National Gardens Scheme: Top 10 Tips

Top 10 tips from NGS Garden Owners

1. My gardening tip as always is, spend a little time in your garden everyday if possible. Sometimes do some gardening, at other times just sit & enjoy your garden.
   George Stevenson Cambs

2. Keep cutting dahlias for a great indoor display and lots more flowers outside too.
   Deborah Nagan

3. If you have young summer flowering plants of any kind, you are trying to establish, don’t let them put all their energy into flowering. Remove most of the flower buds before they develop so the plant can put its resources into forming a good solid root system.
   Steve Whitehead, Colby Woodland Garden, Pembrokes

4. Orange and purple-flowering plants together make a very bright and cheerful display and raise the spirits. Cosmos is easy to grow from seed, very tolerant of drought and produces cheerful large flowers sometimes through to December.
   Jennie Street, Sheffield

5. When taking cuttings, insert as usual in seed and cutting compost and then put the pot in a plastic bag in which you have bought grapes at a supermarket; they have some air holes and you can unzip them gradually as the cuttings grow.
   Sue Bannister, Carters Yard, Sibford Saver, Oxon

6. Keep hoeing each week. If you hoe every week irrespective of weed germination, you will always have a tidy, weed free garden and it is good exercise for arms, upper body.
   Richard and Daphne Preston, Primrose Cottage, Oxon

7. Choose several jobs at the same time, so that one can change work positions every 20 minutes .The overall effect is reduced stress to the body.
   Anke Way, Southover, Kent

8. To preserve your BACK, don’t do ANY job for more than 20 minutes. Applies to all seasons!
   Susie Dean, Lincs

9. Our garden never uses chemicals and we are proud of our wildlife. Here is a tip for mildew. One part of milk to 10 parts of water - mix and spray. Another tip for snails and slugs is to use coffee grounds and banana skins- sprinkle and deposit around plants.
   Marie Anand, Peace Haven, Herts

10. Extend the life of your Rose Beds by interplanting with tulips which flower while the roses are just sticks.
    Beverly Tonkin, Stallcourt Mews, Vale of Glamorgan