tips for your

PUB GARDEN

RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardening team

from our

We are delighted that this year’s Chelsea Flower Show will feature a garden sponsored by Wadworth. Over the last few months we have been working with the team at Sparsholt College to create a stand based round a pub garden and entitled The Hop Cycle. It will be built in the RHS Discovery area of the show and will feature a range of heritage hops.

Sparsholt have an enviable record of winning gold at Chelsea, so we have our fingers crossed for a good result on May 18th. We asked the team of talented horticulture students who are designing the stand, and their team leader inspirational horticulturist Chris Bird, to come up with some tips for Publicans to help you make the most of your own pub garden.

You’ll find their top tips below, and we hope they will help you create a blooming lovely garden. A pretty pub garden is your shop window, and will help attract customers, so that’s a good reason to don your gardening gloves and get planting!

LAWN / TURF

Once your lawn starts to grow remove a maximum of one third of the leaf surface at each mowing - take any more and you encourage moss and broad- leaved weed growth - take the height down in stages leaving two or three days between mowings.

If moss and broad-leaved weeds are a problem, apply a Weed & Feed Spring Treatment - as directed on the label - once your lawn starts growing. When the moss dies it will go black which looks quite dramatic but this can be removed by raking or scarifying.

Remove broad-leaved weeds by hand if you only have a few.

Scarifying, removing the mat of dead grass, called thatch, from the base of the grass can then be done. The volume of material you remove can be quite a surprise due to the volume produced - especially if this treatment has not been done for a while - or ever!

If we have a good period of dry hot weather do not

LAWN / TURF

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mow your lawn as closely as usual or it will more quickly dry out and go brown.

CLIMBERS

Prune any early flowering Clematis - that is those that flower before July - after they have flowered. Remove the dead material first then prune for the shape you require. Tie in the new growth while it is still young and flexible with soft string or garden twine. The tying in and training of hops is called ‘Twiddling’ and is taking up quite some time ensuring that the plants are looking good for the show.

Tie in your climbers, fixing new strong stems into place so that the plant is spread evenly across the space you have available. You can use cable ties or green plastic flexi-tie for the woody stems, however, don’t tie them too tightly. Leave some room for the stems to expand in thickness as the season develops, otherwise the tie will cut into the stem and lead to a weak point.

Think about using annual climbers, like sweet peas,

Lathyrus odoratus, for seasonal interest or temporary screening. Remember: the more you cut the flowers the more you will get.

SHRUBS

Trim your shrubs after flowering, unless you want the fruits for autumn interest or as food for wildlife. Remove the dead, diseased and damaged stems first and then cut out the oldest one third of the shrub; usually this material can be recognised as the stems are thicker and grey in colour. It is better to remove a few stems to just above ground level each year than to give a general all-over shaping with a hedge trimmer.

Plants strongly regrow from where you cut them, so try to prune them quite low down on the plant, so that the required regrowth is in the right place.

TREES

Keep the bases of trees clear of heavy objects, such as building materials, to allow their roots to breathe.

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Plant woodland edge winter or spring flowering plants under trees to provide seasonal interest, such as Primula, Cyclamen coum, and Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis.

Divide large groups of Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, into smaller groups after flowering while they are still ‘in the green’ replanting them in new sites.

Remove any damaged or broken stems that you can safely reach, when you see them, back to a joint to prevent access of diseases and encourage regrowth. Clear any that may have blown down after strong winds.

HEDGES

Do not cut hedges when the birds are nesting – you have to wait until the young have fully fledged- usually by the end of June to cut them to shape.

In hot dry weather, water plants in the evening as most of the water will evaporate during the day time before the plant can access it. This means quite some

time spent checking our RHS Chelsea Show plants at the end of each day.

We are using a range of wildflowers along our hedge used as a divider between sections of our RHS Chelsea garden. Look at planting or sowing wildflowers at the bases of hedges to encourage wildlife to visit and establish on your site.

CONTAINERS AND HANGING BASKETS

All pub gardens benefit from some containers filled with cheerful, colourful flowers. If you are growing from seed or have bought young bedding or summer plants you will need to harden them before planting them out. This means exposing them to more wind and cooler weather to reduce physical damage when finally in their growing position.

Timing of the flowering of plants is crucial for the show, so we have started moving plants about from a greenhouse site into the shade tunnel to keep them back or looking their best for show week.

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As an alternative to summer flowers or to extend the season make a hanging basket or container of herbs - this will last until around Christmas time - and you can top it up by planting hardy herbs like Thyme for the winter.

Watering: if your time is limited then invest in a simple automatic watering drip system controlled with a time clock to reduce the hours spent watering.

Have a go at growing salad vegetables in large pots or containers - we are growing hops in half barrels – choose loose leaf types for continual harvesting over the summer. Try Italian leaves. Lettuce ‘Salad bowl’ or Beetroot.

Keep dead-heading your bedding plants to prolong their flowering period.

Add a water retaining gel to your container compost to hold on to extra water. This is then released for the plants when they need it.

The last frost in the UK can be in early June but most people in Wadworthshire can use the end of the

RHS Chelsea Flower Show as a guide to the start of summer and plant out their summer displays - after hardening them off, of course!

ROSES

Give a final spring period prune to your roses removing dead, diseased and damaged material then aim for an open centre and balanced shape cutting just above an outward facing bud. These are usually bright red in the spring.

Keep dead-heading your rose plants to prolong their flowering period, unless you want the fruits, also called hips, for autumn interest or as winter food for wildlife.

Look out for rose pests and diseases: we have already started to control aphids on our ‘Arthur Bell’, climbing roses for the Show by hand picking or rather quashing! Look out for any ladybirds as they are an effective natural control by eating the aphids.

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BORDERS

Irrigation or watering is better in good amounts rather than giving just a dribble; this allows their roots to grow deeply to try to find further natural supplies of water. This is one of our major undertakings with the RHS Chelsea plant materials over the run up period to the show.

Protect herbaceous perennials like Hostas against slug attack using Beer traps filled with beer from the slops tray.

Inspect your plants regularly (say weekly) for damage from pests, diseases and disorders and if the pest damage is just starting then pick them off to reduce the problem.

Keep dead-heading your border plants to prolong their flowering period, unless you want the fruits, and seeds, for autumn interest or as winter food for wildlife. The protective fluffy packing around the seeds can also be used by birds as nesting materials.

If you have some spare room in a sunny spot think

about sowing some Cornfield Annuals to increase wildlife interest and use as cut flowers for decoration? Remember do not cover the seeds as they required light to germinate.

VEGETABLES

Prick out your seedlings when they are large enough to handle- don’t wait too long as they have much longer roots than you think!

A crop of Beetroot can be harvested at three different stages: as young salad leaves; small roots (table tennis ball size) or full tennis ball sized roots.

Feed tomatoes once the first fruits are set- the size of small peas- with a suitable fertiliser of your choice.

Sow a small area of salad crops each fortnight - called successional sowing - to provide continuity of supply over the season.

Keep picking your salad crops regularly to keep them cropping for the whole season.

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