- Mulch beds and borders by top dressing with compost or grass clippings, this will help retain water and feed your soil.
- Get a compost bin and start composting. It’s easy and helps recycle your garden waste.
- Grow plants that attract beneficial insects which help control pests and pollinate.
- Inspect your plants and crops weekly to monitor for pests such as green fly. Remove these by hand or by spraying with water.
- If you’re growing salad leaves, don’t sow all at once but make successional sowings in stages, that way you’ll have a crop for longer.
- If you have an allotment, fill in any spaces you have left with a plant that can be dug in – a green manure – to help protect and nourish your soil. For more information on green manures visit www.gardenorganic.co.uk or buy green manures from www.organiccatalogue.co.uk.
- Dig a pond. This is the best way to prevent garden pests as it attracts so many beneficial types of wildlife.
- If you are growing tender bedding or vegetable plants, such as runner beans or courgettes, plant these out in the garden or allotment now the weather is warm enough.
- Some vegetable crops such as beetroot, chard, spinach and lettuces are prone to bolting (flowering too quickly). Apply mulch like well-rotted compost to the soil around these crops after watering to help retain moisture.
- Now is a good time to re-seed lawns if they have bare patches. To get the perfect organic lawn find out more from our booklet ‘The Organic Lawn’ available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Ed’s Garden Maintenance puts best boot forward raising £225 for GardenOrganic, kicking off National Welly Week
Ed’s Garden Maintenance puts best boot forward raising £225 for GardenOrganic, kicking off National Welly Week
– Ed’s operators take part in 10k fun run to raise funds for an organic future –
Thames Ditton, UK – 21st April 2008. A team from Ed’s Garden Maintenance, a provider of prompt, reliable andefficient services to maintain gardens, has pulled on their wellies and run 10k, raising £225 for the UK’s leading organic growing charity, Garden Organic.
Edward Mauleverer, of Thames Ditton, and four of his colleagues joined hundreds of runners and walkers at Shalford Park, Guildford, to take part in the 10K trek on the morning of Sunday 20 April 2008.
The Ed’S team took part in the fun run to kick-off a week long series of fundraising activities supporting National Welly Week, which begins today. Garden Organic launched Welly Week five years ago aiming to raise funds to help educate and inspire people about organic gardening, farming and food for a sustainable future for ourselves, our children, our environment and our planet.
Garden Organic which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008, is specifically raising funds to help maintain its world class organic demonstration gardens and to support the vital work of its Heritage Seed Library, which preserves over 800 varieties of vegetables under threat of extinction. It is also intending to widen its education programmes to help more children learn about food and organic growing, and enable growers worldwide to adopt organic methods through its international development programmes.
Edward Mauleverer, founder of Ed’S Garden Maintenance says, “Working in wellington boots is one thing, but running in them is certainly another! At Ed’S, we are often required to provide our customers with the work needed to set the foundations for organic growing, whether we’re turning top soil on allotments or advising on compost facilities. So we’re delighted to be supporting the really important contribution Garden Organic makes to encouraging a sustainable future.”
Fund-raiser at Garden Organic, Liz Fredericks, says “We’re delighted that Ed’S were so keen to jump into their wellies outside of their working hours to raise money for Garden Organic. We launched Welly Week to remind people that being outdoors is fun and rewarding and that growing organically is important for the future of our children and the planet. We would like to thank Edward and the team for their support.”