Kate's Cuttings

To mulch or not to mulch – that is the question at this time of year. Mulching your borders has real benefits especially if, like us at Charnwood, your soil is sticky, cold, heavy clay. It breaks it down, improving the structure so making it crumblier and easier to plant and sow into. The material you use will depend on what is available and what you can sensibly move around. It can be expensive too: the last big load we had delivered was well over £100. It was gorgeous stuff though; half farmyard manure and half mushroom compost. The plants loved it. However, your own garden compost is... Read more…

It may be a bit late this year given the mild winter to talk about daffodils, but they are such a cheery, welcome sight when they arrive in spring. All you have to do is plant them early autumn the pointy side up about twice their depth and away they go for years and years. Having said that, some are better do-ers than others when it comes to increasing and flowering. The best early ones here are February gold, closely followed by February silver. This year they DID appear in February, but in a ‘normal’ season (whatever that is!) they rarely emerge before March. Like all daffodils, I do... Read more…