Tidy Up Your Garden for Spring

Early spring is the time to get into the garden and prepare it for the new growing seasons. Many plants such as roses, camellias and fruit trees are vulnerable to fungal diseases and sap-sucking pests as their sap begins to rise again. It is important to clean up and get rid of material that could be harbouring disease and pests.

Look forward to Spring and Summer in your garden. Be prepared by putting a little effort in now.

General Spring Tidy Up
Clean up dead leaves and twigs which could harbour pests and disease spores.

Paint, stain and seal fences, trellis and walls while climbing plants are dormant.

Remove weeds from paths and driveways with McGregor’s Path & Patio Long Term Weed Control.

Weeds emerging from areas where planting is to be done, now or later in the season, can be sprayed with McGregor’s Weed Out without leaving residue in the soil.

Clean Your Tools
The beginning of spring is also a good time to make sure your garden equipment is working and clean. So, check the lawnmower, get it serviced, sharpen blades and check oil levels. Clean, sharpen and oil secateurs, clippers and other cutting implements. Even cleaning forks and spades will help remove any disease spores that may have over-wintered. You can sterilise equipment by soaking in or wiping with dilute bleach.

Look After Your Lawn
As lawns begin to grow the broadleaved weeds can be controlled using McGregor’s Lawn Weed Control. A tip for getting rid of coarse grasses that are weeds in your lawn is to spot treat the central growing crown of the tufts of coarse grass with McGregor’s Weed Out Advanced Killer. This will kill the grass weed to the roots and is preferable to manual removal that often leaves root fragments to re-sprout. Just be careful not to get it on your surrounding lawn as this is a non-selective herbicide meaning it kills all plants including grass.

Rake out dead thatch in your lawn with a lawn de-thatcher rake. Too much thatch can stop air and moisture reaching the roots and moisture trapped in the thick thatch can encourage fungal disease of the lawn grass.

Flower Beds
Condition and prepare flowerbeds containing established plants by digging over the soil and adding organic material and fertilisers such as McGregor’s PlantMax or VegeMax.

Peach & Nectarine Trees
Flowers and fruit are produced on the new growth of the previous summer. Prune hard to encourage new growth to prevent fruit being produced too far out along branches. But don’t remove too many flower buds or the current season’s crop will be reduced. Flower buds are round and plump while growth buds are flat.

See the McGregor’s range of secateurs, shears and loppers designed to make your pruning tasks a doddle.

Plum Trees
Carry out a similar tidy up of plum trees but take care not to over prune as this will promote vigorous growth at the expense of fruit production.

Apple, Pear and Cherry Trees
Consider pruning to give the tree a good shape so the tree gets good light throughout and fruit is evenly distributed and easily collected.

Remove excess, weak or twiggy growth. But be careful, apples, pears and cherries grow on spurs (short stubby growths coming from main branches) and these will continue to produce fruit for several years, so take care not to take these off.

Roses
Prune your roses, if you haven't done it already, it is worth getting it done as soon as possible.

Pruning your roses encourages new growth, removes old woody stems that would be prone to disease and lets you shape your roses for the best display.

Cut just above an outward-facing bud to encourage the plant to grow into an open shape. If the cut is too far above a shoot the stem above the bud will die back and there is an increased risk of disease. Slope cuts away from the bud, allowing rainwater to runoff away and not onto the bud.

Prune about half of the height off the bush. Try to cut to an outside facing bud as the new growth will grow up & outwards, helping to develop an open, airy rose bush.

Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses benefit most from pruning, but all roses should be checked over and dead or diseased stems removed.

Note that rambling roses are different and need to be pruned during summer.