Innholdsfortegnelse for 20-Jun-2020 i Amateur Gardening

“Do you remember the plate-spinning variety act on television many years ago? A row of sticks each supported a spinning plate, the aim being to keep them all spinning and not crash to the floor and break. It’s like that in the garden at the moment: deadheading, feeding, planting, taking out sideshoots. Before one thing is done, another screams for attention – otherwise, they won’t realise their potential. No wonder gardeners are so healthy! We never stand still, just like those plate-spinners of yester-year.” Contact us: ■ Editorial: 07814 905439 ■ Email: amateurgardening@ti-media.com ■ Advertising: 07817 629935…

IF you are looking for vibrant colour to tumble over a rockery or down a wall, then Campanula ‘Carpatica Blue’ is the plant for you. This hardy perennial produces lots of open, cupshaped, deep-blue blooms and, growing to just 10in (25cm) in height, it can also be used to create a colourful edge to borders. Once they have finished flowering, just shear them back into shape to stop them getting out of hand. The seeds of campanula are tiny, so sieve your compost before sowing. This makes sure all the larger clumps that might inhibit germination are ground out. Tamp the compost flat to create a firm, level surface for germination, so that none of the little seeds falls through the cracks and gets lost. Then dampen the compost with…

BUMBLE BEES are turning the effects of climate change to their own advantage to make plants produce more pollen. Researchers have discovered that warmer springs are causing bees to emerge from hibernation earlier than usual, when there is hardly any food around for them. But the clever bees encourage plants to bloom earlier by nibbling their leaves. This causes a little damage that makes the plant think they are under threat, so they flower earlier as a survival mechanism. Some varieties have been seen to flower between two weeks and a month earlier than usual. “We know that some other stressors, such as drought and pathogen infection, can induce early flowering,” said researcher Dr Mark Mescher, of the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He added:…

THE summer of 1976 was hot and very dry; it taught us many lessons on how to cope with drought, at a time when even trees wilted. My one abiding memory was trying to keep plants alive to the point that grey water (we had to take showers, as they used less water) was redirected to plants. Once the subsoil dried out completely, it was hopeless, and the best approach was drip water close to the base of plants it was felt needed to be kept alive. Slow drips of water penetrate deep into the soil where it is needed. At the time of writing, there is no sign of rain in forecasts for my part of the country, and while there is still moisture several inches down, lawns have…

WE do not lead an exciting life at Spring Cottage! We like to spend days in the garden, stopping for a cold drink midmorning to bask on the southfacing seat at the front of the house. Recently we’ve been shadowed by a dunnock that has perched just 3ft (1m) away and stands stock-still. At first we thought this bird was trying to befriend us, but eventually we realised that he or she was guarding a nest in the winterflowering clematis above our heads. We have had to abandon the seat until further notice! The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is a sleek, greyish-brown bird with a thin pointed beak. It creeps around in the undergrowth, rather like a mouse, and in summer it feeds on small beetles, snails, spiders and flies. In…

PlantSman and SBC gardening presenter I WENT out the other day to buy a tree fern and I came home with a pet. I’m not kidding – everyone who has seen my new purchase has said: “That fern needs a name!” Maybe it’s the furry, slightly simian look of the trunk, or perhaps the feel of the croziers inside the hairy crowns – put your hand in, and it’s like shaking hands with a friendly orangutan! All I know is that there’s nothing quite like them for charisma, and their remarkable ability to regrow and root – not from the stumps but from the felled trunks. Like all tree ferns sold in the UK, my fern originally came from the mistshrouded hills of Tasmania, an island that’s literally on the…

THE aim of a good summer garden is to have a run of colour and interest from the end of spring to the first frosts of autumn. If that sounds like a big ask, don’t worry, as it can be achieved easily and cheaply, and a lot of the heavy lifting is done by summer bedding plants. These are the little shouts of colour that garden centres and supermarkets stack high and sell cheap. Lobelia, petunias, pelargoniums, snapdragons, cosmos and nicotianas come in an array of heights and shades that, with judicious care, will take over from the late-spring/early summer alliums, sweet rocket, borage and foxgloves. They will flower from now until you hoik them out to make room for their winter substitutes. Due to an excess of perennial planting…

PERENNIALS can be expensive to buy and, following the lockdown, sporadically in short supply as everyone rushes to the garden centre. Luckily, it’s really easy to propagate your own, giving you lots of healthy new plants for free. The method we use at this time of year is softwood cuttings – using the fresh, healthy, non-flowering growth to make clones of the original. Plants I have had success s with include pelargoniums, penstemons, cistus and roses, but you can also try the method with osteospermums, fuchsias, hydrangeas and buddleja. Take the cuttings early in the morning when the plants are full of moisture from the night before. Snip around 4in (10cm) of healthy non-flowering new growth, but don’t overdo it otherwise you risk weakening the parent plant. Three or four…

ANYONE looking for greener ways to garden will be delighted about a new plant food that is a by-product of a farm in Cumbria. BioPower is a multi-purpose liquid fertiliser that is added to water and used to feed ornamental plants, crops and houseplants. Made by a family-run firm called EcoGro, it comes in bottles made from 100% recycled plastic to help reduce plastic waste. EcoGro’s legacy of innovation goes back nearly 60 years to when farmer Richard Harrison became a pioneer in a technology we now know as an anaerobic digester, which creates renewable energy through biofuel. Renewable and carbon neutral Through research, Richard realised that the by-product of anaerobic digestion was a fast-acting and highly efficient plant food and this work has been built upon by his son…

WITH more folk growing their own, many - if not all - will be cultivating potatoes. There are not many easier crops: none is more productive, and few as easily stored. Indeed, if you just make a few holes in the ground, throw in some spud seeds and kick soil back over, you will get a harvest! However, there’s much you can do to improve the quantity and quality of that harvest. First, and most importantly, keep watering really well even in damp weather; adding well-diluted liquid feeds will further boost yields. Be ^ careful to apply water only to the soil while keeping the foliage dry to prevent several diseases. Your greatest problem will be pests: slugs, snails, millipedes, wireworms and woodlice all eating and making holes. In the…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week. Can sweet peas return each year? Q We have just moved house and a plant has appeared in the garden that looks like a sweet pea. I thought they only lived for one year? Margery Bligh, Southend on Sea, Essex A The plant you mention is either the everlasting pea (Lathyrus grandiflorus) or perennial pea (Lathyrus latifolius). Although it is in the same genus as sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus), technically it is not the same plant. First, it is a perennial plant whereas sweet peas are annuals and second, the flowers are not wonderfully scented, as they are on sweet peas. The everlasting pea is a vigorous herbaceous perennial climber reaching 4-6ft (1.2-1.8m) high, while the perennial pea is…

A GARDEN pond is great fun, offering an opportunity to grow different plants and enjoy aquatic wildlife or ornamental fish. When well stocked with the right balance of oxygenating and shade plants, pond water should be clear. However, if the balance goes wrong, algae (microscopic plants) thrive and take over. There are two common types of algae. Green water algae turn the pond water into an opaque green soup, while string algae, known as blanket weed, produce billowing clumps in fine strands. Both are unsightly and can be harmful to plants and wildlife as they reduce oxygen levels in the water. Contributing factors to their appearance include high nutrient levels in the water, rising temperatures and too much sunlight penetrating the surface. Shallow ponds less than 2ft (60cm) deep are…

Mellow fruitfulness: It’s time to start thinking about late-season colour, and in next week’s AG I talk you through planting autumn-flowering bulbs ONE of my favourite bedding plants is the scented-leaf pelargonium. These are large, glorious plants with delicate pink flowers and leaves that give off a heady smell of lemon or roses when crushed between the fingers. We grow several and each autumn they are dug up and overwintered in the greenhouse. Over the years they have grown into large, handsome plants worthy of a central spot in a border or in a large pot of their own in an area where you sit and enjoy your garden. They are easy to propagate now via softwood cuttings, and you can find out how on page 6. When planting larger,…

MARK Gregory and his Welcome to Yorkshire Chelsea garden, which was seen at the show in 2018, has been crowned the winner of the BBC/RHS People’s Choice Award for Garden of the Decade. Affectionately known as the ‘King of Chelsea’, the multi award-winning garden designer and MD of Landform Consultants, had two of his gardens in the top 10, with the 2018 showpiece taking the title. Mark said: “What an honour it is to be awarded BBC People’s Choice Garden of the Decade. I’ve built and designed gardens at Chelsea every year since 1988, which adds up to more than three years of my life!” No Chelsea is a bit surreal The Garden of the Decade Award was presented as part of this year’s Virtual Chelsea Flower Show that took…

YOU will probably have sown most of this year’s summer annuals already, but it isn’t too late to sow direct some late-bloomers such as coreopsis, nightscented stocks (these will stay gorgeous right up the first frosts) and some cheerful limnanthes, or poached egg plant that will naturalise and spread. You can also sow biennials now, for flowers next year, and start your spring bedding such as pansies, bellis and violas. Late-flowering annuals can be sown where they are to grow in a prepared seedbed that has been cleared and raked to a fine, crumbly tilth and then watered well. Sow as thinly as possible (though any overcrowded seedlings can be thinned later) and cover with a thin layer of soil. It’s worth protecting the seeds from pest and cats with…

THEY’RE the epitome of a British summer, and life could be a bowl of them if you’re living the dream – so how do you get the very best from these must-grow trees? In the early 20th century, you would have needed a huge garden in order to grow cherry trees – but with the introduction of self-fertile Cherry ‘Stella’ in 1968, this all changed. Until this point, cherry pollination had been a bit of a conundrum, with self-incompatibility compounded further by incompatibility between varieties. Thank goodness for Canada! This is where ‘Stella’ and many other self-fertile varieties (such as ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Lapins’) were bred. “New varieties are better suited to our climate” The UK, too, has introduced varieties that are better suited to our inclement climate (such as ‘Summer…

This week it’s: IN the words of Michael Caine, “not a lot of people know this”. There are types of clematis that flower every month of the year. There are more than 200 species of clematis in total, and they provide some of the most enchanting, romantic and, yes, dramatic of blooms. But, of course, it is the summer-flowering types that are all coming in to flower now. Walls, fences, trellises and trees everywhere will be adorned with a tangle of foliage, and thin, wispy stems. And, best of all, the flowers, in a range from small to massive, and in almost every colour except maybe black (there are a few yellows, and greenish ones, and some with brown in them)! Most summer clematis are derived from one of three…

Why are strawbs not fruiting? Q I have tried buying strawberries in pots and ordering them through the post, but they don’t take well and soon turn into a mass of small plants with hardly any fruit. My parents used to have so much fruit we’d have to turn some into jam. Where am I going wrong? Penny Keegan, Sittingbourne, Kent A For a seemingly straightforward fruit, strawberries can be a puzzle. These herbaceous perennials have a fruiting life of thee-five years before they are replaced with healthy rooted runners raised from existing plants, or new ones bought in and certified as disease-free. On light, sandy soil, strawberries might overwinter better, but need more watering and feeding. On heavier clay soils, poor drainage and winter wet sometimes rot the centre…

Upcycling solution I LOVE coffee, and would always stop and have a cappuccino in one of my local cafés when on my beat as a police officer. Since lockdown, I have had to resort to takeaway coffee and accumulated a large collection of paper cups. Rather than throw them straight in the recycling bin, I’ve used them for growing seedlings. Particularly those with longer roots for which they are ideal and cheaper than root trainers! Runner beans and sweet peas have all grown well. Even better, some of the cups are compostable, too! Siân Green, via email Wendy says: Great idea, Siân! Loving your tip for reusing takeaway cups. You are lucky to find compostable kinds: it’s a pity so many can’t be recycled due to the plastic lining inside…