Action plan: Nigel Colborn’s essential jobs for your garden this week 

HOW TO DODGE THE WEATHER

Britain is used to extreme weather, but 2020 has been a horror show so far for gardeners. Spring drought led to a sweltering April followed by an exceptionally dry May.

Now June has come with plantwrecking winds and showers. The rain is welcome, but don’t be fooled. We haven’t had enough to end the drought.

Soil moisture is still in deficit and now our plants are stormtossed as well. It’s time to begin the healing.

Start by assessing wind damage. As you check your plants, remove any broken or severed stems, then make a clean cut just below the wound. That will reduce the risk of infection and encourage new side-shoots to sprout.

British gardening expert Nigel Colborn shared his advice for nurturing gardens after this year’s extreme weather

Have supporting pea sticks, canes or devices such as interlinking stakes handy. Handle your plants with care and make sure to support sprained stems.

When propping up plants such as sweat peas, pictured, position the supports as discreetly as possible. If they’re partially hidden, that’s fine.

Where plants have been windtrashed, remove broken stems, even if you have to cut back the whole plant. There is still time for summer flowering plants to grow new shoots.

If constant-flowering plants such as penstemons, catmint or shrubby salvias are battered, cut damaged stems just above a lower bud or shoot. New growth will sprout from the stumps.

THE JOYS OF A LATE ‘CHELSEA CHOP’ 

Early summer pruning can make some plants change their flowering habits. Known as the ‘Chelsea Chop’ because, normally, it coincides with the Chelsea Flower Show, this works with tall sedums, phloxes, echinaceas, heleniums, lateblooming asters and many more. If you have several plants of the same variety, cut one in three to half, or two-thirds of their original height. That will delay flowering but provide a flush of later blooms. With a single plant, shorten stems by a third to extend flowering. Don’t do this with early summer plants such as oriental poppies, foxgloves or coreopsis. They’re best left to flower ad lib.

SOW VEG NOW! 

Despite it being mid-June, this is a good time to sow late cropping, non-hardy vegetables. Runner beans, pictured, sown now should produce a crop which lasts until October. They’ll need supports such as canes. There is still time to sow courgette and marrow seeds outside. Sow seeds individually, in fertile, moist but crumbly soil. Protect plants from slugs and snails.

Nigel advised a reader to add Crambe cordifolia (pictured) to the shingle in their garden (file image)

Nigel advised a reader to add Crambe cordifolia (pictured) to the shingle in their garden (file image) 

QUESTION 

We’ve made a little shingle garden at home and grown annual poppies and pot marigolds. Can you suggest some permanent plants? 

Mrs H. Brown, Suffolk 

Sea kale, Crambe cordifolia, pictured, is the classic shingle perennial. It has handsome, grey-green summer leaves and clusters of white flowers. Yellowflowered horned poppy, Glaucium flavum, is also a shingle-lover. For pollinators, include a lavender, assorted thyme and small rock-roses, Helianthemum. Those come in various colours.

Perennial sea hollies such as Eryngium Blue Steel or E. alpinum are lovely, too, but a bit prickly for children.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: TRAILING NASTURTIUMS (TROPAEOLUM MAJUS) 

This is probably the easiest of all hardy annuals to grow. Being colourful and edible, nasturtiums are also loved by children. There are lots of fancy varieties -all simply grown from seed. But for vigour and speedy growth, mixed trailing kinds are more fun.

Sow the seeds directly into prepared ground. Most soils will do, provided they’re in full sun. Trailing nasturtiums can be coaxed up supports such as trellis or left to scramble over the ground. April is the optimum month for sowing. But get some seeds in this week and you should have flowers from August until mid-autumn. Try thompson-morgan.com.