Innholdsfortegnelse for 16-Sep-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“It’s make-your-mind-up time! That once-ubiquitous catchphrase from Opportunity Knocks (a long-gone precursor to Britain’s Got Talent) perfectly sums up September for gardeners. As we work hard to keep the final blooms of summer going, it’s a good time to assess how successful your summer garden was, and what (if any) changes you could make. My garden has enjoyed its best year so far, but it still leaves me with some questions. Do I try again with ‘Globemaster’ alliums after a complete no-show this year? I want to plant more dahlias, but where? Do I expand my small experimental wildflower meadow, which was one of this year’s highlights? Time spent now will pay dividends later…” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 07939406029…

WE are at the perfect time for planting out this year’s hardy biennials and perennials that have been grown from seed or potted up ready for relocation. While they will survive winter in their pots, most hardy plants fare better in the soil than constrained in containers. I have a tray of wallflower ‘Monarch Fair Lady’ plants, grown from seeds that came free with the June 10 issue of AG. A popular variety with good scent and vibrant colours, they have been pricked out, potted up and have grown strongly so are now ready to go in the ground. Autumn is the perfect time for planting because the soil is still warm after summer and is kept damp by seasonal showers. You probably have until mid-November, when the temperature should…

EVERY garden needs pockets of easy-going cheerfulness and colour, and this week’s free seeds will deliver that in spades. ‘Carmine King’ are California poppies, or Eschscholzia, low-maintenance hardy annuals that thrive in poor soil but need full sun to perform their best. This particular variety was introduced to the UK back in 1906. It produces glossy single red blooms above a clump of attractive frondy foliage. The bushy plants grow to just 8in (20cm) tall so will look fabulous sown under taller shrubs and border plants, and at the front of beds. Their robust nature and ability to thrive in thin soil means they can also be sown to add colour to rockeries and as under-cover for climbers such as clematis, as long as the larger plants don’t block the…

BY the time you read this we may be basking in warm sunshine, and all I can say is that I do hope this is the case because we have had a grey, cool, sunless summer following that hot and sunny June. It has been very windy at Spring Cottage, so the bees and butterflies hunkered down. However, when the sun did break through for an hour or two, clouds of butterflies, lots of hummingbird hawk-moths, hoverflies and bees began to forage. It concentrated them into a short time zone and lightened the gloom. It reminded me of a visit to Upper Boddington Reservoir in Northamptonshire some 40 years ago. It was the third week of April and I’d gone to see if I could see any recently arrived migrant…

This word search comprises words associated with bamboos. 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. BAMBOO CLUMP FORMER RUNNER BACK BAMBUSA BLACK CANE CHINA CHUSQUEA CREEPING FARGESIA INVASIVE SCAFFOLD SCREEN SHOOT HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 689, Amateur Gardening, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP, to arrive by Wednesday 27 September 2023. The first correct entry chosen at random will…

PERENNIAL super-weeds are like comic-book villains – seemingly indestructible, with an ambition to take over the world. But even vigorous spreaders like creeping thistle and knotweed have a nemesis. If you work out what it is, you can stop them. I work on an estate where bracken creeps into the gardens from the surrounding hedges. It’s a problem, because it gets among other plants, and unless you’ve got the strength of the Hulk to pull it out, it’s hard to shift. But bracken has an Achilles’ heel. If you tread on the tops, kinking them over where the stems meet the soil, sap bleeds from kinks at such a rate that the bracken retreats. It’s chemical-free, effective and (thanks to the crunch that bracken makes under your boots) a most…

AS one gardening year starts to fade into autumn, it’s time to plan for the next, which is why this week I’ve been starting to plant more spring bulbs. Bulbs are an economical and relatively easy way of adding colour to the garden and with autumn planting you can create months of interest next year, from snowdrops and yellow aconites to the early summer delights of alliums, bluebells and lily of the valley. Bulbs thrive in soil that is fertile and free-draining so if yours is heavy and water-retaining either plant bulbs in containers (see P5) or dig in grit and lots of well-rotted manure or compost to open up its structure and improve drainage. Thin and chalky soil may drain well, but it loses nutrients fast, so it will…

AS the cold weather approaches and we start making undercover space for lifted tender perennials, it is worth taking cuttings from them too. Your plants are more than likely to survive winter if kept in a well-ventilated, frost-free setting, but I like to take cuttings as an insurance policy, just in case the worst happens and they succumb in winter. Fuchsia, penstemon and pelargonium cuttings are all easy to take and propagate from and I keep mine either in the greenhouse or on a cool, light windowsill indoors. Pot up your cuttings in seed compost mixed with perlite, vermiculite or grit as the more open texture will help moisture and oxygen circulate around the roots. Most cuttings are sealed in plastic bags to keep the atmosphere humid and compost damp,…

IT is sad that bamboos have a reputation for being garden ‘thugs’, rapidly colonising areas, and invading anything and everything in their path. Truthfully, not all of them are like this, and the gorgeous non-invasive types are often bypassed in favour of something ‘safe’ – like a hedging conifer, or a wooden fence with a climber on it. A bamboo could easily have been a better choice, as many do make valuable living screens. They produce beautiful stems, with leaves that move gracefully in the slightest of breezes, creating gentle rustling sounds that add a whole new dimension to the garden. There are types with variegated leaves and coloured canes as well. Let’s investigate! Clump-formers v runners SO many people say they’ll never have bamboo again, because they’ve had it…

AS well as planting spring bulbs in the garden, it’s time to plant some forced bulbs indoors for Christmas and New Year. Several varieties, including hyacinths, amaryllis (or Hippeastrum) and Narcissus ‘Paper White’ are all available and if started now should be in flower for Christmas, several weeks before garden bulbs have started to bloom. Not all bulbs are suitable for this early ‘forcing’. The ones to buy should be labelled ‘prepared bulbs’, which means they have been briefly stored below freezing in the summer so they think they have already experienced winter and come into flower earlier. You need to pot them up in bulb fibre, which is very free-draining so the bulbs don’t rot, then seal their pot in a drawer or black bin liner. Check on them…

What’s gone wrong with my tomatoes? Q I seem to have a problem with my tomatoes this year as they have developed black spots. Is this the same as the roses and is the treatment the same? Also, is there a sawfly that eats laburnum leaves? Georgina Barham (via email) A Bad luck! I suspect that your black-spotted tomatoes are suffering from blossom-end rot, a physiological disorder in which erratic watering, in which the soil or compost dries out between being very wet, can cause an imbalance in the uptake of calcium, resulting in fruits that fail to mature normally. Alternatively, but less likely, your plants are suffering from alternaria canker, bacterial speck or anthracnose, for which there are no remedies. Sadly, at this late stage with blossomend rot, all…

No. 131 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 bamboo! Answers: HEDGE = Trellis panel, Wall, Fence…

BRAND-NEW plant introductions and new seed varieties may look expensive on the face of it, but when you see what is involved in their development it makes the cost become clearer. A lengthy, involved process The process involved in getting a new plant onto the market is long and complicated, sometimes taking 10 years before there are enough plants available to release for general sale. It involves selecting good parent plants, cross-pollinating them, growing the resulting seedlings for a year and selecting the best ones to keep growing. Then they have to be tested outdoors for growth habit and weather resistance before finally propagating enough for distribution to garden centres and mail-order companies. Upfront costs All this expense has to be met by the breeder before they receive any financial…