Let's Garden, gardening advice

It's still Winter but even if the days remain cold, they get noticeably longer. The vegetable patch is at rest, but you can still take advantage of the longer days to mulch your plants and prepare the soil and your seeds. At the end of the month you can plant shallots and jerusalem artichokes, as well as onions and garlic if the weather is mild. Seeds should be planted under a cloche or a protective tunnel.

It is still the time to plant trees and bushes in the orchard. Help your fruit trees resist the cold by fertilizing them with well-decomposed animal dung. The last Winter pruning should be carried out in this month, especially on the apple trees, pear trees and vines.

In the ornamental garden, prune the heathers which have lost their flowers and start exposing your dahlia bulbs which have up to now been protected from the harsh cold. It is also the time to replant the lawn and prune the Summer flowering trees and bushes before they start vegetating again.

Last 10 publications

Fish modified 08/02/2010
Fish are cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates. They have fins and a body covered with scales. They usually breath with their gills, but some species, such as the lungfish, have lungs of some sort.

The common water or edible frog modified 08/02/2010
The common water or edible frog (Rana esculenta) is the most common species of frog in Europe. It is a member of the Ranidae family, is greeny-brown in colour and an adult measures around 12 centimetres in length.

The hedgehog, the gardener's friend modified 08/02/2010
The European hedgehog is a protected species much appreciated by gardeners as it devours snails, spiders, worms and other ravaging insects.

Small garden mammals modified 08/02/2010
As the name suggests ('mammal' means "those who have breasts", coming from the Latin "mamma" meaning 'breast' ), females from this grouip feed their young with milk.

The lacewing modified 08/02/2010
The golden-eyed lacewing (Chrysoperla sp, the common lacewing), is an ill-known Neuroptera whose winged adults lay their eggs on the leaves of plants, from spring to autumn.

The shrew modified 08/02/2010
Often mistaken for the mouse, the shrew is much smaller, measuring only about 10 cms. in length.

The marmalade hoverfly modified 08/02/2010
The marmalade hoverfly is a fly which belongs to the Syrphidae family (Episyrphus balteatus).

The dragonfly modified 08/02/2010
The dragonfly is an easily recognizable insect as it i big in size, has translucent wings and big, compound eyes.

The earwig modified 02/02/2010
The forficula commonly known as the earwig is found in most gardens. It is inoffensive and is helpful to the gardener as it feeds on ravaging insects like greenflies.

Amphibians modified 02/02/2010
The amphibians group, once called "batrachians", is a group of four-legged vertebrates, somewhere between fish and reptiles seeking to come inland. Most amphibians spend part of their lives in the water (larvae) and part of their lives on land, this being caused by a metamorphosis controlled by their thyroïd hormones.