Innholdsfortegnelse for 12-Jun-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“I recently reported that I was conducting my own test of peat vs peat-free compost. Nothing scientific, just a simple test any AG reader could do: growing two sets of container spuds - one with peat and one peat-free. I already use peat-free compost, but my aim is to encourage more people to join me, particularly with the much-improved products available. However, one reader felt that I should not mention peat at all (see letters page 64). Let’s be clear, the use of peat compost has to stop – and it will. But we are in a transition period and it’s important to continue to educate and inform. We’re all in this together.” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330…

SPRING perennials will have passed their best now and many will probably be starting to look untidy, their spent flowerheads splaying outwards as they fade and set seed. This week I have been tackling our hellebores and pulmonarias, both of which put on a wonderful show but now need some attention. Hellebores have large flowers on thick stems that often collapse outwards onto other plants as the flowers turn into seed pods. Not only does this look untidy, and can hinder or damage surrounding plants, but it can also leave you with a flowerbed full of baby hellebores as they are such prolific self-seeders. Pulmonarias are another early bloomer that start to look a mess as soon as they go over, with stems flopping and leaves starting to look bedraggled…

LOOKING at the garden now, so full of life and colour, it’s hard to remember back to the winter when everything was bare, brown and sodden (just as when we are in the throes of winter it’s impossible to recall the verdant days of high summer). Today’s free seeds from Mr Fothergill’s are a fantastic way of adding splashes of colour to the winter garden. This week’s seeds are for ‘Goliath Mixed’ daisies, which produce beautiful cushiony pompoms in white and assorted shades of pink. These delicious daisies are perfect for edging borders and adding to pots in spring, and if you get them started now they will flower early. Sow the small seeds as thinly as possible onto fresh seed compost that has been tamped flat. Their size makes…

WHICH bunch of critters do you reckon are the gardeners’ true friends, if we judge by what eats the most pests? Birds? Hedgehogs? Frogs and toads? Shrews? Ladybirds? Violet ground beetles? All are good contenders, but now consider how many of each might be living in an acre of gardens. Obviously, there can be few larger predators, and many more smaller ones. Well, one group so far not mentioned, and all totally insectivorous, probably outnumbers all the others. Frighteningly for arachnophobes, there will be very many spiders – not thousands, not tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but probably millions. Many of them will be hidden most of the time. Think of those perfectly formed garden spider webs dripping with dew, and how many sheets of money spider webs…

Amaranthus caudatus The pendent flower tassels of annual love-lies-bleeding decorate baskets well. Sow now and fast-growing plants will flower in late summer and autumn. Some have purple leaves, or yellow tassels. HxS: 3x2ft (1mx60cm). Hakonechloa macra AGM The hardy, deciduous Japanese forest grass and its variants have an arching habit. They must have moisture, so hang in shade, use a plastic liner or old saucer in the base and water well. H&S: 18in (45cm). Lotus berthelotii x maculatus AGM With origins in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, sun-loving parrot’s beak has burnt-orange blooms with long stems of silvery, needle-like foliage from early summer. Overwinter cool and frost-free. HxS: 30x14in (75x35cm). Platycerium bifurcatum AGM The epiphytic staghorn fern will wrap its sterile fronds around a basket, allowing the divided spore-bearing…

Annual meadow grass This small annual grass often spreads into borders from poorly maintained lawns, and its seeds are often distributed in mulches of grass cuttings. Sometimes it will flower and seed when very small, and in almost all seasons. Bittercress Flowering and seeding when just 1in (2.5cm) high, but sometimes reaching 12in (30cm), a mature bittercress plant can fling its seed more than 30in (80cm) when the pod splits. The most common weed to acquire as a hitchhiker on bought-in plants. Dandelion Colourful in flower but prolific in its wind-blown seed, the flat rosettes of the dandelion smother nearby plants and lawn grasses very effectively. Pull off seedheads and slice off the vertical taproots roots low down. Shepherd’s purse Similar to bittercress in making a neat rosette with upright…

This week it’s: NEXT week is British Flowers Week (14-20 June), a campaign run by London’s New Covent Garden Market, to celebrate the beauty and variety of British-grown flowers, foliage and plants for the floristry trade. In truth, the cut-flower business has little to do with amateur gardening so, for this week’s Miscellany, I thought it might be interesting to expand the idea to find some facts and stories about plants that are native to Britain. Let’s take a look. ■ This year, because of Covid restrictions, organisers of British Flowers Week are encouraging businesses and the public to decorate their windows with British flowers, at home or work, preferably where passers-by can enjoy them. 6 of the best: British wildflowers SOME British wildflowers are absolutely beautiful and, being native,…

This is the sixth of a 10-part series by Percy Thrower, who reveals his ‘best buys’ originally published in Amateur Gardening in 1973. In this art Percy concludes his look at bulbs. The following articles in the series will focus on herbaceous plants and alpines. 137 years of practical advice 1884 The World’s Oldest Gardening Magazine 2021 Part 6: Bulbs PLANTS with bulbs, corms, tubers or other means of storing large reserves of food and moisture have developed this capacity to enable them to survive considerable periods without active growth. This can be a useful quality in the garden, for it means that while the bulbous-rooted plants are resting, other plants can take their place without undue competition between them. For example, spring-flowering bulbs, such as daffodils, tulips and snowdrops, die…

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 2, Eelmore Road, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7QN (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com SHARE YOUR STORIES TIPS AND PHOTOS and you will receive a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves — the UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help you in the garden. State small, medium or large with your letter. Star letter A TIP I would like to pass on that is very effective at stopping those ‘pesky ‘ but lovable ‘critters’, mainly sparrows, from seemingly undoing the knots in our twine/string. I know they are just trying to loosen them and get at the fibres for their nests, but they have an uncanny knack of untying the knot. I find…

Going potty: Next week I look at containers and baskets, including how to fill them, unusual plants to use and how to keep them colourful all summer WOULDN’T it be wonderful if our cultivated plants grew like weeds? How simple (though probably less interesting) gardening would be if we could just plant or sow in the knowledge that our job was done until it was time to harvest crops or pick flowers for arrangements. Life ain’t like that, which is why this is one of the busiest seasons for us. Our gardens are full of new growth and young plants, many incredibly vulnerable to pests, diseases and the whims of the weather, so they need careful husbandry now. Keeping a garden growing healthily through summer isn’t as daunting a prospect…

Got a story? email ruth.hayes@futurenet.com LAST week in AG we spoke to two garden-industry leaders about their views on the issue of peat. This week we talk to Mike Burks, chairman of the Garden Centre Association and managing director of the The Gardens Group chain of garden centres in Dorset and Somerset. The Gardens Group is made up of three outlets in Poundbury near Dorchester, Sherborne and Yeovil in Somerset. They have been encouraging customers to go peat-free for more than a decade and use peat-free compost in their nurseries. Their growers are also peat-free or use reduced-peat media. Managing director Mike Burks said: “We have been working on this for many years and it hasn’t been straightforward. Ten to 12 years ago our sales of compost would have been…

NOT all our butterflies are flamboyant in appearance, but this makes them no less fascinating. The meadow brown is found almost everywhere in the UK from June to September. It has several slight variations of its markings and four named subspecies, based on regionality. These genetic mutations are noticeable through slight differences in the gold marks on the forewings. The sub-species are splendida, found in Ross-shire in Scotland, cassiteridum on the Isles of Scilly, iernes in Ireland and insularis, on the Isle of Wight. The meadow brown has mid-brown wings, the upper ones adorned with golden-orange blotches, each with a distinctive black eye. It is a grassland butterfly usually seen in field margins, woodland rides, road verges, hedgerows and overgrown gardens. They often haunt our lawn in summer, when we…

GARDENING naturally is a balanced affair, because I want to grow some garden plants that are not very wildlife-friendly. My rose and peony borders contain lots of double-flowered roses and peonies, but these petal-packed flowers offer no pollen or nectar to pollinators because the nectaries and anthers have been replaced by petals. For this reason they cannot be pollinated, so the flowers last longer than easily accessible single-flowered plants. Plant breeders raise and select double flowers, because they go on for far longer. My favourite fully double roses, all healthy, include Champagne Moment (‘Korvanaber’) and Sweet Honey (‘Kormecaso’). Both have been voted Rose of the Year, and both were raised in Germany by Kordes, so their appellation (the name in brackets) starts with ‘Kor’. They’re a champagne-white that blends with…

WIN £30 This word search comprises words associated with British native plants. They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate words may appear in the grid, but there is only one correct solution. After the listed words are found, there are six letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s KEYWORD. BRITISH FLOWERS WEEK STINKING HELLEBORE FIELD MAPLE SCOTS PINE BIRCH BOX DIANTHUS HAWTHORN HORNBEAM IRIS NATIVE ROWAN YEW No: 573 HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 573, Amateur Gardening, Unit 2, Eelmore Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7QN, to arrive by Wednesday 23 June 2021. The first correct entry…

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) WHETHER you are pruning ornamentals like roses, pyracantha or berberis, or nuisance plants like brambles, you need hand protection, otherwise you are likely to spend the following few days trying to extract thorns from your fingers. Ordinary gardening gloves offer protection, and wearing them when you work with soil is practical from a hygiene point of view, as well as helping to reduce the chance of hand injuries such as cuts and scrapes. These gloves should keep you safe from soil-borne infections and help prevent blisters and calluses when you do heavy work like digging. The need for something tougher However, when it comes to thorns you need something tougher. Many of the…

LAST year, I received a ‘thank you’ card from Sainsbury’s for being in ‘the top 4% of people nationwide who purchase filo pastry’. Surely it must have been a case of mistaken identity? Apart from mille-feuille treats, goat’s cheese tarts, salmon wraps and baclava, I hardly touch the stuff. That said, I do have filo pastry to thank for an even greater achievement. I was searching in the nether reaches of the fridge for a box of the ready-rolled sheets, when there – among the ancient jars of marmalade and olives, picked during the reign of Tutankhamun – I found a packet of ox-eye daisy seeds. Now I’ve no recollection of buying them. Perhaps they came ‘free’ with a filo pastry six-pack? We’ll never know. But with their white daisy…

1 Soil: It goes without saying that the health of your soil is key to everything in your garden. Mulching when it is damp, especially in spring and autumn, adds nutrients and improves its structure. I like to add chicken manure pellets a few weeks before planting as well, to give it an all-round boost. 2 Feeding: Correct feeding is a key defence against plant problems. Established perennials only need supplements after deadheading and pruning, but annuals and crops need regular top-ups. Give bedding plants a fortnightly water with liquid tomato feed and greenhouse crops a weekly feed. 3 Watering: Regular watering early the morning and in the evening during dry spells stops plants wilting. Keeping the roots well watered also reduces the risk of powdery mildew and other debilitating…

I ALWAYS think that autumn is one of the most beautiful times of year, as its palette naturally turns towards fiery shades and warm russet tones. Many plants flower in autumn, too – those that still have fuel in their tank after summer, and those that naturally bloom as the days shorten. Many that fall into this latter category can be planted now as bulbs, corms and tubers, which makes them some of the easiest plants to add to your garden. In the right spot with the right soil, they will come back year after year, multiplying as they grow and mature. There are bulbs for every situation, and don’t forget many of them will also grow well in pots. Autumn crocuses and sternbergia, plus cheerful yellow winter aconites look…

Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on iTunes FREEDOM to travel and easier access to people have allowed more exchange between folk of all ages who are now actively growing things. However, the lack of practical knowledge becomes ever more apparent and is a worry, so I will try to include a little more detail in this column. Growing summer cauliflowers, for example, can be fraught with attacks by cabbage root fly, cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, brassica aphids, pigeons and drought, to mention just some of the challenges to be faced. The easy way, however, is to sow cauliflower ‘All The Year Round’ in September, protect them in unheated greenhouses or under coldframes and harvest in May. You will…

Next week: Focus on potager plots, sow spring onions, wield that hoe to prevent weeds, prune grapevines, use grey water on edibles, try naranjilla. BEING the daughter of commercial tomato growers, I have spent a fair few hours (probably years!) among these plants. Breeding continually improves the selection available, so let’s take a detailed look at this must-grow crop. These days, outdoor tomatoes are a cinch for beginners to grow. The increasing introduction of patio varieties (see below) allows you to plonk a plant in a pot, apply water and feed, add lots of sunshine, then wait for numerous fruits to form. No faffy pruning required: bliss! Dwarf cherry varieties, in particular, are well catered for – try ‘Maskotka’, ‘Totem’ and ‘Tumbling Tom’. If you hanker for larger-fruited slicing and…

While John sometimes advocates using chemicals against pests and diseases as the most effective means of control, organic options are sometimes available and we advise readers to go with their preferences Contact John Negus by email address below Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com How can I brighten my beds after spring? Q I am new to gardening and find it very rewarding. I have a narrow flower bed separating the patio from the lawn. I have filled it with daffodils, which look stunning in early spring, followed by iris and gladioli. But what can I put in for colour between May and September? June Tong, Pontardawe, Swansea A If you want colour in your border from May to September, I suggest you plant the following perennials that will delight you annually: April-May Veronica…

Q Every year I seem to lose control of our strawberry patch. Instead of neat, productive clumps where I put them, I end up with small unproductive plants all over the place. Can you help? Annabel Critchley, Kidderminster, Worcestershire A Homegrown, sun-ripened strawberries have a delicious flavour and are well worth their bedspace. Although long-lived, plants are at peak production for only three or four years, so perhaps yours have simply run out of steam and it is time to start a new bed on fresh, well-cultivated soil. You can do this with healthy home-produced runners, or new disease-free plants. Rooted runners are usually planted from late summer to autumn or in spring, and cold-stored runners in May and June. To keep plants cropping well during their lives, monitoring and…