Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Dec-2020 i Amateur Gardening

“It’s a joy to know how much gardening has helped many people get through the difficulties of this year. Growing and nurturing plants and engaging with wildlife are such basic human instincts that it must be a positive contribution to our mental and physical wellbeing. So have the best Christmas you can – and keep on enjoying the garden, it’s really good for you!” Contact us: Editorial: 0330 3903732 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 Advertising: 07817 629935…

AT the start of the year, I remember thinking that Covid-19 was something that would affect only China. But by the end of March we were in lockdown and the virus was spreading rapidly. My sanctuary during these past nine months has been my allotment. I visit my plot a couple of times a week – more if I can manage it – because I find it benefits my mental health. When I’m on my plot I don’t think about anything other than what to do next, be it digging, planting or generally clearing up. I love getting my hands dirty, literally, as there’s something magical about having a direct connection with the earth. Being out in the fresh air, even in cold weather, is invigorating, and being at one…

MY horticultural experiences have been very similar to those of my colleagues: more time for sowing free seeds, late blight on the toms, strangely-shaped courgettes and an increased appreciation and nurturing of my houseplants. This year has been spent really getting to know the garden and appreciating all we’ve done in the eight years since we moved here. We have been blessed with a wealth of fruit and veg, with beans, onions, kale, garlic and not least of all the discovery of a ‘Discovery’ apple that fruited for the first time (we bought it because it was labelled as a crab!) Our pear branches needed supporting due to the weight of fruit and the raspberries cropped from summer through to late October. The hornets descended The wildflower meadow was alive…

Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on iTunes…

WOW, what a year this has been – all the trouble with Coronavirus on top of the strangest weather pattern I’ve seen in 40 years here. So what do we need to consider for next year? Well, first of all, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to judge sowing and planting dates. The best solution is for us to make more, smaller batches over a longer period than we are used to. Rather than sow one 30ft (12m) row of carrots each month of spring, it’s safer to sow a couple of yards/metres each week to hit the best growing windows. Another way of spreading risk is to grow more varieties, as some always do better than others. True, this costs more, but if you are careful and reseal the packets promptly,…

Would my Anthurium survive outside? Q I have an Anthurium, which is growing well inside at the moment. Can it be planted outside in summer? B S Fenton, West Bromwich A If you were to try and plant your Anthurium out in spring, and then return it indoors in autumn, it would cause a lot of disturbance to the roots, so I would keep it in a pot at all times. You could always sink its pot into a bed or a larger pot for the summer, which would prevent root disturbance. If you intend to go ahead and move your Anthurium outside, do so once the risk of frost has passed – maybe wait until late may or even June. You will then need to return it indoors before…

Top Tip We wish all our readers, new and old, a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2021. Hopefully it will be even more productive in our gardens than this one has been! New year, new you?: In next week’s AG I look at what you can do to prepare for the gardening year ahead, and also think of New Year resolutions (in my case, remembering to label everything!)…

WITH garden centres closed and plants unavailable, like so many of you, I turned to sowing annuals for summer interest. The Letters postbag has been full of reader’s photos of flowers grown during lockdown, mainly from the packets of seeds given away by AG and the results have been amazing. I was very pleased with my ‘Evening Sun’ sunflowers, which grew taller than the packet suggestion of 6ft (1.8m) as so many of you found. I lost half the batch to slugs early on, but I started more than I needed and will stay one step ahead next year. The cornflowers, cerinthe and nasturtiums were sown direct and for the first time petunias were started in situ. Ipomoea lobata put on a show One showstopper that I will definitely be…

1 If you are fed up with supermarket herbs, dig up a few sections with a good root of established clumps in the garden. Pot up, put on a windowsill, and they will sprout fresh leaves. Lucy Waker, Sittingbourne, Kent 2 If one of your hyacinth bulbs is developing more slowly than the others in the same bowl indoors, invert a small class tumbler over it to speed growth for even flowering. L Evans, Denbighshire 3 Open up large cardboard boxes to create pathways, saving the lawn and beds from wear and keeping feet clean. I also use it to line big plant holes in poor soil. Gill Houghton, Chelmsford, Essex 4 I sometimes have leftover packets of seeds, so I give them to two local schools. One has a…

IN this year’s bumper Christmas issue we are spoiling you with two packets of absolutely gorgeous seeds: ragged robin and black-eyed Susie mix. The first is a hardy perennial that loves damp soil, grasslands and shady areas, making it perfect for a bog garden or wildlife area. Ragged robin stands 16in (40cm) tall and has beautiful pink flowers with deeply serrated petals that are a magnet for bees and butterflies. It is becoming increasingly rare in the wild, as natural damp habitats are drained, so growing it in your garden helps boost national stocks and also benefits wildlife. These can be sown indoors and out now, thought for the best results I’d sow indoors to start with and repeat the process in a prepared seedbed outside when the weather improves,…

LEEKS are an important winter crop for us. They are the hardiest vegetable of all, being the great survivors of cold winters – and we do get some freezing winters in Cold Aston. Leeks proved how hardy they were in the early 1980s, in my Northamptonshire garden, when temperatures frosted all the windows like something out of Doctor Zhivago. Unfortunately, there was no dashing Omar Sharif! However, we have encountered a problem far more devastating than freezing temperatures. We have been hit by the allium leaf miner (Phytomyza gymnostoma), a pest we’ve never seen in the garden before. About a third of the leeks are affected, with yellowing foliage and the white, blanched stems streaked in pink. At first we thought the leeks had been hit by a fungal rot…

Ensure success with gardenia Q I have been given a lovely gardenia in bud and fragrant bloom, but I have killed three or four in the past. How can I keep this one going? Constance Montgomery, London A Gardenias are some of the loveliest indoor plants, so this is a splendid gift. The effect of double white blooms against glossy green foliage is sumptuous, but best of all is the sweet perfume. Classy they may be, but gardenias are devils to keep healthy and thriving, so please don’t blame yourself for any previous failings – I have killed several myself. There is an argument for viewing these indoor beauties as ephemeral, enjoying them for a few months and then binning them when they lose their lustre. Yet indoor plant enthusiasts…

THE brash or woody waste from pruning trees and shrubs can be too much. In my small garden I have an ornamental hawthorn tree that’s cut back every three years and the waste completely covers the lawn. Even on a smaller scale it can at first sight seem difficult to deal with, but there are plenty of options and prunings can be a valuable asset. The first option is to take the prunings to the tip for green-waste recycling. If you have a small garden with little space to process the material, this makes sense. Don’t waste time cutting the stems into little pieces – leave them up to 6ft (2m) long, cut off the side branches and pile them all, lined-up, in the centre of a dust sheet or…

Vera knocks on her sister Cynthia’s door Vera: Hiya Cynth Cynthia: Aloe Vera Vera: I felt a Snowdrop. It’s so Chilli, I’ll Freesia. Willow Aloe me in? Cynthia: Vine, but I’m in a Rush Vera: Butt we’re Cistus Cynthia: And I’m the Elder, so Gorse, Cumin (they go inside) Vera: Lettuce Stalk. Can we be Privet? Cynthia: There’s no Spirea Vera: It’s William, he’s become Anemone Cynthia: What a Pear! Butt I’m no Medlar Vera: We keep Rowan Cynthia: Peas tell me more, or is that Shallot? Vera: No, he’s Berry Violet. He Beet me because our Dogwood Bark. He Squashed the Cat’s Tail. She Mint no harm (she cries) Cynthia: Hay, go Sloe. Be Kalmia Vera: There’s Mower. Thistle make Yew Madder. Artichoke me Cynthia: Orchid! Vera: He made…

WITH gardening there are always more tasks than time to tackle them, so while I still had a weekly magazine to produce, working from home meant I could pop out to take on projects that had been on the wish list for some time. A major one was creating a rockery in one of our borders, which had been home to long-established and frankly near-wild Dryopteris ferns and daylilies. They didn’t come out without a fight It seemed a simple enough task to dig out the ferns and refresh the soil, but those ferns weren’t coming out without a fight! As spade dug into soil, I encountered thick mattresses of aged roots which battled against spade, fork and even axe! However, two days and much elbow grease later, it was…

WHEN people talk about ‘everything but the kitchen sink’, maybe they never had a kitchen sink like mine. It’s a veritable Battersea Dogs & Cats Home of plants – Battersea Plants Home, if you will. I live in a flat, so the kitchen is my de facto place for practical gardening. Stuffed to the gills with verdant aspirations, it’s fair to say you’ll struggle to find the washing-up. Still, having confidence to experiment in a small environment is my great lockdown achievement. For me, it’s all about the small victories (it has to be in my flat). A year ago, my star jasmine had a personality crisis, prompting a few cuttings left for months to root in a jar. These have flourished, and it’s a joy to see their glossy…

MAY I take this opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas? I hope you have found cultivating plants and gardening a pleasurable escape from worries and confinements of the Covid 19 pandemic. Many has been the occasion this year when I popped out – for example, to pick a few fresh fruits for my cereal – only to find it was nearly lunchtime on my return. Time just evaporates when we become absorbed in growing things, and every day there is something new to learn and observe. A trip to a vegetable trial last summer taught me forked roots on carrots and parsnips are caused by nematodes (tiny soil-borne creatures) and not by manuring the soil, as many have thought in the past and some continue to believe. Living alone,…

WE could have featured a partridge (with or without pear tree), swimming swans, laying geese, French hens, calling birds etc, but it truly would not have been the Christmas edition of AG without a celebration of the robin. It is thought that they came to be associated with Christmas in Victorian times (in line with many other festive traditions), when postmen wore scarlet waistcoats and were known by the nickname ‘Robin Red-Breasts’. These little ruby-bosomed beauties (males and females are virtually identical) are the nation’s favourite birds and garden regulars. We have at least one that pops up whenever we are out working, getting remarkably close before swooping down to pick up whatever delicacies are unearthed. Our unofficial ‘national’ bird, there are more than 7.5 million individual territories across the…

THESE unmistakable roots are a must-grow in the winter garden. Pureed, casseroled, chipped or roasted, they keep us fuelled in these chillier months – but how can you ensure success on the plot? Being biennial, parsnips are geared towards creating a sizeable root in their first year, ready to flower the next. With parsnips taking well over 30 weeks to mature, this is a long-haul crop. Like their carrot relatives, parsnips are slow to germinate. Caused partly by irregular seed maturity leading to immature seed embryos, it’s unsurprising that suppliers legally need to sell us seed with only a 65% germination rate. Cold soils also hinder germination; at 7°C/45°F, parsnips can take four weeks to emerge. Still, don’t be disheartened – my checklist (right) describes plenty of ways to boost…

IF no hedgerow was conveniently near, medieval folk fearful of vampires would plant a bramble close to the house, and at harvest time place quantities of the fruit on the threshold. The blood-thirsty zombies were understood to be obsessed with counting the berries, and if sufficient were presented, dawn would intervene before the tally was completed and oblige them to return to their grisly grottoes without sanguineous sups. Certainly, 2020 was a good year for blackberries and a bad year for vampires, for the season lasted week after heroic week with sweet and sumptuous yields. More than 330 variants Some bushes offer more than others. The local hedgerow harvester will know which is most favoured, and botanists have concluded that we have an amazing number of variants of a shrub…

This week it’s: A celebration of the hollies We look at the prickly plant with red berries that’s associated with Christmas WE all know and ‘respect’ holly (Ilex aquifolium) because of its prickly leaves, even if we don’t exactly love it! Holly tends to be chosen by those who want dense evergreen cover, perhaps to repel intruders, thanks to the leaves, rather than as a decorative addition to the garden. However, there are several ornamental cultivars that are worthy of garden space. In fact, there are hundreds of species, ranging from short shrubs to tall trees. Most will thrive in full sun or shade, and they are not particularly fussy as to soil. All hollies produce whitish flowers in May or June. But it is now, at Christmas, that holly…

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 The gnomes’ new clothes MY 90-year-old mother and keen former gardener, Jose, now lives in a residential care home that was the trial grounds of a large famous seed company. Over her time there, she has been admirably cared for by the wonderful staff, but the garden gnomes that live on her patio were looking very sad and neglected. So we decided to give them a much-needed makeover using a cheap set of acrylic paints and a tin of yacht varnish. I am now searching our own garden, and the extensive grounds of the care home, for any other items that I can ‘refurbish’ over…

I’VE learnt the hard way that choosing other people’s presents based on what I want ends in disappointment. Two years later, and Lisa still hasn’t taken her adjustable spanner out of the box. Rude! Of course, the best gifts are those that go on giving, and for plant lovers something rare and tasty such as my recently acquired finger lime tree will always be a win. Just like the orange of Christingle and the lemons of St Clemons, it fruits through the Yule, but instead of golden or amber baubles its branches carry an abundance of elfin green lanterns the size and shape of a lozenge. Like cherries and raspberries, they are what’s known as ‘non-climacteric’, meaning they don’t ripen once picked. But wait until they come away from the…