Innholdsfortegnelse for 17 October 2015 i Amateur Gardening

“ I DARLING. I’ve just H been looking at that pretty half moon bed in the front garden you replanted so beautifully the other week. There are some lovely ground-cover plants that would work really well around the base of the rose and the nandina. I’d love to try Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’ and the prostrate phlox ‘Chatahoochee’ and…” Kath: “No. I don’t want that bed crammed with stuff. The others look a mess.” Me: “Well, granted, as the season goes on some of the plants I’ve put in can get a little congested, but it’s all about diversity and succession to give interest right through the three seasons of spring, summer…” Kath: “By the end of June the postman needs a machete to get through the jungle of triffids dangling…

• Gently break the garlic bulb into its separate cloves, and choose the largest, healthiest ones for planting. • In containers: Make sure the container is at least 8in (20cm) wide, and deep, for good growth. Plant the cloves 1in (2.5cm) down and 4in (10cm) apart. • In modules: In colder areas, you can plant garlic cloves into individual modules, using multipurpose compost. • They can then stay in your coldframe until spring, and once the ground has started to warm up, can be planted out into the garden. • Planting into the ground: The cloves like a sunny site with well-draining soil. They should be planted 1in (2.5cm) down and 4in (10cm) apart, pointy end up.…

CITRUS PLANTS used to be something of a rarity in British gardens, largely thanks to our unpredictable climate. But with the development of new cultivars, and more sophisticated cultivation techniques, oranges, lemons, kumquats and other citrus varieties are now widely grown in this country. Unless you live somewhere extremely cold and exposed, citrus plants are happy to live outdoors in a sheltered spot during the summer. But once night time temperatures start to fall regularly, usually by early-to-mid October, you should bring them indoors and change your feeding and watering regimes to suit their winter needs. Potential citrus problems THERE ARE many reasons why a citrus plant fails to thrive. Its roots could be too wet – or too dry; erratic watering and too cool a temperature can prevent flowering,…

1. Know your soil’s pH Planting a border without knowing your soil’s pH is like baking a cake without checking the temperature of the oven: a recipe for disaster. Soil testing kits cost £5 or less and will quickly tell you whether your soil is acid, neutral or alkaline. This will help you to choose the right plants, for example, if your soil is acidic, azaleas and rhododendrons will do well. 2. Add organic matter It is the oldest gardening cliché: ‘the answer lies in the soil’. And it’s just as relevant today, as good soil preparation will get your borders off to a flying start. Recent wet winters and washout summers have leached nutrients from soils, with light soils worst affected. Fork in soil conditioner or farmyard manure, but…

1 Buy plants or beg rooted pieces from a friend; French tarragon cannot be grown from seed. 2 Plant 18in (45cm) apart in well-drained, sunny spot, adding grit or leafmould to lighten the soil. 3 Alternatively grow in a large, deep container (10in (25cm) deep), but don’t overwater or feed. 4 Cover clumps in the ground with a cloche or straw; pot up pieces of root as an insurance. 5 Bring plants in pots under cover for the winter; put them in a dry place safe from hard frosts.…

Call weekdays f om 12-1pm 0843 168 0200 * LES DOWNIE from Hay called about a black substance covering the leaves of his fig tree. We believe it is sooty mould, a fungus that breeds on sweet, sticky honeydew excreted by aphids, scale insects, and other sap-sucking pests. It can be wiped off, and the plants treated with Bayer Organic Bug Free, or Bug Clear for Fruit and Veg. Once the mould’s food source has gone, it will disappear. Amateur Gardening can solve your problems! EMAIL US: amateurgardening@timeinc.com EXPERTS HELPLINE: 0843 168 0200 (12 to 1pm weekdays) Calls cost5p per minute from a BT landline, callcosts from other networks may be higher. WRITE TO US: AG Helpline Westover House, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH 15 1JG…

‘Hawera’ This variety produces up to three canary yellow flowers per stem, each with distinct swept-back petals and an incredible scent. 6in (15cm). April-May ‘Jetfire’ This tough, 5in (12.5cm) tall variety, has a striking presence with sweptback golden petals and a fiery orange-red trumpet. Flowers March and April. ‘Minnow’ During March and April, each 6in (15cm) tall stem carries up to five creamy white blooms, which have a buttercup yellow centre and potent sweet fragrance. ‘Tete-a-Tete’ At just 6-8in (15-20cm) tall, this multi-headed variety with golden trumpets, packs a punch from February through to April. ‘Rip van Winkle’ The unusual multi-petalled, golden yellow variety produces large shaggy blooms up, on stems around 8in (20cm) tall. It is often one of the first to flower. Narcissus bulbocodium conspicuus Dainty lemon-yellow…

WHEREVER I’VE worked, if there was a pond, I’d be the first to volunteer for dredging, cleaning or plant tending. Never happier than clad in waders and up to my eyes in mud and leeches, I’d tackle pretty much anything. Aquatic plants and animals hold an endless fascination and when my children and nieces were little, I’d often turn biology teacher and set up a large fish tank with all kinds of water life. For a couple of days we’d gaze at newts, snails, beetles and dragonfly nymphs. Then they’d all be carefully returned to the pond. Our own pond is never thoroughly cleaned out because that much intervention would destroy it’s ecology. I have let things slip a bit this summer and the surface has been almost covered with…

GIANT VEG growers proved that the competitive spirit is alive among gardeners, by smashing three world records. A bumper crop of oversized veggies took the UK National Giant Vegetables Championship by storm, at the Malvern Autumn Show in Worcestershire on 24-25 September. ALLOTMENT Paul Rochester from Seaham, near Sunderland, grew the world’s largest leek on his allotment in Northlea. It tipped the scales at 23.37lbs (10.6 kilos). He used to share the allotment with his father, Wilfred, who inspired him to start growing. Paul said one of the tips that he adopted from his dad was to play Glenn Miller to his veg, to inspire crops to reach for the stars! David Thomas from Hayle, near Penzance in Cornwall, nurtured what turned out to be the world’s heaviest cucumber in…

THE NATION’S passion for gardening and grow-your-own is being crippled by a chronic allotment shortage. So says waste management company BigGreen.co.uk, which carried out a study into the UK’s plot waiting-lists. “Just at a time when more people are looking to grow their own produce, they’re finding that the door has been slammed in their face,” said spokesman Mark Hall. “So many people have small gardens or no garden, meaning an allotment is the only real chance they have.” The company probed local authorities across the UK and found that the average waiting time for an allotment is six years, with the longest being 12. It claims a “significant number of councils” had waiting lists as high as 250 people – that’s a wait of around nine years. Mark said…

MOST ART-lovers have to travel to grand estates to marvel at sculpture in the garden. But Jim Milner can step outside his back door. Jim, of Rose Cottage at Thurlstone, near Huddersfield, has been carving his own collection from local sandstone – and dotting them among his shrubs and trees. His garden is a haven for wildlife, stocked with ferns, hostas, rhododendrons and ivies, with a natural spring forming a waterfall and pond. A former farmer and gardener, Jim is a self-taught sculptor but comes from an artistic family. He is fascinated by geometry and shapes created by wind and water. He has been carving stone since he was a teenager and has now turned his garden into an outdoor showroom. “People are welcome to come and view the garden…

HAND BULB planters come in many guises. For instance there’s the hand trowel types for digging the hole, which often have a pointed and sharpened blade edge. Then there’s the traditional bulb planters that take out a ‘plug’ of soil in one go for a quick, clean job. As well as being useful in the autumn, these tools are really handy to have around for planting bedding in late spring, as well as planting up raised beds and troughs. All the tools on test here were put through their paces on heavy compacted, light, and sandy soils as well as cultivated ground. We considered their ease of use, the size of hole each one made and the time it took. * Although all were tested on turf – only the…

A LOT of people begin their brewing journeys when they realize that surplus homegrown produce can be converted into alcohol. We know plenty of gardeners with substantial rhubarb plants for instance, who are harvesting stalks long after they’ve tired of crumbles, but don’t know what else to do with them. Turning homegrown produce into tasty beverages is a hugely rewarding experience. And unlike most forms of cooking, where your hard-grown food is cooked and gobbled within hours, a bottle of booze will keep those Rhubarb makes a flavours preserved for weeks, months and even years. WHAT TO GROW What you’re able to grow will depend largely on where you live and how much space you have. But even people without a garden can often manage a few pots of herbs…

MORE AND more people are interested in growing sweet potatoes, especially as they’re considered to be much healthier than ordinary potatoes. But growing this tasty South American tuber is not without its problems. First, the rooted slips sold usually arrive rather late (around mid May) so their growing season is shorter and the crops, smaller. It is much better to force your own slips from early in the New Year by setting a whole tuber in moist sand with bottom heat, then detaching and potting up the shoots that form. The next tricky thing to address is the stems’ habit of readily rooting into the surrounding soil. To ensure plants direct all their energy to tuber production, it’s better to tie the stems up off the ground – they also…

Spot the difference A greenhouse, even an unheated one, can be a huge bonus at this time of year, extending the gardening season. AG’s Anne Swithinbank has been making the most of hers to sow leftover seeds of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials that do well from autumn sowings ( AG , 3 October). Can you spot the FOUR changes we’ve made to these two pictures of Anne in her greenhouse? (Answers located at the bottom of the page) True or false? JamesWong, the TV ethnobotanist, hasa garden design businesscalled Modular Garden (Answer at the bottom of page)…

THE PECKISH Easy Feeder is a clean and easy way to feed garden birds this winter. It comes filled with Peckish Complete Seed Mix, supplemented with Calvita mineral and vitamin mix, and all you need to do is hang it up and watch the birds flock around. We have five to give away. To enter the draw, send your name and address on the back of a postcard to Peckish Easy Feeder Draw, Amateur Gardening, Westover House, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1JG. Or email your details to ag_giveaway@ timeinc.com , heading the email Peckish Easy Feeder Draw. The closing date is: 21 October, 2015.…

BRITISH SUMMERS are a prime example of hope over experience. This summer, AG readers in Scotland complained of weeks of torrential rain, while reports from East Anglia spoke of desiccated soil and desperately parched plants. Yet we still anticipate each summer with optimism, priming our barbecues, dusting off the garden furniture and readying our tools for a glorious season of outdoor activity. I managed a paltry two barbecues this summer, but now it’s time to put all the equipment away again. But don’t just pile garden equipment in the shed or garage and forget about it until next year, because that’s the road to rusty components, split wood and the expensive purchase of replacements. Caring for all types of gardening kit now will leave it ready to roll next spring,…

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? • 17 October: Autumn Planting Day; Thorncroft Clematis, The Lings, Reymerston, Norwich, Norfolk NR9 4QG; 01953 850 407; thorncroftclematis.co.uk • 17-18 October: Countryside Live; Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, Yorkshire HG2 8NZ countrysidelive.co.uk • 17-18 October: Birds in the Garden with the RSPB; RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH; 01805 624067; rhs.org/gardens/rosemoor • 17-28 October: Enchanted Illuminations; Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, Dorset DT3 4LA; 01305 871387; abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk • 18 October: Plant Hunting with Tom Hart-Dyke; The Roof Gardens, 99 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA; 0207 368 3981; gardeningclub@roofgardens.virgin.com • 20 October: Evening talk – Growing Herbs for Health, with Luzia Barclay;…

Sweet Potato Rosti with Tarragon Dip Crispy sweet fritters and tangy tarragon dip make for a perfect tasty lunch. Serve with a green salad. Prep time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Serves: 4 For the rosti: For the dip: Method 1 In a small bowl combine the sour cream, lemon zest and tarragon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. 2 Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 180°C/ gas 5. 3 Peel and coarsely grate the potatoes and sweet potatoes, then place on a clean tea towel. Squeeze out any liquid, then pop in a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. 4 Add the onion, garlic and egg and combine evenly. 5 Heat a large, non-stick…

QI have just moved into a new house that has a large bay tree growing outside the front window. I’m worried it will block out the light – is this a good time to trim it? Derek Crompton, Enfield, Middlesex A Bays are lovely trees, but can grow into very large specimens. I have one growing by my kitchen door, and I keep it to shape and size by trimming it back several times during the growing season, stopping in late September. I would be cautious at this time of the year as, depending on where you are in the country, you could start getting early frost and this may damage the cut surfaces, resulting in some damage and then possible die back. AG on facebook.  Go to facebook.com, create…

I TAKE it all back. Having accused my wayward goji berry of not flowering this year, seems it was waiting until late September before producing its small lilac-purple blooms. Hopefully, these will have time to turn into berries we can eat, before I have another stab at tying stems in for winter. Having the kitchen garden literally joined on to the kitchen enables me to look out over my crops from a large picture window. The kitchen also acts as a hide to watch the antics of birds amongst the fruit and veg. I’d noticed an outbreak of blackfly on the top of a mini corn plant, but experience has taught me that a useful wild creature will usually appear to mop up the pests. Whether this will be a…

THE FRESH fruit and vegetables that can be harvested from even a modest sized plot continues to surprise me. At home the space allocated to fruit and vegetables is just 30ft (9.1m) x (40ft) 12.1m and includes one large old pear tree, seven apples, a plum and apricot, some raspberries and two blackcurrant bushes. This still leaves room for a good row of asparagus, a wide selection of annual vegetables, rhubarb, my cordon sweet peas, outdoor chrysanthemums and zinnias for cut flowers. Packing so much in does make cultivating and harvesting tricky at times, especially after heavy rain! Five of the apples have their trunks trained in ‘S’ shaped cordons to make a summer screen and the weight of crop from this hedge of fruit trees is more than enough…

INDOOR GREENHOUSE £29.95+ P&P £3.95 0844 2495 007 prezzybox.com If you’ve got a kitchen then you’ve got space for a greenhouse, as this cute little alternative shows, standing just 12in (30cm) tall x 7 3/4in (19.5cm) wide The Scandinavian design features a sage green base and glass cloche cover you simply lift off for watering. SKY PLANTERFROM£14.99+ P&P £3.95 0800 0445010 firebox.com Watch favourite plants hang out in this quirky planter, which incorporates a clever reservoir system that saves on water. Comes in three sizes starting with small at 5in (13cm) high x 3 3/4in (9.5cm) diameter. Kit includes planter, ceiling hook, anchor plug, extension wire, plastic soil mesh and instructions. SUPERSIZE ORCHID HOUSE £175.00+ P&P £6.95 0800 783 3375 theurbanbotanist.co.uk There’s a natural…

GROWING YOUR own ingredients is rewarding, but foraging for them can be even better. Nature has done all the hard graft of sowing and nurturing, leaving you to grab the spoils for free. Some of the most abundant forageable goods are easy to identify, making them worthy of a boozy dabble – leaves from mighty oak and beech trees, spruce needles and the common weeds dandelion and nettle all fall into this category. Try not to damage plants when picking, and don’t strip bare the first tree or bush you see – many birds and mammals rely on these same fruits for survival, so leave enough to go around. 5 IDEAS WHAT TO MAKE: Pear & ginger cider Rosehip cider Lavender sparkle Crab apple wine Parsnip wine…

NEXT YEAR is going to be a big year for the Bowood Estate in Wiltshire, as it’s the tri-centenary of the man who landscaped the parkland, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. I’ve got another Garden Festival planned there on 4-5 June 2016, so naturally the great man and his work has been on my mind. Capability was the pioneer of a revolutionary landscape style that replaced the buttoned-up symmetrical vistas of early 18th century gardens with picture-postcard views across rolling countryside. They look natural and quintessentially English although in reality Capability’s landscapes are giant theatre sets crafted in soil and inspired by holidays abroad. Just as undergraduates of today take gap years ‘out’, 18th century gents would also swan off abroad to postpone earning their keep. Their jaunt was known as the…

UNLESS YOU live somewhere extremely sheltered, or in the warmest part of the southwest of the UK, you need to take steps to protect your tender plants over the winter. Pelargoniums (tender geraniums), gladioli, some agapanthus, dahlias, tuberous begonias and canna lilies all need protection from the cold. In warmer areas, and in sheltered, well-drained areas of the garden, you can cut them back and cover their crowns with a thick layer of mulch. But in most of the country, the best way to safeguard your plants is to lift and store them somewhere frost-free until next spring. top tip If you have tender perennials in containers, cut them back and wrap the container in horticultural fleece and/or bubblewrap. Over-winter them somewhere frost-free, such as a shed, garage with windows,…

RUTH SAYS: It is best to buy ‘seed’ garlic bulbs from nurseries or garden centres, as supermarket cloves may not give as good results. WHEN I was growing up, garlic was an exotic luxury usually confined to Italian restaurants. These days, you can find this tasty herb next to the cooker in most homes, and cooking without it is the exception, rather than the rule. It is ubiquitous in the supermarkets, but some of the cloves can be pretty flavourless. Luckily, it is easy to grow your own. Late autumn/early winter is the ideal time to plant – and tradition holds that cloves should be in the ground by Christmas Day. Garlic likes to be planted in a sunny site, in light, free-draining soil. It helps to add well-rotted compost…

I’VE NEVER understood why so many experts talk about ‘putting the garden to bed for winter’. Do gardeners really pack everything away into the shed, hibernate all winter, and only emerge prior to the Easter weekend, when we’re told it’s time to rush to the garden centre? Of course not! Autumn is a brilliant gardening season. The soil is still warm and workable, while temperatures are lower, allowing plants to establish and settle their roots without gasping to keep up in the heat. With this in mind, AG challenged me to create a traditional shrub border for around £100, using only varieties on offer at one nursery and one garden centre. There are several key components to selecting the right plants: know your soil’s pH (see left), determine if the…

I’M ANXIOUS not to lose my French tarragon. During the summer it produces abundant fresh leaves, useful for their warm pine-like flavour. They are an essential ingredient in one of my fish recipes, and they are good with baked tomatoes too. However, French tarragon doesn’t like the cold or wet, and sometimes struggles to survive the winter. It is a herbaceous perennial, not grown from seed but usually propagated by division or from root cuttings. If you are buying a plant or begging one from a friend, beware of its common imposter, Russian tarragon. This is a taller, more robust plant, but it has an insipid flavour. French tarragon is more elegant and far superior in taste, but trickier to grow. It needs a warm, well-drained sunny spot (under a…

Q My container-grown cannas rarely flower, so I have planted them out in a sunny spot. I also have a potted red-leaved banana that I am wrapping for winter – how else should I care for them? Mrs R Hay (via email) A Keep an eye on the banana, as it may occasionally need added moisture at the roots. If the rootball isn’t too large, it might be worth potting it up, rather than leaving it wrapped in plastic, so you can start it into growth before it is ready to plant out. The cannas should flower well either left as a clump or divided. Divide lifted plants either on lifting in autumn, or on starting them into growth in spring. They should be all right re-planted back in the…

YOU DON’T need much skill to grow miniature narcissus – or daffodils as they’re commonly known – simply plant the bulbs in September and October and wait! These dainty plants are completely winter-proof and without too much effort will poke their noses through frosted ground in early spring. Miniature daffs (those that reach no more than 10in/25cm) are a great choice for containers and rock gardens and are much better suited to the scale of smaller gardens than the likes of larger daffs. Aim to cover every inch of bare soil with them and a painterly picture will emerge as if by magic, when buds begin to pop from early spring. Cleverly use them to poke through existing groundcover plants and at the edges of beds and borders, and combine…

FACTFILE Cornflower ‘Jubilee Gem’ SOW: Aug-Oct, or Mar-May HEIGHT:12-15in (30-37.5cm) FLOWERS:Late spring-late summer BEST FOR: Beds, borders, containers and meadows • Sow seeds now, until the end of October, outdoors where they are to flower. Prepare the soil first by digging, weeding, firming and raking to create a tilth. Use a hoe or dibber to take out drills ¼in (6mm) deep and 12in (30cm) apart. Sow seeds thinly within the drills. • When they are large enough to handle, thin out the seedlings so that they are 6-9in (15-23cm) apart. • If you keep some of the seeds back, you can sow these between March and May (following the same advice), and this will extend the flowering season until late summer or even early autumn. • Alternatively, keep your seeds…

THE BEECHGROVE GARDEN THIS WEEK TOP OF THE POTS Terry Walton, garden expert on BBC Radio 2’s The Jeremy Vine Show, won a Thompson & Morgan challenge to grow the best Lily ‘Romance’. AUTUMN JOBS IN THE GARDEN LAST IN the series: there’s a host of autumn jobs, while plans are afoot for a sub-topical garden in 2016. BBC2 Scotland, 7.30pm, 15 October (national repeat: BBC2, 18 October, times vary). WILDLIFE HAVEN A new butterfly park in Brighton, stocked with 1,000 plants, became a haven for pollinating insects, Brighton & Hove City Council said.…

HMP WHATTON in Northamptonshire has won the title of Best Prison Garden in England and Wales – for the record seventh time. Prisoners saw the jail win the Royal Horticultural Society’s Windlesham Trophy last month. Whatton last won the trophy, a specially-engraved Green Goddess’ fire engine bell, in 2013. MIXED BORDERS The 30-acre garden at HMP Whatton has mixed borders of begonias, cleome, miscanthus, nicotiana, stipa and phormium. A star-shaped area of meadow grass provides a valuable habitat for birds and garden wildlife. There’s also a Japanese garden which has been made from recycled materials, including bridges, stone lanterns, gravel and cobbles. Governor Lynn Saunders described the gardens as an “important factor in rehabilitative culture” and praised the gardens team of prisoners and staff. HMP Whatton first won the Windlesham…

Elvis Presley’s Memphis, New Orleans & Nashville DISCOVER THE world of WC Handy, Robert Johnson, ‘Fats’ Domino, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton and, of course, Elvis Presley. We’ll take an unforgettable journey through America’s musical heartland, from the cradle of the blues and Dixieland Jazz to the undisputed capital of Country Music - Nashville! Other highlights: *Montgomery, Alabama *New Orleans *Nashville - Country Music capital *Journey through sleepy Alabama *‘Chattanooga Choo-Choo’ station hotel Selected departures between November 2015 and June 2017. Price includes: • 7 nights touring hotel accommodation plus return flights and transfers • Fully escorted by a Tour Manager. India - Tigers & the amazing Taj Mahal TAKE A safari to see the tigers in the hills of Ranthambhore and tour India’s Golden Triangle –…

TO MAKE decent booze you need decent ingredients. The freshest, most flavoursome produce will always reward you with a higher quality of drink. There are three main ways of acquiring ingredients: grow them yourself, track them down when foraging, or buy them. Our book shows the easiest and most fun route to turning these ingredients into some of the finest homemade drinks you could wish for. But be warned – there will be purists out there who might nit-pick over a few of our methods. Certain craft beer advocates might insist you boil your beery mix for hours; wine boffins may demand precise, temperature-controlled storing conditions for your bottles of wine; and certain ‘traditionalist’ sections of the cider-making fraternity may consider the addition of other fruits and flavours to cider…

THERE ARE numerous ingredients you’ll have to buy, including essentials such as sugar, yeast and spirits for infusing, plus most of the basic grains used in our beer recipes. And despite our advocacy of home-grown or foraged foods, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use shop-bought ingredients for everything you make. For us that means imported citrus fruits, dried fruit and even tinned food in the winter months. It’s also worth tracking down your nearest homebrew shop or a suitable online equivalent. Besides selling essential equipment, a range of sterilizing chemicals, yeast and other specialist brewing ingredients, you might be lucky enough to find that they stock other treats such as dried fruit and flowers and an interesting array of fresh hops.…

It's still pink! I THOUGHT I’d share our bit of ‘upcycling’ with AG readers. I'd decided to build a new patio and after the slabs were delivered I was left with the pallet. I thought it'd be a good summer project for my 4 year-old daughter to recycle it into something else, and she chose to make a vertical garden like Kris Collins ( AG 26 May 2012). We went to the local DIY store to choose the paint, under specific orders from my wife not to get any bright pink colours. However my daughter is 4 years old and she wanted bright pink. I’ve tried convincing my wife that once the flowers get established she won’t really notice it but she's…