Midwest Radio - Weekly Gardening Advice Show 08/05/2021

The growing season continues to be challenged by weather conditions and cooler temperatures have held back any significant growth so far this year, however temperatures are set to increase and that means growth should be visible very soon. Paraic gives some advice on general feeding patterns for the next couple of weeks to give plants that all important boost to maximise growth and advocated removing any visible dead material at the same time. There's information on sowing seeds, and conditions are idea for vegetable plants. It's also tomatoe planting time and Paraic looks at totem and tumber varieties for anyone wishing to plant tomatoes outside. In anticipating of an explosion in weed growth there's advice on how to keep weed problems at bay and for those looking for some long last summer colour there's a special feature on cottage garden plants – nepeta, geum, salvia, day lily, phlox and lupins are all discussed in detail. Other topics this week include frost damage on potatoes, feeding laws, the many different varieties of plants that are referred to as palms, and the use of nematodes to deal with soil borne pests. Listeners questions feature malus as a pollinator, unwrapping tree ferns, aphid attack on leylandii, mixing different kinds of climbers, american mildew on gooseberry plants and the flowering process of lupins.