Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-Jun-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“Regular readers will know that I have been conducting my own peat/peat-free comparison test with container potatoes (see page 10). The peat-free option is doing well, but I noticed that it does not retain moisture as well as the peat. This is largely known to be the case, but it’s not until you have both samples next to each other that the difference becomes so clear. It then struck me that on the peat-free packaging, there is no reference to this product needing to be treated differently to its peat-based counterpart. I think all peat-free packaging should give this information as a standard practice by all producers.” Contact us: 03303331113 03303903732 03303906566…

ONE of my favourite summer flowers is Nicotiana sylvestris, or woodland tobacco plant. Standing tall and elegant at the back or centre of a border, their drooping clusters of slim white trumpets seem to glow at dusk, perfuming the surrounding air. I grew a number from seed, gradually moving on the young plants as they grew from the tiniest seedlings to large, robust adolescents ready to go out into the world. I planted them out in a group for full effect, though they are statuesque enough to hold their own as singletons. Because the seedlings start off so small I grew mine in clumps of decreasing size, thinning them down as they grew until finally there were just six or seven in one pot. When it came to planting I…

A POUND or two spent on a packets of seed at this time can fill your garden with colour and, in some cases, sweet perfumes next spring/early summer, and many springs to come. If you want fragrance then sweet William, sweet rocket (Hesperis), wallflowers, and East Lothian and Brompton stocks should be on your shopping list. Usually listed under the biennial heading, being sown now to flower next year, quite a number are short-lived perennials, and if prevented from setting seeds will often grow on to flower on larger plants in their second season of blooming. Foxgloves, sweet William, the stocks and even wallflowers come into this short-lived perennial category. Even so, with the exception perhaps of aquilegia, most of the plants are at their best when treated as biennial…

THEY’RE the epitome of a British summer, and life could be a bowl of them if you’re living the dream – so how do you get the very best from cherries? In the early 20th century you would have needed a huge garden in order to grow cherry trees, but with the introduction of self-fertile cherry ‘Stella’ in 1968 this all changed. Until this point, cherry pollination had been a bit of a conundrum, with self-incompatibility compounded further by incompatibility between varieties. Thank goodness for Canada! This is where ‘Stella’ and many other self-fertile varieties (such as ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Lapins’) were bred. “These fruits are the epitome of a British summer” The UK, too, has introduced varieties that are better suited to our inclement climate, such as ‘Summer Sun’ (see…

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) A PRESSURE washer is something you may not realise you need, but it can be extremely useful around the garden. The most obvious use is in cleaning patios, steps and paths to get rid of dirt and algae, especially after the winter. An accumulation of debris can make hard surfaces slippery and pose a trip hazard. Losing your footing on steps can be particularly dangerous. Pressure washers are also useful for cleaning your greenhouse or polythene tunnel to help prevent unwanted pests and diseases, as well as letting in more light. The alternative involves hours of washing and scrubbing to get the structures, surfaces and containers clean enough to use. Using a pressure…

WE were looking at some photos taken this time last year and the contrast was stark. By my reckoning, the bitterly cold, dry April followed by a cold, wet May held things back by at least a month. While it is lovely to see the garden flourishing now, having caught up with itself, the late start to summer has pushed a few tasks back as well. Some trees and shrubs are pruned in late spring, after flowering, to keep them in shape or to encourage blossoming next year, but the delayed season means that they may only be ready for a trim now, instead of a month or six weeks ago. Now things are speeding up there’s no time like the present to sharpen and clean your pruning tools and…

REGULAR readers will know that in April I started a simple trial of peat-free compost by growing potatoes in containers, half with peat and half with peat free. This is not a scientific study, but a spur of the moment idea when I found myself with leftover seed potatoes after planting out a border. So on April 23 I planted 12 containers of potatoes — six in peat compost and six in peat-free using Westland’s New Horizon Veg compost Most bags had two seed potatoes in each but some only had one as I was interested to see if more space would benefit the crop. No fertiliser was used at planting, but I will feed later in the cycle. Five weeks later, on May 29, all of the containers were…

OUR crops are prey to many critters, both big and small. There are a mix of threats, and over decades of answering gardening queries I have noticed these have changed somewhat. Birds, those two-legged devils, have always been both gardeners’ delights and annoyances. Many birds do us so much good with their bug control, and then go and spoil our fruit and steal our seedlings. By far the worst damage is caused by woodpigeons, which have become a plague in many areas. However, if you make the effort, birds are fairly easy to exclude with cloches, nets and fleece. Far harder to keep out of anywhere are the traditional four-legged fiends. These include mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels and those overlooked voles, which are often culprits when other rodents get the…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years Can you name my mystery trees? Q Could you please name these two trees for me? I bought them some time ago and have forgotten what they were called! I have looked in several tree books and cannot find them. One tree develops this strange ‘fruits’ and changes colour in autumn. The other one has little flowers in the bit tucked inside the stem of the leaf where it joins the trunk and later has this little green fruits. Fascinating! Homera Wood (via email) A The first is clearly a yellow-flowered wintersweet, botanically Chimonanthus praecox, which starts blooming in December. The strange little bottle-like growths are seed vessels. There are two varieties: ‘Grandiflorus’, whose blooms are deeper yellow, with a red-stained…

Clivia confusion Q My Clivia miniata flowered well, but has been growing in the same pot for several years and the compost has gone dusty. Should I repot it and, if so, when and how? Is it best to cut off the old flower stems? Annette Evans, Stroud, Glos A Clivias (Natal lilies) are among my favourite indoor plants due to their deep-green, strappy leaves and clusters of yellow-centred, bright-orange flowers opening in March and April, or August. There are cultivars available with lightly scented yellow or apricot-coloured blooms and some with variegated foliage. Needless to say, the more unusual kinds tend to be expensive. Originally from wooded areas of South Africa, clivias remain green and healthy in the soft light of a north or east-facing window. Harsh light causes…

THE motte and bailey we call Buckland Castle has long been a magnet for plant hunters. And just as William Lobb plundered the Jungles of Peru or David Douglas gathered conifers from the Wild West, green and frankly light-fingered plant collectors have been plundering this property’s borders for years. And most have been members of my own family! Decades before we moved here, when the property was a holiday home, my late mum gathered swathes of violet ‘splits’ from the drive. Before that, my bricklaying uncles told the story of how, after building an extension in the 1970s, they ‘accidentally’ packed up a barrowload of tulips with their tools. This act of spring bulb burglary nearly resulted in them coming a cropper when, years later, the cottage’s owner saw the…

1 Containers: Group your containers together somewhere sheltered to help prevent them completely drying out. Massed together with a bottle dripper in each one, they also create a slightly cooler, more humid microclimate which helps to keep them healthy. 2 Lawn: Nobody likes coming home to a jungle, so give your lawn a trim, remembering to leave a wild area for wildlife and insects. If you have a moss problem, treat it with Mo Bacter, an organic and pet-friendly product that I have found extremely effective. 3 Greenhouse: Set up a micro-irrigation system or use bottle drippers or capillary matting to keep plants hydrated. Dispense biological controls such as Encarsia formosa wasps against whitefly, and leave doors and windows ajar for good airflow. 4 Plant care: Water houseplants before you go, or…

I NEVER gave the connection between cats and catnip much thought until we got two cats and moved to a house with a large Nepeta cataria (catmint) bush. They had always gone slightly dotty over catnip toys, but once the bush started growing the first spring we were there, they became hooked on it, chewing it and rolling on it. Luckily it is large enough to withstand their affections, but a smaller one we planted almost gave up the ghost and had to be dug up and potted so it could recover in peace after our rather hefty tabby took to sitting on it… Whether your household has cats or is feline-free, catmint is always worth having because it has so many positive properties. It is low maintenance, its flowers…

I’M one of those people who snuffles through late spring and early summer, because I suffer from a pollen allergy. I think it’s probably tree pollen, and lots of early flowering trees disperse fine dust-like pollen on the wind. Most plants aren’t wind pollinated. They produce larger, sticky pollen grains designed to stick to creatures visiting the flowers. However, some plants hedge their bets and show ambophily, which means they are both wind and insect pollinated. European willows, including the white willow (Salix alba), are primarily insect pollinated, but pollen can also travel on the wind if the weather conditions demand it. The name of the game is to transfer pollen from the male anthers of one flower to the female stigma of another, so that cross-pollination occurs. Every pollen…

This week it’s: Heavenly hemerocallis Daylilies produce masses of short-lived blooms DAYLILIES – species and hybrids of hemerocallis – are aptly named. They bloom just for a day, closing at sunset and then withering. So, why bother with a plant that has such a short flowering period? Well, these plants make up for it by producing flower after flower over several weeks in early summer. And I wouldn’t be without a few of them in my garden. Daylilies used to be part of the lily family, but botanists decided that they fitted the asphodel family better, so they now sit alongside asparagus, phormiums and red hot pokers (no, I don’t think they look anything like them, either – what are botanists on?). Anyway, as the daylilies in my garden are…

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 Star letter Decorating the house I WAS interested in reading the Letters from The Archives, circa 1926 (AG, 5 May) I managed to turn my garden into a small dried flowers business in the 1970-80s, growing dried flowers and grasses from seed and also drying flowers from my garden, including roses, peonies and delphiniums, which so many of us have done over the years, and which bring colour and joy over the dark winter months. This is from my ‘much smaller’ garden these days, but I still grow anything that is dryable! This arrangement is three years old! Christine Corson, Dorset Wendy says Hi Christine,…