Gardening Guru By Peter Wayman of Palmers Bethlehem

Most of us are now focusing on getting the garden ready for Christmas.

It may well be in the kitchen garden, making sure we get the produce in time for our Christmas meals. I am certainly worried that I will have to dig all my one row of potatoes to get a good feed for Christmas dinner as they have been slow growing this year and I will not be planting a late crop as the problems with the Potato and Tomato Psyllid are much worse in the later crops.

I will certainly have a good feed of most other vegetables for the festive season. I have an early cropping plum that is so full of fruit that I have had to thin the fruit out to improve the quality of the fruit and take some of the weight off the tree.

The other side to the garden is making it look tidy and colourful, ready for all those visitors around the Christmas period. The best thing for instant effect is to buy some potted colour which is in good supply at the moment. A quick hoe around early December should clean things up and still be looking good to the end of the month.

Don't forget indoors, a must for Christmas is the traditional Poinsettia plant. Poinsettias are easy to keep as long as they are out of draughts and are kept just moist. Be careful not to over water. If your plant looks like it needs water, but is actually quite wet it will be sulking, just let it dry and keep it on the dry side until it picks up again. After Christmas and your plant has dropped its bright red bracts, you can plant them out in the garden in a sheltered spot.

Christmas is the time to sit back and relax and enjoy the results of your hard work during the year. There is nothing more pleasing than flowers and vegetables grown by your own hands.