RED HOT AND GORGEOUS!

Sumptuous velvety clematis glowing deep in rich reds, pinks, purples and blues. Climbing and twinning up to cover many unsightly objects in your garden! Virginia creeper (parthenocissus) and its glorious autumn reds is a great alternative climber to have on offer
Acer palmatum is a fabulous foliage plant that will almost catch fire with colours of red (depending on variety), as the leaves begin to turn. Some, like ‘Crimson Queen’ are compact enough to be grown in large pots which makes them perfect for patios.
Potentilla presents perfect perennial red choices at this time of year. Use the vivid reds of ‘Gibson’s Scarlet’ to colour the ground level of the display.
All the above plants are available from your nearest St Bridget Nurseries Garden Centre. Old Rydon Lane (01392 873672) and Clyst St Mary (01392 876281), Exeter.

SLUGS!

A few days sunshine meant that I was able to get into the garden in full force over the weekend. My tidying up revealed that while I had been sheltering from the rain so too had hundreds of slugs and snails! There were clearly too many for even my greediest of hedgehog friends and so further help was needed in order to protect my plants from being eaten alive!

Beer is a traditional slug trap - simply fill an old tin can with a malty-smelling beer and set them at close intervals around the garden. To avoid killing beneficial ground beetles don't set them flush with the soil. A slug will happily climb, a ground beetle won't. If like me you'd rather enjoy the beer yourself you can use a mixture of flour, water and yeast in traps instead. Remember to mix up a new batch every day or so.

Another environmentally friendly way to catch them is to use the rinds of grapefruit, lemons and even potatos. Set the rinds, upside down in the ground where you've seen the slugs. Early in the morning lift the rinds up and you'll hopefully have a collection of slugs underneath, either kill your slugs (by crushing them) or give birds a treat and place them on the bird table.

Another trick is to use copper. Copper reacts with the slimey path of snails and slugs and gives them a rather nasty shock! You can buy copper wire and tape from your garden centre, like St Bridget Nurseries in Exeter, along with slug traps for use with beer.

Oh and don't forget a pair of gardening gloves - slugs are very sticky to touch!

BOG GARDENS

Sudden heavy downpours, coupled with soil compaction, poor drainage and landscaping with impervious materials will naturally lead to flooding. Prolonged waterlogging can weaken and kill plant roots. We can improve things such drainage using gullies and soakaways but in smaller gardens this can be more of a problem.

If you have very poorly drained soils that are consistently wet, it is generally better to work with nature rather than against it. Some plants thrive in wet, poorly drained soils such as Fothergilla, Euphorbia, Lamium and Trollius but they won't stand having their roots in wet soil all of the time. for permanently wet soils you could design a bog garden. Not only will this work with your soil type but bogs are a haven for wildlife such as dragonflies, frogs and migrating waterbirds.

Despite the name bog gardens can be extremely beautiful. Some good bog plants you could choose from include Filipendula Rubra (Meadowsweet) , Geum x borisii , Geum rivale (Water avens), Gunnera manicata (Giant rhubarb), Gunnera magellanica ,Gunnera tinctoria , Iris ensata syn. kaempferi , Iris ensata Variegata , Iris sibirica , Mazus reptans Alba, Mazus reptans Blue , Mimulus cardinalis, Mimulus Threave variegated , Peltiphyllum peltatum, Rheum palmatum and Sisyrinchium. All of these plants can be found at St Bridget Nurseries' Clyst St Mary Garden Centre.
Also suitable for the bog garden are Astilbes, Hemerocallis, Hostas, Ligularia, Lysimachia, Lythrum, Schizostylis, Tradescantia and Trollius which can all be found in the Herbaceous Perennial Section at both St Bridget Garden Centres.

If you want help planning your bog garden simply pop into your local garden centre, like St Bridget Nurseries, and ask one of the helpful staff.

Let's Be British!

Ok so the weather is letting us down and not exactly how we dream of summer, but let's be British and not let it dampen our spirits. Let's still brighten up our window sills so at least something is cheery outside. This gorgeous display of bright and cheery flowering plants can be seen today at St Bridget's Clyst St Mary Garden Centre and the plants would look lovely in a container on a window sill. Alternatively both garden centres have a fantastic range of colourful containers already planted and at reduced prices. What's more. nearly all of the plants at St Bridget's are grown on their nursery in Exeter so you'll be buying British too!

TREE FERNS

Dicksonia antarctica (shown left) is a fabtastic tree fern for UK gardens. Like most ferns it likes a partial shade to full Shade position. In areas prone to frost plants can be quite tender and so it is advisable to either wrapping the crown with straw, dead fronds or bubble wrap or keep your fern in a pot and move it into a conservatory. The ferns like to be planted in a well drained soil, preferably acidic. You will likely have acidic soil if plants like Rhododendrons and Camellias grow well in your garden, if you're not sure just plant the fren in ericaceous compost.

The thick mass of roots form a trunk, which can eventually reach about 6m (20ft) in the wild. The foliage appears in spring from the top of the trunk, unfurling from the centre to open up into large, rich green fronds. This particular variety has been given the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), which is for plants of outstanding excellence.

St Bridget Nurseries have lots of ferns in stock along with other unusual and exotic plants such as bananna plants so start your jungle garden today.

SUMMER WILDLIFE

During July and August are great for spotting and attracting wildlife into your garden. As an approved Devon Wildlife Trust garden centre, St Bridget Nurseries can advise you on how you can make your garden Wildlife friendly. Here's a few other tips of what to look out for:

- Butterflies will be a round in large numbers at this time of year, so plant good nectar producers like buddleja and red clover to attract them.

- Bumblebees will be mating with bees from different nests. Young males sleep out at night, often on flowers, whereas young queens return to their nests. Only mated young queens will survive the winter to start new colonies next year. Bumblebees may nest in tussocks of grass or moss, so may use a grassy bank at the edge of your garden. Plant clover and catmint to encourage them into your garden. You can also buy or make bumblebee bee boxes. Bumblebee boxes are about the size of small bird boxes but have two compartments: one in which the queen breeds which is filled with wood shavings, and one where the other bees live. Remember bees are great pollinators for your plants.

- Newts tend to breed later than other amphibians and should leave their ponds by August. Most frogs, toads and newts will stay on land until next spring so create log piles and leave the bottom of hedges undisturbed so they can take shelter there.

Another summer deal at St Bridget's

St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres in Exeter have just put Phostrogen Plant Food on special offer. Not only have their 1kg boxes got an extra 25% free in them (1.25kg box for £3.49) but you can buy 2 boxes for just £5! That's 2.5kg for £5.

Since many of your plants will benefit from a feed now, this is a great summer offer.

ST BRIDGET'S ARE THE GREATEST - IT'S OFFICIAL!

St Bridget Nurseries scooped a total of three awards and were shortlisted for a total of four at yesterday's THE GREATEST AWARDS 2007.

The Greatest 2007 awards were organised by the Garden Communication and Media Company to recognise team success in garden retailing. Throughout the month of June, the general public were encouraged to vote for their greatest garden centres and the votes were received in their thousands. Over 200 independent garden centres were nominated.

Sir Geoff Hurst, England’s 1966 World Cup hat-trick hero presented The Greatest Awards at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham on Monday 9th July. St Bridget Nurseries won The Greatest Planteria Team, a silver award for The Greatest In-store Merchandising Idea plus their Plantsmans Café won The Greatest Garden Centre Catering Team for the South West. In addition, St Bridget Nurseries was shortlisted in the greatest garden centre category and were voted one of the top 20 garden centres in the UK.

Everyone at St Bridget's would like to thank all of you who voted for the company. The entire team is thrilled and it is great to put the West Country on the gardening map again!

SUMMER SAVER AT ST BRIDGET'S

Heathers have just been put on special offer at St Bridget Nurseries. Plants in 9cm pots were £1.49 each or £12.50 for ten.

They are now 75p each or £5 for ten only while stocks last.

Heathers are beautiful dense, low growing evergreens that provide excellent ground-cover. The give colourful displays in both flowers and foliage throughout most of the year. All plants require acid soil conditions, though the Carnea varieties will tolerate some lime. If you live in an alkaline/lime area you can plant heathers in pots or raised borders using ericaceous compost. As plants get to the size you want them to stay at give them a clip to shape and remove daed leaves by the end of March or early April, this also prevents plants getting too woody.

Give your plants space

Good spacing will help to reduce your garden feeling overgrown and crowded. Spacing also allows air to circulate freely around the leaves which keeps plants healthy. If you have a damp garden and have had problems with fungal diseases, one of the best remedies is to take out some plants and move them to a spot with more space as plants close together will spread diseases. Pruning can also give your plants some breathing space. Make sure you prune each plant at an appropriate time. The general rule is if a plant blooms on old wood, prune after it blooms (spring or early summer). If a plant blooms on new wood, prune it in late winter/early spring. Have a look at your plants and you'll soon see the difference.

Sorry for the break in news, I've been on holiday - don't worry like you I also got the rain!

Most gardening tips at this time of year tell us about watering young plants and other water related tasks. Whilst this may not be an issue at present we should think ahead. Although the forecast remains unsettled the great British Summer may come late this year and so why not harvest the rain we are getting now and stock up with water for when it gets hot? My 300L water butt is already full so I'm going to invest in an overflow one. It's surprising when the sun does come out just how thirsty hanging baskets and containers can be and that stored water will soon go. St Bridget Nurseries have a wide selection of water storage aids in their garden centres so pop in and start harvesting the rain!