What to do in the garden this month

• Cutting back your perennials to improve their flowering performance is normally carried out in late May/early June, around the time of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and is known as the ‘Chelsea Chop’. It’s not too late to prune a wide range of border perennials by a third to produce more compact, neater plants with slightly smaller but more abundant flowers. Echinaceas, Phlox, Sedum and Heleniums are particularly responsive to the ‘chop’!
• Snap off tomato side shoots as they appear.
• Plant out summer bedding plants.
• Tie in sweet peas and other annual climbers regularly.
• Lift and divide overcrowded clumps of bulbs!
• Keep weeding!

Did you know?

Culinary Herbs. Herbs are a perfect way to enhance food and it is particularly useful to have a ready supply of aromatic plants growing in the garden. Culinary herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that, like spices, they are used in small amounts and provide flavour rather than substance to food.

Herbs can be perennials such as thyme, sage or lavender, biennials such as parsley, or annuals like basil. Perennial herbs can be shrubs such as rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, or trees such as bay laurel, Laurus nobilis – this contrasts with botanical herbs, which by definition cannot be woody plants. Some plants are used as both herbs and spices, such as dill weed and dill seed or coriander leaves and seeds. There are also some herbs, such as those in the mint family, that are used for both culinary and medicinal purposes.

Emperor Charlemagne (742-814) compiled a list of 74 different herbs that were to be planted in his gardens. The connection between herbs and health is important already in the European Middle Ages–The Forme of Cury (that is, “cookery”) promotes extensive use of herbs, including in salads, and claims in its preface “the assent and advisement of the masters of physic and philosophy in the King’s Court”.

Christmas greenery, straight from the garden

What could be more lovely than stepping out on a cold and frosty morning to pick home-grown Christmas greenery, straight from the garden? Graham Rice offers some expert plant suggestions.

It used to be that the only option for holiday greenery in the home was the Christmas tree, along with holly and ivy. Now everything’s changed, and very definitely for the better.

Today an increasing range of attractive evergreen alternatives for decorative foliage is available to use in wreaths, in table decorations and in long-lasting seasonal arrangements. And the great thing about so many of these alternatives is that you can grow them yourself at home. Here are ten options.

Numbers at the end of each entry refer to plant height and RHS hardiness rating.

Source: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/graham-rice/shrubs-and-climbers/grow-your-own-christmas-greenery