The sort of soil you have in your garden has a huge impact on what you can grow successfully. It’s worth knowing that the RHS offers members a soil-analysis service, where you can pay to have your soil checked, and it’s far better than a kit. There are numerous ways you can improve your soil, including digging in organic matter such as well-rotted manure or homemade compost, but it’s invaluable to know what you’re starting off with and the best way to go about improving it.
You can’t change the pH of your soil, but you can always improve it. Once, though, I made a terrible mistake when trying to do just that. I’d contacted a local farmer about buying some cattle manure and said I didn’t want anything less than a year old because I wanted it well rotted and didn’t want it to be full of seeds that would come up as weeds.
He said he had some wonderful, aged manure. However, when it came, yes, it was old, but there was lots of straw with it. I won’t make that mistake again! Not only did it mean we had lots of weeds growing but also the dogs picked up the straw and took it all over the lawn, making quite a mess. I should have inspected it before I bought it. The ideal manure is really dark and crumbly, like Christmas pudding.
Don’t forget to deadhead!
I deadhead all the time and I’m brutal. As well as promoting more flowers, taking off fading and dead flowers makes the plant look neater. Before we go away on holiday, say in August, I take off every head that looks as if it’s going to bloom while I’m away, as I find it keeps the strength in the plant to put on flowers for when we’re back. There’s nobody here to enjoy them, and it’s a lovely surprise when you come back a fortnight later to find fresh new blooms. It works especially well with the ‘Chandos Beauty’ roses. I do it with my pelargoniums, too. I take off every single head and give them a good feed and water, and they’re lovely to come back to.
Deadheading means plants have the energy to make flowers instead of producing seeds or fruit. With things like daffodils, the energy goes back into the bulb, meaning it will be stronger for the next season. For plants that self-seed prolifically, deadheading will mean you won’t get new plants popping up all over. So that’s worth bearing in mind if you do want some self-sown plants or you want to leave some seeds for the birds.
And obviously some seeds, such as honesty, look rather nice in the down season, and the same goes for poppies. From roses and pansies to pretty much anything in the border you want to flower for longer, it does help.
Deadheading couldn’t be easier. You use clean, sharp secateurs and cut off the flowerhead above the next flower bud, leaf or side shoot.
With some plants, such as Nepeta, Alchemilla mollis and hardy geraniums, once they’ve flowered in late July, you can cut the whole thing close to the ground and, with any luck and a good feed and watering, they’ll sprout back with fresh new growth, which helps make the garden look rejuvenated and less tired.
A word of warning with Plumbago, a glorious, tender blue shrub. I gave my neighbour Anne Eastick, a dedicated gardener, some cuttings of the dark blue Plumbago auriculata that I’d been given (I didn’t trust myself to pot them up for her). She grew them into little rooted plants, and I now have a large terracotta pot of Plumbago that I cherish. But the buds look very similar to what’s left of the flower when they have gone over, so I put my glasses on and am very careful what I snip off.
Polish your pruning
I was taught to prune by Margaret Thorpe, who ran gardening courses in Burnham. She taught me all the basics and made us think through the reasons why we do it. Initially, I thought it was simply because you’re supposed to, so to speak—as a way of keeping control and getting rid of dead, diseased or damaged wood. Margaret explained that it’s important to prune as a way to promote growth and keep plants healthy and productive, as well as to encourage a good shape and help to improve air circulation.
I’ve had that in my head ever since. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the rules about pruning, but if you understand why you’re doing it and how a plant grows, then it’s not such a mystery.
One of the most important things I’ve learned with pruning is that it’s key to know when and on which branches the next year’s flowers will appear. For example, with my Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica), I prune annually just after it’s finished flowering. It always flowers on growth made in the previous year, so by cutting after flowering, you can cut out the older wood and the plant has a good chance of putting on new growth and toughening up before winter.
It’s the same with forsythia, lilac, Philadelphus and Viburnum. You must prune immediately after flowering. If you prune later or in winter, you may inadvertently cut off next year’s flowering stems.
Actually, it’s Kevin, our gardener, who does most of the pruning. We keep our secateurs, pruning saw and loppers clean and sharp, and wipe them when we move between plants so that we don’t inadvertently spread disease. I know that some people occasionally spray with disinfectant, too.
It’s important to cut just above a bud and at an angle of around 45 degrees, with the cut slanting away from the bud so that any water drains away from it. Ideally, choose an outward-facing bud so that plants don’t end up growing inwards.
Some plants are tougher than others and respond really well to a hard prune. For example, we have a buddleia that grows for Britain, and when we cut it right to the ground it came back beautifully. I find my Magnolia grandiflora responds well to pruning, too. Often, if a plant like that is a good age, it’ll come back even if you cut it hard.
I no longer go up ladders and I would suggest that nobody my age goes up a ladder either. It’s not worth the risk; far better to get someone younger to do it. If my grandsons, Hobie and Louis, are over, they’ll help out with a bit of pruning. I’ll give them a pair of snips each and they’ll help shape our Photinia fraseri ‘Red Robin’ shrubs. I stand and watch them, and they really love cutting things back.
Get to work on weeds
I read that someone once wrote that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place, but I’m not a fan of letting weeds run wild and like to get rid of them, particularly perennial weeds. When we first moved into The Red House, we covered the borders with sheets of thick, black polythene for two years to get rid of the perennial weeds, bindweed and ground elder. It’s a long time to wait, but it was worth it as it really did them in.
Here in Henley, we battle with a patch of bindweed that comes under a wall from next door. We let it grow and then spray it. It helps, but it’s a continual, ongoing battle. Getting rid of ground elder is a real struggle if you have to dig it out, and anyway, I’m no good at digging. We’ve found that the best way is to completely block out any light with black polythene. After that, we plant the ground so densely that there isn’t enough space for new weeds to take hold, and if any do manage to come up, then our last resort is to spray them.
In our last garden, we started to get weeds coming up through the alstroemeria, so after they’d finished flowering, I lifted them out of the picking bed, spread the roots out on a garden table, picked out all of the white roots of the bindweed and then replanted them. It was a lot of work, but it was a great success. To my mind, you’ve got to get rid of the weeds, but often it’s a real fight and takes time and continued effort.
Perfect your planting
When I put a plant in the garden, I always dig a hole bigger than I need and often put in a bit of fish, blood and bone with the soil. I pour in water to make a puddle and, once that has drained away, I position my plant, fill up the hole with the soil, then stamp all round it so that it’s firmly in the ground. Then I give it a good water to settle in the roots.
I leave the plant to establish itself, and if the leaves go limp after three or four weeks, I might give it some more water. This seems to work for me.
Pick a supporting (plant) cast
Some perennials, especially those that are tall, with lush growth or heavy flowers, can collapse as they grow or are prone to toppling over in wind or heavy rain. Staking can help keep them upright and limit damage. That way, the new growth will grow through the support, helping to hide it and make everything look more natural.
Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s always better to stake before you think you need it. Plants never look as good if you stake them too late on—they look a bit trussed-up and unnatural.
Michaelmas daisies (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), for instance, grow to, say, 3ft (1m) high. Put in supports when they reach a foot (30cm) high. You can use all sorts of things to stake plants, such as twiggy branches, bamboo canes with string, smart metal supports or even pig wire held on a discreet frame for plants to grow through.
Extracted from My Gardening Life (DK) by Mary Berry, out now
