Innholdsfortegnelse for 8-Jul-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“One thing that I’ve yet to see mentioned in connection with the cost of living crisis is the price of bird food. It isn’t something that crosses my mind with any great frequency, but we currently have two squadrons of starlings and sparrows in the garden, both with voracious younglings, and they are eating us out of house and home. Quality bird seed (the no-grow stuff) and fat balls don’t come cheap, and as our famished feathered friends are getting through a box of balls a week, I think we will be living on beans for the foreseeable. Which won’t do much for the climate crisis, either!” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113■ Editorial: 0330 3903732■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

ONE of our main preoccupations is keeping our plants properly watered and fed while at the same time conserving as much water as possible in times of drought. There are several simple ways to optimise the water you have. Watering in the early morning or early evening, before or after the worst of the day’s heat, allows the maximum amount of moisture to sink into the soil before evaporating. Water slowly, so it has time to absorb rather than running off when compost or soil is very dry. The tool I have found most useful when watering large areas is an adjustable spray gun attached to the end of a hose. It allows me to moderate the force of the flow and halt the water flow when moving between borders…

WHILE we’re revelling in the beauty of our summer gardens, it’s time to think about growing something colourful for the start of next year. ‘Johnny Jump Up’, this week’s free seeds, is a traditional hardy viola that will flower from next spring until well into the autumn. Shear off the dead flowerheads and straggly stems as they grow, feed and water them, and they should give months of vibrant colour. This variety has bicoloured flowers in shades of purple and yellow and, unlike their larger cousins, the pansy, are more weather-resistant and happily self-seed. Sow ‘Johnny Jump Up’ in trays of fresh seed compost now and germinate them in a cold frame, mini greenhouse or on a light windowsill. Once seedlings are large enough to handle, pot them into individual…

In this extract from AG 4 July 1970, we explain how to avoid brown patches on your lawn during the summer DURING the summer it is possible to have four or five consecutive days of really hot sun and drying winds. These weather conditions can cause lawns to lose their colour and turn brown in places, and this is attributed to drought. The natural reaction to this is to get out the sprinkler and hose, and give the lawn a good soaking to try to turn the patches green again, but often the grass does not respond and in fact the brown patches become larger. One day the sky becomes overcast, the humidity of the air rises and a little rain falls. If the cloud and light rain persist for…

WHEN it comes to choosing plants for your garden or allotment, pH is the term used to measure how acid or alkaline the soil is, which has an influence over what will grow well. The ‘available lime’ (or lack of it) affects the availability of nutrients within the soil or compost, so the tolerances and preferences of plants have to be taken into consideration, otherwise you will be fighting a constant battle to keep the plant healthy. Planting an acid-loving rhododendron into chalky alkaline soil would mean having to apply acid treatments constantly so it can survive, let alone thrive, because some nutrients, such as iron, become ‘locked up’ in soils with a higher pH reading. As far as pH is concerned, garden soils fall into three categories – acid,…

IT has been a brilliant year for blossom so far, with trees and shrubs dripping with colourful flowers, perfuming the air and brightening gardens and hedges. While many of these will wait to be cut back in autumn when they lose their leaves and go dormant for winter, several varieties are ready to be cut back now. This week I’ve been trimming our early summer flowering weigela and a deutzia, our ornamental cherry tree and our ‘Victoria’ plum and greengage. The deciduous deutzia and weigela, alongside philadelphus and beauty bush (kolkwitzia) are cut back immediately after they have flowered to give this year’s subsequent growth time to mature enough to produce next year’s blossom. Leave it too late and they won’t flower as well – this is the same reason…

WORKING in the greenhouse, even for a short time, can be uncomfortably hot at this time of year – so spare a thought for plants in there the whole time. Many of us use the greenhouse for tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, chillies and other tender crops through the summer, but strong sunlight, heat and a dry atmosphere can damage them. The solution is to monitor and manage the heat; there are several ways of doing so and it isn’t too late to start now. Use netting or wash-off shading paint to filter out the harshest light and reduce the risk of scorched plants. Water consistently to ensure the smooth and equal transference of moisture and nutrients around the plants. This is particularly important with tomatoes to avoid the condition blossom end…

Contact John Negus by email address below Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Q We have a log store with a tool shed next to it and would like to cover them with a clematis or other climber. We have no soil either side – just gravel or hard standing. Is there any clematis or similar that I would be able to plant in a large pot? Jenny Clarke (via email) A The following varieties are ideal for your purpose: Angelique: Silvery lilac-blue, 3-4ft (90-120cm). Cezanne: Mauve-blue with creamy-white stamens, 3-4ft (90-120cm). Picardy: Dusky purple-red, 3-4ft (90-120cm). Sally: Light shell-pink with deep-pink bars, 4-5ft (1.2-1.5m). If your garden centre doesn’t stock them, order them from Thorncroft Clematis thorncroftclematis.co.uk, 01593 850 407. Set them in 18in (45cm) pots filled with a mix of three-quarter parts,…

This week it’s: The story of olives We look at a fruit grown for both oil and eating THE olive (Olea europaea) is a crucial fruiting crop, and represents one of the oldest and most important of any farmed crop in human history. Olives have both evolved naturally and been bred, so that today there are many hundreds of cultivars. Around 40 years ago, olive trees started to make a significant mark in British gardens, for their look rather than their fruiting potential, and in the past decade or so this appeal has increased exponentially. Recently, I visited the Greek island of Zakynthos, where there are 2 million olive trees, and I was lucky enough to have a tour of an olive grove and factory where they process the fruits…

Top Tip Let seedpods form at the end of the season so you can harvest and dry seeds for next year. OUR homegrown sweet peas are often hit and miss, with the emphasis usually being on the ‘miss’ rather than ‘hit’. But this year we have been successful, keeping grey mould at bay and fending off the attentions of the slugs now they are planted out. So how do we keep them flowering and healthy through the summer? In dry weather, regular watering is a must, as they can be prone to powdery mildew caused by dry roots and poor ventilation. Give them a good soaking a couple of times a week. Pinch out the tendrils used for climbing as they can divert the plants’ energies from producing flowers. I…

SO many plants make rounded mounds of flower and foliage. Borders made up solely from these plants can resemble a rumpled duvet after a night out. This is why vertical spikes and spires are so necessary visually. The verticals link earth to sky, and break up the monotony of all those humps and lumps. Many spikes and spires take up little ground space, because the flowerheads often rise from a rosette of foliage. The flowers generally open from the bottom and progress upwards, over a couple of weeks at least. They are usually nectar-rich and the plant manages the nectar by switching it on as the flowers open. They turn it off after the bees have visited. You can often see bees travelling up a flower spike, in search of…

THERE’S a difference between what the books tell us we should do, and what we actually do in our gardens. And that’s why I’ve been planting hydrangeas. Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘Water-loving shrubs in a drought? You must be mad!’ But here’s the thing, your honour! I knew that if I didn’t buy them, someone else would – and worse, another year would pass before I was reminded how much I needed these powder-puff flowers in my garden. Besides, given ‘five-star’ planting treatment, even thirsty hydrangeas will thrive. And while waiting for soil-softening autumn rains to arrive might seem sensible, impulse summer buys are always better off in the ground – even if they’re in the wrong place – than cooking in their plastic pots on ‘death row’…