Gardeners’ World has a full hour of gardening this Easter weekend and Monty gets going with a new planting project, as well as giving plenty of tips on getting our lawns and plants into tip-top condition for the season ahead. And Monty has a surprise guest visiting for Easter, Rachel de Thame.
If you have dry shade, dappled shade or deep shade, Carol Klein is on hand to show us the spring planting partners which grow happily together, Adam Frost meets a woman who has created seven individual gardens around her home in Worcestershire, and Joe Swift and Florence Headlam are on a Walsall allotment helping out on a community growing project for children with special needs.
Monty and Rachel de Thame in the Paradise Garden
The intensity of the beauty of small things
Monty Don
Rachel said that being very ill had heightened her senses and awareness of every small detail in the garden. Last year she was too ill to do any gardening but still got great pleasure and
Open Doors Special Needs Project
The project has around 40 children who come and use the site from around the Birmingham area. It’s one of the few places the special/additional needs children can access the outdoors in Birmingham. It’s been going about a year. The children respond really well to being outside and growing their vegetables.
Creating a Sensory Garden
They have used bark clippings for the paths as they wear well with lots of children walking on them – always a good idea as
The children really loved creating the sensory bed, mixing the soil, sand and compost before planting Mediterranean plants such as lavender, rosemary, sage and chives.
They plant several varieties of Thyme as the scent is heady when the children touch the leaves.
There has been a lot of research showing the benefits of being outdoors and gardening to mental health. It helps children with a range of conditions to develop in a low-pressure environment.
Creating a secret den with Willow
Put the willow in about 30cms deep to create a living structure.
Monty Don Grass Lawn Tips
To grass lawn tips and a quick cheat:
- Don’t cut the grass too short. If the grass is healthy there won’t be a chance for the weeds to get in.
- Bare patches on your lawn? Put a fork in to loosen up the ground and then ideally sprinkle on some sharp sand to improve the drainage. Then scratch over and then sprinkle with grass seed – thinly, you won’t get better grass by oversowing. Water every day until it starts to grow. Don’t mow until it’s two inches long.
- Sort out your lawn edges – it’s a bit of a cheat but quickly makes any lawn look better.
How to deal with shade in your garden.
Shade offers us the opportunity to grow all sorts of wondrous plants.
Carol Klein
Easy to grow from seed and grows well in dappled shade
Adam Frost visits Morton Hall in Worcester
Set in 8 acres of beuitiful countryside, they have used clever succession planting to extend each of the seasons.
Arts and Crafts idea of individual gardens. Anna has created 7 separate gardens in the grounds but each interconnected with tricks of the trade such as the natural landscape and matching colours.
The gardens will be open to the public later in the year under the national gardens scheme.
Back at Long Meadow Monty and Rachel are planting a new dyer’s bed
The intention is to plant the bed entirely with plants that can be used to make dye.
Woad, which makes blue.
Back at Long Meadow
Monty is putting up the support for his runner beans using bean sticks rather than canes. The should be spaced about a foot apart.
Monty is sowing peas outside.
He thinks a double or triple row is
Jobs for the weekend – 3rd Weekend in April
- Take Dahlia cuttings
- Prune early flowering shrubs – like honeysuckle
- Pot up tomatoes – it’s too cold to plant them out as yet.
You can find my full Monty Don, Gardners World reading
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