Innholdsfortegnelse for 3-Sep-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“The drought had a punishing effect on our gardens and taught me an important lesson about water conservation. I have to confess to being a former water-waster. Unlike our gardening editor Ruth Hayes, who has been preaching water wisdom for some time, I practised no conservation at all. Once used, the water went down the plug hole. But as the drought began to bite, Ruth’s wise words came back to me – and I started keeping bowls in sinks and realised how much water could be saved this way. It’s funny how much pleasure you can have watering the garden with water that would have been thrown away. And it saves money. Perhaps we should all be doing this?” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732…

ONE easy seed to sow that repays with boundless colour and beauty is Nigella damascene, or love in a mist. This year we had a beautiful patch of sky-blue blooms that sprung up from one of last year’s forgotten sowings. Blue is the traditional colour of the flowers but this week’s free seeds are for mixed shades. ‘Persian Jewels’ flower in white and shades of blue, pink and mauve. They grow to a height of 18in (45cm) and the blooms are set off to their best advantage by delicate foliage. Hardy annuals, they can be sown now or you can wait until next spring. Autumn-sown plants have time to get established before the first frosts and will grow and flower earlier than those sown in spring, so if you sow…

This week it’s: Organic September! We take a close look at organic food THE modern organics movement started when a few people, more than 50 years ago, realised the impact we were making on the environment. Everything from industrial pollution to overuse of pesticides in farming came under scrutiny. Gardeners (who, despite much of what has been written about over the years, actually play a minuscule part of the environmental catastrophe going on around us) started to reduce chemical use. Peat became a huge issue, and the argument has now evolved into issues surrounding single-use plastic. Several years ago, the Soil Association designated the month of September as ‘Organic’ month, to raise awareness of the many benefits of organic food and farming. So, let’s take a look at this huge…

BLUEBERRIES are not only extremely tasty, but they have also been dubbed one of the best ‘super fruits’. They contain antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that are claimed to have great health benefits, and are at their best picked straight from the plant rather than shipped halfway round the world. Acid lovers While blueberries are widely available and very popular to grow at home, wonderful as they are, the problem is that these plants have very specific growing requirements. In order to thrive and crop well, they must have acidic soil/compost conditions and a pH between 4.5 and 5.5. pH problems As most gardens in Britain have neutral to alkaline soil with a pH much higher than 5.5, very few are suitable without some help. Changing the pH of the soil…

WHO says spring and summer are the best and busiest time of the gardening year? Hopefully no one, because while they may be the most colourful, it’s largely down to the work that we all put in through autumn and winter. We are now at the tail end of summer and looking forward to the golden days of ‘the fall’. The weather may not be as good and the days are shorter but I always think these weeks carry a huge sense of anticipation around with them. We are in the season of clearing and planning, when we can clear the decks and start again if necessary, or add to and alter what we have got. I have several tasks already pencilled in for the coming weeks, starting with improving…

THIS summer has proved, if ever proof was needed, that plants are tough cookies. No rain for months and still many of them flourished, kept alive (in our garden at least) by meagre supplies of water harvested from washing up bowls, showers and baths. Some of the most resilient varieties are hardy annuals, plants that grow, flower, set seed and die in one 12-month cycle, and early autumn is a good time to sow them. Get them in the ground now and they will either start to grow, or lie dormant for winter, before growing strongly early next spring and flowering next summer. You can then sow a second batch of seeds next spring, which will flower later than their autumn-started peers giving you a longer period of flowering. The…

LILIES are summer-flowering hardy bulbs with colourful, sometimes flamboyant, often fragrant flowers. Each bulb is made up of a large cluster of fleshy scales from the centre of which grows one stem that can reach anything from 9in-8ft (23cm-2.4m) in height. In some lilies roots develop at the base of the bulb (basal rooting), but in most lilies roots develop from the base and from the part of the stem that remains below ground (stem rooting). Fragrant flowers Each flower is trumpet-shaped, funnel-shaped or bowl-shaped with six petals. Sometimes the petals are swept back to show off the striped or speckled interior. In some lilies each stem carries just one flower, while at the other extreme large numbers of flowers may open over several weeks. The flowers are usually fragrant…

This word search comprises words associated with organic gardening. They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate words may appear in the grid, but there is only one correct solution. After the listed words are found there are eight letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s KEYWORD. ORGANIC SEPTEMBER CARBON FOOTPRINT FOOD MILES BIOCIDES GREEN MULCH NATURE PEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION PROMOTION SEEDS SOIL ORGANIC SEPTEMBER CARBON FOOTPRINT FOOD MILES BIOCIDES GREEN MULCH NATURE PEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION PROMOTION SEEDS SOIL Future plc, publisher of Amateur Gardening, will collect your personal information solely to process your competition entry. KEYWORD TO WORD SEARCH 631 (30 July): KITTEN AND THE WINNER IS: XYXYXYX XYXYXYXYX, XYXYXYXYXYX,…

THE text message from Jan read “I’ve got news!”, which made me wonder if she’d discovered a rune-covered scroll explaining the meaning of life. But no, Jan’s news was that she’d installed a water butt to her shed. My first thought was to warn her that competition for the film rights would be cutthroat, but instead I replied, “Good on you!” Collecting rainwater at the back end of a drought might feel like closing the gate after the horse has bolted, but when it comes to making our gardens climate-change resilient you’ve got to start somewhere. I’ve been striving to do just that for some time. For example, I am an avid mulcher of composted stuff from the heap, as well as freshly cut prunings, leaves, twigs and spent flowers…

BORDERS will soon start to look pretty scrappy and drab over the next few weeks, so think about what you want to do next. Removing summer bedding and replacing it with autumn and spring varieties always helps cheer up the end of the year. Autumn bedding including primulas, violas and pansies and biennial wallflowers and sweet Willliams, is also sold as winter and spring bedding, and is an easy and economical way of brightening borders, patio containers and hanging baskets. It’s also time to start cutting back fading perennials to keep them neat and healthy, and don’t forget to clean their canes and supports afterwards.. The seedheads of tall perennials, such as sea holly and globe thistles, are worth leaving in place as they add winter interest and beauty, especially…

I EXPECT that this year’s drought has caused a lot of casualties in our gardens, with even some well established shrubs not reacting well to the prolonged heat and dryness. A simple, economic and effective way of safeguarding against loss is to propagate, and autumn is the season of the semi-ripe cutting, which uses this year’s new growth that has started to toughen up at the base, ready for winter. Taking semi-ripe cuttings is an excellent way of propagating shrubs and climbers, including ground cover plants such as Vinca major, climbers including passionflower, evergreen shrubs, woody herbs and hedging plants. I have taken cuttings from a berberis and cistus and while the cuttings will take time to mature, I am looking forward to adding the new plants to the garden…

ALTHOUGH I’m known for writing about flowers, I’m a big vegetable grower, too. This year, with rising prices, I’m making even more of an effort to put food on the table. I’ve always accepted that growing your own is swings and roundabouts. Some years you do well with certain things and in other years they fail. However, this year has been more like a roller coaster ride following a dry winter, a very cool spring and lots of cool June nights, often down as low as 3°C. The real disaster this year is my carrot crop! I’ve had some successes, too, though. These include ‘Hurst Greenshaft’ peas, various runner beans, beetroot, potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, sweet pepper and courgettes. The winter brassicas are growing well, as are the parsnips and leeks,…

What should I do with my ‘lost’ dahlias? Q I’ve just discovered some dahlia tubers still in the bags with sawdust as purchased earlier this year. They are shrivelled but fairly firm. Are there any ways I can rescue them so I can grow them next year in pots? Mark Lerigo (via email) A The best way to resuscitate your dahlia tubers which, amazingly, are still firm, is to set them one to a pot in multi-purpose compost. Water them in and position them outdoors in a warm, sunny place. Hopefully, if the tubers are not too desiccated, plants will form new roots and shoots will appear. Then, in October or early November, when night temperatures are hovering around freezing and dahlia leaves are slightly frost scorched, move your plants…