Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Feb-2020 i Amateur Gardening

THIS winter has felt like the longest, greyest and soggiest in living memory, and when the garden has been too wet to contemplate, the greenhouse has provided an excellent refuge. For the past few months it has been packed with plants jostling for space, including a lemon tree, an olive tree, winter salads growing in last summer’s growbags, plus lots of cuttings and tender plants lifted and brought in out of the cold. By visiting regularly I have managed to keep most of the plants healthy, and hopefully they will be ready to start the move outside when the weather warms up. There have been one or two casualties (in this case, old pelargoniums) that I’ve consigned to the compost heap. There’s no point being sentimental, because once the surviving…

1 Our olive tree in the greenhouse looks healthy, but I still inspect it regularly for pests including snails and scale insects. 2 Cloched plants can be vulnerable, so check them regularly. Anchor the cloche and open ventilation holes on warm days. 3 Freezing weather and snow are still likely, so use an old blanket to insulate mini greenhouses and coldframes. 4 Keep greenhouse gutters free from debris so water will flow straight into attached waterbutts or other rainfall harvesters.…

Regrow Your Veggies by Melissa Raupach and Felix Lill (Companion House Books, £14.99) AS plant-based diets are the bandwagon du jour and more people start growing their own, this timely book explains how you can increase your crops – by growing from scraps and peelings! While it won’t add up to your entire vegetable quota, it will go some way towards it. Armed with growing tips from the front of the book and following the simple guides for each variety, Regrow shows you how to get a second flush from several herbs as well as potatoes, onions, spring onions, Chinese cabbage, pineapple, avocado and mango (do note that this is an American book and you are unlikely to get these to fruit in the UK). Most of the instructions are…

Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on iTunes WHEN you enter a set of garden retail premises and see the Garden Centre Association (GCA) logo at the door, it may not mean very much to you on first viewing. It is, however, your indication of a set of standards that are measured by independent inspectors who visit all 400 or so members throughout the UK. They arrive between March and June, and any centres scoring less than 50% on the points system stand to have their membership withdrawn, if things are not immediately improved. All members must offer a comprehensive range of good-quality garden and house plants, accurately labelled, well cared for, and with a free replacement guarantee should…

COVERING your soil in thick mulch is one of the best things you can do for your garden. Mulch is a panacea for many of our problems and it should be applied more widely, more often and more generously. There are many sorts of mulch. The most valuable are loose organic materials: well-made compost, well-rotteded manure, composted bark or chippings (and leafmould if you can get it). Some mulches look attractive, but that’s not so important as what they do for our soil and plants. Mulch suppressess weeds – true, it doesn’t hinder established perennialnial weeds, but a layer of mulch soon chokes out small weeds, and it very effectively stops weed seeds in the soil from germinating. “Mulch is a panacea for many of our problems” Next, a mulch…

MY retired smallholder parents grew thousands of glasshouse tomatoes each year, and that’s where I cut my horticultural teeth. Now is the time to sow to ensure success with toms, so how do you ensure bumper crops? Although you can buy plants from garden centres, many of us sow toms because it offers the widest selection of varieties. Germination is strong and swift: sow eight-10 seeds on the surface of a 3½in (9cm) pot of well-watered seed compost, top with vermiculite and then place in a well-lit propagator at 18-22°C (64-72°F). Prick out into individual pots once 2½in (6cm) tall, positioning these at ever increasing spacings in a warm (15°C/59°F) spot until the first flower trusses appear, and then plant. “Sowing toms gives you the widest range of varieties” More…

How can we stop vine weevils this year? Q Last summer we had terrible trouble with vine weevils in our patio containers and lost lots of plants. We have tried everything to get rid of them. What else can we try? Joyce Partridge, Bridport, Dorset A Once you have an infestation, vine weevils are a complete pain and you need a combination of methods to get the situation under control. Start by washing out used containers to get rid of vine weevil eggs, and always use fresh compost when potting up plants. Adult weevils tend to feed in the evenings during spring and summer, and can usually be spotted at dusk by torchlight. They tend to drop to the ground if disturbed so they might require a bit of hunting…

■ From AG 24 July 1915 Yellow tomatoes It is curious how fashion in things to eat dominates us as much as in things to wear. Else why is it that only the scarlet tomato is patronised to the exclusion of other colours? Commenting on this, the Lincoln and Stamford Mercury’s market gardening expert says: “Some yellow tomatoes are grown mainly for table decoration, but the public will not have them, strange to say, although certainly some varieties possess excellent flavours. “These yellow fruiting kinds grow in the open and under glass to perfection, but the colour seems to hinder their sale, although retailers have tried their best to push their sales. Private people with gardens can raise them, and they will find the plants free bearers of finest fruits…

NO feature about Narcissus is complete without a quick nod to that mythical Greek man so handsome and beguiled by his own beauty, he withered away gazing at his reflection in a puddle. Thank the gods he did. If he was still alive today, it would be us at the gates of Hades, bored to death by his selfies! Furthermore, we wouldn’t have lovely Narcissus – or daffs, to you and me – as the cautionary tale tells us they are what grew up in his place. Back in November, I bought a ‘bargain’ 25kg sack of daffs, and if you were wondering what 25,000g or four stones of daffodil bulbs looks like, to paint a picture, the sack was so big it took a Herculean effort by the postman…

1 Removing dead and damaged plant material makes the plant look better and also removes any potential entry points for pests and diseases. 2 Most dormant plants get through winter without water, but if any look lacklustre or are starting to ebb, a drink now won’t hurt them. 3 I use a houseplant 2-in-1 insect spray and invigorator to help keep overwintering plants in tip-top condition in the greenhouse. 4 Pests often have better access to your coldframe than the greenhouse, so look over your plants regularly for signs of trouble.…

Got a story? Call 01252 555138 or email ruth.hayes@ti-media.com AMATEUR Gardening readers are being asked to follow the National Trust’s example and grow their own washing up sponges! The team at the Trust’s Knightshayes estate in Devon have harvested their first crop of loofahs, which staff and volunteers are using to wash up in the property’s kitchen. Compost them after use The loofahs are much more environmentally sound than plastic pan scourers and can be added to the compost heap when they wear out. Kitchen garden supervisor Bev Todd said: “Many people think loofahs are sea sponges but they’re actually the fruit of Luffa cylindrica, a vine in the cucumber family. “Once they’ve matured, you can turn them into sponges for doing the washing up.” Bev continued: “We have 80…

I ALWAYS think of aubrietia as being one of those plants that just gets on with its job, brilliantly, as it happens, and lets the rest of us get on with our gardening. It grows into glorious clumps of colour, spilling down walls and rockeries and flourishing between paving stones. Mr Fothergill’s Aubrietia ‘Cascade Mixed’ is a cushion-forming mass in shades of pink. If sown now, this hardy perennial can be planted out where you want it to flower in early summer. Plants will then put on root and top growth that will help it withstand the weather next winter and be in prime position to romp away and flower next spring and early summer. For the best results, sow undercover in a tray or series of pots. Keep the…

1 The best time to ask for detailed advice is earlier and later in the day, especially in the week, when skilled staff are likely to have more time for you. 2 Make your purchases where you feel you get sound, free advice and gain valuable friendships along the way. 3 Selecting products for pest, disease and weed control? Again, seek advice. Diluting from concentrate into clean sprayers at home will give you the best value for money. 4 Measure the lawn before setting off to buy lawn seed and turf treatments; most packs carry the size of area treated.…

1 Cover outdoor peach and nectarines with a plastic sheet – if kept dry over the next few months, they won’t suffer leaf curl. 2 Bring any container-grown grapevines, gooseberries, raspberries and blueberries under cover to force for earlier crops. 3 Deep-clean the greenhouse, propagator and coldframe to remove any pests and eggs; be sure to destroy old strings and ties as they are the worst hazards. 4 Is your mower ready for grass cutting? If not, get it prepared: properly serviced, it will consume less energy – both fuel, and yours!…

THOSE of you with clumps of dog’s tooth violet in your garden might never have considered this little bulb to be edible, but indeed it is. The slow bulking-up rate of some species would make developing a taste for the sweet bulbs rather an expensive hobby, but thankfully there are some (E. californicum, E. americanum and their varieties) that have more vigour. The secret is to buy when in growth in pots (desiccated bulbs don’t establish well), plant in a soil improved with humus (well-rotted leafmould or garden compost is ideal) in a cool, shady spot, then leave for a few years to bulk up. The fang-shaped bulbs are roughly 1cm in diameter and 1in (2-3cm) tall. Dig sections of these up (they can be eaten raw or cooked), but…

This week it’s: Pancake Day! What does Shrove Tuesday have to do with gardening? Read on to find out… NEXT Tuesday, 25 February, is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. It always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date varies each year. It’s the last day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent – a time of fasting – and so the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before the Lenten fast. Pancakes were the perfect way of using up these ingredients. Putting religious significance aside, there is no better a time to look at pancakes, their ingredients and their gardening connections. ■ There is a lovely creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) called ‘Pancake’. A compact, spreading evergreen conifer with grey-green leaves, it sometimes produces oval, fleshy,…

TopTip If there is a delay of any kind, place the shrub back in the old hole and cover the roots with soil and/or Hessian to prevent drying or freezing. How do I move a big shrub? Q We would like to move a large shrub that was planted six or seven years ago. We’re not sure what it is, but it flowers in summer and loses its leaves in winter. Is now a good time, and how should we go about it? Cecilia Church, Lichfield, Staffordshire A Vigorous shrubs can put down a fair amount of root in seven years, and there is always an element of risk involved with lifting and replanting. Yet sometimes it is the best thing to do, and worth taking a chance. We have…

Colour me beautiful: Cheer up the chilly days by planting summer-flowering bulbs now, while the best choice is still available. In next week’s AG we show you what to buy and how to get the best results. IF you have room in the garden for a greenhouse (and sufficient finances), but haven’t yet made the move to get one, do so – it’s the best investment you can make. If you don’t have the room or a budget that stretches that far, a coldframe or mini greenhouse are excellent alternatives. You can’t just plonk a greenhouse down anywhere and expect success, though. Siting your greenhousee involves care and thought. Ideally, place it on an east-west axis to maximise winter sunlight. It needs to be somewhere sheltered and not close to…

THE number of bee species is in steep decline, according to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Scientists have discovered that they are collecting almost half the number of species as in the 1950s, when around 1,900 species were logged. The main threats to bee biodiversity are pesticides, monocrop cultivation leading to a smaller variety of plants, and pathogens spread by the global bee trade. “This is the first study suggesting that bee decline is a global process, and that the most significant changes have occurred in recent years,” says Margarita López-Uribe, a bee evolutionary ecologist at Penn State University. Previous bee studies have reported falling populations, but evidence has often been limited to Europe and North America. Numbers of western honeybees (Apis mellifera) decreased in USA and Europe. In the…

24: Beginners’ Growing Vegetables: RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor 27: Hydrangea Pruning Masterclass: RHS Wisley, Wisley Lane, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB. ✆ 0845 6121 253, rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley 27: Introduction To Using Medicinal Herbs: RHS Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorks HG3 1QB. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/harlow-carr 27: Plants for Winter Interest: RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Creephedge Lane, Rettendon, Chelmsford, Essex CM3 8ET. ✆ 0845 265 8071, rhs.org.uk/gardens/hyde-hall 28-29: Productive Greenhouse (Spring and Summer): RHS Wisley March 1: The Giant Houseplant Takeover: RHS Wisley 2: Garden Talk and Lunch With Chelsea Award-Winner Michelle Brown: Athelhampton House, Athelhampton Road, Puddletown, Dorchester, Dorset DT2 7LG. ✆ 01305 848363, athelhampton.com 4: An Evening with Chelsea Award-Winning Garden Designer Adam Frost: The Blake Theatre,…

IN AG 20 July, I explained how I was conducting a test of three different growbags in a tomato trial over the summer of 2019. The tomatoes were the blight-resistant ‘Crimson Crush’ and ‘Moneymaker’, a traditional favourite, with one plant of each variety placed in the growbags. The growbags were a 33-litre Westland growbag, a 45-litre Melcourt SylvaGrow peat-free planter and a 30-litre bag of Dalefoot Wool Compost for tomatoes with ‘no need to feed’. I followed the growbag manufacturers’ instructions and monitored the results. The feed used for the Westland and Melcourt growbags was Natural Grower organic liquid fertiliser and homemade comfrey tea. In AG 31 August, I reported on progress and at the beginning of that month there were 42 tomatoes on the ‘Crimson Crush’ plants and 71…

ONE of the greenest things you can do is grow some early flowers, because pollinators such as solitary bees and bumblebees rely on them for their survival. These bees hibernate underground often with little or no food and they use up their fat reserves over winter. When they emerge, they’re desperate for a supply of nectar – the sugar-rich energy drink needed for flight. Favourite plants include hellebores and crocuses, but bumblebees will also feed on winter-flowering daphnes and honeysuckles. Once they’ve drunk their fill of nectar, bumblebees start zigzagging low over the ground looking for a suitable hole as a nesting site. They also favour tussocky grass, crevices in stone walls, the foundations under sheds and garden buildings, and occasionally (and very inconveniently) compost heaps. When the site has…

FOR anyone who wants to grow their own produce, tomatoes are a must-try. Not only are the fruits among the most versatile of culinary ingredients but there are also so many different, colourful varieties available – many that you rarely see in shops. And there’s nothing more satisfying than biting into a home-grown, juicy tomato from the garden. If you’re a novice veg grower, it’s hard to go wrong with classics such as ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and ‘Sungold’. But if you want to try something a little more challenging, look for heirloom varieties like ‘Brandywine’. Unusual colour variations are great for making salads anything but boring – the stripy ‘Green Zebra’, for instance, or ‘Noire de Crimée’, a dark-skinned Russian-bred tomato. Options with black colouring offer the added bonus of having…

Pruning saws for trees and shrubs It’s time to sort out tree and shrub branches, but you’ll need the right saw, says Tim THERE are several things to consider when buying a pruning saw for trees and shrubs. If you do a lot of pruning of thick branches you need one of the long-bladed saws in this test. A long blade will tackle thicker branches, and should cut more quickly, but you’ll have to pay for the best performers. If you’re only cutting a few branches that loppers can’t manage, then a short-bladed saw will be fine and will be easier to manoeuvre in confined spaces. Pruning saws cut mainly on the pull stroke, which is easier when working overhead. Most of the models on test come with a belt…

A gem for posterity Star letter I READ with interest in A Gardener’s Miscellany (AG, 18 January) about a David Austin rose no longer being propagated due to blackspot. I bought ‘Glamis Castle’ in a sale a while back. It was a spindly little thing but responded to TLC; it was bought, as it is white, to go next to a red Floribunda called ‘Highland Laddie’. Yes, a Scottish theme, but red and white happen to be Sheffied United’s colours – who needs a horticultural reason? This rose only starts to get blackspot in the early autumn; timely spraying seems to keep it at bay. It does tend to have small flowers and buds prone to balling in the wet, but as it’s so floriferous, other flowers soon fill in…