Gardening Chronicles with Travis Smith - Edition Two

Hello and welcome to another addition of the gardening chronicles.

I hope you enjoyed the last one. This month we will be taking you on a rather damp journey around the gardens here at H Tempest Ltd., looking at some of the work we have been carrying out, what you should be up to this month in the garden and what is upcoming for our team in the next month or so.

So, here we are at what we call the dell, it is a small overflow from one of our larger ponds and it also helps control water run-off into the right areas. It is an area we encourage fern growth as it is damp and sheltered, we have decided to try and introduce a few more ornamental varieties into the banks.

We started by cutting back all the ferns to allow the new fronds to unfurl once we had done this, we have been able to remove several of the varieties that are already in there to allow us for planting of new ones. The existing varieties are Blechnum chilense and Dryopteris wallichiana.

In their place we have planted Osmunda regalis (Royal Fern) and Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Autumn’ (Autumn Shield Fern).

There have been many highlights over the past few months however it has been an extremely difficult season with the weather.

Hopefully, like us you have been doing No Mow May, this is to help the birds and insects in this country to thrive, survive and produce high amounts of pollen for bees. It will also help increase the biodiversity in your garden attracting insects from all around. On the left you can see one of the areas we have left for the wildlife,

In the photograph below, we sowed this pattern in the Autumn months with a native wildflower mix and we are now just waiting to see all the colour from the flowers.

The H Tempest Ltd. Garden team are having a very busy season of grass cutting, cut flower growing, planting and general maintenance. Speaking of jobs in the garden, the month of June is a nice easy month for domestic work and here are a few jobs you can be doing:

• Enjoying your flowers of course, it is positive and stimulating to look back at all the hard work you have done and be proud of it.

• Change your seasonal bedding plants now, out go the Tulips, Daffodils, Pansies and Polyanthus and in come the Begonias, Coleus, Lobelia, Geraniums, there are so many choices.

Like always please follow the RHS Link for all the jobs you should be carrying out https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/in-month/june

We are only a small team and have made it through some of the hardest weather to work with. But hopefully the sunnier days are here, and we can move forward in creating the greatest of gardens and grounds for you all to enjoy.