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I’ll start by letting you know that, as is traditional over the summer, we will be having a sale. Your chance to grab a bargain at half price! The sale starts on FRIDAY 15TH JULY, and will include a number of ranges in the shop, as well as plant stock outside.

Lazy, hazy days spent lounging on the deckchair, followed by long evenings spent in the garden, with drinks on the terrace festooned with twinkling lanterns; the waft of delicious smells from the barbeque tantalising your taste buds, and a background soundtrack of birdsong and children happily playing …..

Is this your version of the summer months, or is the reality somewhat less enticing?!

If you need a hand to achieve this idyll, we can help:

You’ll find a lovely striped deckchair in our Vintage Shed. The lanterns needed to create that “twinkle” come in a variety of guises, from simple glass jars containing tea lights to hang in the trees, to ones on stakes that you can drive into the earth and dot round your flower beds. You’ll know by now that our Indian Firepits produce the best possible barbeque conditions. For the birdsong, all you need to do is keep your bird feeders filled up and provide the birds with some water as well, to ensure they’ll keep coming back. As for keeping the children happy? Well, I can’t promise to do that, but we have some fabulous new items in from France with youngsters in mind. Come and see the gorgeous Teepee set up in the shop – just right to set up camp in. Your children can help in the garden with tools designed for little hands; buckets to gather their found treasures in, and watering cans that won’t be too heavy when filled. The simple but extremely effective kites we have in are priced at just £7.95 and provide endless fun if out and about in the park or further afield.

Now that we’ve got that sorted for you, read the Garden Tasks sheet, kindly produced by Sally, which follows this, to make sure you keep up with all the gardening that still needs attending to.

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful summer, and we all look forward to seeing you soon.

Karen

PS   

Remember that in August our hours are reduced - 10am to 4pm each day.

Opening Hours for July:–  Monday - Saturday  9:00am - 6:00pm    Sunday 10:00am -  4:00pm   

Tel:020 8670 7788 www.alleynpark.co.uk

Garden jobs for the summer months

As always, plenty of jobs to keep up with in the garden over July and August, but hopefully it’s also a time to relax in the sun or shade with a book and drink – tea, lemonade, beer, Pimms... Here are a few things to keep in mind to help keep your outside space looking good.

Plant maintenance

• Keep watering and feeding hanging baskets and containers. They will soon dry out and die if you don't keep an eye on them. Water in the morning and evening to minimise evaporation.
• Deadhead flowering plants regularly – but as the summer progresses, think about any plants that will have lovely seed heads over the winter so that you can keep the secateurs away from them.
• Keep the weeds down by hoeing the borders.
• Put shade on greenhouses to keep them from overheating and scorching plants. 
• Summer prune Wisteria – cut the long wispy shoots back to 5 buds.
• To stop Alchemilla mollis self seeding everywhere, cut down the spent flower stems – this will encourage new, fresher growth too.

Grow your own

• Pick courgettes before they become marrows.
• Harvest sweetcorn and other vegetables as they become ready.
• Pick the side shoots out of tomatoes so that you have only one main stem – these are little shoots that emerge where the leaves join the main stem. If you leave them, they take valuable energy from the developing fruits.
• Cut out old fruited canes on raspberries.
• Lift and pot up rooted strawberry runners.
• Blueberries and cranberries growing in pots need to be kept moist at all times, preferably with rain water or soft water as they don’t like lime.

General maintenance

• Keep ponds and water features topped up.
• Feed the soil with green manures – if there’s a patch of unused ground, sow a crop of green manure – this helps to keep the area weed free, and, when you dig it in to the soil, is a fantastic fertiliser.

Lawn maintenance

• The recent rain has greened the grass, so keep cutting regularly, but in drought conditions, raise the mowing height.

Garden pests

• Continue to protect lily, delphinium, hosta and other susceptible plants from slugs and snails.
• Watch out for powdery mildew on roses and honeysuckle – remove and dispose of all affected plant debris now and at the end of the season; mulch and improve watering in dry periods; improve air circulation around the plant if possible. If necessary, treat with an appropriate fungicide.
• Watch out for other pests and infestations and treat quickly.

Wildlife

• Maintain food and water supplies for the birds.

Holidays

• If possible, move container plants to a shady position when you go away and ask a friend to water them – and return the favour when they go away!

Have a wonderful summer and we’ll be back in September to start the next season.

Sally

Opening Hours for May:– Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 6:00pm Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm

Tel:020 8670 7788 www.alleynpark.co.uk