Innholdsfortegnelse for 20-Nov-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“With just over a month to go before Christmas, I wonder how many of you are thinking of making or creating gifts for friends and family from the garden? This year, I’ve made gin with sloes picked from a nearby field and decanted into small bottles, whilst my fiancée Gill has made chutney from our apples (sadly not our toms, as the crop was awful). Gill is a natural at houseplants, and will also be potting up cuttings of her various streptocarpus to give away. Have a think about what you could give from the garden. It promotes what we do, and it’s environmentally sound. Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

WITH the Government poised to ban peat by 2024 and TV gardener Monty Don recently describing peat harvesting as ‘an act of eco-vandalism’, demand for peat-free compost is set to go through the roof. Most current peat-frees contain ingredients such as bark, coir, wood fibre or composted green waste, but there isn’t enough to meet demand (AG, 23 October), leaving the industry in a race to find novel materials to replace the 2.3million cubic metres of peat used by UK horticulture every year. Paludiculture, where sphagnum moss is commercially grown, is being hailed as an eco-friendly alternative to digging-up peat bogs. Garden expert and AG columnist Peter Seabrook said he has seen the technique in action on reflooded, cut-away bogs on the Dutch-German border, with sphagnum-planted areas ‘annually recovering a…

NORMALLY, I wait until all the leaves have fallen before setting about winter-digging the vegetable plot. Where deciduous leaves cover dug surfaces, they stay wet and do not fully gain from the freezing and thawing, wetting and drying that breaks down clods to produce a lovely friable structure for sowing and planting in spring. Last summer and early autumn, the delayed flower shows soaked up weeks of my time, and my vegetable plot became an overgrown disgrace. I can’t wait to bury these shambles and have a pristine start to the new gardeneing year. The sweet pea trench has been dug, normally completed in August, and soil is settling to allow planting under cloches before Christmas. I have always autumn-sown sweet peas in the soil where they are to grow…

I DO a fair few gardening talks and my favourite one is about the insects in my organic garden. As someone who doesn’t use any chemical props at all, the gardeners I speak to are often surprised to hear that the insecticide they’ve used to kill their aphids is also killing their ladybird adults, ladybird larvae, and lacewing and hoverfly larvae. I point out two other things as well. Darwin’s theory, about natural selection, means that it’s the aphids with chemical resistance that survive. Given that they produce identical clones, their offspring also have resistance to that chemical. I also point out that fine chemical sprays enter our lungs and get pumped around our bodies. And those chemicals can stay with us. I have handled chemicals in my time. During…

■ From AG 28 November The rolling thing IN the Book of Isaiah there is the passage ‘…they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.’ The prophet was a good observer of nature, for then, as today, there are many kinds of ‘rolling things’, or tumbleweeds, in areas of steppe or desert. The typical tumbleweed has stems that form a rough sphere, and its principle is that when its seeds are ripe the stems become light and hard, and the whole plant, becoming detached from the soil, is blown before the wind, shedding seeds as it goes. The ‘rolling thing’ of Isaiah is probably Anastatica hierochuntica, a member of the mustard family.…

Q This has been my first year with a greenhouse and I’ve enjoyed raising plants for the garden and growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Should I wash it down now or in the spring, and is there anything I can grow in the winter? It is unheated. Robert Pocock, Cardiff A A greenhouse quickly becomes the headquarters of a keen gardener and I think of mine as the powerhouse of the whole plot. Sadly, our 17x10ft (5x3m) wooden-framed greenhouse is coming to the end of its days. Second-hand 23 years ago, it has served at least two owners well and I hope to repurpose the old brick base for a new structure next year. Until then, and although unheated and with gaps, it will spend a final winter providing shelter…

THE slightest horticultural inaccuracy in a TV box set or movie and some gardeners are picking nits quicker than a quibbling high-horse can crunch a carrot. Not me – I wouldn’t stoop to such trifling. But, as you’ve brought it up… there were those Modern English shrub roses in the The Dig, a film about the Sutton Hoo hoard, set decades before genius rose breeder David Austen had sown the original seeds. And who wasn’t amazed by the time-travelling grey squirrels that set the dial back by 1,800 summers on their Tardis to feed David Morrissey and Zoe Wanamaker in Sky’s Roman invasion epic Britannia (my latest binge-box set, btw). But these are such small faux pas. And frankly, while I noticed them, they didn’t bother me as I’d rather…

AS autumn advances and the leaves fall from the trees leaving their skeletons bare, it is time to think about pruning. The dormant season between now and late February is when we should be out there cutting back those trees and shrubs that need a trim. Most deciduous varieties, including free-standing apples and pears, roses, fruit bushes and summer-flowering ornamental shrubs are given a trim now. It keeps them in shape, improves fruiting and flowering and also offers the gardener the opportunity to give them a once-over and make sure they are healthy. Pruning can seem daunting to the new gardener, but by following a few simple tips you can remove most of the worry. Always start with sharp, clean tools that are adequate for the job. Secateurs are ideal…

BY now many parts of the UK should have experienced their first frost of winter, which is the cue to take the next step with your dahlia tubers to see them safely through winter. They should be left alone until their leaves have been blackened by frost and then you can either lift, dry and overwinter their tubers undercover or, if your soil drains well and your garden is sheltered, leave them in the soil. If you decide to do the latter, give the tubers as much protection as possible with a generous layer of mulch. Whether you lift or leave, reduce the top growth to around 4in (10cm) of the soil. Don’t remove old stems completely as the plant needs them for when it ends out new shoots next…

AT the time of writing the temperatures are still well above freezing and our tender summer bedding is still pushing out one or two flowers. It is past its best though, so the time has come to remove and compost those that are too far gone, and salvage the plants that may be able to survive through winter undercover. This seems especially important this year, with the costs of compost and plants said to be increasing over the coming months. I potted up a flourishing trailing lobelia and a pelargonium, both grown from plug plants in spring. They will spend the winter in the frost-free greenhouse and hopefully survive and return to the garden next year. A brachyscome and trailing petunia were destined for the compost but the penstemon that…

AS well as being a great time to plant rhubarb, November is your cue to lift and divide poorly performing clumps. Rhubarb thrives in cool, moist summers, and clumps will happily yield for years (if not decades) when properly looked after. Congestion is the main issue – thin, weak stems and the production of flower spikes are signs that your plants are due for division. This process allows you to slice off and replant the vigorous outer (and younger) pieces and throw away the old middle part of the clump. Now, when plants are dormant, is the ideal time – see the panel below for my guide to lifting and dividing. Cultivation and care Even though clumps are vigorous, overharvesting will eventually weaken plants. Most varieties are happy to have…

This week it’s: Evergreen shrubs Plants that come into their own during winter IN most gardens, evergreens are limited to shrubs such as camellias, azaleas, laurels and box, but there are so many others out there. Some evergreens produce stunning flowers as well, while others rely on their decorative leaves to grab our attention. These plants come into their own in winter, when deciduous plants have shed their leaves. They provide brilliant touches of winter colour but, with careful choosing and siting, they can provide so much more. Let’s look at some of the stories surrounding them. ■ Any plant with sempervirens for its Latin species name – such as box (Buxus sempervirens, see below) – will be evergreen. The word is a marriage of semper and viridis (‘forever’ and…

Star letter Peat-free compost conundrum I HAVE been making 30 hanging baskets for the past ten years with peat-based composts for friends, neighbours, and myself (may I say, not for gain). Come 2022, we have been given to understand that peat compost will not be sold. As we all know, peat-free compost dries out quicker, and I am looking for ways and advice about what I should do. At the moment when making the baskets up, I use water storing gel, also all-purpose release plant food pellets, even doing that I have told my folks to water each day and feed once a week. I have been reading all what has been said about peat-free compost. Myself, I am not an expert in gardening but would like as much advice…

HELLEBORUS niger, also known as Christmas or Lenten roses, are one of the earliest and most reliable of spring flowers. Sturdy perennials, they grow to be sizeable plants with innumerable hybrids, so they flower in a stunning range of colours and styles, from deepest maroon to the most delicate cream and white. I wouldn’t be without them, not just because of their glorious colors but because they are so undemanding. They flower for ages and are happy in most soils as long as their spot is fertile, well-drained and slightly shaded (pale green stinking hellebore – Helleborus foetidus – will also grow in deep shade). Once established, all they need is regular mulching to keep their soil fertile and moist, and the removal of their old leaves in winter to…

A ONCE-SUNNY plot can be turned into a shady stagnant box as the years pass and a hedge becomes overgrown. However, this may go unnoticed until the garden changes hands, and then the temptation to new hands is to have it ripped out and replaced by a fence. Yet you can save the monetary cost and the ecological expense by renovating your hedge. The wonderful thing about hedges is that they are made (well, hopefully) from plants that will take regular hard cutting back and will grow again from old wood. Thus, you can cut down a hedge to short stubs, or even mere stumps, and almost guarantee that it will come back in spring with a profusion of new shoots. That’s assuming this is done in winter and the…

IT’S impossible not to be awed by the exotic, the rare and the unseasonal blooms of forced bulbs and their teasing glimpse of spring. With flowering times from late December through to February, the rich colours and scents of bulbs are guaranteed to inspire hope in the dark days of midwinter. The scarcity of flower colour outdoors at this time of the year makes the act of bringing bulbs into bloom early even more magical. And by having them indoors it’s a fantastic opportunity to admire their unfurling up close and personal. Vernalisation Forcing bulbs simply means coaxing them into growth earlier than they would naturally flower. For some, this means giving them an early, short, sharp dose of cold and dark, tricking them into thinking it’s winter. Technically, this…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week How do I protect a potted magnolia? Q I bought a Magnolia ‘Sunrise’ in March this year and put it into a pot. Do I need to protect it over winter? Gillian Aykroyd, Norfolk A Magnolia ‘Sunrise’ is a fully hardy shrub, so it shouldn’t need any frost protection. However, although you don’t need to find a frost-free spot for the pot, if you can find some shelter up against a wall or fence this will help a lot. But there are two other things worth considering before assuming everything will be OK. The first is that plants in pots are always more vulnerable to cold weather than those in the soil. This is because the compost in pots is…

ALTHOUGH we tend to view a lawn as a flat green space that needs a lot of work to look good, this underestimates its value because the average lawn makes a significant contribution to both the garden and the environment. The lawn area is often the largest single feature in a garden and it acts to complement the colourful beds and borders, giving the eye of the viewer a rest, but also linking different elements together in the way a carpet acts indoors. It provides an open space for play and relaxation but, perhaps more importantly, a healthy lawn of 232 square metres of lawn (just smaller in area than a tennis court) produces enough oxygen on its own to meet the daily requirements of a family of four, according…

When we moved into our home,the garden was a state,But knowing very little we beganto work on it till late.The only things growing, wereweeds and a small tree,But over time with perseverance,plants sprang from bended knee. The years passed our garden grew…We had some kids, and they grew too!Painted fences, dug and gravelled,Bought new plants back from our travels. At last this garden has become our delight,it doesn’t now look such a fright.Looking back it was a muddy mess,Something now I can confess. Progress not perfection is whatI always say,I’m now filled with pride, with ourachievements along the way! Please note, prize monies will be sent approx 10 weeks after publication…