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DIGGING DEEP
Gardening with Pulse
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e’ve spent the past couple of issues advising how and when to start planning the year ahead for your garden and when to think about putting down the seeds that will provide good stuff throughout the year – including fruit and vegetables. But this month, we are turning our attention to something else you can do to enhance your outside space, and it’s an easy way to help bees and butterflies find their way to you; by sowing wildflowers. Wildflowers will transform a bland space into an attractive one that is bursting with colour and life. As a youngster, I used to love feeling the sun on my back, taking in the views of the blooming wildflowers, and listening to the chirping of grasshoppers, but it’s something that future generations will never experience unless we act now. In less than a century, 97% of our wild flower meadows have been lost. Of course, our own back gardens don’t lend themselves to a luscious green meadow bursting with pops of wildflower colour, but we can still help to make a difference. If we all do a little, the combined efforts count for a lot. We can start by ditching the fake stuff! Insects can’t live in fake grass, birds can’t feed from it, and it uses plastic which can’t be recycled. At a time when our wildlife is struggling to adapt to loss of habitat because of our intensive farming and new builds, do we
Top Tip... With so much attention focused on our outside spaces, it can be easy to overlook what’s going on inside the home - but our houseplants need a little TLC too. Too much water is more likely to kill your plant, as opposed to too little. Plants don’t like warm water and they hate icy cold water just as much - when giving them a drink, make sure the water is at room temperature, and you might need to increase the frequency or amount you give at this time of the year, simply because many of our plants tend to grow more in the spring and summer. In next month’s issue, we’ll be exploring how you can ensure your houseplants are healthy and happy. 42
How does your garden grow?
Wildflowers will help bring your garden to life
really need to add plastic grass into the mix of issues for them? Micro plastics will also find their way into our soil, and the contamination will last for centuries. And, while you might think they look attractive, it won’t take too many years before the fake lawns look nasty. We’re not trying to vilify those of you who are looking outside at your own plastic installation, but if you do have a fake lawn, you will also know that while they remove the need for a mower, they still need to be washed and brushed...even hoovered! It’s best to turf out the pretend turf and get back to nature. The birds and the butterflies will love you for it, and there’s a reason why we are told to get closer to nature – it’s good for mind, body and spirit. Having established that there is no substitute for the real thing, the quickest way to increase colour and support to the garden is to stop mowing – allowing a patch to grow wild will increase biodiversity. Wildflower seeds and seed bombs are commonplace in stores and online and are an easy way to help launch a wildflower patch or ‘mini-meadow’ – but don’t just expect to toss the seeds on the ground and enjoy instant success; instructions are there for a reason, so do heed them. Lady’s Bedstraw, oxeye-daisy, common daisies, wild carrot, cowslip, cornflower, common knapweed, selfheal and white and red campion are among those delicate blooms which are aesthetically pleasing, and they will ‘bee’ brilliant for our pollinators. Our actions today will benefit tomorrow’s generations, and that has got to be worth causing a buzz about!
What a beautiful time of year this is. Daffodils are in flower, as are a wide selection of alpines and heathers (see photo). Spring has sprung! There’s much to do in the garden. As flowers fade, don’t forget to deadhead. Preventing daffodils from setting seed allows the food from the leaves to be transported underground that will help to produce healthy existing and new bulbs. Clipping heathers before they produce new leaf growth helps to produce compact plants. Whilst flowers are still visible it’s a good time to dig up anything you’re not keen on and also to remove the adjacent seedlings. Flowering currants, Ribes sanguineum, will benefit from a hard prune to encourage next year’s flowers, as soon as this year’s flowers have faded. It’s also time to sow hardy annuals, herbs and wild flower seeds outside. Select your site, weed and level the soil and tread lightly beforehand. Pot marigolds, Calendula officinalis, are an old favourite with single, preferred by bees, or double flowers in various shades of yellow and orange. They will withstand a light frost but do have some fleece at the ready. Have you somewhere that you could spare to grow wild flowers? They are a great benefit to butterflies and bees with various mixes available, and many flowering in their first year. Gill Routhorn, Denton & District Gardening Club > Denton & District Gardening Club (DDGC) DDGC is a small, friendly club which meets on a Monday evening every month. New members and visitors are always welcome. For more information please contact m.pateman@yahoo.co.uk or 01604 890875.
April 2022 | NN Pulse Magazine | 22,000 Copies delivered every month door to door across Northamptonshire