Hochanda

As we move into April and bid winter adieu, there’s no better time to start cultivating your garden than now! This guide to sprucing up your flower beds and creating greener scenery should aid your horticultural ventures this spring and the coming months. This month calls for warmer temperatures, so why not start anew in preparation for the heat by clearing your soil of any excess weeds and creating extra space for new flowers to thrive and bloom? By doing this, you can go onto plotting fresh beds by layering a thick layer of compost over your soil and cultivating the ground to a minimum of 10 inches deep. Clearance is an important step as it’s very easy to unintentionally allow overgrowth, especially during the winter. Promote a healthy season for your plants by preparing beforehand. Continuing with the theme of clearance and renewal, another preparation task for those with bird feeders/baths would be to clean them sufficiently. All sorts of wildlife will be emerging in...

Spring glorious spring! The garden is beginning to wake up & come back to life again now, so why not kick the growing year off with a bang and get some new spring colour into your garden?! We spring clean our houses & re-decorate in the spring, why not refresh your garden too?  Here are Lottie Newitt's top five plant ideas for spring colour and interest along with a few essential tips to help you get the best from your spring garden.  1. Beautiful Blossom Flowering Almond Tree- Prunus triloba has the prettiest double, ruffled petal flowers that bloom early-mid spring. The blooms are a stunning mix of baby pink, deep pink & peach shades that cover the upper stems of the tree. The leaves are very decorative too with their toothed edges in a lovely shade of bright green through the spring and summer, turning to yellow and oranges in the autumn before they drop. Sometimes you’ll see ornamental red berries on this variety too, late in the autumn. These are no...

Green fingers at the ready, it's time to get back into the garden! Our gardening expert Lottie Newitt has put together these amazing top tips for Spring preparation in the garden.  If you have any more tips to add, put them in the comments section below. Happy Gardening! Late winter & early spring is the ideal time to prune back your Roses, preparing them for the spring growing season. Prune out any dead or diseased wood first, then prune all stems down to the first node (a small line-like mark on the stems, sometimes buds or growth can be seem emerging here) on the outer side of the stem, nearest the base of the Rose bush. Our 4 in 1 Ratchet Action Pruners are ideal for pruning roses, they are super easy to use and with the non-stick coated blade you can be sure of a clean cut which is vital as this can prevent disease setting into the cut. Brighten up your outdoor space! The end of winter and early spring can be quite a dull time in the garden so why not ad...