Innholdsfortegnelse for 9-May-2020 i Amateur Gardening

INTEREST in homegrown fruit and veg has never been higher, with sales of seeds and compost beating annual records. We try to grow a small selection of the varieties we eat the most of and this year we are trying a few more, too. We are lucky enough to have room for a few raised beds, a greenhouse for more tender crops such as cucumbers and aubergines, and a patio with enough room for tomato growbags. But whatever space you have there’s bound to be room for a few varieties. If you don’t have room at ground level, look up! Hanging baskets are a perfect place to grow little cherry tomatoes (‘Tumbling Tom’ is a popular variety), beetroot, radishes, alpine strawberries, salads, spinach, rocket and herbs. Windowsills are the perfect…

WHAT has been around comes around, they say, and if I have any claim to fame it is the 10ft x 12ft vegetable plot I created on a TV series called Dig This! This was made for the BBC’s Pebble Mill at One lunchtime programme back in the mid-1970s. Salad and vegetable prices rocketed following the hot summer of 1976, and the popularity of The Good Life TV programme inspired many people to grow their own. Now we see the return of growing our own, and little has changed from a cultivation point of view. The 10x12 plot was in rows, and subsequently we looked at yard square Chequerboard Gardening, which may be more appropriate for today’s modern housing and tiny gardens. Where there is no garden, our more recent…

ITS specific season and time from starting off until cropping has earned this perennial veg accolades such as ‘luxury’ and ‘gourmet’–but everyone can afford a patch of asparagus on their plot! Let’s look at less costly growing methods, plus some growing techniques that guarantee decadence for us all! Patience will be well rewarded Don’t let the time needed to wait before your first cut put you off: just get on with it! Once started off, a well-tended bed can last for 20 years. You’ve got two propagation options: open-pollinated or more modern all-male F1 hybrids (see page 16). Open-pollinated seed (which is less vigorous than F1 hybrids, and therefore cheaper) sown direct needs at least three years to bulk up, one-year-old crowns two years, and F1 hybrid modular plants somewhere…

This week it’s: THREE weeks before the coronavirus travel bans came, I was in Costa Rica in Central America, looking at wild fuchsias. This is one of the most northerly points on the American continent where fuchsias are known to be indigenous; they are common throughout Central and South America–and, oddly, New Zealand. In the wild there are more than 100 natural fuchsia species, whereas in our gardens there are several thousand hybrids and cultivars. Here in the UK, fuchsias are among our most popular of hobby plants and, as the flowering season will soon be upon us, this is a good time to look at them. ■ Fuchsias were not discovered until 1696. Plants were brought back to Europe, but the first hybridising didn’t occur until 1825, and it…

I’VE just felled a bay tree in my garden and, as every child knows, counting the rings on the stump shows its age. But that’s just the start–look at the ring’s shape and you can learn a whole lot more… Earlier in spring BCV (Before Covid-19), I met up with woodsman Jim White for whom ‘reading’ tree stumps is central to his job, painting a picture of the health and growth potential of forests in his care. He explained that each annual ring has two parts: a pale band that develops in spring called the ‘early wood’, which carries water and nutrients up to the canopy; and a darker band, the ‘late wood’ that develops towards the back of summer, adding structural strength and holding the tree up. “It’s like…

IT’S been a glorious spring so far, although the warm and sunny days have often been countered by chilly winds and sub-zero nights. So, you may be wondering, is it still too early to plant out tender perennials such as dahlias and canna lilies? I always prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to plants that aren’t reliably frost-hardy, so I’d say you may want to leave it another week or so until you can be absolutely sure that the frosts have finished. If you’re in the north of England or Scotland, you may even want to delay until mid-June. However, if you are in the south and have a very sheltered garden, it could be safe to get them out, but make sure you mulch…

IRECKON most gardeners are well aware that we sometimes have late frosts and know how much damage these can do to so many of our crops. But some gardeners are overoptimistic, reckoning they’ll ‘get away with it’ most years. Thus, they may throw away a whole load of work by not taking care on just one frosty night. For most of the UK, the most likely time late frosts occur and cause so much damage is mid-May. In frost pockets and further north, a hard frost can come in June, or even July. The biggest danger is when a late frost comes after a mild spring, as the plants will have become tender. If it’s a hard cold spring, plants are less developed and much tougher. “Late frosts can cause…

GARDENERS are an altruistic and resourceful lot, and I expect that most of you have risen to the challenge of spending rather more time at home than you usually do. Having a hobby helps enormously when you’re confined to barracks and there’s always something to do in a garden. The Best Beloved and I have been tackling the ground elder that has crept through the wall and overtaken one border, infiltrating ferns and clumps of bulbs. Unfortunately, it travels further underground in mild winters like the one we’ve just had. We’ll never eradicate it, but we might yet eat some! We’ve all got more time to watch the bees and smell the flowers at the moment and our areas of longer grass are fascinating. I started to make wilder areas…

■ This extract from AG 19 September 1959 looks at a cactus that was worshipped by the Aztecs IN Mexico, since the time of the Aztecs, three plants have been worshipped because of their power to cause vivid hallucinations when consumed: these are teonanácatl (‘the flesh of God), which is a fungus; ololiuqui, of the bindweed family; and peyotl or peyote, the sacred cactus. Peyotl is the Mexican name for the plant we call Lophophora williamsii. It is a small, compact and glaucous-green pincushion, barely 3in (7.5cm) above the ground, but with a large, carrot-like root formation beneath; its areoles support woolly tufts From the head of the peyotl various drugs can be extracted: lophophorine, the most unpleasant in its effects; pellotine, which engenders sleep; and anhalonine, a stimulant. The…

ALTHOUGH most garden centres remain closed at the time of writing, many nurseries and growers are managing to stay afloat by taking online orders and making home deliveries. Here at AG we are working towards bringing you news of these as soon as we get it and you can find our regular updates on our Coronavirus blog at amateurgardening.com/blog and also on our Twitter feed at Twitter.com/TheAGTeam. Another brilliant way to find out what’s open is a website set up by gardening writer and RHS trial judge Val Bradley. She has creating an online list of growers and nurseries that she updates regularly. Among those listed are: ■ Abriachan Garden Nursery on the shores of Loch Ness (01463 861 232; lochnessgarden.com) ■ Allwoods (Hassock) in West Sussex who specialize in…

I LOVE a spot of airy elegance in the borders and this week’s free seeds provide exactly that. Cleome ‘Violet Queen’ from Sarah Raven is a beautiful, unusual, half-hardy annual that is less well known than many of the others. They are also known as ‘spider flowers’ because of their large blooms that combine spikes with petals in shades of pink and white. Originally from West Indies and South America, these statuesque beauties can reach a height of 48in (120cm), so need to be planted towards the back or centre of a bed. They have a delicious scent, are great for pollinators and also make exquisite cut flowers. Sow them thinly onto damp compost, then cover with a very fine layer of more compost and firm it down. Add a…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years What’s the best way to plant bluebells? Q I would like to add bluebells to my garden, but how should I start a small collection? Are they best planted as bulbs, or in the green? The area I would like them is fairly shady. Mrs Z Clay, East Sussex A I am delighted that you wish to establish bluebells in a shaded part of your garden. Planting them ‘in the green’ is a speedy way to establish them, but they are not always readily available so I suggest you opt for planting bulbs in autumn. Set them to three times their depth about 6in (15cm) apart in humus-rich soil. They should flower the following spring. Make sure you get British bluebells…

Q We were excited to find a pond when we moved into our garden six years ago, and expected frogs and even toads to come and breed in it. We’ve seen a few newts in the water and one or two toads in the garden, but not one frog. We’ve never seen spawn or tadpoles. How do we attract them in? Stephanie McLaughlin, Bounds Green, Haringey A Coming across our amphibious friends is a lovely surprise, and these useful creatures eat slugs and other pests. According to data collected by the RSPB between 2014 and 2018, there was a 17% reduction in the regular sightings of common frogs and a 30% reduction of common toads spotted in British gardens. Causes could be loss of habitat and also diseases. For a…

MULCHING the soil in flower, shrub and veg beds suppresses weeds, holds in moisture, looks smart and can help to feed plants as it breaks down in the long term. A mulch can be any material spread over the surface of the soil in a continuous layer. This can include gravel, broken slate, fabrics and other inorganic substances, but the most common are organic materials such as garden compost, grass clippings and straw, or decorative wood and bark chippings. Compost, grass and straw break down fairly quickly (within six months) returning nutrients to the soil–which is a good thing, but they’ll need replacing or topping up every year. Wood and bark chippings take around four years to decompose so they’re great for shrub borders. All mulches bring a decorative uniformity…

Star letter DURING these scary times gardens can be our sanctuary. In our road, some very kind young people set up a WhatsApp group to keep in touch and offer help. While we are all in lockdown everyone is supporting each other offering jigsaws, books and a chat. I left a small table with a few copies of AG and packets of seeds I could spare by our gate. I let all the neighbours know, and there has been a surge of people taking seeds and leaving their spare seeds, including veg and salad. Busy young families are spending time planning their gardens and younger children wanted to start wildflower patches. So to the lady reader addicted to seeds, leave some packets near your front door and invite passers-by to…