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prepare beds and borders

How to Prepare Beds and Borders for Planting

If the weather is kind during January or February, this is a good time to prepare your beds and borders ensuring they will be ready for planting in the spring. Choose a dry day, wrap up warm and dig in!

Now is a great opportunity to boost the soil vitality by adding some compost. Try Multi-Purpose Compost with John Innes to help prepare the ground for planting.

Follow our useful tips on how to prepare your beds and borders so your plants will thrive for years to come with a great use of Kent & Stowe tools;

Step 1

Trim perennials sparingly, such as Rudbeckias and geraniums. Trimming will help the plants’ appearance and flowering, but leaving some stems for the visiting wildlife in your garden to provide them with food and shelter. Trimming can always be finished off during spring time.

Step 2

Your trimmings can be recycled to mulch and fertiliser, and this will help encourage flowering and plant growth.

To do this, chop up the material as finely as possible before mixing it all together and adding to your compost heap.

Sprinkle with a compost activator such as Garotta Compost Maker to help speed up the composting process.

Step 3

Once the beds are cleared, fork over the soil between remaining plants, mixing in some organic matter as you go. Gro-Sure Farmyard Manure is perfect for this. It will relieve surface compaction and improve drainage for your plants.

Step 4

Finish off by spreading a mulch of compost over the entire area. If you don’t have any home-made, use bags of Gro-Sure Rose, Tree & Shrub Compost instead.

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