Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-Jul-2020 i Amateur Gardening

“I loved Val Bourne’s description of a traditional cottage garden as being ‘a glorious jumble’ (see page 22 of this week’s AG). It’s that chaos of colour and shape, of herbs and fragrance — a garden made to be functional and beautiful, but without the formality that is appealing to many. Still, some see this ‘glorious jumble’ as an unwieldy mess. Which side of the fence do you sit on this question? Let me know.” Contact us: Editorial: 07814 905439 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Advertising: 07817 629935…

WE are in peak pest season, so the race is on to keep our plants and crops safe in the face of the relentless bombardment of insects and molluscs determined to steal and ruin all our hard work. Gardeners have an arsenal of tools at their disposal, from chemical and organic sprays to homemade slug pubs. Twilight torch safaris are another great way of assessing pest numbers and removing them by hand. The greenhouse is a major battleground as it provides pests with a safe, still environment and a plentiful supply of food. Key pests here are whitefly and glasshouse red spider mite that suck sap, leaving plants weakened and vulnerable to disease. Both can be dealt with using organic sprays made of plant oils or fatty acids. This year…

THE lack of flower shows, both trade and consumer, will pretty well exclude all new plant launches this year. Novelty introductions are coming so fast and furious, it could well lead to a passing over for some good new garden plants. We are also being spoilt for choice, and modern summer flowering ornamentals have so much flower power it is easy to just pass an eye over the mass of colour, without really stopping to appreciate the beauty of individual blooms This thought was brought to mind staging five of the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit Surfinias, to acknowledge 30 years since the first was introduced. The richness of colour from one bloom of Surfinia ‘SunPurple’ and the beauty of its veining puts many an orchid in the…

IN the middle of harvesting our crops, it makes sense to plan ahead and to put some aside to be our seed crops. The commercial seed companies’ packets of seeds are remarkably good value, reliable and consistent – but costs do mount up when you have so many to buy. For the little effort that’s involved, it’s sensible to save your own seed whenever this is going to work. Tomatoes, peppers, melons and aubergines are good to start with. These come true (that is, they are just like their parents) most of the time, and drying seeds from ripe fruit is easy enough. Cucumbers, on the other hand, are too highly bred (as are most F1 sorts of anything) and so do not come true. “It makes sense and saves…

THE cottage garden is alive and well because it’s rather like a comfort blanket – it spins us back in time to a simpler, rose-tinted age. We love roses round the door and bees hovering above a haze of English lavender. And we still adore the spicy clove scent of old-fashioned pinks, drifting through damp evening air after rain, or a stand of colourful hollyhocks leaning towards the light to escape the cottage wall. They all remind us of a golden age, like one of those picturesque scenes from an old-fashioned box of chocolates featuring the perfect thatched cottage. Glorious jumble The focus of every cottage garden was the modest dwelling. Only those with a grander vision could admire mighty oaks in a rolling landscape as they gazed outwards over…

How can I get my roses to thrive? Q I’ve really looked after my roses, but they haven’t done well and have produced lots of suckers. Why is this? Michael Coombes, Nantwich, Cheshire A Roses generally are quite hungry plants and appreciate feeding annually with a top-dressing of balanced slow-release fertiliser applied in spring and again in mid-late summer. Plants in containers will also benefit from a monthly liquid feeding with a balanced fertiliser. It is always best to apply fertiliser (granular or liquid) to moist soil so you do need to ensure plants receive plenty of water in order for them to be able to make the most of the additional nutrients. Plants will also benefit from mulching with well-rotted organic matter such as manure or garden compost, which…

My garden is my lifeline GARDENING and your weekly magazine have been my lifeline since lockdown. My family do not want me to go out, so my garden has become my refuge and plants my companions. It is a small London garden with flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. In the last few days, I have picked gooseberries, raspberries and several other soft fruits, and just eaten my first runner beans and (tennis ball) courgettes. I grew lots of AG seeds in preparation for my annual coffee morning in aid of Cancer Research, which had to be cancelled. Neighbours, friends and family were able to find space for most of the plants. We are hoping to hold the event later in the year, so must start sowing more in the…

CONTAINERS are an easy and manageable way of extending colour beyond summer and right up to the first frosts, if you’re lucky. However, in the past week I have been to three local garden centres in my quest to have the best and brightest pots on the pages of AG, and was slightly stymied by the fact that not one of them was selling multi-packs of bedding plants. I wasn’t planning on filling the entire container with the traditional begonias, lobelia and petunias, but they are extremely useful as fillers and look so attractive tumbling over the edge of pots and baskets. In the end I decided to go with a collection of larger plants, with the emphasis on interesting and varied foliage with a few bright spots of autumnal…

THE AG article (June 27) about the decline in allotment land across the UK provoked a strong response from irate and concerned allotmenteers. The news story, written by allotment expert Lesley Upton, told how there has been 65% decrease in the land between its peak between 1940 and 1960, and 2016. Most of the space disappearing is from deprived urban areas. Allotment holders in Cheshire and West Yorkshire have been in touch about how land has disappeared, or how they have had to fight hard to keep it safe. Rebecca Horsman-Johnson, from Greystones Allotments in East Cheshire, has been fighting to stop her local council building 20 houses on allotment land bequeathed to the community by local landowners. Land was given by the Lord Rebecca said: “I work at our…

THIS week’s seeds are for one of my favorite early summer plants, the foxglove. Traditionally residents of woodland glades and dappled hedgerows, foxgloves are welcome residents in our gardens for many reasons. They produce tall, elegant spires of flowers, usually in pink or white, that provide a wonderful bridge of colour between spring and summer. It is also fascinating to watch how the spires ripen, the flowers opening from the bottom and working their way up, leaving seedpods in their wake. The flowers are also a magnet for bees and other pollinators, which is always handy in a busy garden. This week’s seeds are for a variety of foxglove called ‘Foxy Mixed’ that are unusual because they are a hardy perennial, rather than a biennial like most other Digitalis, and…

THIS year got off to a brilliant start, although it might not seem so to some. Do you remember that incessant rain? It began in September and carried on through January, February and the first half of March. That wet deluge kept away the cold weather and some plants loved it, especially those that enjoy a wet growing season. My South African dieramas have never been better. These angel’s fishing rods (Dierama pulcherrimum) sway about and quiver in the wind. Although they look fragile, they have the same tensile strength as ballerinas do. In the wild, these toughies are native to the southern half of Africa and they clearly enjoyed having copious amounts of rain. My crocosmias and kniphofias have thrived, too, for the same reason. Other wet-winter successes were…

HERBS taste best when homegrown and freshly picked, but the flavours are strongest early in the year, and many are not evergreen so won’t last through winter. However, the plants can produce spectacular crops in spring and summer and there are several easy ways to preserve them. Air-drying The simplest method is to air-dry your herbs. This involves laying picked leaves flat on kitchen paper, or hanging small bunches in a cool, airy spot. Drying takes about two weeks. Woody herbs, including sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary and bay, are the best subjects for air-drying as they don’t have a high moisture content. Pick your herbs in the morning while plants are still turgid with sap. They’ll have the best flavour before flowering. Regular picking often prevents herbs from flowering…

WHILE containers are easy to create, their aftercare can seem a bit of a faff, but believe me – it’s worth it! It only takes a couple of minutes of care while you are walking past every day to keep your pots looking glorious right through the season. Containers that need particular care are baskets and anything standing in a rain shadow, hanging under the eaves of the house or out of the prevailing wind. These will be sheltered from the worst of the weather, but it also means they have reduced access to rain. Because of the dense number of plants they contain, pots and baskets dry out quickly so sheltered ones need to be checked every day. Stick your finger in the compost up to the first knuckle…

1 Feed lime-hating plants (azaleas, rhododendrons and blueberries) with ericaceous fertiliser, then fork and water it in. Sequestered seaweed feed also helps if the plants look peaky. 2 Whether they are inside or out, houseplants need a fortnightly feed when they are growing in summer. Orchids will thank you for a twice-weekly misting, too. 3 Hungry crops like tomatoes, courgettes and peas need a weekly feed of potassium-rich fertiliser such as Tomorite. An organic invigorator will also help them fight off pests and diseases. 4 If you’re planning late summer/early autumn plantings, enrich the soil with chicken manure pellets or Growmore. Citrus plants should be fed with each watering (use rainwater). Carry on composting This summer’s mix of warmth and wet has created some ideal conditions for composting. The warmth…

OF strictly limited distribution, the nightingale has probably inspired more poets and songwriters than any other British bird. Soberly clad in shades of russet-brown above, shading to brownish-grey beneath, and shaped like a robin, the nightingale’s appearance doesn’t attract one’s eye. It is its wonderful song that has brought it fame and it was among the earliest, if not the first, of birds to be broadcast on the radio. The song is heard best at night when other songsters are silent, but it is wrong to assume that the bird does not sing by day – it does; but so do many other birds and the nightingale’s outstanding performance is not then recognised in the general chorus that pours forth from hundreds of birdy throats. The nightingale’s main nesting localities…

IT’S the ultimate no-brainer: pay £3 per punnet for currants, or buy a bush for less than a tenner to give you 20 punnets per year for 15 years? Let’s think about that for a millisecond… Why anyone buys currants by the punnet is beyond me. Established bushes yield roughly 4kg (9lb) of fruit per year, plus the plants are self-fertile, easy to maintain and trouble-free. Modern breeding gives us big bud mite resistance in blackcurrants such as ‘Foxendown’, extra-long strigs in redcurrants like ‘Redpoll’, and many attributes in between – mildew resistance and frost-resistant flowers being two more to look for. Let’s not forget that you can buy white currants and pink currants, too; Ribes is a diverse genus! “Why anyone buys punnets is beyond me” Ideal growing conditions…

FOR most of us, the thought of a sweetly fragrant honeysuckle filling our garden on a warm summer’s evening with the most evocative of scents is, well, heavenly! These rambling vines, with curious-looking but highly fragrant flowers, are the epitome of an English cottage-garden plant – not least because the most commonly seen type, Lonicera periclymenum, is a native British plant. But there are many other delightful forms in the interesting lonicera genus. They’re not always climbers: some are more practical and consequently less fashionable. However, there will always be a place in your garden for a lonicera or two. The summer-flowering types have been in their full glory for many weeks now, so it’s time we took a closer look. Our native honeysuckle? WHEN walking along a country lane,…

Q I have a number of tender perennials I’d like to keep from year to year. How do I take cuttings and overwinter the plants? I have an unheated greenhouse. Julia Westthorpe, Shepton Mallet, Somerset A The term ‘tender perennial’ applies to a wide range of plants including pelargonium, argyranthemum, fuchsia, heliotrope and some salvias. They may have the capacity to keep going from year to year but they are not frost-hardy. This presents gardeners with a dilemma: plants are bought in spring and enjoyed during summer, but then what? Many are composted in autumn on the basis that buying new ones in spring is cheaper and easier than overwintering. Yet if you have the time and facilities, it is tempting to keep them going. Some including Brugmansia (datura), canna,…

SPARROW numbers have been in decline for decades due to a double whammy of food and habitat loss on farmland, and pollution, cats and over-pruning in gardens. Once regarded as a pest, their catastrophic collapse from 12 million pairs in the 1970s to less than half that number now is alarming – not just for the poor sparrows but also for the sparrowhawk that mirrors its namesake’s decline. The good news is numbers are building back to the extent that the work of keeping them off precious crops has returned! Nets or kites (see panel below) work a treat, but I’m a fan of the radio. The drone of football might (OK, it does) annoy my wife, but for an eco-conscious gardener like me, it’s a good way to keep…