Innholdsfortegnelse for 23-Jul-2022 i Amateur Gardening

ONE of TV’s most popular gardening experts, Terry Walton, is encouraging AG readers to reduce their reliance on weedkillers and other pesticides to protect the environment. The renowned horticulturist has teamed up with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s PestSmart project to call on fellow gardeners to introduce simple changes to their gardening habits to reduce pesticide run-off into waterways. Natural approaches to pest control include companion planting, where specific plants are grown to deter pests and attract predators, creating wild corners of the garden to encourage natural predators and using homemade vinegar sprays which dry out weeds. They harm people, water and wildlife Terry has shared his approach to organic gardening on the PestSmart website, which Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water launched as a go-to hub of information and resources for the…

IT’S the ultimate no-brainer: pay £3 per punnet for currants, or buy a bush for less than a tenner to give you 20 punnets per year for 15 years? Let’s think about that for a millisecond… Why anyone buys currants by the punnet is beyond me. Established bushes yield roughly 4kg (9lb) of fruit per year, plus the plants are self-fertile, easy to maintain and trouble-free. Modern breeding gives us big bud mite resistance in blackcurrants such as ‘Foxendown’, extra-long strigs in redcurrants like ‘Redpoll’, and many attributes in between – mildew resistance and frost-resistant flowers being two more to look for. Also, let’s not forget that you can buy white currants and pink currants, too; Ribes is a diverse genus! “Growing them is the ultimate no-brainer” Cultivation methods Growing…

THERE are some plants that are really difficult to grow from seeds or cuttings. These tend to be the most expensive ones you see at shows, in catalogues or in garden centres. Professional growers and very keen gardeners can overcome some of the difficulties using specialised techniques and equipment, such as grafting and mist propagation, or high-tech methods like micro-propagation under sterile laboratory conditions. Ancient Chinese technique Most gardeners do not have access to these facilities, or the training and skills involved, but this does not mean you have to give up propagating those plants. Instead, it is worth looking back in time to a technique that has been practised for over 4,000 years. Records show that air layering has been used as a propagation method for many years in…

NEW potatoes are easy! You plant sets of early (fast-to-crop) varieties and then, two to three months later, you dig up new potatoes and eat them. Simple. However, if you want potatoes throughout the rest of the year, it’s worth taking care to harvest them in their best condition for storage. Now you could store earlies – it’s just that these have been bred for rapid (albeit smaller) harvests. Second-earlies produce more crops, taking a little longer; most keep quite well and are best dug as their leaves die down. Maincrop varieties are bred for storage and the highest yields, but must be kept growing well into September to achieve that. However, if blight threatens, or slugs become too voracious, it may be better to lift the crop sooner rather…

AS we hit those long hot days at the peak of summer, now is the perfect opportunity to generate some heat in the flower garden and feed our senses with a rich palette of warm colours. Nature knows what it’s doing with its seasonal tones – the intensity of the hottest of summer flower colours is perfect for soaking up bright sunshine and illuminating our borders and pots as they absorb all the available light. There’s a richness to summer yellows that makes them seem opulent and golden, compared to the first gentle yellows of spring. Meanwhile, warmer reds and oranges are seeping into garden colour schemes and many of the taller, prairie-style perennials are aiming for the sun and fighting for pole position to attract the myriad pollinators. Colours…

Q Inspired by alstroemeria flowers in florists, I have tried planting them the garden. Some arrived as tubers and others as plants, both small and large, in pots. However, they stop flowering and fail to return the next year. Why is this? Ella Durban, Cambridge AThere are many long-stemmed cultivars of alstroemeria grown under glass as cut flowers. Known as Peruvian lilies, their exotic-looking blooms are often bicoloured, decorated by contrasting spots and stripes, and have a long vase life. Sturdier, shorter-growing varieties have been bred for planting in borders, where they usually delight their owners by flowering for long periods from summer into autumn. The wild species originate from South American mountain scree and grasslands, and this is reflected in their love of well-draining soil. With their fleshy roots,…

THE most sensible option is to plan your garden as a whole rather than area-by-area so you get a seamless run of colour and interest through all four seasons. Focus on the gaps and their position in the borders, see what is growing around them and plan your plants according to their flowering period and height (shortest at the front, tallest at the back/centre). Think about when plants should be planted or sown each year (annuals in spring, spring bulbs in autumn, perennials planted in spring and autumn when the soil is warm and damp etc) so that you can start creating your seamless palette straight away. However, this isn’t much use halfway through summer when it is too hot and dry to add new plants to the garden without…

POTENTILLAS are a very mixed bunch, and there are hundreds of them, but many are excellent garden plants. What they have in common is a five-petal flower structure, a little like the flowers of single roses but smaller, about 1in-3in (2.5cm-7.5cm) across. Beyond that, they can be split into three main groups. The most widely grown are the shrubby types, varieties of Potentilla fruticosa. These make very cold-hardy, twiggy deciduous shrubs, usually of small to medium height, that carry a succession of flowers from late spring to late autumn, depending on the variety. Yellow is the most common colour for the flowers, but orange, red, pink and white flowers are also available. Five fingers The foliage is split into five fingers, giving rise to the common name of cinquefoil, and…

SOMETIMES we think how gratifying it would be if our plants would just keep on flowering. Some plants do, in fact, bloom continuously; they mostly come from the tropics and need a heated greenhouse. Others that are hardy flower for sufficient months on end to earn the Latin epithet semperflorens, which means always in flower. When continuous-flowering roses were first introduced from China in the late 18th century, it was not surprising that one of them should have been named Rosa chinensis ‘Semperflorens’. This was Slater’s crimson China, a monthly rose with a truly year-round season if given high enough temperatures to keep it flowering. It was an important parent of Noisette and Bourbon roses and from them came our modern roses, including those grown under glass for year-round flowers.…

ACROSS 1 Centifolias, moss and China – are these! (5) 3 Green and black – are these! (5) 7 The flowering quince genus (11) 8 A plant (or a human, for that matter) originating from one of the thousand or so islands in the central and southern Pacific, is said to be this! (10) 9 Genus of temperate and sub-tropical ferns, known as the chain ferns (10) 13 A plant that is easy to grow, with little in the way of requirements, is said to be this (11) 14 See 6 down 15 Alloy of iron and carbon, as in Hydrangea macrophylla Black _____ Series (5) DOWN 1 Put the top back on a bottle of fertiliser, for example (5) 2 Roll elms? Had better ask the person operating a…

A boost for fundraising LIKE many gardeners I have “collected” the free seeds I receive with the magazine, not always having space to grow them. This year I grew many of the packets and sold the plants at a sale on my drive. I made £200 which I divided between the Alzheimer’s Society and the Frailty and Dementia Ward at our local hospital. Thank you for helping really deserving causes. Steph Hall Wendy says Well done Steph for growing on your spare packets. Winning compost is too pricey PHEW, gardening will be getting more expensive if we have to follow the rules. Dobbies new Peat-free John Innes 1, 2 and 3 won the inaugural prize for the sustainability product at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Good news and bad news. The…