I saw some lovely hydrangeas lately but I can never seem to source their likes in garden centres? Where can I get the likes of Hydrangea paniculata, or H. preziosa?
I can understand your frustration at being unable to source particular hydrangeas but most garden centres can now supply you with paniculata varieties, even preziosa. I can highly recommend paniculata ‘Limelight’ or paniculata ‘Pinky Winky’. Both are pruned back hard during early March and they’ll flower on growths made in the current year.
I have a large collection of pots in the garden, all filled with summer bedding. When these finish during October what can I use as a replacements?
For some good colour early in spring try polyanthus in various colours, winter-flowering pansies, bellis perennis (pom-pom daisies) even forget-me-nots, all under-planted with ‘Tete-a-Tete’ daffodils. These low growing evergreens (the forget-me-nots are exceptions) are ideal for container work as well as in borders and beds. They tolerate wind and rain no bother.
I want to hire a good lawn spiker for an hour or two. Most of those I have tried do not hire out this kind of machine. The lawn is only about 100 square metres in size. Where can I go?
If the lawn is that small, do the job yourself using a hand-held spiker. These have two hollow tines at the foot of a ‘T’ handle, and you push this into the surface every six inches or so using your feet. It takes out a pair of neat cores with each plunge. Fill these holes with old compost when finished. Do a few yards every night and in no time the job will be completed.
