What to do in your garden in August

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Well July was a great month this year for being in the garden. August is, however, traditionally the hottest month so make sure you keep everything well watered, and if you’re going on holiday enlist the help of a neighbour to look after all your pots, hanging baskets and border.

Last month was very hot and dry but this month has started off with more damp weather, helping the garden to really burst to life again. Keep an eye on slugs, snails and other pests that will feast on your plants and veg of you give them half a chance.

There is lots to keep you busy this month so take a look at our August tips to help you make the most of your garden this month.

General

  • Collect seed from flowering plants
  • Take cuttings of lavender, keeping them well watered until they form roots, usually by Autumn. They can then be planted out in the spring.
  • Keep bird baths and ponds topped up with water
  • Prune rambling and climbing roses after flowering
  • Pick off dead flowers to keep plants blooming
  • Cut fresh herbs to store for winter
  • Keep on top of pests
  • Keep ponds and water features topped up

Fruit and Vegetables

  • Check your courgette plants daily and pick young courgettes before they get too big
  • Check your broad beans – if you can feel them inside the pods they are ready to pick
  • Sow and harvest salad crops – sow beetroot, chard, mizuna, pak choi, radicchio, rocket, spinach every few weeks.
  • Give tomatoes extra support as their trusses grow heavier and pinch out new growth
  • Remove fruits from congested clusters of apples to encourage larger fruit growth
  • Protect soft fruit from birds by covering with netting
  • Your potatoes will be ready now so check on their size and if they are ready – enjoy!
  • Plant out leeks
  • If any of your ripening fruit has brown rot on it – pick the affected ones before it spreads to rest.
  • Sow the last batch of carrots
  • Feed greenhouse crops once a week
  • Sow spinach for use as baby leaves in autumn
  • Lift onions and garlic and allow to dry before storing in nets

Flowers

  • Deadhead roses and they will continue to flower for longer
  • Prune rambling and climbing roses after flowering
  • Collect ripe Foxglove seeds to sow straight away
  • Cut down faded delphinium and lupin flower spikes
  • Sow wallflower and forget-me-not seeds in seed compost
  • Order spring bulbs now

Shrubs and trees

  • Trim topiary to shape with shears
  • Apples, plums and cherries – for better fruit production cut back new growth with secateurs to a couple of leaves from the base
  • Bush fruits – Remove old, fruited stems of blackcurrants and gooseberries, and cut back soft growth on redcurrants to 3 – 4 leaves
  • Prune Wisteria
  • Don’t delay summer pruning of restricted fruits

Greenhouse

  • Carry on with many of the things you’ve been doing throughout July
  • Stand pots on capillary matting or gravel try system to reduce the amount of watering needed
  • Keep tomato compost wet, pay special attention to those being grown in bags
  • Open doors and vents early on hot or sunny days (we wish !)
  • Pinch off tomato side shoots
  • Sow calceolaria primulus, cineraria and cyclamen
  • Thin out congested bunches of grapes
  • Tidy the greenhouse and clean out cold frames in preparation for next month when you’ll start to bring plants undercover.

Lawns

  • Remove lawn weeds – lever them out, use compost to fill the hole, sprinkle with grass seed then cover in compost before watering
  • Cut regularly
  • Feed lawns to encourage strong growth
  • If the weather is particularly hot and dry water lawns

Pests

  • Watch out for fat, caterpillar like cutworm – either dig over the soil to let the birds at them or use a biological control
  • Slugs and snails can be a real problem in this wet weather. Try beer traps to control them.
  • Check for larvae on leaves and remove by picking them off or spraying with insecticide.

Need more advice? Post a question on our Facebook page or pop into the garden centre and talk to a member of our experienced garden team.

What to do in your garden in July

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Summer is definitely here now, and our gardens are bursting with life. If you’ve been growing vegetables and fruit then you’ll start to harvest the first of your crops this month.

You will also have to work hard again this month to keep on top of weeds and keep a watchful eye out for slugs, snails and other pests that will feast on your growing plants and veg of you give them half a chance.

Take a look at our July tips to help you make the most of your garden this month.

General

  • Restrict the size of your woody trees by pruning
  • Tackle bindweed before it takes over – by either digging it our, smothering it with a membrane, weedkiller or hoeing
  • Pick off dead flowers to keep plants blooming
  • Help sweet peas to climb by tying leading shoots to supports
  • Cut fresh herbs to store for winter
  • Keep on top of pests

Fruit and Vegetables

  • Check your courgette plants daily and pick young courgettes before they get too big
  • Check your broad beans – if you can feel them inside the pods they are ready to pick
  • Sow and harvest salad crops – sow beetroot, chard, mizuna, pak choi, radicchio, rocket, spinach every few weeks.
  • Give tomatoes extra support as their trusses grow heavier and pinch out new growth
  • Remove fruits from congested clusters of apples to encourage larger fruit growth
  • Protect soft fruit from birds by covering with netting
  • Early potato varieties will be ready now so check on their size and if they are ready – enjoy!
  • Bury blackberry stem tips and they will form new plants
  • Plant out leeks
  • Wrap celery stems in newspaper, then pile soil round them to exclude light

Flowers

  • Deadhead roses and they will continue to flower for longer
  • Collect ripe Foxglove seeds to sow straight away
  • Cut down faded delphinium and lupin flower spikes
  • Pick off faded rhododendron and azalea flower heads

Shrubs and trees

  • Trim topiary to shape with shears
  • Apples, plums and cherries – for better fruit production cut back new growth with secateurs to a couple of leaves from the base
  • Bush fruits – Remove old, fruited stems of blackcurrants and gooseberries, and cut back soft growth on redcurrants to 3 – 4 leaves
  • Wisteria – to encourage flowering and to stop rampant growth remove straggly new growth to 1 – 2 leaves from base
  • Cut out old stems and prune back to strong new growth once rambling roses have flowered.

Greenhouse

  • Stand pots on capillary matting or gravel try system to reduce the amount of watering needed
  • Keep tomato compost wet, pay special attention to those being grown in bags
  • Open doors and vents early on hot or sunny days (we wish !)
  • Pinch off tomato side shoots
  • Sow calceolaria primulus, cineraria and cyclamen
  • Thin out congested bunches of grapes
  • Move plants to bigger pots if their roots have grown out to the edges of their old ones.

Lawns

  • Remove lawn weeds – lever them out, use compost to fill the hole, sprinkle with grass seed then cover in compost before watering
  • Cut regularly
  • Feed lawns to encourage strong growth

Pests

  • Watch out for fat, caterpillar like cutworm – either dig over the soil to let the birds at them or use a biological control
  • Slugs and snails can be a real problem in this wet weather. Try beer traps to control them.
  • Check for larvae on leaves and remove by picking them off or spraying with insecticide.

Need more advice? Post a question on our Facebook page or pop into the garden centre and talk to a member of our experienced garden team.

Swimming Pool Converted to Natural Swimming Pool

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The client had an old swimming pool in the Peak District that was in need of renovation and chose us to convert it into a natural swimming pool that had the appearance of a formal pond so when their children grew up they would have a feature that complemented the house.

The pool was made larger so that the swim zone was the same size as the original pool. This was done by putting the planting zone (part of which incorporates the filter zone) around the edge on three sides and extending to the front to accommodate a set of Yorkstone steps in the pool.

The pump equipment was placed in the cellar, conveniently out of site. Three  jets direct surface debris into a skimmer that helps keep the pool clean, this is on a timer and comes on automatically at intervals during the day.

A Yorkstone patio was laid around the pool to give a generous seating/entertaining area.

Plants now beginning to spread and soften the edges of the pool

Garden Style Garden Centre

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Set in the beautiful Loxley Valley, just above Damflask reservoir with it’s sailing facilities and only 1 ½ miles from the picturesque Bradfield villages, Gardenstyle is a unique type of Garden Centre.

It’s origins lie as a nursery, but over the years it has expanded to include not just the unusual plants and specimens for which it is renowned but also garden furniture, wild bird care, gift ideas and of course The Old Glasshouse Café. The centre boasts some fine specimen trees, shrubs and plants on several levels in landscaped surroundings. It is home to a large variety of wild birds which take advantage of the feeders located near the café. This is not a huge centre, but what we lack in size, we make up for in customer service, horticultural knowledge, inspirational ideas, and above all passion.

Opening Times – Monday to Saturday 09:00 – 17:00, Sunday 10:00 – 17:00, Bank Holidays 09:00 – 17:00, closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day

RHS Tatton 2013 – Best in Show

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Last year we’re delighted to be awarded Gold Medal and Best Large Garden at RHS Tatton Flower Show 2013!

Our landscaping team here at Garden Style were chosen to build the RHS Tatton Flower Show 2013 garden for designer Phil hurst.
The Garden designer Phil Hirst has created a garden which celebrates 100 years of steel production in Sheffield.
Sanctuary Housing Association are the sponsors for the building works.

The design by Phil Hirst

What to do in your garden in June

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At last the cold weather and frosts are behind us and the garden is bursting with life. June is an exciting and busy month with a seemingly endless list of things to do.

You will really have to work hard this month to keep on top of weeds and keep a watchful eye out for slugs, snails and other pests that will feast on your growing plants and veg of you give them half a chance.

Take a look at our June tips to help you make the most of your garden this month:

General

  • Plant a summer hanging basket
  • Gradually lower the cutting height of your mower as grass growth increases
  • Spray roses showing signs of diseases such as blackspot, rust or powdery mildew
  • Apply a combined weed, feed and moss killer to your lawn if you think it needs it
  • Top up water levels in pools and remove water weeds with a net
  • Hoe borders on hot sunny days to remove developing weed seedlings
  • Continue watering anything newly planted until it has established
  • Treat problem weeds emerging in borders with herbicide
  • Lightly trim new growth on box hedging
  • Make elderflower cordial

Vegetables / Fruit

  • Finish planting out vegetable crops, including tomatoes, beans, courgettes and sweetcorn
  • Sow a few seeds of salad leaves every 2-3 weeks
  • Use netting to protect developing and ripening fruits from birds
  • Tie in new shoots on blackberries, raspberries, loganberries and other cane fruits
  • Water gooseberries and strawberries to encourage fruits to swell
  • Thin out emerging raspberry canes if they’re too congested, leaving new canes about 15cm apart
  • Thin out congested fruits on apples and plums – the remaining fruits will grow far larger if competition is reduced
  • Sow seeds now: lettuce, rocket, spinach, beetroot, dwarf French beans, runner beans, radish, carrots, calabrese, mini-cauliflowers, spinach, chicory, endive, kohl rabi, peas, spinach beet, swede and turnips

Lawns

  • Gradually lower the cutting height of your mower as grass growth increases
  • Weather permitting mow twice a week
  • Trim the edges and borders of the lawn for a neat and tidy finish
  • Apply a combined weed, feed and moss killer to your lawn if you think it needs it
  • If any bare patches appear simply repair them with a lawn restorer product

Flowers

  • Use secateurs to remove suckers growing from the stems of standard roses
  • Tie tall border plants like delphiniums to their supports
  • Finish planting out dahlias, cannas and summer bedding
  • Cut back dead and dying foliage on spring bulbs
  • Deadhead camellias and rhododendrons after flowering
  • Train clematis shoots to their supports
  • Finish dividing hardy primulas
  • Prune early summer-flowering shrubs like philadelphus and deutzia once the flowers are over
  • Sow seeds now: wallflowers, sweet Williams, Canterbury bells and forget-me-nots

Greenhouse

  • Increase greenhouse shading if temperatures inside are getting very hot
  • Take cuttings from houseplants
  • Damp down the greenhouse floor every morning
  • Water pots and growing bags daily
  • Set up a ‘watering bench’ using capillary matting to look after pot plants
  • Sow seeds of Christmas cherry (solanum) to grow as winter pot plants
  • Hang yellow sticky traps in the greenhouse to help control whitefly
  • Thin out heavy crops of peaches and nectarines, leaving remaining fruits about 10cm apart
  • Repot any houseplants that are pot bound

Pests

  • Watch out for cabbage pests
  • Watch out for red lily beetle on the tips and leaves of lilies. Squash any you find, or spray with a suitable pesticide
  • Slugs can be a real problem now, particularly on hostas and salads – use good organic slug pellets, or if you want a more natural method try beer traps

Need more advice? Post a question on our Facebook page or pop into the garden centre and talk to a member of our experienced garden team.

A Hathersage Front Garden Makeover

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We were asked to transform this front garden in Hathersage. The starting point was a fairly basic lawned garden with a hedge along the outside edge.

We started by clearing the space, removing the lawn and taking down the hedge. We then laid the patio which was to be the central theme of the new garden.

A close up of the patio before planting.

We completely transformed the space by adding in a shaped patio with ornamental grasses set into the pebbles and a variety of plants and shrubs planted in curved edge borders. The finished front garden is now a lovely light area with plenty of interesting detail.

To find out how we can transform your garden call us on 0114 221 5066 and speak to one of our expert garden designers today.

What to do in your garden in May

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May is a very busy month in the garden with plants growing at a fast pace as the weather and soil warms up.

Regular hoeing will keep the weeds at bay and remember to keep checking plants for signs of pest attack. Don’t allow aphids or slugs to get a hold but deal with them at the first sign of attack.

Also, don’t forget to start feeding your beds, borders and veg patch for great results later in the season.

There’s always something to do now – seeds to be sown, and weeds to be removed, so make sure you keep on top of the jobs that need doing. Here’s our May tips to help you:

General

  • Beware late frosts and keep vulnerable plants and new shoots protected at night if there is a frost is forecast
  • Don’t be tempted to put out tender bedding until the middle of the month
  • Treat yourself to at least 1 great new plant before the best selection is gone
  • Water your garden regularly, even if rain is predicted
  • Now is the best time to start digging if you are thinking about having a pond
  • Clean bird feeders
  • Turn the compost
  • Hoe weeds
  • Prick out seedlings
  • Plant hanging baskets
  • Treat wood with a stain
  • Don’t forget to keep an eye out for those weeds and unwelcome pests in the garden.

Vegetables

  • Continue sowing veg, particularly salad crops, little and often.
  • Harvest overwintering onions, early varieties of beetroot and radishes
  • Harvest asparagus – If you’re not picking asparagus, get some planted for next year.
  • Plant onion sets
  • Protect crops from late frosts with Fleece
  • Fertilize vegetable beds
  • Place straw around early strawberries
  • Sow Beans
  • Earth up potatoes.

Lawns

  • Tidy up the lawn, and if required re sow patches that look bare or damaged.
  • Reseed any bare patches and keep watered. Don’t mow until the new grass has reached 2″ to 3″, then mow on highest setting at first.
  • Mow regularly, aim to keep a constant length now for the rest of the year.

Greenhouse

  • Time to sow the bedding plants
  • Prick out any seedlings that are ready
  • Sow seeds in cellular trays
  • Train and prune bushy Fuchsias

Pests

  • Wage war on slugs and snails – use pet-friendly slug pellets, drench the ground around hostas with liquid slug killer to exterminate slugs below the surface or invest in a biological control (nematodes deliver a lethal bacterial infection to slugs)
  • If you see snails pick them off….it’s up to you what you do with them.

Herbaceous borders

  • Plant out sweet pea plants.
  • Clear out and compost spring bedding.
  • Support tall perennials to prevent damage
  • Deadhead spring blooming bulbs, but leave their foliage until it turns yellow.
  • Deadhead early spring flowers like pansies and primroses as the blossoms fade and begin replacing them in containers with warm weather bloomers.
  • Help your flowers grow by giving them a good feed.
  • Divide jam-packed perennials.

Shrubs, trees, hedges

  • Check out spring flowering trees and shrubs while they are in bloom and make notes for future purchases.
  • Plant or transplant trees and shrubs before the heat of summer.
  • Protect blossoms from frost with Fleece
  • Water trees
  • Prune roses
  • Fertilise Roses and Shrubs
  • Trim and feed hedges.

Need more advice? Post a question on our Facebook wall or pop into the garden centre and talk to a member of our experienced garden team.

What to do in your garden in May

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At last… Summer is on its way!

This really is the busiest and most exciting time of the year in our gardens. The bulbs have all but gone now and herbaceous borders are showing signs of growth on a daily basis, which can mean only one thing… summer is on its way. Now is a great time to start sowing and planting in earnest.Now is also a goods time to take softwood cuttings, as well as time to start regularly mowing your lawn.

Here are this month’s things to do in your garden:

  • Even in though it is May watch out for frosts and protect tender plants.
  • Earth up potatoes, and promptly plant any still remaining.
  • At the end of the month you can plant out summer bedding plants but keep an eye out for any late frosts and cover when necessary.
  • Look at how best to collect rainwater and work out ways to recycle water for irrigation.
  • Weeds will start to grow rapidly in the warmer weather so regularly hoe affected areas .
  • On warm days  make sure you open greenhouse vents and doors to prevent overheating.
  • Lawns should now be mown each week.
  • Clip hedges, but check for nesting birds fist and leave until later if you have a nest that may be disturbed.
  • Spring-flowering bulbs can now be lifted and and divided into smaller clumps if they have become overgrown.

Need more advice? Post a question on our Facebook page or pop into the garden centre and talk to a member of our experienced garden team.

Spring Flowers & Foliage

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Add a splash of colour for late spring with some more flowers for later in the summer and a mix of foliage colours and textures for contrast when the flowers have ended.

Download a full plan of the design here (PDF)