Here at The 5th Room we have been busy in trying to give you the best so that in mind we have started The English Garden Plant Directory and we need you now!

The English Garden Plant Directory is a free “wiki” and so need everyones input to make it work, we at The 5th Room will continue to put plants into this wiki. But we need you to put in plants and pictures of your plants that grow in your garden.

In The English Garden Plant Directory we hope to give you alsorts of info on plant listed covering the following:-

• Name
• Other / Comman Names
• Description and Origin
• Where to Plant
• Pruning
• Propagation
• Pest and Diseases
• A list of Varietys

To cover all this will take time, but with your help we can grow this faster for all to injoy and use. so join us and help build The English Garden Plant Directory together.

take care

fred

With the weather so so cold we at The 5th Room have been work to bring you more. So we have teamed up with Amazon.co.uk to bring you our new shop.

In clicking the link above you can go and find all sorts wonderful thing for your garden, from Seeds and Plants to Furniture, Ornaments, as well as tool to keep your garden tidy and looking great. And if thats to much work you, you can always just buy a book, and read while wishing you had someone to do it for you .

So with the weather so cold you can plan your veg and flowers for this year and get your seeds in now without needing to go out in the cold with it all being delivered to your door.

Have fun shopping here at The 5th Room and stay warm

take care

fred

A cold January, but there are many jobs that need do in and around the Veg plot with things to get ready for spring, as its not long away now!

So what needs doing…

General Jobs

If you have not already done so, all leaves and other rubbish must be cleaned up from around the plot,

Things to Plant

On mild days you can start to plant out Garlic, Onion sets and Shallots towards the end of the month.

Things to Harvest

Continue to lift and store root veg like Carrots and Beet as they best if they have been brought in by now. But the likes of Parsnips and Leeks are best with frost on them so leave them out until you need them. You can also pick some spring cabbage as winter greens too.

Fruit

Finish winter pruning Apple and Pear trees as well as Currant and Gooseberries bushes, when the weather is frost free.

Don’t forget you can still do hardwood cutting of Currant and Gooseberries bushes that you want from the off cuts.

Time is also running out to move any fruit plants around the veg plot so this need to be done soon.

Vegetables

Lift and divide Rhubarb crowns now and prepare some for early forcing and a good mulching will them too.

Pest and Diseases

Even at this time of year the slug can be around so keep an eye for them!

Mice can also be a problem at this time as they are short of food and will look for your stores to attack so keep an eye out for them.

Birds too and be a pain as they get hungry taking buds off of plants so look after them as well as putting net over plants to protect them.

Look for Canker in fruit trees.

So have good time it the Veg plot and don’t get to cold

take care

fred

It’s that time to put all Christmas things away, But what are you going to do with the Christmas Tree.

It’s nice to have a real tree for Christmas and with about 8 million being sold in the UK this Christmas. But now its all over what do you do with it apart from burn it in the garden or put it in the bin! Well there are some things you can do :-

1.  
2. If you have a plant shredder, you can put the tree through it and use the chips around the garden as a mulch, or in the compost bin as a break up for the grass clipping from last summer. 
3.  
4. Most councils will take trees in at there main recycling centers and waste tips to chip up and use around your city in parks ect. 
5.  
6. Or if your local Zoo will take them, again to chip them up and use them in the animals cages and around the Zoo.

So you can see a chistmas tree is not just for christmas but can be used again.

But a thought for next year you can buy a living tree in a pot and after chistmas give it to a woodland trust, or if you have a very big garden you can plant it your self and pay back a little co2

take care

fred

I hope you all had a good X-mas and now with the new year it’s time to get back in to the garden and get things ready for the spring.

Over the coming months I will be telling you about jobs I’m doing in and around the garden and giving tips on how to do things, so your garden is ready for spring.  So do come back often or use my RSS feed.

Please feel free to leave questions or coment  on my posts and add your own tips too.

So Happy New Year to all and hoping that 2009 is a good year for the garden.

take care

fred

Hi all hope u are all doing well.

The site has a new make over!!

But work is still going on so if you find a link that don’t work please let me know here by posting a comment. Or if you would like to see something new put in.

Also if you like to let me know what you think too, I love to hear what you all think. 🙂

take care

fred

The update on 8th of october have now been but right and more updates have been but in for you all to look at

click here to see them.

take care

fred

hi all hope u are all doing well

I have updated my Garden Examples page with a new job i have just finished.

It’s called “Deck’n’lawn” so feel free to have a look.

Click here to take a look at all of my garden projects.

take care

Fred