February 2005 #Issue 003

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Contents:

>Letter From The Editor

>Article Of The Month: Garden Spring Clean

>Good Deals and Special Offers: This month's HOT tips! >Web Update: What's new at Flower And Garden Tips.

>Your Space: Send us your ideas and questions.

>Gardening Resources

>End note

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Letter From The Editor

Hi

The sun is shining in the UK! Wow...in February!!! The fresh air and space is delightful after a long grey winter. So it's welly boots and garden time.... Although we have sunshine at the moment, the ground is still very wet in most areas, and unless you're very lucky, the soil won't be ready for digging yet.

There's loads of warming up exercises to do though. So get your gardening gear on, and see what's going on at the moment....

Enjoy the early springtime in your garden...

Linda

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Article Of The Month

The February Garden

Think 'spring clean' and apply it to your garden!!

- Is your shed doing it's job properly? Get in there and have a tidy up. Try and keep larger machinery in a garage or other outbuilding. Stack up your pots according to size. Get rid of any rubbish ( broken pots, old seed packets etc; ). Clean up your tools and sort out your seed box. Make sure you don't have any squatters. Mice love garden sheds!

-Do the edges of the lawn and flower beds look scruffy? Tidy them up! Use a sharp spade or similar tool and edge all round your flower beds, vegetable plots etc; This little trick really helps to keep weeds and grass from creeping onto your beds later on in the year.

-Take a good look at the whole garden. Wander round and think about your layout. Does the compost need moving? How will you rotate your vegetables this year? Could the garden do with a few more flowers, a bit more colour? While you wander round, pull out the first weeds of the year - it helps to get back in touch with the earth after the winter.

-Do you have any wayward trees or shrubs? Did you miss a little pruning in early winter? If the tree or shrub hasn't started budding, it's quite safe to trim and prune most varieties.

-Clean out the hedges. Tidy up under your hedges and mulch if you have anything available. You could use grass clippings or spread a little straw around the base. You could possibly feed your hedge now with a plant food. I try and use comfrey all over the garden. It makes a great organic fertilizer. If you don't grow comfrey - try and find a space for some. It's an excellent plant to have around. There's a page on the website about comfrey feed and how to make your own. Click on this link to go straight there...

Comfrey Feed Page

-Fix what's broke! Check your gate fastenings and fencing panels etc; especially if you have animals/poultry. A windy winter may have weakened joins and could be fixed now before the real gardening season is upon us! It's a pain to discover the chickens scratching around in your vegetable plot, eating all your carefully sown seeds. Avoid it if you can.

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Gardening Deals and Special Offers

Dutch Gardens have a 30% off deal on loads of stuff!

Dutch Gardens

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Web Update

I've been slacking. Only a couple of new pages this month...

Stone and rock can be very effective display points in your garden. With a little know-how and patience you'll get stunning results. I've put up a page about rock gardens to get you started... Rock Gardens

I've also put up a page called Water Features. This is actually a 'survey' page. I'm writing an electronic book about Water Features and I'd like your help in return for a complimentary copy of the book when it's ready.... Click on the link below to see what this is all about!
Water Features

One of my favourite garden supply sites in the UK stopped it's affiliate programme this week and I'm ploughing through tons of stuff to get the new links up and running. If you have a problem with any of the product links on site, Please accept my apologies. I'm racing to get it all done, but it's taking me aaaages!

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Your Space

Send your questions or garden tips to Linda at

creativegardening@flower-and-garden-tips.com

**WRITERS** Send us your gardening articles. Bio and link to your website included.(non-paying market). Please copy your article into the body of an email - I don't do attachments!

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Gardening Resources

Useful Websites Around the Net....
Nature Hills Lots of fruit trees and more!
Gardens Alive Organic products online.

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End Note

That's all for this month Write to Linda with your comments and suggestions here Creativegardening@flower-and-garden-tips.com 'Creative Gardening' is for YOU - tell us what you'd like to read about!

Happy Gardening!