Herald - Issue 403

11th March 2021 • The HERALD • Page 47 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v | DOWN THE GARDEN PATH | All aspects of Gardening carried out by reliable gardener a Grass Cutting a Hedge Cutting a Border Maintenance, Pruning, Weeding a Treating of Fencing/Trellis/Outbuildings a Pressure Washing of Patios/Decking The Potty Gardener Contact Kev on 07585 115569 or 023 8084 8638 A J GLEESON BUILDING & GROUNDWORK DRIVEWAYS EXTENSIONS BRICKWORK GROUNDWORK BLOCK PAVING Colours & Designs to suit your requirements Local Work Available to View CALL FOR A FREE QUOTATION New Forest & Southampton 023 8084 4180 Mobile: 07770 771475 Bramdene, Main Road, Dibden, Southampton RPD Landscapes Building & Paving • Patios • Driveways • Fencing • Turfing • Brickwork • All Property Repairs Free Estimates 07707 390791 023 8007 0386 spreading around. • Keep the gravel pool topped up, especially in hot weather as the water is likely to evaporate fairly quickly. Suggested plants American harebell - Campanula carpatica; Bugle - Ajuga reptans; Cotton Lavender - Santolina chamaecyparissus; Dyer’s Chamomile (Golden Marguerite) - Anthemis tinctoria; English Lavender - Lavandula angustifolia; Euphorbia spp.; Fleabane - Erigeron spp.; Foxglove - Digitalis purpurea; Phlomis spp; Primrose - Primula vulgaris; Red Valerian - Centranthus ruber; or Rock Rose (Sun Rose) - Cistus spp. Struggling for space? If you can’t commit to a whole area of gravel garden, you can make mini gravel gardens by li ing a patio slab or two and treating the gaps in the same way as outlined above. is provides more planting opportunities and even happier wildlife. Hello from Copthorne Nursery, usually at this time of year we would be setting out the dates for our Open Day and Open Sundays but unfortunately, we cannot say for sure when these will be up and running again. Don’t despair as we will be selling; we just don’t know how or when! It may be a mixture of our previously successful online sales, delivery and collect at the gate and/or restricted opening times at the nursery. In the meantime we have discovered what we think to be a boundary marker, we are intriguing to nd out the history of the stone! We hope to be able to invite you very soon to see for yourselves what we have been doing since March 2020, new gardens, and discoveries!! Rest assured we will have plenty of plants for sale. As soon as we know we will let you know via our friends at the Herald. SPRING HAS SPRUNG! by Mandy Leigh, Copthorne Nursery, Fawley with water. Plant around the edges with soggy-soil-loving plants like marsh marigold and ragged-robin. Maintaining your gravel garden: • Keep the plants well- watered for their rst season. • Top-up the gravel when necessary. • You may need to weed out the more invasive intruders for the rst few years until the plants ll out and start How to Make a Gravel Garden for Wildlife Continued from page 46 Red valerian - ©northeastwildlife.co.uk It is easy to take your motor mower for granted and take it out to use and put some petrol in, then once the lawn is cut, back they go in the shed for the next time, which of course at this time of year becomes less and less. e old mower doesn’t complain and is reliable to a point, but there is going to be a time when it is just not going to start no matter how hard you pull the starter cord! Some simple things to check and clean each time you use your mower could prevent that happening such as; checking the oil is to the correct mark on the dipstick, making sure that the air lter is kept clean and the engine can breath, or just taking the sparkplug out and giving it a clean can make all the di erence. Finally keeping the blade sharp and making sure it is correctly balanced will improve the cutting quality. If you tip your machine on its side to carry out any basic checks, always make sure that the air lter side is always facing up and importantly remember that when you carry out any maintenance work on your mower that you remove the spark plug SERVICE YOUR MOWER cap and have the correct personal protective equipment on. If in any doubt contact your local garden machinery specialist.