Innholdsfortegnelse for 3-Apr-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“Last week, I said now is the time for making decisions: what to change, what to keep, what to grow again. But many of us are not the lone decision maker – we have husbands, wives and partners who share the garden, and we may not always agree on what to do. Over the past few years, I have perfected growing container spuds, with last season being a stand-out crop in 27 containers. However, my fiancée Gill is keen for us to grow our spuds in the border this year, and – try as I might – I can’t persuade her otherwise. Oh well, a new challenge is probably a good thing — do you have any new challenges this year? Let me know.”…

IT’S more than two months since the start of AG’s free seeds and with spring now well underway, I am sure they are not the only plants germinating and growing on every available flat surface. Your earliest sowings should be ready to prick out into larger individual pots now. On this page I show you how I successfully potted on two types of seedling: robust tomato ‘Sweet Baby’ and tiny Nicotiana sylvestris. I sowed the latter mixed with horticultural sand because the seeds are so tiny, but they have still grown in a mass. They are to small to pot up individually, so I am moving them into plug plant modules in small groups. As they grow I can then thin them out more easily before pricking out the strongest…

QUITE often, news of the latest redesigned tool reaches me, and too often my heart sinks at the sight of them. Garden spades have been forged for centuries and improving on all this experience is challenging, to say the least. I prefer wooden handles – they are warmer to the touch, and become shinier with use from the oils from the user’s hands. Long ones on hoes have a spring to them, and should they break they can be replaced without difficulty. There are exceptions. A while ago, news reached me of a new bulb-planting aid. Bob Sweet, a former Chelsea Flower Show manager, was in Canada visiting a relative with a retail nursery and he saw a large area planted up with spring bulbs. Bob commented, “That’s a lot…

ONE curious thing about a new garden is how almost anything will grow differently to how it managed in your last garden. A multitude of factors determine which crops thrive unaided, or pine away – well, unless you give them intensive care and support on top of all the usual efforts. With enough enthusiasm, you can grow just about anything anywhere, but it’s sensible to grow what grows well easily. Naturally, gardens in the west are, in general, wetter – thus suiting crops such as leeks, runner beans and cabbages. Meanwhile, gardens in the east and southeast are sunnier and drier, so better suited to tomatoes and French beans. It’s generally too cold (or rather, too short a season) in the north for such crops as sweetcorn, and too dry…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week How can I get bulbs to do well in future? Q I want to keep a large number of the spring bulbs in pots for some years to come. Is there a particular feed that would benefit them? Mark Hadworth (via email) A Bulbs will repeat-flower for years in containers as long as they have enough nutrients to power them and the leaves are kept healthy for the rest of their natural life. Each spring, as they start to show, remove the top inch or so of compost and replace with fresh, then feed with a granular fertiliser such as Vitax Q4 or Miracle Gro All purpose. They will also benefit from fortnightly feeding with a high-potash liquid tomato…

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 EVERY year I use my mini greenhouse without the cover to grow my seeds in the kitchen. When the seeds have germinated and are growing well I move the whole lot into the porch where it is a bit cooler than the kitchen. When the weather warms up I move the plants into the garden greenhouse to grow on. I then put the cover on the mini greenhouse out the garden ready for hardening off the plants. This is great because you can easily unzip the cover in the day and zip it back up at night. Throughout the summer it gets used for any…

EASTER always feels like the unofficial start of the gardening year. The long weekend is the first holiday since Christmas and what better way to spend it than working and relaxing in the garden, weather permitting. There is so much to do, from planting and sowing to the more tedious, yet essential, tasks of weeding, sweeping, mending and painting. With potentially four days at your disposal, you can also get on with larger tasks, such as painting the shed, putting in a pond, or laying a simple stepping stone path over a worn area of grass. Maybe you can dedicate the weekend to adding to your plant stock. This is the perfect time for planting and dividing perennials, as well as moving plants to new locations if they are not…

WE have a few pots that look really unprepossessing at the moment, just compost topped with dead plant matter. But underneath lies the potential for great things this summer: bulbs waiting to burst forth with colour and scent. Lily and agapanthus will both grow well in containers and with some springtime care and attention can be left in place year after year. In fact agapanthus do better the longer they are on a pot as they flourish when their roots are packed in tight. Having said that, ours are almost bursting out so I think that next spring i will tackle them and move them into more spacious accommodation. If you plan to grow bulbs in the same pot for a few years you need to feed them accordingly or…

THE plant that grows from this week’s free seeds is a winner on every level. Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ not only brings swathes of delicious soft blue flowers to your borders that will last right through summer and well into early winter in sheltered gardens, but it is wonderful at attracting pollinators. Also known as ‘blue devil’, ‘cats tail’ and ‘snake flower’ as well as the better-known ‘viper’s bugloss’, it is a member of the borage family. Its nectar-rich, brilliant blue flowers grow in a compact shape, making it perfect for the front of borders, and if left after flowering, garden birds will feast on its nutritious seeds, while any that are left will happily bed in and germinate around the garden. These are hardy plants so they can be sown…

ONE of the sounds I love is the repetitive sound of a woodpecker drilling on a misty morning, when sound travels over long distances. Sometimes I can also hear the distant rumble of the Fosse Way, about a mile away. It used to be said that those that live on the eastern side were civilised, while those west of the Fosse were untamed heathens. I’m delighted to say I live on the wild side. This rhythmic drumming, a real soul soother, is made by the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). This black, white and red woodpecker often visits our peanuts, winkling them out with a long, straight beak. The male has a red nape that the female lacks. I think they both drum in the sycamore tree, although they’re hard…

SEED sowing is the basic starting point that gets most people into gardening. That satisfying moment when you realise the seeds have germinated and the tiny shoots are showing through the compost is highly addictive. So, it’s important that whichever seeds you sow do geminate, and the most obvious way to make sure is to buy a starter kit. Such kits are popular and many are aimed at beginner gardeners or those with no garden, but access to a windowsill or balcony. Once the plants are growing, they can be moved into bigger pots and grown either outside or near a window indoors. Three basic types Herbs, tomatoes and peppers are all ideal for a starter kit, and with some herbs you can harvest tasty shoots as microgreens within just…

WE all love gardening and few things beat the satisfaction of sowing seeds and then nurturing the resulting plants to maturity. But there is so much to juggle in the garden right now that sometimes it helps to have someone or something give you a helping hand – and that’s where plug plants come in. These are young plants that are larger than seedlings but too small to go straight into the garden. The sowing and growing on has already been taken care of, so all you need to do is pot them up into pots of multipurpose or John Inns No 2 compost and grow them on until they are robust enough to be planted out. Plug plants either come in large trays (usually online) or you can buy…

THEY are among the UK’s most popular vegetables, and yet growing carrots at home can be tricky. Here’s how to leapfrog over any hurdles from spring through to winter, so you can make sure that this is your best-ever year for carrots. Light, stone-free soils are a carrot-grower’s dream. So if yours is heavy, compacted or clay, consider adding lots of well-rotted garden compost, sowing into raised beds, or container growing. If the taproot is impeded, the resulting crop quality will be poor. Carrots can be notoriously slow to germinate (they often take two-three weeks to emerge), hardly germinating at all when the soil is less than 7.5ºC (46ºF). Due to the individual seeds within the carrot flower maturing at different times, you can reduce the problem by keeping the…

THIS is Easter time and, for the majority of us, our thoughts will turn to chocolate eggs, bunnies, bonnets, yellow chicks and having two days off work. For gardeners, there are plant connections to all of these. But Easter week is, of course, far more meaningful, especially if you are of the Christian faith – for it represents Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. As you might expect, there are gardening and plant connections to this as well. Now is the ideal time, therefore, to look at just a few of the many influences Easter has on our gardening. If you don’t follow the Christian faith, or any other, then I apologise in advance for the number of ecumenical references. Easter is a moveable feast: it falls on the first Sunday after…

Q I would like to edge our many pathways with a low-growing mass of fragrant herbs. Which would you suggest, and how can we grow a lot of them without spending a fortune? Samantha Bingham, Dawley, Shrops A This plan will deliver soft edges, flavourings, groundcover and flowers to attract many insects, with the added benefit of mouth-watering aromas as you brush past. Try widely spaced taller herbs such as sage, lavender and young rosemary plants, and fill the gaps between with low-growing culinary thymes. I remember a particularly floral June in our kitchen garden, when mounds of mauve flowers opened on common sage (Salvia officinalis) and thyme raised from seed. For sheer numbers, seed is the answer. It is easily germinated by sowing thinly and evenly across the surface…

MY great-great uncle Jack was an 18th century diamond miner, sent to South Africa to scour the Transvaal for precious stones. As well as sending gems to his aristocratic employers for their tiaras, he had a sideline smuggling uncut rubies that he gave to Ada, my great, great grandmother (his sister). And she needed them, as she’d been left pregnant, unemployed and untouchable by the headmaster of the private school – she was the cleaner – and was now outcast from ‘decent’ society Despite her misfortune, Ada didn’t cash in all the gems but kept some for future generations, which eventually ended up with my uncles Bob and Jim. Unfortunately, they didn’t know they’d inherited them, as the cache was hidden in the false bottom of a chest of drawers…