GARDENS ON THE WEB

Paul Neary (Senior Contracts Manager) Service Team has advised the Scottie Press that ground maintenance in the Vauxhall area is difficult. This is due to two main factors - vandalism and the fly tipping of rubbish. Both these factors are in evidence in the Epsom Street/Latimer Street 'open space'area, which has been systematically cleared of all the trees that were originally planted. The grassed area has also seen its fair share of bon-fires and has a constant rubbish-tipping problem.

The benches have also been vandalised and graffiti is in evidence on what was designed to be an eye-catching sculpture on the pathway in the centre of the open space area. The open space area was established quite a few years ago, and by this time should have seen many of the trees well established and coming into full leaf each year.

It should have been a very pleasant part of the Scotland Road landscape to compliment the building of new houses in the area. Sadly it does not. If nothing is done about it - things can only get worse. This is why regular maintenance is so vital and as in this case so difficult. Restoring the open space area can be achieved but what chance does it have of becoming what it is intended to be if the vandalism is allowed to take control again?

With this in mind Paul Neary has agreed to try to improve the open space area at Epsom Street and Latimer Street and has asked the Scottie Press to inform residents of his intentions. Paul also intends to improve other grassed areas in Vauxhall and hopes that residents will appreciate this work as adding to the quality of life for residents in the area.

Aware of the fact that many local resident's front and back house gardens are really good, Paul has also put forward a suggestion to try to organise a 'Gardening Competition' in the Scotland Road and Vauxhall area with prizes awarded to the winner and runners up.

Paul has also agreed to provide the Scottie Press community newspaper and the paper's website with regular gardening tips and hints - taking local gardening enthusiasts' month by month through a year in their garden. We will be featuring photographs of local resident's gardens together with any tips and hints they might like to share.

A GARDEN CAN BE SERIOUSLY GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

There is a vast amount of evidence to prove that a good- looking garden can be good for your health. The sheer pleasure of looking at a tidy garden or a garden in full bloom can be a very uplifting experience. The popularity of TV Gardening Programmes shows the nation-wide interest in gardening no matter how big or small people's gardens are. Advice given from these programmes or from the many gardening journals can encourage people to try out suggested improvements in landscaping, floral displays or just keeping the garden in good shape.

In appreciation of the efforts made by many local people in the Scotland Road and Vauxhall Ward Area to have a good garden (no matter its size shape or location) Paul Neary (Senior Contracts Manager) Service Team is helping the Scottie Press organise a 'Gardening Competition'. There will be CASH PRIZES for the winners and runners up. Details of this competition will feature regularly in the Scottie Press, but first we require those interested in taking part to enter into the competition by filling out an entry form. These forms are available from the Scottie Press, Vauxhall Multiservices Centre, Silvester Street, Liverpool L5 8SE. The closing date for entering the competition will be Friday 18th May.

Sally Hanley with her daffs

To help with your garden Paul Neary has also provided the Scottie Press with some 'Gardening at Home' hints and tips – featured on page 2. These hints and tips will become a regular feature of the paper throughout the coming year. Taking local gardening enthusiasts' month by month through a year in their garden. We also welcome hearing from readers of the Scottie Press who might like to share some hints and tips. Vauxhall resident, Sally Hanley is photographed tidying the border area of her garden. Sally always has a good show of Daffodils throughout the months of March and April and her Daffodils have constantly increased in numbers from the original bulbs planted. When the Daffodils finish flowering and die off, Sally allows a period of time, usually 6 weeks, before folding over the leaves to tie back and letting the leaves rot back into the ground.

'Gardening at Home'

Hints and Tips

Priority at this time of year should be given to weed control. Let weeds get out of hand at this time of year and they can be a problem through the summer. Remember weeds cannot exist without leaves, so it is important to remove leaves and stems frequently and as soon at they appear. Do this often and the roots will die.

Weeds can be controlled in two main ways – manual and chemical. In planted areas manual is best. The Dutch hoe is the most important tool. As soon as weeds appear hoe them off. In densely planted areas or around delicate plants you may have to resort to hand weeding. Don't worry too much about digging out weed roots. Just hoe them off or pull them up as soon as they appear and as often as they appear. This approach is ideal for domestic gardens.

For paved areas and lawns, chemical control is best. Lawns require a selective weed killer that will not harm the grass but will kill the weeds. These are easily available at Garden Centres, Hardware Stores etc. Just look for a 'Weed killer for Lawns'.

Remember that weed control in lawns is a matter of choice – you may prefer a lawn containing buttercups, daisies and clover - the choice is yours. Should you decide upon a weed free lawn, then a general lawn fertiliser should be applied two weeks after the weed killer.

A total weed killer should be applied on paved areas. Look in your local store for 'Weed Killer for paving etc.'

For both the 'Weed Killer for Lawns and Paved Areas' you should read the instructions carefully to get the dilution right. It can be applied with a small nozzle sprayer or a watering can with a fine rose.

Maintaining your lawn requires you to think about what you want from your lawn – a nice looking area that sets of your garden or just a green space. However whatever kind of lawn you want, cut the grass little and often. Do not set the blades of your mower low. Do not cut the grass shorter than 2 inches (50cm) – leave it longer if you wish. Cut it often so you just top the grass. Then you will have a nice looking lawn. Let it grow and cut it short and you will have a scruffy area. It is a fallacy to think that if you cut your lawn down to ground level that you will have to cut it less often. The grass responds by quick growth. A lawn that is maintained constantly at 2 inches plus height looks better and is less work.

LOCAL GARDENS

Our thanks go to four local Vauxhall residents for allowing us to feature photographs of their gardens, which are testaments to their enthusiasm, imagination and skill.

Tips For June

The first two weeks of June are an ideal time for planting bedding plants. As with all forms of gardening, preparation pays dividends. Remove any previous bedding plants and visible weeds and scatter a general fertilizer on the surface. Also beneficial would be any organic material you can get hold of. The best is compost bark. Chicken manure, stable manure and compost leaves. Fork in the fertilizer and compost in the top 2 inches of soil at the same time carefully removing any perennial weed roots.

Select the bedding plants carefully, giving consideration to the separate colours and colour mixes, using separate colour combinations for different parts of the garden. Generally do not buy mixed colour combinations. Try combinations of red and silver, yellow and blue, mauve and pink - the choice is endless. Buy bedding that looks fresh and hasn't been hanging around the shop for too long. Water in well and keep moist for the first two or three weeks until established.

For small back garden or back yard gardens it is worth while to invest in hanging baskets and larger terra cotta pots. Terra cotta is now mass-produced and pots are available at competitive prices. Cover the drainage hole with a stone - half fill the pt with ordinary garden soil, then complete the filling with a soil-less compost. The same for hanging baskets. Do not put in the top halves of baskets and pots otherwise you will have trouble with weeds. I hanging baskets it's worthwhile to put a couple of supermarket plastic shopping bags in the bottom, extending a ¼ of an inch up, to trap water. Then when you water the water will be trapped in the bottom and will act as a reservoir - moistening the rest of the soil - but not water-logging it - and will lead to reduction in frequency of watering. But with baskets it is critical to watch the watering. Let them dry out totally in hot weather and you will lose them.

Use a selection of plants in baskets and pots. An upright plant in the centre - a Bush Fuchsia, some ordinary bedding, e.g. Petunias and some trailing plants e.g. Lobelia, Surfinia -Petunias, Ivy-leafed Geraniums.

The other important work in June and July is shrub pruning. Shrubs that flower during this time e.g. Ceanothus, Orange Blossom (Philadelphus) should be pruned immediately after flowering. Thin out the stems - removing the older ones and then reduce the overall size to that appropriate for the situation.

We will have more 'Gardening at Home' hints and tips next month. Paul Neary has also advised the paper that he is willing to answer any gardening questions and offer hands on advice. Send your questions to the Scottie Press.

We also welcome hearing from readers who may have some gardening hints and tips of their own to share.

July's Hints and Tips

Provided by T. RISELY (Service Team Contacts Manger for the Vauxhall Area)

Hopefully, having followed the tips for May and June, you will have good floral displays set off by green and fresh lawns. The first objective of this month, July, is to maintain the quality.

Hanging baskets, pots and other containers are vulnerable to drying and need regular watering. Do not rely on natural rainfall. Check them every day or so and water if the compost fells dry. Water copiously but do not water if the compost is already moist. Should the compost be completely dry water twice at a 2-hour interval. Watch your bedding plants and newly planted shrubs, trees and herbaceous plants. These are very vulnerable to drying during the first 6 weeks after planting unless there is heavy natural rain. Ensure the ground is kept moist during this period. After that watering will only be required during a prolonged dry spell. A liquid feed will benefit plants in baskets and containers once they are established but plants growing in prepared beds should not be fertilized further.

If you want a green and fresh lawn it is necessary to irrigate during dry spells a hosepipe or sprinkler is the best method. Fertilize every 6 to 8 weeks and apply selective weed killers as necessary. Make sure that your mower blades are sharp and the machine is adjusted correctly. For cylinder mowers it is important that the blades of the cylinder just touch the bottom plate, to give a clean cut. The most important maintenance advice for laws is to cut frequently - once a week if you can - and do not cut short.

Other work in the garden in July should include weed control. Remember weeds cannot survive without leaves. Hand weed flowerbeds, hoe plant and shrub borders. Do this as often as you can and weeds will gradually die out. Never allow weeds to go to seed.

Keep hedges trimmed. Overgrown hedges should be cut back to the size you require, then trimmed regularly. Any shrubs that have already flowered should be pruned as soon after flowering is completed. These will include Philadelphus (mock orange) flowering currant, forsythia, Ceanothus. Thin out by removing the oldest wood back to the basal branch then turn the tips back to the shape you require. Brooms (Cytisus, Spartium, Genista) require careful treatment as they do not re-grow from hard wood. Remove the tips of branches only. Keep paved and hard surfaces weed free to complete the effect of a well maintained and attractive garden.

In next month issue of Scottie Press the issue of 'green' gardens will be considered. If you have any hints and tips or general gardening comments why not share them with other readers of the Scottie Press.

MORE LOCAL GARDENS

Scottie Press Gardening Competition

Conversations encourage set up of 'local gardening club'

Featured on this Scottie Press Gardening Competition inclusion are several local gardens and some not so local gardens that have either entered into the competition or are just keen to take part in an enjoyable form of community development. The Scottie Press has now filled an album with garden photographs and has started another to accommodate photos taken in recent days. With decent weather over the past few weeks an opportunity was welcomed by the Scottie Press to take photos of a variety of gardens, some of which have been established for quite some time or have been created since the gardening competition was announced. The range of gardens entered stretches from large and small front and back lawn type gardens to back yard gardens. It has been a very interesting experience to meet local people and to talk about their interest in gardening which, can often stem from some unrelated reasons. Such conversations have given rise to the idea of setting up a 'LOCAL GARDENING CLUB' where at people with a shared interest could meet regularly to chat about gardening subjects as well as every day events and issues.

Opportunities would arise for friendships to develop and this could be further enhanced with invitations extended to members of other gardening clubs around the Merseyside area to visit etc. Hopefully the club could also welcome experts on various gardening subjects who would be willing to pass on hints and tips as well as answering problems. There is always something to do with a garden throughout the 12 months of the year. Our visits to gardens in outlying districts of Liverpool came about by virtue of former residents of the Scotland Road area wishing to join in the community activity and to recall their days spent in the Scotland Road area. The 'Local Gardening Club' could also fulfil a function of reuniting past and present residents of the Scotland Road area who share an interest in, and enthusiasm for, gardening. If you would like to express an interest in such a local gardening club contact the Scottie Press by telephoning 0151-298-1544.

Local Artist Tony Brown has offered a wonderful prize for a lucky contestant in the Scottie Press Garden Competition. Tony has advised the Scottie Press that if we put all the names of those entered into the competition into a draw the named drawn will win a 'framed watercolour painting of their garden'.