How to get your garden in top shape for spring
with Debbie Wallace
Sometimes the best thing to do… is nothing!
With spring now well and truly all around us, it’s the perfect time to get back in the garden. To help you get started, our Urban Ranger, Debbie Wallace has put together some top tips… Get sowing Now’s the perfect time to sow seeds. Read seed packets, or do your own research, to get the planting time right. Seeds like Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist) and Calendula (Pot Marigold) are easy to grow, hardy plants. Hardy plants can cope with freezing temperatures, making them perfect when it comes to surviving overnight frost during early spring. Embrace the lifecycle of your flowers If you’re worried about flowers in your garden starting to die, don’t worry! It could be part of the natural process, and you might be rewarded next spring! Bulbs such as Daffodils use the energy they store up in spring to give you a lovely display of flowers next year. Letting the leaves die back on their own is an important part of this process and allows them to store up the energy they need.
You can help local wildlife flourish by simply putting your feet up and letting things grow. Trees, shrubs and even climbing plants in gardens can also be places where birds nest. You can protect nesting birds by avoiding cutting hedges for the whole of nesting season (March–August). You can also join in with No Mow May by simply stopping mowing your lawn during the month of May. This lets wildflowers grow which, in turn, supports bees and butterflies.
www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay
You don’t need a garden to get stuck in If you want to get your fingers green but don’t have your own garden, you can find gardening groups near you using this tool.
Scan the QR code to find a gardening group near you
Make more from less
Did you know you can split and divide some of your own garden plants to make more? This works well for many late-summer flowering plants.
Scan the QR code to find a handy guide on how to do this
2 southwayhousing.co.uk
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