'Garden Column - July 2008'

Herbal entertaining!

Barbecuing and entertaining can become the highlight of summer gardening. It�s the ideal opportunity to get back your primeval instincts. Cooking over the glowing embers of the charcoal as your steak sizzles away and then a sudden inspiration hits the grey matter�I NEED SOME FLAVOUR TO HIDE THE TASTE OF THE BURNT EXTERIOR & THE LIGHTER FLUID.
Meanwhile your collection of freeze dried herbs sits upon the kitchen shelf collecting dust.
Before you get into this scenario leave the cooking meat and rush off into the house, why not save your legs and plant some herbs into containers and place them within walking distance of the barbecue.
With a wide variety of herbs now available, a mixed planter of your favourite flavours can be placed into almost any container � anything from a strawberry pot to a hanging basket.
Try and resist placing herbs like mint in these containers as this should be grown in a separate planter as mint can soon smother and strangle the other plants in the container.
These culinary delights can soon add flavour and scent to what can sometimes be rather plain food.
By growing herbs at the side of the barbecue it will make life a lot simpler when cooking.
One thing to remember is to have a bucket or bowl of salted water to wash the pickings and leaves into to remove any unwanted bugs.
Do this before placing them on your food or your vegetarian friends may end up with some added meat they didn�t anticipate!
Summer drinks also can be inspiring - place leaves of Bergamot, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Mint or Scented Sages into your beverages to add inspiring and enticing flavours. Finely chop the leaves, add them to water and then place the mixture into ice cube bags or trays � once frozen plop the ice into your drinks to slowly releasing the flavour.

Daily water checks.

Keep checking the soil of your plants and crops through the coming months. Do not allow your prize plants to dry out otherwise you may be looking at an increase on the height of your compost heap.
Regular and frequent watering will enable your plants to survive the coming months. If you are going away and you have no-one to look after your plant maintenance then it could be the ideal opportunity to add a self-watering system into the equation.
If this is beyond your purse strings then why not get a water butt filled up with water. Place a length of capillary matting into it then place all your pots onto this.
This will hopefully keep them watered enough until you return from your travels.

Rejuvenating Rhododendrons & Azaleas.

Older Rhododendrons and Azaleas this month could do with a prune that will rejuvenate them.
These acid soil lovers can be slow to restart growing. Look at the plant and strategically prune a third of the plant at a time. Your plant may end up looking strange for a while but if you trim the whole plant back the plant may not recover from the shock and die.
By trimming one third at a time the plant will still be able to produce food for it self and hopefully will enable dormant buds to break and then replace the growth that has been removed.
Once this growth seems large enough for the plant trim back another third.
Feed the plant with an acid plant food such as Miracle-Gro Azalea, Camellia & Rhododendron Soluble Plant Food. This will also help encourage the dormant buds to break.
Once the whole plant has been trimmed, you will be able to keep the plant in check after it has flowered each year.