Monty Don has imparted a nifty gardening tip that promises to help your wallet while you “bulk up” your garden with an abundance of plants.
On the latest instalment of BBC Gardeners’ World, aired today (Saturday, October 5), viewers saw Monty Don in his element, crouched in the Spring Garden beside a trio of small purple heucheras.
Prior to this, he had been talking about the virtues of dividing plants. The green-fingered guru showcased how garden enthusiasts can multiply their plants through this method.
He initially used a sizeable specimen for demonstration before revealing that the trick works just as well with smaller flora, reports Devon Live.
Monty advised: “Now, if you can’t find a large plant to divide, a really good way to bulk up and get the quantity as well as quality is to buy lots of small plants.”
He elaborated on the economics, saying: “When you buy a plant that size, it’s going to grow away quickly and it’s going to be cheap. A lot of what you pay for in a plant is time. People have to water plants, pot them on, feed them.”
He added: “So if you buy it small and you manage it, that’s going to be a lot cheaper than buying a bigger one.”
Monty explained the benefit of his approach: “By planting these together, I may get an immediate impact from small plants, but also planning for the future because these will grow together to make a clump, which you can divide up and start to spread out.”
In related news, Monty Don recently reminded his fellow gardeners that the current period is ideal for pruning climbing roses, as Britain gears up for the approaching winter season.
In a recent blog post, he advised garden enthusiasts to prune their climbing roses “now”, explaining that these plants bloom on shoots grown in the same spring, hence they can be “pruned hard now”.
He further explained that rambling roses blossom on shoots from the previous summer, so it’s crucial for gardeners to hold off pruning them until “immediately after flowering”.
He suggested: “Start by removing any damaged or crossing growth or any very old wood which can be pruned right back to the ground.”
He also recommended arranging the main stems as evenly and horizontally as possible, securing them to wires or a trellis.
Monty concluded by saying that the side shoots from the main stems that produced 2024’s flowers can be trimmed down to a “short stub of a couple of leaves”.
