Summer

Summer is finally here! It’s a great time to relax in the sunshine and enjoy your hard work from previous months. Everything is looking green and lush, with most plants in flower. To make sure your garden stays colourful and healthy this season we’ve put together a few of our top tips.

Greener Lawn

We want our lawn to look lush and green for outdoor activities and barbecues but with the temperatures increasing the lawn can become quite stressed by the heat and lack of water. It’s important to keep our lawns hydrated by watering them deeply at least once a week, watering thoroughly but less often promotes a more drought-tolerant root. We recommend using an oscillating sprinkler for larger lawns.

Follow our tips and advice for a healthy, entertainment-worthy lawn in our Summer Lawn Care post.

Vegetable Patch

We know how rewarding it is to grow and harvest your own fruit and vegetables, and despite the assumption that you need a large outdoor space, there are plenty of crops that can be grown in containers or require very little room in the soil.

 

It’s not too late to sow new crops!

If you’re looking for quick and easy vegetables to grow, lettuce, rocket, spring onions, radish, spinach and Winter salad can be sown during June to August for late Summer and Autumn harvests.

Amongst the fastest-growing vegetables is cress; to grow your own, sprinkle the seeds over the surface of a pot or in the ground, then place on a kitchen windowsill or outside to enjoy a harvest as soon as 5 – 7 days afterwards.

Herbs are another great option as they can continually be used within cooking recipes throughout the Summer and often into late Autumn. Annual herbs for example are great for seasoning food, for this choose herbs such as basil, coriander and dill.

Planting perennial herbs is a great way to enhance your garden, and you’re cooking for years to come. They are easy to cultivate and require little attention. They can be grown in beds and borders, or in containers on your patio. Consider herbs like mint, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, and oregano.

For more tips and ideas on how to create a vegetable patch and maximize your crop production visit our show gardens here at Root One or visit our GYO page here.

Planting For Summer Fragrance

For a gorgeous garden that’s doesn’t only look great but smells good, too! Try planting these beautifully scented flowers:

Roses – Particularly Gertrude Jeckyll

Lavender – A powerfully fragrant cottage garden favourite

Jasmine – A climber that quickly adorns trellis, pergolas and obelisks

Nemesia Wisley Vanilla – Beautiful blooms with an unmistakable vanilla fragrance

Honeysuckle – A cottage garden favourite with a sweet, fresh scent

Sweet pea – A beautiful climbing cutting flower, the Grandiflora variety in particular are highly scented

Summer is also a great time of year to be planting hardy annuals such as cosmos, zinnia, calendula, cornflower, nigella, and dwarf sunflowers, all of which can be used to make beautiful flower bouquets to brighten up your home. We have a great range of plant supports, flower feed and seeds in store to get you started.  If your short on space another option is to plant in pots and containers.

Generous Self-Seeders

 If you’re looking for great value, low maintenance plants which flourish in increasing numbers year after year why not pick up some Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea), after blooming simply leave the seeds to ripen and germinate to provide a display of large pink bells each summer.

Another favourite of ours, is primrose (primula vulgaris) which flowers from march to May, it grows best in partial shade and comes back stronger every year with possible displays of flower during the autumn and winter too!

Poppies are not only beautiful but also copious self-seeders, they germinate best in gentle shade and will thrive even in the poorest soil. Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascene) is a lovely deep blue or white flower that thrives in a sunny spot, producing decorative seed pods that create crowds more of the annuals the following year.

Garden Furniture

You’ll find our new range of outdoor furniture in the Brightwell building, in here we have everything you need to create a garden you look forward to spending time in, from contemporary to traditional-style garden furniture, firepits, kindling, ambient lighting, and stylish planters. 

Our range of garden furniture is perfect for both comfort and entertaining family and friends and includes the new Nassau range inspired by the colourful houses of the picturesque Caribbean city of Nassau. The stylish Nassau bistro and dining sets are made from recycled social plastic and are the perfect size for both indoor and outdoor use! Check out the video below to see how they’re made.

Transform your Outdoor Space

Give your plants somewhere beautiful to grow! We have a fantastic range of outdoor pots and planters in various shapes, sizes, and materials from terracotta, glazed, stone, wood, and fibre. Outside the front of the garden centre, you will find these fabulous ‘Bee Kind’ pots from Woodlodge who have partnered with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust to support them in protecting this most vital species. These pots are a clear customer favourite and are sure to create a buzz in any garden setting!

For those who like to enjoy their gardens into the late evenings, the gentle glow of candles and solar lights can transform any space, take a look at our range of solar lights, from fairy lights to stakes, perfect for pathways, pergolas, and doorways.

We know there’s nothing quite like spending an evening around the atmospheric glow of a warm fire, so why not incorporate a fire pit this summer to keep get-togethers going for longer.

Wildlife-friendly Gardening

Give the wildlife in your garden a helping hand this Summer by topping up birdbaths daily with fresh clean water and leaving a bowl of fresh water out each evening for travelling hedgehogs. To help create an ideal environment for wildlife in your garden we offer a large range of accessories and food for hedgehogs, birds and bees.

Welcome beneficial insects by planting nectar rich flowers for passing bees, butterflies, and other important pollinators, such as ladybirds that provide natural pest control, they devour nuisance bugs like aphids and spider mites.

If your growing veggies this year you can avoid harmful chemicals by incorporating some companion planting, an organic alternative that could help to boost crops. For example, marigolds sown near beans and tomatoes keep aphids and whitefly at bay, they also attract the likes of ladybirds and lacewings, offering even more defence against unwanted pests.

Leave an area in your garden, big or small, to grow wild. Our plant area is filled with established plants that attract beneficial insects, just look for the bee friendly logo on the packet. For more information on how to attract wildlife into your garden click here.

 

We’re Here to Help

If you’re looking for advice on something we’ve not mentioned above, our friendly staff are always on hand to help.