Garden Calendar

There is nothing more delicious than fruit picked fresh from the garden and now is the time to be planting deciduous fruit trees.  The 2010 range for fruit trees have arrived in store and we are delighted with the size and quality of this years crop.  For those of you with limited space there are dwarf varieties of peaches, plums and all your favourites & double and triple grafted trees that eliminate the need for a polinator.  So get planting and develop your home orchard - with a little effort it will reward you for years to come!

Asparagus is another crop that once planted will provide many crops of this delicious vegetable.  Plant in a well drained soil with plenty of organic matter and keep well weeded.  Water over summer months and mulch with pea straw and by October you will be rewarded with succulent spears of asparagus from your own patch.

What garden is complete without a lemon?  Many of us will be enjoying the benefits of citrus at the moment - warding off colds and flu with the abundance of Vitamin C they produce.  The winter months are the perfect time for planting these great growers.  Try some of the dwarf varieties in pots or the garden in a warm spot.  Fertilise, water and spray regularly and your citrus will thrive.

Roses will need to be pruned over the next month or so.  Before starting this job get your tools together and make sure that secateurs are clean and sharp.  Remove all dead, diseased or weak canes and remove any useless canes coming from the base of old plants.  How much to prune depends on the shape you want to achieve.

Hybrid Teas perfer a hard prune, shrub roses who like to get big, a light prune but generally a third of the plant will do.  Climbing roses require a little more thought as you want to create a fan shaped structure by bending the young pliable canes into shape.  After pruning seal the wounds with pruning paste, dispose of all the clippings and give the plants a clean up spray of lime sulphur.