Rain Freshens up the Garden
It’s been a relative dry summer down here in Oxford. The recent rain has brought out the best in our flowers and plants. A few shots from recent rainy day.
Sweet Pea
Geranium
Rose
Dahlia
Related
Growing and Harvesting Curly Kale
Kale or borecole has returned to popularity as a vegetable. Kale is a form of cabbage Brassica oleracea Acephala and has green or purple leaves.
Growing Curly Kale
- The leaves do not form a cabbage head but remain open.
- Some varieties have flat leaves but the flavour and texture is not as refined. These leaves are often used as animal feed.
- Baby leaves can be used in a salad and have a peppery taste.
- Black Tuscany Kale has attractive dark green, deeply savoyed, strap-like leaves.
- The traditional winter hardiness makes this a useful winter to spring vegetable at a time when fresh garden produce is scarce.
- F1 Kale Reflex has more intensely curled, succulent and nutritious, dark green leaves which stand well without yellowing.
- Grow Kale from seeds planted in February or March. Some varieties supplied by Thompson Morgan can be grown inside for salads.
Eat the Seasons says ‘Kale is a very handy ingredient for seasonal eaters as it is one of the few green vegetables that is more abundant and flavourful during the coldest months of the year.’
Harvesting Kale
- Choose a good variety and pick the greenstuff when it is young and tender .
- Pick from the crown of the plant from November onwards.
- Remove a few young leaves each time you pick.
- Use a sharp knife or a sharp downwards tug.
- Do not gather mature or yellowing leaves for kitchen use as they will be bitter.
- Stripping of the crown will stimulate the development of succulent side shoots.
For more information on Ornamental Kale read
Buying Primroses and Rosebud Primrose Plants
The mail order catalogues and newspapers are carrying lots of adverts for plug plants. Pansies, Violas and Primroses seem the most popular offerings and will give a good show next spring.
Rosebud Primroses
- Some plants have captured the imagination of growers and this year it certainly applies to Rosebud Primroses.
- These double Primroses have a sweet fragrance when you get close to the flowers.
- The display is generally in a vivid mixture of colours including warm shades.
- They flower in late Autumn and early Spring.
- Thompson & Morgan search for seeds and plants
Plug Plant Sizes and Tips
- Large plugs arrive when the plants are 4″ tall with several healthy leaves. They are often packed in 24’s.
- Small plugs are often just better than germinated seedlings. Usually packed in larger quantities, 120’s, for growing on.
- Medium plugs may be 2-3″ high plants depending on supplier.
- If you can give better conditions by potting up the plugs and growing them on then do so.
- If you are going to grow in containers or window boxes you may want to plant them directly into there final home.
Primrose Growing Tips
- Primroses tend to flower on short stems. Polyanthus have longer stems and more delicate flowers.
- Primroses can have masses of flowers on one plant and will provide a splash of colour if planted in neutral or slightly acid soil.
- Double Primroses like a partially shaded position and large quantities of organic matter.
- Rosebud Primroses do not set seed, but the plant will keep producing blooms in an effort to set seed.
- Strong flowering exhausts the plant and they need extra feeding and watering with a weak solution of high potash or tomato fertiliser from when buds first appear.
- Pick some blooms for the house as they keep well in water.
Spring flowering Primroses are plants I am happy to buy mail order. They are easier and more reliable than growing from seed. The choice is improving although if you want a particular variety you will have to DIY.
Weed Suppressing Material
My front garden was looking a little ragged. I was tired of permanently fighting a loosing battle against weeds, so I thought I would brighten up the garden and make it low maintenance at the same time.
I placed a good quality weed suppressing material over the soil. It is best to prepare the soil, by removing weeds and raking until smooth. Then I placed a strip of weed suppressing material on the soil. To go round the trees, I gave the material a little cut so it would squeeze through the stem of the trees.
Then I laid some stones on top of the weed suppressing material and that was all. The weed suppressing material is relatively cheap. The stones from my local garden centre were quite expensive. But, since it was a small area it wasn’t too bad. If you are using a lot of stones / pebbles, it is worth looking into a custom delivery.
The interesting thing is how the brightly coloured gravel changed the complexion of the garden. Funnily enough a lodger who had been living there a few months, thought the conifers had just been planted. In other words, with gravel underneath it looked a different plant.
Now it is laid down, at least part of the garden will be weed free and low maintenance for a long time. A good investment of time and money.
- Weed suppressing fabric at Amazon.co.uk
Related
Growing and Maintaining Raspberries for Big Crops
The summer Raspberries are now finished and I am eagerly awaiting a crop from my Autumn Raspberries planted 2 season ago.
In the meantime the old Raspberries are getting a bit of friendly treatment.
Cultivation of Early Raspberries.
- The plants throw up canes 3-5 feet high from a stool at ground level.
- In Summer and Autumn new canes are produced that will carry the flowers and fruit next spring.
- Canes will only fruit once so old canes should be cut down at ground level after you have harvested the fruit
- I shred the old canes on to my compost heap.
- New canes need support. I string wire across the row from stout posts at each end.
- Raspberries are a hungry and thirsty fruit.
- Feed with general purpose granular fertiliser like Growmore in spring and mulch with well-rotted farmyard manure.
Varieties and Species
- Grow Raspberries from bare-root plants in the autumn. You can buy several red raspberry varieties mail order from Thompson & Morgan
- Glen Moy – spine free canes, heavy crops in early summer
- Glen Prosen – firm fruit in mid-summer
- Autumn fruiting types include All Gold and Autumn Bliss
Tips for Growing Raspberries for Big Crops
Plant raspberries in rows and trained along a post and wire system to make a hedge of canes.
Avoid a very windy site unless you can put up windbreaks to protect side branches and pollinating insects.
Canes get replaced each year, roots go on for a long time if maintained with water and feed.
Main-crop raspberries fruit on 1-year-old canes that are then cut down to ground level. Then tie in new growth to the support wires and mulch well.
See also
Coloured and species Raspberries
Growing and maintaining raspberries
Raspberries Spring Summer and Autumn
Spanish Salsify -Scolymus Hispanicus & Salsify
Common Golden Thistle or Spanish Salsify has golden yellow flowers that look like other members of the Compositeas.
Growing Spanish Salsify
- The plants prefer light well-drained soil. Occasionally it will be found growing wild but as its name suggests it grows well in Spain where it is also known as Spanish Oyster.
- Spanish Salsify is a biennial or perennial plant, which grows 2-3′ tall and is very spiny. The stems are branched at the top, with discontinuous spiny branchlets.
- Cultivation has reduced since Victorian times when it was more popular
Growing for Eating and Cooking
- All parts of the plant are edible but the roots were originally thought to have a slight diuretic effect.
- Root eaten raw or cooked have a sweet flavour that makes an excellent vegetable though it is rather low yielding.
- The roasted root has been used as a coffee substitute
- Young leaves and leafstalks can be blanched and used in salads
- The flowers are used to adulterate saffron as a food colouring
- In Spain the main uses are in salads or with scrambled eggs .
Read more on the UN Agricultural web site
Ordinary Salsify
- Grown from seed the roots can be stored for winter use.
- Salsify Scorzobianca produces slender, parsnip-like white skinned roots. They can be left in the ground and lifted as required. In the spring the tender shoots of Salsify Scorzobianca make an appetising green vegetable.
- Seeds available from Thompson Morgan
- The roots have a delicious, delicate flavour likened to Oysters or Asparagus.
- Salsify is a good source of Vitamin C and potassium.
Amaranthus – Salad Leaf, Ornamental and Cereal
A family of plants that looks good, tastes good and by golly it does you good – what more can you want.
- Amaranthus (singular Amaranth) has other names in other cultures. I like the African name ‘Chewa’ or the Caribbean ‘Callaloo’.
- Chinese use ‘Bayam’ in stir fries
- The plant has had synthetic red dyes named after it and the Hoppi red Dye variety has long been known for it’s deep red.
- Amaranth ‘Red Army’ is sold by Thompson & Morgan as a green veg like mustard and cress see below.
Thompson Morgan’s Growing Tips
- Grow seeds of Amaranth Red Army microgreens for instant colour and visual appeal, with a mild flavour, brightening salads and garnishes. Micro greens are eaten as young seedlings prior to the first true leaves, when they are full of an intense range of flavours.
- They are quick and easy to grow indoors all the year round.
- Grow in a similar way to mustard and cress. Fill seed trays with vermiculite, then sprinkling the seeds liberally, but not too thickly on the surface. Place the trays on a warm windowsill or in the greenhouse.
- Ensure the seeds are constantly moist and as the seedlings emerge, especially during summer, mist spray or water carefully as necessary.
- Cut these ‘Living Seedlings’ as they develop for immediate use or keep in a plastic bag in the fridge
- Just like sprouting seeds and salads leaves, they are very rich in healthy nutrients, ideal for spicing up sandwiches and salads or to garnish soups.
- Seedlings mature quicker in the warmer, longer days of summer, and take a little longer during the depths of winter.
Chillies for Greenhouse Garden and Home
Chillies are a hot plant to grow and a little goes a long way so they are an economic crop for the space.
Growing From Seed
- Chilli seeds need to be sown early in the year for a long growing and ripening season.
- Germination can be variable and speed & percentage success is improved with a propagator warmth.
- Use a gritty soil based compost like Arthur Bowers as Chillies like good drainage.
Chilli Growing Tips
- Pot on your seedlings into 3″ pots when the leaves are large enough to hold
- Pot on as they grow into 9 inch pots or larger depending on the variety.
- Chillies are best grown in a greenhouse or poly-tunnel though they can be grown outside in a sunny spot.
- Smaller pots can be used for compact ornamental varieties.
- Shade your greenhouse or conservatory to avoid scorching.
The Complete Chilli Pepper Book: A Gardener’s Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking
Chilli Varieties and Heat
- Cayenne pepper plants will flower and fruit much earlier than varieties such as Habanero, Scotch Bonnet or Naga.
- The slower varieties require much more heat and light and are best kept in a conservatory or greenhouse to ensure they fruit as soon as possible.
- Habaneros take over 3 months from potting on to reach maturity.
- Heat is measured in ‘Scovilles’ . Sweet Peppers score nil, Jalapenos & Hot Wax 2-8k, Tabasco & Cayenne 30-50k, Habenero & Scotch Bonnet 100-325k and Naga Jolokia upto 855k. Police use a Pepper spray that is rated at 5.3m Scovilles and pure Capsicum is 16m Scovilles. Hot or what?
Memorial Grass Mix for Prince Albert
There are grasses for most purposes including bowls, tennis and cricket through to relaxation and leisure activities.
Sorry there isn’t a grass that suits the new Wembley and also sorry I do not know who created this list of grass seed varieties to grow lawns in different circumstances.
| Hard Wearing Lawn | High Quality
Lawn |
Shaded
Position |
|
| Chewing’s fescue | 55% | 80% | – |
| New Zealand Crested Dogstail | 35% | – | – |
| Browntop Agrostis tenuis | 10% | 20% | 30% |
| Fine leaved fescue | 20% | ||
| Sheep’s fescue | 40% | ||
| Creeping Red fescue | 10% |
Read more Tips on Lawn Care and Tips for Autumn Lawns
Growing White Currants
White Currants are closely related to Red Currants and need similar, sunny or partially shaded treatment. They will reward the soft fruit grower with a nice crop of sweet juicy fruit for gardeners pies and summer puddings.
What is a White Currant
- Ribes rubrum is the fruiting currant which can be red, yellow, pink or white.
- These currants are related to the Gooseberry
- White Currants make a fairly strong, vigorous, upright bush. The plant in the photo has been trained in a ‘U’ shape as a double cordon. This urn shape in a bush or cordon allows air to circulate and helps harvesting.
- White Versaillies has large light yellow and sweet fruit ready for harvesting early July. ‘White Grape’ AGM and ‘White Pearl’ fruit in summer.
Growing White Currants
- Plant currants when they become dormant towards the end of November or December.
- Propagate from ripe hardwood cuttings 10-12 inches long burried ¾ of the way into the ground. New roots will strike from a number of areas along the stem.
- You can also layer currants in autumn or spring as they root quite freely.
- Prune all young side shoots to 5 leaves in June. In Autumn or winter cut back long shoots by one third.
- Snip strings of fruit with scissors (then separate them from the stalk with a fork)
