In this episode Bill and Peter suggest a visit to Toddington Open Gardens on the 4th and 5th July and also if you are passing they both like Poplars Garden Centre as a great place to visit or pop in for tea and cake if you are going past on the M1. In Northamptonshire we have Irthlingborough and Drayton Parslow in Milton Keynes.

Hanging baskets are looking good now, but are food hungry so feed them with a high potash feed (K) like Tomorite

The Hertitage Seed library was at the NEC for Gardeners World live and at the show they were asking people to bring in seeds and plants that they think might be heirloom varieties. You can get seeds from them which you won’t find in most Garden Centres.

Grass is on the telly a lot at the moment with the World Cup on. Bill shares some of the methods of commercial turf cultivation and growing. With our lawns at home in the summer experiencing less rainfall ideally they need to be watered but it’s best not to aerate in dry spells as this opens up the ground and will cause evaporation. Granular fertilizer as well can cause issues if it doesn’t rain after application, if you want to use a fertilizer then a liquid one is probably best.

If you have bedding geraniums cut the flower stalks off once the flowers start going over, deadhead surfinias to encourage more flowers. If you are feeding your plants it’s best to do it in the morning, and if possible do it on a cloudy day so there is no chance of water droplet magnification which can cause leaf burn from the sunlight.

Bill also tells us of other plants we can trim back to encourage more flowering next year and a great recipe for a winter fat ball for your birds. Make sure you keep your bird baths filled up with fresh clean water. If you have Strawberries try Slug gone pellets to help keep the slugs from eating them.

Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for the music.

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25 Gardens are open in Stony Stratford over the weekend of the 27th and 28th and there are also gardens open in Stonefield where 11 gardens will be open.

We also share the sad news of the passing of Matthew Biggs the old Gardener’s World presenter and life-long horticulturalist, and garden designer.

Bill and Peter also chat about Roses, the different types and where to use them, how to grow them and a few uses for the hips. Pruning is important as is care, keeping them tidy, feeding and looking out for pests and diseases. As with so many prickly plants we always recommend wearing gloves when working with them.

It’s also that time of year when Strawberries are very popular. Bill shares a tip on how to sweeten them and how many litres of cream Wimbledon goes through! We have a large selection available at the moment but you can propagate them from the runners or stolens they send out. The British season has been extended and extended with the use of selective breeding and sometimes the supplemental use of LED lighting. Often Strawberries are now grown off the ground making picking easier and fungal problems less likely.

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In this episode Peter and Bill chat about Bedding, Bokashi, and fertilizer.

Bill suggests a few places to visit starting with Goring on Thames, Fritwell and Hanslope who have open garden weekends.

We chat about bedding for flower beds and how the fashions have changed. We used to do 3 plantings a year but now we mainly do just summer bedding. Bill talks us through ways to plant, numbers to get a nice balance and some suggestions as to what will make a good display.

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