Innholdsfortegnelse for 3-Aug-2024 i Amateur Gardening

Picking edible flowers Growing beautiful flowers in our gardens is something that we all love, but of course I am elated in the knowledge that many of my choices are edible, too. For many years I’ve keenly foraged June hedgerows for elderflowers, and have carefully stuffed courgette and pumpkin blooms with herb-infused cream cheese, and this year is no different. These bright red ‘Tip Top Velvet’ nasturtium blooms will bring fire to leafy salads (in colour and flavour – the blooms are quite peppery), and along my local hedgerows rich splashes of pink tell me that its mallow (Malva sylvestris) season (these blooms make a lovely sweet tempura). If I spot chive flowers they become destined for my potato salad (giving a milder onion flavour than the leaves) and if…

Woe is me! I have just joined the box caterpillar club, although I didn’t get a free badge. I spotted some damage on one of my box sculptures, but I only noticed after it had been badly attacked. There were lots of bare twigs and I panicked in case it was box blight. Of the two, I think box blight must be the worst, although my opinion could change as once this moth finds you, you’re likely to get it again and again. Most gardens get two waves of attack per year, one in early summer and another in August. As an organic gardener I can’t spray this caterpillar with chemicals. These would kill every caterpillar in my garden and not just those of the box tree moth. A thorough…

It’s estimated there are no less than 23 million gardens in the UK, with proportionally fewer in larger cities where flat-dwelling is more popular. Due to city urbanisation, space is always at a premium, so gardens tend to be smaller. Statistics show that gardens across the UK vary in size from 3.6m2 upwards, with an average size of approximately 190m2. Some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve been lucky enough to visit have been smaller spaces where well-considered, thoughtful design and planting have resulted in what I refer to as ‘TARDIS’ gardens – the space appearing much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. My closest friends Otis and Ben, both very keen gardeners, have a small garden measuring just 12x8m (39x26ft), filled to bursting with lush,…

Tomatoes by the trillion According to the 2022 figures for countries producing tomatoes, Britain comes in at number 86! China, India and Turkey lead the field. This is understandable, as the UK doesn’t get the year-round warmth, and the sunshine hours, that are needed for growth. In our gardens, the tomato ranks as our number one vegetable – or is it a fruit? Technically, it’s a fruit as it bears the plant’s seeds (in the same way as the marrow, pepper, sweetcorn, peas and all beans). However, it would be ridiculous to classify all of these as ‘fruits’ in everyday-speak. In America, in 1887 (when AG was just three years old), the U.S. Supreme Court settled the matter by declaring that the tomato is legally a vegetable, based on the…

We make our own compost in a two-bin compost heap around the back of the shed. It works well, filling up with green kitchen peelings, grass clippings, deadheadings and prunings as well as coffee grounds, shredded cardboard and paper, and ash from the log burner (well-seasoned logs only). It saves us a lot of money and produces roughly enough to use on the raised beds and also mulch and enrich the soil in the garden beds (at the end of summer we also reuse some of the growbag compost and save the rest for growing greenhouse salads in the winter). But sometimes, the compost throws up some unexpected extra goodies. Earlier this year we noticed a couple of potato plants growing in the middle of a border. They must have…

The origin of the word ‘bamboozled’ may have been lost in the mists of time, but you don’t need to be Poirot to know it refers to bamboo – a plant that’s more puzzling than an Agatha Christie with missing pages. As a student working in a botanic garden, I discovered that bamboo is a close relative of lawn turf and part of the Poacea, aka the grass family. It shares the same genes and clambers in the same family tree, but, like Arnold Schwarzenegger to its Danny DeVito kin, its roots will threaten with an ‘I’ll be back’. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of woody bamboos is the way most species flower ‘gregariously’. This means that plants of the same type, no matter where they grow on the planet,…

Defra investigated over use of bee-killer Watchdog looking into emergency pesticide agreement A government body is being investigated by an environmental watchdog after it was given the go-ahead to ratify the use of a bee-killing pesticide that has been banned by the EU. Defra, the department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is being examined by the campaign group ClientEarth following the previous government’s agreement that farmers could use the neonicotinoid Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops. The toxin is highly poisonous to bees - one teaspoon is enough to kill 1.25bn honeybees - according to bee expert Professor Dave Goulson. Now, ClientEarth has submitted a complaint to the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) which was established after Brexit as a replacement to the EU’s framework for dealing with offences…

Alpines are some of the most beautiful flora a gardener can grow. This group of plants thrives naturally in some of the most challenging conditions, often at high altitude, in poor soil and with extremes of hot and cold. Small in stature, but tough in nature and adapted physiology, they’re perfect for small-space balconies, back gardens and rooftops. These beautiful plants can create mini landscapes, and one of the more traditional methods for displaying them is in a sink garden. Enamel sinks are easily bought online or picked up at recycling centres, minus the plug. They can be transformed by a simple ‘hypertufa’ mixture of three parts each of cement, peat-free compost and sharp sand. If you’re not keen on using cement then there are plenty of eco-friendly substitutes such…

I hope you’re enjoying the summer, depending on where you live the sun may or may not have come out. But, we’re not going to talk about that… Back in June, I was very honoured to be a judge at the National Plant Show near Birmingham, where we crowned Digitalis ‘Apple Blossom’ as our winner. However, I thought you might like to see a few of the other entrants, as there’s some really cool stuff there, especially in the shrub category! Spiraea WALBERTON’S (R) PLUM CARPET Now, it’s not very often new spiraea come along, but when they do, I think we should sit up and take notice. They are stalwarts of amenity planting, which tells us that they are tough and resilient. This new cultivar WALBERTON’S (R) PLUM CARPET…

Planning to sow cabbage might seem mundane at a time when there are so many exciting crops ready for harvest but we must think of next early year’s hungry gap. This is when the foraged new growth of weeds like nettles and ground elder come in useful, but fresh greens and hearting cabbage will always put a spring in your step. The timing of this sowing is quite precise, with colder areas of the UK advised to sow late in July and warmer regions in early August. The aim is to plant out from mid-September so that plants are well-established before the cold, wet winter months. Both handsome and useful, culinary herbs are a strong feature of our kitchen garden and for a good mixture, we grow rosemary, sage, thyme,…

The veg patch in August is gorgeously abundant. I can hardly keep up with harvests of tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes - what a delicious situation! Regular picking of dwarf, climbing and runner beans will help to ensure longer cropping times. If there’s more than you can eat, they freeze beautifully and also make flavoursome pickles and ferments to enjoy during the winter. Fill gaps made as plants are harvested and cleared with transplants. I sow most of my edibles into modules first, so that they have already been growing for a few weeks and can easily be popped into any new spaces that appear. This helps to maximise how much I can grow in each bed every year. August is a key time for sowing overwintering crops for undercover spaces:…

Can I save my acer leaves? Q I have a beautiful acer in a pot. Recently it has developed pale brown patches on the tips on its leaves. What is causing this and what can I do to cure it? This happened last year also. Catherine Regan (via email) A Thank you for the attached image of your desiccated acer. From the state of its leaves I suspect that it is suffering from sun scorch, especially as symptoms are similar to those that you witnessed last year. Pleasingly, as your plant is potted, I urge you to move it to a lightly shaded spot where the midday sun can’t burn its foliage. Unfortunately, it will have developed most of its leaves for the year, so cutting back its ‘crippled’ foliage…

What’s a major difference between an early and late potato, other than the latter’s longer time to get to harvest? Size! We grow early sorts for rapid results with lots of smallish new potatoes, we grow late sorts mostly wanting somewhat larger tubers for storage. If we save our own ‘sets’, the seed potatoes, we need to be much more particular with late (as well as mid-season and second earlies) than early sorts. The aim of earlies is a rapid crop of many smallish new potatoes, so saving next year’s sets of egg-sized tubers from any healthy plants should work just fine. But if we save similar egg-sized specimens from later varieties we must be careful not to take them from those plants producing many or only small tubers overall.…

I’m afraid that in this issue, my pages are going to be rather disease-heavy because an inescapable side effect of this year’s topsy-turvy weather has been the sight of many plants struggling to stay healthy and reach their full potential. The mild, wet conditions have made our gardens a perfect breeding ground for fungal problems and diseases - and that’s before we get anywhere close to talking about the absolute jamboree it’s given the slugs and snails! So on this page and the next I take a look at some of the most common diseases you may spot around your plot and allotment and show you how to beat them and avoid them in future seasons. Prevention is always better than cure and knowing your opponents’ weak points (and not…

This year has been extremely challenging in lots of ways. I think it’s important to acknowledge this because if nothing else, it helps us let off a little ‘steam’. The so-far soggy summer and mild, wet winter has resulted in a greater risk of pests and diseases for gardeners. More pests have been able to overwinter, reproduce and wreak havoc in conditions that are eminently favourable for them. Although some plants have enjoyed the rain, many others have not and annuals have been slower to grow and some possibly weakened, making them more susceptible to attack. In July, I gave some talks at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Festival on climate change gardening and natural pest control, and I was inundated with questions about slugs. I spoke to gardeners absolutely…

With August here, and the abundance of colour slowly subsiding, foliage plants and any remaining summer flowers have become key attractions. Verbena, a consistent source of late-season colour and enduring seed heads, continues to add interest throughout the free-draining areas of the garden. In the waning summer days, this genus never disappoints. Verbena is a wonderfully versatile plant offering a range of heights and forms, and typically producing lilac-blue flowers. Originating from all over the world, plants generally prefer warmer, free-draining soils, with many hardy to the UK climate. When thinking of the genus, the first to come to mind is the popular Verbena bonariensis with its incredibly rigid, slender growth habit which, despite its height, is perfect for creating a summer ‘screen’ to view the garden through from late…

In our previous home I created a shrubbery, thinking that it would be a good way to fill a space, using a type of living fence separating the area where we parked our cars from the garden. What I hadn’t bargained on was just how much it would provide year-round colour and interest, or that it needed very little work to keep it looking good. So when we moved to our new home three years ago, I was keen to recreate this look and to make sure that I included plenty of shrubs in other areas of the garden also. I think shrubs often have an unfair reputation of growing too large or straggly, or conversely, for being difficult to grow. Yet careful selection of the right shrub, and the…

Where are all the insects? Dear Kim For some years I have grown various plants which are of benefit to pollinators and insects. However over recent years the drop in numbers has been visibly apparent both within the garden and at my allotment site. This year we have hardly seen any pollinators, certainly very concerning times, a state of emergency it seems for our beneficial insects. Attached a picture of one such beneficial shrub in my garden, a spirea normally covered with various beneficial insects, hardly any to be seen. I was wondering if other readers are experiencing the same situation this year? Many thanks Christopher J Walpole, St Clair Kim says; I’m afraid this year has been tricky in many ways. We talk about just this on the news…

Which products, or projects would you like Adam to cover and trial in his column? Please contact editor@amateurgardening.com with suggestions. I’ve got a slight confession to make - rarely, do I make the time to properly sit down in the garden and enjoy the fruits of my labour. I’m sure I’m not alone. I’m keen to change that though and sit, take stock and enjoy my outside space a little more. So this issue I’ve selected my top garden furniture picks, and with something for every size of garden on offer, I’ve got you covered. Comfy chair Recognising that not all gardens allow for large furniture, the beautifully characteristic Rosedene chair from Forest Garden is a great answer for small and spacious gardens alike. Wooden furniture always gives a timeless…