Innholdsfortegnelse for 2-Sep-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“One of the challenges of gardening is working out how to make the most of the space, soil and position that your outdoor area has to offer. This can be particularly tricky for those of us who have a relatively small area with which to work. It’s even trickier when you also need the garden to work as a place for relaxation and entertainment. This is why I was impressed with what Anne and Richard Wright have done with their garden in this week’s ‘Get the Look’ (pages 54-57). The clever use of pots to extend small borders, trellises to hide other houses and the way they used curves was particularly smart. There’s always something to learn from fellow gardeners.” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330…

1 Keep deadheading late-flowering varieties such as dahlias to generate more buds for the coming weeks, and collect ripened seeds for next year. 2 Clear away any annual bedding that has finished and plant this year’s seed-grown hardy perennials – they will do better in the soil than in their pots. 3 Strip down, clean and sharpen bladed tools before the start of the pruning season, and collect and clean plant labels to use again next year. 4 Garden wildlife will be fuelling up for winter so keep birds and mammals supplied with fresh food and water. More tomatoes Save some seeds for next year 1 Select and save your healthiest, favourite toms for their seeds 2 Scoop out the seeds and put them in water. Leave them for a…

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 all linked to pears! Answers: ETROOT (beetroot) = Gonia (begonia), Tula (betula), Ech…

FOR the most part it has been a bountiful year in our fruit and veg patch, with welcome gluts of everything from berries and figs to beans and tomatoes. The combination of warm weather and rain was a blessing, if a mixed one because it set the scene for an outbreak of blight just as the outside tomatoes were starting to come on line. We managed to mitigate the situation and salvage some tomatoes by removing and binning affected fruits and greenery as soon as we spotted blight, but once it has arrived there is really nothing gardeners can do but remove and bin or bury their infected plants. Never add them to the compost heap because blight is a fungal disease that spreads via its spores. However, the compost…

IF you are thinking about going organic, or at least reducing the number of chemicals you use in your garden, autumn is a good time to start. While it is the season for clearing the decks and ‘putting the garden to bed’ for the winter, it’s also a time for looking ahead, taking stock and planning the months to come. Organic gardening is not just about locking away the chemicals and creating a balanced garden where nature and nurture go hand in hand; it is also about reusing and recycling, making a glorious garden cheaper in the long run. The charity Garden Organic was set up to encourage gardeners to become more eco-friendly. This month – Organic September – their website, which is packed with advice and tips for going…

Should I remove fuchsia seed pods? Q Should I remove the dark berries that look like seedheads on my fuchsia or leave them on? Bernard Biles (via email) A These are seedpods, so I would remove them otherwise the plant will concentrate all its energy on ripening the seeds, rather than producing late-flowering buds. If you are feeling adventurous you could try harvesting the seeds and growing your own plants. However, there is no guarantee that seed-grown fuchsias will resemble the parent plant as they are prone to mutation – unlike cuttings, which will be identical to the parent. To grow fuchsias from seed you need to remove the seeds from the pods when they are ripe. You can tell when they are ready because the pods will be soft…

This word search comprises words associated with pears. 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. PEARS COMICE CONFERENCE DROP FRUIT GRITTY JUICY PARTRIDGE PERRY PYRUS ROOTSTOCK SHAPED SIZE SUCCULENT TART TREE WILLIAMS HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 687, Amateur Gardening, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP, to arrive by Wednesday 13 September 2023. The first correct entry chosen at random…

WHEN the calendar flips over into autumn, sensible plants like cranesbill geraniums, fennel and hollyhocks recognise that the good weather of summer is coming to an end. They begin their retreat to the soil, saving their energy for next year’s show. While their prudence (and seedheads) are to be admired, it’s the ‘foolish plants’ that I wouldn’t be without. These are the tender types that burst with new growth, flowers and even fruit, as if the summer is just getting started. Dahlia, salvia, brugmansia and bedding flowers fall into this category. With continued feeding, they get a second September wind and potentially grow faster and bear more blooms than at any time of the year. The reason for the September growth spurt is this: even heat-lovers slow for the summer,…

MY border planning went a bit to pot this year and while one is full of late colour, the other was swamped by early annual poppies that left an expanse of bare soil when they died back. I’ve planted some late-flowering Nicotiana sylvestris and Clary sage to fill some of the gaps but really want to add something permanent that will reappear each year – as long as I make sure to thin impending annuals when they start to appear in spring! This week I planted a yellow Achillea and a red helenium ‘Mariachi Salsa’ that will hopefully provide autumn colour for years to come. Achilleas are members of the yarrow family and are popular for their flat, wide flowerheads and heleniums, or sneezeweed, are clump-forming daisy-like plants that flower…

THIS week’s free seeds are for a dwarf variety of one of my favourite plants, larkspurs. The variety ‘Hyacinth Dwarf Mixed’ grows to just 20in (50cm) tall and will provide a beautiful froth of densely packed spires of pink, purple and blue flowers at the front of borders. Because they are hardy annuals, you can sow them now or next spring (I do both for a succession of flowers) and bloom from June through to September. Larkspur, which were introduced to the UK from the Mediterranean in the 1500s, do best on light soils. Long-lasting, they thrive in sun and light shade and are beloved by bees and butterflies, making them worthwhile additions to every garden. Larkspur is also a popular plant to cut for the vase as their densely…

I ONCE bought a 2021 calendar featuring roundabouts, compiled by Kevin Beresford, who travelled around Britain snapping, you guessed it, roundabouts. He says they are more efficient and prettier than traffic lights. Who could argue with that? Well, possibly those of us who’ve failed to negotiate Swindon’s magic roundabout without causing chaos, that’s who. Kevin, who self-styles himself the ‘UK’s dullest man’, lives in Redditch, Worcestershire, and he’s my sort of age. Our rehomed cat Frank came from Redditch, although we’ve rechristened him Frank Homer in honour of Carrie and Boris Johnson’s youngest child who’s saddled with Frank Alfred Odysseus. In the past, Kevin has produced some knock-out calendars, including Jack Grealish’s thighs. They’re probably prettier than traffic lights, too. I gave this to my son-in-law one Christmas, although I…

This week it’s: All gone pear-shaped! We look at a sweet, juicy fruit grown in the UK THE humble pear, simple in shape and succulent in nature, originated, we believe, in western China. The first pears were cultivated more than 4,000 years ago. Over millennia, they made their way to Egypt, Greece and Italy. The Romans then brought them to France and Britain. More than 1,000 years later, early British settlers took pear-tree cuttings to the east coast of northern America where, for a few decades, the trees grew and fruited well. But then they were decimated by the dreaded fireblight bacterial disease. Fortunately, by this time the Spanish had introduced pears to Mexico, Peru and Chile – so northern America could be repopulated with them! Let’s take a sideways…