May is a great month to put a range of basic skills into practice and help your plants to thrive. It could also save you money.
Ready to tackle your firstgarden? Or perhaps you want to build on your basic gardening skills? Either way, spring is the perfect season to practice a range of gardening essentials, from sowing seeds, pricking out and planting to transplanting, pruning, propagation and plant health.
Using your intuition when starting out is fine – in fact, it’s one of the many wonderful things about gardening – but enhancing your experience with a range of expert-led skills can really help your plants and garden thrive. It can also save you money in the long run, through raising strong healthy seedlings by thinning out and planting at the right time and propagating perennials to extend the number or range of plants in the ground or in pots. Plus, the more you hone your basic gardening repertoire, the better prepared you are to experiment and explore exciting garden plans and designs.
Up your skill set: lifting and dividing
Learning a new skill such as lifting and dividing useful or favourite perennials, like Achillea millefolium, can boost your gardening confidence and increase the potential of a new plot by expanding your plant stocks for years to come. It’s easier than you think – and fun to do. Jaime Johnson shows you how
