Blog Archives

Plants for pollinators in April!

11/4/2025

0 Comments

Clockwise from top left: Senetti, Dianthus, Apple, Erysimum (shrubby wallflower), Viburnum, Hebe, Euphorbia, Ceanothus

0 Comments

Greener Garden Choices!

9/4/2025

0 Comments

Garden tools aren’t often mentioned in the same sentence as fast fashion, but the same principles apply.

Buy cheap, and you will soon have to buy again, adding to the planet’s landfill.

If you don’t have the budget for high quality, look instead for second hand.

And if your shed or garage is cluttered with garden tools you never use, don’t leave them to languish.

Maybe you now find some of your tools too heavy, too lightweight or too specialist for your current needs.

Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to upgrade to higher quality or you’ve ended up with duplicates.

Give them a new lease of life by donating them so someone else can make use of them.

Katie’s Garden is running a tool ‘swap shop’ throughout April at the Newbourne nursery, raising funds for Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

· For more information about ‘Spring Clean Your Shed’ go to www.katiesgarden.co.uk/news

0 Comments

Growing your own!

7/4/2025

0 Comments

The desire to grow-your-own vegetables, salads and fruits is what first draws many into gardening.

To make the most of the growing season there is a lot that can be started in April, but keep a close eye on weather forecasts and always have horticultural fleece on hand in case plants need wrapping up warm at night.

Adding mulches and manures to beds now will increase the fertility of the soil, and potentially smother lurking weeds too.

If growing from seed, don’t make the beginners’ mistake of sowing the whole packet - you are not going to want 50 tomato plants all ripening at once, unless you are planning to go into pasta sauce production!

Buying vegetables and salads as starter plants can be a better option. Doing this gives you a head start on the season and also the opportunity to grow a wider variety as you can buy in small quantities, from single pots to trays of six.

Growing-your-own can be a highly satisfying experience but make sure you are growing crops you and the family are really going to want to eat.

If you are new to it, start off with the easy ones, such as lettuces and salad leaves, which will be ready for picking in a matter of weeks, giving near-instant gratification and less time for things to go wrong. Fruit bushes, strawberries and herbs are other easier options to start with.

· Save 20% on edibles during the Katie’s Garden Grow Your Own Weekend 11th-13th April

0 Comments

Bridging the gap!

6/4/2025

0 Comments

Many gardens experience a lull in flowering when the spring bulbs have finished and the summer perennials are still to show their faces.

So make sure your borders include some plants to bridge the gap.

As well as the shade-tolerant perennials there are numerous sun-lovers too.

Erysimums - aka shrubby wallflowers - Euphorbias, Dianthus and Geums are among the best, with the added benefit of lengthy flowering periods.

Shrubs with colourful leaves can help things along nicely, as highlighted in our March edition.

Flowering shrubs for April include Prunus (cherry blossom), Ribes (currant), Forsythia, Spiraea and Magnolia.

0 Comments

Springtime in the shade

5/4/2025

0 Comments

It would be fair to say that shade can be short on fans in the gardening community.

But if you struggle to find things to grow in your shady spots, springtime is your best chance of success.

The terms “full shade”, “part shade”, and “full sun” frequently appear on plant descriptions, with gardeners left to make their best guesses as to what they mean.

In short, full sun means at least six hours of direct sunlight in the middle of the day. Full shade means less than four hours at any time. And part shade covers everything in between.

Even then, not all shade is equal. Is the sunlight being blocked by a brick wall, or by some trees?

Because the good news is if it’s not a solid object then some light will still be getting though, particularly in spring before the trees have come in to leaf.

For full shade, ferns and other leafy plants are most likely to succeed.

But in partial and dappled shade you can open up to lots of pretty flowers.

Most are low growing - plants need light to grow so they can only manage so much in the shade! Happily most are bee-friendly and many evergreen, meaning they keep their leaves year round.

Lamium, Pulmonaria and Brunnera can give you the added attraction of silvery leaves to set off their delicate little blooms, depending on variety, and look best when grown en masse to make the most of their carpeting habits.

Bear in mind that soil under trees is likely to be dry so make sure you choose plants that can cope with these conditions.

Help things along with the addition of mulches, manures and composts to improve moisture retention and fertility.

For more inspiration, Katie’s Garden has a polytunnel dedicated to plants for shade.

See lists of plants for shade and dry shade at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/advice

0 Comments

Spring picks for shade

4/4/2025

0 Comments

VINCA
Also known as Periwinkle, although it now comes in lots of colours, with modern varieties having long flowering seasons.
Evergreen, its carpeting habit means it can spread into those areas where it is too hard to plant, such as directly under trees.

DICENTRA
Beautifully elegant perennials known under a host of names, including Bleeding Heart. They die down completely in early summer, making them perfect planting partners for late flowerers such as Fuchsias and Anemones to give a succession of interest.

VIOLA
Perennial and annual varieties of Viola are very helpful for areas of light shade. Low-growing and evergreen, they come in a huge choice of colours, with lengthy flowering periods. They are also bee-friendly and many are sweetly scented. If you are lucky they might self-seed for you!

AQUILEGIA
These mid-height perennials are best combined with a laissez-faire attitude: not only are they fond of self-seeding, they are also prone to changing colour.
Perfect for wild, naturalistic and cottage garden looks, but not ones for the control freaks!

0 Comments

Pocket sized treasures

3/4/2025

0 Comments

Too many people are in too much of a rush to get past April, with eyes firmly on the summer flowers.

But while the likes of Nemesias, Lobelias, Pelargoniums and Petunias are available to buy now, it is too early for them to go out into the garden as the risk of frosts is too high.

For now they should be grown on in pots, somewhere sheltered, such as in greenhouses and lean-tos.

Instead enjoy one of the highlights of spring: the alpine plants.

As the name suggests, they are tough little plants equipped to growing in the harsh conditions of mountains and highlands, so springtime in Suffolk is a doddle for them!

In fact they have such an easy time of it, relatively speaking, that their flowering periods can go on from spring throughout summer into autumn, depending on type.

The majority are evergreen, meaning you have something to look at all year round and a good number have pollen-rich flowers which are enjoyed by the bees and butterflies.

If that wasn’t enough, they also require very little care and attention throughout the year.

Alpines often find favour with plant collectors as their diminutive statue means everyone has room for a varied selection even in just a courtyard or even a balcony.

They are most effective on rockeries and in raised beds as well as in all sorts of containers.

In these situations you can garden in miniature and they can be a great low-cost practice ground for honing your design skills, as you play around with different combinations of textures, tones and forms, as well as colours.

Alpines can also work well in small flower beds as long as the soil is free-draining.

If using in the ground they look better planted in groups of the same variety or the impact can be lost.

The term “alpine” is used broadly and also includes other small plants that can withstand dry conditions, including succulents, such as carpeting Sedums, Rosularia and houseleeks.

There are also a number of alpine bulbs to be enjoyed in springtime.

For flower-power, some of the best alpines include the repeat flowering Dianthus (alpine pinks), carpeting Phlox and Campanula (creeping bellflower), as well as native Pulsatilla, better known as Pasqueflower.

· For more examples of alpines visit www.katiesgarden.co.uk/alpines

0 Comments

Container gardening with alpines

3/4/2025

0 Comments

If you are a fan of quirky, you can have a lot of fun with alpines.

Their shallow root systems make them ideal for growing in conventional pots, saucers and containers.

And if you have ever longed to plant up a butler sink, teacup or old chest of drawers, these are the plants you want to be using.

Just make sure whatever found object you are using has drainage holes drilled into the base, as alpines do not like to sit in the wet.

On the plus side, their tolerance of dry conditions means they require less watering than most other plants.

0 Comments

Mastering your climbers

2/4/2025

0 Comments

When there’s no more ground to cover, the plant-mad gardener goes up.

But climbers definitely shouldn’t be an afterthought.

They soften boundaries, give quick height and can create a substantial impression without taking up a lot of precious space.

The main reasons for pruning climbers are to thicken them up or thin them out, and to encourage fresh growth.

How to prune climbing roses was covered in our March edition; other climbers require different care.

Many are highly prone to getting ‘leggy’ - the lower growth gets bare and woody, with leaves and flowers limited to the young growth up top. Others can end up as dense, unmanageable tangles, swallowing up the garden around them.

If your climbing plant is in need of rejuvenation do not be scared of some hard pruning.

Select out some woody stems and cut back to a couple of feet from the ground, cutting just above joints (there might be a leaf or sideshoot, but more likely there will just be a knobble). All being well this will stimulate fresh leafy growth from the cutting point, and possibly from the ground too.

Cutting a stem where each of the three red markers is should much improve this honeysuckle

If your climber has become a thicket be prepared to have to spend some time freeing out your clippings. The easiest approach is to make the cuts then come back a week later when the cut growth has started to die off making it easier to trace what needs pulling free from what you are keeping.

Take the opportunity to fan out stems to spread across a wide an area as possible, as plants will naturally head straight up to the sunshine rather than outwards.

With young plants, gardeners can be too focused on achieving height without thinking about coverage. Cut one shoot above a joint and you will usually get two shoots coming up in its place. So don’t wait till the plant has reached the top of the fence or you will end up with a spindly top-heavy plant.

Remember too that climbers are fast growing, so when you cut, go at least two foot lower than you want them to be this summer as they will soon race back up.

All Clematis get their annual prunes in spring. The early flowerers such as montanas can be done after flowering in late April or May, if they need thickening or rejuvenating.

Early summer varieties can get a trim late February to early April, whilst the later varieties can get a harder cut as they have more time to regrow.

If they need any thinning or trimming, tackle honeysuckles in March and early April. This is also the time of year for trimming Trachelospermum, if necessary. Passion flowers can get cut back to healthy growth now, but be wary of frosts.

Jasmine, Solanum (potato vine) and Parthenocissus (Boston ivy/Virginia creeper) are among the climbers to prune in autumn.

All climbers are hungry plants so combine your cuts with feeds of manure, compost or mulch.

0 Comments

Plants for pollinators in April!

Greener Garden Choices!

Growing your own!

Bridging the gap!

Springtime in the shade

Spring picks for shade

Pocket sized treasures

Container gardening with alpines

Mastering your climbers

The Flourishing Garden

Author

Archives

Categories

Keep in touch with Katie's Garden!

Hours

Telephone

Email

Newsletters

Rewards club