20 Tips from Our Facebook Friends

Gain inspiration this season from our Facebook friends who have shared their top tips for some of your garden favourites.

1. Paint stones to look like strawberries – one peck of those and the birds will learn to leave the real ones alone! – Kelly

2. Two weeks before you lift the potato crop, cut the growth off at ground level. This should give the skins of the potatoes sufficient time to toughen up, making them far less prone to damage from lifting and easier to store. – Sean

3. Grow strawberries in a bag of strawberry mix if you don’t have enough room in your garden. They grow a treat. Also being in these bags means you can also move them around your section. – Wendy

4. I put my tulips in the fridge and plant them randomly in my pots and they look amazing, love my tulips. – Gambardella

5. Sprout your potatoes first in a light warm space. Select the best four shoots and remove the rest. Plant when chance of frost is past. Use only certified seed potatoes. – Janine

6. We have planted strawberries in an old bath, heaped them up with compost and then surrounded them with straw. Last season was the first time using the straw and it was the biggest crop of strawberries we’ve had, will be repeating this season. – Joanne

7. Raise your lawn mower cutter bar a notch or two so you aren’t mowing too short. – Hamish

8. Don’t plant potatoes where you planted tomatoes the season before. – Christopher

9. When they get a bit overcrowded, let your bulbs die down, dig them up, divide them and give them a feed. – Rebecca

10. I have learnt to plant my strawberries up high enough for the dog not to jump up and steal them, getting very creative at times! Hanging them in PVC piping from the top of the deck works the best. – Lynley

11. After flowering, never pull your bulbs out before the leaves are ready, they need to be brown. Tie the leaves together, they help feed the bulbs and make babies. – Christine

12. Plant approximately 3–5 strawberry plants every couple of weeks or so, and then you’ll have a continuous amount of strawberries for the Christmas/summer season. Don’t forget to cover them with light netting to stop the birds from stealing them! – Karen

13. I use an old kitchen fork to dig out weeds in my lawn. It gets all the weed and doesn’t use much muscle power. – Melanie

14. Grow chives and parsley in the garden to help encourage good bugs to eat the baddies! – Anita

15. Place stones in the bottom of your (bulb) pots to allow the water to drain. This helps to prevent bulbs from rotting. – Melania

16. Plant at least five strawberries per person (more if you have little ones who love being outside in the garden and will eat as they play), water water water, and feed feed feed. The more you love strawberries the bigger and juicer they are. – Bronny

17. Plant daffodils in plastic pots rather than clay pots to prevent drying out. – Juliet

18. I used buckets with the bottoms cut out to grow potatoes in – just add another bucket on top and more soil as they grow. – Anna

19. I always grow mint in tubs, so it doesn’t take off and smother other herbs in my garden, this way their roots are confined. – Claire

20. Store bulbs in the fridge before planting then bury the depth of the bulb size beneath the soil. – Christine

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