GR Garden Retail | Blog

So after a very nice and warm April this May it looks like we have a few wet days, which as you may agree is well needed. The sweet peas have shot up, the runner beans are taking hold and those weeds are returning (not so good!)

You may recall last year we grew our own sunflowers and yes without haste we have now planted 2 very large headed sunflowers and have just moved those into bigger pots and sheltered from the winds. Ill be adding the pics to this post at the end.

Is it just me or is there a sense of great enthusiasm this year which is fantastic. Far more people of all ages are growing there own vegetables, some for the first time and are really enjoying learning what it is all about, but not only is it just vegetables and fruit but also bedding plants, shrubs and trees! This is an exciting time to be gardening and as we said in January through to March those preparation stages are now being appreciated.

As I write this, glancing out at the bed of cowslips, poppies, polyanthus and primroses, having those perennial plants and bulbs in a particular bed at various seasons is very rewarding. For example this particular bed had snowdrops in winter (a sea of white) Tulips which have now gone over (a sea of red) and now the plants I mentioned (all a sea of yellow) As the season progresses I’ll add some summer plants no doubt some annual bedding plants, yes annual plants as this offers flexibility as to what to grow in this all colourful bed which of course is every bees delight!

The best part of having a garden is you have total control over how to design it and what to plant so if you haven’t done so already try and design a colour scheme and add some scented plants to the garden so come summer you can sit back and appreciate your hard work.

Enjoy the rest of May and let us know how your garden is doing, drop us an email grgretail@gmail.com or facebook and twitter us.

Whether you are new to gardening,in need of freshening up the gardening or have been keeping busy in the gardening throughout the past few months, we would like t give you an insight into what you should be doing to prepare for he spring.

Where to begin

If you’re reading ‘The Plant Pot News’ at home take a look out at you garden and how do feel? What do you see? If you’ve ran back indoors in a rather “that can wait” attitude now is the perfect time to get this garden looking how it should look, tidy, kept and maintained. This follows the ethos of GR Garden Retail -Care,Transform & Grow.

Once you make the initial start the results are rewarding from here on. Now you can either run into the garden and start straight away or meticulously plan what you want to achieve this year, perhaps some new beds, planters or a rockery?

Cut back any dead leaves and stems from the plants, rake up any remaining leaves their you go that’s the initial part complete and it will start to look better already. Remember you would like to enjoy this garden in the spring and summer months so let’s continue…

Now I can suggest planting trees, large shrubs and plants for fruit cages but I’m not going to as not everyone can facilitate this so I am going to suggest things we can all grow.

Pots

You may well have daffodils, hyacinths or other bulbs in pots already if not let’s start with getting some small plants geraniums are a fave. I’m not going to suggest the aforementioned bulbs as we are in February and the planting season for these is has passed us but if you tidy up your pots (perhaps redo the compost or weed) then it’s ready for the next lot of bulbs tulips, anemone, freesia, agapanthus, lily of the valley, lilies.

Now you’ve added some colour to your pots sit back and wait for them to grow. It doesn’t batter if it’s your first time or hundredth time at potting up it is still exciting to see those first plants creep above the soil.

I may suggest putting some netting over the top of the pots until the plants get a little taller, this to to prevent birds, rabbits and other wildlife nibbling away at them!!

Send us a picture of your potting up this year and we may include it in next years calendar with any plant snapper receiving a free calendar from us!

Whilst doing your pots you may have some bulbs left over or fancy getting some more bulbs or seeds which we’ll be discussing next month. So now you’ve potted up why not begin adding some colour to the beds in your garden after they’ve been prepped.

 

Beds, borders and planters

It’s easy to put bulbs and small shrubs into a bed and then leave it, and return 4 months later and wonder why it didn’t grow or why it looks shrivelled and unhappy, its all in the preparation! Something I was once told years ago was 90% of any good job is the preparation the other 10% is the work! And that is absolutely true, take for example painting, 90% you are preparing that outside wall scraping the pain off and the other 10% you are painting! This philosophy can be used in the garden, 90% prepping the beds 10% planting.

So if you’ve got compost bins, leaf mulch or manure fantastic! If not then that’s ok because it is never too late to begin. For the moment I’m going to assume you have compost you’ve made at home. Firstly weed that first bed you always see remember at the start of this newsletter I asked you to look outside well if this is the bed that caught your eye lets get this looking the best! Take a fork to it and dig out the weeds, you may find it easier with a weeder, once done fork over the earth we want to oxygenate the earth and loosen it all up so that the roots of the plants have movement.

Adding the compost 

Lightly fork in any compost you have made it doesn’t all have to buried and then give it a sprinkling of water. Now if you think about it we have so far- weeded bed, loosened the earth, added nutrients with compost and watered in. Plant your bulbs in positions you want to see them, perhaps a cluster of tulips in the middles with lilies around it, whatever you think and just finish it off by defining the border of the bed if its next to the lawn define this.

You can now work around the garden if you’ve no compost or mulch you could get some horse manure to tease into the beds.

 

Now your garden will be looking like a garden and it’s still the start of the year so that is great and the hard work done. If you spend a little time each day or dedicate say every Saturday to the garden then it’ll look magnificent before you know it.

Next month: we’ll be discussing growing from seed, kitchen garden, and what to plant in March-April. Growing from seed is easier than you think and doesn’t require a greenhouse!

                                                       Thanks for reading!

                   

What a glorious month this is although a little brisk as i sit here in the garden at 8:00am you would think it was April!

Its important as a gardener myself to take a step back and relax and enjoy ones surroundings because after all I helped to create it!

The thrushes, tits and robins are all busily gathering their important supply, the crocuses opening out in the morning sun to reveal a much welcomed blast of vibrant colours for the wildlife and us to enjoy.

The honeybees are gathering pollen already as they zoom around the crocuses and then we get to the masses of daffodils penetrating the soil as there long green stems provide a sign that Spring is nearly upon us.

The Snowdrops providing a meandering river of white amongst the beds have been very enjoyable to see indeed.

Whilst your’e out in the garden take you note pad or Ipad with you and start to jot down what colours you want to see at different times of the year, perhaps you want to create new beds, define the borders a bit more, now really is a good time to get planning your gardens,and please send us your snaps of your garden before and after so we can also appreciate your had work.

Enjoy the rest of this sunny Sunday and remember get planning today!!

Herbs have been used for thousands of years and are a great compliment to that perfect meal!

Have you ever just fancied having that bit of parsley or fresh coriander leaves at arms reach? why not grow some different pots on your windowsill and see yourself the benefits of having your own herbs. I recently walked past a herb garden and asked the owner what varieties of herbs she was growing, and to my astonishment she had around 50 various herbs in a rather small bed but insisted she knew every single herb and would never dream of buying herbs from a supermarket, ”why would I do that when I can simply grow my own” was her response.

We offer a wide range of herbs to help kick start your kitchen garden or to add to your already flourishing herb collection.

Be sure to visit ‘The Herb Garden’ at www.grgardenretail.com today!

Every year we set ourselves standards to continually improve every aspect of our service to you. This can be from the way we package your goods to supplying a range of item you think we should sell.

We pride ourselves to be working with our customers which means that if for example yo wanted to see a different type of bird feeder we would get that, we want our customers to feel at ease and to not hesitate in contacting us if we can improve there on-line shopping experience.

The 2014 Positive Growth Initiative sets out to supply a range of products on our site which we are doing and to ensure all that you can pay either through Pay Pal or a credit or debit card just follow on screen instructions. P&P is £3.99.

Last year our positive growth was to design and create a safe and secure website that is easily accessible for all ages and clear to understand. We have achieved that!

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