, Leucojum aestivum, Nerine bowdenii and Fritallaria meleagris.
• Daffodils don’t have to be boring, here are some stunning and unusual suggestions:
o Narcissi Ambergate, Narcissi Audubon, Narcissi Rip Van Winkle, Narcissi Polar Ice & Narcissi Cum Laude.

The horse chestnut tree has been hit by two diseases. The first hit is a bacteria, bleeding canker, which infects the bark and cuts the water supply to the crown off. The second hit is an ‘alien’ leaf-mining moth which is relatively new in the UK and comes from the Balkans. Its indiscriminate, attacking workaday horse chestnuts and grander trees alike, weakening them which results in smaller conkers.

You may have noticed the leaves turning a deep shade of brown and thinking this was just autumn protocol but up close the leaves are marked with the infestation of the leaf miner, if you look close enough you can see the caterpillars embedded in the leaf. The tree hit by this infestation will not die immediately but it does have long term implications. A big tree can contain up to 2 million moths with the caterpillars eating through the leaves turning them brown earlier than they would naturally therefore reducing its ability to photosynthesis meaning the tree has less energy stored for the winter months. This makes the tree severely weak and if on top of the moths the tree is hit by bleeding canker it could easily die.

There are a few ways to stop the leaf miner. Some tree have been sprayed, it is also important to clear leaf litter from underneath the tree, this removes the moths habitat therefore reducing its numbers. There have also been some experiments with small wasps that feed on the moths.

If you would like to take a more active approach to finding a way of saving the conker tree you can join the likes of Steven Fry and download the free app from www.conkertreescience.org.uk. You can upload your findings of trees in your area straight on to the website therefore enabling the ecologists to plot how far the leaf miner has travelled, how many trees are being effected and hopefully a way to protect the tree for generations of conker players to come.

“The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.”

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/04/serpentine_gallery_pavillion_2011_zumthor.html