Innholdsfortegnelse for 1 August 2015 i Amateur Gardening

“WHAT KIND of compost do I need to grow strawberries?” My youngest daughter’s question was a bolt out of the blue. The only interest she showed in gardening when she was little was chasing her sister with the garden hose (it ended in the kitchen!). But this year she’s planted containers to grow strawberries, herbs and tomatoes – and a lupin. All seem to be thriving by the back door of her ground floor flat in London. My eldest daughter also took me by surprise a few years back, growing some excellent vegetables in her garden in Kent – her butternut squash was better than mine! So, where did this sudden interest in growing things come from? My wife, Kath, and I would let the kids mess about in the…

THE DOG days of summer are upon us, those (hopefully) warm days when it becomes obvious that even the smallest garden was designed for outdoor living and entertaining. It is also the time when the garden has a quiet spell, as many of the summer bloomers will be past their best, and the late-summer and autumn-flowering plants have yet to really hit their stride. But don’t let the heat and the apparent lack of activity make you take your eye off the ball. Those seemingly small gardening tasks that always need doing never go away – and are supplemented by a few extra summer ones. Here’s my list of things to do to keep your garden at its best in late summer. top tip Although there is plenty to do…

AUGUST BANK Holiday is just around the corner, and many people will be celebrating the extra day at home with parties and barbecues – providing the weather behaves. If people are coming round, we like the garden to be looking its colourful best, and one of the easiest and quickest ways of achieving this is to plant up a container packed with brilliantly flowering plants. Many plants, herbs and grasses thrive and look stunning in containers, and on these pages I have planted one that should be at its best over the bank holiday. I had a few plants left over, so I planted them out in borders to fill gaps where other plants had finished flowering. I have also chosen a selection of other varied pots for future inspiration.…

ONE OF the most therapeutic jobs in high summer is deadheading – and there are some very good reasons for doing it. First, it stops petals scattering about the garden and the plants look better; second, removing the old spent blooms gets rid of ripening seedheads and so prompts the plants to flower again. Regular deadheading is also useful, tom prevent self-seeding with perennial plants such as aquilegia and grasses, and annuals like California poppy. I’ve looked at how, where and when, fading flowers should be removed in the panel (left). In most cases, cut off the stalk of plants that carry flowers on long stalks. The flower heads of bedding, such as petunias and cosmos, can be nipped out with finger and thumb. top tip Some plants, including fuchsias,…

OUR SEED giveaway this week is the gorgeous Aquilegia ‘Miss Scott Elliott Mixed’. The pretty blooms of this granny’s bonnet, or columbine, as it’s also known, come in a wide range of colours. The flowers appear during May and June or thereabouts, depending on the weather and how sheltered your garden is. Your aquilegias are hardy and perennial in nature, so will last for many years and survive British winters. And they’re versatile – they’ll grow well either in full sun or semi-shade. Most enjoy dappled shade, and love deep, rich soil. When planting, it is a good idea to work in extra organic matter – well-rotted garden compost is best. Mulch with the same. Aquilegias lend themselves to the cottage garden style. You’ll often see them quoted as being…

YOU EITHER love it or hate it – the strange pungent taste of coriander leaves. I have learnt to love it and frequently use the leaves in salads or as a garnish for hot spicy dishes – picked fresh from the garden for a large part of the year. It is coriander’s broad young leaves which are harvested, so it is grown like baby-leaf lettuce or salad rocket and sown little and often. When the plants bolt (which they do readily in summer), the flower stems produce finely cut foliage which has a harsher flavour. The battle is therefore to prolong the production of young leaves by using the right varieties and having the right growing conditions. Coriander needs a sunny spot and rich soil, so add compost to the…

QI planted some lemon pips from a shop-bought lemon. Some germinated and are growing into little trees. How can I make them more bushy? Trish Clements, Bath AI would pinch out the tops of the stems to encourage them to be more bushy. Citruses can be pruned at any time in a warm location. In colder regions, they are best pruned between spring and late summer, so new growth has time to mature before the winter. If your lemons are in a heated greenhouse or conservatory, prune them now, as they will have time to re-shoot before winter arrives. If you can’t keep them warm over winter, prune in spring. ANNA TOEMAN Q My sweet peas have been brilliant this year, but the flowers are full of tiny black beetles,…

IN NEED of twiggy sticks for supports, I wandered down to the wilderness where some were bundled last winter. First, I admired our swamp cypress, Taxodium distichum var. imbricatum ‘Nutans’. John and I both trained at Kew and we planted this to remind us of the fine specimen that grows in the older part of Kew Gardens. Leaf shoots of this narrowly conical form turn upwards, as though defying gravity. In lightly shaded meadow, purple-flowered black knapweed (Centauria nigra) looked great with the yellow spires of agrimony. The latter belongs in the rose family and apparently you can make an infusion from its leaves. I must tell my son, who is studying environmental science and heavily into foraging. He often hikes off into the countryside armed with a flask of…

TESCO IS to redesign the packaging of its own-brand tomato feed and weedkiller after gardeners using Twitter warned that the two virtually-identical products could be muddled-up. Tesco (slogan Every Little Helps) was slammed by shoppers who said gardeners could easily pick up the wrong red bottle, and pour weedkiller onto their crops. AG contacted Tesco’s headquarters in Hertfordshire after learning that its Tesco Basics Tomato Feed and Glyphosate Concentrated Weedkiller looked similar. REALLY SHOCKED A Tesco shopper, who did not want to be identified but said that she is a professional horticulturist with a spraying licence, told AG: “I was really shocked when I saw the bottles side-by-side, with their design so similar. “It doesn’t bear thinking about if someone mistakenly watered their tomatoes with weedkiller then ate the fruits.”…

A COFFEE chain is to allow gardeners to collect used coffee grounds from its stores, to give their crops a pick-me-up. Free grounds are now available from Costa’s chain of 1,800 UK shops. Grounds are the pulp left over after coffee beans have been roasted and crushed. Many gardeners report that coffee grounds, which add minerals to the soil, give acid-loving plants a boost – as well as tomatoes, roses and fruit crops. Giant veg grower Kevin Fortey (pictured) has been using Costa’s coffee grounds on his cabbages for seven months. He said: “I’ve seen a huge improvement in the quality of my veg. “Coffee grounds are an excellent source of slow-release nitrogen, calcium and magnesium that are beneficial for the growth of plants. “As well as a soil conditioner,…

FOR IMPACT ‘Munstead Wood’ A scented, repeat-flowering David Austin shrub rose that produces generous velvety blooms the colour of port. H2 ½ ft (90cm). FOR CONTAINERS ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ A repeat-flowering David Austin rose with gorgeous apricot flowers, copper and green leaves and a rich scent. H3 ½ ft (1.2m). FOR CUT FLOWERS ‘Olivia Rose Austin’ This new David Austin shrub rose repeatedly produces beautiful scented pink blooms that make great cut flowers. H3ft (1m). FOR BEES & BUTTERFLIES ‘Keros’ A lovely Harkness variety with great disease-resistance, this single-flowered white rose has a long flowering season. H3ft (1m). FOR FRAGRANCE ‘Margaret Merril’ This long-flowering Harkness Floribunda rose produces pink pearly-white flowers that exude a delicious scent. H4 ½ ft (1.5m) FOR COLOUR ‘Gloriana’. Hot pink flowers are produced during summer…

SELF WATERING TRAY FROM £10.25P&P £4.99 Two Wests & Elliott 01246 451077 twowests.co.uk This plastic base tray holds water for up to two weeks. It’s teamed with a strong aluminium raised insert containing capillary matting that draws water up into the tray via a wicking process. Simply stand your plants on top of it. Choice of six sizes. WATERING SPIKES £6.35 FOR PACK OF TWO P&P £1.75 The Organic Gardening Catalogue 01932878570 organiccatalogue.com Put empty lemonade and water bottles to good use with this simple watering system. Partly fill them with water, attach a spike to the top, push into the soil and your plants will get just what they need. Two sizes – 110mm and 160mm for 250ml and 2ltr bottles. SMART VALVE £12.50P&P £3.95 Harrod Horticultural 0333 400…

ONE OF the more difficult things for a very keen gardener is taking a summer vacation. Going away this month means leaving your plants right in the middle of one of their most demanding times, and through their most productive period. I reckon I can take a day off, or possibly two, with little detriment. Three days, and it starts to get harder to put it all back together. Because the compost in the pots dries out and becomes really hard to re-wet, the cropping plants, such as courgettes, gherkins and beans, grow too large and stop new ones forming, and the hens start hatching eggs. Take A WEEK away? You must be joking! Even with the best preparations, without a stand-in I couldn’t leave for a week and hope…

FROM TIME-to–time most gardeners become enthralled by a single interest that consumes all of their efforts. Over the years I’ve obsessed about orchids, been absorbed by alpines and even become fixated by ‘sheds’. At the moment I’m in the grip of a desire to prune that started after I’d trimmed back the spent blooms of alchemilla. This essential summer job encourages a second crop of flowers and stops the seeds spreading everywhere, and after snipping the wiry stems to the ground it seemed only natural to tackle the shrubs. We have a lot of woody spurge (aka euphorbia, pictured circled) in our garden including the blue-grey E. wulfenii, honey-scented E. mellifera and the magnificent E. x pasteurii. For most of the year their whorls of evergreen foliage look fantastic, but…

THERE’S ALWAYS something to do in the garden, and now is the time tackle trained fruit trees, to keep growth and shape under control, and prune out their new, strong growth. Cutting out the growth that your trees have made this season may seem harsh, but it allows the sun to get to the ripening fruit and sweeten it up. This pruning also makes harvesting easier, and maintains the shape of cordons, espaliers and fan-trained trees. Timing is vital, and pruning is best done as soon as possible in hotter, drier regions, or left until September in cooler, wetter parts of the country. Pruning helps promote flower bud formation, and so leads to the development of more and better fruit next year. Soft fruit pruning jobs to catch up with…

IF YOU are at a loose end over the next week or so, why not visit one of these gardening events taking place around the country? • 1 August: Plant fair, National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffs DE13 7AR; 01270 811443; planthuntersfairs.co.uk • 1 August: Plant fair; Dearnford Lake, Whitchurch, Shrops SY13 3JQ 01270 811443; planthuntersfairs.co.uk • 2 August: Plant lovers’ talk & walk with Matthew Biggs (free with garden entry); Barnsdale Gardens, The Avenue, Exton, Rutland LE15 8AH 01572 813200; barnsdalegardens.co.uk • 4 August: Opening of historic walled garden; Wynyard Hall, Tees Valley, TS22 5NF 01740 644811; wynyardhall.co.uk • 4-26 August: Exhibition of Plant Portraits; Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London DW3 4HS 0207 352 5646; chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk • 7-9 August: 20th Anniversary Chilli Fiesta; West Dean Gardens, Nr…

• Roses: Repeat-flowering varieties bloom more rapidly and prolifically if spent blooms are snapped just below the flower head. Remove individual blooms on multi-headed varieties. • Bedding: Small flowers, such as violas and dianthus, can be cut with scissors. Tackle tougher flowers of dahlias and calendulas with secateurs. Remove flower and stem of pelargoniums. • Perennials: Cut down tall stems of delphiniums, lupins and verbascum to a leaf, so it does not show. Cut clumps of hardy geraniums to the ground. • Bulbs: Remove the heads of plants such as alliums, pictured, so energy isn’t wasted on producing seed, but leave the stems on to feed next year’s flowers.…

FACTFILE Aquilegia ‘Miss Scott Elliott Mixed’ SOW: Feb-Jun, and Aug-Oct HEIGHT:24in (60cm) FLOWERS:May-Jun BEST FOR:Cottage and cut flower gardens • Sow during September and October, or wait until February. • Sow on a good quality, damp, free-draining compost (above). Cover the seed with a ¼in (6mm) deep layer of compost or vermiculite. • Seal your tray or pot inside a polythene bag, and then place in a refrigerator for about three weeks. Do not allow it to freeze. • Then place it in the warmth, in a temperature of 15-21°C (59-70°F). Germination can take up to three months. • When the seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant them individually into 3in (7.5cm) pots. Overwinter the plants in a coldframe or plunge the pots in a sheltered place outside. •…

APRIL-AUG 1 Choose a sunny spot, fork in compost; sow seeds thinly in a drill ½in (1cm) deep. Cover lightly MAY-SEPT 2 Keep the seedlings moist; thin to 2in (5cm) apart for leaf production, or 9in/23cm for seed MAY-SEPT 3 Harvest leaves when about 4in (10cm) high; plants will often re-sprout before running to seed MAY-SEPT 4 Re-sow at monthly intervals; cover late outdoor sowing with cloches, or sow in pots under glass JUNE-AUG 5 Collect seed from plants that flower when they turn brown, and dry them in a warm airy place…

Call weekdays from 12-1pm 0843 168 0200 * Jenny Tyler from Oxford rang to ask how to get rid of ants in her lawn. One solution is to scatter dry semolina around the nest. The worker ants carry it back home, and the queen gorges herself to death on it, causing all the other ants to disperse. If ants continue to cause problems, a biological control called Steinernema feltiae is worth a try, available from mail order companies.…

PLUM TREES don’t need regular pruning and fewer cuts, made during late spring and summer, mean less likelihood of them succumbing to the fungal disease silver leaf. However our mature ‘Victoria’ on Pixie rootstock needed a good sorting out. Early summer would have been better and the end of August is as late as you’d want to leave pruning for all stone fruits. First, dead wood was cut away, then overlong, drooping branches shortened and a few reduced from the centre to let more air into the head. It hasn’t set many plums this year but where it had, they were thinned out. The new ‘Marjorie’s Seedling’ added recently seems to have taken well and I’m allowing one fruit to ripen. Last year I raised some globe artichokes from seed,…

Holding a charity fund-raiser North Shropshire gardeners raised £10,000 for charity in just three hours at their annual plant fair. Villagers grew plants for the 10th Welshampton Plant Fair in Shropshire to help Macmillan Cancer Support and a local church. “It was amazing,” said fair co-ordinator Gill Eleftheriou. Keeping up appearances Garden envy is alive in suburbia, according to QVC. The telly retailer found that one in seven home-owners are jealous of a neighbour’s plot, forking out £657 per year to make their garden the best on the street. And 40 per cent of us peek over the fence, too.…

Michael Marriott at David Austin roses says: “Do be sure to select a rose that is not only beautiful and fragrant but also tough and reliable. Before planting, prepare the ground well using plenty of well-rotted organic matter. They do best in an open situation, although many cope well with only half a day’s sun. Apply fertiliser in April and again in June and give them an occasional soaking if it doesn’t rain. Dead heading will encourage quicker repeat flowering”.…

A gardener’s rant I READ the article ‘No more ‘Challenge’ ( AG 18 July) and just had to write in to have a rant! Why is gardening being treated by TV schedulers as an almost shameful pastime? When will we be seen as people with a valid interest? Why can’t we have gardening programmes screened at a sensible time of day, with a reasonable budget, aimed at the majority of gardeners? We don’t all have a garden like Monty Don or ones that need a makeover by Alan Titchmarsh. Some of us just have a windowbox or a paved garden but its still our pride and joy. For some it’s a reason to get up in the morning, our comfort, physical therapy and our chance to…

BRING COLOUR and scent to your garden next year with sweet pea seeds from Unwins. The packs include ‘Cupani’, one of the earliest varieties, the classics ‘Cathy’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’, the new ‘Chance’, and ‘Wuthering Heights’, a classic mix of purple and white grandiflora varieties. We have five sets to give away. To enter the draw, send your name and address on the back of a postcard to Sweet Pea Draw, Amateur Gardening, Westover House, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1JG. Or email your details to ag_ giveaway@timeinc.com , heading the email Sweet Pea Draw. The closing date is: 5 August, 2015.…

• Remove lateral growths from the main branches to three leaves above the ‘basal cluster’ (the clump of leaves at the bottom of the current season’s stem growth), or 2-3in (5-8cm). • Prune all other growth from sideshoots near to the junction with the older wood, to leave one leaf set, or 1in (2.5cm) past the basal cluster (pictured) to spur dormant fruit buds into growth. • Leave shoots less than 9in (20m) – about the length of secateurs – until early autumn and prune to one leaf beyond the last cut. • Cordon: Tie the leader growth to the framework. This will be stopped in winter. Or, once the leader has reached the required height, prune as for the laterals. • To create another tier on espaliers (pictured) bend…

Leaving flowers to produce seed or fruit can be an advantage: • Food for birds: Goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins and robins all adore seed from teasels, rudbeckia, echinacea, cornflowers, hollyhock, asters, fennel, grasses and sunflowers. • Hips and berries: Leave berrying shrubs, and do not deadhead single, hip-bearing roses (such as Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium’ and a few ramblers) as hips look great and are food for the birds. • Seedheads: Love-in-a-mist (Nigella), and many grasses, such as miscanthus, calamagrostis and molinia, carry stunning ornamental heads. Leave these for structure during winter. • Biennials: Will self-seed for that ‘cottage garden’ look. Cut back foxgloves, honesty, pot marigolds and sweet rocket after seed has set. To collect seeds, cut the capsules when ripe. • For drying: Allium heads and the ‘pepperpot’ seed pods…

THERE WAS a time when artificial grass would be unthinkable in gardening and Royal Horticultural Society circles. Today we see it promoted, at the Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace flower shows and even artificial plants installed as wall covering (at £450 per square metre!) on the ITV programme Love Your Garden. I still have somewhere the visiting card that the late Roy Hay used to leave in commercial premises, which read: “Artificial flowers lower the tone of this establishment.” When so much of our surroundings are hard, unforgiving, concrete and brick surfaces, surely we should take this on board and stay with living, self-cleaning, oxygen releasing, humidifying and cooling plant material. The giant VertiGarden Silver Jubilee Cake installed to celebrate Hampton Court Palace Flower Show last month clearly demonstrated what…

Coriander & lemon couscous with halloumi Fragrant couscous and salty halloumi come together for a fresh recipe for a summer dinner. Great with a little mint dip Prep time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Total time: 20 minutes Serves: 4 Ingredients Method 1 Place the couscous in a bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon zest, raisins, salt and pepper, then mix. 2 Pour the boiling water over the couscous, and place a lid or plate over the bowl, set aside for 10 minutes. 3 Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the chickpeas, garlic and cherry tomatoes, cook for 5 minutes. Set aside and keep warm. 4 Cut the halloumi into eight slices,…

QI have had lots of ox-eye daisies growing in the garden this year. Should I deadhead them or let them set seed? If they set seed, will the whole garden be full of them? Marion Jones, Yeovil, Somerset AI just love to see these plants growing in a garden, as so often the only place we tend to see them growing is along side roads. Deadheading will keep the garden looking neater, and may well result in a second flush of flowers, but in my experience these plants don’t tend to seed themselves about much. Most will grow vegetatively, increasing the clump size with time. Their speed of growth, either from seed or by increasing the clump size, is influenced by soil type and moisture content. AG on facebook  Go…

NEW NATIONAL COLLECTION Paul Harris of Brookfield Plants in Kent has been awarded National Collection Status for his collection of hemerocallis (RHS AGM cultivars). THE BEECHGROVE GARDEN THIS WEEK ROAD SHOW FROM THE HOWE OF CROMAR THE TEAM visit the Howe of Cromar, on the edge of the Highlands, for a Beechgrove Roadshow. BBC2 Scotland, Thursday 30 August 7.30pm (national repeat: BBC2, 2 August, times vary). FOXGLOVE RE-NAMED Foxglove ‘Illumination Pink,’ is to be re-named Digitalis x valinii ‘Illumination Pink’ in recognition of its creator, breeder Charles Valin.…

FORMER GARDENERS’ World host Alan Titchmarsh, currently fronting ITV’s Love Your Garden, has hinted that he wants a BBC comeback after being dropped from Chelsea Flower Show coverage in 2014. Speaking at an event for Waitrose, where he has a deal to raise the profile of UK horticulture, Alan (66) admitted he didn’t miss presenting Chelsea this year. In May, Monty Don (65) and Joe Swift (50) covered the event for the BBC. Alan said: “I looked up at the [BBC] commentary box and saw the back of the two presenters, and I said to my wife that I didn’t feel a single pang. “It’s a lovely audience at Chelsea but nothing lasts forever and who knows what will happen in the future?” Alan said he doesn’t know if ageism…

WE’VE HAD some scorching days this summer, and it really brings home the importance of sun protection. Gardeners should always wear a hat while working in the garden in summer, and be aware of the sun’s strength at other times of year too. With this in mind we’ve put sun hats in the spotlight this week, testing unisex and gents/ladies designs. Most modern sun hats are more hi-tech than you’d imagine, with a wide range of features. Things to consider include: the width of the brim to give maximum protection to the face and neck; whether the material is breathable; if it repels insects; contains cooling crystals or a sweat band. All of these are important factors for anyone out in the sun, perhaps at the allotment, or on a…

1 Astrantia ‘Hadspen Blood’ Darker flowered astrantias are best grown in full sun to ensure the most sumptuous coloured blooms 2 Persicaria amplexicaulis Crimson, pink or white flower tapers from June to September 3 Carex elata 'Aurea' A well behaved, non-invasive sedge for in or beside water 4 Hesperantha coccinea ‘Sunrise’ Previously called schizostylis. Pink starry flowers emerge October 5 Osmunda regalis Stunning chest-height fern. Young fronds are copper-coloured 6 Rheum ‘Ace of Hearts’ For those who yearn to grow a gunnera but don’t have the space, this is a fantastic alternative. Has handsome heart-shaped leaves THE BETH CHATTO HANDBOOK THE BETH Chatto Handbook is: “a bringing together of the plants that Beth Chatto has used over the years in her gardens”. It is a descriptive list of unusual plants,…