Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin episode 6: Diarmuid helps design a garden for Rachel Kelly in Drumbo, County Down, who has a an eyesore in the garden she wants to forget. He also offers advice for gardeners with a bit of help from plant experts Paul Smyth and Colm O’Driscoll and reveals whether a huge greenhouse made of reclaimed materials has made the deadline in his own garden.
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Diarmuid Gavin invites viewers into his own garden paradise, encouraging everyone across the country to get gardening together. He takes calls, answers questions and offers dozens of great practical tips.
Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin episode 6
How to grow lavender
Lavender is prized for its richly fragrant flowers and aromatic foliage. This easy-to-grow shrub thrives in a sunny spot, in free-draining soil or a container. Lavender is best planted in April or May as the soil naturally warms up and when many fresh plants become available in garden centres. The plant should never be planted in winter when young plants are vulnerable to rotting in cold, wet soils.
Lavender looks great in flower borders, herb gardens and as a low hedge or edging to a border. It also grows well in containers. Lavender is a Mediterranean plant (in needs if not always in geographic origin) and needs lots of sun and fast-draining soil. It will not survive long in shady, damp or extremely cold conditions. It prefers poor, dry or moderately fertile soil, including chalky and alkaline soils. Lavender will not thrive in heavy clay soil or any soil that becomes waterlogged over winter.
Newly planted lavender should be watered regularly during its first summer. After that, once it’s well established, lavender is drought tolerant so rarely needs watering when grown in the ground unless there are severe drought conditions.
Plants in containers do need regular water in summer, as they dry out quickly, and the roots have a limited amount soil in which to search for moisture. In winter, keep the containers fairly dry, maybe in a cold greenhouse or in the rain shadow at the base of a wall to keep off excessive rain, which will help improve the plants’ tolerance to cold weather.
