Any gardening tips?

There must be many gardening tips that are continually being reinvented. A couple occured to me - but I am sure they are oldies.

I tied up some plants with canes recently, but could see the canes. So yesterday I tied up some Heleniums and Dahlias, using canes that I had painted green with old fence panel paint, and green twine. The canes are now essentially invisible.

I have just cut down a patch of Centranthus ruber (Red Valerian) to about a foot high. The area looked terribly bare, so I found some old Pelargoniums (ie Geraniums) and a Catanache that were in small pots and in flower. And I placed the pots in the patch, where the Centranthus foliage hid the pot. From a distance it no longer looks bare - there is a patch of greenary with blooms arising from it. Only the eagle eye of a GC member could tell that this was in reality a loan that had not been declared :D

The loan will only be required for about three weeks, as the Cenranthus should have regrown by then and started flowering again. It is a star plant in the dryiest part of the garden, in full sun under a huge Beech tree, where nothing else will grow. And it flowers its head off for about 20 weeks a year, spread over two sessions.

 

There are hundreds and hundreds of tips like this - and are all fascinating! Some of them I've heard, some I haven't - there's a book "The Greatest Gardening Tips In The World", compiled by Steve Brookes - ISBN 1905151004, if anyone's interested......

 

Thanks Dendrobium - I will keep a lookout for that.

 

I think I got it via T&M, or some other web-site - not Amazon, although I expect they'd have it. They d0 - see http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1905151004/202-5719453-5651815?v=glance&n=266239

 

Chunks of polystyrene broken or cut from the box your microwave, TV etc came in can be stuck on top of garden canes and just might help avoid a "poke in the eye with a sharp stick" when you dead head the border or pick the bush toms.
Also handy for drainage in the bottom of pots.

Weed supressing membrane isn't expensive and if you use it in your veg plot around brassicas, french beans, leeks etc it will save hours of weeding and also help conserve moisture.

Insect mesh costs a bit but lasts for years and will protect your veg from lots of flying nasties e.g. butterflies and aphids without having to resort to expensive chemicals.

 

I prefer opening a bottle of wine and using the cork as a deterrent from a poke in the eye ... which has happened to me more than once! :D :D

 

Now was that before or after the wine? :D

 

Have to be honest, DaveW, it was BEFORE giving a reason to open such! Actually, it's always my temple I catch. The only eye injury I had was whilst trimming the lower branches of the almond tree and one whooshed back and whipped me in the eye ... made it black! :( I'm sure everyone thought t'other half was trying to keep me in line! :D :D Just staked my tomatoes last week and decorated them with corks! You could always paint them for interest to blend in with the flora.