| Your garden's the star | How would you like Maggie Philbin and Colin Evans to come and visit your garden on a Wednesday morning? Each week, Colin broadcasts his gardening phone-in between 9am and 10am from a listener's garden. It could be yours! Simply call us on 0845 900 1041 or email colin.evans@bbc.co.uk |
Snowdrops are now well and truly above the soil and showing us that spring in all it's glory is just around the corner. In my own garden the first signs of Crocus and the pink blooms of the Viburnum Bodnantense are already adding colour to the dark corners of many of the borders. On my travels this last week in the 91热爆 Radio Car I've had a chance to meet many listeners and sort out their gardening problems and one of the most asked questions is how to make the best use of the garden in the latter part of the winter. Cloches, is my answer. Glass types are the best but are now hard to get hold of unless you go to a specialist supplier, but you can get in touch with them by looking down the classified lists in magazines like "91热爆 Gardeners World". Alternatively most garden centres sell the plastic types and providing you buy the better made ones will do as good a job as the glass ones. Placed over an area of soil as winter gets underway the little cloches will dry out the soil and heat it up which means you can sow salads like Lettuce and Radishes and spring flowering bulbs. This means that you will get results much sooner, and into the bargain get earlier colour and maybe some salad during January. PLANT OF THE WEEK: Viburnun bodnantense 'Dawn' is one of the best earliest flowering shrubs. It will grow in most garden soils and conditions and will make rapid growth if it fed in spring and autumn. During late December the naked stems are covered with umbels of sweetly scented bright pink flowers which will last during mild winters right through to March. Once the flowers are over the stems burst into life with large bright green leaves. The shrub can be kept in control with a light prune after flowering. TOPICAL TIPS: 1:听A few weeks ago I told you haw to prepare the vegetable patch for planting Potatoes. Now is the time to consider the varieties you might want to grow this season. My favorites are "Arron Pilot"听 a white type for an early crop, "Romano" a red type for a mid season crop and "Golden Wonder" for a late crop. Order your earlies now for planting out late March. 2:听Cut some stems of early flowering shrubs like Viburnum bodnantense and Witch Hazel and place in a vase indoors, the fill the room with the most wonderful perfume. 3:听Add a little light mulch to borders where you expect your Tulips to appear. This will give them a little protection from hard frosts as they are emerging. Happy Gardening.
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