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Gardening in early autumn

Gardening in early autumn can be frustrating when the rain but glorious in the sunshine. For lawn lovers there is still plenty of time to seed and turf any patches in your gardens, raising the height of your mowers to around an inch (2.5cm) to put a little more green on your lawns is a good idea now and decreasing the frequency of your mowing is going to occur as the peak growing season comes to an end. Its advisable to stop feeding your lawn during the start of September and wait to use an autumn feed in late October. Your greenhouse will (or at least should) be looking full to the brim now with tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and peppers, etc, so by the end of the month, you should have removed the last of your fruit and composted the remains of the plants. If this creates vacant borders, you can sow winter lettuce, but cuttings your favourite and successful summer plants like fuchsias and pelargonium’s, and any rooted cuttings will soon fill up the space.

It’s now time to dry off your begonia bulbs to rest them for the winter and you could pot up freesia corms for a nice winter display. At this time of year it’s important to ventilate the greenhouse during sunny spells, but there is no longer a need to dampen off as the air is getting damper and the temperature is dropping.

This is a still busy time for Veg growers, sowing lettuces, spinach, and turnips and it’s time to plant out our spring cabbages. The usual pest problems are still prevalent too so net your brassicas to prevent bird damage and get busy stopping slugs from devastating your crops. A lot of your root crops will be ready to be dug up and stored, so it’s time to see those prize carrots, potatoes, and beetroots, storing onions in a dry bright place is best. Once these vegetables have been harvested, fork over and clean up the ground, ready for adding well-rotted manure in late autumn to overwinter.

General care of removing dead leaves from your crops and hoeing weeds in and around your plants helps to stop competition and pests. It’s now a great time to cut and dry your herbs ready for use during the winter, another fantastic trick is to freeze them immediately after cutting, this locks the smell and flavours in ready for use whenever. September brings us the start of the spring bulb planting season, hundreds of varieties are available some of the most popular are daffodils, narcissi, and crocuses. Lilly bulbs are ready to be planted into beds and borders and for lovers of flowers in the garden, we can sow hardy annuals for flowers next summer. Roses as always need looking after now, so prune your ramblers, remove any faded flower heads and start to take cuttings, and root them in a sheltered spot outdoors.

Conifers and most evergreens can be moved now if you have something growing in the wrong place, but if the weather stays warm maybe leave it a few weeks until the plants are dormant. If you take cuttings from your evergreen shrubs now is the time to chop into them and get them rooting in a propagator. The last jobs in the garden now are on the fruit, you should still be harvesting your apples and pears and storing them ready for use, also damsons and plums will soon be ripe enough to pick. Pruning is essential at this time of year to remove any runners that form on our strawberries, and raspberries and loganberries should be pruned. While working with raspberries you should look to tie in the new growth to support wires increasing the stability and shape of the canes, you can cut out any blackberry canes when they have finished cropping and tie in the new ones.

All in all, that’s plenty to keep you busy, but remember if you need any more advice or things explaining why not come and see us at Lymefield where there’s always someone friendly to help. You can also contact us through the website or by phone.

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Growing turf for your garden

Growing turf for your garden

At Lymefield we have grown our own fresh turf for over 18 years, and as such have become keen experts on the practice of developing and maintaining a tidy lawn.

We grow real turf on 5 different sites all within a half-mile radius of our Garden Centre here in Broadbottom, most are grown at Lymefield itself and can be viewed from ourTea Room. With customers and landscapers, there is a constant demand which sees us venturing out every night of the week in order to lift fresh turf for the following morning's orders and deliveries. Right on the county border of Cheshire and Derbyshire, we find ourselves in a unique position as real turf growers.

Whilst Cheshire itself is a well known and established turfing area, we are in a great location to deliver real turf to parts of Derbyshire including Glossop, Hayfield, New Mills, Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton, as well as areas of Cheshire such as Marple, Cheadle Hulme, Woodley, Bramhall and Wilmslow, and also towards the Greater Manchester area with city drops becoming more and more regular. Droylsden and Denton are locations that we now deliver to frequently for instance.

It is around this time of year that we become busier and busier with willing customers & landscapers looking to lay that perfect lawn. 

So here we'll provide a few handy tips on getting it right the first time: –

  • Firstly, it is important to remember that preparation is probably the most important part of getting your lawn off to a good start. You need to be laying your newly cut turf on to good qualitytop soil(which we can also supply).

  • The area needs to be well compacted – if there's an area of top soil that is loose or soft, your turf will follow suit once it is on top of it.

  • Once a firm and level area has been attained, the surface of the topsoil would benefit from being raked through, so as to leave it fine and without any large clumps.

  • Have a box ofBone Meal handy, and before laying each roll apply a light dusting on the area about to be covered. This will aid root development and thus allow the turf to take hold quicker.

  • Once turf laying commences, have a flat plank of wood handy in order to help compact and firm the turf down.

  • Overlap edges and use a sharp knife to cut away the excess.

  • Once the turf is fully laid, be sure to water it. Unless it is raining severely for a number of days, newly-laid turf needs to be watered around twice daily for at least 2 weeks. This is until it knits in, roots itself down, and can become self-sufficient, although remember that in drier seasons, grass will still need watering.

Our fresh real lawn turf is available fordeliveryor you cancollect in-store. If you need any assistance, please get in touch with us for some personal assistance, details on ourcontact page. Happy turfing!

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Road closure for resurfacing in Broadbottom

We are still open and accessible during the two week road closure and traffic lights in September!

– Friday 21st – 20:00 – 06:00 under ROAD CLOSURE
– Saturday 22nd – 08:00- 18:00 under ROAD CLOSURE
– Sunday 23rd – 08:00 – 18:00 under ROAD CLOSURE

– Monday 24th – 27th – 09:30 – 16:00 under 2-WAY TEMP SIGNALS

– Friday 28th – 20:00 – 06:00 under ROAD CLOSURE
– Saturday 29th – 08:00- 18:00 under ROAD CLOSURE
– Sunday 30th – 08:00 – 18:00 under ROAD CLOSURE

Diversions will be in place via the A626 and A57 starting in Charlesworth, through Gamesley and Hollingworth and ending in Mottram.

Our Tea Room,Farm Shop andGarden centre will still be open and deliveries will continue to all our customers andlandscapers as usual.

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Macmillian Coffee Morning – Bring & Buy Cake Sale

We are inviting you, our lovely customers and staff, to bring along your own cakes, from 3pm on Thursday 27th September, for a bring and buy sale, which will take place on Friday 28th September, where you will be able to buy the donated cakes to enjoy at home.
All proceeds will be going towards this this amazing cause, including all profits taken on tea, coffee and cake that morning in our Tea Room.

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Embroiderers’ Guild Exhibition

On Saturday 6th October, Lymefield Garden Centre will be hosting an exhibition of work from Glossop and District Branch of theEmbroiderers' Guild.

There will be fabulous crafty stalls and exhibition work to browse and our very own food to enjoy! Fabrics, threads, beads, buttons, ribbons, wools, cards and card making supplies as well as many stitched and knitted items. Spinning demonstrations from Kate from Wiseheart Studioes in Whaley Bridge. Embroiderers' Guild members will also exhibit some of the things made in workshops. Raffle and Name the Doll competition.