Innholdsfortegnelse for 18-Jul-2020 i Amateur Gardening

“Is it only gardeners that greet a darkening sky and downpour of rain after days of hot sunshine with a beaming smile and more than a little relief? I don’t know about you, but I feel I am forever ferrying watering cans to and from the butts, so when those black clouds unleash their watery payloads I know there’s one job less to do — and the near-empty butts will be replenished. I think the weather has been pretty kind to us so far this summer. What do you think?”…

1 The ‘leading’ upright shoot of our ‘Victoria’ plum had died, so I pruned it out to make room for a new leader. 2 I then secured the new leader to a stake so it will grow in the direction I want and not be damaged by winds. 3 A philadelphus I hard pruned four years ago has grown well and I’ve cut its shoots back by a third to encourage strong growth. 4 After pruning, always sharpen and clean your tools as blunt blades won’t cut cleanly and sticky sap can harbour diseases.…

Got a story? email ruth.hayes@futurenet.com AG READERS are being called upon to mobilise and take place in one of the UK’s largest ‘citizen science’ projects. The Big Butterfly Count, which runs from July 17 to August 9, is seen as one of the best ways of ‘taking the country’s natural pulse’ and gauging the health of its natural environment. All you have to do is spend 15 minutes in an outdoor space during sunny conditions and then count the types and amount of butterflies you see. You can do as many counts as you like on different days during the three-week period, and even unsuccessful counts where you saw no butterflies at all are important and should be logged. A time of peak butterfly appearance Joanna Bower of Butterfly Conservation,…

Top Tip Keep deadheading perennials as it ‘panics’ the plant into thinking it’s under attack, so it produces more flower buds and you get a long-lasting display. PERENNIALS are the hardworking mainstays of the garden, giving form and structure to borders and acting as the framework around which you can plant and sow seasonal annuals and biennials. They motor on, often for many years, and it can be easy to take them for granted and lavish your gardening attention on more temperamental and less robust plants. But show them some love and they will pay you back magnificently Early spring plants will have ceased flowering and died back, and early summer varieties such as some alliums will be coming to the end of their shift. Remove the faded flowerheads and…

1 Land cress is a very good watercress alternative and if it is sown late summer it will crop right through the winter. 2 One of the oil-based insecticides will control white fly (aphids) on winter brassicas, but both sides of the leaves need to be covered. 3 Occasional very heavy watering and spraying over the foliage with water in the evening helps runner beans to set in high temperatures. ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Firestorm’ are two of the recommended self-pollinating cultivars. 4 Avoid courgettes and other cucurbits from drying out to reduce the likelihood of mildew disease. Water well, then mulch around the base of the stem with compost to encourage new roots. Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on…

THIS tit bears no resemblance to our other British tits and, indeed, belongs to another genus altogether, but in its black and white attire and rosy tinted breast it is quite easily recognised, for its long tail (longer than its body) is also a sure aid to its identity. Long-tailed tits are mainly insect feeders and usually move about in small companies. They often forage in gardens, orchards and city parks, generally hunting among the higher branches of tree where their acrobatic movements are most amusing to watch. Their high-pitched tinkling voices can only be heard from a reasonably short range. Of all British birds, the long-tailed tits make the most beautiful nests, a warm ball skilfully constructed of moss, hair, wool, fur, lichen and spiders’ webs, with a lining…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week Why won’t our buddleja ‘Buzz’ flower? Q Our buddleja ‘Buzz’ is in its second year growing in a container. The first year I had a few flowers quite late and after other buddlejas around me had finished flowering. This year the same thing has happened, and mine isn’t and doesn’t show any signs of buds. Am I doing something wrong? Paul M, via email A I wonder if, although suited to growing in a container, your plant is struggling with its restricted root run. Being a hardy shrub it will do best in loam-based compost such as John Innes No2. This will have higher levels of nutrients and better water-retention capabilities. Peat-based or peat-free tend to dry out too…

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@futurenet.com Preserve our plots! FURTHER to your news article on allotments (AG, 27 June), I have a plot in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. It is on a flood plain and we flood every year now, so with this in mind, we are hopeful our site won’t go for housing. Unfortunately, that can’t be said for Dewsbury, the next town along, which has lost its large site to a link road to serve a massive housing estate, and I’ve heard about battles to save plots elsewhere. In the Kirklees area, there are hundreds on the waiting list for a plot; I waited four years for my first one.…

Top Tip Always make sure your tools are sharp and clean. Use secateurs on pencilthick growth, loppers on larger wood and a saw for thick branches. CONVENTIONAL wisdom says we prune trees and shrubs in autumn and winter when they are dormant, but there are several varieties that ought to have a haircut in summer. These largely fall into two categories; those that are susceptible to silver leaf disease; and shrubs that flower in early summer and create each year’s blooms on strong young growth produced the previous year and early the next. A third group are evergreen shrubs that are less hardy can be damaged by cold if trimmed in winter. This week I have been busy pruning our recently flowered philadelphus and weigela, giving a straggly ornamental flowering…

CLEMATIS are one of our most popular, exotic-looking plants, and with good reason. There are different varieties that flower in almost all seasons, and they can be grown in borders or containers and trained up walls and fences or up elegant teepees in the middle of beds However, they can be tricky to cultivate. They like to have their roots cool and damp, but their top growth in sun or partial shade – even though the blooms of some larger varieties tend to fade in sunlight. It is extremely disheartening to see previously healthy clematis shrivel and blacken almost overnight, and there are two main reasons – the disease clematis wilt and the environment in which they are growing. Clematis wilt is caused by the fungus Calophoma clematidina and is…

ALTHOUGH most of the UK’s major gardening shows and celebrations were cancelled in the face of Coronavirus, one group of growers have found a way around lockdown. The National Dahlia Society is, for one year only, holding a Socially-Distanced Dahlia Show. Taking place at the Abercorn Garden Centre in Chelmsford from September 10-14, just 30 growers will be exhibiting their plants. Dave Gillam said: Abercorn Garden Centre have offered the use of their coffee shop, currently closed, to stage the best competitive display of dahlias in the country. We anticipate that over 75m (245ft) of three-tier tables will be full to the brim with flowers from all areas of the UK. This will be a real spectacle as the UK is accepted in the world to produce dahlias to their…

■ Sow perennials now for next year. Come autumn they should be large enough to plant out, though they may need protection with mulch and fleece during the coldest weather. ■ Alternatively, especially if you live in the north of the country, you can overwinter them undercover and then harden the off after the frosts next spring and plant out. ■ Sow thinly in trays or pots of dampened seed compost. Very small seeds, such as verbascum, can be mixed with sand for easier sowing or tapped onto the compost from a dampened fingertip. ■ Cover with a little compost or vermiculite, label and add a lid or seal your pot in a clear plastic bag. Place somewhere light and warm, and remove the coverings after germination. ■ Grow on…

WITH the maturity of so many crops at once, this month can be very productive, and rather wasteful. The problem is what to do with each surplus as they arrive. Just a whirlwind of picking is not enough – you have to do something, and quickly, before it all goes over. Leeks, carrots and most until required, and onions and garlic can be simply dried off, but most crops need processing ASAP. Once picked, soft fruits survive only a few days, even in a refrigerator. But turn these into jams, jellies and juices, and they are storable for months, and even years. A huge advantage with fruits is that you can freeze now and decide later what you’ll do with them. I defrost mine to make jams and jellies on…

SPRING may be the major sowing season, but don’t put away those seed tins – by starting off certain crops now, you’ll ensure harvests keep rolling in for months to come! The secret to running a productive vegetable garden is to never take your eye off the ball – always anticipate gaps emerging on the plot, and take steps to fill them as quickly as possible. Early sowings made undercover in February allow us to hit the ground running. But with many quick-growing veg maturing in six to 10 weeks, summer can find you looking at an increasing number of bare patches. “Keep harvests rolling in for months to come” Depending on where you live, we have another eight to 10 weeks where night-time temperatures remain in double figures. That’s…

This week it’s: Poisonous plants We look at plants with the potential to poison AS a gardener (and a human), you should always know what is growing in your garden. Many plants that are familiar to us – both attractive cultivated plants, and weeds and wildflowers – can be harmful. Some plants, of course, are sharp and deadly in the wrong hands, while others can cause life-changing rashes and skin infections. And then there are those that have toxins which, if ingested, can cause us a great deal of discomfort, acute pain or even worse. Let’s look at some plants from this last group, all with the potential to poison us – you could be surprised! ■ The most common source of the poison strychnine is from the seeds of…

I WOULDN’T want to deny other wildlife a good meal – a wide range of creatures from insects to garden birds eat aphids – but aphid infestations can sometimes reach plague proportions on plants. And when they do in my garden, they’re toast! There are many different types of aphid, some plant-specific, others greedy for any succulent green leaf or shoot they can suck sap from. They cause leaf distortion, stunt growth, attract moulds and spread diseases. Avoid infestation first But before we reach for the spray gun it’s wise to ask why they proliferate on some plants and not on others, and deal with any problems. Most sprays are contact insecticides, and systemic ones are not as powerful as they used to be. If you don’t tackle the root…

THE Very Hungry Caterpillar in Eric Carle’s children’s classic was an adventurous diner – he scoffed an apple, a pickle, some Swiss cheese and a lollipop – but even so, his appetite was miniscule compared to that of his greedy cousin, the cabbage white caterpillar. My friend and entomologist, Dr Ian Bedford, has studied the mealtime habits of these greedy grubs and discovered that between emerging from an egg and turning into a pupae, each camo-coloured caterpillar gobbles 27,000 times its adult body weight in brassica leaves and has 3,000 times the heft from when it first hatched. To put this in perspective, if a human grew at the same rate, the average adult would crush the scales at 9.5 tons and their weekly shop would weigh in just a…

A COMMON plant affliction from spring onwards is powdery mildew, a fungal disease that shows itself as a white, powdery substance on the surface of leaves and flowers. There are many strains of the disease that affect many varieties of ornamental and edible plants, and it is largely caused by environmental stresses on the plant. Reduce the risk of mildew by planting with lots of room between plants, in a sunny, open spot with good ventilation and free-draining soil. Watering is important, as drought will stress the plant. When pruning shrubs, keep them healthy by creating an open shape with an uncongested centre to assist ventilation and reduce the risk of rots and mildew. Avoid wetting the leaves if you water in the early morning or evening, though dampening foliage…

WILDLIFE in the garden adds a whole new layer of interest and excitement to gardening. More importantly, you can record species you have found and take part in the annual Awards for Wildlife Recordings organised by the National Biodiversity Network Trust, the UK’s largest nature partnership. The awards celebrate wildlife recorders who have logged species on land and in the sea and helped create a bio-map of resident species. You can nominate someone you know, a group of keen wildlife recorders or even yourself for the five categories that include terrestrial recording (age 21-plus), marine recording (age 21-plus), group recordings, young person’s recorder (age 11-20) and newcomer award. To nominate, visit? nbn.org.uk and complete the nomination form either online, or email the edited Word document to: support@nbn.org.uk (by Sunday, July…

THE raised wooden containers made from recycled pallets to grow vegetables and salads (our pallet-able/palatable gardening theme!) have proved very successful. Early crops have been harvested and eaten during lockdown, and follow-up crops sown and planted. This week, we come to the last-chance saloon for a number of the summer vegetable crops, when it comes to sowing beetroot, carrots, peas and French beans. Left any longer in Essex, they will not have enough growing time to crop well. The warmer south west may have a little longer, but my notes over the years give the mid-July deadline. It is for this reason we strongly recommend you label your sowings with the plant name and date, to record successes so that they can be repeated in future years. Select cultivars carefully…

PRAIRIE planting is all the rage these days (see our four-page feature on page 24) and one of the key ingredients is echinaceas. These tall, daisy-like flowers come a range of colours, including burgundy, white, black, yellow and orange. The most traditional shade is an eyecatching pinky-purple, as are this week’s free echinacea seeds. They are large flowered and have tall, sturdy stems. The blooms have purple petals and dense central cones – hence the plant’s other name, ‘coneflower’. They are an absolute delight, flowering late in the summer and attracting vast numbers of bees and butterflies to their rich nectar. Insects aren’t the only living things to benefit from the echinacea’s bounty. The plant has long been used by herbalists as a natural remedy to ward off winter colds.…

I’VE moved my garden table and chairs from the front of the house to a cooler position close to the summerhouse. It’s partly to protect the plants in the stone paving right next to the house. You’d be surprised at how many ‘bigfoots’ trample the plants to death, and those plants are the Best Beloved’s pride and joy! It’s as if they’re walking over him, not his miniature pinks, scabiouses and thymes. The wonderful spring we’ve just enjoyed has meant that I’ve now got a grandstand view of the bees visiting my nepetas and salvias, close to the summerhouse. The first nepeta or catmint to flower was ‘Hill Grounds’ and this began in early May and then ‘Summer Magic’ followed. Both are new and excellent, although all nepetas are great…

Top Tip Handle carefully so as not to snap roots or new growths. While out of the ground, park them in shade with polythene over the roots to prevent drying. For more than a few hours, plant in a shallow trench and water in lightly. Should I divide bearded irises? Q We would like to rescue some bearded iris growing in a neglected and overgrown border. They look quite healthy, but haven’t been flowering. Will they need to be divided, when is the best time, and how is it done? Fran Dickinson, King’s Lynn, Norfolk A We all know it doesn’t take long for weeds to take over an untended border, but luckily, bearded iris are adept at staying alive until someone comes along to rescue them. They are known…