Innholdsfortegnelse for 29-Apr-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“We have had a great response to our price guide (25 March issue) and thanks to those who have offered their bargain finds – see Letters on page 55). We found that you could save over £7 on a box of plant food, depending on where you bought it! In these tough financial times, that makes a huge difference. Our next price watch update will be in the 20 May issue. In the meantime, keep sending in details of any bargain products you come across, and remember each one published wins a free pair of Town & Country gardening gloves. A bargain in its own right!” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

IF you haven’t already fed and topdressed any long-standing pots of summer bulbs, there is still time now. Done carefully it shouldn’t disturb the roots and new growth but will definitely help them give their best in the months ahead. This week I turned my attention to our potted lilies and agapanthus that have been in the same pots for three years now, so this will be their final season before I re-pot them or add them to the flower borders. Bulbs grow well in containers but if you plan to leave them in the same pot for more than one season they need topdressing each spring so they don’t completely deplete their compost and run out of fuel. Remove the top few inches of compost, then add a granular…

THIS week’s free seeds have been sown in Sylvagrow with added John Innes, a peat-free formulation that is perfect for the first 4-6 weeks of a plant’s life. The packaging explains how to get the best results, including sieving the compost to remove larger ingredients that can hamper successful germination. This is advice we should always follow when sowing lobelia, because the seeds are fine as dust and can easily be swamped by compost particles and washed away by water. Water the compost before sowing and don’t cover the seeds with anything other than a lid to keep the compost damp while they germinate. Make sowing very small seeds easier by mixing them with a little horticultural sand, then sprinkling them together. Alternatively, lift and tap the seeds off a…

Contact John Negus by email address below Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com How and when do I prune my mahonia? Q I have an old mahonia that needs pruning. How and when should I do this? Peter Levick (via email) A Mahonias are best pruned in spring after flowering so now is the right time to do it. They tolerate hard pruning, so if you were thinking of something drastic your plant should take it well, though I would advise caution if this is the first time drastic pruning has been undertaken. The advice given by the RHS is that ‘old plants usually respond slowly, but satisfactorily, when cut back to a low framework 12-24in (30-60cm) from ground level’, so this is quite feasible. However, if you can spread the process over two…

MID-SPRING is such a time of promise that the temptation is to spend every spare hour out in the garden. There is so much to do, be it planting and propagating, sowing seeds, potting seedlings, that it’s hard to know where to start. In the excitement of getting the garden ready for the summer, make sure you don’t neglect your indoor plants. We have a small castor oil plant on a windowsill and one day I noticed it wasn’t looking healthy and some of its leaves had shrivelled and dropped. Closer inspection revealed an infestation of white, fluffy mealy bugs that had been feeding on the plant and covering its leaves with a revoltingly sticky substance called honeydew. This in turn attracts sooty mould, which covers the leaves in black…

Nature-kind pest control CONTROLLING pests while keeping garden wildlife safe can be a hard balancing act. We all try to do our best to look after local wildlife and our insect populations, but this can sometimes clash with growing plants and crops. Although many gardeners are using organic sprays, these will still kill beneficial insects if used at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Our advice is never to use pest control spray on anything in flower because it will kill pollinating insects. Avoid spraying on windy days as the droplets will be blown where you don’t want them to go – this also applies to weedkillers that will devastate cultivated plants if blown onto them. If you are still using slug pellets, don’t leave them on the…

■ This extract from AG 21 June 1975 is the seventh of a 12-part series on how to propagate a wide selection of indoor and outdoor plants. Note: peat will often be mentioned in these articles, and while many new peat-free alternatives are available, peat composts are still on sale for those who choose not to use peat-free. If using peat-free, please note that details of watering and nutrients will vary. SO far in this series I have been discussing vegetative methods of propagation: let us now look at raising plants from seeds. Trees, shrubs, alpines, hardy perennials, bulbs, half-hardy annuals and perennials, greenhouse and house plants, hardy annuals, biennials and vegetables can all be easily increased by this method. It is worth collecting seed of any true species plants…

IN an ideal world, my pond would be home to dense stands of flag irises, giant pickerel weed and waterlilies boasting huge flowers and pads, while Gunnera manicata, Darmera peltata and clumps of ligularia, with their 3ft (90cm)-tall stems of yellow flowers, would flourish in the damp soil around the outside. Alas, my wish list of watery wonders will remain a pipe dream for the time being. Like most other garden owners in the country, I am strapped for space – I will never be able to squeeze in a water feature that is deep enough or large enough to accommodate some of my favourite aquatics. Of course, just because you have a small garden doesn’t mean you can’t have a water feature, plus plants to bring it to life.…

WHEN the gavel fell on Banksy’s Girl with Balloon painting for a cool $1.4 million, a shredder within its frame whirred to life and chewed through the artwork as if it were an old bank statement. I was thinking of this stunt because I’ve been mowing the big green frame (aka the lawn) in our garden. Lawns are a horticultural miracle. They survive wear and tear, cost pennies to create, and last a lifetime with only rudimentary care. But they have another attribute that’s less appreciated, much like Banksy’s picture frame – they can improve or detract from what they surround. When setting out a garden, it’s natural to think about the shape of borders (where the interesting stuff is) first, and the grass second. But because borders undulate, it’s…

Perfect perennials: It’s the perfect time for planting and dividing perennials – find out more in next week’s AG.…

THIS week has been about salvaging some ‘Tigerella’ tomato seedlings that had grown rather leggy and floppy on our living room windowsill. They had outgrown their modules and needed some stronger compost and more root room, and the solution was to re-pot them into larger containers so the depth of compost would give their stems better support and encourage them to root along their length. I did a similar thing last year, moving some extremely tall young plants directly into grow bags. It was later in the season and this year’s seedlings are still too young to go straight into the strong compost of a grow bag So I have moved them into large pots of Sylvagrow multipurpose compost with added John Innes, three or four seedlings per pot, which…

DO you remember the old adage, ‘April showers bring May flowers’? I don’t think it applies any more, because my garden is short of water more often than not. I found myself watering pots of bulbs in February this year, due to a lack of the wet stuff. I’m wondering whether or not we’ll get a stunning May. If we do, it will underpin the rest of summer, and I’m hoping for more rain than last year! May used to be a magical month in the garden. It came alive and was close to perfection. The famous gardener Edward Augustus Bowles (1865-1954) of Myddelton House, North London said: “If a fairy godmother or a talking fish offered me three wishes, I think one would be to have the clock stopped…

Steve Bradley MA MHort (RHS) has written (or co-written) over 40 gardening books, including Propagation Basics, The Pruner’s Bible, The Ground Force Workbook and What’s Wrong With My Plant? He is resident expert on BBC Radio Kent, Sussex and Surrey, and he has built medal-winning gardens at both Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace. You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) FROM the end of next year, gardeners in England will no longer be able to get any peat-based compost (it will still be in use in Europe). They are being banned due to peat extraction causing alleged damage to the environment, mainly through releasing long-stored CO₂. One-sided debate The debate has been somewhat one-sided, with strong lobbying from environmental and…

This week it’s: YOU would be hard-pressed to find anyone who couldn’t recognise a foxglove – the Latin name of which is Digitalis purpurea. Its familiar tall spikes of pinky-purple tubular flowers are a common sight in gardens everywhere as spring turns to summer. I bet there are some growing not far from you, wherever you live in the UK. These are flowers commonly thought of as archetypal cottage-garden blooms, but in the past couple of decades so much breeding work has taken place, as well as, I have to say, a large amount of marketing, that today they are key features of many modern and contemporary gardens, and to great effect. Let’s look at some foxglove stories. Biennial foxgloves THE digitalis genus contains 24 species of biennial and perennial…

Steve Bradley MA MHort (RHS) has written (or co-written) over 40 gardening books, including Propagation Basics, The Pruner’s Bible, The Ground Force Workbook and What’s Wrong With My Plant? He is resident expert on BBC Radio Kent, Sussex and Surrey, and he has built medal-winning gardens at both Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace. You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) YOU might not associate hormones with plants – with people, yes, but not plants. They have them, though, and these hormones govern many of the processes that keep plants growing, or keep them dormant. Plant hormones are involved in cell production and repair, causing callus formation over wounds and root initiation where it is needed. They also promote and balance…