Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-Apr-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“It’s funny, I spent so much of winter waiting for spring, and then when it finally arrives, I get overwhelmed by all the tasks I need to do. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing: it’s just that so much needs doing at the same time that it becomes a juggling exercise, especially for those of us whose gardening is mostly restricted to weekends. Ten jobs all need doing at the same time – which do you start first? As a perennial bumbler, I just start on the first thing that comes to mind, keep going until I run out of steam, and then count what I have left to do! The important thing is always to stand back and take stock of what you have achieved. I bet it’s…

Grow to help homeless Gardening guru Charles teams up with charity Crisis HOMELESS charity Crisis has teamed up with gardening guru Charles Dowding to encourage people to raise funds to get people off the streets – by gardening. The campaign was conceived because while the Coronavirus pandemic has been tough for everyone, it has hit the homeless even harder as they are more vulnerable to catching the disease and less likely to be able to access help. Unemployment caused by C19 is also putting more people at risk of hopelessness if they are forced into rent or mortgage arrears. For these reasons, Crisis is encouraging people to get out in the fresh air, grow together this spring, and raise vital funds to help bring an end to homelessness. The charity…

WE often state the importance of leaving an area of your garden to go ‘feral’ and grow a bit wild to provide shelter, food and nectar for wildlife, birds and insects. Not everyone is happy with this idea of course, as some gardeners like to keep things neat and tidy, so a happy medium is to grow a selection of wild flowers to attract pollinators. If you have more insects in your garden they will be followed by birds, bats, amphibians and other members of our wildlife tribe, many of which are under serious threat from loss of habitat and food sources. This week’s free seeds will do their bit to rebalance the books. They are a mix of wildlife-attracting varieties, which will brighten your garden and many of which…

SOWING in the open ground is usually successful when the instructions on the packet are followed. However, when growing undercover, we may become a plant’s potential worst enemy, as so many factors are under our control. Without doubt, overwatering is the greatest unseen killer. Rarely possible in open ground, it’s common undercover. Seeds drown – seedlings more so – and young plants likewise. Never stand your hopes in trays or saucers. What’s worse is if the water is dirty, as it can introduce diseases like wilts. The opposite, underwatering, is something we obviously try to avoid, but often it takes place unnoticed. Outdoors, wind dries the topmost layer of soil rapidly, and we mostly sow within that thin layer. Thus, outdoor crops may be desperate for water while still tiny,…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week How can I make more chocolate? Q This plant is growing in my neighbour’s garden and looks amazing. Can you tell me what it is and could she give me seeds or cuttings so I can have my own? Beth Thompson, Beccles, Suffolk A The plant is a chocolate vine (Akebia quinata). Its common name comes from the scent of its flowers, though you need a still and sunny day to get their full effect. It is a lovely climber, native to Japan, China and Korea, but possibly not hardy in the UK except in a sunny, sheltered spot. The flowers appear in spring and are often missed as they are dark in colour and hidden by foliage. If…

WHEN someone mentions taking cuttings, we automatically think of taking stem or tip cuttings in spring and summer, or maybe hardwood cuttings in autumn, but we seldom consider taking them from the roots. As a propagation method, taking root cuttings is easy and usually very successful, but it is much less popular now than it used to be. This could be because it is rarely covered on TV gardening programmes where most new gardeners learn their first steps. Only option for some plants Like the other types of cuttings the key to success is in the timing, and root cuttings taken in late autumn, when many plants are in the early stages of dormancy, are more likely to succeed than if the cuttings are taken when the plants are actively…

DON’T make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is necessary and useful, then don’t hesitate to make it beautiful. Not my words (although I wish they were), but those of the sagacious Shakers, whose philosophy I put into practice when I’m building anything, especially supports for runner beans. Sure, a wigwam of bamboo tied at the top with bailer twine would suffice, but there are better ways to prop up this iconic crop. Tunnels that span a path, for example, make eye-catching features, and because the pods hang inside, they are easily seen and picked. And this, as every allotmenteer knows, is important because if one bean goes to seed, it stymies production of the whole plant. The material of choice for building these domed…

OUR lawns took a battering over the winter months, but now the mercury is rising, the soil is drying, the grass is growing and this all means we can start preparing them for summer. There’s nothing you can do in winter as walking and working on a saturated or frosted lawn will simply turn it into a mudhole and even kill off the grass. But now it is growing again and the ground is drier, it’s time to get on with mowing, raking, feeding and weeding. Multi-tasking products such as Westland’s Aftercut 4-in-1 or Miracle-Gro’s Evergreen Complete 4-in-1 have been formulated to feed the grass while, at the same time, killing weeds and removing moss. They strengthen the grass, making it more resistant to being outgrown by any weeds and…

CREATING a good lawn requires effort and patience and a good lawnmower. A popular budget-priced choice for a small-to-medium-sized lawn that is close to the house is a cabled, mains electric model. The cable should be long enough to reach a power point in the house or garage and always attach the mower to a circuit breaker, for safety’s sake. Such mowers are light and quite cheap, powerful and they work very effectively. Many are rotary bladed, with a propeller-like blade mounted facedown to the grass. This type of blade can tackle coarse and long grass, and still gives a very neat cut You can also buy mains electric cylinder mowers, with a cylindrical arrangement of blades mounted like a roller at the front of the machine. The spinning cylinder…

WE tend to think of media influencers as thoroughly modern, with their blogs, Instagrams and tweets. However, media influencers in gardening have been around for 80 years or so. The first was Mr CH Middleton (1886-1945), a Northamptonshire head gardener who launched the Dig for Victory Campaign at the start of the Second World War in 1939. He was on BBC radio straight after Sunday lunch, and it’s estimated that 30% of the population listened to his sage advice on In Your Garden. In 1936, Mr Middleton made television broadcasts from a plot at Alexandra Palace in London. He also had a newspaper column and wrote 10 books. He dispensed a lot of sensible gardening wisdom, but he also advised people to use winter tar washes on fruit trees. These…

This week it’s: Peaches and nectarines Fuzzy or smooth, these fruits are truly fascinating! WHO doesn’t love a succulent, juicy, sweet-as-sugar peach? Well, there are some who aren’t keen on furry peach skin, so they much prefer the smoother but equally delicious nectarine. For those who don’t like either… well, you’re just weird (despite the fact that I can’t stand pineapple, so I guess, each to their own). Anyway, now is the time to prune peaches and nectarines, so let’s take a look at these amazing fruits. ■ The Latin name for the peach is Prunus persica, which comes from the belief that it was a native of Persia (modern-day Iran). Ancient Romans called it Malum persicum, or ‘Persian apple’. Later, the French took the persicum part, which became pêche,…

Q How do I grow leeks that are shop quality? Ours tend to be short, puny and difficult to clean, so you need a dozen to make a good dish of leeks in cheese sauce. Any growing tips would be greatly appreciated. Elaine Bridgewater, Witney, Oxfordshire A There are many ways to grow leeks – but first, think of their needs. Pick an open site of well-cultivated, fertile and slightly alkaline soil, dug or top-dressed with garden compost in the autumn. If you have gone down the no-dig route, avoid soil compaction and don’t forget to mulch in good time. If making a 6-8in (15-20cm)-deep dibber hole is difficult, consider digging now, and there is still time to add lime if necessary. Early varieties sown under cover in February or…

IF you like to leave an area of your lawn to grow into a wildflower meadow for the summer, spring is a good time to get sowing for it. The preparation work takes place in autumn, when you sow the seeds of yellow rattle, a semi-parasitic plant that weakens grass making room for wildflowers to grow. Different grass and flower mixes for a variety of soils (salty maritime, chalk downland, for example) are widely available online and offer a range of native flower seeds specifically chosen for your site. These are generally preferable and more beneficial to wildlife than the generic ‘wildflower and grass’ mixes available from mainstream gardening brands. You can also buy wildflower plug plants cheaply online, which are easy to plant and quick-growing. I bought a variety…

ONE of the New Year resolutions I made and stuck to is ‘weed more often’. I’m glad I have, as now those unwanted plants are really coming into their own in the garden, often growing faster and more robustly than the cultivated varieties. Weeds not only make borders look unkempt, they take nutrients, water and light from cultivated plants, are vectors for disease and host pests. The key to keeping on top of weeds is to do little and often, which in my case means running a sharpened hoe blade over the beds every week. This is better than forking and digging as it doesn’t activate buried weed seeds. It cuts off the weedlings and I leave them to rot down and feed the soil. I make an exception for…

OVER the last few years, we have seen a decline in the use of seasonal bedding in public parks and gardens. It is, of course, quite labour-intensive to strip out one lot of summer-flowering plants each autumn, plant winter and spring bloomers, and do the same again in late May to make space for summer bedding. Six of us took a day to plant over 3,000 3in (8cm) pots of pansies in the Floral Fantasia area at RHS Garden Hyde Hall. This kind of massed floral display has no equal, however, and the visiting public do love to see a carpet of colour carried on the 270 different cultivars in pretty well every colour of the rainbow. It is of note that plant breeders are making life easier for us…

A SPARAGUS is a perennial vegetable that is often referred to as ‘luxury’ and ‘gourmet’, thanks to its specific season and the time required from starting to cropping – but trust me, everyone can afford a patch of asparagus. Let’s look at the less-costly cultivation methods, plus some growing techniques that guarantee luxury for all. Try a little patience Please don’t let the time you need to wait before that first cut deter you: just get on with it! Once started, a well-tended bed can last for as long as 20 years. There are two propagation options: open-pollinated or more modern all-male F1 varieties (see the next page). “Don’t let the time needed put you off!” Open-pollinated seed (which is less vigorous than F1 hybrids and therefore cheaper), sown direct,…

Write to us: Letters to Wendy, Amateur Gardening Magazine, Unit 2, Eelmore Road, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7QN (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Primulas bring cheer I ALWAYS enjoy A Gardener’s Miscellany with Graham Clarke. I love the trivia facts and figures he finds. I so agree about the colour ‘yellow’, and yellow is known as a colour to wear to boost our spirits and it certainly does the same in our gardens. Gold-lace primulas being one of the subjects covered, I had to share mine coming out, the combination of colours in their heads are always so stunning. Auriculas are coming into very early bloom, my favourite, ‘Arundel Stripe’, will be one of 50 named varieties on display. Primulas have to be an all-time favourite of mine, they…