Innholdsfortegnelse for 29-Feb-2020 i Amateur Gardening

WHEN you think of a perfect summer garden, what image does your mind’s eye present you with? For me, it’s a riot of floral colour, shapes, heights, scents and textures, all set against a soundscape of singing birds and buzzing bees. And what really catches the eye are the borders, packed with a combination of plants, both annuals and perennials, their colours contrasting and complementing to create a glorious palette. No matter how long you have been gardening, the thought of creating such a spectacle can sometimes seem rather intimidating as you wonder how you can create this effect in your own garden. The good news is it’s relatively easy and doesn’t have to cost the earth. Annual plantings can either be grown from seed or bought in bargain multipacks…

I AM really excited about this week’s free seeds from Mr Fothergill’s because lavatera is one of my favourite summer plants. Parade Mixed’ is a hardy annual member of the tree mallow family and grows to be an excellent border-filler around 2ft (60cm) tall. It produces a profusion of silky, trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of pink that do best in full sun and will attract pollinators. The seeds can be sown outside now in sunny soil that has been cleared of weeds and debris, and raked to a fine tilth the consistency of crumble topping. Protect your seedbed from birds and rodents and from cats that see it as a convenient toilet. There are several chemical deterrents to spray on the soil, or you can lay a few twigs on…

IT’S something that gets us in an excitable frenzy when it’s in season, and yet few of us remember to sow this delicious vegetable in spring. A long-term commitment it may be, but why not sow some purple (or white) sprouting now? It’s sure to satisfy your inner cook in 12 months time… Breeding improvements There are two key things you need to remember when you are growing sprouting broccoli: it takes a long time to mature, and the plants can be huge. Conventional types are sown now, yet they won’t produce their harvest of delicious, tender spears until March or April – no wonder many of us forget to grow them! But advances in breeding mean that summer-maturing varieties are now available (see page 20), and you can cleverly…

This week it’s: Dwarf bulb irises They may be small, but dwarf irises still pack a colourful punch in late winter or early spring DURING my student days with the RHS, one of my jobs was to look after the Alpine House at Wisley in Surrey. In those days it was an old-style unheated greenhouse, with benches of sand into which alpine plants were plunged, still in their pots, when they came into flower. It meant that there was always something colourful to admire. It was here that I first discovered dwarf irises. I knew the large border irises, but the diminutive bulb versions were a revelation and have been firm favourites ever since. Let’s look at some of the stories surrounding them. ▪ Nearly all the irises included here…

TUBEROUS perennial begonias are the stars of summer baskets, containers and borders. Although they should be overwintered somewhere frost-free, they are not particularly fussy and in a sheltered, sunny spot will flower from summer right through to the first frosts. These are the big, blowsy begonias that produce a wealth of blooms in shades from deep pink to the palest apricot and yellow. Some varieties are trailing, which makes them perfect for hanging baskets, window boxes and tall containers, while others are more upright, thus providing mounds of colour for borders and containers. In the autumn, they are left to die back before the tubers are lifted, dried and stored in trays of barely damp sand in a frost-free (and pest-free) greenhouse, porch or shed. We had a couple of…

ONE question that keeps coming up at talks and recordings is whether or not we can re-use potting compost. With gardens getting smaller, more gardeners are growing more in containers – and the problem is not just the cost of new compost but also what to do with the old if you have no beds to spread it on. So can you re-use compost? The experts and old books all seem to agree that you should not – the counsel is always to replace old with new. However, I have been experimenting for decades, and I have determined that you can get away with it if you take some precautions. The most obvious is not to do so when you have noticed any soil-borne pests or diseases such as vine…

APART from those that fruit, two of the most useful trees in the garden are hazel and willow. They are beautiful and their wood can be cut time and again for a range of uses without killing the tree. Several years ago we planted a native hedge using little bare-root whips, including a number of hazels. One was left surplus to requirement and we were obviously loath to ditch it so we planted it up in a large pot where it flourished. We didn’t want this to be its ‘forever home’, so when an ancient viburnum died in the front garden, leaving room for something new in another area of hedge, we decided it was the ideal spot for the hazel. It has adequate space to grow, though it was…

WHAT a difference a day makes! One fine Saturday this month, with a fresh breeze, a sizeable patch of my vegetable patch was dug, ready for sowing and planting next month. I needed that spell of fresh air and healthy exercise, having spent two long days at International Plant Fair in Essen, Germany, working through eight halls of the latest plants, horticultural equipment and, of course, thousands of visitors from all around the world. I saw a seed-raised ‘Adessa’ potato from Germany, which goes on sale as a 3½in (9cm) pot plant here in the UK in May. Several companies have been working on this – just think of all the transport costs and fossil fuel that would be saved if in future we did not have to transport tubers.…

I LIKE to grow my own food, because there are no food miles, but parsnips aren’t easy! For one thing, they take a full 30 days to germinate – and only then if the weather provides ambient temperatures of about 50°F/10°C. Cold Aston doesn’t deliver consistent spring-time temperatures like that very often, and recent springs have produced ultra-warm, cloudless days followed by chilly nights. If there’s one thing seeds hate, it’s temperature extremes. A warmer Arctic Circle, caused by global warming, is likely to push cold winds our way, so springs may get even more unpredictable in years to come. In recent years I’ve had to sow parsnips at least two or three times in order to get a row sufficiently good enough to go through a winter of Sunday…

PETUNIA is an unusual girl’s name, and in the language of flowers can deliver a mixed message. Present a pot of red or purple petunias to someone with whom you have argued, and they convey anger and resentment. Yet in calmer tones, they say ‘being with you is soothing’, so they are the ideal gift for the comforting friend. These are South American members of the potato family, related to tomatoes, physalis and the tobacco genus Nicotiana. Tribal names for tobacco gave rise to the French ‘petun’, eventually used for petunia. The impressive range of flower colours and shapes now available began with hybrids created between P. integrifolia and fragrant P. axillaris. Many petunias still carry a sweet perfume, intensifying when many are grown together. These are sun-worshipping plants, producing…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week Why has my money tree changed colour? Q My money tree is flowering beautifully but has turned from green succulent to a paler green/yellow with lots of red. Why should this be? I have not fed it through the winter months or watered it much. Richard Simpson, Hastings, E Sussex A What a splendid money tree (Crassula argentea) – you must be thrilled with it. The fact that its foliage was green and is now showing red tints indicates that it is hungry. It may be because it is pot bound and needs repotting into a slightly larger container, or it could simply be that repeat liquid feeds are required to restore its green hue. Initially, tap it gently…

GUTTERING and downpipes perform an essential function, channelling rainwater from the roof to a drain, soakaway or into a water butt. Without them shed walls – especially the popular larchlap type – can let water in, while water can also pool along the bottom edge when guttering is missing, increasing the risk of wood rotting and the ground flooding. Fitting guttering is quite straightforward. Some roofs on big sheds have a deep overhang and will need standard household guttering, but most small sheds like mine need something smaller. Widely available is FloPlast Miniflo guttering (Wilko, B&Q and Screwfix), which has 76mm-wide gutters, 50mm downpipes and fittings to match. You can check the size you need by offering up a fascia clip under the shed roof overhang. If the edge of…

Top Tip Where ivy is allowed to cloth a wall or fence, watch it does not seed or creep into adjacent borders. Young strands are easy to pull out, but once established they make strong mats. How do I best tend to ivy? Q We’re not sure what to do with ivy in our mature, medium-sized garden. It pops up and gets going here and there. Some advise against letting it grow up walls and trees, while others tell us to keep it for the wildlife, so what’s the real answer? Joanna Matlock, Witham, Essex A The climbing, juvenile stems of common ivy (Hedera helix) make their vertical ascent of trees and walls by clinging with tiny roots produced all along the stems. The aim is to reach light, so…

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@ti-media.com ‘Grandpa Ott’ is all white I JUST wanted you to know that the Morning Glory ‘Grandpa Ott’ I received free last year were all white. I have another free packet with AG (21 December), so I hope this time they are the gorgeous colour on the packet. I would also like you to know that I help with a plant sale every May/June in aid of the Children’s Hospice South West. I grew lots of free seeds from AG and helped raise money for this great cause. Particularly nice were the cosmos and asters – and many people commented on the strong plants. Molly Follett,…

SOME botanical names read like incantations from Harry Potter’s spell book – just try saying Anigozanthos manglesii while waving an imaginary wand and you’ll see what I mean. Magnolia grandiflora, on the other hand, melts like Lindt chocolate on the tongue, capturing the plant’s essence perfectly. I was standing against a castle wall, beneath the branches of one of these magnanimous and grand trees, when I remembered that I’d forgotten I owned one… I’d unearthed it a decade ago, while clearing brambles from the back of our (then) new nursery. The previous owners clearly hadn’t the heart to throw the potted tree away, so they had left it to take its chances amongst the weeds. Although stuck for space, I couldn’t let it go either and I bunged it in…