Innholdsfortegnelse for 11-May-2024 i Amateur Gardening

Harvesting asparagus and chemical-free ways of keeping crops safe Lucy explains how to make the most of the next few weeks Harvest and care for asparagus As the daughter of commercial asparagus growers, I’ve eaten more than my fair share of these delicious and tender spears over the years. I also know quite a few secrets to this crop’s success, so let me share some with you. Firstly, make a note of the date you made your first harvest this year (we all celebrate that sweet moment with a photo on our phone – don’t tell me you don’t!). Count ten weeks forward from that date, and note in your diary or calendar, as that is the day you must stop cutting (I mark mine with a sad face). That…

“I was relieved and delighted when ‘AG’, as we always called it, was saved from extinction. I had happy years there, becoming Deputy Editor in 1978, and have always rated the quality of the contributors and the hands-on practicality of its advice. Congratulations on your 140th birthday ‘AG’ from an old and devoted admirer. ” Alan Titchmarsh MBE…

“The countdown is on for the premier show of the horticultural year, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and we can’t wait to see this year’s gardens. Last year one of our favourites was Sarah Price’s garden and we were very proud to have supplied many of the irises displayed, so in honour of the iris here’s Marc explaining more about his favourite plant.” Julia Be successful with bearded irises A sunny spot but don’t overwater says Beth Chatto Garden’s growing manager, Marc Whether you love them or loathe them, it cannot be denied that the tall bearded iris is a statement plant and one which drives the need, in some of us, to collect them. I had never considered myself an iris collector, but when I started writing this article, I…

Hi Kim! Please find my contribution for Poetry Corner. I think one of the best things about gardening is shared experiences. Monty Don shared his garden with Nigel but I much prefer a cat! Sadly, my cat, Fudge, passed away in January. Fudge My cat is… a hole-diggera mound-makera leaf-rippera bulb-resurfacera seedling-removera plant-flattenera grass-nibblera nepeta-chompera frog-watchera butterfly-chasera bee-pouncera person-trippera fence-scramblera tree-climbera shed roof-lazera suntrap-locatera door-guardera shed-nosiera box-explorera chair-sittersadly missed……

There are said to be around four generations in a century, which means there have been six or more since the very first issue of Amateur Gardening was published. It is something to think about - our ancestors getting their hands dirty, planting, growing and gardening in ways that are not dissimilar to how we connect with the earth today. The essence of organic gardening is to work within natural systems and cycles. Although important, organic growing doesn’t just mean avoiding the use of chemical weed killers and pesticide sprays - it means building and maintaining soil health, encouraging biodiversity and using all resources responsibly. Organic gardening can protect the environment, improve health and wellbeing, and bolster food security. For these reasons, more people are joining the organic gardening movement, but…

Food shortages forecast as bad weather wrecks crops The need to grow more of our own fruit and veg has been thrown into sharp focus as farmers are warning that dire winter and spring weather is likely to ruin many important crops. Farmers in many parts of the UK have been unable to plant crops such as potatoes, wheat and vegetables during the key spring season due to extreme wet weather and record rainfall. The sodden soil also means that many crops are likely to be poor quality or even non-existent after rotting in the ground. One leading retailer has said that the wholesale price of potatoes has risen 60% year on year. UK food producers are not alone, as wet conditions in Europe and drought in Morocco, which exports…

Pocket-sized pollinator patch Beneficial insects will create a buzz even in a small space, writes Chris Collins, Garden Organic’s Head of Horticulture Insects don’t care how big your garden is – if you provide food and shelter, they’ll use your tiny plot as a stepping stone to other plots, creating one big pollinator corridor. Pollinating insects such as bees, butterflies and moths play a crucial role in fertilising flowers and edible crops, and many of their offspring act as natural predators for garden ‘pests’. They also bring the garden to life with noise and colour. I like to mix layers of plants together as they would occur naturally to provide as diverse a plant mix as possible. So a runner bean in a large container could be underplanted with cascades…

This action-packed anniversary issue has been so exciting to pull together, with so many features to cram in, that I’ve squeezed my own pages down to one to accommodate everything else. As there’s nothing like a big anniversary to make one reminisce and reflect upon experiences and years gone by, I thought I’d take the opportunity and this page to share with you a little bit more about me and my personal take on some of my experiences and significant milestones that have helped inform the entrepreneurial editorial approach I take today. Making a career out of my love for gardening I don’t do things by halves, so when I decided to sell my PR companies I became set on doing so to a charity, which happened to be during…

The art of doing nothing Nurture precious green spaces around and inside you I scramble over boxes that have been sitting in my office for 14 years and counting. I am looking for external hard drives with garden photos on them, the older the drive, the bigger it is, like I’m peeling back the layers of me. It soon descends into a farce of swearing at inanimate objects, a stapler that looks at me the wrong way, a roll of tape that sticks to my backside. I knock over a pile of gardening books, a mountain of magazines, and crush something underfoot that squeaks. Thankfully, it is an old, deflated balloon. I shout downstairs to Carol, ‘Will people stop using my office as a dumping ground’ as if the entire…

How should I prune my raspberries? Q My raspberry canes are a mix of summer and autumn fruiting. I trim dead bits off the tops after fruiting and in the autumn I cut out all the brown/dead canes and cut down the remainder to 7cm (3in). I usually get a really good crop right through but am I doing it right? Jeremy Laurie, Brecon, Wales AIt’s good to hear that your mix of summer and autumn-fruiting varieties are yielding well. The answer, I feel, is to label those canes which fruit in summer and those which crop from late summer to autumn. Then, when leaves have fallen in late autumn, lift plants with a spade and segregate summer and autumn varieties. Replant them in a sunny, fertile spot so that you…

Why not try some exotic bulbs? Beat the trend with these astounding beauties This anniversary edition of Amateur Gardening really got me feeling nostalgic, as I remember thumbing through the magazine when I was just eight years old, sitting in my grandparents’ house on a Sunday morning. Even at that age I was engrossed in the horticultural year, and hoovered up the free seeds from the cover every month. My grandparents didn’t seem to mind, they were always encouraging me with my hobby (little did they know it would become a career!) The anniversary got me thinking about what types of plants my Nana grew, especially indoors on the windowsills. I remember the otherworldly Fireball Lily (Scadoxus multiflorus) and the equally awesome Pineapple Lily (Eucomis pole-evansii) - both of which…

Secure sweeter success when growing corn Learn how to maximise the short growing season with Bob’s top advice In most older vegetable gardening books you’ll seldom find references to sweetcorn, nor space allocated in crop rotations for these delectable cobs. It’s almost solely Anglo-American grown: yes, many places grow varieties of maize for fodder, grain, flour and pressing for corn oil, but few countries grow sweetcorn. It is not actually a new crop, but it has been immensely improved to the point where it’s far more reliable and rewarding than varieties of yore. In the past few decades, available seed has been superseded in vigour, cob size, speed to harvest and most of all in sweetness. This has been done through intensive breeding, and nearly every current variety is F1…

It’s the start of a busy month Ruth gets to grips with the most important May tasks The first ever issue of Amateur Gardening was issued 140 years ago this month and I am sure that Victorian gardeners were kept as busy in their plots at this time of year as we are today. There is so much to think about in May - from pruning and Chelsea chopping to sowing directly into the soil, pricking out seedlings, pinching out young plants to encourage bushy growth, keeping plants safe from pests and disease and making sure you still have some insulating fleece to hand in case of unexpected late frosts. Over the next few days I will be cutting back our early-flowering shrubs, the winter-blooming clematis and forsythia, and later in…

The flight of the swallow Val seeks solace in the seasonal return of these magnificent aviators Once the spring equinox has been and gone, I begin to think about the arrival of our summer visitors. They’re not very early in the cold Cotswolds, because we’re in the chilly heart of England. The swallows generally arrive here between the 22nd and 25th April, although one year we saw a solitary swallow on 1st April and I’m not fooling, despite the date. This clearly exhausted bird clung to our television aerial for several hours, before flying northwards. Our swallows are usually followed by house martins, a day or two later, and then by swifts roughly three weeks later here. Sometimes, though, it can be mid-May. It’s been such a cold spring here…

A walk down memory lane, kale and marvellous mini meadows for May Celebrating the 140th birthday of our venerable mag has set me thinking about how food has changed over the years. I was born three years after rationing ended following World War II and grew up during the 1960s and 70s. There was not much variety, fresh garlic was unheard of and I remember the marvel of a bean sprout-filled spring roll from the first Chinese takeaway to open in our village. This was a sustainable time and if we needed more fresh produce than Dad could grow, we’d walk to the nearby greengrocer whose assistants weighed it, wrapped it in newspaper and popped it in our sturdy, reusable shopping bag. Peelings went on a compost heap and as…

Are swedes from Sweden? Do vegetable swedes have anything to do with Sweden? Well, yes they do. Some people refer to them as Swedish turnips. They were introduced to the UK from Holland in 1867, but they were first grown commercially in Sweden, as they are ideally suited to the Scandinavian climate, being arguably the hardiest of the root vegetables. They can be dug from autumn right through winter. But what about Brussels sprouts? Do they come from the city of Brussels? Possibly! Towards the end of the 19th century Dr Van Mons, a Belgian horticulturist, admitted that there was no categoric information on their true origin. However, he said that “… it has been a very old inhabitant of our (Belgian) gardens, for it is mentioned in the year…

How good plant care saves us money Time spent nurturing plants keeps money in the bank, says Ruth In the last issue I explained how having a naturally diverse garden with lots of birds, animals and insects can help keep pest populations low, saving you money on chemicals that kill or endanger everything indiscriminately. This week I’m looking at how consistent and correct plant care will keep your garden productive without the need to buy lots of expensive fertilisers and boosters. The first instruction is to always buy plants that suit your soil and garden. It’s easy to get carried away, but always read the planting label and don’t be fooled into thinking that, for example, an acid-loving plant will be happy in your chalky soil if you bestow it…

Your lovely letters, emails and social media posts continue to flow in beautifully. Every message, poem, idea and comment matters. Please keep them coming. We will send out a thank you gift for every item published in the magazine so do please send your address and contact details when you get in touch. The Facebook account for Amateur Gardening magazine is now up and running again and we have also started a new Instagram account @amateurgardeningofficial. We hope to see you there. Busy bees Hi Kim and the team I was so pleased to find Amateur Gardening back and have enjoyed it every fortnight. So many good ideas and free seeds too. My greenhouse is full of young plants now and husband is worried he might have to dig up…

Beautiful Containers A pot a day keeps the gardener at play Our own garden isn’t large by any means so ever since I started gardening, container growing has been an essential part of its success. I particularly enjoy growing in pots and appreciate the exciting potential that they afford to gardens of all shapes and sizes. From closer-to-the-backdoor growing in larger spaces, to vertical gardening opportunities when space is at a premium, here are some of my favourite picks to help you on your way. Healthy strawberries Made from 100% recycled plastic (and it is also 100% recyclable too), ELHO has created a pot that ticks all of the boxes when it comes to the perfect space for tasty home-grown fruit. Strawberries, although generally fairly simple to grow, can easily…