Q: Any advice on the best way to tackle creeping buttercup without using weed killer? It’s starting to take over some of my flower beds, where it’s smothering perennials and smaller shrubs. MJ, Co Kilkenny
21.01.2024 - 19:01 / backyardgardener.com
The fall is the perfect time to plant garlic in your garden. Compared to spring-planted garlic, fall garlic produces larger bulbs, matures earlier, and often has fewer disease problems. Additionally, certain types of garlic, mainly hard-neck types like Rocambole, will not mature in time from spring planting.
Of the three types of garlic, soft-neck garlic is the type most often found in supermarkets. It stores for a number of months and can be braided into attractive hangings. Alternatively, hard-neck types store for a much shorter time but have a much more pungent flavor. Elephant garlic, a member of the leek family, is an extremely mild-flavored garlic. The individual cloves can often be 2 inches wide and are great for roasting. In areas where summers are cool and damp, elephant garlic is an excellent choice.
In the springtime, when the green tips start to emerge, garlic should be side-dressed with fertilizer again. Place the fertilizer 2 inches away from the row and lightly scratch it into the soil. During the growing season, keep garlic evenly watered. If this is not possible, keep a mulch on the soil around the plants to help conserve water in between waterings.
The hard-neck types of garlic usually send up flowering heads. Although beautiful, these heads should be removed as they drain energy from the bulbs. The heads can be added to stir-fries for a mild garlic taste. For more information on recipes and using garlic, try the Garlic Page.
When the tops turn yellow, stop watering and allow the bulbs to cure in the soil for 2 weeks. Harvest the garlic by pulling the whole plant out of the soil, tying the leaves together, and then placing the bulbs on a rack in a warm, dry spot. Soft-neck garlic can be braided and hung for
Q: Any advice on the best way to tackle creeping buttercup without using weed killer? It’s starting to take over some of my flower beds, where it’s smothering perennials and smaller shrubs. MJ, Co Kilkenny
You can sense it in the slowly stretching evenings, the higher skies, the shifting quality of light, and the noisy chatter of birds. And you can see it in the flowering hellebores, witch-hazel and sweetly perfumed daphne, as well as the snowdrops, daffodils, cyclamen, aconites, crocuses and dwarf irises that have pushed their snouts through cold, wet soil to burst into determined, brilliant bloom.
The soil must have adequate drainage; otherwise, air may be excluded, and the more beneficial micro-organisms may be destroyed. Soils which have poor drainage are often sour and acid. It will be necessary to improve this acidity by applications of hydrated lime. Wet soils are cold ones, and this means that plant growth is severely retarded. The situation is even more critical in the northern, colder parts of the country. Waterlogged soils cause roots to rot and a combination of all these problems can produce complete failures in some gardens.
Q: Could you please recommend a good peat-free seed compost? I’ve tried a few over the last few years but haven’t had great results. I’d really like to do the right thing environmentally but am now at the point where I’m sorely tempted to go back to using a conventional peat-based compost. CF County Kerry
Sketch image from a garden planting plan recently created for a GardenAdvice client
23 of the Best Plants for Your Home Office
We’ve been to our fair share of local Manchester parks and gardens, that’s for sure! But which do we recommend?
Q: I have a winter flowering jasmine, growing profusely on a 3m-high north-facing wall. For most of its six years, it has produced an abundance of flowers, from early November until March. During the recent summer, I took a lot of its stems, which had bunched at about 2m, and gently stretched them out along a series of horizontal wires. This November I can only see a handful of flowers (less than 10). Did my gentle summer manipulation cause this drop in flowers and if so, how? CD, Co Dublin
In a world being reshaped by climate change, gardeners are increasingly asking themselves what can be done to counter the destructive effects of extreme weather events. The answer, as we’re discovering, is to take a nature-friendly approach that supports and nurtures resilience.
When you go to the Philadelphia Flower Show, it helps to take along the right attitude. If seeing gorgeous, high concept gardens full of the most fashionable flowers makes you feel insecure, then take yourself elsewhere. If you need a massive dose of color, fragrance, humidity, and horticultural inspiration, then the Philadelphia Flower Show will be perfect for you. On my calendar, it officially marks the end of winter. It also reminds me of everything that a garden can be—provided you have a forklift, a crew of ten, at least $20,000 and the ability to make crocuses, roses and hydrangeas all bloom simultaneously.
Although it would be nearly impossible for any plant lover to choose just one favorite, here are a few of the standouts that look especially good in my Zone 6 Michigan garden at the peak of the growing season.