Back in Bloom: Helpful tips for maintaining gardening success (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Back in Bloom: This week The Richmond and Twickenham Times' gardening column advises on how to prune your plants to keeping them looking fresh for longer

6:50am Sunday 5th June 2011 in News

In the eighth of our weekly gardening columns from Reg Leach, Richmond Council's head of parks operations, rallies residents to enter Richmond and Britain in Bloom's contests and advises on keeping plants looking lovely.

If you haven’t already done so you should consider entering your front garden, business frontage, pub or hotel into Richmond in Bloom - it’s not too late.

And if you want to keep your garden looking its best throughout the summer there are a number of things you need to do on a regular basis.

Give your bedding plants a balanced feed to promote flower, leaf and root growth, as a healthy plant can better resist pests and diseases, also regular dead-heading will prevent seed production and encourage more flowering.

And remember to regularly tie and stake those taller plants and herbaceous plants and give your lawn regular feeds during wet weather.

If you have hedges, keep them clipped and thus avoid having to cut back hard into old wood, which won’t look good until you get fresh new growth coming through.

However, please check for birds nesting before you cut your hedge. If there are signs of nesting leave your hedge alone until the young have left the nest.

Plus just in case you don’t have them here is a reminder of the judging dates this year: - Richmond in Bloom judging will take place between July 9 and 16.

- London in Bloom Best Parks and Town Centre categories judging will take place on July 13 and includes Terrace Gardens, York House Gardens and Twickenham town centre.

- London in Bloom borough-wide judging – which includes the very best of Richmond in Bloom – will take place on July 14.

- Britain in Bloom judging - again featuring some of the very best of Richmond in Bloom - will be on August 10.

So, you have plenty of time, and no excuses, to have your garden, pub, hotel, business frontage, community garden or street, looking its best for the judges and to show them how blooming Richmond is.

Happy gardening.