Gardening Tips

Greenhouse
Clean your greenhouse ready for the coming season as well as any pots or trays you have. Cleaning greatly improves the growing environment for plants. By removing the algae, moss and grime it lets in more light and helps control pests and diseases too.

Fruit Trees
Start pruning fruit trees such as apple and pear trees. Tender fruit trees like plum, and cherry are best left to spring as there more vulnerable to disease.

Plan for the Year Ahead
Growing your own produce is very satisfying and rewarding, but it is always good to plan for the year ahead considering what you did the previous year for the likes of crop rotation.

The benefits of crop rotation

Soil fertility: Different crops have different nutrient requirements. Changing crops annually reduces the chance of particular soil deficiencies developing as the balance of nutrients removed from the soil tends to even out over time.

Weed control: Some crops, like potatoes and squashes with dense foliage or large leaves, suppress weeds, thus reducing maintenance and weed problems in following crops.

Pest and disease control: Soil pests and diseases tend to attack specific plant families repeatedly. By rotating crops between areas, the pests tend to decline in the period when their host plants are absent which helps reduce build-up of damaging populations of spores, eggs and pests. Common diseases that can be helped / avoided by rotation include clubroot in brassicas and onion white rot.

Happy gardening from the Estates Team at Rockliffe Hall.