Innholdsfortegnelse for 9-Oct-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“I recently attended a major garden trade show and noted the huge effort that producers of plant food, pest control and growing media are putting into products and packaging to make them environmentally kinder. Many are moving away from plastic by using recycled materials. Plant care products are becoming more environmentally focused. We will bring these new products to your attention as and when they appear on the shelves. It may be that they cost a little more, but we all have to do our bit for the environment. Contact us: ■Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■Advertising: 0330 3906566…

Got a story? email ruth.hayes@futurenet.com AS autumn advances and we start thinking about replenishing our soil and ‘putting the garden to bed’ for the winter, the time is ripe for considering making the move to a more organic way of horticulture. The charity Garden Organic is encouraging AG readers to garden without chemicals to create a balanced and diverse environment where native plants, insects and wildlife can thrive. Emma O’Neill, the charity’s head gardener, says that the best way to go organic and to improve your garden’s biodiversity is to start with baby steps. “Start small and learn as you go,” she said. “If you go all-out and have unrealistic aims you will not be successful and may get discouraged. “Patience is key. People write to us and says ‘help,…

AMONG the myriad bulbs on sale at garden centres across the land, you will find trays and boxes of ‘prepared’ varieties. These bulbs have been prepared for early flowering by being subjected to a period of intense cold that tricks them into thinking they have been through winter. As a result, they shoot and flower weeks before they would normally. Prepared bulbs of hyacinths, ‘Paperwhite’ narcissus and hippeastrum (tall, exotic, trumpet-flowered amaryllis), crocus, muscari (grape hyacinth) and tulips (dwarf varieties do best) can all be planted up over the next few weeks, then set aside in a cool, dark place and brought out in time to bring scent and colour to the home around Christmas and the New Year. Plant them up in a loamy compost or, if their container…

REGULAR readers of my column will know how much I enthuse about herbs. When carefully used, their unique flavours will elevate a dish from distinctly average to mind-blowing signature – isn’t it brilliant how a plant can do that? But what can you do with your herbs during their dormant months? Well first of all, understand that they don’t need to be dormant! Evergreens such as thyme, rosemary, sage and bay will deliver flavour-packed leaves all year round, and even the hardy perennial herbs that would normally die back down for winter (such as oregano and mint) can be forced into growth indoors (see my windowsill projects on page 20). Propagation, too, can be addressed during the winter months – division, layers and root cuttings (see next page) are three…

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) FLOWERING bulbs are a delight, adding interesting colour and form to pots and borders throughout the year. There are hundreds of bulbs to choose from, but varieties come and go, so a less popular one may fall by the wayside and you will struggle to find more of the same. Propagating bulbs yourself Many bulbs are quite slow to multiply by natural means, often producing only two or three offset bulbs every few years. However, you can propagate bulbs yourself at home using a variety of techniques such as chipping, scooping, scoring or twin scaling. Each process involves injuring the bulb to encourage it to form young bulblets that will be identical to…

SUMMER takes its toll on lawns with drought and heavy footfall, whereas winter’s damage is caused by rain, waterlogging, frosts and fungal diseases. Autumn is usually a kinder season that gives us gardeners a window to make any repairs to our lawns, tidy them up, solve any problems that have developed and maybe lay some new areas of grass if necessary. The key objective about now is making sure your stretches of sward are as strong and healthy as possible to cope with the months ahead. Give your grass a boost with an autumn feed that has been specifically formulated to strengthen grass without making it grow, as new shoots will be killed off by cold weather. Many of these seasonal feeds also contain root boosters and moss eliminators. Tackle…

WE are told there are over three million homeowners who have either started growing things for the first time or returned to gardening through the Covid lockdown. A good percentage that I have met over recent months have very little knowledge, and answering the questions they pose can be tricky; it is necessary to cross-question a bit first to find out what is likely to be understood. One thing for sure; there are a lot of younger people growing things now who are in a hurry, and want instant and satisfactory results without very much input. When I sit down to write this column, I do my best to cater for all levels and experience, mentioning something that will prompt every one of you to say, “I did not know…

OVER the next few weeks before Hallowe’en, a huge number of pumpkins will be hollowed and carved into lanterns. Now I doubt if one in 100 pumpkins ever has its flesh eaten. Pumpkin pie (effectively egg custard pie, with vanilla and spices) is big in the USA, yet it is seldom seen here by comparison. Some pumpkin flesh finds its way into economical soups, and even cakes, but as with marrow it’s not as highly rated as the similar squashes bred for the table. Naturally, much depends on the quality of the flesh. Most pumpkins sold to be lanterns are simply varieties bred for reliably growing to a large size and not for sweet, nutty flesh. Thus, quite reasonably, most of the edible flesh is discarded. But worse, along with…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years Is this a mallow and when is it pruned? Q Is this plant a member of the mallow family and, if so, how and when should I prune it? Peter Auty (via email) A It took me a while to wade through all the members of the mallow family to identify your mystery plant, but I got there in the end! I am delighted to tell you that your plant is the African mallow or Cape mallow and the Latin name is Anisodontea capensis. This is an upright sub-shrub, which means the base of the stems go woody but often the tops are more like those of a perennial, with hairy stems and small, hairy, evergreen leaves. The flowers resemble a…

‘MIGHTY oaks from little acorns grow’: according to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, this famous saying is a 14th century Old English proverb. Sadly, they don’t include any further details! Actually, the original quote was ‘Great oaks…’, and we have the Americans to thank for changing it to ‘Mighty…’! Regardless of this, the oak is indeed a mighty tree, and there are many wonderful stories connected with it. Mostly, of course, oaks (species of the Quercus genus) are parkland and landscape trees, rather than plants for our gardens. However, there are several forms of oak that are lower growing, and make a fine choice for modern gardens. Let’s take a sideways glance… Our native oak? THE best-known oak tree is the common oak (Quercus robur). It’s a native British tree,…

Q I am about to plant up a bottle garden. Have you any tips as to what I should plant and how to get everything in through the narrow top? Jennifer Pascall, Worksop, Notts A Bottle gardens are super-trendy, but few of the lovely pictures shown on Instagram reveal how they will look a year or two on. Plants with their origins in tropical rainforests love to grow in these humid bubbles, and leaves soon hit the sides or try to escape the tops. I’ve planted a few in my time and the biggest problem isn’t persuading plants in through a narrow top, but attempting to extract everything at replanting time. Your question has encouraged me to haul a huge carboy of wizened plants from under my desk for a…

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com I HAVE nearly completed my route around the estate leaving posies of flowers on doorsteps. One lady asked if I was the ‘phantom sweet pea delivery girl’. Some households have had two or more posies. The cutting flowers are used in mixed country bouquets for all sorts of reasons to give people pleasure. I grow drying flowers like statice and clary so people have something to keep. They cost only pence to me for the seeds, ribbon and flower sleeves so it is no problem and enjoyable to do. So far this week, I have been out with a few bunches of sweet peas,…

EVERY season has its staple chores and right now, we are busy raking up fallen leaves. These are the cornerstone of leaf mould, one of nature’s greatest soil enrichers, so it makes sense to collect them while you can and stash them away for a couple of years while they break down before use. Collecting fallen leaves also removes them from hard surfaces where they become dangerous and slippery as they degrade and get wet, and from the lawn where they can cause yellowing of grass and harbour pests and other problems. Deciduous leaves have different properties and decompose at differing rates. The quickest and best are beech, oak and hornbeam. Thicker leaves such as sycamore, walnut and those in the chestnut family take longer to break down, though you…

WILD scabious, with their compact heads of soft blue and mauve petals, are a wonderful source of nectar for a wide range of insects. We all want to do our bit to help our native insects (as well as the birds and other creatures they bring into our gardens after them) so this week we are giving away a cultivated variety with flowerheads in a range of shades. Scabious ‘Tall Double Mixed’ produce perfect pincushion blooms in a variety of colours, from gentle mauve to dark Burgundy, that sway elegantly on sturdy stems that can reach 36in (90cm) tall. You can sow them now in full sun or light shade and nurture the seedlings through winter, fleecing or covering with a cloche during prolonged freezing spells. Alternatively, save the seeds…

I’VE been captivated by one plant for months – the rusty foxglove or Digitalis ferruginea. The bees have been on it for months, because the slender flower spike is more than 5ft (1.5m) tall. I’ve tried to count the small apricot-brown flowers, but with little luck, because they’re tightly packed round the stem. There are about 10 flowers set around a 2in (5cm) length and more than 3ft (90cm) of stem is covered in flowers. I estimate that there are more than 100 flowers, and the top ones are still providing nectar and pollen for bees and wasps. This foxglove’s been in flower for four months and takes up little space. Digitalis ferruginea grows naturally in a wide area of Europe, and it’s found in Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey and Lebanon.…

WHAT you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts, and that’s almost always the case with the miniature floristry cyclamen that now crowd inside the covered area of nurseries and garden centres. These long-flowering bedding plants are a treat that I always look forward to as they carry far more flowers, and for longer, than the truly hardy autumn cyclamen (C. hederifolium). And while they won’t naturalise into saucer-sized corms under shrubs and in borders, they are brilliant at brightening pots and keeping winter-flowering violas company right up until bulbs rise in early spring. Just as when choosing a cantaloupe melon, there’s an art to buying the best. Like all bedding flowers, ‘Miracle’ cyclamen (as they’re commercially known) come in a range of colours, from pearlescent-white to candyfloss…