Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Nov-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“One of the things I love about gardening is the benefit we can all bring to the environment and the creatures we share our garden spaces with. I take pleasure in knowing that I’m doing my bit, making a positive difference – and I’m sure many of you feel the same way. The winter can be a tough time for birds, mammals and insects, but we can all make an effort now to help them and, by doing so, benefit the environment. Why not consider creating a wildlife-friendly area in your garden? Take the least plant-friendly patch and create something that will bring help and comfort to wildlife. As well as looking pretty, it will do a great deal of good.” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial:…

THE world’s largest garden wildlife survey returns in early 2023, when the 44th RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch takes place from January 27-29. Almost 700,000 people took part in the 2022 event, counting 11 million birds over the weekend. As well as being fun to take part in, the birdwatch helps give the RSPB a valuable snapshot of how our garden birds are doing. Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive, said: “The birds we see in our gardens, from our balconies, and in our parks, are a lively, colourful and endlessly fascinating part of all our lives, offering a real connection to the natural world. “With birds now facing so many challenges due to the nature and climate emergency, every count matters.” To take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch 2023,…

Top Tip Leave a few leaves to rot down on your borders. They will feed the soil and worms will take them down to improve its structure THE leaves are falling and yes, you might look at them littering the lawn and sigh over another job to be done, but think again. Those fallen leaves will provide one of the most useful substances available to gardeners. Leaf mould may not be particularly rich in nutrients, but it is an excellent soil improver and a top ingredient for seed and potting compost. Most leaves take around two years to rot down completely into leaf mould. Start collecting leaves as soon as they fall. Oak, beech and hornbeam make the best leaf mould, and thicker leaves including sycamore, horse and sweet chestnut,…

I HAD a very interesting question, following a talk to Monmouthshire’s Hardy Plant Society, or HPS. This friendly bunch are always welcoming and, if you’re not a member of the HPS, do think about joining. I joined in the early 1980s as a hard-up young mum, who struggled to afford flower seeds. I was attracted by the society’s seed exchange and you can still acquire seeds of choice plants for very little outlay. Local branches hold regular meetings, members sell unusual plants and they go on garden visits. There’s also a brilliant thrice-yearly journal, which I write for, and there are specialist plant groups such as peonies, hardy geraniums and snowdrops, among others. I’m so glad I joined, because I’ve met like-minded gardening people and many became long-term friends. Their…

What do I do with summer cuttings? Q I took cuttings of penstemons, carnations and erysimum during the summer. Is it safe to plant them out or should I keep them in the greenhouse until spring? Peter Clarke, Leicester A It would be safest to overwinter your cuttings in a cool greenhouse. Erysimum and carnations are quite hardy, but young plants are more vulnerable to winter weather than those that are well established. Penstemons are not reliably hardy, though their hardiness increases with every year they are outside. Although we have a few weeks left when roots may grow, dropping air temperatures, especially in the evening, are likely to affect top growth. Keep the compost just moist, enough to stop roots from drying out but not so much that there…

No: 087 It’s time for our just-for-fun puzzle – AG’s Garden Wall. This wall comprises 12 bricks in three courses. Each brick has a different word, or phrase on it. The first brick in each course, with BLOCK capitals, is cemented in place and cannot be moved. Just rearrange all the other bricks, so that the four words in each course of bricks are linked. There are three different connections to look for, one for each course. You may find that some words have more than one connection to other courses, but there is just one correct answer. You’ll either find this puzzle fiendishly difficult, or incredibly easy! Answers below. Hint: In one of the courses, the bricks are all connected with vegetables. Answers: CARROT = Workmanship, Training, Planet(all words…

THE autumn is very often the season when we decide to make changes to our gardens, either by adding new plants or creating new spaces. It’s an exciting prospect for any gardener, and one of the projects you might like to undertake over the next few weeks is the creation of one or two wildlife-friendly areas They need not be large expanses of garden – a tucked-away quiet corner behind a shed is ideal – but even hanging a couple of bird feeders and putting out food for the local hedgehogs will go a long way to helping nature. The autumn garden should be naturally rich in food and shelter for insects, birds and wildlife and you can keep it that way by letting berries grow on trees and in…

SUMMER may be done, but that doesn’t mean we now have to rely on supermarkets for fresh vegetables between now and the arrival of spring. An amazing number of varieties can be grown in greenhouses, mini greenhouses and kitchens through winter, and many of next year’s crops can be started off undercover too. This is especially important at a time when the cost of living crisis is sending the price of food skyrocketing. We have saved some of our summer growbags so we can grow winter salads in the same compost once the old plant material has been removed and the compost given a boost with fertiliser. Cut and come again and hardy lettuces will give you fresh leaves through winter, and it also seems a waste of space not…

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. Harvesting and best care Even though clumps are vigorous, overharvesting will eventually weaken plants. Most varieties are happy to…

GARDEN sieves and riddles are used to sift what you do want from what you don’t want, whether it be soil, compost or even larger seeds. They are a traditional means of doing this and date back hundreds of years, at least. Although the terms ‘sieve’ and ‘riddle’ are used interchangeably, there is a distinction between the two. Historically, a sieve has a pre-made mesh trapped between two pieces of wood, whereas a riddle is completely woven by hand, wire by wire. A third term, referring to these tools as ‘sifters’, is often an indication that the item has been manufactured in the USA. Past use In the days before bagged compost for sowing seed and potting plants, sieves and riddles were used mainly for sifting compost to remove stones…

THE days following the Christmas and New Year festivities can be quite dark and flat. Now is the time to brighten them up with some indoor scent and colour. Prepared bulbs of hyacinths, ‘Paperwhite’ narcissus and hippeastrum (amaryllis) can all be planted in pots early this month, then set aside in a cool, dark place and brought out in January to brighten things up. 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 several weeks before they usually do. Plant them in a loamy compost or, if their container has no holes, specially prepared bulb fibre. Tip pots without drainage holes on their side after…

TRAINING fruit to walls and fences can be relatively easy, provided you take your time and make each decision carefully, especially before pruning anything away. When done well, espaliers, fans or rows of sloping single-stemmed cordons look so attractive, even when bare – and then again, when in bloom, leaf and fruit. That’s multiple value. Plus, trained fruit is easier to cover against frosts and protect from critters. And with thinning, the very finest, largest fruits can be had. True, you need to thin those fruits, and prune shoots back both in summer and winter, but the effort is worthwhile. So don’t, then, fall at the first hurdle. Make sure whatever you’re training your plants to is up to the job. That means a strong-enough frame on strong-enough fixings to…

BIRCHES are small-to-medium-sized deciduous trees grown for their elegant shape, their often silvery-white bark, their early season catkins and their autumn foliage colour. Birch trees grow and develop a presence more quickly than most garden trees but are not as longlived as maples, oaks and other larger forest trees. They are ideal trees for small gardens. The bark of birch trees is often white, sometimes tinged with pink or pale coppery tones, and makes an attractive feature, especially in winter. On some varieties, the bark peels back to reveal bright-coloured bark below. Multi-stemmed plants, or three plants set very close together, create the most impressive winter impact. Autumn colour Yellow catkins hang from the bare branches early in the season. These are followed by small more or less diamond-shaped leaves…

This week it’s: Veg Pledge month! Find out more about veg for Veg Pledge month THE Veg Pledge, where you promise to avoid eating meat for a whole month, was started by Cancer Research UK. You can, of course, make the pledge at any time, but November is when most make the vow. Although I do eat meat, I have reduced my intake of it, and my favourite restaurant is purely vegan – it’s in the New Forest, name provided on application! Research suggests that following a diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes can lower your risk of cancer, and help to maintain a healthy weight and gastrointestinal system. In addition, reducing meat consumption has a positive impact on our planet. Preaching over! Let’s take a look at some…

Ahlia Stewart, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, says AG has renewed her love of her garden and all its wildlife. Her twin girls, aged 7, (who own their own binoculars) have written a poem and letter to say thanks for the wildlife and bird articles… WIN £20 Cuckoo, Cuckoo, I’ve not seen you, Cuckoo, Cuckoo, please stay alive. And beware of forest fires. Cuckoo, cuckoo, stay around for long, Cuckoo, cuckoo, we love your beautiful song. Cuckoo, cuckoo, I’d like to help you. But I don’t know how to. Please note, prize monies will be sent approx 10 weeks after publication…

AS I manhandled the listless patient across the tarmac, I felt like a doctor in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Sure, I was handsome, caring and sensitive – but I was tough, too. Anyone who dared to stand between me and my emergency vehicle was ‘a short ride from hospital’. I’d even take them there myself. The patient was heavy, and as I lifted their delicate frame into the car, bits were (alarmingly) coming off in my hands. One thing was certain: it was going to take everything I had (and more) if my sister-in-law’s sickly mistletoe cactus was going to pull through. Jo had raised the alarm about the cactus after diagnosing that it had root-rot. This disease is prevalent on trailing houseplants when light levels drop in autumn…