GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

You gardeners know how it is, the garden shed begins with enough room and then you add this and that and eventually it all becomes a mighty jumble where you can't find anything. I, more or less, resolved that problem last summer by adding hooks to the shed walls. Have a look! Oh, and that white thing?  A refrigerator shelf broke off. I am still hoping to find some use for it as I have run out of wall space.  Increasing storage in a small garden shed The thing is, having more space meant I have more room for more garden gadgets and it's now starting to look a bit full again but the above is how it looked at the end of April 2025.  That grey thing at the bottom left of the image is an Amtech S5640 60kg Folding Aluminium Sack Truck. I t folds flat and opens up to a little platform that can be used for lugging heavy bulky things from the car to the garden.  The black hooks are heavy duty 'AinDen Garage Wall Hooks' The lawnmower is suspended from an old stainless-steel cl...

A recent arrival to my garden is Acer palmatum Sango-Kaku, also known as the Coral-bark maple. I'm already hooked on Japanese maples (acers) but am limited with regard to numbers by the size of my garden which, at most, is 30ft by 30ft (and that's stretching it a bit), and already houses a garden room and a shed. As soon as I saw the red branches of Sango-Kaku (Sango) I had to have it, and yet it is not the smallest of acers.  In the image below you can see the autumnal glorious colours and even when all the leaves are shed, there will still be that glorious bark!  Acer palmatum Sango-Kaku - October 2025 In fact, it can, over time, achieve 8 metres if left to do as it pleases. It is of bushy habit and mine is going to be restricted in the way they restrict bonsai trees, by pruning. It is doable, I have seen it. My new arrival is already 3ft (90cm) tall and reaching for the stars. It needed repotting as it was  already somewhat root bound.  Like most Japanese maples, ...

In May 2014 I bought an Acer palmatum 'Orange Dream' from a British store that sells everything from clothes, to beauty products, to flowers and food. Not so much plants nowadays. The plant was small and cost me £15, which was quite expensive back then. It was a beautiful thing but it quickly died and that was when I first discovered that dreaded vine weevils had arrived in my garden and had eaten all its roots! In 2023, I finally eradicated vine weevils by desperately bombarding my garden with Nemasys, not just as recommended but monthly, I wasn't having those munching weevils and their little root gnawing offspring killing off anything else. It was expensive but money well spent.  Acer palmatum 'Orange Dream' - October 2025 - repotted A week or so ago, I decided to buy another 'Orange Dream' and so I ordered one from a seller on Amazon for just short of £13. I had used them before and they were excellent but, oh boy, the 'Orange Dream' turned up ...

Now why on Earth would anyone in their right mind spend a lot of money on a pair of secateurs and snippers? I know why I did. Not in any particular order, I like that mine have yellow handles and are easy to spot when I absent-mindedly put them down somewhere and then try to remember where I put them.  I like the simplicity of them, not much to go wrong. Niwaki GR Pro Secateurs and Niwaki Sakagen Flower Snippers What I do not like about the snippers is that, if I am not careful, I can get my finger nipped when shutting them; they need a little whatever-they-call-it between the handles to stop them closing quite so completely.  What some might not like, but it doesn't bother me, about the secateurs is that when you undo the magnetic clip at the bottom, they open really wide. For me, even though I haven't big hands I have long fingers and a wide finger span (great for playing the piano!) so I've never regretted the investment. My Niwaki tools have been snipping and cutting aw...

For three years now I have grown the Mignon variety of dahlias. They turn out an abundance of flowers and pollinators love them.  They are so easy to grow too.  I even, accidentally, left one planted in the garden over last winter, forgot all about it, and it appeared this year and put on a fine display. What a lovely surprise!  These, in the image below, are grown in large pots with two Mignon dahlias planted in each.  Mignon dahlias in yellow and white Obviously, Mignon dahlias are as happy in the ground as they are in pots but I will still protect the tubers indoors over winter. The weather is so unpredictable and where I live, on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, I try not to take risks. I will do what I always do, wait for the frost to arrive, carefully dig up the tubers, remove as much soil or compost as possible, and then trim back the stems to a short length. Then I will let them dry off (I try to tip them upside down so any water in the stems tips out, th...

For quite a few years now I have had the Japanese anemone 'September Charm' growing in my garden and it is a beautiful thing. Some people are shy of growing Japanese anemones as they have a reputation of being invasive. I don't consider them invasive as they are easily controlled just by dead heading the flowers before they make seed and pulling up any offspring produced on runners if they are unwanted.   Japanese anemone hupehensis 'Snow Angel' The above plant was delivered yesterday, 26th September 2025, bought from Thompson and Morgan, and it is healthy and full of buds.  Japanese anemone hupehensis 'Snow Angel' The RHS have a webpage dedicated to it:   RHS Anemone hupehensis Snow Angel  and they have titled it Anemone hupehensis 'Ifansa'  PBR  (Fantasy Series). It is totally hardy, quite unfussy as to aspect preferring full sun or partial shade, and achieves a height and spread of between 0.5 and 1 metre.  It flowers summer and autumn whi...

Winter-flowering violas are such generous little plants, bright faces that eventually turn into seeds which happily find there way into all sorts of odd little places. This year I found some violas had self-sewn between paving slabs on my patio which only gets morning sun, and I was happy to leave them right there. Others found their way into a trough that housed spring bulbs, again in partial shade given by nearby dahlias in tubs. This morning I spotted a viola flower peeping out from a jungle of other plants' leaves in a south-facing border but protected from hot sun by the foliage of other plants. They will tolerate some sun but really do prefer partial shade, hence the places they are self-seeding, all in partial shade.  Violas 'Beaconsfield' and 'Raspberry I bought some more for winter, Viola 'Beaconsfield' and Viola 'Raspberry' hoping they would cheer up the winter months until the spring bulbs take over. They are surprisingly hardy. I've put t...