15 Bank Holiday Gardening Tips

Why a helpful blog about Bank Holiday gardening tips when its probably going to rain all weekend, may be the question in your head.

And you may well ask. But – and it’s a big but – there are items and tasks on this list which you could do indoors if its raining. And anyway, ‘proper gardeners’ consider the rain to be a friend as much as a foe. It waters the garden, fills the water butts for later use, possibly even washes paths and patio. Who wants to be washing the patio when they can be looking for the last ripe raspberries to eat straight from the raspberry cane? Hands up anyone? Thought not…

I’ve tried to cover aspects tasks that may not have occurred to you. And there are blog links at the end covering further aspects of these gardening tips.

Bank Holiday Gardening Tips – Seeds

Where to start! I always find August is an exciting month for seeds, and this is why: –

Collect seeds from the plants in your own garden. This can be from annual flowers such as Nigella damascena, aka Love-in-a-mist, or perennials like Lychnis coronaria, Rose campion. This latter is a short-lived perennial so it pays to have new plants on a regular basis.
How – choose dry seed heads that are ripe (usually brown) and just opening. The seeds may pour out freely, in which case put them in a labelled paper envelope. Otherwise place the stems upside down so seed head is in a paper bag and put them somewhere dry. The pods will open and release the seed into the bottom of the bag.
You can then sow some of the seeds straight away or store until the spring. Sowing seeds of biennials such as Honesty. Lunaria, and other which like a warm soil such as Sweet peas, Lathyrus oderata, enables you to get ahead of the game.
Check out the seeds at your local garden centre, nursery and online. They may well be discounted. Check the blog below for tips before spending all your yet-to-be-received Christmas money on seeds you’re never going to sow….

Hedges

Now that the fledglings have flown their nests, it’s safe to tidy hedges. If you have formal hedges, cut back to create clean lines, slightly wider at the base than the top. Remember not to work wobbling on a ladder or holding the hedge trimmers high above your head. You don’t want to spend the rest of the holiday weekend in hospital, now, do you?

If a slightly more informal approach is your aim, check before you start to see if nuts or berries are forming on yew, hawthorn, hazel, roses and ivy. If they are, then trim carefully using hand shears, ensuring you leave some food for birds and wildlife to enjoy. In fact, I’d suggest a quick gathering of the hedgerow harvest for human consumption before you get the shears out. Hawthorn berries make a tasty jelly and fresh hazelnuts have totally different taste if you’ve only ever had the dried ones.

Bank Holiday Gardening Tips – Weeding

Look for weeds hidden by tall perennials or shrubs. Depending on your soil you may see dandelions, bindweed, spurge, green alkanet, chickweed (feed this one to the hens if you keep them). Oh, and air blown small seedlings from trees such as sycamore, ash, elder and even oak.

Dandelions and green alkanet have tap roots which will propagate from small sections that break off. Use a long handled weeder to get as much out as possible. If you want to grow your oak tree seedling, put it in a pot – far better than in the middle of your flower border!
For how to deal with bindweed, check out the blog and video link below. This one is not quickly eradicated, but it can be done over a couple of years if you’re vigilant.

De-weeding your patio, garden paths and drive is one of those boring and often hard work chores. Kills everything sprays are not the answer. For example, many of the weeds you find in block paving, have blown in or been dropped by birds. That isn’t going to stop whatever approach you take, so why not be environmentally friendly? Getting someone else to scrape or burn the weeds out might be an answer though…

And for a different approach to weeding, consider using the weeds to make a nutritious liquid feed for your wanted plants. Or indeed putting the weeds into your lunchtime salad!

Tired Summer Bedding

Are your summer bedding plants looking the worse for wear? There may be life in them still. Have a look to see what the problem is.

Have they just dried out? You could dunk pots and even baskets in a trug filled with water for half an hour to fully wet the compost again. They should bounce back.
No flowers? Cut back / dead head down to healthy buds and your plants should flower again within a week or two and carry on until the end of September.
However, if the plants have turned brown and crispy, they’re beyond redemption. Pull up and compost. Then treat yourself to something to fill the gap. Which leads us on to the next tip…

Bank Holiday Bargains

This year has been a strange one but the traditional Sales this weekend are still on and that includes garden sales. Where plants are concerned, do check the small print if you’re buying online. Sweet pea plug plants are unlikely to flower this year and will probably grow too quickly to be ready at the right time next summer. You could try snipping them down to just above the first ‘real’ pair of leaves as that may ensure their survival over winter to give you flowers late spring / early summer. Keep them frost free in individual 9cm pots.

If you’re buying larger potted plants read our tips first. There are traps for the unwary! Having said that, garden centres may be trying to get rid of already flowered perennials. If there’s nothing wrong with them, then these perennials are good value as they can be split into two or three new plants.
Remember to look for non-plant bargains too. I always grab spare gloves as I’m notorious for leaving one behind…

Bank Holiday Gardening Tips – Wet Weather

You know we’ve had a lot of rain – so you need to check all container plants sitting in trays as waterlogged compost can kill them within days. Its best to remove the trays when a few days of rain is forecast.

Courgettes and winter squash are best raised slightly off the damp ground – which helps (a little) in reducing slug damage too. Slip a dry tile or brick underneath.

Slugs and snails will emerge in the cooler, damper weather so take preventative action. For example, set beer traps for them and read the blog below for more tips. Its beginning to get late in the year for nematodes, but they will still work as the soil is warm.

And finally…

Perversely, Bank Holiday gardening tips aren’t just about this weekend. Gardening is about planning. For example, those of you who are enjoying a BBQ use only wood or coffee logs so you can add the ash to your compost bin. When you’re looking for garden tool bargains, see if there are any leaf scoops or leaf compost bags on offer – and maybe buy some anyway, before they sell out, trees are already losing their leaves.

Or be like the gardeners employed by the Roman Emperor Tiberius…clue: check the link that mentions cucumber

Whether you spend all weekend gardening, or merely dead head flowers whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, enjoy your bank holiday gardening tips and all! For regular monthly updates of gardening tips and ideas, why not grab yourself a copy of Plews News?