Homes & gardens 


Spring is nature’s way of saying, "LET’S PARTY”


- Robin Williams


A lot of gardeners will have spent some of the grimmer winter days ‘planning’ the changes and improvements they intended making to the garden in the spring.


Suddenly spring has arrived upon us and already the time available (most gardeners have to fit gardening in around work, family and other commitments) is being taken up with essential maintenance jobs.


Nil desperandum – instead, enjoy


putting more limited plans into effect. Neither Rome nor the Garden of Eden were built in a day.


Consider good intentions such as making a space for the youngest members of the family to garden – not a dim corner that lacks light and will discourage them from day one. Choose a plot full of promise – better to start with ‘small and select’ rather than ‘large and disappointing’. Weeding and preparing the bed ready for planting isn’t providing the would-be junior gardener with a cop-out – it’s a case of looking back to childhood and recalling how dull chores almost destroyed an embryo love of gardening.


Grow-your-own has been flourishing in popularity for many years and – threatened by Brexit and the rising price of fruit and vegetables – we can expect an upward spiral. Very few children like green vegetables and salads, but sowing seeds or planting from plugs, nurturing,


watering and watching the baby vegetables grow can change all that.


Help them to select trouble-free


vegetables. Even better, take them along to the local garden centre and allow them to ask for help and advice. Staff in Hadlow College’s Broadview Garden Centre are brilliant at helping people of


doorways. Check that containers have sufficiently large drainage holes. Place some ‘crocks’ – broken pieces of terracotta, for instance – over the holes to prevent them becoming blocked by compost. Fill containers with good quality, peat-free multi-purpose compost. (Remember that acid-loving


all ages – including children. Hedges and shrubs can begin to look


very untidy at this time of year, but remember that nesting birds take priority. Avoid trimming and cutting hedges close to nests – above all, keep noisy hedge cutters and other machinery well out of range.


Pots, tubs and other containers are


wonderful for providing colour and scent in seating areas and around


plants will require ericaceous compost.)


Mix a few water-retaining crystals into the compost. Facilitate drainage by placing containers on specially designed feet available in garden centres – alternatively, use bricks.


Remember that canny gardeners don’t


allow a couple of warm days to persuade them to pot bedding while there is still risk of late frosts!


Editorial supplied by Pat Crawford for Hadlow College


Mid Kent Living 47


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