The garden is doing really well at the moment – My strawberries are delicious and I have so many salad leaves I’m giving them away to anyone that will have them!

The sweet peas I bought from our nursery are flowering away now too – I bought a pot of a mix called ‘The Blues’ and they are beautiful. The way to keep them going is to keep them well fed and to keep picking them – Once they are allowed to set seed they’ll stop. Our flat smells wonderful with vases of them around.

I’m very pleased to be cropping a decent amount of vegetables from the garden at last. My spinach and cut and come again salad leaves have gone beserk so I shouldn’t need to buy any for quite some time now.

My beans are showing real promise, tying in the new growth to the supports has become an almost daily job now and they are quite the envy of my Dad whose beans are struggling this year. His aren’t ideally placed to make the most of the sun all day and he didn’t put as much time into preparing the soil as I did which goes to show it’s worth the effort.

I’m also reaping the rewards of putting in the same effort with preparation for my strawberries. Last year, in their first year, I removed any flowers to stop them producing fruit so they could put their energy into growing into strong healthy plants – This year they are laden with fruit which I can’t wait try!

Now our lawn is looking thicker we’ve noticed a few weeds starting to grow so its time for a summer feed and weed where we’re a bit late starting our lawn care programme. The granular types such as Evergreen complete are really easy to use, just scatter on and let the rain we’ve been getting over the last week do the watering in for you! If you’ve already done your feed and weeding the cut and feed will give your grass an extra boost and help it recover from any damage done over the past year.

I finally succumbed to temptation last week and bought myself a plant I’ve been coveting for ages – an Astelia. These sought after plants are shaped like the New Zealand flaxes and also come from the same area, but the strappy grass-like leaves are a beautiful spring green colour with a metallic silver lustre. I’ve planted it in a pot and placed it in pride of place on my decking where I can see it from the kitchen and it will get the semi-shaded conditions it will thrive in. It looks great with my Maple and ferns.

Its fathers day the week-end after next – Don’t forget to get your Dad a card & a little something. If you’re stuck for ideas we have plenty of Dad-ware (giftware for dads) & if hes a planty person we have some lovely unusual things in at the moment, pop in & see one of us for some ideas!

We had another busy day in the garden this weekend. A couple of weeks ago my husband noticed some bare patches in the lawn so we thought it an ideal opportunity to try out some patch magic lawn repair. This week after mowing we definitely noticed the difference; the bare patches are full of new grass & are hardly noticeable now.

I spent some time cropping my first radishes & sowing some more along with some turnips, leeks & basil & thinned out the lettuce seedlings that have finally made an appearance. The ready sown salad leaf & spinach seedlings I bought are romping away, I should be able to start picking some leaves next week... Yum!

The rest of the garden is coming on too, my dahlias are finally making an appearance & the perennials I put in a few months back are really coming on. I particularly like the geranium ‘Brookside’. It’s a good doer, scrambling around & producing the most vivid blue flowers, once it’s finished its first flush I’ll cut it back & it’ll bloom again within a few weeks.



http://www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk/GardenEssentials.html





 

 

Over the past year we have been putting together a ‘Garden Essentials’ range of staples that most gardeners will use through the year. These products must be well known and trusted brands that we can offer at really low prices meaning that a good garden needn’t cost the earth. The latest addition to this range we have just bought in is Murphy multipurpose compost. Also in the range we have – Tomorite and Miracle-gro feeds, Slug clear slug pellets, Levington gro-bags, large packs of marigolds and petunias, and 10kg packs of BBQ charcoal.

This week I’ve noticed that many of the flowering Cherry trees have finally begun to bloom. I have a bit of a thing for trees and the flowering cherries so loved by the Japanese for their stunning display of blossom in the Spring are one of my favourites too. There are many forms available which makes it easy to find one to suit any garden space but amongst my favourites are...

Prunus ‘Chocolate Ice’ - Lovely coppery leaves young leaves and huge white flowers in April

Prunus ‘Kanzan’ – Coppery young leaves turn to fresh green on an elegant spreading canopy of branches. Blush pink, frilly double flowers absolutely smother the branches in April.

Prunus ‘Royal Burgundy’ - Rich red/purple leaves give a great display in Autumn when they turn scarlet. Deep pink flowers are stunning against the just emerging foliage in Spring.

I’ve managed to find some time to keep up in my garden this week-end. We popped in to John Browns to pick up a few extra plants. My husband made a detour into the BBQ area and picked up a griddle which we christened with some aubergine and mushrooms that evening and he also rather liked the carnivorous ‘Pitcher’ plants that Becky (our houseplant expert) had got hold of that week. They’re perfect for adding a bit of life to his office which is brightly lit and warm, he just needs to keep them damp at all times using rainwater which they’ll thrive on.

I picked up some mixed salad leaves and some bush French beans to fill the gaps in our veg beds and some of my favourite annuals - ‘Cerinthe’ or ‘Honeybush’ - that Gemma our Plant manager managed to track down for me. These amazing plants have glaucous green leaves that contrast beautifully with the dusky blue/purple flowers and were introduced to me when I was just starting out as a gardener by a favourite and very knowledgeable customer. They’re quite large and bushy – around 60cm (24”) - great for filling gaps and bees and butterflies love almost as much as I do!

At Golden Acres we always like to encourage new people into horticulture and love to see our younger customers getting as enthusiastic and interested in plants and gardens as we are. We were delighted to help out when Abbotswood School in Totton approached Cadnam Garden Centre asking for help with some trees and advice for their new woodland area.

 

Here are some of the children receiving a donation of a tree from one of our favourite plant ladies, Julia.