Create your own fruit garden – now’s an excellent time to plant fruit trees and bushes, and St Bridget Nurseries have lots to choose from.
To ensure bumper crops, plant with plenty of organic matter and slow-release fertiliser and make sure you train bushes where necessary and use stakes and ties for fruit trees. It's easy to grow your own and think if the environmental benefits...save on food miles and knowledge that what you are eating is fresh and chemical free!
Make gooseberry fool with Gooseberries, Redcurrant jelly or Cranberry sauce for next year's Christmas meal. Blackberry and apple crumble, summer pudding or simply an Apricot! There's lots to choose from so give it a go and grow your own!
We've also been given a special BLOG offer! Spend over £10 on fruit plants and trees in one single transaction between now and December 11th and present a copy of this blog and you will receive a FREE recipe book - Favourite Apple Recipes - which has over 30 fruit recipes in it!

EVERGREENS
Planting evergreens is one of the best ways of bringing colour and texture to the garden at this time of year. It’s hard to beat the value of conifers for the winter garden. There are so many colours and shapes – and because there are types that grow from a few inches to several feet high, there are types for every garden and situation.

If you choose carefully you can also get evergreen plants with some welcome winter flowers. Try planting mahonia, Viburnum tinus and winter-flowering heathers. And don’t forget that some evergreens also produce colourful berries at this time of year – such as pyracantha, skimmia and cotoneaster.

If you have a look around St Bridget's planteria you’ll see there are plenty of ideas for turning your garden into a winter wonderland.

And, as with all plants, get them off to a flying start by planting with compost and a slow-release fertiliser.

Hedging
Now’s a good time to plant a hedge and here’s how to ensure you get the best from your new hedges.
Hedges are the perfect solution for providing a colourful, natural-looking boundary to a garden. And there are lots of plants suitable for providing a hedge, barrier or screen – whether you want evergreen or deciduous, formal or informal.
It’s important that you prepare the soil well. Start by digging out a trench at least 18 inches wide and 12 inches deep. Fork over the base of the trench and incorporate plenty of organic matter – such as well-rotted manure, compost, composted bark or planting compost. Mix the excavated soil with lots more organic matter and some bonemeal or controlled-release fertiliser, and re-fill the trench – firming the soil as you go.
Before planting water the plants well; you should place the roots of bare-root plants in a bucket of water for half an hour. Then plant at the right distance; most types should be planted 18 inches apart, although conifers and more vigorous types can be planted two to three feet apart. After planting water in well, and water during dry spells for the first year. St Bridget Nurseries have lots of suitable hedging plants including cheaper bare-rooted plants – pop in to get that privacy from the neighbour that you’ve always wanted ;-)