Colin Evans

Hot weather and thunderstorms has meant a great deal of growth in the garden this week and the lawn has been no exception with poor looking lawns suddenly bursting into life full of vigour and lush green.

If the grass is dry then this is a good time to get out the mower and reclaim what was once a poor looking lawn.

Just a quick cut with the mower will make all the difference and will mean that the grass will recover enough to give a nice looking lawn throughout the summer.

Waterlogged lawn

This combined with some liquid feed will be the difference between lots of work in the Autumn and very little. Cutting a refreshed lawn now will pay dividends later on.

The warm sultry conditions have given rise to some interesting sights in some gardens throughout the south.

In the past few days I have seen for the very first time flowering Banana Palms in a garden in Maidenhead.

I admit I was sceptical at first until I saw them with my own eyes.

I would have expected to see fantastic Banana Palms in Orchard Road and surrounding area's in hot and sunny Singapore, but Maidenhead, you could have knocked me down with a feather.

At first I thought it was a Stitch Up, but no, they do exist. I will follow their progress and update you as to weather the flowers turn into fruit.

My plant of the week, then, has to be banana.

Musa Cavendishii - The Dwarf Banana

Musa Cavendishii, or the Dwarf Banana, is the easiest to grow.

Mainly grown indoors as a houseplant this tough palm will thrive providing it's given plenty of water, a moist atmosphere, liquid feed and not too much direct sunlight.

Putting the plant outside in the summer will help to stop the leaves from drying out and keep the plant healthy and disease free.

A good idea is to place the pot into another pot filled with damp compost, this will keep the plant moist around the root system and around the leaf area and prevent the leaves from going brown.

If the leaves are damaged then simply removing them with a sharp knife will tidy up the plant with no ill effect to the palm.

Other varieties are Musa Bananarama, M Dwarf Chyla, M Purple Rain, and M Tropicana.

All these can be grown outside providing they are sheltered in a moist westerly facing position. It's worth a try.

Tomatoes will be growing well now so look out for large side shoots which will be present in the leaf axles of the leaf stems and if the varieties is of an upright growing type like Moneymaker or Alicante, then remove the side shoots as soon as they are seen.

The bush types like Tumbler and Cherry can be left to develop into large green bushes.

Eliminate those aphids

Feed well with potassium-based liquid feed and watch out for aphids and other diseases.

Weeds will be taking over the borders so hoeing them down can be a good way of controlling them. Just leave the weeds to sit on the surface of the soil to rot down.

If you have persistent perennial weeds like Couch Grass and ground Elder then either dig them out or use a proprietary chemical weed killer to control them.

Foxgloves

After heavy rain and strong winds perennials such as Delphiniums, Foxgloves, Gladioli and Hollyhocks will have been bent over so support each bloom with a cane so that the flowers show themselves at their best and the seeds ripen off naturally for next years self seedings.

Happy Gardening!