Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-Mar-2018 i Amateur Gardening

EASTER is traditionally a time of renewal and rebirth, and I also think it marks the proper start of the gardening year. It’s a four-day weekend, which gives you ample time to get things ship-shape for the year ahead. Four days gives you the time to get on with larger tasks, plan ahead, and visit open gardens and garden centres for inspiration for the coming year. If you haven’t already done so, plan filling or improving your borders. Test the soil, note how much sun they get and which way they face (their aspect). Decide on colour schemes and what plants will complement existing ones. On these two pages I suggest a few key jobs that will get your garden ready for a fruitful and flower-filled year ahead. Part of…

1 Tidy up your shed inside and out, and make sure your tools are sharp and clean for better gardening. 2 Repair damaged fences and give them a coat of preservative. Do the same with garden furniture. 3 It’s a busy time for nesting and breeding birds, so make sure they have clean water and fresh food. 4 Create a simple water feature out of a half barrel. If you already have a pond with fish, resume feeding now. Lovely lawns: Don’t forget top buy next week’s AG (out 27 March for everything you need to know about sprucing up your lawn in spring…

• Half-hardy annuals are plants that will give up the ghost when hit by a late frost. These include flamboyant summer delights such as cosmos, nicotiana, phlox, aster and border dahlias. • They come into bloom quickly and are a cheap and cheerful way of brightening your borders. • Sow them under cover now and grow them on before hardening off and planting out around late May – or whenever all threat of frost has passed. • Keep an eye on the forecast and have some fleece handy to throw over young plants in the event that a late frost catches you unawares.…

1 Dig a hole large enough and fork in lots of well-rotted organic matter – this rich, wormy manure is just the job! 2 Dig around the plant and lift it without damaging the roots, but keeping as much soil as possible intact. 3 Place the plant in its new home as soon as possible. Make sure all the roots can fit into the hole. 4 In-fill around the plant with soil and compost, firming it to remove air pockets and support the plant. 5 Water the plant slowly, so moisture reaches right down to the roots and doesn’t run off. 6 Once the water has soaked in, add a layer of mulch to retain moisture and enrich the soil.…

• If not kept clean and ventilated, greenhouses and cold frames become a haven for pests and diseases. • Open doors, windows and lids regularly so air can circulate. • This is especially important after storms when they may have been shut down for several days. • Remove dead or sickly plant material to stop the spread of contagion and pick off pests as soon as you spot them.…

“A little protection is invaluable at this time of year” WHILE Julius Caesar was told to ‘Beware the Ides of March’, gardeners need to be cautious about the weather throughout the month because it can be treacherous. When we have warm sunny days it can be tempting to think that spring has arrived. However, our precocious activities can be thwarted by subsequent frost, hail and snow, as the UK discovered recently when the ‘Beast from the East’ arrived. A little protection is invaluable at this time – anything from polythene cloches (firmly anchored), a wooden structure covered in Enviromesh and cold frames to greenhouses and polytunnels. They warm the soil, give shelter from winds and, in the case of greenhouses and polytunnels, make it a lot more pleasant to work…

1 Before they’re totally wasted, either use or process (such as freeze or bottle) tired-looking stored apples, potatoes, onions and other roots. 2 If soil is friable put in your potato sets, both earlies and lates, ideally covering them with cloches or clear plastic sheeting. 3 Now growth is resuming, prune roses, evergreens and those shrubs with hollow stems prone to winter damage, such as bamboos, buddlejas and leycesterias. 4 Give soil about to be used for growing brassicas a dressing of lime or calcified seaweed, at a handful per square yard.…

1 It’s still too cold to get guaranteed good germination outside, so start your early lettuces in a propagator set at 15°C. Fill modular pots with seed compost, water well and then sow two seeds per cell. Once germinated, thin to the strongest seedling. 2 Grow this first batch on at 10°C, until the lettuces are large enough to plant either in greenhouse borders or growing bags under cover, or outside under cloches at roughly 10in (25cm) apart each way. Protect from slugs and keep well watered and weeded as they grow in size. 3 Once the lettuces are 5in (13cm) in diameter, sow a second batch outdoors. Sow clusters every 10in (25cm) in moist soil, and cover with cloches. Thin to the strongest seedling per clump once large enough.…

24 March: Early Spring Plant Fair: East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Silver Street, East Lambrook, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5HH. £4 plus concessions. 1460 240 328, eastlambrook.com 24: Essential Pruning full-day course: Cottage Garden School, East Donyland Hall, Fingringhoe, Essex CO5 7JE. £80. 07837 013900, cottagegardenschool.co.uk 24: Plant Hunters’ Fair: Carsington Water Visitor Centre, Ashbourne, Derbyshire DE6 1ST. 10am-4pm. Free entry to fair and country park. 25: Spring Plant Hunters’ Fair: Ness Botanic Gardens, University of Liverpool, Neston Road, Ness, Wirral CH64 4AY. 0151 795 6300, nessgardens.org.uk 25: Rare Plant Fair: Evenley Wood Garden, Evenley, Northants NN13 5SH. evenleywoodgarden.co.uk 25: Camellia Heritage Tour: Borde Hill Garden, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH6 1HP. 01444 450326, bordehill.co.uk 27: Magnolia Tour with head gardener Andy Stevens, Borde Hill Garden, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH6…

Growing a late large-flowered clematis in a container will bring versatility to your patio or terrace. You can leave it in the same place or move it to a new site annually. It’s important to choose a large container of a minimum 18in (45cm) deep and across, as clematis develop an extensive root system. Thin plastic pots heat up too much in summer, so a wooden half-barrel or thick concrete container is more suitable. Make sure it’s well drained, and stand it on pot feet. Fill your chosen container with John Innes No2 compost, firm well, plant your clematis deeply and water thoroughly. Never let the plant dry out.…

HARDY annual – the name says it all, really. These are frost-hardy plants that last for a single season. And they’re annuals, so they won’t be making a return visit next year. Sow seeds now and they’ll take any spring frosts in their stride, flower gloriously in summer and then simply fade away. Hardy is obviously good. No need for a greenhouse; no need to fuss with the seeds and seedlings on the windowsill. But annuals can be dismissed by some gardeners. True, they will be gone for good by the end of the season, but I see this is as an opportunity rather than a downside. Borders filled with shrubs and perennials stay more or less the same year after year. But with annuals, you can change what you…

How do I start a new strawberry bed? Q We inherited a strawberry bed, but the plants have multiplied, shrunk and don’t give much fruit. How do I go about starting a new bed and when should I do it? Clive Gilbert, Ashford, Kent A Unlike most soft fruits, strawberry plants have a short cropping life and are usually replaced after three or four years. New plants are started off in a different bed and the old plants disposed of away from the garden, to avoid diseases persisting in compost. Even when strawberry plants have been well tended, they often behave badly with age. Multiple crowns form, sending rhizomes over the ground and flinging out runners. After a while, it is difficult to see where they were originally planted and…

How can I jazz up a gravelly patch? Q We have a small area with gravel over sand that is about 30 years old. Should we remove the gravel and replace it with soil? Which would be the best plants to now put in? Margaret and Martin Pagett, via email AI suggest that you work good topsoil and crumbly manure into the gravel and sand area to make an appealing bed. To create a series of islands, divide them with grass paths. If you use pea shingle for paths, edge it with ceramic tiles, bricks or plastic edging strips. The following shrubs and border perennials thrive in full sun or light shade: Perennials: Agapanthus, allium, alchemilla, Anemone hupehensis, aquilegia, aster, astrantia, brunnera, campanula, Chrysanthemum ‘Clara Curtis’, crocosmia, dianthus, dicentra, echinacea,…

All for lawn FROM now on, gardeners will be feeding, raking, spiking, weeding and moss-killing their lawns up and down the land, so this week we thought we’d look at some of the amazing facts surrounding lawns and grasses. There are around 15 million garden lawns in Britain. In 2012 (the last time figures were analysed), we spent £127 million on mowers to cut them, and £54 million on lawn fertilisers to feed them. Budding inventions EDWIN Beard Budding (1775-1846) is famous for inventing the lawnmower. At the time (1830), people thought he was a madman to use such a contraption. He therefore tested the machine at night so no one would see him. It’s less well known that he also invented the adjustable spanner. Using the Phoenix Ironworks at…

Helping keep your indoor plants well watered, the Westland Watering Indicator Stick changes colour to alert you when the soil in your pot is drying out. A red window display means your plant needs watering. Once the soil is rehydrated, the colour changes to blue to show all is well. We have five indicator sticks to give away, each worth £2.99. See below for details of how to enter the prize draw. How to enter Send your name and address on the back of a postcard to Westland Watering Indicator Stick Draw, Amateur Gardening, 2 Pinehurst, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7BF. Or you can email your details to ag_giveaway@timeinc.com, heading the email Westland Watering Indicator Stick Draw. The closing date is 29 March 2018.…

If, like me, your house and greenhouse are filling up with trays of seedlings, it’s time to prick out the more robust ones. It’s an easy and satisfying job to do. Fill 3in (7cm) pots with John Innes No1 compost that is designed to help the seedlings grow without overpowering their roots. Dib a deep hole in each pot then carefully lever the rootball of each seedling from their growing trays using a plastic plant label or old teaspoon. Hold the seedling by its leaves and transfer it to its new pot, setting it as deeply as possible into the compost. Firm it in and water carefully. Grow on in a warm, light spot until they are ready to harden off and plant out.…

1 Lay out paving stones on top of the grass until they create an attractive path and are an easy stride apart. 2 In turn, slice around each one with a sharp half-moon lawn edger, cutting down slightly more than the depth of the stone. 3 Cut away the turf and try the stone for size. It should be lower than the grass so it won’t damage your mower blade or trip you up. 4 Lift the stone again and add a layer of builder’s sand to the hole, tamping it down to create a firm cushion that will hold the stone in place. 5 Replace the stone and firm it down. Brush a mixture of sand, soil and some grass seed down the sides to hold it in place.…

ALL the elements were ranged against us this winter. Even here in the south we were faced with hard frosts and storms topped off by the Beast from the East, which descended on 1 March – allegedly, the first day of spring! If your garden has taken a battering, start clearing things up now before you get too busy. There is very little that can’t be sorted by a stiff brush, hot soapy water and a damp cloth, and a sharp and clean pair of secateurs. I start by sorting through my plant pots, and washing those I want to keep in warm soapy water. The most useful ones are the 3in (7cm) variety used for pricking out seedlings. Larger pots can be used for temporarily housing mature plants that…

NOW the worst of the winter weather is (hopefully) over, I have planted out this year’s onion sets. These are baby onions and provide an easier and faster way of growing your crop. They are also better for growing in cold, exposed gardens and are less prone to certain pests and diseases than seed-grown crops. Onions like a sunny, sheltered site with fertile, free-draining soil as they can rot in heavy, waterlogged conditions. They can also rot in soil that has been recently manured, so I prepared the soil for ours a few weeks in advance. They will grow in a raised bed that was sown with green manure last autumn. This has been dug in and left to rot down for several weeks under a newly-applied layer of manure…

Tomato ‘Red Alert’ is a good bush cultivar to sow indoors now and get ripe fruits in early July before the onset of blight disease. It is said we can start sowing outside when seedling weeds are seen germinating, but be careful with this. We had seedling weeds in February and then we were hit at the end of the month with the ‘Beast from the East’. Primed seeds give faster germination and better end results, especially in cold soils. The carrot below is Mr Fothergills’ Optigrow. Strawberry plants taken under cover now will be protected from frost and flower early, producing ripe fruits by late May/early June.…

HAVING a continual supply of soft, buttery lettuces throughout the summer is a treat – and one that’s easily attainable if you stick to a simple cycle. Most of us will eat a salad a day once the weather hots up, especially at lunchtime when you just want something light, crisp and refreshing to counteract the heat of the day. Choosing appropriate varieties is one secret –cold-tolerant strains for early sowings, and slow-to-bolt types as summer develops. ‘Lobjoits Green Cos’ is my favourite for sowing now (my parents used to grow acres of it commercially and its buttery leaves are delicious). For summer sowings, ‘Thimble’ has caught my eye this year because of its disease and bolt-resistance. Come autumn, I’ll move on to the little-gem type ‘Vailan’. Here’s how to…

MULCHING your fruit bushes can boost yields considerably, but it must be completed soon to be effective. Spring soils are relatively moist and warm, which is heavenly for plant roots. Mulching locks in these conditions, making your crops much more resilient to summer drought and heat. When you consider that, in May, June and July, your fruit plants’ key role is to pump copious amounts of water into the developing crop, you can see why mulching now is key to success. By mulch I mean an organic mulch, and by organic I mean compost, bark chips or well-rotted manure. The material you use depends on your budget, your soil type, the fruit crop in question and its nutritional needs. If, for example, you’re on a light sandy soil, then a…

“There are far fewer bees out and about” IT’S been such a cold spring here, with week upon week of fairly bright but chilly weather, that I began to wonder whether I would see a bee in February at all. However, they just about made it, and now it’s March, spring is well and truly underway. When you’re a little long in the tooth, as I am, you realise that there are far fewer bees out and about than there used to be. A trip to Ireland in snowdrop season a few years ago really brought this home. I visited several gardens close to Dublin and was astonished at the number of wild bees on the snowdrops. They were tiny, about half the size of a honeybee, and were all…

ARE you looking for colour from a climber? If you are, then look no further than late-flowering, large-flowered clematis. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, but it tells you two of the three things you need to know about these invaluable plants. Namely: they’re large-flowered, being 4in (10cm) or more across; and they’re late flowering, June or July onwards and often well into autumn. The third thing they have going for them is that they are very easy to prune. Reaching up to 10ft (3m), and sometimes more, in a single season, these gorgeous climbers cling in the same way as all clematis: their leaf stalks curl around trellis, wires or the stems of large shrubs. With buds bursting as early as February, the vigour of early growth…

■ After planting, cut each stem back to a pair of shoots or bursting buds, just above ground level. ■ Push in a cane to guide your clematis towards its support. ■ Water with a can filled (about five litres) with a mix of tap water and Maxicrop or Seasol. ■ Repeat the watering a week later –every day or two if the weather is hot and dry. ■ Clematis appreciate cool roots, so plant a low shrub on the sunny side of the planting site – such as potentilla or sarcococca – or lay some slabs over the planting area. ■ As they grow, guide the new shoots towards and on to their support.…

Cutting Calendula Naturally well-branched, with mainly double flowers in oranges and yellows, plus white ‘Snow Princess’ (above). Two-tone varieties with darker backs to their petals (‘Indian Prince’) are lovely, but avoid dwarf types. H: 16-22in (40-75cm). Scabious Large pin-cushion flowers on tall, long-stemmed plants. ‘Summer Fruits’ comes in shades of grape, wine, strawberry and raspberry, plus pastel colours. Or try ‘Beaujolais Bonnets’, with its merlot-androsé-hued blooms. H: 24in (60cm). Nigella Unusual, crown-centred flowers develop fat seed pods (ideal for drying) and are set off by fine, feathery foliage. Pale-blue ‘Miss Jekyll’ is the old favourite, while recent white ‘Albion Green Pod’ (above) is worth trying. H: 16-20in (40-50cm). Borders Lavatera Shimmering ruby, pink or white cups, often with contrasting veins, are set against dark foliage. It quickly makes an impressive,…

■ Choose a sunny, sheltered, well-cultivated bed where early flowers are unlikely to be frosted and the soil is well conditioned, preferably slightly acidic and well drained. Add a general-purpose fertiliser before planting. ■ Make sure roots are well moistened, set them out 14in (35cm) apart in rows 24in (60cm) apart. Remove each from its pot and loosen roots gently. ■ When planting, trim rather than fold any overlong roots of bare-rooted stock. Plant so the crown is at or just above the surface and the roots are neatly buried. ■ Water in well and, once established, give fortnightly liquid feeds with a high-potash tomato-type fertiliser.…

Q Should I prune my grapefruit and stand it on the warm, sunny patio? Simon Lander, via email A It is a little early to put your grapefruit outdoors. If you do, be vigilant and bring it back into your greenhouse if the temperature falls below 10 ° C. As for pruning, your plant would benefit from a light prune – remove a few of the overcrowded branches and pinch back the tips of overly long shoots. Q What is this strange insect I saw on one of my raspberry canes? Jeff Healey, via email A It is the mottled bee-fly (Thyridanthrax fenestratus). Colonising sandy heathland, mainly in Dorset, the New Forest and West Sussex, it is rarely seen – so you made a good spot!. Normally on the wing…

Prepare a half seed tray with good soilless multi-purpose compost, firm the surface gently so it is flat and water using a fine rose (sprinkler) on the can. Allow to drain. Sprinkle the fine seed thinly and evenly over the surface. Press lightly into the moist surface but don’t cover. Place in a shaded spot and keep moist until the seeds have germinated and grown. Carefully transplant one seed per 3 1/2in (9cm) pot. When roots have filled the pot, plant out 12-18in (30-45cm) apart, usually in August or September. Water in really well.…

• 20 March 1727 Sir Isaac Newton, scientist and apple grower, died. • 21 March 1933 Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, was born. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Conservative MP, he is a keen gardener and tree expert; his arboretum at Thenford in Northamptonshire is open to the public four times a year. • 22 March 1915 Tomorite tomato fertiliser was launched (originally in solid form, it is now only available in liquid). • 23 March 1969 Renowned planstwoman Margery Fish dies. She wrote in AG regularly, exercised a strong influence on the informal cottage garden style, and created East Lambrook Manor Gardens in Somerset (pictured above). • 24 March 1818 Humphry Repton, the last great English landscape designer of the 18th century, and the successor to Capability Brown,…

The shortest Latin plant name used to be a species of American blue grass, Poa fax, but this plant now seems to be defunct. Poa as a genus does still exist, and so does Ada (an orchid), so these are currently the shortest genus names among plants. Bamboos technically are in the grass kingdom. The giant bamboos of south-east Asia are incredibly fast growing – they can grow up to one metre in 24 hours! Oddly, ‘Bamboo Blackie’ is a curiously named variety of daylily (hemerocallis), while ‘White Lawn’ is a variety of heather (Calluna vulgaris, right). Both are available from breeders and garden centres. If you know someone called ‘Timothy Bent’, then his horticultural name is ‘Grass Grass’: both Timothy (Phleum pratense, left) and Bent (Agrostis spp.) are types…

WHEN my friend Sarah sent me a picture of a ‘hitchhiker’ wanting a lift to work, I expected to see a youth with his thumb in the air. But no! The creature wasn’t a hoodie-clad millennial, but a stick insect clinging to the front tyre of her Citroën! I was amazed. Why was this unusual beast stalking (make that sticking) the streets of south Cornwall, and how had it arrived there? My first thought was that it must be on the run from some young entomologist’s jam-jar terrarium. Sarah, however, thought differently, as she’d encountered stick insects alive, well, and ‘al fresco’ near her home before and said that a naturalised population lived in the gardens nearby. Well, every day is a school day when you’re a gardener, but this…

This is your last chance to plant bare-root roses until the winter. Before planting, check that their roots are healthy and keep them damp and cool. Dig a hole that can take all the roots and fork in some well-rotted manure or compost. Place the rose so the graft is at, or just above, soil level. This reduces the risk of developing rose-replant disease. Infill with a mix of soil and compost, firm in and water well. Add a layer of mulch and keep the plant watered while it gets established.…

THERE are two schools of thought when it comes to sowing hardy annuals. The first is to get your seeds in the ground in autumn, with the soil still warm from summer and dampened by rain. This will give you earlier flowers the following year as the plants have a head start. However, the seeds also run the risk of rotting in cold, wet winter soil, or being unearthed and eaten by hungry rodents and birds. You are more likely to be successful with autumn sowing if you live somewhere warm and sheltered. In other areas try sowing under cover in pots or modules in late winter or early spring, or wait until now and sow your annuals in the soil where you want them to grow. In spring the…

No plant will thrive in the wrong soil or the wrong situation. When you buy a perennial, read its label first to see whether it likes sun or shade, acid or chalky soil, and how big it gets, as plants won’t thrive if they are cramped together. Before planting, stand the plant in water to soak the root ball. Dig a hole as deep as the plant container and slightly wider, then ease the plant from its pot. Carefully tease out any circling roots and place the rootball in the hole. Infill with a mix of soil and compost, firm it down and water well. A layer of mulch around the plant will help prevent it drying out while it gets established.…

1 This hellebore suffered in the winter weather, and the damaged material needed removing to stop it attracting pests and disease. 2 Using a sharp hoe blade and a stiff broom, sweep debris, weeds and moss off your patio to remove pest havens and prevent drains becoming blocked. 3 Blast accumulated algae, leaves and mud off your decking before someone slips over and hurts themselves. 4 Keep up your ‘pest watch’ – these snails were bundled together for security under some leaves, but not for long!…

HARDWOOD cuttings are traditionally taken and planted or potted up in autumn, which gives them a year to grow before they are either potted on or planted out. However, if conditions are unsuitable for planting out in autumn, or the cuttings are from slow-rooting plants such as Cornus or Laburnum, you can overwinter the cuttings in pots of sand that is kept moist. Keep them in a greenhouse or cold frame and then plant them out in spring, before the buds break, when the weather improves. Dig a trench in a sheltered area of the garden and fork in some well-rotted compost or farmyard manure. You can also add sand to improve drainage in heavy soil. Place the cuttings in the trench with two-thirds of each one below the surface…

FOR effective control of weeds it’s important how we go about weeding. You see, there are effectively three sorts of weeds – those coming in masses from seed, those with their roots already down, and those with their roots everywhere. We really need to deal with each in their own way. Those annoying swathes of seedlings emerging time after time from any cleared area of soil are easy to dispatch by hoeing, or whatever, but then they return almost straight away. Better we cover them with heavy mulch, and better still when this is placed over a layer of wet newspapers. Once weeds get their roots down they become much harder to kill, although regular hoeing with a well-sharpened hoe still puts paid to them over time. Hoeing is easy…

WHETHER it’s smothered in cheese sauce, tossed into a stir-fry or lightly steamed and smothered in butter, I adore sprouting broccoli. It’s not a crop for the impatient, though. Sown in April, most varieties take almost a year to mature, but because they fill the spring ‘hungry gap’ so well, I always make room for them. There are white and purple varieties of sprouting broccoli – and both are delicious. ‘Burbank’ is a British-bred F1 hybrid white form, and ‘Claret’, another F1 hybrid, is a well-established purple variety. Protection from pigeons is essential, so my plants have been nestling under a cage of netting since the summer. Keep picking the tender spears as they develop, to encourage more to form. Then rush into the kitchen and enjoy!…

WITH most crops only just waking from their winter slumber, it’s exciting to think that some are ready for harvesting now. Forced rhubarb is a luxury that’s entirely worth growing. More sweet, tender and early than unforced crops, the lurid-pink stems break through the soil in late February (sooner if you apply heat) and by now are pushing the lids off their forcing pots. When grown commercially in large sheds, you can hear the stems crack as they expand at a phenomenal rate. Home gardeners can use cellars or garden sheds, as both these exclude light, which is essential for forced rhubarb. Large upturned pots work just as well outside, but they take a little longer to produce a crop – unless you surround the pots with piles of farmyard…

NEW varieties of plants seem to appear every season, so it can make a refreshing change to return to a traditional old favourite. Step forward asters, whose densely petalled flowers add colour from summer to autumn, and have been delighting gardeners for generations. This week’s free seeds are aster ‘Milady Mixed’ (Callistephus chinensis), a robust dwarf half-hardy annual that produces masses of large blooms in white and shades of pink and purple. Relatively wilt-resistant and weather-tolerant, it grows well in tubs and pots. In beds and borders it likes well-prepared, free-draining soil, in sun or light shade. Originating in China, C. chinensis is from the same family as coreopsis, chrysanthemum and dahlias. Great for attracting pollinators, the bold blooms make excellent cut flowers to brighten the house, and regular deadheading…

■ Clematis can be very long-lived, so prepare your site well. ■ Dig a large hole, 18in (45cm) across and deep. Fork over the base and loosen the sides. ■ Put 4in (10cm) of compost, bagged soil improver or well-rotted manure into the hole, fork into the base and firm well. ■ Mix two handfuls of bonemeal or any general fertiliser into a 50:50 mix of good garden soil and old potting compost, then use to fill the hole. ■ Soak your clematis plant for half an hour, in water with Maxicrop or Seasol added. ■ Plant with the clematis’s crown 2 ½ in (6cm) below the general soil level.…

EASTER day may fall on 1 April, but this isn’t an April Fool. You really can add colour to your pots now to celebrate the Easter holiday in style. If you’re anything like me you have a range of pots – some with tulips and other spring bulbs just poking out of the compost, others with now shabby winter bedding and plenty of empty pots crying out for attention. I prefer to leave my pots of bulbs alone to avoid damaging the new shoots. For those who didn’t plant spring-flowering bulbs in autumn, there are plenty of potted bulbs on sale for planting in containers now. Fading winter bedding pots are easily given a new look by removing plants that are past their best. Cyclamen can be planted in shady…

‘Christine’ Quality fruits, excellent flavour and large, bright-red berries are the hallmarks of this early season variety. ‘Pegasus’ A mid-late variety ideal for heavier soils. Open habit and good disease resistance. Abundant medium-sized fruits are sweet and juicy. ‘Malwina’ A late variety with large, flavoursome red fruits produced to the end of July and into August. Good disease resistance. ‘Mara des Bois’ This everbearing variety has the aromatic flavour of wild strawberries. It produces regular-sized berries through summer.…

EACH year on my allotment in Forest Hall, Newcastle, I try to do something a little different. My plot is just under 300sq m, and with a south-facing aspect it is in a great location. In 2016, I decided that I would create a wildlife area in one corner with a pond incorporated to try to encourage a little more wildlife into the garden, particularly frogs, toads and hedgehogs, to help keep the slug population at bay. I installed the pond one Saturday, and to my amazement by the following Saturday I had lots of frog spawn. I wanted to build on the success of this area by planting the likes of foxglove, geraniums, teasel and buddleja to encourage a greater selection of beneficial insects to the plot. I built…

D. purpurea ‘Alba’ The elegant pure-white form of the native foxglove is an absolute favourite and looks good with every plant in the garden. Will reach up to 5ft (1.5m). D. p. ‘Camelot Cream’ These F1 hybrid foxgloves have been bred to flower in their first and second year from seed at 3-4ft (90-120cm). Spotted creamy white flowers open all around the stems. D. p. ‘Sutton’s Apricot’ A traditional foxglove whose soft, peachy-pink flowers are a subtle delight on plants reaching 4ft (1.2m). D. p. Foxy Mixed A good choice for the smaller garden, white and pink-shaded flowers open on compact plants to 3ft (90cm) tall. Flowers in the first year from an early sowing.…

“My neighbour asked if he could use my lawnmower and I told him of course he could, so long as he didn’t take it out of my garden!” Comedian Eric Morecambe (1926-1984) “Tradition dictates that we have a lawn – but do we really need one? Why not increase the size of your borders, or replace lawned areas with paving stones and gravel?” Severn Trent Water (The Gardener’s Water Code, 1996) “Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn.” Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Essays: Of Gardens (1625)…

Stick insects lay their several hundreds of seed-like eggs below where they feed in summer and autumn. These hatch out in spring and grow over a few weeks until they reach their mature size of roughly 4in (10cm) long. Unlike non-native species, stick insects have found a niche and live in balance with their environemnt, feeding on plants and being fed on by birds. They never move far except to find a warm place to spend the winter. The most common species is the ‘unarmed’, followed by the ‘Indian’, which, while it doesn’t over-winter, is apparently a common pet escapee that can be spotted across the country during summer and autumn.…