Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-Mar-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“How are you all feeling? Hopefully, your gardens are dappled with spring blooms! I was proud as punch to see my ‘Tête-à-tête’ daffs rising from the lawn for the second year running. I wasn’t sure it was wise to give about a quarter of the lawn over to daffs – but since they started to break through, I’m pleased I did it. I will soon be enjoying a mass of yellow trumpets blowing their cheerful reveille as they tower over the blades of grass! Have yourself a great gardening week.” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

GERMINATING a new business from the tiniest seed of an idea while in lockdown may sound like a madcap idea, but it has paid dividends for one Welsh farmer. Rhys Jenkins set up Wild Wales Seeds a year ago and has had a bumper 12 months. Based in the Vale of Glamorgan, the firm produces grass and wildflower seeds and sells them to a range of customers, from large organisations such as local authorities, airports, parks and festival sites to amateur gardeners. A wide range of seed mixes The company is a first for Wales and has been welcomed because it has made it possible to source seeds locally rather than buying from European producers hampered by red tape and higher costs as a result of Brexit. It offers consumers…

WE have become so accustomed to the full range of salads and vegetables on sale year-round that self-sufficiency through the winter has been forgotten. There are, however, several useful winter crops that we need to think about at this time of the year. Celeriac is a good example – a really hardy winter root, which can be cooked like other root vegetables or shredded for use in salads. The bases and tops are a bit rough, but the larger the root grown, the easier they are to peel and the more flesh available on each one. Early sowing gives a longer growing season, helping to get increased root size, and while April sowings can be made under unheated glass, a sowing now in heat will give you a flying start.…

ONE of the most enduring garden controversies is the conventional or ‘dig’ method of growing spuds versus several forms of ‘no-dig’. This seems a bit odd, as there’s so many variables with the digging methods, anyway. However, all dig methods do involve breaking up the soil, twice – once to plant, and again to harvest. The essential point of no-dig is that the soil is never disturbed, which is considered very beneficial to the soil health, and also to the gardener’s back. Unfortunately, though, I’ve found no-dig methods seldom give as large or clean a crop as ‘dug’ comparisons, though they can save much hard work. With no-dig, the sets are not planted but instead placed on top of the soil and covered with mulch – either a deep, loose…

Q I want to start growing some dahlias but if I buy a tuber, is it best to plant it straight into the ground or grow it in a pot first and perhaps get some cuttings off it? Or should I buy young plants? Please recommend some favourites! Angela Aitkin, Shrewsbury, Shropshire A The good news is that dahlias are easy to grow, so however you tackle this project, success is almost guaranteed. Another option is raising dahlias from spring-sown seed as they will flower in their first year, though the range is more limited. I love the thrill of unwrapping my chosen dahlia tuber, imagining how it will look in the garden and deciding what to do with it. The simplest method, if you’re happy to wait until mid-April,…

YES, spring is well on its way and we all want to get on with the fun business of planting and growing but hold your horses a moment longer. It’s all very well getting on with gardening, but you won’t be able to get far if, for example, the shed is in a state of disrepair or you slip over and do a serious injury because the decking or patio has become mucky and slippery over winter. Gardening isn’t just about the plants we tend. Without the fences, walls, flat surfaces and steps that create form and let us get from A to B, we – and the garden – would be stuck. So before the gardening year really does take off, spend some time making sure you are safe…

IF this spring follows the pattern of the past few, we are heading for a few wet weeks followed by a late spring of good weather. Whether this happens or not, it makes sense to make provisions for water storage now, which means attaching water butts to as many drainpipes as possible. We have five, and although three of these are large tanks, we had still drained them dry by early last summer. Harvesting rainwater makes sense on every level. It is more natural than tap water for plants and can be used for topping up ponds and bog gardens. You can use tap water for ponds, but it’s best to fill watering cans and let it stand for 24 hours to give the chlorine time to dissipate before adding…

THIS week’s free seeds made their debut with AG last year and I am thrilled to see their return for 2021. Sarah Raven’s Cleome ‘Violet Queen’ is a stately, interesting half-hardy annual that deserves to be better known. For all their exotic looks, they are easy-going and happy in any soil as long as it is fertile and free-draining. They will thrive in a sunny spot and are pretty drought-tolerant. Cleome are also known as ‘spider flowers’ because of their large blooms that combine spikes with petals in shades of pink and white. Originally from the 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…

IT can be bitterly cold in Cold Aston in March – so cold that one witty garden visitor who came to see my spring flowers (which weren’t up, let alone in flower) sent me a letter addressed to ‘Almost Spring Cottage, Cold Cold Aston’! I always say I should have framed that envelope, because it sums up my dilemma perfectly. Spring comes later here. Every year is different, though, and plants have their own built-in agenda and, just like husbands, they can’t be hurried along. It will happen when it happens. This year seems late, so far. My witch hazels were tardy into flower, although it wasn’t very cold. I have had them out before Christmas in very mild years, but it was late-January before most opened their spidery flowers…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years What is the key to begonia success? Q How can I successfully start and grow begonias? I never seem to have any luck. Chris Williams, Devizes, Wilshire A The best time to start begonia tubers is in spring – March or April. Start the tubers off by potting them into the smallest containers possible using peat-free multipurpose compost and begin watering. The tubers should be placed hollow side up, and not fully buried in compost, though some people say burying them in a thin layer of compost encourages more roots to develop all over the tubers. The choice is yours! Keep the pots at 16-21ºC (60-70ºF) – a bright warm room is ideal. When the new shoots are a couple of…

Star letter I AM continuing to work on the Fontmell Friendship Garden, which is gathering pace and momentum. We had the green light to go ahead at the end of November 2020 and in less than three months our small community has joined together in such a positive way. We are creating the cut flower garden to support the social prescribing team in our local health practice and we are building the garden in the grounds of the surgery next door to the village hall in the centre of our village. The cut flower garden will offer a place for the community to gather and collect flowers, a place for us to make posies to deliver to vulnerable people and a space for people to gather and enjoy nature. We…

Top Tip Early spring is a good time to move rockery stones as soil is soft and there is time to let the stones settle before planting in a few weeks’ time I FEEL I am engaged in a constant battle with our rockery, but this is the year I win – though I am sure I say that most springs, then admit defeat somewhere around midsummer! ‘Rockery’ is actually a far too grand term for what we inherited when we moved here: a slope between the patio and lawn scattered with large stones and over-run with weeds. We have planted one half of it with herbs and that just about works, but the most prominent half (typically) is a shambles. It isn’t helped by the fact that every spring…

IT’S official – UK gardens are getting smaller (by about 1% per decade, to be precise). And with larger plots harbouring more weeds and extra work, it’s no surprise that small-space gardening is popular with time-strapped growers. Luckily, there are loads of successful ways to grow crops in compact gardens… Healthier soil, better varieties Closer spacings and more intensive cropping is only successful if your soil is up to scratch. Adding bulky organic matter (like well-rotted manure or garden compost) helps add nutrients and lock in moisture. Dig a 3in (8cm) layer into the top spade’s depth of soil. If you’re growing in pots, opt for a brand with extra nutrients and water-retaining materials (such as Gro-Sure Container & Basket Compost). If container gardening is your main focus, install plenty…

THIS Sunday is Mother’s Day, or Mothering Sunday if you prefer. In a normal year, the shops (and garage forecourts) would all be overflowing with gift ideas for mums everywhere, as offerings of thanks and love. But, owing to the pandemic, it’s a little muted this year. However, there is no reason why we shouldn’t celebrate the occasion on these pages. So to all you mothers, mums, moms (I can’t understand why the American’s don’t have ‘mums’ like us), mammas, grandmothers, stepmothers and mothers-in-law out there, let’s look at some of the connections between you and plants – there are more than you would imagine! ■ The date of Mothering Sunday changes every year: it falls on the Fourth Sunday in Lent (known as Laetare Sunday), which is 21 days…

LILIES are among the most dramatic plants we grow from bulbs in the UK and the range expands every year. The flowers are stunning and the fragrance is wonderful on a calm day. Most lilies self-propagate naturally by division as side shoots grow at the base of the mother bulb. These develop slowly into ‘daughter’ bulbs and gradually split away. This is a slow process, usually producing one or two extra bulbs a year. What are ‘bulbils’? Bulbils are small bulb-shaped growths that form in the leaf axil (where the leaf joins the main stem). This is the equivalent to a side shoot and the tiny bulbils (some may already have roots) can be removed from the parent plant and sown like seeds to eventually produce new, flowering plants that…

I’VE taken dogs, ponies, cats and even a rabbit for a walk, but today’s bucket of snails was a first. I won’t pretend the molluscs were much company (they weren’t) or that they returned safely home after their little adventure, (the rabbit nearly didn’t, either) but I am satisfied that they have gone to a good home. I discovered the hundred-plus cache of molluscs while pruning a climber, where they had gathered beneath the protective wing of stems and leaves. And before they had chance to make a slow-mo dash for freedom, I bunged them in the bucket while I thought of a natural way of getting them to kick it. Now I know what you’re thinking… but as tempting as the scrub next to the local allotments is, I’d…