BBC Gardeners World Magazinehttps://www.gardenersworld.com2026-08-03T18:26:58.000Zhourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00Your winter wildlife gardening jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-winter-wildlife-gardening-jobs/2026-01-19T10:21:02.000ZAs autumn draws to a close and winter weather starts to bite, many animals benefit from the food and shelter that our gardens provide. This is a wonderful time of year to see wildlife from a different angle: to watch birds hopping through bare branches and learn about the mammals that visit the garden from the tracks they leave behind in the snow.

It’s also a good time to plan ways to encourage more wildlife into the garden next year by planting bare-root shrubs and trees, putting up nest boxes, or by making the change to organic growing. And, with fewer jobs to do in the garden, you’ll have time to take part in citizen science projects such as the Big Garden Birdwatch and visit local nature reserves to discover more about the wildlife that lives in your area.

More wildlife gardening advice:

• What garden wildlife is up to now
• Go wild in winter, with Kate Bradbury
• 25 ways to help wildlife in a cold snap

Plants for wildlife

Ivy

Ivy is a valuable habitat and food source for many species, especially in the colder months, so avoid cutting mature plants back now unless absolutely necessary. Ivy flowers, which bloom from September to November, provide nectar and pollen for late-flying insects like hoverflies, wasps and ivy mining bees. The black berries attract birds such as woodpigeons and blackbirds in late winter.

As this tenacious climber scrambles along fences and up trees, its dense mass of foliage creates shelter for a wide range of insects, birds and small mammals. Ivy is also an important food plant for the larvae of certain moth and butterfly species such as the holly blue butterfly, which lays its second brood on ivy during the summer, and yellow-barred brindle, willow beauty and old lady moths. Ivy sap can irritate skin, so take care when handling.

• How to grow and care for English ivy

Evergreens and semi-evergreens

Evergreen and semi-evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers provide much-needed habitats for wildlife, especially in the colder months when deciduous plants have lost their leaves. Several species of birds may well make their first nesting attempts of the year in evergreens.

If you have space, you could add holly, yew, Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Cornubia’ or Berberis darwinii. Some cotoneasters (not 'Cornubia') are listed in Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales. It is an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow these species in the wild. You should stop them spreading from your garden and avoid purchasing or accepting gifts of these species.

Wall shrubs such as pyracantha and ceanothus, and climbers like ivy, honeysuckle, star jasmine and winter clematis, also provide shelter for a range of birds, insects and small mammals. Don’t be too tidy – allowing these plants to spread increases their usefulness to wildlife.

Since we gave our Lonicera japonica ‘Hall’s Prolific’ and Clematis cirrhosa ‘Jingle Bells’ the space to sprawl along the fence, the local house sparrows regularly congregate in the foliage – even nesting in the garden for the first time this year.

Pruning with wildlife in mind

Winter is a good time to prune many deciduous trees and shrubs. Most birds have finished breeding, but it is still a good idea to check prior to cutting back, as some species like collared doves can nest at any time of year.

Winter pruning allows you to see the framework of plants clearly once they are without foliage, making it easier to remove dead, diseased and damaged material, and create an improved shape. Woody prunings can be used to make habitat piles around the garden to provide more shelter for wildlife. Ensure that pruning is completed by the end of February when the main breeding season gets underway again.

• Your winter pruning jobs

Thrifty tip

Plant bare-root trees for wildlife during the dormant season between November and March. Bare-root plants are generally cheaper, many nurseries offer a wide choice and plants are more sustainable as there is no need for plastic pots. Although deciduous trees and shrubs can look bare and unimpressive during this time, once planted their energy is focused on developing a good root system, which should encourage healthy growth in the spring. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) and crab apple (Malus sylvestris) are among the best wildlife-friendly trees suitable for small gardens. 

Feeding wildlife

Keep feeding the birds during the winter when food is scarcer and the nights become colder. Natural food sources such as berries, fruits and seeds are important at this time of year, and supplementary feeding helps support winter bird populations too. It is important to use good quality bird food as research suggests providing poor quality food attracts birds, but fails to provide the resources they need, with detrimental effects to health and breeding.

Good winter foods include sunflower hearts, sultanas soaked in water (these are toxic to dogs, so make sure they can’t get to them), quality peanuts guaranteed aflatoxin-free (a fungus that can kill birds), high-energy seed mixes, suet cakes and homemade fat balls. Only put out enough food for a day or two, and remove waste food under feeders regularly.

Make sure that bird baths are filled daily with fresh tap water, cleaned at least once a week and that water does not freeze. Reduce the risk of disease by cleaning bird feeders weekly with soapy water and an animal-safe disinfectant, following good hygiene practices. As some bird diseases can affect humans and domestic animals, it’s important to wear gloves, clean feeders outside, use separate brushes, buckets and cloths, and wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Moving feeding sites around the garden regularly helps avoid the build-up of disease.

• Feeding garden birds in winter
• How to make fat cakes for birds
• Best bird feeders for your garden

Creating and maintaining habitats

Nest boxes for birds

As well as planting trees, shrubs and climbers to provide nest sites for birds such as blackbirds, robins and wrens next spring, you can also put up nest boxes to accommodate a wider range of breeding birds in your garden. Bird boxes can be added at any time but if they are in place before early spring, birds are more likely to nest in the first year. Adding nest boxes in autumn or winter also enables birds to use them for roosting in the colder months. Nest boxes should be situated facing between north and east to provide shelter from wind and rain, and avoid strong sunlight.

Different styles of nest box are suitable for different species, so check before you buy. Open-fronted boxes are ideal for robins and pied wagtails (with a front panel height of 100mm) and wrens (with a front panel height of 140mm) and should be placed up to 2m off the ground, sheltered by thick vegetation. Blue tits prefer a small hole-fronted nest box with an entrance hole diameter of 25mm. Situate the box 2-4m off the ground but, unlike robin and wren boxes, blue tits need a clear flight path so avoid vegetation in front of the entrance.

Several other species nest in hole-fronted boxes, such as great tits (28mm hole) and starlings (45mm hole). House sparrows will also nest in hole-fronted boxes, but they prefer to breed in colonies, so two or three boxes can be positioned close together or you can buy sparrow terraces with three nesting spaces in one box, each with its own 32mm hole. Make sure nest boxes are not easily accessible to predators like cats and squirrels.

• Types of bird box explained
• Should I clean out my bird box?

Gardening organically

Gardening organically encourages thriving, biodiverse ecosystems that benefit wildlife and people. If you find any leftover synthetic pesticides or weed killers while sorting sheds and garages this winter, dispose of them safely and consider replacing with organic methods of control.

Biological methods such as nematodes, and physical methods like removing slugs and snails by hand, mulching and hand weeding are effective ways to control unwanted animals and plants. Given time, gardens with healthy ecosystems should encourage more natural predators like ladybirds, ground beetles, toads and blue tits that will do much of the work for you.

• 10 organic gardening tips
• Go organic the easy way, with Alan Titchmarsh

Growing Greener

When choosing timber for wildlife projects like nest boxes, you can ensure it has been sourced from a responsibly managed woodland by checking it has a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) label. FSC timber comes from forests that are managed to preserve biodiversity and benefit local people and workers, while the PEFC endorses national forest certification systems around the world that focus on sustainable forest management.

Look out for… winter thrushes

If you’re lucky, migrant thrushes such as redwings and fieldfares might visit your garden during cold spells to feast on berries and fallen fruit. Resident thrushes like blackbirds and song thrushes can be seen in gardens all year round and numbers of these common species increase over winter as migrants arrive from the continent:

• We love it when redwings congregate in our silver birch before descending to feed on cotoneaster berries. These small thrushes are easily identifiable by the pale stripe above the eye and red underwings. Arriving in the UK in mid-autumn (last year I first heard the ‘tseep’ calls overhead on 16 October), they feed on berries and earthworms in small flocks, sometimes alongside fieldfares and other thrushes.
• Fieldfares will seek out food in gardens when the weather turns cold and snowy. Some winters, we’re lucky enough to get a few visiting to feast on windfall fruits and berries. These large, attractive thrushes are particularly fond of hawthorn, yew and holly berries.
• Other migrants to look out for in the garden over winter include waxwings, blackcaps and bramblings. Waxwings are winter visitors from Scandinavia. Although some years they are scarce, numbers can reach the thousands, especially during irruption years when berry crops are poor in Northern Europe and birds must seek out new sources of food. I’ve never been more astonished than when I looked out of the window several years ago to see one of these delightful winter migrants with its striking pinky-orange crest at the top of next door’s rowan tree.
• We tend to think of blackcaps as summer migrants, breeding in the UK and leaving around September for North Africa, but increasingly these warblers are coming over from the continent to spend the winter here, particularly in gardens in the south-west, most likely due to our warming winters and the availability of bird food in gardens. As well as favouring garden bird food (we spotted a male blackcap on our feeders during the Big Garden Birdwatch a couple of years ago), blackcaps will also eat berries and windfall fruit in winter.

10 berried plants for birds

Key Late Autumn/Winter Dates

November – before enjoying the festivities on Bonfire Night, ensure bonfires are not being used by hedgehogs or other wildlife for shelter or hibernation. Ideally, build bonfires on the day you intend to light them.

• How to make a wildlife-friendly bonfire

December – support wildlife and minimise your carbon footprint this Christmas by giving friends and family membership of nature charities, preparing homemade presents like festive wreaths and fruit preserves, and sharing plants and seeds from your garden.

• Blue, gold and green Christmas wreath

January – take part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, this citizen science project involves watching the birds in your garden, local park or from your balcony for an hour during the birdwatch weekend and sending your records off to the RSPB. It’s a great way to learn more about the species that visit your garden and to contribute to data collected across the UK.

]]>Your autumn house plant jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-autumn-house-plant-jobs/2023-09-29T08:37:21.000ZI love autumn with its unexpected warm spells followed by cooler, crisp days where plants in the garden are festooned with dew and there’s a magical golden light as the sun sits lower in the sky. However, this time of year also heralds a move towards shorter days and, as someone who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, the diminishing light levels can trigger a range of symptoms including sleep problems and a lack of energy.

You might be wondering what this has to do with house plants. Well, firstly, my house plants make me feel better whatever the time of year but particularly during autumn and winter when I can’t spend as much time outside. And, secondly, there’s something about the fact that my house plants are having to adjust to the seasonal changes just as I am which is quite comforting.

How well plants cope with the changes in light, temperature and humidity is very much down to us and how we modify their growing environments over the coming weeks and months to best suit their needs. Many of the changes are subtle and don’t require a lot of effort but they will make all the difference to how well your house plants adapt to the seasonal shift.

More house plant advice:

• House plants for low light levels
• 7 ways to save money on house plants
• Top tips for growing house plants

Autumn house plant needs

Light

The autumn equinox in late September marks the point in the northern hemisphere when the nights become longer than the days. But it’s not just the amount of light that is changing, it’s also the angle at which the light might be entering a room. It might have been that a plant had been positioned to catch the morning light but now that light no longer reaches the plant. So it’s a good idea to check on your plants at different times of the day and, if plants need more light, reposition them in a brighter spot.

The intensity of the summer sun has waned now, so plants that were moved away from sunny, south-facing windows at the start of summer to avoid leaf scorch can now be moved closer to maximise the amount of light they receive.

I have a collection of tender succulents which spend the summer outdoors, but they need to be brought indoors before the temperature drops below 7°C – depending on how mild the autumn is and where you live this can be as early as the first week in September or as late as November. Sun-loving succulents need lots of light to thrive and a south-facing windowsill is the ideal spot for them from now until late spring.

House plants that spent the summer outdoors need to acclimatise to indoor conditions, so although plants might have specific spots where they live indoors it’s a good idea to position them near a bright window initially and gradually accustom them to the lower light levels indoors.

Heating

If we’re lucky enough to have a mild autumn, the central heating may not need to be switched on for a while, but once it is you’ll need to move any plants near radiators or fires away from these heat sources, otherwise the plants will shrivel up.

Draughts can be a problem for lots of plants because they cause temperature fluctuations and most plants like a steady even temperature. A draught could be a constant source of cold air coming in from a gap in a window or door, or it could be a blast of cold air when a window or door is opened then shut. When I was new to house plant growing, the first plant I bought was a lovely weeping fig which I placed by the door in the lounge. It was a small flat and the front door was nearby so every time that door was opened it let in a stream of cold air and within two weeks the plant looked a very sorry sight, having shed most of its leaves. Plants will sometimes recover and sprout new leaves if they’re moved somewhere more appropriate (mine unfortunately didn’t survive the experience), but it’s much better to try to avoid this kind of shock to your plants by placing plants away from draughts.

Humidity

Humidity levels indoors will drop during autumn as a result of the central heating kicking in and fires being lit as the nights become chilly. Many plants are from tropical areas where the humidity is relatively constant and high all year round, so low levels of humidity can cause some plants to develop dry, brown patches on their leaves, particularly at the tips. Those plants that need high humidity should be grouped together – this will create a micro-climate as the plants release moisture from their leaves during a process known as transpiration. Humid rooms such as the bathroom and kitchen are great places for these plants as they’ll love the steam created by baths, showers, washing up and cooking. You can then place plants that don’t need extra humidity, such as cacti and succulents, in less humid spots such as the lounge or dining room.

• Best plants for a bathroom
• How to raise humidity for house plants

Water

Plant growth will start to slow down at this time of year so ease off on watering, however, most plants will still need some moisture. You may only need to water every two to three weeks but it’s best to check rather than following a rigid regime as some plants will dry out quicker than others. Employ the ‘finger dip’ technique where you push your finger into the compost to the second knuckle, which is about 5cm or 2in deep. If your finger comes out dry then water, if not wait a few days and check again. You’ll probably find plants in brighter, warmer rooms may need to be watered more frequently. Succulents and cacti can be watered sparingly every five to six weeks.

Early autumn is when I start to bring Cyclamen persicum back into growth so that I can have flowers for winter. This is a wonderful plant for indoor winter flowers – in the right conditions it’ll bloom for three to four months. I kept the plants I grew last year cool and dry over the summer so that they could have a rest, but early autumn is when I start to encourage them back into life. I like to repot them into fresh compost, then I’ll water the pots from below by placing them in a sink filled with a couple of centimetres of water. Once the surface of the compost is moist I’ll remove the pots from the water and allow them to drain before putting them in a cool but brightly lit spot. It shouldn’t be long before I start to see new leaves emerging from the compost.

Food

Most plants are preparing for their winter rest so there’s no need to feed them during autumn. The exceptions are plants that are flowering – continue to feed these once a month with a high-potash fertiliser, and for orchids use a specialist orchid feed.

Pest and disease problems

If some of your house plants have spent the summer months outdoors it’s important to bring them inside before it gets cold. Even if the days are warm, at this time of year the nights can be quite chilly, something your tropical house plants won’t like at all. Keep an eye on the weather forecast, and if the temperature is likely to drop below 15 degrees then bring them indoors. But before you do, it’s worth giving each plant a thorough once-over to make sure they aren’t harbouring any pests such as vine weevil, which can be a particular problem for succulents such as aeoniums.

Tip plants from their pots to inspect the root balls. If you see any creamy-white grubs or signs of root damage it’s worth removing as much of the compost from the root ball as possible – you can wash it off using a hose – then repot into fresh compost. Don’t move any plants into bigger pots though – the plants won’t be actively growing so the extra compost will just absorb water and may cause the roots to rot. Instead wash the old pot thoroughly in hot soapy water and repot into that.

Wipe down the leaves and stems with a damp cloth to remove any dust and dirt that may have collected while they’ve been outdoors and to remove any possible pests such as scale insects. For plants that have furry or hairy leaves dust these with a fine brush.

General care

Cut back any yellowing leaves – it’s not uncommon at this time of year for plants to shed some leaves – and snip away any old flower stems. Remove any plant debris that may be sitting on top of the compost as this can encourage fungal diseases to take hold.

Growing Greener

Many of the house plants available in garden centres, in supermarkets and online have been grown abroad and transported to the UK. These plants come with a high carbon footprint as a result, but it is possible to reduce the impact your green-fingered hobby has on the environment by buying house plants that have been grown here in the UK.

• The Little Botanical grows many of the houseplants it sells itself (look for the ‘grown by us’ symbol on their website), using renewable energy sources, recycling plastic waste and harvesting rainwater
• The Glasshouse is a social enterprise that works with female prisoners who nurture houseplants while training in horticulture, and the plants they produce are for sale online
• Surreal Succulents is based in Cornwall and produces a mind-boggling selection of colourful and interesting succulents
• Dibleys is an award-winning grower specialising in streptocarpus and African violets

Seasonal stars

Aspidistra elatior

Known as the cast iron plant because of its reputation for being able to put up with low light, pollution and neglect, this elegant house plant was a particular favourite with the Victorians where it was the botanical accessory for every parlour. Its lovely glossy green foliage might not be as showy as some house plants – there are variegated cultivars if you want something fancier – but it’s tough as old boots and sometimes you just want a reliable fuss-free plant, and this is it. It’s the go-to house plant for tricky corners, and it can be moved outdoors in summer where it makes a lovely addition to a lush, tropical-themed planting scheme. It doesn’t like full sun and avoid excess moisture around the roots, aiming for evenly moist compost when you water. It can tolerate temperatures down to 7°C and doesn’t need extra humidity.

Spathiphyllum wallisii

This popular plant has masses of handsome glossy, dark green leaves with white flowers (these are actually modified leaves known botanically as bracts) that look a bit like white flags, hence its common name, the peace lily. It’s also said to be one of the best plants for purifying the air of toxins. Native to South America it loves a warm spot away from cold draughts with bright but indirect light – a sign of too much light is yellowing leaves. Avoid over-watering – the most common reason for peace lilies dying – by checking the compost first. Keep those wonderful leaves looking sparkly by removing dust with a damp cloth. If you have pets you might want to avoid this plant as it can be toxic to cats and dogs.

Phlebodium aureum ‘Blue Star’

I’ve always struggled with indoor ferns as they seem to need more humidity than I can give them and they invariably turn dry and crispy. So I’d all but given up on them until I came across Phlebodium aureum at my local garden centre. It was a really tiny specimen meant for a terrarium, but I thought I’d give it a try. It’s a polypody type of fern with long, wavy-edged fronds that are a gorgeous blue-green colour. It’s native to tropical rainforests so it does like humidity but it seems happy enough on the windowsill in my bathroom.

It doesn’t like direct sunlight and its ideal temperature range is 16–247°C. It doesn’t need much in the way of feed – apply a liquid house plant fertiliser once or twice during the growing season. Handily it’ll indicate when it needs watering as the leaves start to sag. Water thoroughly and these will quickly bounce back.

Opuntia microdasys

The bunny ears cactus, from the deserts of Mexico and Arizona, is an iconic-looking plant with flattened pads stacked on top of each other that are covered in a mass of hair-like prickles known as glochids. While cacti can put up with irregular watering and are great plants if you’re away a lot they do still need some water. They won’t like sitting in waterlogged compost so it’s important to grow them in a free-draining compost mix (using a specialist cacti compost is a good idea). In autumn and winter they may only need to be watered every four to six weeks. Cacti can be tricky customers when it comes to repotting because of the spines, and those with fine hairs like Opuntia can cause skin irritation. Depending on the size of the cactus you can use large tweezers, silicon tongs or rolled up newspaper to hold the cactus. I prefer to water from below as this avoids the possibility of getting water on the plant which can cause rot.

Thrifty tip

Try growing cacti from seed. Several seed suppliers in the UK sell cacti seeds including Chiltern Seeds and Suttons, or you could join the British Cacti and Succulent Society – membership includes some packets of seeds and access to their annual seed list.

]]>Your summer house plant jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-summer-house-plant-jobs/2023-07-26T15:46:59.000ZAs summer arrives, I’m drawn outdoors whenever possible to make the most of the long days, but as I work from home I still have to spend quite a lot of time inside, in front of my computer. Fortunately, the house plants that fill my home provide a wonderful link with greenery and nature, and, at the height of summer, the lush, verdant foliage helps me daydream about holidays in far-flung destinations.

With maximum light and plenty of warmth (hopefully), summer is the prime growing season for house plants, so this is when they need our attention the most to keep them in tip-top condition. It’s also a time when plants can be stressed from periods of intense heat or from us going away on holiday. But by making some simple adjustments to where the plants are positioned and their care routine they should thrive and provide you with the perfect backdrop to lazy, hazy summer days.

More house plant advice:

• 7 ways to save money on house plants
• House plants for bright light
• 5 top tips for healthier house plants

Summer house plant needs

Light

It’s easy to assume that because many house plants come from more exotic climates than the UK they can cope with direct summer sun. In fact, many house plants are plants that in the wild are found growing under the canopy of taller trees where they receive dappled light and are shaded from the midday sun.

Many house plants are also native to countries that are closer to the equator where day length stays the same so there’s a steady amount of light throughout the year. Growing these plants indoors in the UK means adjusting the amount of light they receive at different points in the year. My dragon tree (Dracaena marginata), for instance, spends the winter and spring by south-facing French doors so that it gets a good amount of light, but now that the sun is much stronger I need to move it away from the window otherwise the leaves will develop dry leaf tips and edges.

Frosted windows or a sheer curtain can help diffuse light and are good options for plants that are particularly sensitive, and east- or west-facing windowsills provide the most plant-friendly amount of sunlight at this time of year, with less intense morning or afternoon sun.

While cacti and succulents will love this time of year, they too can suffer leaf scorch on a baking hot windowsill, so move them a little bit away from the glass.

Water

House plants will need watering more frequently in summer but there will be variation across your plants, as those in warmer rooms will dry out more quickly than those in cooler, shadier spots. It’s tempting to water all your plants once a week, as this is easier to manage, but this approach makes it really easy to overwater at this time of year. It’s much better to treat each plant individually by checking whether they need watering first by pushing your finger into the compost a couple of inches to check if the compost has dried out.

What you do about watering when you go away on holiday is probably the biggest summer house plant care dilemma. Most house plants will be fine for a week if they’re given a thorough soaking before you go away, but it’s a good idea to move them to a cool, shady room, which will mean they won’t dry out as quickly. For two-week holidays you’ll need to come up with a plan to provide sufficient moisture while you’re away. Options include self-watering planters that have a water reservoir at the base; placing pots in a bath or sink on top of water-soaked towels; sitting the pots on a tray with a layer of capillary matting (these are available for greenhouse suppliers); or using a drip irrigation system – this could be a simple nozzle attached to the top of a water bottle.

If you’re going away for longer than two weeks it’s best to ask a trusted friend or neighbour, preferably one that has a few of their own house plants as they’ll know what they’re doing, to pop round once a week to give them a water. I’m lucky to have a utility room, so I move all the house plants into there to make it easier for my in-laws to do the watering and I’ll attach a note to any plants that might also need misting or that need watering from below.

• Holiday care for house plants

Humidity

Standing plants on pebble trays boosts the humidity levels around them, but the water in the trays will evaporate more quickly at this time of year so they will need topping up more frequently.

Grouping plants together to create a microclimate is a good way to maintain humid air around house plants, and misting can help plants that are flagging in the heat. However, don’t mist plants with furry, hairy leaves as moisture sitting on the leaves can cause permanent damage. Succulents and cacti, native to desert areas, are happy with dry air so there’s no need to provide them with extra humidity.

Food

Now that they’re in full growth, most house plants will benefit from a monthly feed during the summer months. Put the liquid fertiliser in a watering can and dilute as per the instructions on the bottle. Some plants, such as orchids, cacti and succulents, require a specific fertiliser, rather than just a general house plant feed, as they have different nutrient requirements. If it’s very hot, postpone feeding until it cools down as plants will be stressed by the heat and will either not be able to absorb the nutrients or the fertiliser could make the stress symptoms worse.

Heating

There shouldn’t be any need to have the central heating on over the coming months, and most rooms in the house should be a steady temperature between 18–24C, however, heat waves can make our homes intolerable for both us and our plants, and with climate change, periods of extreme heat are becoming more common. High temperatures mean plants transpire more quickly, losing water through the leaves to keep themselves cool, and if a plant can’t match the loss of water with the uptake of more water then it will wilt and ultimately die.

South-facing rooms will be the warmest in a house, so it’s a good idea to relocate plants during periods of intense heat to a cooler spot in the house. It’s also worth considering that heat rises, so upstairs rooms, even those that face north, tend to become hot from late afternoon until the early hours of the morning.

If you have an air conditioning unit or a fan move house plants out of the way as the cool air may damage the foliage or cause a cold shock for the plant.

Pest and disease problems

With windows and doors open more frequently during the summer months, the chances of pesky pests flying in and taking up residence on your beloved house plants is much higher. Last summer I found my Streptocarpus, which was near some French doors, was covered in aphids. Aphids in particular can be tricky to see as they are often camouflaged against the plant, so it’s a good idea to get into the habit of checking plants so that you can spot a problem as quickly as possible. A good trick to see if there are any pests and how big the problem is, is to pop the plant pot on a sheet of white paper and tap and brush the leaves so that any pests fall onto the paper.

Fungus gnats, are tiny flies that don’t harm established plants, but because they multiply rapidly they can become a nuisance for us when swarms of them develop indoors. They thrive in damp compost so they’re often a sign you’re overwatering. To stop them becoming a problem let the compost dry out between waterings, use a special house plant compost when repotting and mulch the surface of the compost (try Shell on Earth, a by-product of the shellfish industry). To control infestations, use sticky fly tape placed near the plants or grow a carnivorous, insect-eating plant nearby.

Plant holiday

Moving house plants outdoors during the summer months can give them a reviving change of scenery with plenty of natural light, fresh air and humidity. Not all house plants are suited to this change though, and it needs to be reliably warm with no sudden drops in the night-time temperature before you attempt to move any plants outside. The timing will depend on where you live but from mid- to late June it should be sufficiently mild. Make sure you acclimatise the plants gradually, introducing them to the outdoors for a few hours each day at first. It’s also crucial to bring them back indoors before the night-time temperature drops below 10C in late August to early September.

For lush-leaved plants, choose a sheltered spot that’s shaded – these are generally plants that grow in the dappled shade of rainforest trees. Tender succulents such as echeveria and aeoniums will be happy in a sunny spot, but they will need to be gradually introduced to the stronger light otherwise the leaves can scorch.

House plants that can be moved outdoors include: alocasia, Aspidistra, Monstera, Chlorophytum (spider plants).

Thrifty tip

There’s no need to buy a plant mister, simply recycle an empty cleaning spray bottle, but make sure you rinse the bottle, the spray tube and nozzle really well before you use it to make sure all traces of the cleaner have been washed away. 

Seasonal stars

Begonia rex

Begonia rex and its varied range of cultivars aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I love them for their fabulously bold, textural leaves, some with colourful veining or dramatic spirals, others with marbling or spots in silver, pink, red or different shades of green.

Generally it prefers humid conditions, but the hairy leaves mean misting isn’t a good idea, so instead position it in a humid room such as a kitchen or bathroom, or place the pot on a pebble tray. In the wild, the species is a ground cover plant growing in the shade of trees. I keep mine in a corner near a window so that there’s plenty of light but the light isn’t directly hitting the plant.

It prefers reliably moist but not soggy soil, so water then allow the pot to drain and don’t water again until the surface of the compost has dried out. It’s best to use rainwater if you live in a hard water area as the minerals in the tap water can damage the leaves. It likes a steady temperature with not much difference between day and night so try to avoid temperature fluctuations which will stress the plant. Feed every two to four weeks.

Ponytail palm

Beaucarnea recurvata AGM, or the ponytail palm, is a really striking plant that has a distinctive swollen, pale grey stem with a wrinkled texture that resembles an elephant’s foot, and on top of this sits a topknot of long, slender, curving leaves. It isn’t actually a palm, and is more closely related to a yucca. The swollen stem is an adaptation that allows it to survive in the arid climate of its native Mexico.

Allow the compost to dry out before watering again, and feed once a month with a cacti/succulent fertiliser. Because it’s adapted to an arid climate it’s happy in low humidity situations, in bright but indirect light, so it’s ideal for a table or shelf set back from a south- or west-facing window. It’s a slow-growing plant, which is great because you won’t need to repot it every year, but this does mean if you want a statement plant it’s worth buying a good-sized specimen.

Kentia palm

Howea forsteriana, also known as the kentia palm, is an elegant plant which gives a room a real tropical vibe with its upright stands of gently arching, dark green leaves. It can reach around 2-3 metres but it’s very slow-growing, so bear this in mind when choosing your plant.

Harsh sun will scorch the leaves so it’s best suited to a room with east- or west-facing windows, and extra humidity will keep the leaves looking lovely and lush. I think it makes a wonderful bathroom plant if you have the space. Allow the surface of the compost to dry out before you water again and apply a dilute plant feed every 6 weeks between April and August.

Haworthia 'Zebrina'

Haworthia ‘Zebrina’ is a cute little succulent plant from South Africa, which was one of the first house plants I ever bought. It’s similar to an aloe with a compact clump of pointed, fleshy leaves, but these have raised white nodules forming horizontal, stripe-like patterns which give it a unique appearance. I love it because it’s striking but also really low maintenance, and it’s really slow-growing, making it perfect for small windowsills.

Succulents have adapted to grow in harsh environments, but some such as haworthias can suffer leaf scorch if exposed to intense midday sunlight in summer – I grow mine on an east-facing windowsill. It will rot if over-watered or left in soggy compost so wait until the compost has almost dried out before watering, and when repotting use a specialist succulent compost or add perlite to a house plant compost to improve the drainage. Feed with a cactus fertiliser once a month during the summer.

Growing Greener

A cache pot is the attractive container that is used to cover the less pleasing to the eye plastic pot your house plant will have come in when you bought it. While the plastic pots have drainage holes so that the plant doesn’t sit in wet compost and rot, the cache pot should be watertight to prevent any water leaking onto your carpet or furniture. There are so many beautiful cache pots to choose from, but some have better sustainability credentials than others. Rather than buying new giving an old pot from your local charity shop or flea market a new lease of life is a good option, or seek out containers that are made from recycled plastic or sustainable materials such as bamboo that can be put on the compost heap at the end of their life.

]]>Your June seed sowing jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-june-seed-sowing-jobs/2023-05-31T12:52:40.000ZBy June, the borders are awash with summer blooms as roses, lupins and other early summer flowers come into their own. We’ve seen the end of frosts across most of the country, so many vegetables can be sown in-situ this month and tender crops planted out. Half-hardy annual flowers can be transplanted into the garden and biennials sown in preparation for next year.

Although there are still plenty of jobs to do, the sheer colour and exuberance of early summer reminds us how important it is to stop and enjoy the beauty of our gardens whenever we can.

More seed sowing advice:

• Flower seeds to sow in summer

Flowers

Cornflowers

Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) are easy to grow and provide an abundance of summer blooms. Sow seeds direct into well-prepared soil in a sheltered, sunny spot at a depth of 12mm. Sown early this month, they should be flowering around mid- to late-summer. As well as creating beautiful bouquets, these hardy annuals are a magnet for pollinating insects, so they will benefit wildlife as well as looking fantastic in arrangements.

We love to combine the deep crimson button-blooms of Centaurea ‘Black Ball’ with the creamy-copper tones of Calendula ‘Sherbet Fizz’ for a dramatic display. Centaurea ‘Classic Magic’ is a wonderful mix of white, deep purple and smoky mauve flowerheads. It looks gorgeous on its own in a vase, or try pairing it with the white umbels of Bishop’s flower (Ammi majus) or wild carrot (Daucus carota). For a vibrant collection of blues and purples, try mixing the wild cornflower (C. cyanus) with Nigella ‘Midnight’ and Salvia viridis ‘Blue’.

• How to grow cornflowers

Zinnias

Zinnias can also be sown outside this month. Like cornflowers, they prefer a sheltered, sunny spot, and should be sown thinly at a depth of 3mm. Picking flowers regularly encourages plants to produce more blooms, which makes them perfect for arrangements. Zinnia ‘Lilliput Mixed’ is a spectacular selection of bright yellow, orange, purple and pink fully double flowers that last well in a vase. For a more subtle combination, try Z. elegans ‘Benary’s Giant White’ with Z. ‘Benary’s Giant Lime’ and Z. ‘Queen Lime Red’.

• 10 colourful zinnias to grow

Sweet Williams

Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) are one of my favourite flowers to bring rich colour and scent to the garden in late spring and summer. This relation of garden pinks and carnations is a short-lived perennial, often grown as a biennial. Cultivars come in a range of colours from Dianthus (Nigrescens Group) ‘Sooty’ with its deep maroon flowers, through the vivid pinks, purples and reds of D. ‘Sweet’ and D. ‘Electron Mix’, to the unusual spiky green heads of D. ‘Green Trick’.

These sun-lovers prefer fertile, well-drained soil, and they make superb cut flowers, lasting well in a vase. Sow seeds outside at any point over the next few weeks, 1cm deep with rows 30cm apart in well-prepared soil raked to a fine tilth. Cover thinly with soil and keep well-watered in dry weather. Sown now, sweet Williams should flower from next May until late summer. Regular deadheading prolongs the flowering period.

Forget-me-nots

Pale tulips like ‘Apricot Beauty’ and ‘Purissima’ look beautiful underplanted with drifts of azure blue forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica). Sown in-situ this month, forget-me-nots will readily self-seed once established, spreading through the borders with a mass of flowers appearing from April to June. Unwanted plants can be removed or replanted as necessary.

These versatile biennials thrive in moist, but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade, and make a great addition to spring container displays. As well as the traditional blue form, they are available in white and pink such as M. ‘Snowsylva’ and M. ‘Rosylva’. The wild form of water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides) can also be sown outside in June. This perennial spreads along the edges of ponds and through bog gardens. One of the most wildlife-friendly pond plants, water forget-me-not attracts pollinating insects to its nectar-rich flowers, and provides a place for newts to lay eggs in the leaves.

Sow forget-me-not seeds thinly into well-prepared soil which has already been watered. Germination can take up to a month and plants should be thinned to 15cm apart when large enough to handle. Sown this month, plants should flower next spring.

• How to grow forget-me-nots

Thrifty tip

It is quick and easy to create new tomato plants for free in early June. When you remove side shoots from cordon tomatoes, simply pot up the shoots into gritty peat-free compost, water them and place in a warm spot. They should root within a week or so, and develop into healthy new plants. You can also place side shoots in a glass of water until they produce new roots, then carefully pot them up. Plants created from side shoots will start to fruit later than the original plants, helping to extend the cropping season.

Vegetables

Lettuce

Picking fresh homegrown lettuce is a summer delight, with plants easily and cheaply grown from seed. Sow outdoors into well-prepared, fertile, moisture-retentive soil in a drill 1cm deep, and keep well-watered throughout the growing period. Leave 30cm between rows, and thin seedlings to 20-30cm apart, depending on variety. Lettuces will be ready for picking between six weeks (for loose-leaves) and 10 weeks (for hearting lettuces).

‘Romaine Ballon’ is a delicious cos variety, best sown in small batches every two or three weeks. This bolt-resistant variety produces large heads with sweet and crunchy salad or braising leaves. For loose-leaf lettuces, try ‘Lollo Rossa’ with its frilled red leaves that look as attractive in the garden as on the plate. It is great as a cut-and-come-again crop or can be harvested in its entirety. ‘Tom Thumb’ is a butterhead lettuce with small green heads that can be picked around 10-12 weeks from sowing. It is ideal to grow in container.

• How to successional sow lettuce seeds

Spring onions

Spring onions are one of the easiest vegetables to grow in containers or raised beds, with crops ready to harvest within eight weeks. We love to grow red salad onions, such as quick-maturing ‘Apache’ and versatile ‘North Holland Blood Red’, which can also be grown as a bulb onion, as well as traditional white spring onions. ‘Guardsman’ is a mild-flavoured spring onion with strong, straight stems, and ‘White Lisbon’ is a popular variety, ideal for containers. Seeds are also available in mixes of both red and white types.

Spring onions can be sown outdoors this month in small batches to provide continuous harvests throughout summer and into autumn. Sow seeds thinly at a depth of 1-2cm in a sunny spot, in fertile, well-drained soil. Rows should be spaced 10-15cm apart. Water spring onions in hot periods or when soil becomes dry, paying particular attention to plants in containers. Spring onions are toxic to pets if eaten.

• How to grow spring onions

Runner beans

Runner beans are prolific croppers, particularly in cooler, wetter summers, and their attractive flowers (a range of white, red, salmon and bicoloured) brighten up the vegetable patch. Plants sown in mid- to late spring can be transplanted into the garden now, and seeds can be sown outside this month too. Choose a warm sheltered spot and provide sturdy support with canes in a wigwam. Sow two seeds 5cm deep at the base of each cane. If both germinate, remove the smaller seedling and tie the new shoots of the remaining plant to the cane to help them begin to climb.

‘Snowstorm’ and ‘White Lady’ have pure white flowers that are less prone to being eaten by birds than red flowers and both produce delicious beans. With her unusual salmon-pink blooms, ‘Sunset’ is a delicious heritage bean, and ‘Black Knight’ combines red flowers with eye-catching pods that mature to a deep purple. ‘Painted Lady’ is an excellent bicoloured variety with red and white flowers, and ‘Tenderstar’ has red and pink flowers that develop, as the name suggests, into stringless pods with a soft texture. If you don’t have much space, try compact varieties like ‘Hestia’ or ‘Jackpot’ which only grow to 45-50cm in height and produce bumper harvests in containers. Beans and pods must be cooked before eating.

• Five of the best runner beans to grow
• How to grow vegetables in pots

Carrots

We always look forward to unearthing the first carrots of the season, and with so many choices there are always new varieties to try out. Classic orange carrots such as ‘Norfolk’ and ‘Autumn King 2’ are a must, but it’s fun to experiment with different colours too. The long, sweet roots of ‘Yellowstone’ brighten up any meal, and ‘Purple Haze’, another of our favourites, has deep purple skins with a surprise orange centre when sliced. For a paintbox of carroty colours, ‘Rainbow Mix’ is a striking combination of red, orange, yellow and purple roots, all with subtly different flavours.

Early carrots like ‘Adelaide’ and ‘Early Nantes’ sown in spring should be ready to harvest this month, and maincrop carrots can be sown outside now for harvests later in the season. Sow seeds in a 1cm deep drill in well-prepared soil, making sure as many stones are removed as possible to avoid roots forking. Sow sparingly to avoid the need to thin seedlings which risks attracting carrot root fly. You can also protect carrots by erecting a barrier more than 50cm high which will prevent the flies accessing the plot. Some varieties like ‘Flyaway’ and ‘Maestro’ are more resistant, so these are good to try if carrot root fly is a problem in your garden.

• How to grow carrots

Growing Greener

To provide continuous cropping and avoid gluts, sow vegetables like lettuce, beetroot and spinach successionally over the next few weeks. Small sowings can be made every 10-14 days, but timings vary depending on the type of crop and how quickly it matures as weather conditions change. You don’t need a vegetable plot or raised beds for successional sowing – you can sow little and often in pots too. Radishes, salad leaves, rocket and round carrots such as ‘Rondo’ and ‘Paris Market 5’ are particularly suited to container growing.

• Get the best from veg in pots

What else to sow in June

• Vegetables: radish, beetroot, French beans, summer squash, pak choi, Florence fennel
• Flowers: honesty, foxglove

]]>Your June wildlife gardening jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-june-wildlife-gardening-jobs/2023-05-26T16:39:13.000ZJune has finally arrived in all its floral glory. With the long days of summer, there is plenty of time to work in the garden with enough daylight hours left over to relax and watch wildlife too. And there’s so much to see and hear right now, like grasshoppers churring in wildflower meadows and fluffy fledglings trying out their wings for the very first time.

The Wildlife Trust’s ‘30 Days Wild’ is a great way to celebrate nature all around us, so why not join thousands of other people and engage in a random act of wildness in your garden or local area every day this month?

More wildlife gardening advice:

• Wildlife-friendly hanging baskets
• Garden habits to break to help wildlife

Plants for wildlife

Half-hardy annuals

The beginning of June is the ideal time to plant out half-hardy annuals, once they are hardened off and the last frosts are over. Don’t worry if you didn’t sow seeds in spring, you can buy plants as plugs or in pots now, ready to transplant into the garden. Cosmos bipinnatus is an excellent source of pollen and nectar for insects like hoverflies and short-tongued bees. We love snow-white ‘Purity’ and the luscious carmine flowers of C. ‘Rubenza’ with their yellow, pollen-filled eyes. This year we are trying out the sultry apricot-pink flowers of Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ too. If you deadhead spent blooms regularly, cosmos should continue to flower until the first frosts.

• How to grow cosmos

Zinnia elegans can still be sown outdoors this month, or bought as plugs and planted out. The bright blooms are attractive to pollinating insects, although single-flowered zinnias such as ‘Zahara’ are best as the extra petals in double flowers can prevent insects accessing nectar and pollen. Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) can also be planted out in the garden this month to attract long-tongued bumblebees like the garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum). Their petals are covered in cone-shaped cells that help bees hold on to the two fused lip petals while they feed. Some bumblebees have learnt to ‘rob’ snapdragons by piercing a hole in the side of the flower to access the nectar.

• 10 colourful zinnias to grow

Roses

June is a wonderful month to visit rose gardens and drink in the glorious colours and fragrance of these quintessential cottage garden flowers. Many single and semi-double roses are excellent for pollinators with their easily-accessible stamens covered in yellow pollen. But like zinnias, fully double roses often have petals which prevent bees and other insects accessing pollen and nectar, so these are best avoided.

A wide range of pollinators visit roses, including bumblebees which buzz pollinate the flowers by contracting their flight muscles, creating vibrations that release pollen which the bees then collect on their hairy legs. Some roses, such as sweet briar (R. rubiginosa), field rose (R. arvensis) and the wild dog rose (R. canina), have attractive hips that not only bring colour and interest to the garden in autumn, but also provide a feast for small mammals and birds like thrushes. Dog roses are one of the food plants of common emerald, barred yellow and vapourer moth caterpillars.

Climbing roses create a thorny refuge for birds like house sparrows, and rose foliage is an important source of nest material for leaf-cutter bees such as the patchwork leaf-cutter (Megachile centuncularis). These fascinating creatures tend to prefer roses with softer leaves from which they cut notches to use in the construction of cells for their eggs. Many roses provide potential nest material including R. ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, R. ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ and R. ‘Francis E. Lester. If your roses attract aphids too, leave them as food for ladybirds, hoverfly larvae and blue tits. And while you are enjoying the sights and scents of summer, you could consider whether there might be space to add a rose or two to your garden this autumn.

• Best climbing roses to grow
• Roses for hips

Thrifty tip

June is a great time to take softwood cuttings of nectar-rich herbs to create free plants for remarkably little effort. Marjoram, mint, sage and thyme can all be propagated in this way, and between them provide food for a wide range of pollinators. Mint (Mentha) attracts bees and the tiny mint moth (Pyrausta aurata), a delightful day-flying moth whose caterpillars feed on mint, marjoram and lemon balm. Marjoram (Oregano vulgare) is particularly good for butterflies, thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is loved by bees and hoverflies, and sage (Salvia officinalis) has beautiful blue flowers which are a magnet for long-tongued bees. 

Feeding wildlife

Natural food sources such as caterpillars and worms provide vital nutrition this month when many birds will be feeding young. Supplementary foods such as mealworms and sunflower seeds are good sources of energy for busy parent birds. Reduce the amount of supplementary bird feed so that it is all eaten within a day or two to avoid food going mouldy, and ensure feeders are cleaned regularly to prevent the spread of disease. Don’t put out whole peanuts or bread as they aren’t suitable for nestlings and could harm them. Make sure birds and other animals that visit the garden have access to clean, fresh water.

• How to clean a bird feeder

In late spring and early summer, tree canopies, grassy areas and flowerbeds are busy with energetic but inept newly-fledged birds. In our garden, young sparrows bounce beside the pond, and blue tits hide from predators beneath the hellebore leaves while the adults are still feeding them. Some species that have just left the nest, such as robins, can’t yet fly. They need to spend several days waiting for their flight feathers to finish growing and are often fed by parents for a couple of weeks before they become fully independent.

If you find an uninjured fledgling on the ground, leave it alone. The parents should soon return to feed it. Exceptions include swifts, swallows and house martins which should be able to fly as soon as they leave the nest. It is also important to keep cats indoors while there are fledglings in the garden.

Creating and maintaining habitats

Wildlife ponds are a fantastic resource for a huge range of aquatic and land animals. Developing a network of habitats adjacent to ponds gives these creatures more opportunities to shelter, bask and hunt. Ensure that your pond has a shallow end, rocks or another way for animals like hedgehogs and amphibians to climb out. Low dense shrubs nearby will give birds some cover when they come down to drink.

Allowing grass to grow long around one edge creates protection for young frogs, toads and other animals once they leave the pond, and a group of rocks or a log pile close to the water provides another refuge for amphibians. In addition to an area with long grass and wild flowers, we have placed some half terracotta pots beside our pond to create more shelter. Leaving a sunny area of ground clear provides a space for basking insects and reptiles. Then, with a good variety of habitats around your pond, all you need do is watch and wait as the wildlife comes to you.

• Ways to attract wildlife to your garden pond
• How to create a mini wildlife pond

Look out for… dragonflies

Many dragonfly nymphs live underwater for one to two years, feeding on snails, tadpoles and even small fish. This year we are hoping to spot adults around our two-year-old pond and perhaps larvae emerging from the water too, leaving their ghostly exuviae (the larval outer casing) behind on plant stems as they take off on their maiden flights.

To attract these graceful aerial hunters, create the biggest pond you can, but don’t worry if you only have space for a mini-pond. Even small areas of water can provide valuable habitats. Add floating plants to create shelter for larvae, and leave open water for egg laying. Emergent vegetation gives nymphs something to climb up before shedding their skins, while stones and plants around the edge provide places for adults to bask.

You can distinguish between dragonflies and damselflies by observing the wing position at rest. Dragons hold their wings at right angles, whereas most damsels lay their wings straight along the abdomen. Dragonflies tend to be larger too, with broader bodies. Summer is the best time to see many species of dragonfly, including:

• The emperor (Anax imperator): a magnificent dragonfly on the wing between May and August. Males have a bright blue abdomen with a black line down the centre, and females are green with the same stripe. Both males and females have a green thorax. Rarely alighting, these powerful hunters eat insects: even butterflies and damselflies. Females lay eggs in floating vegetation, and their nymphs are the largest in the UK.
• A common dragonfly in much of lowland Britain, the brown hawker (Aeshna grandis) is one of the most easily identified species. Its wings have a cinnamon tinge and its brown body has small blue and yellow markings (male) or just yellow (female). The typical flight period of this large dragonfly is from the end of June to the end of September. The female lays her eggs into floating vegetation, rotten wood or even mud.
• Common darters (Sympetrum striolatum) emerge around the middle of June and can often be seen well into November. Males of this smaller species are a lovely rich red, while females and immature common darters are golden-brown. Common darters are often seen around ponds, perching in a favourite spot or hovering above the water, then darting forward to catch their prey.

Garden wildlife identifier: dragonflies and damselflies

Growing Greener

If you are planning to add a parking space to your front garden this summer, consider the effect your choice of materials will have on the environment, wildlife and your own wellbeing. According to the Royal Horticultural Society, almost a quarter of front gardens are now completely paved.  If you need an area for parking, choose a surface that lets water drain through like permeable brick pavers, gravel or grass sown through a reinforcement grid system suitable for car parking (available made from 100 per cent recycled plastic), and leave as much space as possible for planting. There are many advantages of permeable surfaces, including reducing the risk of flooding. You can also plant through gravel or in spaces between permeable paving with low-growing plants such as thyme and chamomile. Adding hedges and planting climbers up fences adds texture and colour, and provides valuable habitats for wildlife too.

• Design ideas for a front garden

]]>Your June fruit and veg jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-june-fruit-and-veg-jobs/2023-05-19T12:46:39.000ZJune may just be the best month of the year to grow your own food. The daylight hours are long, nights are often mild and, most importantly, delicious results start cropping up on the dinner table. Having said that, some of June’s choicest offerings, especially sweet, soft, sun-warmed strawberries and super-sweet fresh peas rarely make it to the kitchen door before they’ve disappeared!

It’s also a month when there’s still enough time in the growing season to have a second go at many crops. There’s a chance to try again with crops that may have succumbed to slugs or birds in spring (it happens to the best of us) and to have a second harvest of many salads, beans, peas and carrots.

All in all, June is a forgiving month. Even if you’ve inherited an overgrown plot that’s covered in weeds, there’s still time to make it productive this year. And whether sowing, picking, weeding or overhauling a wilderness, everything done in the garden feels like a pleasure in June.

More fruit and veg advice:

• June fruit and veg with Monty
• Best fruit for small gardens

Gathering an early summer harvest

Harvest strawberries

There aren’t many jobs in the garden that can be done well by grandparents, parents, toddlers and the dog, but picking strawberries is one of them. Everyone wants to get in on the act. Provided that you’ve remembered to drape some closely-meshed netting over the plants, this is the month when one of the garden’s sweetest crops is ready.

While you’re picking, remember to pick off any rotten fruits as you go, to stop them rotting, and have some fleece, straw, or wool to hand to place beneath promising-looking clusters of fruits that are sitting on bare soil. Wet soil can be as much of a spoiler of your crop as hungry birds. In fact, I’m not sure they are hungry. They just can’t get enough of a good thing. Lift the fruits up before picking to make sure they are fully ripened.

• Best strawberries to grow

Dig up new potatoes

It can be a struggle to harvest potatoes this month. Doesn’t it always feel too early to be digging them up? Taking the plunge to lift early varieties of potato with a digging fork before the month is out will ensure that you get a soft, sweet harvest of new potatoes. Leave it longer and the tubers will get bigger but less flavoursome. Do a bit of a ‘dry run’ and push a hand fork into the soil under one plant and have a look at the size of the potatoes. If they are still tiny, wait a couple more weeks and water the soil at the base of the plants if it is very dry, to help the tubers swell. If your potato plants are in flower then it's a sign that the crop is ready to harvest.

• Best new potatoes to grow

Pick lettuces

Oh it’s so satisfying to harvest a fully-formed lettuce, grabbing the plant gently and giving it a gentle twist to break it off. If possible, pick your crop on a dry day rather than a rainy, muddy one because it will make washing the lettuce a bit easier and there is less likely to be an army of slugs hiding inside. If you’ve got a lot of lettuces ready at the same time, and it’s a bit overwhelming, sow a smaller batch of seedlings for future crops and in the meantime, make friends with the neighbours by leaving some outside for them to help themselves. It’s up to you to decide on whether or not to write ‘free slugs’ next to them.

Protect and pick gooseberries

Is there a greater feeling of injustice in the garden than seeing birds pilfer all your gooseberries? The last time it happened to me I was so annoyed that I was a heartbeat away from reporting the theft to the police. The way they lure you in is by showing no interest until the fruits have fattened up and are a day or two away from being ripe and ready. Act now and cover the plants with fine netting whatever stage they are at, to be on the safe side.

It’s easy to pick gooseberries too early but it’s best to wait until the fruits have some give in them when you pinch them. If they are still hard they’ll be unbelievably sour and you’ll need to add so much sugar to make them palatable that you might as well just eat an enormous chocolate bar and be done with it. If green varieties of gooseberry have taken on a golden tinge then it's a good sign that they will be sweet.

• How to grow gooseberries

Growing Greener

Sowing second batches of crops is a great opportunity to recycle pots and trays, by using the same ones again, a bit like using the same mug all day if you’re a serial tea-drinker! Give them a rinse and a quick scrub with some soapy water before reusing them. If you’re awash with too many plastic pots and trays, look for a local plant pot recycling scheme. There are plastic pot recycling bins at many branches of Dobbies Garden Centres. You can also find a site that can recycle plant pots near you by visiting recyclenow.com and entering your postocde. 

Caring for crops

Pinch out tomatoes

Growing your own tomatoes is a real journey if you started the plants from seed. I often find myself staring at the plants this month and saying ‘are we there yet?’ like child hoping that they have nearly reached their holiday destination. Hang on in there this month, when the plants should be showing their first fruits. If you’re growing cordon tomatoes, check the plants for sideshoots every day and you can have ripe, delicious fruits a bit quicker. Pinch them out when they are small and the plant will focus more of its energy on fruit production.

• How to grow the tastiest tomatoes

Thin out pears and apples

You’ll know you’re a serious kitchen gardener when you start thinning out fruits. It takes some dedication and foresight to knowingly remove precious fruits from your apple and pear trees. It is definitely worth it though in order to get large, fully-formed fruits rather than a cluster of ‘tiddlers’ that don’t ripen well. Thin out to leave fruits every 10-15cm, or a little more if you’re growing a cooking apple with very large fruits such as ‘Bramley’s’ Seedling’.

Water crops in pots

There’s no getting away from it, if you’re growing anything edible in a pot, this month could be a busy one in the watering department! Check peat-free compost carefully because the top layer of the compost often dries out very quickly and makes it look like the plant is dry. Push your finger into the compost and water the plant if it’s dry all the way down.

It’s a good idea to get in the habit of adding a half-strength high potassium liquid plant food into your watering can each time you water, so that watering and feeding become essentially the same task. If it gets very hot (28°C or higher) move your pots into shade during the hottest parts of the day to prevent the plants from stress.

• Space-saving veg crops to grow

Start more crops

Sow French beans

It may seem improbable but there’s time to start a new crop of French beans, either dwarf or climbing if you sow them direct into the soil early in the month. They motor from seedling to mature plant with beans on very quickly, a sprint compared to the marathon of growing the first batch of French beans from scratch in spring. Choose a sunny place and mix lots of compost into soil where you are sowing and water the soil before sowing. As seedlings pop up, spread a 5cm layer of compost around each seedling after watering well, and put some sharp grit, stones or organic slug pellets around the seedlings to protect them.

• How to grow French beans

Start a new batch of lettuce

Growing lettuces can so easily end up being a ‘feast or famine’ affair. You’ve either got enough lettuces to fill the freezer with lettuce soup or the slugs tuck into some delicious young plants and say ‘thank you very much for the takeaway’. A little and often approach is a good plan. Sow two seeds to a module and grow a small batch in cell trays on a cool windowsill or sheltered place outdoors, or buy a small number of plants as plug plants from a nursery or garden centre to plant out a new batch every couple of weeks.

Or you could sow some cut-and-come-again leaves in short rows once a fortnight, if you’re not fussed about the lettuces ‘hearting up’ and being crunchy. Lettuces are not fond of dry soil at any stage so sow onto pre-watered soil and water plug plants well after planting, keeping the soil moist for the whole of the lettuces' life to avoid the plants running to seed. If growing cut and come again leaves, choose a shady spot to ensure steady growth.

• How to grow lettuces

Thrifty tip

Now is a great time to go through all your seed packets and see what treasures you have got left in already-opened packets. Lots of seeds sown in spring can be sown again now and if you rifle through the packets you may be able to start a fresh crop without needing to buy new seed. Salads, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, beans and sweetcorn can all be sown now and maybe you’ve got a half-full (always half-full) foil packet inside the ripped open packet, to give you more produce without spending any more money.

]]>Your May fruit and veg jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-may-fruit-and-veg-jobs/2023-04-19T16:04:55.000ZMay is the month when a lot of crops have their first day at school. After an age of being tended at close quarters by their parents in the comfort of home, it’s time for them to go out into the big wide world and make their own way. Why? Because May is the month when most gardeners will celebrate ‘no more frosts day’ and plant out a whole host of plants that have been longing for summer as much as we have. Aubergines, tomatoes, chillies, sweetcorn, climbing beans and cucumbers all get their chance to grow outdoors.

Of course, there’s no such thing as ‘no frost day’ and the last frost is an almost mythical thing. You never know when it was until after the event. But there will come a point towards the end of the month when the garden starts to feel like a warm, safe place for planting tender things. There’s no harm in having a layer of fleece to hand in the shed though, just in case a cold night threatens to spoil the party!

More fruit and veg advice:

• Get growing edibles in May
• Best low-maintenance fruit and veg to grow

Sowing and planting

Plant out leeks

Here’s a job that looks half done by the time you’ve finished! This is because leaving the young plants in the planting hole without covering them with soil is the way to get a nice long white stem on the leek. Plant out leeks when they are around 20cm tall, making holes 15cm deep. Space the plants at around 20cm intervals along the row. Drop the plants into the holes and then water them until the hole is full of water, without backfilling the hole with soil. Do this each time you need to water while the plants are settling in. It looks strange but will give you the most sweet and succulent crop. There’s also just time to sow a batch of late-cropping varieties such as ‘Neptune’, either direct into the soil or in trays on a cool but well-lit windowsill indoors.

• How to grow leeks

Sow sprouting broccoli for winter

Who wants to think about winter when summer is so tantalising on the horizon? It’s like being on holiday with someone who as soon as you reach the destination, starts to mention something that’s going to happen when you get home! Yes it might seem like the elephant in the room but if you act now you can be one of those organised ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ gardeners later in the year!

Sow a couple of seeds per module in module trays filled with peat-free multi-purpose compost and keep them on a sunny windowsill. Once the plants are sturdy and the roots are growing through the base of the module, they can be planted out. They’ll be pumping out delicious succulent, slender stems to add to your winter roast dinners, when summer is a fading memory and the veg plot could otherwise be dispiritingly bare.

• How to grow purple-sprouting broccoli

Plant out tender veg

Most of the tender fruiting crops that can be planted out at the end of the month are also sun lovers and hungry feeders (they just love the good life!). When deciding where to plant, think about the ideal conditions for sun-bathing when on holiday (sunny and sheltered from the wind) and then replicate them in the garden and you won’t go far wrong!

Plant pumpkins, tomatoes, chillies, sweetcorn, melons, courgettes, French beans and runner beans in a sunny spot, ideally south-facing, and mix lots of homemade garden compost or bagged compost into the planting hole.

Give them a good soak after planting, then spread more compost around the base of the plant. If you are growing tender plants that are going to get tall (such as cordon tomatoes, trained cucumbers or climbing French beans), choose a sheltered spot that isn’t at the mercy of strong winds. If the weather forecast is frost-free but otherwise cool and wet, hold off planting out for a few more days.

Growing Greener

After you’ve planted out veg plants that you raised from seed indoors, wash out the pots and stack them all in size order. Then use them for sowing or potting something else, or store them in the shed or garage so they can be used again next year.

Increase your crop size

Earth up potatoes

I find this a great job to do first thing in the morning while having a wander through the garden. The soil in my garden is quite heavy clay so it can take a bit of chopping first with a hoe before dragging the soil up to the top of the potato stem, just below the leaves. Keep earthing up the soil little and often and the potatoes will never get a chance to pop their heads above soil level, which turns them green. If your soil is lighter than clay and easy to work, a digging fork can do the job quicker than a hoe. Also check the middle of the row for weeds because they can do quite a good job of camouflaging themselves once the potatoes are in full leaf towards the end of the month.

• How to earth up potatoes

Thin out gooseberries

This is not a job for the faint-hearted, as you try to negotiate the spiny stems, but it can give you a crop of bigger, juicier fruits. If you’ve got gooseberry fruits crowding each other out on the stem, remove the smallest ones to allow others to reach full maturity. Remove up to half of the fruits. You could use these ultra-bitter thinnings for jam or for a super-tangy dessert, depending on how much you like your eyes to water.

As the fruits begin to ripen, net them to keep the birds off and don’t commit too early when it comes to picking. I’m sure I’m not the only one with childhood memories of biting into bright green fruits that were so hard they were crunchy, and sour enough to strip away the powers of speech. Wait until the fruits have some give in them when you squeeze them, and in the case of green varieties, wait until there is a golden tinge to the colour of the fruit. A sun warmed, perfectly ripe gooseberry can taste as sweet as honey, while one picked two weeks earlier is closer in taste experience to a pickled onion!

• How to grow gooseberries

Weed in between onions

Little weeds growing in the small gaps between onions can seem innocuous, but they can stunt the growth of your crop if they’re allowed to establish. It’s one of those slightly fiddly jobs that needs to be done by hand but it’s the work of moments if done this month, compared to the job you’ll have on your hands if you leave it until next month. If the gaps between some onions are small and weeding is difficult, you could pull up a few onions to harvest as spring onions and give the others more room. You should have some good-sized spring onions along the row if the crop was planted in autumn.

• How to grow onions

Protect your crops

Pinch out broad beans

The phrase ‘bees around a honeypot’ would be a good way to describe the way that blackfly congregate around the tips of broad bean plants this month, seemingly overnight. If they are allowed to move in en masse it can affect the quality of your crop, so prevention is better than cure.

As the first pods start to appear towards the base of the plants, it’s your alarm call to snip off the tips of the plant, with two leaves attached. This is the soft growth that the blackflies crave. The rest of the plant won’t appeal to them. Harvested when clean of any infestation, the shoots can be eaten as a steamed veg for a bonus crop at a time commonly called ‘the hungry gap’, when there’s lots growing on the veg patch but little to harvest.

• How to grow broad beans

Protect crops from flea beetle

If you’ve been direct sowing like the clappers, you’re likely to have lots of rows of perky seedlings popping their heads above the soil. If the soil is dry and we go a day or two without rain, use a watering can with a rose attachment and gently splash water directly on the seedlings. Just enough to wet them but not drown them will keep flea beetle at bay. You’ll know they’ve been active because seedlings will be full of tiny holes.

• Ways to control flea beetle

Net brassicas from birds

While succulent young vegetable plants will be largely left alone by slugs once they’ve reached a decent size, the same cannot be said for pigeons. They’ll see brassica plants as a potential dinner all year and at any stage of their life, depending on how hungry they are. If you’ve got towering conifers around the boundaries of your garden, be assured that there is an army of pigeons in them watching your every move. To get cabbages, cauliflowers, calabrese, kale and Brussels sprouts to maturity, there really is no better solution than netting the crops for their whole life. If you’re planting out now, cover them from the word go to avoid disappointment.

Thrifty tip

Now’s the time when you can end up realising that you’ve got far too many of a particular plant, if you’ve grown them from seed. Or maybe you’ve potted up a lot of self-sown plants in the garden that were threatening to take over. These can all be very useful if there is a local plant swap event near you, where you can exchange your spares for something else. Also look out for plant swap groups on social media.

]]>Your May seed sowing jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-may-seed-sowing-jobs/2023-04-13T15:53:31.000ZMay is a time of activity and growth in the garden. This month’s full moon is the Flower Moon or Corn Planting Moon, so-called because many crops and flowering plants can now be sown outside.

In late May, some half-hardy annuals like cosmos and zinnia can be direct sown and, after all risk of frost has passed, tender seedlings can be acclimatised and planted out in the garden. There’s also still time to sow more tender annuals, such as sweetcorn, cucumbers and melons, under cover until the end of the month.

More seed sowing advice:

• How to sow seed outdoors
• Preparing soil for sowing seed

Flowers

Poppies

May is a great time to sow annual poppies like field poppies (Papaver rhoeas), opium poppies (Papaver somniferum) and Californian poppies (Eschscholzia californica). Poppies dislike root disturbance, so sowing in situ is best. Scatter seeds onto prepared soil, raked to a fine tilth, choosing a sunny site with well-drained soil, and thin seedlings if necessary. Most plants should bloom this summer. If you leave a few flowers to self-seed, you should get poppies in years to come, or you can collect seedheads to sow next spring. Deadheading faded blooms controls the spread if plants are outgrowing their allotted space.

The wild field poppy is often included in cornfield seed mixes along with other annuals such as corn cockle, cornflower and corn chamomile. There are also field poppy varieties with double flowers and more subtle shades, such as ‘Angel Choir Mixed’, which is a selection of gorgeous double-flowered poppies in apricots, palest pinks and soft grey-purples.

There are many beautiful varieties of opium poppy in a range of colours from white and greys to luscious pinks and burgundy. P somniferum ‘Maanzaad White’ has single flowers with pure white petals and soft purple markings. At the other end of the colour spectrum, P. ‘Black Swan’ has finely-cut burgundy-red petals that dazzle the eye.

California poppies are wonderful plants for attracting bees and other insects to the garden as (like all poppies) they produce lots of pollen, despite having no nectar. We love the way the delicate flowers of Eschscholzia californica ‘Orange King’ create splashes of vivid colour in the borders. Along with this fiery beauty, we’re sowing E. californica ‘Apricot Chiffon’ from the Thai Silk Series this year, which has glorious apricot-peach flowers with a warm yellow centre.

• How to grow poppies

French marigolds

If you haven’t sown French marigold (Tagetes patula) yet, there is still time to sow these reliable, half-hardy annuals outdoors. Sow seeds directly into well-prepared soil and cover lightly. Thin to 15cm and keep well-watered. French marigolds prefer a sunny spot in well-drained, fertile soil.

Many varieties come in cheerful shades of yellow, orange or red, and some have eye-catching patterns, like ‘Jolly Jester’ which has petals with deep red and yellow stripes, and ‘Naughty Marietta’ with her yellow flowers with burgundy blotches. For varieties with a profusion of petals, try the warm pinky-red blooms of ‘Strawberry Blond’ or ‘Carmen’ with her deep red flowers with yellow centres.

• How to grow marigolds

Aquilegia

Aquilegia are in flower this month, creating a naturalistic effect in cottage garden borders or dotted through gravel gardens, as well as providing nectar for a host of pollinating insects. Thriving in full sun or partial shade, these delightful short-lived perennials readily hybridise if they like the conditions, so self-sown plants are unlikely to look much like their parents.

As well as enjoying new hybrids popping up in the borders, there are many fantastic aquilegias to grow from seed like wild A. vulgaris or showy A. chrysantha ‘Yellow Queen’, with its elongated lemony spurs. The delicate mocha and cream flowers of A. viridiflora ‘Chocolate Soldier’ have an understated beauty, or you could try a lucky dip with ‘Barlow Mixed’ or ‘McKana Giant Mixed’. We sowed A. ‘Munstead White’ several years ago and planted them out under our apple espaliers where they bloom alongside the apple blossom and Tulipa ‘Spring Green’.

Sow seeds under cover in a seed tray and keep at 15-20°C. Germination takes between one and three months. If germination isn’t successful or to speed up the process, place the seed tray in a polythene bag in the fridge below 5°C for three weeks, then return to warmth. Take the tray out earlier, if seeds begin to germinate. Grow seedlings on until large enough to handle and transplant into 8cm pots. Harden off and plant out after the last frost. Aquilegia seeds can also be sown directly in borders from this month until the end of June and thinned to 30cm apart. It is worth noting that seeds are harmful if eaten.

• 10 aquilegias to grow

Strawflowers

The unusual, papery blooms of strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum or Helichrysum bracteatum) work beautifully in arrangements and, once dried, last indefinitely, hence their other common name of ‘everlasting flower’. These half-hardy annuals are easy to grow from seed. They can be sown outside this month in well-drained soil in a sunny position. Alternatively, strawflowers raised from seed in early spring can be planted out once all risk of frost has passed. Sow seeds thinly in soil raked to a fine tilth. Keep moist during germination, which takes between one and two weeks. Thin seedlings to 30cm, when they are large enough to handle.

We love the exquisite shades of ‘Salmon Rose’, which range from ivory to pale peach and coral-pink. ‘Purple Red’ demands attention with its dramatic ruby-coloured flowers, and ‘Golden Yellow’ creates a dazzling impact in borders and vases. Or you could sow ‘Swiss Giant Mix’ to enjoy a brilliant array of brightly-coloured blooms right through from July to October.

• How to raise cut flowers from seed

Thrifty tip

After the frenzy of spring sowing, we always end up with surplus seedlings that we are loath to consign to the compost. You can make the most of these excess plants by swapping with other gardeners who have grown different crops or varieties. Take your seedlings to community garden days, gardening groups, set up a seedling table at work or swap them over local social media groups. Spring fêtes and open garden days are often great places to buy reasonably priced plants. And don’t forget to check out the clearance areas in garden centres and nurseries for leftover seedlings that could be revived with just a little TLC. 

Vegetables

Cucumber

Greenhouse cucumbers, such as all-female varieties ‘Bella’ and ‘Mini Munch’, can be sown in pots now, 1-2cm deep, and kept at around 21°C. Outdoor ridge varieties like ‘Marketmore’ can be sown outside in a sheltered, sunny spot from the end of the month and into June. I particularly like the all-female ‘La Diva’ which produces crisp, seedless cucumbers, either in the greenhouse or outdoors, and sweet-tasting ‘Crystal Lemon’ with its unusual round yellow fruits.

Most greenhouse cucumbers are all-female. If the female flowers of greenhouse varieties are pollinated they will produce bitter fruits, so remove any male flowers that do appear. Outdoor varieties have both male and female flowers, and need to be insect pollinated, so leave male flowers on the plant. Don’t grow outdoor cucumbers under cover alongside greenhouse varieties to avoid cross-pollination which will result in bitter fruits.

One of the cucumber’s diminutive relatives, the cucamelon, can also be sown in pots this month and will start cropping from mid- to late summer. This vigorous climber produces tiny fruits with a fresh limey-cucumber flavour. They are fairly easy to grow, but it is important to harvest cucamelons when they are still dark green and no bigger than a small grape. Any larger than this and they quickly become pale and rubbery.

• How to grow cucumbers

Beetroot

One of the tastiest pleasures of summer is harvesting the first beetroot and adding its earthy flavour to salads and savoury tarts. Seeds can be sown direct this month 2.5cm deep and 10cm apart, leaving 30cm between rows. Beetroot works well sown successionally to provide tender beets throughout summer and into autumn. Crops sown this month should be ready to harvest in July and August.

‘Detroit’ is a superb, high-yielding variety with tasty red beets and ‘Cylindra’ has all the vibrancy of other crimson beetroot, but with unusually-shaped cylindrical roots. Both varieties store well. We love to grow the vivid beets of ‘Rainbow Mixed’: our favourite in the collection is ‘Chioggia’, with its concentric pink and white rings showing clearly when you cut it in half. ‘Burpees Golden’ is a sweet variety with bright yellow flesh and ‘Albino White’ is a tasty beet whose pale flesh avoids the staining problems of red beetroot varieties.

• Unusual beetroot to grow
• How to sow beetroot seed

Turnips

Turnips sown this month will provide a crop of turnip greens that can be cooked like spinach, followed by a summer harvest of sweet roots. These easy-to-grow brassicas prefer cool conditions and thrive in moisture-retentive, fertile soil, enriched with organic matter. Sow seeds thinly at a depth of 1cm, and leave 30cm between rows. Thin seedlings to 10-20cm apart. Turnips vary in colour and shape from the round, white roots of ‘Snowball’ to ‘Purple Top Milan’ which has flat-topped roots flushed purple on the crown. ‘Atlantic’ is an ideal variety to grow in containers where it can be harvested within a few weeks for tender baby turnips.

• How to grow turnips

What else to sow in May

• Flowers: achillea, anchusa, foxglove, quaking grass, larkspur, sunflowers, nasturtiums, cornflowers, nigella, zinnia, cosmos, nicotiana, brachyscome, annual salvia, annual rudbeckia, calendula
• Vegetables: French beans, runner beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, sprouting broccoli, Swiss chard, chicory, lettuce, spring onion, radish, spinach, sweetcorn, courgette
• Herbs: rocket, parsley, dill, basil, coriander

Growing Greener

One of the best ways to avoid buying unnecessary plastic is to reuse existing pots, trays and other plastic equipment for as long as possible. Once plastic pots and trays are no longer reusable, recycle them if you can and consider plastic-free, biodegradable alternatives. Choose natural twine rather than plastic string, fibre pots instead of plastic plant pots and make soil blocks for seeds or use toilet roll inners rather than sowing in plastic modules. 

]]>Your May wildlife gardening jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/checklist/your-may-wildlife-gardening-jobs/2023-04-12T16:14:09.000ZThe white froth of hawthorn and cow parsley festoons the verges this month and meadows are full of buttercups and cowslips. Swallows, swifts and house martins are on the wing by day and bats command the night skies. The dawn chorus reaches its peak, early damselflies and dragonflies emerge, and bees are out foraging for pollen and nectar.

But May’s abundance is only a fraction of what it was. Bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian populations have decreased sharply in recent decades, as have the invertebrates upon which many animals feed. Vital habitats like woodlands, wetlands and heathlands are still being destroyed and intensive agriculture continues to affect biodiversity. With around a million acres of gardens across the UK, our choices make a big difference. This month is an ideal time to develop habitats that support insects, and then enjoy the wildlife they attract to our gardens.

More wildlife advice:

• How to help garden wildlife in May

Plants for wildlife

For spectacular nectar-rich displays this summer, plant out half-hardy annuals that were sown earlier in spring. Harden plants off over a couple of weeks before transplanting into the garden after the last frost. We love black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) which is often grown as an annual, although it can survive for a few years in mild, sheltered areas.

These North American prairie plants have richly-coloured flowers and, as members of the daisy family, are loved by pollinating insects as much as they are by gardeners. ‘Indian Summer’ has large butter-yellow blooms with characteristic dark centres and ‘Cherry Brandy’ adds drama to any border with its glorious deep red-maroon flowers that last well into autumn. For more compact plants, try growing sunny ‘Toto’. This floriferous yellow star reaches around 30cm in height and is perfect for containers and the front of sunny borders.

Don’t worry if you haven’t sown any seeds yet, it’s not too late to add half-hardy annuals to the borders. Many species, such as Cosmos bipinnatus and Phlox drummondii, are resilient enough to be sown outside towards the end of this month, or they can be purchased as plug plants ready to go in the garden.

• How to grow rudbeckias
• How to harden off plants

Feeding wildlife

May is a busy month for blue tits and great tits. Most eggs hatch in the next few weeks and adults can have up to 16 hungry mouths to feed, though 8-10 is more usual. In spring and summer, adult tits eat invertebrates, especially spiders and caterpillars, and the young are primarily fed on caterpillars. A study by the University of Glasgow in 2017 showed that blue tits in urban habitats raised fewer young than birds in rural areas, due to the scarcity of caterpillars. Each nestling needs around 100 caterpillars a day to thrive, so parents need to forage for nearly 1,000 caterpillars every day to feed an average brood.

Many trees and shrubs provide excellent habitats for butterfly and moth caterpillars, so they benefit the birds too. Willow, birch and oak trees, and hedges with hawthorn, blackthorn, spindle and privet create fantastic food sources for a wide range of moth caterpillars. Fruit trees and bushes, along with climbers like native honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) and ivy (Hedera helix), provide food for both larval and adult stages.

The brimstone moth (Gonepteryx rhamni) is one of my favourite spring moths. It has brown notched patterns on its pale-yellow wings and its caterpillars feed on hawthorn, blackthorn and rowan. It is attracted to light, which explains why we sometimes find them on the inside of our open windows. Grasses also support many butterfly and moth larvae, such as those of the marbled white (Melanargia galanthea), gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) and the drinker moth (Euthrix potatoria). Creating an area of your garden where native grasses can grow will help provide food for these wonderful creatures.

• Caterpillar food plants

Bats

Thriving moth populations are also likely to attract hungry bats. All 17 of the UK’s breeding bat species feed on insects such as moths, midges and lacewings, so a garden that caters for them will also provide a banquet for bats. Ponds and areas of long grass create brilliant habitats for larvae, and avoiding pesticide use also enables insect populations to thrive. Growing different types of flowers helps broaden the range of insect species that visit your garden, and night-scented blooms, such as evening primrose and sweet rocket, are particularly attractive to moths.

Artificial light sources like decorative garden lighting and security lights can have a detrimental effect on both bats and moths, so avoid lighting wherever possible. If you would like to get more involved with bats in your area, you can find out about local groups from the Bat Conservation Trust.

Growing Greener

Now many insects are out foraging for pollen and nectar, why not give the mower a rest this month, to allow grass to grow longer and wildflowers to bloom? Ideally, some areas of grass should be left long after May too, as flowers will still be in bloom and a wide range of animals, including grasshoppers and field voles, could be using these areas to shelter, feed and breed. By leaving some areas unmown, and cutting others just once a month, you’ll be catering for a range of wildlife throughout this month and beyond. 

Creating and maintaining habitats

Pond plants

Pond plants come into active growth as spring temperatures increase, so this month is a good time to plant and divide aquatic perennials. Adding a range of wildlife-friendly plants that grow naturally in UK waterways helps support a diverse ecosystem, from tiny larvae up to larger visitors like grey wagtails and grass snakes. Submerged foliage provides tadpoles and other aquatic creatures with protection from predators and shade in hot weather. Underwater plants also maintain the oxygen supply in the water ensuring an aerated, healthy environment for wildlife.

Spiked water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) provides a place for pond creatures like water beetles to hide and fronds upon which damselflies and dragonflies can lay their eggs. We have rigid hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) in our small wildlife pond. Its feathery foliage forms dense clumps that are great for sheltering larvae and tadpoles. Floating plants such as frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) and common water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) also create shade and places for pond animals to lay their eggs.

Adding flowering marginal plants like water mint (Mentha aquatica), kingcups (Caltha palustris) and water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides) provides pollen and nectar for bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Kingcups have yellow buttercup-like flowers on tall stems between April and June. Later in the season, the stems are used by dragonfly nymphs climbing out of the water to complete metamorphosis into newly-emerged adults or tenerals. As well as being good for pollinators, water mint and water forget-me-not are favoured by newts, which lay eggs on them, wrapping each individual one in a folded leaf.

• British native pond plants for wildlife ponds
• How to repot pond plants in spring

Look out for... warblers

By early May, most migratory warblers are back for the new breeding season. Some species such as whitethroats will have travelled from Africa, while other warblers like blackcaps have just completed a shorter journey from the Mediterranean. Now that resident birds like robins, wrens and blackbirds are joined by the warblers, mornings open with a delightful symphony of territorial song. National Dawn Chorus Day takes place on 7 May this year, so why not catch up with one of the events taking place all around the UK, and join many others enjoying this inimitable celebration of spring?

• The first chiffchaff of the season singing its own name ‘chiffchaff chiffchaff’ never fails to excite me. I generally expect to hear the characteristic call around the middle of March, but more recently it is thought that around 1,000 chiffchaffs have been overwintering in the UK rather than migrating to Europe or North Africa. This slender, olive-green warbler breeds in scrub and woodland, making domed nests near or on the ground in thick vegetation. They visit gardens to feed on invertebrates – we sometimes spot them flitting around in the silver birch picking tiny insects off the newly-emerged leaves.
• Willow warblers arrive in the UK from Africa in early April. Looking very similar to the chiffchaff, this warbler can be identified most easily by its song, which comprises a series of descending notes. Willow warblers have pale pink legs (as opposed to chiffchaffs’ dark brown legs) and are usually brighter with more yellow in the plumage. They are birds of open woodland, but can also be heard singing in scrubland, parks and even – if you are extremely lucky – in large gardens. Like chiffchaffs, they build a dome-shaped nest near the ground and lay between five and seven white eggs with reddish-brown speckles.
• Much easier to identify with its black (or in the female’s case reddish-brown) cap, the blackcap is an attractive warbler that primarily feeds on insects. Unlike chiffchaffs and willow warblers, blackcaps nest in shrubs and trees, so they will breed in gardens with plenty of shrubby cover, as well as in woodland and parks. Although many blackcaps now overwinter in the UK, these birds will likely have left for their breeding grounds in central Europe, especially southern Germany, by now. The blackcaps we hear singing their glorious lilting melodies in spring have migrated here from southern Europe or north Africa, arriving around the middle of April.
• You would think that garden warblers would be one of the easiest birds to spot in our gardens in spring, but their name is rather a misnomer. This shy warbler nests in woodland and scrub, but rarely visits gardens unless they have large areas of dense shrubbery and tree cover. If you do see a garden warbler, its most notable feature is its anonymity. It has plain, grey-brown plumage and a song easily confused with the blackcap’s melodic warbling.

Thrifty tip

Border sedums (Hylotelephium spectabile), with their clustered heads of tiny flowers, are one of the best late-flowering plants to attract pollinating insects. At the end of summer and in autumn when sedum are in bloom, butterflies will be feeding prior to hibernation, late-flying bees will still be around and honeybees will be out foraging on warmer days. May is a good time to propagate these plants by taking stem and leaf cuttings to create masses of new plants for free to feed the pollinators later in the year. 

]]>Your spring house plant jobshttps://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/your-spring-house-plant-jobs/2023-04-05T13:12:25.000ZI garden in the Pennines on heavy clay soil where the winter invariably brings lots of rain and more often than not heavy snow too. The combination of these factors means I have to be patient in spring and wait for the soil to dry out and warm up before I can start gardening in earnest. While I’m waiting for this to happen I scratch my gardening itch by turning my attention to preparing my house plants for the new growing season.

Indoors, the extra light and warmth on windowsills means house plants will start to regrow after their winter dormancy, so now is the time to give your plants the botanical equivalent of a spring clean, including dividing and repotting them if necessary. There’s something very satisfying about spending a couple of hours one day in early spring gathering in all the house plants from the various shelves and sills where they’ve spent the winter months, then spreading out some newspaper on a work surface and lining up all the equipment I’ll need for a spot of house plant TLC.

More house plant advice:

• 7 ways to save money on house plants
• Unusual house plants to grow
• Growing and caring for house plants with Monty

Spring house plant needs

Light

To make the most of any spring sunshine, I like to give my windows a clean on the inside and out to remove any dirt that has built up over winter. I also carefully wipe the leaves of house plants with a damp cloth to remove dust that has collected on the foliage as this can inhibit a plant’s ability to absorb light and photosynthesise. For plants with spiny leaves, such as cacti, which are awkward to clean, or hairy leaves, which would be damaged by moisture, use an artist’s brush or a makeup brush you no longer use – just make sure it’s clean – to sweep away any dust.

Be careful with plants that have been moved closer to windows over winter to maximise light levels. As the sun gets stronger through mid to late spring it might be necessary to move these plants away from the glass as the sunlight intensified by the glass can cause brown, dry patches on leaves known as leaf scorch. East or west-facing windows suit many house plants better than south-facing situations, as the plants get plenty of bright light either on a morning or in the late afternoon, rather than when the sun is at its strongest at midday. Windowsills in front of frosted windows are great locations for house plants because the frosting diffuses the light reducing its intensity.

Heat

Early to mid-spring can still be cold - and even if the days are warm and sunny, clear skies at night can lead to hard frosts. It’s good to be aware that the temperature on windowsills can fluctuate significantly at this time of year, so it’s important to try to maintain an even temperature indoors using your thermostat, and be prepared to move plants off windowsills at night if cold weather is forecast.

As spring progresses and the temperature rises, we can turn off the central heating. This is when plants that I had to move in winter so that they weren’t next to the woodburner or radiators can be moved back to their original locations.

Humidity

In spring, I like to give moisture-loving tropical plants a humidity boost by moving them into the bathroom while I have a bath or shower. I’ll leave them there for a few hours afterwards to absorb the extra moisture in the air. If you have plants standing on pebble trays to increase the humidity around them, make sure you keep the water levels topped up in the trays as they will drop when the water evaporates.

• How to raise humidity for house plants

Water

After watering house plants sparingly, if at all, over winter, it’s now time to start watering more frequently so that there is plenty of moisture for the roots to fuel the growth the plants will make over the coming months. It’s important not to overdo it though. Check the soil once or twice a week using a moisture meter pushed into the soil, or use your finger – push it down about 2in (5cm) and if the soil is dry give the plant a water.

For orchids it’s slightly different. Your orchid is likely to be growing in a clear pot and this helps you check whether the roots need watering or not – if they’re a grey colour they do, if they’re green they don’t. I hold the orchid’s pot under a running tap for about 30 seconds to flush the compost, turning the pot so that all of the compost is thoroughly soaked, but you can water just as easily with a watering can. I have a mixer tap and I set this to tepid so that the plant doesn’t suffer from cold shock, but you can just add a bit of hot water to cold in a watering can or fill the can and put it to one side for an hour or so to allow it to come up to room temperature.

• How to water house plants

Food

As plants start to show signs of new growth, it’s time to start feeding them again. Once a month is a good rule of thumb, but some plants may need feeding more or less frequently, so it’s always worth checking a plant’s individual requirements. Use a liquid house plant feed for foliage plants, specialist feeds for orchids and cacti/succulents, and a feed that’s high in potash for flowering plants. Dilute the feed in a watering can and apply to the compost – for the specialist feeds follow the instructions on the bottle, for a high potash fertiliser such as tomato feed dilute to half the recommended dose.

• How to feed house plants

Pest and disease problems

Soft, new growth in spring is a beacon for sap-sucking pests such as aphids, so keep an eye out for any signs of pests so that they don’t turn into an infestation. I tend to set aside a bit of time on a Sunday morning to tend to my house plants, and I’ll use the opportunity to look for pests, checking in particular the undersides of leaves and around leaf axils, which are the perfect hiding spots for creatures. If I do come across any, my first course of action is to remove them by hand – a damp cotton bud can help for those that are tricky to get to.

Spider mites are tiny creatures that are hard to see without a magnifying glass. They thrive in dry conditions, so centrally-heated homes are the perfect place for them to overwinter. In spring, the eggs hatch and an infestation, often indicated by a fine webbing on leaves and shoot tips, can build-up quickly. Misting the foliage every couple of days and using an invigorator spray to maintain healthy plants can prevent spider mites taking up residence.

Maintenance

Remove any growth that has withered or turned yellow using clean, sharp secateurs. Cut back to a growing point, which is generally marked by a bump on the stem – this is a leaf node where new leaves or stems will emerge. If a whole stem needs removing cut back to just above the compost level.

When moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) have finished flowering, cut back the stem to just above the node below the lowest flower. This will hopefully encourage another flush of flowers, but it doesn’t always work and sometimes the stem turns brown. If this is the case simply cut the whole stem back to the base.

It’s always a good idea when handling house plants to wear gloves as they can contain toxic substances.

Repotting

Repotting gives a plant more room to grow and is an opportunity to refresh the compost, and early to mid-spring is the best time to tackle this job, just as plants are starting to regrow.

Generally, house plants are slow growers and may only need repotting every two to three years – the sign that they need to be moved to a bigger pot is lots of roots poking out of the bottom of the pot. Choose a pot that’s the next size up from the previous pot, so just an inch or two bigger in diameter. Make sure the pot has drainage holes and, if it has been lying around in the shed, give it a quick wash in hot, soapy water to get rid of any possible pests or diseases that it might be harbouring. Fill the base of the pot with a peat-free house plant compost, a specialist compost for cacti and succulents or bark compost for orchids, then position the plant and fill in around the sides with the compost. Water well and allow the pot to drain fully before placing it back in its cache pot. Repotted plants shouldn’t be fed for four to six weeks to allow the roots to establish.

I repot my Sansevieria plants every spring because I don’t want them to grow so big they can no longer fit on my windowsills. Rather than moving these into bigger pots I take this opportunity to divide the Sansevieria, carefully pulling away the side shoots that have developed. I either repot these into individual pots or compost them if I don’t need them. I’ll then repot the parent plant in its original pot.

If I have the time I will refresh the compost of plants that don’t need to be moved into a bigger pot. I’ll tip the plant out of its pot, removing any compost from the base of the pot, then I’ll carefully tease away some of the compost from the roots. Using fresh compost, I’ll refill the old pot with fresh compost, replace the plant and fill in around the sides. This is a great way of giving plants a boost in spring.

Growing Greener

When you’re repotting house plants it’s just as important to use peat-free compost as it is for garden plants, if we’re to play our part in saving peat bogs from destruction to preserve their biodiversity and their ability to store carbon. Seek out suppliers of house plants that have been grown in peat-free too. 

Seasonal Stars

African violet

Streptocarpus ionanthus, more commonly known as the African violet, forms a rosette of green leaves, which are sometimes reddish-purple on the undersides, and a profusion of flowers in purple, shades of pink, red or white on and off throughout the year. Recent plant breeding means there are lots of new colours and flower forms available including doubles, ruffled petals and bell-shaped blooms.

It’s native to tropical east Africa and likes plenty of diffused light, warmth and some humidity, although because the leaves are hairy it’s important they don’t get wet so, rather than misting, place the pot on top of a pebble tray or keep it in humid room such as a bathroom or kitchen.

Natal lily

Clivia miniata AGM, or the natal lily, is from South Africa and features strap-shaped, dark green leaves and sturdy stems crowned with clusters of trumpet-shaped blooms in red, orange, yellow or cream in spring and summer. Provide filtered light – direct sun in summer can scorch the foliage – and a cold spell of around 10C is needed from November to February to encourage flowers to form.

Cape primrose

Streptocarpus is another fantastic plant from Africa. I love it because it’s hard to beat for indoor flower power, and the cultivars come in such a wide range of colours, some with distinct veining and others with frilly-edged petals. If you fancy something with daintier blooms then I’d recommend the lilac-coloured S. saxorum which makes a lovely trailing plant.

They need plenty of light but don’t like hot sun, so an east or west-facing windowsill is ideal. I find it easiest to water from below, as it means I avoid splashing the leaves. Feed every fortnight with a potash feed that’s diluted to half strength.

Jade plant

Crassula ovata is more widely known as the jade plant or the money plant and is one of the easiest house plants I grow. I love that as the plant matures it develops a mini tree-like structure with a thickening stem that resembles a trunk. The oval-shaped, green leaves are fleshy with a glossy sheen and a red tinge to the leaf tips.

Native to South Africa and Mozambique, it likes plenty of light and can take some direct sun. It’s happy with normal humidity levels so doesn’t require misting or a pebble tray. Water the pot fully, then let the compost dry out before watering again. If a plant gets too big for its space, I take a stem cutting by removing a side stem about 8-10cm (3-4in) in length. I’ll remove some of the lower leaves then I push the stem into a pot filled with a succulent compost and added grit or perlite. Water the compost sparingly and roots should develop in a couple of weeks.

Thrifty tip

If you don’t know whether a plant will survive in your home or with the amount of care you can give it, medium-sized or large house plants can end up being an expensive mistake. I know how disheartening it can be to have to get rid of a plant that demanded more attention than I could give it or that needed more humidity than I could provide. Fortunately many garden centres sell baby plants for terrariums for a couple of pounds each, and these are an inexpensive way to see whether a plant is suitable. If the plant isn’t happy the loss of a couple of pounds is much easier to take than £20 or more. You also get the pleasure of nurturing a baby plant to maturity rather than buying the instant version.

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