Splitting daffodil bulbs in September

Tulip and daffodil bulbs have already started to shoot underground.

Tulip and Daffodil bulbs in September

If you’re digging your borders, be careful not to cut into and damage your bulbs.

Gently pull Daffodil bulbs apart

 

Gently pull the bulbs apart

If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good time to split your bulbs by gently prising them apart, beging careful not to damage the delicate roots.

Plant the the bulbs in the ground about three times the length of the bulb and about 10 cm apart.

Narcissus grub infected daffodil bulb

If the daffodils have blackened ends near the roots and the shoot have not begun to grow then check for the narcissus grub. These pests eat the centre of the bulbs. Throw the bulb away as it won’t really recover properly.

Complete Gardens advice CD-ROM

Gardening gifts with a difference

If you’re looking for gardening gifts with a difference, Complete Gardens CD-ROM Ltd have a range of interactive planting advice CD-ROMs that help you choose the right plants for the right place and season.

Examples of the Spork gardening tools. Hand spork.

Spork garden tools. Multi tasking tools for digging, planting, weeding and edging

Solitary bee house for masonry and leaf cutter bees

Habitats for our garden birds, hedgehogs, frogs and bees. Made from FSC wood. Bird nest boxes and hedgehog houses and frog house bee house, provide save havens for nesting and hibernation.

Tom tits inside a nest box feeding chicks

Wildlife surveillance cameras for watch the fascinating secret wildlife in our gardens. Bird nest boxes alow you to observe the birds inside the best with disturbing them spring watch in your own home. Wildlife study camera for watching foxes, badgers, hedgehogs and all the other wildlife you didn’t know lived in your garden

Bulb planting times and depth

To help you with your British bulb planting times and depths I’ve drawn an illustration help and clarify the various types.

Bulb planting time and depth

Click on the image to enlarge. 

Tulip planting

Narcissus

Hyacinth

Grape hyacinth

Crocus

The information comes from the Complete Gardens CD-ROM Ltd planting and pruning advice CD-ROM and is relevant for British planting times

Bee safe wasp trap. How to make your own wasp trap for free

Wasp killed in trap

Wasps can be a pest, especially if you’re eating or drinking in the garden and the wasps want to join in.

You can make your own bee safe wasp trap without attracting and killing bees in the process.

Recycle plastic container.

An empty plastic container makes an excellent wasp trap

Cut the top off to make a funnel

Cut a plastic bottle and turn the funnel up-side-down so it fits inside the container.

This makes easy access for wasps to enter the narrow hole yet difficult to escape.

Sweet and sour attractant attracts wasps but not bees

Add a mixture of vinegar, sugar and salt.  The wasps are attracted to the sweet and sour scent yet bees don’t seem to be attracted by this sour mixture whereas a honey mix would be a fatal attractant.

Keep the wasp trap out of the rain as it will quickly fill with rainwater.

The down-side of this wasp trap is it also attracts and traps beneficial insects such as lacewing and hoverflies which are a natural pest control of aphids

Hand spork

Hand spork for easy digging and weeding

I’m delighted to see the hand spork designed by Robert Todd mentioned in Best Buy in the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine.

It’s a quality garden tool that will last for years. It’s specially designed teeth are  perfect for digging or loosening soil, weeding in the borders or gravel path, plus digging holes for planting.

It’s head and shoulders above the rest and will last for years.