
The English Country Garden
For many people, a home isn’t complete without a garden to exercise their green fingers and landscaping techniques. Luckily for people in Dorset, it’s one feature that most properties have as standard. Dorset is a very green country, with a lot of open fields, rolling hills, and wide skies. Quaint thatched cottages and the quintessential English country garden. A great place to cultivate this timeless art of English heritage, with plenty of formal gardens to visit for inspiration. As we are talking about the quintessence of English Country gardening, here are two sets of five suggestions for what you can do this time of year in your treasured plot.
Five things to do in your garden in late summer
1. Trim back your wisteria
Once this classic trailing beauty has flowered it is time to cut its voracious growth back. Cut back the green shoots of the current years’ growth to five or six leaves. Pay attention to where the enthusiastic wisteria has climbed, particularly where it may be encroaching on your neighbours, or any guttering and drainpipes. A rigorous pruning will encourage flowers next year, rather than leggy stems.
2. Prune back climbing roses
Deadheading roses is a given, in order to keep their flowers coming. If you have climbers which do not flower again, now is a good time to cut them back and tidy up. Cut back long messy new shoots from this growing season, and shape for next year.
3. Don’t dry out the lawn
Be aware in late summer that if you cut the lawn too short in a dry spell, you will lose the green lush feel of it. If you can cut lightly this time of year it is advised unless it’s been a rainy summer. Avoid using lawn fertilisers this time of year.
4. Trim back hedges
As the birds have finished their nesting season, it is a good time to tackle the task of the hedges. As the summer growth spurt is underway, it’s a great time while you have good weather on your side to shear back to what looks sharp and trim.
5. Kitchen garden
As your harvest is likely have begun trickling in, your activities will be dependent on what you grow. There will still be growing opportunities for quick growing radishes, herbs and mizuna and pak choi, so continue to sow these seeds. Pinch out the top of your runner beans to encourage side shooting. If you need to pinch out the side shoots on tomatoes, try to keep up with them. Now is a good time to feed tomatoes high-quality potash feed.
Five Ways to uplift your garden
1. Painting
When the weather is good and dry, it’s a great time for some outdoor renovations. Consider if you have outdoor buildings that could do with a new facelift. Once you have a colour scheme, you can add old, tired garden benches to the upgrade list. Also, if you have old shelving units from the house and garage, they can create great spaces for arranging your container garden. Unify them all with the same colour outdoor paint, and you will have a steady vibrant theme.
2 Wildflower zones
Wildflower zones are increasingly popular in gardens. Firstly, they provide a lot of pollinating opportunities and encourage bees and wildflife. Secondly, they are beautifully striking when flowering. Finally, they require minimum upkeep, and provide belts of living floral foliage. In order to prevent them from spreading, penn them in with steady borders of stone or sleepers.
3. Lighting and fire features
Although it is a departure from the traditional English country aesthetic, solar lighting is a cheap way of adding some nocturnal enchantment to your garden. For instance, illuminating a pathway with solar lights can be both practical and appealing. For a striking and classic look, you could invest in some outdoor firelamps that work with oil or natural gas. Alternatively, you may find that having an outdoor firepit answers all your elemental needs in one location.
4. Restructure your beds for next year
Striking combinations of grasses and salvias can renovate beds dramatically. Deer resistant Salvia’s block planted can provide incredible structure and colour. Offset with feathery fine grasses, you have a combination that will require little maintenance and deliver contrast and airiness to your border or bed. As a perennial bed, you can rely on the bright colours and structure of the Salvia to be a great backdrop for highlighting other zones of the garden. Get ideas this summer for where you can make changes for next summer’s display.
5. New seating areas
Eating and drinking in the summer garden are the best ways to enjoy these halcyon moments. Creating new spaces to dine or get refreshments can give you a whole new angle on your garden experience. Above all, it maximises the outdoor potential for getting together, which we all appreciate these days. While you may think this involves a major redesign or investment in garden furniture it need not be the case. For instance, a seating zone can be defined by an existent boundary. Consider a garden wall as a great place to plan a new seating area, or against the wall of a garden building. Where you have a sense of shelter and shade is going to be ideal. With some upcycled garden benches and tables, painted in your theme colour, you can easily construct a whole new region in your garden paradise.
Garden storage
At Johnsons of Shaftesbury, we have a number of keen and professional gardeners and landscapers that use our storage units. We offer excellent domestic and business storage options to suit everyone’s needs. There is no lease or minimum storage period to worry about, making it easy to store for as long as you need to. If you are developing a gardening or landscaping business, we can provide you with ample storage for you safely and securely store tools and any equipment you may need to hire from time to time.
Johnson’s – Dorset’s Number One for Removals and Storage –
The Johnson’s of Shaftesbury team serves the whole of Dorset and the surrounding areas. With over one hundred years of experience in removals and storage, our team has a rich history of providing the best customer service in Dorset. That’s why we have a loyal set of customers who always return to use us for all their removals and storage needs.
Johnson’s offers a range of removals and storage packages to suit everyone’s requirements. It’s a simple but effective ethos: more service options equal a better service for our customers. And for us, customer service is our number one priority. At Johnson’s, we always approach a job with a positive attitude and a drive to provide the best service possible.
We appreciate how important upholding the tradition of gardening is in Dorset, and how much value it can add to a property. If you require more storage space to fulfill your landscaping dreams, then we are happy to help. You can find our willing team here ready to give you a competitive quote.