Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-May-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“We tend to buy products when we need them – for most gardeners, that moment happens when the frost finally departs and spring awakens. So off we go to the garden centre to stock up on essentials like lawn seed and plant food… as well as plants, of course. What many don’t realise (which has been exposed through the AG Price Watch guide) is that there are fewer bargains to be had when spring arrives. In early March, you could save up to £7 on one brand of popular plant food, but that drops to £4 when spring arrives. See the latest findings of our useful AG Price Guide on pages 4 and 5. The lesson? Buy before spring to make significant savings, before garden centres get busy.” Contact us:…

IT is the final bank holiday until August and our gardens are in their growing prime, so let’s get out there and make the most of it! The soil and air temperatures are warm enough for sowing directly now, so add hardy and half hardy annuals to any borders that have gaps between plants. Plant perennials and bedding plants, making sure they have enough space to grow well and healthily. We are at the end of No Mow May, but we would still encourage you to leave a patch of wild flowers and long grass to welcome insects, invertebrates, amphibians and other garden wildlife – many of them will also help you deal with any pest problems. Keep the greenhouse well ventilated. Cover the glass with shading netting or paint…

THIS week’s free seeds are for one of my very favourite summer plants – Cosmos ‘Seashells Mixed’. They are one of the most spectacular and long-lasting of bedding plants, their open flowers set above frondy foliage. ‘Seashells Mixed’ grows to a respectable 48in (120cm) and is one of the more unusual varieties. Its flowers are made of fluted petals in shades of pink that fan out from golden-yellow centres. In a sunny, sheltered spot and with regular deadheading, they will bloom right through the summer. The added benefits of cosmos is that they are good for attracting bees and butterflies to the garden and they also make excellent long-lasting cut flowers. Sow them into fresh, dampened seed compost (I used Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds) then cover with a fine…

I SPENT a long time studying my old garden in Hook Norton in Oxfordshire in the late 1990s and early 2000s, trying to understand why that garden functioned without any chemical intervention. At the time I was trying to write The Natural Gardener, published in 2004. My main conclusion was that my healthy, organic garden was rich in insect life and these minibeasts underpinned lots of complex food webs within the garden. It was a self-sustaining ecosystem. My second conclusion was all about plant diversity. Growing lots of types of plants pulls in more insect life. I found this out early on, including the fact that sheltered spots were particularly rich in spiders. There were sparrows galore back then and the hobby, a summer-visiting bird of prey resembling a large…

Why is my strelitzia looking sickly? Q We bought a strelitzia a couple of years ago. It has never flowered and the leaves are browning. What should we do? R. and M. Holmes (via email) A Either too much or too little water, combined with a lack of humidity, can cause leaf ends and edges to turn brown. Strelitzia (bird of paradise) will do best in a conservatory or greenhouse where the temperature doesn’t dip below 13ºC (55ºF)and the atmosphere can be kept humid. However, they need to be protected from full sunlight during the hottest parts of the year and the greenhouse or conservatory will need to be ventilated when the temperature reaches 20ºC (68ºF). Pot up your strelitzia in loam-based compost with added grit for good drainage. Keep…

This week it’s: National Children’s Gardening Week We look at the fun gardens provide for kids NEXT week is National Children’s Gardening Week (27 May-4 June). Any parent or grandparent with a patch of ground will know that children love getting involved in the garden. With relish, they’ll sow seeds and plant bulbs in pots, all the while looking out for worms and butterflies. But they’re usually impatient, and want instant results. This is why, in 2015, National Children’s Gardening Week was started, to capture children’s enthusiasm at a time when results are much quicker. Let’s take a look at gardening and/with/for children! ■ Children, parents, grandparents, schools and garden businesses can find ideas for garden projects and activities at childrensgardeningweek.co.uk. How the week started NATIONAL Children’s Gardening Week was…

AFTER five years of filling holes and fixing fences, our rabbit problem has disappeared. You don’t need to be Mr McGregor to know that rabbits and gardens go together like bathtubs and toasters. Should a fluffle of bunnies find your plot, they’ll reduce the flower beds to stubs. Wire fencing that’s at least 4ft (1.2m) tall and bent over at the base is the surest way to keep them out. But because rabbits are armed with digging spades for paws, teeth like chainsaws and an ability to ‘Fosbury flop-ear’ over obstacles, few gardens are safe. This is especially true where rabbits have dined before. I know from experience that bunnies have long memories, and once they get a taste for a plant or a place, they never tire of gnawing…

WE had a fantastic response to our first Price Watch article, thank you to everyone who contacted us afterwards to share their findings. This campaign aims to find the best seasonal gardening deals around the country and share them with you, building a nationwide database of best buys to help you get top value at a time when we are all watching our wallets. We are committed to helping our readers garden as cheaply as they can with the best possible deals and this month we are focusing on products you are likely to be using as spring moves towards summer. Growbags are something everyone will be considering buying, as is high-potassium liquid tomato feeds to give a boost to ornamental planters and baskets as well as popular crops growing…

THANK you to our readers who have written in asking for more detailed information about potting on seedlings. It made me realise that while I blithely advise you to move them from their seed tray into pots of compost ‘when they are ready’, not everyone knows what this ‘ready’ stage actually looks like. When seedlings first appear they produce small, round cotyledons (see panel, right). Shortly after they produce the first ‘real’ leaves that look like smaller versions of the plants’ adult foliage. By now you should have removed any lid or bag covering the seedlings so they are well ventilated. Make sure their compost is kept damp, watering from below so the compost absorbs the water rather than wetting the leaves. Once two or three sets of proper leaves…

Ongoing container care: Next week I look at how to get the best from your planters for a summer of colour As the growing season progresses, there are less bargains to be had, but Vitax Q4 remains the product with the largest price difference In May. However, the big news is that the lowest price in May is £4.49more expensive than the lowest price in March for the same product! May prices: VITAX Q4 2.5kg ■ Cheapest: £8.99 Winnersh ■ Most expensive: £12.99 Haskins WESTLAND ROOTING GEL ■ Cheapest: £5.99 Dobbies ■ Most expensive: £6.99 Haskins TOMORITE 1L CONCENTRATE ■ Cheapest: £4 Tesco and Morrisons online ■ Most expensive: £4.99 The Range ROUNDUP NO GLYPHOSATE READY-TO-USE ■ Cheapest: £6.50 Winnersh ■ Most expensive: £7.99 Redfields SLUG STOP WOOL PELLETS 2.25KG…

OUR raspberries grow like weeds – literally, we have several suckers popping up in the lawn next to the main bed of canes. We mow some of these out, but this week I removed some to use as cuttings to replace old, dead canes. It’s a relatively easy process that involves clearing the soil or grass away from the base of the sucker and cutting it free using a sharp, clean knife. Make sure that the growth you remove has some of woody material right at the base, as this is where the roots will form. Pinch off the lowest leaves of the cuttings as these will rot when they come into contact with damp potting mix, and remove any large leaves at the cuttings’ tips. Insert them around the…

ALL forms of peat will be unavailable for use by amateur gardeners from 31 December 2024 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with Scotland currently in consultation. The industry is still awaiting news from Defra detailing the Government’s final position on the forthcoming peat ban. When peat use started Peat extraction for horticulture began on a commercial scale only in the 1960s. In 1990, a consortium of 14 of the UK’s leading main wildlife and archaeological conservation organisations launched the Peatlands Campaign to highlight the damage caused by peat-based industries and to promote the use of alternatives in growing media. In 2018, the Government launched its 25-year Environment Plan, which stated the intention to ban peat use in gardening. Phasing out of peat The horticulture industry has been reducing peat…

IT is worth collecting seed of any true species plants in your garden because species come true to type from seed – the offspring will resemble their parents in every respect. It is not usual for gardeners to save seed of highly bred plants – hybrids, varieties and strains – as these do not come true to type from seed. With some plants, the offspring will be very different from their parents in habit or growth, shape of flower and so on, while others may, for instance, simply have differently coloured flowers. Many hardy and half-hardy annuals and perennials, biennials and vegetables are hybrids or strains with a very complex parentage and will not come true from home-saved seed. ■ Alpines from seed The most natural way of raising alpines…

This word search comprises words associated with gardening and children! 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 10 letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s KEYWORD. NATIONAL CHILDRENS GARDENING WEEK GIRLS BOYS SOWING SEEDS BUG HOTEL CRAFT ENTHUSIASM GAZEBO LIGHTS PARENTS PRIZE SLUGS SMART HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 673, Amateur Gardening, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP, to arrive by Wednesday 7 June 2023. The first correct entry…

GREEN manuring is the practice of cultivating certain fast-growing plants that can be used to improve and maintain soil structure, help retain soil fertility, reduce the loss of nutrients, suppress weeds and, in some cases, help to combat soil-borne pests and diseases. Multiple usage The plants used as green manures are usually grown with the sole aim of incorporating them into the soil where they are growing. Although often regarded as having a place only in the vegetable or fruit garden, they fit just as well into a border since some provide a splash of colour when they are in flower. They are also useful for maintaining healthy border soil in the greenhouse, polythene tunnel or raised bed. Questionable claims Perhaps the biggest question mark over green manures is the…