 It's time to trim your topiary
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June jobs
June jobs for gardeners include dead heading delphiniums, trimming topiary and planting out tomatoes, writes Martyn Cox If you’ve only got 10 minutes
If you have raised tomato plants from seed, now is the time to plant them outdoors in large pots, growing bags or even among flowering perennials in the border. Don’t worry if you haven’t got round to growing any, good garden centres will have ready-grown plants in stock. For the best fruit, keep well watered and feed once a week with a fertiliser high in potash.
If you’ve only got 15 minutesRather than allow the spent flower heads of lupins, delphiniums, and other early flowering perennials, to turn to seed, cut them back to a set of leaves with secateurs. Apart from leaving tidier plants in the border, this will encourage a second, but less showy, flush of flowers in late summer.
If you’ve only got an hourTo keep topiary looking sharp, give plants a trim . Box balls, cones and spirals make lots of fresh growth during the spring and a crisp silhouette will soon take on a rather scraggy appearance.
Fortunately, box shapes are easy to restore by working over the plant slowly with a pair of traditional topiary shears - these will leave a much cleaner finish than other cutting tools. Although some shapes are easy to cut by eye, you may need to use a cutting guide for more complicated shapes.
This article was created: 29 May 2007.
This article was last edited: 29 May 2007.
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