Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-Dec-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“I wish you all a truly happy Christmas. This has been a tough year for many, with the war in Ukraine, the passing of our Queen and the massive rise in the cost of living. You may feel that there is not much to celebrate, but just go out into the garden and even at this time of year, there will be nature and life in abundance, even if it is hidden or quietly sleeping under the fallen leaves and garden debris you piled up to provide a winter home. Whatever madness goes on around us, the garden is our sanctuary; a place we have created in concert with nature, to share with wildlife. So take time out after mince pies and prosecco, step into the garden, and enjoy nature.”…

ALTHOUGH winter is the time to give many deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers a trim, the mild autumn and promise of an earlier spring is prompting many plants to modify their behaviour. Some plants I usually trim in January, but this year I’m giving them an earlier prune to hopefully avoid causing them to lose lots of sap from their wounds should they start to shoot early, as this would weaken them and make them vulnerable to pests and disease. Our grape vine is a key example of a climber that needs a hard prune when dormant, ideally before or just after the new year, so it will grow well next year without losing lots of ‘juice’ this season. Acers are another tree that need pruning in early winter before…

THIS Christmas we are filling your stockings with two packs of fabulous free seeds, a charming aquilegia and a bright, summer flowering mix of seeds that were often seen growing wild in cornfields. Aquilegia ‘Biedermeier Mixed’ are beautiful, spring-flowering hardy perennials that produce sweet bonnet-shaped flowers in pastel shades of pink and blue, as well as white. Traditional cottage garden favourites, they like well-drained soil and prefer dappled shade to full sun. They grow to 24in (60cm) and will thrive in pots and the soil. As an added bonus, they are great flowers for attracting pollinators to your patch. For the best results, sow them indoors in trays of fresh seed and cuttings compost that has been tamped flat to provide a firm seedbed, and watered with fresh tap water.…

SUBSCRIBE NOW Give the gift that keeps on delivering Over 80 magazines to choose from Free delivery straight to your door www.magazinesdirect.com/XM22 Terms and conditions: Offer closes 16th January 2023. Offer open to new subscribers only. Direct Debit offer is available to UK subscribers only. We will not you in advance of any price changes. All gift subscriptions will start with the first available issue on-sale after December 2022. If you would like your gift subscript ion to start with an earlier issue. you can choose an earlier issue when ordering or you can cont act customer services. Orders purchased for yourself will start with the next available issue-please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery (up to 8 weeks overseas). Payment is non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period…

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 linked to nuts. Answers: LILY = Hazel, Daisy, Violet (all common plant names…

A GOOD knife is an essential tool in the garden and there is a vast range available, from the simple to the specialist. Pruning knives, for instance, have a curved blade to provide a longer cutting edge and a curved handle that not only accommodates the blade when the knife is closed, but also provides a better grip while in use. Originally, the choice of handle was limited to what was available at the time, including wood, bone or horn. Now, a tough form of coloured nylon is common. Structure The outer layers of a knife are referred to as ‘leaves’; the inner lining that the blade sits against is usually brass, steel or a metal alloy and is referred to as the ‘scales’. The point where the blade slots…

If you can’t get out into the garden, the next best thing is reading about gardening – and here we have lots of brain teasers to keep you amused and bemused for hours. As a blast from the past, parts 2, 3 and 4 are taken from the 1975 Christmas issue of AG. (Answers at the bottom of page 63). Part 1 The answers to the following 26 questions all start with a different letter of the alphabet. So, if you think the answer to question 1 starts with a P, no other answer will start with a P. 1 Beetle with spots that eats aphids. 2 Warrior Princess TV series and video game, also a variety of Ficus binnendijkii. 3 Alternative name for courgette. 4 Cucumis sativus, used in sandwiches…

IT’S time to gather in the greenery at Buckland Castle, and as well as the tree in the lounge and ivy atop the mirrors I’ve been making merry with my collection of evergreen herbs. The wreath on the front door is adorned with sprigs of rosemary, and come the Yuletide feast I’ll gather more to sprinkle over the crispy skins of roast potatoes, just before serving. Thyme and sage, especially the multicoloured sage ‘Tricolor’, are a must-have for flavouring stuffing, but are also handy for Christmas presents. Potted up in terracotta with a heartsease flower or three for colour, they make an easy-to-look-after present. All they need is a sunny spot outside, and they’ll be gifts that go on giving for months, if not years. And they’re just the start.…

WE are a ‘throwaway society’ and nowhere is that more obvious than over the festive season. I love Christmas, but I hate the debris that remains in its aftermath, the packaging and plastic, leftover food, paper waste and general clutter that’s left behind. We try to recycle as much as we can, using brown paper and ribbons instead of wrapping paper and sticky tape, and cutting up Christmas cards into next year’s gift tags. Then we try to use up as much rubbish as possible to benefit the garden. Overwhelmed with cardboard boxes and plastic delivery bags? Open them out and spread them on your borders, weighing them down with stones. They are an excellent way to warm the soil ready for early planting and sowing, and they also suppress…

NOT everyone has the space or finances for a greenhouse, but if you want to overwinter plants, germinate hardy annuals and get a head-start next spring without cluttering up your windowsills, then cold frames and mini greenhouses are the way forward. Both are very versatile and I use ours for different plants. The mini greenhouse is where penstemons and pelargoniums spend the winter, though if I lived further north or our garden was more exposed I’d keep them in the greenhouse. The cold frame is where I overwinter hardy plants, hardy cuttings and any mature plants still in their pots, waiting to be planted out in spring. This week I’ve been snail-proofing the frame by adding a couple of bags of stone chippings to the base. This has the double…

MY childhood was quite strongly connected to the royal family. As a youngster I lived just a mile from Buckingham Palace. My father worked for The Royal Parks of London, and as part of his job he’d had several tete-a-tetes with various royals. He was even invested at the Palace, receiving a Royal Victorian Medal (for personal service to the Sovereign). Whilst I can’t claim our family was part of the royal ‘inner circle’, what the Queen and her family did and where they went was frequently a part of our conversations at home. Meeting the Queen I myself had the honour of talking with the Queen on perhaps six or seven occasions. My first was two years after I left school, and while I was a student at the…

YOUR garden in winter: when the earth is cold and unforgiving, the days short and food scarce; when the mind of the animal is preoccupied by a single thought – survival. Some creatures, such as the swallow, flee to warmer climes; some of the less fleet-of-wing enter a state of diapause or dormancy: the winter sleep of forgetting and sanctuary. Birds don’t do it, but ladybirds do, likewise the bumblebee, the painted lady butterfly, the grass snake, the frog and three of our mammals – the bat family (all 17 types of them), the hedgehog and the dormouse. Miracle of suspended animation The term ‘hibernate’ is from the Latin word hibernationem, ‘the action of passing the winter’, although the dry logic of Latin fails pitifully to encompass the mystery and…

How can I prune a wisteria for blooms? Q We have an established wisteria growing against a wall. We feed and prune it correctly, but the flowers are usually hidden by the leaves. What should we do? Tom Farrow, Stroud, Gloucestershire A The two species of wisteria most commonly grown in gardens are Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) and Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis). Ostensibly they are very similar except that Chinese wisteria produces its flowers long before the leaves, whereas Japanese wisteria produces its leaves and flowers at the same time. I suspect you have a Japanese wisteria and this is why the gorgeous flowers are often hidden by the foliage. Chinese wisteria is generally seen as the best type for training against a wall or fence, whereas Japanese wisteria is…

This word search comprises words associated with nuts. 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 seven letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s KEYWORD. ALLERGY BRAZIL CASHEW CHESTNUT COB COCONUT CRACKERS CRUNCH FRUIT HAZEL HUSK MACADAMIA NUTS PECAN PISTACHIO SIZE WALNUT No: 651 HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 651, Amateur Gardening, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP, to arrive by Wednesday 4 January 2023. The first correct entry chosen…

THIS year really has been a tale of two seasons for our small garden pond. During summer the water levels dropped so low we were convinced it had sprung a leak and now it is so full of rainwater we’re concerned it might breach its banks! It’s now time to give it a final tidy up before winter ‘proper’ arrives, to keep the water clean and prevent it becoming contaminated with dead plant material. Cut back marginal plants that are dying back to stop dead and decaying plant material falling into the water and rotting. Dead lily leaves should be fished out and composted and the compost in the lilies’ planters replenished and topped with gravel to keep it in place. If your pond has a pump, you can either…

WINTER’S here – and I know I keep saying that! However, we are almost at the shortest day and this year it’s on 21 December. My hibernating hedgehog, which is fast asleep under my pampas grass, isn’t going to celebrate the winter solstice. He or she may go walkabout, though, because hibernating hedgehogs can decide to move once or twice between late October and spring. Pat Morris, a hedgehog expert, had some tips when I heard him speak a few years ago. His advice, if you should see a fully grown hedgehog out on a winter’s day, was to leave well alone. The healthy weight for a well-nourished hedgehog is 780g, although it does vary. Do not take full-sized hedgehogs to a refuge unless they are ill or injured. Underweight…

HOLLIES… are enjoying a peak of popularity, as gardeners wake up to their huge diversity of form and fruit and marvel at their adaptability…,” says Christopher Bailes, author of Hollies For Gardeners. Hollies are a large and unexpectedly varied group of deciduous and evergreen shrubs or small trees that are native to a wide variety of climates. They are grown for their often prolific crop of usually red berries and for their colourful leaves. Evergreen hollies feature bold, dark leaves or leaves in a variety of pretty leaf patterns, while the leaves of deciduous hollies often turn yellow in the autumn. Unusual feature Hollies are mostly tolerant and adaptable plants that will grow in a range of garden situations, suffer from few damaging pests or diseases, and although their flowers…

This week it’s: Nuts in all their splendour Some lesser known facts about nuts – in a nutshell! NUTS at Christmas were always a ‘thing’ for my family when I was growing up. Some of my earliest Christmas memories are of having a bowl of hazelnuts on the dining-room table. And my first taste of salted peanuts was at Christmas, at the age of five or six. Unfortunately, my eldest daughter (now grown up and married) has a severe nut allergy, so for most of my adult life we have not routinely had them in the house. However, families with no such allergy problems can buy nuts of many types, to suit all tastes, and to be used in a wide range of ways. And, of course, gardeners can grow…