Accessories

Prevention is better and cheaper than the cure. Strong, healthy plants that are well tended should establish fast and resist disease.

This is the place to buy stakes, bamboo supports, strong plastic guards, mulch fabric, a few chemicals to feed and protect your plants: everything you need to get plants started out in the field.

You can buy RHS licensed Rootgrow mycorrhiza 'friendly fungi', which is not essential, but we recommend it so much that we calculate how much your order needs at checkout.

Planting accessories:

1. Help new plants to establish strong roots, keeping the soil moist
2. Protect them from being eaten by deer, rabbits, insects, or damaged by lawnmowers etc
3. Prevent or cure diseases and pests

Establish Roots

Rootgrow fungi make soil nutrients massively more available to your plants' root systems; it does so much good that it is considered as "essential" for fruiting and large plants, especially on poor soils.

Bonemeal is also good for depleted soils, but don't mix it in when using rootgrow, apply as a top dressing instead.

Use a hemp mulch mat or Mypex fabric to suppress the weeds, and you are set for a trouble free start for any hedge or tree planting.You could avoid using weedkiller on, or digging up, the densest ground elder and nettles by scalping them off at soil level and then patiently covering the site for about 16 months (two summers) with Mypex.  

Protect from Animals

Basic spiral guards for hedging and small sapling trees need a bamboo cane support.

Basic tree guards require stakes: use 60cm tall guards against rabbits, hare and muntjac. For roe deer and bigger, guards must be 120cm tall, at least.

Heavy-duty tree guards are great where mowers and strimmers are in use.

Protect from Disease & Pests

Disease will happen less when the right plants are used for the location, and when planting and aftercare are good. The list of chemicals available is dwindling, as is their efficacy, but we stock a range that covers most situations. 

Aim to select plants that suit your soil, then prepare that soil to remove weeds and to improve its structure.Adding compost and other organic material at planting time or afterwards as mulch is always good for plant health. 

Using Planting Accessories

Always pay attention and use eye protection! Chemicals, whether pesticides or fertilisers (where too much of a good thing can really damage a plant), almost always have some toxic effect and should be handled and administered in accordance with their manufacturer's instructions.

Accessories that protect and support plants have been produced with low cost in mind. Stakes and canes have big splinters, plastic spirals have sharp edges that can cut or stab. Handle them with care and thick gloves. 

Deer Rabbits, and other Rodents 

Deer and gnawing animals, especially rabbits, can do a lot of damage in one night to young trees and hedges. They tend to be more systematic in the lean months, but may still seek out your tender young plants in summer. Even if you only see them rarely on your property, you should make or buy protection to keep them from decimating juicy young trees. Many species that are considered "deer resistant" still get snacked on. 

To protect all the branches of valuable orchard and ornamental trees from deer, it's best to either fence the entire area to about 12' / 4m tall, or ring each tree with a custom build cage; deer don't like to jump into confined spaces, so these can be under 4m. A full time alarm dog is also a wise choice. 

The bark at the base of a young tree needs protection from nibbling rodents, which can chew right through smaller trunks. We deliver 60 - 120cm tall cheap plastic guards, or 80-120cm tall strong strimmer proof plastic guards, or a disposable, expanding plastic spiral intended for smaller trees and hedging. If you make your own tree guards from scrap plastic, design them with some ventilation, and check them as your plants grow for restriction and rubbing.