Archive | September, 2008

Anthurium a bisexual Houseplant

By on September 18, 2008 in Flowers and Plants, House & Greenhouse plants

The Spathe is the red waxy part of the Anthurium and the spike is called the Spadix which contains male and female flowers. Both the Spathe and the Spadix can be  a variety of colours from white, pink, green, or now even orange. There are many species of Anthurium and some are very popular with [...]

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Growing Cactus Dahlia from your Own Seed

By on September 18, 2008 in Flowers and Plants

Tips on Saving Seed Choose your parent plant and label the stem with variety and type. Take off the last of the petals or wait for them to fall. Leave the seed head on until it is dry and ready to take off the plant.This can be helped by squeezing excess moisture from the head. [...]

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Using A Potato Clamp for Storage

By on September 17, 2008 in Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs, Gardening

Storing through winter When storing potatoes you need to exclude light and moisture but retaining an even temperature. Do not wash spuds before storing. Do not allow them to be stored too cold or the starch will turn to sugar and start to go black. A fridge is too cold. A clamp is a simple [...]

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Plan Autumn Flower Colours

By on September 17, 2008 in Garden Design

Decorative Dahlias provide colour through to the first frost. This dahlia was snapped in the rain at Harrogate Valley Gardens which has a great show of Dahlias in their own raised bed. That may account for the six foot specimens that were on display. I was taken with the two tone effect of this flower. [...]

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Growing Asparagus in UK

By on September 16, 2008 in Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs

American culture and British cultivation ideas conflict over Asparagus. I will follow the British method of cutting the old ferns in Autumn to about 5cm and mulching. In America, in anticipation of heavy snows, they leave the ferns to protect the plant crowns. My bed will be in its third winter and next spring will [...]

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Compost Tea – Tea’s Up

By on September 16, 2008 in Flowers and Plants

Compost Tea If you click on the above link Doug will show you on a video how he makes a liquid compost. I use Comfrey leaves in my water barrel when I want an element of organic fertilizer from the compost. To fertilise blogs we rely on links to other sites. Below are some other [...]

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Canna Ginger up Autumn Colour

By on September 16, 2008 in Flowers and Plants

Canna lilies are part of the ginger family and not lilies. This orange flower with distictive red leaves that are like small banana leaves is very striking in the Autumn bed. Grow Cannas from rhizomes that are firm and hard not soft. Cannas perform best if given some protection particularly through early summer. Whilst they [...]

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Garden Compost and Bokashi

By on September 15, 2008 in Environmental Gardening

Bokashi, Japanese composting, is really a fermenting system. It converts your household food waste into a liquid and food remnants that are ripe for final composting. Ripe isn’t a fair word as it smells only of sweet pickle. An additive of a lactic acid based micro organisms in a bran carrier is mixed with the [...]

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Attacting Insects To Your Garden with Spectabile

By on September 14, 2008 in Environmental Gardening

This Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’ has all the insects buzzing with interest. The butterflies that are attracted to various Ice plant species can be seen on the butterfly web site. September is a good time for the flowers on this range of plants. Before flowering broken stalks are easy to root or the main plant can [...]

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Growing Osteospermum – A Great Summer Performer

By on September 11, 2008 in Flowers and Plants

My Osteospermum was donated by cutting from a neighbour about 10 years ago. The large daisy shaped flowers appear all summer long in a light purple shade. It would be hard to count the number of flowers each year and I am guilty of not feeding the plant. The plant seems hardy and is evergreen [...]

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