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Broadview Gardens, near Tonbridge in Kent, are open free everyday and hold a countrywide Choice of Helleborus that are at their peak promptly.

Guided tours with probably the most gardening staff can be found this weekend (February 21&22) and next (March 1&2) and value £3 for an hour and half master class of ways to get one of the most out of growing Hellebores.

Booking is suggested for the 11am and 2pm tours, but everybody can see the eight-acre garden’s Hellebores, in addition to the snowdrops, cyclamen, crocus and Iris reticulata on show nowadays.

Spring flowers coming soon include Chionadoxa, or glory-of-the-snow, and the similarly beautifully blue Scillas, or Siberian squills.

There also are tulips bridging the space between spring and summer when the gardens feature traditional perennials in addition canna lilies, dahlias and a countrywide Choice of Japanese Anemones, which flower from August until October.

The model gardens are built by horticultural students on the neighbouring Hadlow College, with a brand new garden built from scratch per annum or an existing one updated.

There is a Mediterranean garden, Oriental garden and Italian garden, in addition to more contemporary gardens full of exciting ideas, including a Gold Medal winner from RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show which was rebuilt at the site.

The gardens are maintained by volunteers and scholars who need work experience, and there’s a garden centre and tea room on site.

Keep up to the moment with events on the Broadview Garden by following it on Twitter: @bvgardens; or visit the web site www.broadviewgardens.co.uk

A garden on a slope is usually a problem or a chance, but to profit from it, don’t treat a hillside site like a “normal” garden.
 
Terracing

Terracing was the standard solution, turning a continuing slope right into a series of alternating level areas and steep drops supported by retaining walls. To do that properly, remove
the topsoil, then create level terraces from the subsoil and build supporting walls to hang everything firmly in place before replacing the topsoil. Each terrace may be landscaped with a rather different theme, so that you can pack quite a few interest right into a small area. Any terrace is probably going to empty well, but pay heed to the aspect, as that has a huge impact on what grows best. South-facing terraces are warm, sunny and ideal for vines, evergreen herbs, rock plants and Mediterranean shrubs. North-facing terraces usually get good indirect light but very little direct sun, so they’re ideal for any such ferns that may tolerate drying conditions and, given the addition of a lot of well-rotted organic matter, many choice woodland plants. East or west-facing terraces are good for many garden perennials and other plants that need good drainage.

Landscaping a slope

When you don’t want the expense, disruption, or look of terracing, leave the garden sloping but installed steps to make access easier. Brick, stone or concrete-slab steps suit a proper garden. If wide enough, a brief flight of steps will also be used to display potted plants equivalent to spring bulbs, or annual herbs.For steps with a more informal look, sink reclaimed railway sleepers, planks or rustic logs into place to make secure risers, leaving level, bare-earth treads (don’t use loose gravel or bark chippings, since these shift underfoot and it’s easy to slide).Rather than steps, you’re able to create earth paths that finish up the garden in a sequence of long, shallow “hairpin bends”, so the trail itself is not steep, even if it’s quite a walk to achieve the head of the garden. Alternatively, use a mix of steps and winding paths to divide the garden up right into a series of features at different levels, with sunniest habitats on the top and damper, shadier habitats towards the bottom. Save the flattest areas to build a gazebo, seating area, summerhouse, or shed (and level ground is, without a doubt , essential for a pond). Add handrails
for safety at the steepest paths and construct storm gullies alongside paths or steps (heavy rain takes the best route downhill, which regularly means pathways become torrents).

Planting a slope

Soil erosion is known as a big problem; heavy rain will wash soil and stones down a sloping garden, leaving debris on the lowest point. If that occurs to be the back of the home, plant a low hedge or shrub border as a barrier to give protection to paving or gravel paths. On steep ground, use plants whose roots will hold the soil together to attenuate or prevent erosion. Choose shrubs with wide, shallow root systems, and spreading ground-cover plants of the kind that root as they run along the floor, corresponding to periwinkle, ivies, lamium and the like. Lawns (including wild-flower lawns, chamomile or thyme lawns) also are quite good at stabilising slopes. Avoid leaving bare soil, because it washes away too easily – keep it planted. For beds and borders on slopes, choose one of these plants that grow naturally on Mediterranean hillsides, reminiscent of cistus, hebe and lavender. And really steep, small areas are good places to create a rocky outcrop for growing alpine and rock plants (in sun), or a “stumpery” using gnarled tree stumps or branches with ferns and other shade lovers. Having something to search as much as makes all of it worthwhile.

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Plant of the week: Pittosporum
In the run-as much as Christmas, the quest is on for foliage to chop from the garden. a favorite with flower arrangers is pittosporum. With densely packed, oval-shaped leaves, pittosporum tenuifolium is available in several varieties, all of which look superb with flowers. You can also grow it in large tubs on a patio or balcony – it’s happy in partial sun. And being naturally dense in nature, it will probably face up to a lot of snipping.

What to do in garden this week?

Check stored potatoes, onions, apples, squashes, etc within the garage. Remove any that show signs of rot or rodent damage, and aim to make use of up the remainder. Some won’t keep for much longer. Start collecting next year’s seed catalogues so that you can take a seat after Christmas and make up your order. Stand garden canes in a jar packed with wood preservative to assist prevent rotting.

Visitors to the Lawrence and Lindley Halls in Westminster on Friday and Saturday (February 21 and 22) could be ready to buy early spring plants from the UK’s best nurserymen and growers who can also be offering free advice on planting.

For the 1st time this year’s show may also incorporate London Potato Days with an outsized display of potatoes grown by Pennard Plants at Lindley Hall.

More than 75 forms of seed potatoes can be on sale and Grow Your personal fans can enjoy chitting workshops and talks on get the finest from your potatoes.

There may also be the chance to taste many potato varieties and the café will feature a unique potato-based lunch menu.

Among the spring flowers on sale might be many various snowdrops, hellebores and early spring bulbs, including new plants and weird cultivars.

And those involved in garden design can check with experts from the Society of Garden Designers to wake up-to-date advice for gardening projects.

Top garden designers should be leading a talks programme and lots of new contemporary garden products would be on sale.

Anybody interested by a career in garden design may additionally confer with representatives from the UK’s leading design colleges to speak about course options.

Tickets cost £5 and come on the RHS website www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events where members get an early bird discount on tickets for RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and RHS Flower Show Tatton Park in the event that they book by February 28.

However, much more satisfying for those people who’re already craving for spring is the chance to plant broad beans and peas now for an early harvest next year.

Before frosts, snow and ice get a grip at the ground you may sow a couple of rows of spring legumes a good way to be capable of pick by May – when spring-sown broad beans and peas will just be on the seedling stage.

Choose a hardy sort of broad beans, comparable to Broad Bean ‘Aquadulce Claudia’, that is available from the entire main seed companies.

Then prepare your soil by digging it over to clear weeds or old crops and add home-made compost or other organic matter reminiscent of manure to aid prevent the soil from becoming waterlogged over winter and to supply extra nutrition for the seedlings as they grow.

It’s best to not sow beans at the same site as they grew over the summer, a good way to reduce pest and disease problems.

Legumes grow best where potatoes or brassicas comparable to cabbage and brocolli were grown this season.

Equally, you shouldn’t grow potatoes at the same patch to avoid the building up of such pests as wireworm and slugs; and also you should avoid brassicas at the same site in case the soil succumbs to club root disease.

Also, the roots of legumes fix nitrogen into the soil and it truly is particularly useful for leafy green brassicas, so try and plant cabbages and brocolli at the site of this season’s beans.

When it involves planting the broad beans, use the brink of a rake to attract a straight line along a plank, or string stretched between two sticks, then place the bean seeds about 8ins (20cm) apart and about 2ins (5cm) deep.

Carefully rake the soil back over the seeds and firm down the soil using the back of the rake.

Water the soil using a watering can with a great rose, label the row and canopy with a cloche or horticultural fleece that may be raised because the seedlings emerge.

Use the identical method for planting peas, and select an early variety including Douce de Provence.

If you reside within the far north you can favor to sow both broad beans and peas in modules now to overwinter in a coldframe or sheltered spot then transplant within the spring, after they should go under a cloche to give protection to them from frost.

You can start the seeds off in deep pots jam-packed with seed compost, but when you have to make your individual root trainers collect the card centres of bathroom rolls and put 5 – 6 of those in a deep pot then fill with compost and put one seed in each.

When it involves planting out the seedlings you’re able to just plant the card centres 8ins (20cms) apart. That way you’ll be (pardon the pun) on a roll…

This is to encourage a far better harvest in addition to the standard aim of pruning to maintain growth under control and eliminate dead or diseased branches.

The problem with winter pruning, though, is you need to regulate the elements forecast so that you don’t cut the plants prior to an Arctic blast or when frost is plausible.

The one advantage of the wet weather we’re having is that it’s reasonably mild, so in case you don’t live in a flooded area you may get on with several gardening jobs that experience to be completed before the tip of the dormant period.

Only prune standard apple and pear trees in winter (cordon, espaliers and fans is additionally left until late summer) and take into accout that arduous pruning – or removing a lot of healthy branches – will lead to vigorous regrowth and less fruit because the plant fights for what it considers its own survival.

So the overall rule is to simply reduce by just a little yearly, in preference to an awful lot every few years, because in the event you don’t prune in any respect the tree will produce too many fruit that don’t grow very big.

Winter pruning of apple and pear trees may be done in early December, before potentially very cold weather, or around now, before the sap begins to rise in March; but both methods are a similar.

First you need to cut out dead, damaged or diseased branches, after which you may cut out branches that rub against others and decrease large branches by as much as a 3rd to create an open, cup shape.

Most apple and pear trees produce fruit on spurs, that are just very small branches. They’re kept short because they’re pruned once a year and this also keeps them relatively thin.

It is vital to grasp whether your apple or pear trees are spur-fruiting, tip fruiting or a mixture of both, because they want different approaches, but most garden fruit trees are spur-fruiting. These are smaller than tip fruiters.

Spur-fruiting apple trees included Braeburn, Egremont Russet, James Grieve, Orange Pippin and Spartan; tip-fruiting apple trees include Bramley, Discovery, Worcester Pearmain and Adams Pearmain.

Spur-fruiting pear trees include Conference, Merton Pride, Concorde and Sensation, while tip-fruiting pear trees include Jargonelle and Josephine de Malines.

Most tip-fruiting apple and pear trees may also produce on spurs, that is annoyingly confusing, so in case you are considering buying new trees be sure you pick a more hassle-free spur-fruiting tree.

However, when you have already got apple and pear trees but don’t know what they’re you are able to distinguish the 2 styles of fruiting by searching for the fat fruit buds. Thinner leaf and shoot buds are frequently within the axil – or space between the branch and leaf stem.

Prune spur-fruiting trees by cutting all of the side shoots back to 2 buds from the foremost stem, and for tip-fruiting trees just scale back shoots which have already fruited back to 2 buds from the primary stem.

The shredding trunks of paperbark and snakebark maples might be seen from the Broadwalk and the restored double walled garden has the last of this season’s harvest on show in addition the dahlias and echinacea which have survived the new heavy rain and winds.

But what makes this award-winning garden much more interesting within the less showy seasons is its excellent programme of events.

This weekend there’s a present Fair within the Great Glass House, so while you’re admiring plants from around the world under the most important single span glasshouse on this planet you can even do some early Christmas shopping.

You can travel across continents under this magnificent dome, seeing plants from places as diverse as Australia and Chile, the Canary Islands and South Africa or the Mediterranean and California.

This weekend there also are two workshops, Willow Crafts for Christmas on Saturday and Welsh Herbs Heritage on Sunday.

These, and other workshops equivalent to flower arranging, jewellery making and photography all must be booked beforehand, however the garden’s Apothecary’s Hall – a late 19th century pharmacy in a handsome stone barn – is open to all and you’ll learn about traditional medicines fabricated from plants.

You could also learn about the Physicians of Myddfai, Welsh physicians renowned for his or her knowledge of herbal plants in Europe between the 14th and 19th centuries – who were said to have received their powers from the woman of the Lake.

A touring exhibitions on fungi would be on the garden until February 28, 2014, and there’s a permanent art installation called Ghost Forest – 10 giant harwood treestumps from Ghana in West Africa – which demonstrates the devastation of worldwide deforrestation.

For additional information concerning the gardens, which might be just off the M4 near Llanarthne, in Carmarthenshire, visit www.gardenofwales.org.uk

You can have taken cuttings after the last leaves fell out of your favourite flowering bushes back inside the autumn, but when you missed that chance you could have a second chance earlier than they burst back into life in spring.

Late February to early March is the prime time to do that, although mid to late-March may match just besides in case you live north of the Midlands.

This combines well with spring pruning summer-flowering shrubs consisting of buddlejas and fuchsias, unless you really need to scale back spring-flowering shrubs because they’re too big.

The purple-flowering buddleja bush might grow like weeds round your way, but you won’t be disappointed with a yellow pom pom buddleja (Buddleja globosa), or a white-flowering buddleja, simply to make a transformation.

Buddleja White Profusion, to illustrate, may lift a dismal corner of your garden and should attract butterflies and pollinating insects just in addition to the purple varieties.

Other summer-flowering shrubs that need pruning now include hydrangeas, Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternate), Californian lilacs (Ceanothus burkwoodii), Rose of Sharon or St John’s Wort (Hypericum) and Lavatera.

You may also propagate fruit bushes comparable to blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants and gooseberries now using an analogous method.

Hardwood cuttings are taken from stems which might be greater than a year old and now not green and bendy – hence the name.

They must be about as long and as thin as a pencil, with a slanting cut on the top, just above a bud, and straight cut on the bottom just under a bud.

These two forms of cut are partly so that you can tell that is the pinnacle and bottom, and partly in order that rain will run off the head cut and never settle leaving the cutting vulnerable to diseases.

If there are any leaves at the cuttings, strip the lower ones

Fill a number of large plastic flower pots, just like the ones roses are available in, with potting compost – adding a handful of sand to make it slightly gritty.

This gritty texture signifies that should you push the cuttings into the compost they are going to be slightly grazed and here’s where the plant’s enzymes will assemble to take a look at to heal the plant with new cells which will become roots.

Alternatively, you could cut a half moon of bark from the ground of the cutting to encourage the identical reaction, and in case you are the boots and braces type you may dip the cuttings in rooting hormone powder.

Push the cuttings half to 2-thirds in their length into the compost – or soil in case you decide to grow your cuttings in an unused corner of the garden – then water them and put the pots in a chilly frame for defense from frosts.

Don’t forget to maintain them watered over the summer, too, and by autumn it will be obvious that have taken.

You can either transplant them in autumn into your garden, or put them of their own pot and grow them on until you want them.

The flaming reds and orange of Japanese maples mingle with the reddish spindle trees, while the yankee yellow birch are predictably golden with shimmering silver-white trunks.

There are greater than 60 acres to explore on this botanic garden and arboretum, once portion of the Dawyck Estate but now some of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s three regional properties.

Dawyck is within the Scottish Borders, 28 miles south of Edinburgh near Peebles, and its woodland setting makes it an obvious autumn must-see – although there also are banks of snowdrops in February and historic Rhododendron collections to savour in May and June in addition blue Himalayan poppies.

Go now, though, and the beech walk is a burnished copper-cauldron, while the berry-covered rowan trees are irresistable to all types of birds.

Dawyck can be home to rare and strange plants, including some brought back by plant hunter David Douglas. Probably the most Douglas firs within the garden is thought to be an original of his, and there are certainly Douglas firs, western hemlock and grand firs that date back to the early 19th century.

The garden’s David Douglas Trail now has a tree carving of the comprehensive man, made out of a 180-year-old beech tree damaged inside the storms of 2009 and 2012.

Other rare trees include a enormous Japanese katsura tree, which turns a pale biscuit colour in autumn and scents of caramel, and a Kalopanax pictus var. maximowiczii, which belongs to the ivy family.

The Garden opens at 10am daily and is hosting two exhibitions: Nature at its Best, Jeffrey Wilkinson’s paintings inspired by the garden, and difficult Rain, an out of doors photographic exhibition highlighting climate change.

There is likewise a present shop and residential-baked cakes within the café. Hurry though, you simply have until November 30 to look Dawych before it closes for winter.

While you need to always call within the experts to accommodate scaling down big trees or simply scaling down big branches, if the branches have already fallen you ought to be ready to safely clear them yourself.

You might need greater than a handsaw though, so if it’s the year you ultimately buy yourself a chainsaw first thing to make your mind up is whether or not you will want a petroleum-powered, electric or battery piece of apparatus.

There isn’t any doubt that petrol chainsaws are the foremost powerful, but when you simply want one in your garden you’re not prone to want a dearer professional-grade power tool.

They are mostly heavier than the electrical or battery-powered options, as a result of fuel tank, and in case you don’t have any suitable petrol at the day you’ll need it you’ll have to visit a petroleum station to shop for some – eating into the time you will have available for working within the garden.

You even have in an effort to store the fuel safely when you’re not using the machine.

Electric power tools are lighter and also you just must plug them in and go, but you ought to be extremely careful of the electrical lead.

If you accidentally cut throughout the electric lead you run the chance of an electrical shock – or worse. Equally, if a toddler, pet or another adult accidentally gets snarled inside the lead the results may be dire.

Rechargeable batteries solve these kinds of problems and, although they might make the chainsaw slightly heavier than an electrical model, they’re much lighter than petrol chainsaws and as safe as a chainsaw gets.

Of course, you do need to follow sensible safety rules whatever form of chainsaw you operate, and these include wearing safety goggles to offer protection to your eyes from wood chips.

Also essential are good-grip gloves and trousers fabricated from special material that’s difficult to chop through. Steel-toe boots also are a smart option just if you drop the saw, and helmets designed to give protection to you from kickback also are recommended, particularly people with ear defenders attached.

Of course, power tools nowadays have several security features, and the chains stop virtually instantly in case you take your hand off the catches, nevertheless it is vital to regard chainsaws with respect.

I can thoroughly recommend the rechargeable Bosch AKE 30 LI. It truly is lightweight but greater than powerful enough for gardening jobs, and is derived with a 36V lithium-ion battery that may be recharged in 90 minutes and lasts long enough to get most things done within the garden before the necessity for a cup of tea.

To coincide with the fall garden tidy up time, Bosch has issued a catalogue of safety recommendations which anybody deliberating dusting down their trusty chainsaw after a summer within the shed should test.

Here is a taste of a few of crucial Bosch recommendations for maintenance and use:
 
* Never run the tool without oil.
* Make sure the chain is tight, but not too tight – it will have between 5 to 10mm of stretch. Disconnect your machine from the mains whenever you would like to touch the chain.
* Refrain in any respect costs from allowing the chain to come back into contact with soil, nails or stones as this would blunt the chain, diminishing the cutting ability of your saw and the lifetime of its motor.
* You ought to also be sure that the chain is sharpened regularly – there are plenty of easy-to-use kits that you can buy to assist with this.
* It’s worth considering replacing the bar and chain on occasion with the intention that you get the foremost out of the motor.
* Never operate the tool if anyone is within a two-metre radius. You must also remember that within the impossible event of splitting the chain, the bits will run to front of the tool.
* In case you are cutting branches off a tree, undercut first, then overcut. Researching what you’re cutting is additionally advisable, as this will likely show you how to understand what kind of pruning is healthy for the kind of tree you’re working with.
*If felling a tree, always wear a helmet and make sure you’ve quite a lot of space round the tree before proceeding and not underestimate the load of it. If unsure, contact a pro.
* When finished, it’s necessary to clean your saw thoroughly.

The carpet of white spreads from front of the humanities and Crafts house all the way down to the pond and in the course of the ruined priory within the grounds.

This year they’re especially impressive because the garden team cut the grass on the optimal time to confirm it truly is short enough for the naturalised snowdrops to actually shine.

The English Heritage property has an estimated million-plus bulbs within the grounds, which can be open at weekends-only until the tip of March.

Mount Grace Priory, in Saddlebridge, Northallerton, is decided in woodland and is the simplest preserved Carthusian priory in Britain.

The grounds include a herb garden and decorative gardens which come into their very own later inside the spring.

There is likewise a lot of room for kids to play, with the old tennis court put aside for ball games.

English Heritage’s Walmer Castle, near Deal in Kent, is another snowdrop haven, and the grounds are open daily next week for half term, then weekends-only.

There are snowdrops within the borders of the oval lawn and croquet terrace, and round the woodland walk, with additional colour from cyclamen, aconites, crocus and hellebores.

The Tudor coastal fortress also has lovely landscaped gardens and inside the following few weeks the Paddock will turn golden from swathes of daffodils, while the Oval Lawn could have its annual snakes head fritillaries display.

There is likewise an enormous heated glasshouse with striking bird of paradise flowers.

Other English Heritage snowdrop sites include Brodsworth Hall in South Yorkshire and Belsay Hall in Northumberland.

For additional information on opening times and costs visit www.english-heritage.org.uk