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The patio garden
Start to take cuttings of geraniums, osteospermums, fuchsias and other plants you want to propagate. Dip the ends of the prepared cuttings into a hormone rooting powder and then place around the edges of pots of fresh Levington Seed & Cutting Compost. Place the pots in a shaded spot in the garden. Geraniums don't need to be covered, but fuchsias root more easily if a white or clear plastic bag is fitted over the cuttings to maintain a humid atmosphere. New roots should form in 3 to 4 weeks and the cuttings will show this by producing new growth. Pot up the rooted cuttings in individual pots of Levington Container & Hanging Basket compost with Vine Weevil Control so that the plant develops internal protection to greenfly, blackfly, vine weevil and useful control of whitefly.
Watch out for nocturnal vine weevil adults that may be emerging to nibble around the edges of leaves in patio pots. Use a torch to spot the adults and squash the ones you find.
Although there are now effective control measures available to amateur gardeners, the black vine weevil is still one of the most damaging pests of British gardens. Unfortunately you only need to introduce one pot that contains the larvae from a friend or slipshod nursery and the pest can be on the rampage quickly. The only way to keep the pest from attacking your container grown decorative plants is to be vigilant and to grow susceptible plants in Levington Container & Hanging Basket Compost with Vine Weevil Control. This gives the plant roots long-term protection from the larval stages.
Don't be tempted to use dish water to water plants growing in pots, containers or hanging baskets. The root area is too small to cope with the soap and impurities. Use this 'grey water' instead on flowering shrubs or sweet peas, but not edible crops.
Ants are a regular summer nuisance both on the patio and in the kitchen. To provide the resource that will kill the whole nest, not just the workers that are looking for food, you need to use their foraging instincts to beat them at their own game. That's where the Ant Stop! Bait Station comes into its own. It's about the size of a biscuit and contains a special bait that ants can't resist. What they don't realise as they pick up the bait and take it back to feed the rest of the nest is that it also contains tiny amounts of a substance that will eventually kill off the whole nest. It's clean and simple to use. Just break off a couple of the doors to the ant trap and place where the pests are running. They will do the hard work for you, feeding the queen ant, the nurses and larvae that inhabit the hidden away nest.
You can use a Bait Station indoors in the kitchen in just the same way or you may prefer to spray around skirting boards and around doors and windows with the clear liquid spray of Ant Stop! Any ants that cross over the invisible barrier created by the spray will pick up microscopic droplets of the material that sticks to their legs. When they return to the nest these droplets rub off onto the walls of the chambers and the other ants in the nest where they gradually evaporate to steadily and surely kill off the whole nest.
Topical tip
Feed flowering patio pots every week with Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food or the liquid concentrate Miracle-Gro Outdoor Plant Food. Dead-head all flower heads as they fade.
The lawn
At this time of the year lawn grasses will try to set seed and will be producing rigid stems to carry the flower heads. Regular mowing will help to keep the unsightly stems that grow vertically but will probably miss the ones that are growing across the surface. To help catch these stems with the next mowing, rake the area before cutting the grass.
Watering the lawn is an environmental luxury in the south east of the country where water resources are stretched to their limit. Gardeners know that lawns will survive most normal drought periods and quickly come back green and lush whenever regular rains occur again. If your grass is looking pale and tired from lack of water there are things you can do to speed up their recovery. Spike the lawn with a garden fork now while it is dry and parched. This will allow all the rain that falls to be absorbed rather than run off the hard surface. If there are no hosepipe restrictions in your area you can then water the lawn with a sprinkler. Choose a time of the day when water pressure is greatest; early morning is usually better than evening. See that the grass gets a good soaking or nothing at all. Just wetting the surface will only encourage surface rooting and is not good for a resilient summer lawn that shrugs off drought periods.
After the water treatment feed the lawn lightly with Miracle-Gro Lawn Food applied through a hose-end Feeder. It's quick to apply and will green up the lawn in less than a week.
To help the lawn survive a drought, raise the height of cut on the grass and leave off the grass box. The fine grass cuttings will help to reduce surface evaporation from the soil and water loss.
Weeds such as white clover, dandelions and daisies may be springing up and thriving while the grass is under stress. After the lawn has had a good watering, treat the whole area with a weedkiller such as Verdone Extra.
Topical tip
Spot treat the odd rogue weed with a ready-to-use weedkiller such as Verdone Extra Spot Weeder.
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ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Ant Stop! Bait Station contains fipronil. Ant Stop! contains chlorpyrifos. BugClear and BugClear Gun! contain bifenthrin. FungusClear ™ and FungusClear Gun! contain penconazole. Levington® Container & Hanging Basket Compost with Vine Weevil Control contains imidacloprid. Nature's Answer® Natural Pest Control contains pyrethrins. Roseclear® 3 contains bifenthrin and myclobutanil. Roseclear Gun!® contains bifenthrin and flutriafol. Verdone® Extra and Verdone Extra Ready to Use contain fluroxypyr, clopyralid and MCPA.
® , ™ , Miracle-Gro, Tomorite and Levington are Trade Marks of The Scotts Company or its affiliates. Roundup is the registered Trade mark of Monsanto Company. |
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