Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Feb-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“Gardening is a never-ending journey: always new things to discover, and every year I aim to try something new. Having successully replanted two climbing roses last year, I am going to propagate another two by hardwood cuttings, as Ruth details on page 7. Not all of us have a big garden and I don’t plant half the veg I would like, as sun-friendly space is at a premium, but I will be trying carrots for the first time as I can sow these in a vacated border shortly after the potato harvest in July. Remember, gardeners – have the courage to fail on your journey, for through failure often comes learning.” Contact us: Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 Editorial: 0330 3903732 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Advertising: 0330 3906566…

TRIBUTES have poured in from all corners of the horticultural world following the death of Peter Seabrook, gardening’s father figure. Well-known industry figures and AG readers alike reacted to his sudden death with shock and sadness. He died at home on Friday, January 14 aged 86, following a suspected heart attack. Everyone agreed that his life ended in the way he would have wanted – after a day’s work at his beloved RHS garden at Hyde Hall near Chelmsford while working hard on plans for his display at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Peter John Seabrook was born into a farming family in 1935. An Essex lad, his fingers started greening up at the age of four, encouraged by his father and grandfather who were both men of the soil…

ORNAMENTAL sages, or Salvias, are one of the most delightful plants in the garden. They come in a range of colours, from deepest purple to jaunty red-and-white flowered ‘Hotlips’, and are a must-have plant if you want to attract bees and other pollinators to your patch. There are many varieties of Salvia, from annuals such as Salvia farinacea, S. horminum and S. splendens that are composted at the end of summer, to hardy perennials such as S. nemorosa and the tender Salvia greggii that will return each year but may need winter protection in cold spots. And let’s not forget broad-leaved culinary Salvia officinalis that grows in robust shrub form and is an essential flavouring in the kitchen. This week’s free seeds are for ‘Blaze of Fire’, a member of the…

IF you’re lucky enough to have a greenhouse, make sure it’s full of tangy tomatoes all summer. As well as a salad and sauce essential, tomatoes are packed with lycopene, which is known to help fight cancer and heart disease. My retired smallholder parents grew thousands of glasshouse tomatoes each year, and this is where I cut my horticultural teeth. Now is the time to sow to ensure success. Although you can buy plants from garden centres, many of us sow toms because it offers the widest selection of varieties. Germination is strong and swift: sow eight-10 seeds on the surface of a 31/2in (9cm) pot of well-watered seed compost, top with vermiculite and place in a well-lit propagator at 18-22°C (64-72°F). Multi-directional light is vital to deter leggy growth.…

THERE are two main kinds of dogwoods (Cornus), and while both are beautiful they are very different. Flowering dogwoods make fine small deciduous trees, with showy pink or white flowers and fiery yellow or crimson autumn leaf colour. Red-osier or red-twig dogwoods, on the other hand, are deciduous shrubs grown mainly for their bright and brilliant winter twigs that usually come in shades of orange to bright-red to deep-crimson. The twigs can also be yellow, or even almost black, and make a fine winter feature, especially in the snow. “They also bring us white spring flowers” Red-twig dogwoods are easy to look after and are among the toughest shrubs for winter colour in small and large gardens. They can be kept to 3ft (90cm) in height by annual pruning or…

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) Steve Bradley MA MHort (RHS) has written (or co-written) over 40 gardening books, including Propagation Basics, The Pruner’s Bible, The Ground Force Workbook and What’s Wrong With My Plant? He is resident expert on BBC Radio Kent, Sussex and Surrey, and he has built medal-winning gardens at both Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace. ANCIENT wisdom tells us that there are certain circumstances when you can’t replace one type of plant with the same type in the same spot because the new plant will struggle and may die. This is referred to by a number of names, such as rose-replant disease, rose sickness, soil sickness or, in the case of apples, SARD (specific apple…

WHENEVER I start a kitchen garden or allotment, willow is among the first things I plant. Its abundant crops of pliable stems are so useful for weaving into wigwams and plant supports. But that’s not the only use for this remarkable plant. As anyone who has wielded a pruning saw knows, trees and shrubs consist of two types of wood: hard ‘heartwood’ in the centre, and soft easily sawn ‘sapwood’ that makes up the branches and twigs. Heartwood creates a frame that keeps the leafy and blossoming parts of the plants aloft. Although this outer stuff lacks strength, it’s packed with plant hormones and goodness that’s easily returned to the soil as a chipped mulch. This is especially true of coppiced willow that’s cut to the ground every one-three years,…

COMPOST is a hot topic thanks to the Government’s public consultation regarding the ban on peat in gardening, which will run until March 18. Stepping aside from that for a moment, we often hear from AG readers that there is so much choice of compost for sale (and inadequate signage around it) they find it hard to choose the product they want or need. Further confusion arises with the difference between compost, soil improvers and mulches, so basically, composts are for growing while soil improvers and mulches boost and protect your soil. Having said that, homemade compost is a great mulch and soil feeder as well as the perfect medium for germinating and growing. Here at AG we urge everyone to make their own if they can. Even a small…

BUDDLEJA is often called ‘butterfly bush’ and for good reason. In summer you will find that their glorious racemes of flowers in a multitude of shades from white to deepest purple, are smothered in butterflies. Commas, peacocks, red admirals and painted ladies are usually the main feeders, but you will also see blues and cabbage whites among their number as well as bees and hoverflies. Buddlejas are generally small to medium-sized shrubs, but if left unpruned they quickly get out of hand and can become too big and straggly, their flowers held well above head height on long bare stems (as is commonly seen along railway sidings). The most common variety of the plant is Buddleja davidii, and to keep them healthy and shapely, hard prune them now, before they…

STICKY leaves are real giveaways on houseplants and in the greenhouse, especially at this time of year. Likewise, outdoors almost all plants (even whole gardens) can become sticky, particularly if underneath a lime tree. It is almost certainly a sign of critters – either higher up on the plant or on another overhead – sucking sap in vast quantities. Sap is not designed for insects but for plants. Thus, most sap-suckers (which don’t suck but just pierce cell walls when sap pressure pushes it into them) do not want the watery sugary part, so after taking their needs it shoots straight through them. This then falls on everything below and nearby. Some other critters, including bees, wasps and butterflies, consume this ‘honeydew’ – but much just turns black with mould.…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week How can we beat our moss menace? Q We have a large rural garden with a large lawn that is being taken over by moss. Is there a good solution, other than scarifying and killing the invading moss? Anne Bull, Ledbury, Herefordshire A Moss tends to be a problem on lawns that are shaded for a good part of the day, and on lawns where drainage is poor due to compaction. A moss killer will give you a short-term fix, though it may look unsightly for a few weeks. The best thing to do is to find out why the moss is becoming established and change the prevailing conditions. If shade is the problem, improving light levels over the…

AN open letter, signed by over 40 leading names in the garden and horticultural world, asking for an open debate on the use of peat in gardens and commercial horticulture, was put into the public domain just before last Christmas (you can view it on gardenforum.com). It was published at the same time as the Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its 12-week consultative document planning to phase out the use of peat in the amateur horticulture sector by the end of this Parliament (see AG News, 22 Jan). This letter accepted peat should not be used for soil improvement, but made the case for sphagnum moss peat from raised bogs to continue to be used for seed, cuttings and small pot plant growing. Environment Minister…

FEBRUARY is an exciting month for me. The garden is stirring once again and the early flowers really lift my spirits. Joy courses through my very being! However, early flowers are far more than window dressing for our native bumblebees – they’re lifesavers. So if your garden is short on spring flowers, now is the time to go in search of crocus, hellebores, pulmonarias, muscari and primroses. The flowers need to be simply shaped and easily accessible, because early flying bumblebees generally have shorter tongues. You may have seen a queen bumblebee foraging in your garden already, because queens can fly once daytime temperatures get above 10°C/50°F. These hardy bees have furry coats and are able to rev up their flight muscles chemically. In fact, five species of bumblebee are…

This week it’s: Sensory plants We look at how plants help us connect with nature SENSORY gardens are all about stimulating and engaging with the five basic senses: sight, smell, sound, touch and taste. They allow you to connect with nature, and encourage you to become more aware of your surroundings. They’re not just for people with impaired senses (blindness, deafness and so on); experts claim that spending time in a sensory garden can help enhance one’s sense of wellbeing, as well as reduce stress and calm the mind. A sensory garden could have a theme, such as being laid out to stimulate individual senses at different times. Or it could be multi-sensory, engaging multiple senses at once. Let’s have a look at how you can indulge in ‘sensory gardening’!…

Q Our apple trees have not been pruned for years and have grown into thickets. They are covered in blossom and fruit well (often every other year), but I feel we should be taking some kind of action. Where do we start? Veronica Chapman, Cannock, Staffordshire A Untended apple trees are a thing of beauty, wreathed in spring blossom, laden with fruit and fantastic for wildlife. Pollinating insects visit for nectar, birds take many aphids and caterpillars, especially when feeding their chicks, and fallen fruit sustains a wide range of birds during winter. So unless you are keen to improve the bearing and quality of fruit, don’t feel you have some kind of obligation to prune just for the sake of it. However, if the trees are only cropping every…

Birthday black gold! Star letter MY HUSBAND bought me two tonnes of top soil for my birthday in December. The faces of the delivery men were a picture, they were concerned apparently I might be angry my partner had given me this as a birthday present, I assured them I was delighted. Can you tell me, how do I improve the soil so that I can grow cut flowers this summer? I don’t have access to a compost heap so what else can I use and should I add some fertiliser? Gritt Greenwood Wendy says Our resident expert, John Negus, says… “Hopefully, the topsoil in question is organically rich and well-endowed with humus, in which case there is no need to augment it with further organic matter or fertiliser to…