Welcome to Garden King's Plant Doctor Blog, where our experts discuss and answer all your gardening questions. This week I'm talking about creating a bee-friendly wildflower garden, spot-treating problem weeds and giving your broccoli a boost!
It's quite the fashion to grow a wildflower patch, they look great and do their bit for the bees and a wealth of other beneficial insects too. Prepare your patch now and reap the benefits next summer, wildflower seed mix is cheap and easy to sow and is often a mix of yellows, blues and reds that create an eye-catching result. July is the ideal time to buy your seed mix and prepare the ground. You can leave it until next Spring - but we recommend you sow in Autumn for the best results in Summer. Turn over the soil over the next month or so to encourage perennial weeds species to emerge. You can then clear them out either by hand or with a weedkiller. Once your seed bed is clear of weeds, you can sow your cornfield mix before Winter and wait for a delightful show of colour next year. The Winter frosts will improve germination and flowering will start early and should last well into the summer.
If you're garden is like mine, you may have weeds in awkward places - including borders, lawns and around vegetable plants. If you used a traditional weedkiller on weeds in these areas you would probably risk affecting the surrounding plants 
and growth. Roundup have recently launched Roundup Gel, this 'as seen on TV' product really is great for spot-treatment of weeds, without harming surrounding plants and flowers. The gel formulation sticks to the weed leaf and stays there - so there's no dripping or running off onto soil or treasured vegetables and plants. You can also target lawn weeds (when you take extra care). The gel is absorbed by the leaves, enters the sap stream and is carried to the growth points of the weed and kills the leaves, shoots and roots. The unique formula of Roundup Gel becomes inactive when it touches the soil - meaning the area is ready for replanting straight away. This groundbreaking product is available now at Garden King.
Give your broccoli a boost! Your sprouting broccoli plants have put on some good growth, now it's time to give them a boost with a general granular feed such as Growmore. This will help to replace the nutrients which have leached out of the soil. During this wet weather, it's a better option than liquid feeds as excessively wet soil and overwatering can lead to root rot and yellowing leaves. Let the rain do the work and dissolve the fertiliser into the soil which will make the nutrients available to your plants. Growmore is available to buy now at Garden King.
If you have any suggestions, questions or comments - feel free to drop us a line (we'd love to hear from you!). You can email plantdoctor@gardenking.co.uk, call us on 01283 550 516, add us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Happy gardening x
