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Author: hortoris

Seed Storage Our Best Tips

Seed Storage Our Best Tips

Seed catalogues

‘Fresh is best’ particularly when it come to seeds. However if you have a surplus of seed that you can’t sow immediately they should be stored in a moisture proof container at a low temperature. A fridge compartment is ideal.

Storing Seed

  • Although the majority of seed will remain viable for a year or two, when kept at room temperature, cold storage extends the life considerably.
  • Never store seeds in a greenhouse or garden shed. The high temperature and humidity can kill off the seed in a matter of weeks.
  • Seeds in foil wrappers should be left unopened until ready for sowing.
  • Seed from seed exchanges or collected from your own garden should be sown as soon as practical. (Tender plants may need to wait until March-May)
  • Parsnip seed is not suitable for storing, it needs sowing in the first year.
  • Curcurbits (cucumber and courgettes) will remain viable as seeds for 5-7 years
  • Beware old seed from shops that may also have got too warm. Faded packets, slow sales levels and close use by dates are tell tale signs.

Buy a special seed storage box from amazon for less than £10 or the Burgon and Ball Seed Packet Organiser £19.95

Seed Storage Banks

Kew have a worldwide reputation for seed storage. They divide seed into classes:

  • Orthodox seeds can be dried, without damage, to low moisture contents, usually much lower than those they would normally achieve in nature. Over a wide range of storage environments their longevity increases with reductions in both moisture content and temperature, in a quantifiable and predictable way. …

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Pond Plants and Pond Care

Pond Plants and Pond Care

Green Island Triffid

A garden pond can become a miniature nature reserve. Wildlife benefits from the watery environment as do the plants selected below.

Pond Zones

1. The Pond side or Bog area are on the edge of the pond and get their damp  soil from the pond.

2. & 3. Zones are in the shallows around the edge of the pond. They are usually created on shelves near the edge and help amphibians escape the water and are useful for marginal plants.

4. The deeper part of the pond down to the bottom. Containers raised on bricks can help vary the depth of the pond to suit particular plants.

5. This zone is a floating area for plants that do not need to put down roots. This zone is used by oxygenators.

Selection Of Plants

  • Water lilies flower in strong colours between May and September. Zone 4 planting in sunken baskets full of loam. Leaves shade the water which is then loved by fish.
  • Marginal plants like Saururus cernuus (Lizard’s Tail), Oenanthe Flamingo (grown for it’s leaves) and Iris pseudocarpus are zone 2 plants.
  • Pond side I love to see Lobelia Queen Victoria or Iris ensata with some golden rushes Acorus ogon.
  • Native plants for the edges include Water Mint, Creeping Jenny, Purple Loosestrife or Marsh Marigolds. They give a natural feel to a large pond area.

Burnby Hall Pocklington water lilies

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Cure Damping Off?

Cure Damping Off?

As gardeners old and young contemplate a new season of growing plants from seed we look at ‘Damping Off’

What is Damping Off

  • The number 1 enemy of gardeners raising plants from seed.
  • It is a disease that kills young seedlings at or just below soil level.  Affected plants wilt and die.
  • It is caused by fungal activity.
  • Some species are more prone than others.
  • It seems to attack my seedlings in a humid atmosphere when sown indoors or in a cold frame.

What are the Cures for Damping Off

  • Good hygiene is very important. Disinfect seed trays and use fresh compost.
  • Keep part used compost in sealed bags.
  • Use new pots on seeds that are prone to the problem like begonias and brassicas.
  • A copper based fungicide watered on to the compost was the traditional cure or prevention.
  • Cheshunts compound or products specifically for the purpose are sold at garden centres.
  • Can be used on all seedlings whether edible or non-edible.
  • Easy to use, dilute and water the solution onto compost before sowing. …

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Avoid Tree Damage to Buildings

Avoid Tree Damage to Buildings

Far away tree

Trees are great natural features in our British landscape. It is no surprise that gardeners want to grow them in their gardens.
In addition to the horticultural problems trees can cause damage that other plants do not.  Broken branches and flying debris can break glass or knock down fences, roots can damage drains, trees take up water from the soil leaving it prone to subsidence and, rarely trees cause damage to foundations .

How to Avoid Tree Damage.

  • Only plant trees where they are unlikely to cause direct damage or subsidence.
  • Do not allow trees to overhang buildings.
  • Plant trees 6 feet  or 2 m   away from boundary walls.
  • Subsidence depends on many factors chiefly soil type, foundations, weather, and vegetation. Trees can increase the risk of subsidence because they take  water up from the soil. Clay soils are often worst.
  • Don’t plant trees anywhere near overhead electricity lines or telephone wires.
  • Ensure trees do not grow over greenhouses, conservatories or roofs.
  • Prune dead wood to avoid or reduce branches breaking off.
  • Keep the height of your trees below the distance to your buildings.
  • Root damage to buildings is rare and subsidence is the more likely cause
  • Leaking drains will get clogged up with tree roots (roots cannot get into sound unbroken drains). Maintain your drains. …

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Gardeners Bed and Breakfast Trips Tips

Gardeners Bed and Breakfast Trips Tips

Book Cover

The king of books about Bed & Breakfast has to be Alastair Sawday. His paperback ‘Garden Lovers Bed & Breakfast Special Places to Stay British Bed & Breakfast for Garden Lovers’ is a treasure trove of information for garden vistors.

The editorial team have tracked down hundreds of beautiful, eccentric, unique places to stay with gardens. ‘Several of the properties in this book are quite wonderful little corners of the UK that until now have been extremely well-kept secrets. A fantastic guide’.

What Others are Saying

  • ‘The ideal all-round publication for a gardener’s weekend away’ The Times
  • ‘Garden Fanatics will love this book.’ BBC Gardeners World
  • ‘In these places you will meet owners with hugely different gardens..’ Telegraph

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Growing Late Flowering Gaura Lindheimeri

Growing Late Flowering Gaura Lindheimeri

Gaura

Gaura Lindheimeri is a short lived perennial herbaceous plant growing to 18″-36″ tall from an underground rhizome. Gaura can be treated as a half hardy annual grown from seed and planted out  in mid summer. The plant has an AGM.

Growing Gaura Lindheimeri

  • Gaura is a plant from the prairie and likes a dry sun baked soil.
  • Gaura need space but looks light and airy when flowering after August.
  • The pinky-white flowers clustering on thin hairy stems.
  • Flowers go on appearing for months and  do not need dead-heading.
  • Try the slightly smaller deep-pink form, ‘Siskiyou Pink’ which has stems that are crimson or Cherry Brandy, The Bride Summer Breeze or other named varieties.
  • ‘Corrie’s Gold’ is another Gaura with a gold leaf and white flower.
  • Young plants need to be regularly pinched out to make bushy plants.
  • Mature Gauras do not move well.
  • Gaura Whirling Butterflies has slender stems and leaves are grey-green with ocassional black spots. The multitude of flowers dance above the plant like a host of butterflies when the breeze catches them.

‘I name this plant and all who sail in her’

‘I name this plant and all who sail in her’

Burton Agnes Pocklington

‘A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’

You can name a plant just for fun!
Common or vernacular or homemade names are completely unregulated. Obviously they do not get wide acclaim and may be replicas of other plants. Still if it amuses you or the family there is no harm done.

At the other end of the scale there are International Code of Nomenclature for Botanical and Cultivated Plants, governing the naming of cultivars and cultivar-groups. If you want to commercialise the plants you can apply for Plant Breeders Rights PBR. see below

For most varieties there are ‘Authorities’ or International Registers responsible for recording or controlling names, varietals, sub species and hybrids. The International Daffodil Registrar and the International Orchid Registrar are both maintained by the RHS. Other societies maintain registers like the national chrysanthemum society.

Plant Breeders Rights …

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Garden Insurance and Insuring Against Loss

Garden Insurance and Insuring Against Loss

Should you worry about theft and vandalism in your garden?
With the time and investment many people have made it pays to consider insurance cover.

What are Insurable Risks

  • Most commonly stolen items include lawnmowers, ornamental gnomes, tools, furniture, pond equipment, hanging baskets, containers, crops and even specimen plants.
  • Sculptures, York Stone, Slates and other desirables need to be insured.
  • There is also the danger of mindless vandalism, as well as destruction by extreme weather conditions such as snowstorms and gales, or unseen events like falling trees.
  • Outbuildings, garden sheds, summerhouses, barbecues and greenhouses can also suffer damage by fire or sundry hazards.

How Can You Get Cover

  • Regular household buildings and contents insurance usually covers damage to sheds and other outbuildings, as well as neighbours’ property, and third party visitors.
  • Check what cover you currently have as there will be limits and excesses. Unfortunately buildings insurance or contents insurance, for  outdoor possessions is often restricted to a token £500.

    • …

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What to do with Garden Non-compostables

What to do with Garden Non-compostables

Waste bag

It seems a waste to put non-compostables into landfill if there is an alternative. Fortunately our local authority provides a green bag and collection service. Your local tip will probably have separate areas for hardcore and other garden waste.

Composting Means and Methods

  • Garden compost heaps are for short term rotters taking 6-12 months.
  • ‘Green bag’ council schemes are better able to cope with problem rotting and are suitable for items listed below.
  • Landfill is far longer term rotting but even this is not suitable for Japanese Knotweed which needs burning.
  • Wormeries are fine for green waste and cooked food and scraps.

What do you Avoid on your Compost Heap

  • Anything that you avoid putting on your compost heap is classified as non-compostable for this purpose.
  • Roots particularly from trees are often too slow to rot down and I green bag them.
  • Pernicious roots sometimes survive the heat of my compost. Then they regrow loads of new plants when the compost is spread. So weeds and perennial roots  get green bagged.
  • Seed heads are green bagged so the council can compost them on an industrial scale.
  • Diseased and infected plant material is also green bagged except honey fungus
  • Excess of one waste product such as twiggy slow rotting stalks sometimes end up in my green bag.
  • Ruble and pure clay can’t be green bagged and needs to go to landfill unless you can create a new use for them like a base for a raised bed or pond.

Read about beginning a compost heap to get more tips and ideas.

Autumn Gardeners Tips for the Disorganised

Autumn Gardeners Tips for the Disorganised

I am the disorganised gardener in this situation. This is a series of unconnected tips that I have wanted to get off my chest but have not turned into a full post.

  • Sweet peas can be sown in autumn or spring. Brown or white seeds will germinate without help. Black, dark brown or mottled seeds have tough coats and water is taken up more easily if the hard coat is nicked gently with a knife or abraded on sandpaper.
  • Clay soil is fertile but is cold, heavy and hard on plant roots. Dig in bulky organic material. Then spread 6″ of garden compost or manure on the surface in autumn and let the worms drag the humus down into the soil over winter.
  • I store and grow plants under the eaves of my house. Take care as the house creates a rain shadow and pots occasionally need watering even in winter.
  • Try growing some Aconitum like the plant above. They flower late, like shade, do not need staking and look great.
  • Young and newly planted trees and shrubs are more delicate than established plants. Give them extra protection against a hard winter with mulch, wind breaks or even wrapping in hessian.
  • Stored apples need to be kept at 2-5degrees centigrade and checked occasionally for rot. One bad apple in a barrel as the saying goes.