Innholdsfortegnelse for 4-Feb-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“The Victorians were the first generation of the lower-middle classes to actively garden for pleasure, wanting to beautify their environment and connect with nature. There was a massive housing boom in city and town suburbs in the 1850s and, as a result, front and rear spaces were starting to be cultivated for growing. The founder of AG, Shirley Hibberd, was the first to promote this idea in his books and magazine articles – and in this week’s issue, we feature two Victorian favourites: the perennial viola and the auricula theatre. I think the latter deserves a revival: what do you think?” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

WHEN the weather allows, winter is the perfect time to tackle outstanding structural jobs, which is why last week we found ourselves rebuilding a raised bed. We built it in November 2015 but had to move it to make way for a second and third bed, which may be the reason why its wood had started to rot. We needed to replace the posts and boards along one side that had started to crumble. The job started with sinking holes for the new corner and side posts, then jemmying the boards away from the old posts. Miraculously most of the compost stayed put when the side was removed, helped in part by the roots of leeks growing in the bed. It was then a ‘simple’ matter of scraping away the…

SEVERAL years ago we grew a bed of Nicotiana plants next to the patio of our old house. What a success! The plants flowered profusely, their glorious scent perfuming the evening air all summer. We have since moved and no longer have a sunny border right next to the patio, but this week’s free seeds are for a Nicotiana ideal for containers. ‘Roulette Mixed’ is a dwarf variety that produces lots of flowers in mixed shades over a prolonged period of time. It is bushy and will row to around 12in (30cm), ideal for the front of borders as well as containers. They like partial shade and fertile, free-draining soil. Nicotianas are half-hardy annuals so need starting undercover in a frost-free greenhouse or warm, well-lit room. Their seeds are tiny,…

THE organised gardener may have started their garlic in November, but the rest of us can plant now. There are two main types of garlic – softneck (Allium sativum) and hardneck (A. sativum var. ophioscorodon) – so what kind of care do they need? Perfect planting Whole bulbs (heads) should be split into individual cloves just before planting (they dry out excessively, otherwise). Don’t bruise them as this can cause rots. Only plant the largest plump cloves as these give the biggest yields (pot smaller ones up as garlic chives), positioning them 3in (8cm) deep and 6in (16cm) apart in grids (wider on lighter soils). Site in full sun, and add plenty of organic matter to the plot, plus a little bonemeal. “Site in full sun and add plenty of…

HELLEBORES are mainly hardy perennial, evergreen plants flowering in winter and spring. Their five-petalled flowers resemble those of buttercups but on a much larger scale, and in an extraordinary array of colours and colour combinations – literally from black, through the rainbow to white with only a genuine blue missing. As well as simple, single, bowl-shaped flowers, some varieties carry fully double flowers with 20 or 30 petals and some varieties are anemone-centred – that is, with a cluster of short petals in the centre of each flower. In most hellebores the foliage and flowers arise from the crown of the plant on separate stems. The large, leathery, evergreen foliage is boldly divided into at least five and often seven or nine – or even more – leaflets creating a…

MISTLETOE goes largely unnoticed for most of the year, until we need it at Christmas. In fact, it is often mistaken for a bird’s nest, due to its circular growth habit. This small semi-parasitic shrub has to live on another plant, drawing most of its nutrients and water from the host, although it is able to manufacture some of its own food by photosynthesis. Host plants Most of the host plants it favours are deciduous, whereas mistletoe is evergreen, so it tends to be much more noticeable once the trees have lost their leaves. It spreads by seeds, carried by birds and deposited on the bark of a new host. The usual host plants are apple, lime and poplar, but it will also grow on blackthorn, hawthorn, rowan and willow.…

TIMES are hard, the cost of everything is rising and we are all scaling back and trying to make our pennies go further. In many households, luxuries and hobbies may be the first things to go. No one is suggesting anyone gives up their gardening – at a time of financial concerns, getting out in the garden is beneficial to our physical health and mental wellbeing. But it can be a costly business. It can, but it need not be and at AG we are all affected by the cost of living crisis so are using all manner of horticultural thriftiness to keep our gardens looking top-notch. On these two pages I share some easy ways of keeping money in your purse and we will be publishing regular follow-up articles…

DECIDUOUS trees and shrubs will soon be starting to unfurl their leaves so you’ve got a couple of weeks left to finish any winter pruning that’s needed. Leave alone early-flowering varieties such as forsythia and shrubs that bloom in early summer, including weigela and philadelphus. Also ignore plum, gage and cherry trees until summer, when they are less vulnerable to silver leaf disease. When tackling other trees now, create an open goblet shape that lets plenty of light and air through to the flowers and fruit. Congested trees have poor airflow in their hearts, which can cause moulds and rotting of blossom and fruits. If you need to hard prune an overgrown tree or shrub, consider doing it in three stages, cutting back a third of the unruly growth every…

ON a sunny day, scan bare shrubs, bushy trees and thorny climbers for birds’ nests. Most likely, you’ll discover those of blackbirds – the classic of twigs, grasses and roots twined into a bowl, which they almost sit on rather than in. Other birds make nests in all sorts of places, but seldom use nest boxes (most nest boxes are too small for many birds). So while hanging more nest boxes is a nice idea, we can also help by making more sites suitable for all those other birds to build upon. You see, birds need to lodge their nests securely, often where a branch forks, especially in places where one splits three ways – or where two or more stems cross. These places need to be out of direct…

Plans to create a celebratory display Q I wonder if you are able to advise me what type of plants I could use to form a figure 40 in a flower bed for summer decoration at my bowling club? Brian Williams (via email) A I am delighted that you wish to create the figure ‘40’ in small plants – carpet bedding – to commemorate a special occasion. I think that if you choose well, it will look spectacular. You could consider the following carpeting plants: Alternanthera ficoidea ‘Amoena’: Purple leaves changing to orange. Antennaria dioica: Small silvery leaves, good for edging. Echeveria glauca: a fleshy rosette-leaved succulent. Not frost hardy. Hernaria glabra: Minute leaves; perfect for filling in between other plants. Sagina pilifera aurea: Forms a dense carpet of tiny…

WHEN the resident choir of male frogs that live in my pond strike up their croaking song, it’s a reminder to give it a tidy before the water fills with easily disturbed, delicate new life. If left to their own devices, the remnants of spent stems around the edge will clutter around new growth before slumping into the water and turning to sludge. The same goes for leaves that have blown into the drink during winter. I use a net to fish them out before piling with the prunings on the bank, so any pondlife they harbour has time to find its way back to the water. It was while ‘fishing’ for leaves that something caught my eye – a long-lost trowel, missing in action since bulb-planting time. I’d obviously…

WE are a household of fruitaholics and to my mind, nothing beats the tart deliciousness of gooseberries and blackcurrants. Gooseberries grow well in fertile, free-draining soil in a sunny site, and blackcurrants favour the same conditions but can tolerate partial shade. Late winter is the perfect time to plant, providing the ground isn’t waterlogged or frozen, and you can buy them container-grown or bare-root. Put them in the ground at the same depth they were growing before. This will be the ‘tide mark’ of soil around the stem of bare root plants, or at the same depth as their containers. Make sure you wear robust gardening gloves as their spines are sharp. After planting, prune your gooseberry to a low-down outward-growing bud, creating an open shape that will develop fruiting…

THERE are two important days in my gardening calendar. One is 19 January, because that’s the day when the ground starts to warm up again in our part of the world. I always breathe a sigh of relief, because spring is only weeks away. The other day is either 1 or 2 February, the midway point between the shortest day and the spring equinox. This day, known as the festival of light and fire, has been celebrated since pagan times, and was known to our Celtic ancestors as Imbolc. Bonfires were burnt and lamps were lit on 1 February. When Christianity arrived, the festival of light was renamed Candlemas and the date was moved to 2 February. Candles were carried into the church and the altar was decorated with snowdrops…

IF you are a fan of auriculas, it’s likely that you are also familiar with plant theatres – you might even have one yourself. These clever displays became popular during the Victorian period when auriculas were all the rage, their design enabling enthusiasts to showcase the exquisite beauty of this member of the primula family by bringing the plants up to eye level. A plant theatre consists of a series of shelves, protected from the elements with a roof; it can be freestanding or hung like a cabinet on an outdoor wall. The open shelves provide good air circulation while the roof keeps off the rain, which can wash away the white powdery coating – known as farina – on the leaves and petals of some auriculas. Fine heritage Dating…

This week it’s: Garden design – and designers! The world of garden design, from cutting edge to conservative THE one area of gardening that I have never really been ‘into’ is that of design. At college I covered the fundamentals, meaning that I can – and have – created a few pleasing gardens in my time. But when I look at, for example, the Chelsea Flower Show coverage on TV, I mentally switch off as soon as the presenter talks about a hugely expensive feature garden that has been designed “with a subtext”, or which has a “narrative”. Those references should, in my view, be kept to the world of art – rather than dirt-in-the-fingernail gardening. Anyway, over the years there have been some amazing gardens created by designers, and…