How to keep the green in your garden
Left to its own devices, in a few weeks all will be yellowing and on the way downhill towards autumn.
But a few tasks carried out now will keep the garden, yard or green balcony looking well over the next few months.
First, take out the secateurs and cut back dead flowers and yellowing foliage.
Next pull out all weeds.
Add a mulch of compost to the top of containers and borders. This will smarten up every display.
Now that what is there already has been smartened up, you can assess any gaps that there are. Now begin to fill these in.
The best way to add ‘an extra oomph to any scheme is to take a two-pronged attack.
First add something permanent to the picture in the shape of an evergreen shrub, a piece of topiary or sculpture.
The second way is to add a splash of seasonal colour in the shape of an annual, or a few pots of some flowering favourite set in among the plainer long-term resident plants.
Opt for a bit of both remedies and the place can be spruced up and good looking, both for the few warm evenings that might be ahead of us, to sit out for supper or an after-work rest, or just to give you something pretty to admire from the kitchen window.
Shrubs to try: Trained and shaped privet, Lonicera nitida, bay or box trees are the most obvious candidates.
They are all lovely but maybe a bit too obvious.
Go to a really good plant centre, like Murphy and Wood on the Johnstown Road, where you can find something a bit more unusual like a strawberry tree.
Short lived colour stars: At this time of year, dahlias and chrysanthemums are the obvious staples if you want to insert colour into the palette.
They come in every shape and shade and are so easy to mind and cheap to buy that you cannot go wrong.
Keep an eye on Lidl for the weekly plant offers where you might come up with more exotic beauties for the price of a bunch of forecourt flowers.
- Shirley Lanigan
