Dig in and enjoy your garden
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Wednesday March 17 2010
ALL great gardens begin with an idea. Whether it's put to paper or not, the idea is of little value unless it's followed by some action.
For example, sending a spade or fork into the ground to upturn the soil and make it ready to for fresh planting.
With the hardiest, longest winter we've had in years behind us, spring with its vibrant yellow daffs, delicate new buds and watery orange sun is enticing us out and into the garden.
After such a long dormancy with little going on in the garden, there now seems so much to be done.
Frost burnt lawns require a little t. l. c to nurse them back to their verdant selves, ready for the tumult of summer activity.
Tiny tots on teddy bear picnics under a warming morning sun, future premiership stars honing their skills on long balmy evenings or barefooted water fights on a 'scorcher' of a day.
Early signs of weed invasion should be plucked to avoid a much larger battle later on.
Get them before they seed and run riot through your garden.
You will reap the benefits in time, during the heady summer days when you should be relaxing on the patio with a barbecued burger in one hand and your tipple of fancy in the other.
Colourful perennials should be set in position, watered in and given a feed that will see them through the season.
Treat them tenderly now and they will return the favour in spades with a riotous and radiant display of flowering colour later on.
Tall spires of campanulas and foxgloves, towering over stout clumps of astrantias and wavy drifts of scabious and stipa. Super.
Not forgetting the more productive end of the garden.
This is
traditionally the week for sowing your dinner in drills.
Even if you don't have space for long drills of potatoes in your garden, think about sowing a few in pots or small raised beds.
Last year I sowed some 'tear and go' salads and left them outside the kitchen window in trays.
Salad doesn't come any fresher than that, you simply rip of what you need from the plant and leave the rest for another day.
It all lies ahead, but it's what we do now that'll make the world of difference when the heat of the summer is pouring down on us.
www.niallmaxellgarde ns.ie
