Innholdsfortegnelse for 7-Aug-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“Waitrose’s recent announcement that it has stopped selling peat compost for environmental reasons appears to be a brave move, but how much peat does it really sell? Is this simply a marketing exercise aimed at giving the brand the moral high ground? I imagine Waitrose sells more pot plants and flowers than peat — will these be grown in peat-free? And what about its veg: will all that be grown without the aid of peat, including tomatoes and mushrooms? And what about selling whisky that has been distilled through peat? Now there is an interesting question…” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

WE aren’t the only creatures to love a British summer outdoors – many of our houseplants do, too! Not all plants will thrive outside – moth orchids and African violets, in particular, will suffer – but many varieties can be popped into the garden to benefit from the sunshine, wind and rain. Breezes strengthen them, more intense sunlight will stimulate growth and rain will wash their leaves clean of accumulated indoor dust and pests. Having said that, houseplants will be vulnerable to outdoor pests while they are ‘on holiday’, so remember to check their leaves before returning them indoors. Check compost for vine weevil larvae, too. When moving plants outside, don’t just plonk them in a sunny spot and leave them, as the direct sun and ‘real’ weather conditions will…

FORGET fig rolls as your source of consumption – fresh figs are where it’s at! Naturally sweet, with that unique soft and crunchy combination, how exactly do you secure such a sublime harvest? The plant of plenty Have you heard that a fig’s yield is fickle? To reassure you, the three mature fig trees that I grow have more than 200 fruits each this year so that’s hardly fickle! Just understand that, originating from western Asia, the common fig (Ficus carica) prefers things hot. “You only need one tree for perfect fruits” In its native climes its closeness to the equator allows it to grow and yield almost continually. In the temperate UK (unless overwintered in a heated glasshouse or polytunnel) we should only expect one crop, which matures in…

A slow-growing, spineless ‘monstrous’ cactus is the subject of this extract from AG 17 October 1957 CACTUS and succulent enthusiasts collect their plants because of the wide diversity of plant shape, size, spine formation and for their wonderful flowers. Yes, they do flower, and when they do they can more than hold their own among the flowers of the better known and more popular plants. Cactus and succulent flowers range in size from 1/8in (3mm) to some 14in (36cm) across. Their colour range is almost that of the rainbow and their brilliance is truly outstanding. As beautiful as cactus flowers are, this article is wholly concerned with one of the weirdest of all cacti. The plant in question is coveted by collectors solely for its body form. The botanist calls…

OUR letter about our allotment in the 13 April issue showed bare ground. Now we have 30 different crops and plenty of companion planting along the way. It’s a small plot but we are well on the way to veggie self-sufficiency for the second year running. A generous addition of cow manure across the whole plot earlier in the year has paid dividends with the cropping. We have tried to make the bees and birds welcome; the birds taking care of the slugs; and the bees making sure everything is pollinated. It’s now a wildlife haven, where the resident blackbird has its own strawberry patch! Here’s a photo of our first potatoes, that will last for a few meals, peas are already filling a freezer drawer. Our latest addition is…

TAKING cuttings is always a satisfying thing to do because it promises new plants, identical to their parent, and all for free. Of course you can collect seeds too – and I do, and highly recommend that you do too – but cuttings will give you exact replicas of the parent plants. Seeds, on the other hand, can revert and give you something unexpected. Last autumn we collected and sowed the seeds from some graceful, single-petalled, pinky-mauve opium poppies, which this summer turned into overly-flamboyant bright pink pompom eye-catchers. We won’t be harvesting these! In summer you can take softwood cuttings using this year’s fresh growth from perennials such as penstemon, pelargonium, aubrietia and verbena. These cuttings are relatively quick to root and should be taken early in the day…

THERE’S always something to do in the garden. Some days I have set plans for what I need to achieve, while on others I start on one thing and that leads to a host of other pressing tasks. Pottering around like this is a great way of getting to know your garden. You can see which plants are flourishing, which aren’t doing so well (make a note to mulch the borders in autumn) and where pests are congregating. It was on a recent round-up of jobs that I noticed an unusual mound of soil in one of our borders, with another just a few feet away. The mole was back, and while their hummocks are unsightly in the lawn, they can cause serious issues underneath plants as the connecting tunnels…

SPENDING time most days of the week in the Floral Fantasia Seasonal Colour area at the RHS Hyde Hall Garden gives me the opportunity to meet a wide cross-section of the public. I have noticed that a lot of younger people are visiting and showing a keen interest in plants and gardens. When visitors ask questions, it takes a little time to assess how much they know already, before answering and giving appropriate advice. Knowing how to cope with a veritable invasion of slugs and snails is a common problem, especially after the steady delivery of heavy rain and showers through June and July. A keen and experienced gardener of my acquaintance, fed up with slug and snail damage on sunflowers, went out after dark with a torch and on…

NO one welcomes a wasp in the house; they are worse at a picnic, and frightening in a car. We know they sting, and we suspect they almost want to. As with snakes, our impulse is to kill them – fast. But stay your hand, for both are good friends to us gardeners. Wasps Native snakes are mostly hunting for rodents, so we really must encourage those, and they’re rare, anyway. Annoyingly, not so rare are wasps, which likewise hunt smaller critters so they’re doing us a great service unseen. From when the overwintered queen starts her nest in late winter, she goes forth incessantly to bring back ‘meat’ (commonly other insects) to feed her offspring. In turn, those first-reared go out to bring back more ‘meat’ for the expanding…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years How do I care for my lemon trees? Q I sowed some lemon pips from a shop-bought lemon. Some germinated and I now have several little trees. What do I do now? Audrey Taylor, Greenwich, London A Growing anything from seed is very satisfying, so well done with your lemon trees! Keep them in a warm, sunny and sheltered spot in summer and pinch out the tops of the stems to make them bush out, unless you want them to grow as standards, the term for lollypop-shaped, rather than bushy, shrubs. Citrus can be pruned at any time if they are growing in a warm location. In colder regions, they are best pruned between spring and late summer – the earlier…

Wild and garden achillea ACHILLEAS, also known as yarrow and milfoil, are all perennial in nature, and pretty much fully hardy in the UK. Most spread by creeping underground rhizomes, and some (like the common yarrow found in lawns) are aggressive spreaders. But there are many achillea species and cultivars that make fine border plants, and often with grey or silver foliage, which adds to their appeal. Let’s take a closer look. Achillea is in the daisy family (Asteraceae), but is unlike any of its relations! The flowerheads comprise small blooms, usually massed tightly together in dense, flat-topped clusters – often looking more like an umbel (think of cow parsley, dill or fennel). Wild yarrow COMMON yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a wild plant that may be found in grasslands, from…

STRIMMERS, grass trimmers, string trimmers and line trimmers are all names for a pole-like device with a nylon cord revolving at high speed to chop down vegetation. This piece of equipment has become a staple for many gardeners and they are now so popular there are more than 50 models available, with manufacturers adding new models to the market every year. If you are looking for one, what do you look for and how can you tell which one is the best? Battery-powered models are on the increase and offer the most mobility. The technology is improving all the time, so recharging is quicker and cutting time lasts longer. Ideally, look for a model to suit you, the size of your garden and the work you expect it to do.…

Each week we publish a reader’s gardening poem. This week, Pauline describes her perfect summer’s day in the garden The summer garden looks serene, With edging plants and lawn of green, Roses, herbs, and climbing plants, Butterflies, bees and busy ants. The sun draws scent into the air, Releasing it for all the share, Fruitlets gleam on the old pear tree, Promising bounty – all totally free. A robin lands at the water’s edge Blackbirds wait in the hawthorn hedge. The sun’s now sinking in the west, Owls are stirring in their nest. A perfect end to a summer’s day, Same tomorrow lord, please I pray. Pauline O’Keefe…

WE had a week’s holiday away from home last month and the combination of (relative) summer warmth and thundery showers turned the garden into a jungle by the time we returned. The lawns were lush, the beds a tangle, weeds were rampant and there were signs that pests and diseases had taken advantage of our short absence to make inroads into our plants. Not only that, but we had forgotten to net the currants and raspberries before we left and the blackbirds had tucked in with gusto! So what tasks should you prioritise on your return from a much-needed holiday? Pests and diseases are the obvious starting point, because left unchecked they will spread. Some of our greenhouse tomatoes are showing signs of virus so sadly they will have to…

ICELAND poppies (Papaver nudicaule) are tough hardy perennials that are best treated as biennials. Sow them indoors now for the best results, and the seedlings should be ready to plant out this autumn or, failing that, be overwintered in a cold frame, greenhouse or mini greenhouse, then planted out next spring for early summer blooming. Alternatively, sow them in the first three months of next year and they will flower next year, too. Iceland poppies are cottage-garden favourites and as happy in a container as they are in the ground in a sunny, free-draining spot. They grow to 18in (45cm) tall and form attractive clumps of orange, yellow and pink flowers with delightful pale-green foliage. They bloom in early summer, and are excellent as cut flowers, remaining viable in a…

SUMMER came late to Cold Aston this year, as it probably did for many you. One of the first warm days here caused great excitement, when a football-sized clump of honeybees took up residence on our buddleia one afternoon. Fortunately, we have two beekeepers in our village and they came to our rescue. They donned their bee suits and began to snip away at my buddleia and, very slowly and gently, lowered the teardrop-shaped ball of bees into a brood box, also known as a nuc. Smoke, which subdues the bees, was used sparingly, and every manoeuvre was very slow and steady. Who knows, perhaps the smoke calms beekeepers, too? We couldn’t see the queen bee, because she was in the middle of the cluster, but she was probably a…

Top Tip For plenty of leaves from autumn to spring when most needed, sow some more spinach and leafy beets now. Q In spring, I sowed and planted some spinach and chard. I was able to harvest a few leaves, but by early June they ran to seed. How do I get around this problem in future? Fiona Jessop, Glasgow A This group of leafy veg is divided into annual true spinach (Spinacea oleracea) and biennial or short-lived perennial leafy beets (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla), grown as perpetual spinach and Swiss chard. Both types run to seed by the middle of June, so this is natural and unavoidable. True spinach is generally shorter-lived and has superior texture and flavour for eating raw in salads. Harvest from a young age by…

YOU can keep the sudoku: my favourite train-journey pastime is spotting rail-side plants and allotment plots from the carriage window. Allotments are always fascinating, as even from an express train it’s possible to recognise differences between the plots. There are weedy ones alongside the pristine; allotments that are divided into multiple postage stamps, as well as the triple allotment ‘ranches’ owned by frustrated farmers. As the seasons change, the flowers that brighten the trackside come and now is the time of the butterfly bush. Buddleja davidii, the one you always see by the railway, was introduced as a garden plant from China in the late 19th century, right at the start of the golden age of train travel. And it wasn’t long before its fluffy seeds escaped onto the railway…