I am picking more and more Cherry Tomatoes as the days get longer. I still have a lot of other vines in the greenhouse with fruit to pick and if they won’t ripen I will try some of these tips. Let me know if you have other methods.

Encourage late ripening

• If you haven’t taken the greenhouse shading off, do so and clean all the glass.
• Bunny Guinness suggests you cover plants with horticultural fleece or perforated plastic.
• Stop pinching out as it is too late and excess water can be transpired through the new leaves to help avoid splitting.
• Reduce the plants work load by selecting the fruit you want to ripen and take the rest off.
• If you pick green tomatoes hang vines in a dark dry place to ripen.
• Wrap a tomato in newspaper and put in a drawer  or cardboard box. Tomatoes ripen best in the dark and sunlight will make the skins get tough.
• Put a banana in with green tomatoes will speed up the ripening/decay process
• Pick green tomatoes as they start to change colour. Hard, dark green tomatoes get to a point where they won’t ripen and are only good for Chutney.

For a chance to win a National Trust Holiday worth £1000 enter the Yorkshire Bank and Daily Telegraph sponsored ‘Greener Gardens Competition’.

Send your greener garden ideas including pictures if you wish to greenergardens@telegraph.co.uk

There are over 1000 smaller prizes but best of all, you will be sharing your green gardening ideas with a far larger audience. A special feature will appear in the Daily Telegraph on 4th October 2008. You can also add your idea to our web site in the comments below. Postal entries should be sent to Yorkshire Bank Greener Gardens Competition, Telegraph Media Group, Longbridge Road, Trafford Park,Manchester. M17 1SN

Yorkshire Bank and the National Trust offer gardeners tips on green gardening

Wrap.org offer gardeners tips on composting.

Forget 6 inch cuttings, for bigger shrubs use bigger cuttings. Giant cuttings of 18-36 inches may be worthwhile on the following:- Cistus, Euonymous, Hebe, Leycesteria, Weigelia, Pyracantha or Kerria japonica. I have a friend who excells with Roses taken this way.

Proceedure for Cuttings

• Water the host plant well the evening before taking cuttings.
• Take cutting early in the day, keep out of the sun and spray with water to minimise wilting.
• Select a shoot with plenty of new growth. Cut it off cleanly at the base where it comes from a branch or cut below a swelling leaf node instead.
• Remove any flowers, lower leaves and soft tips by pinching out
• If the cutting has a woody bark remove a sliver an inch long to aid rooting.
• Have available one litre pots full of a free draining mix of grit and multipurpose compost.
• Dip the end of the cutting in fresh hormone rooting compound, such as Murphy’s, plant and water in
• Place in a humid environment eg. a plastic bag over the pot supported by canes, so leaves don’t touch the sides, and tied with a rubber band.
• Keep in a shady spot removing dead leaves regularly.
• In about 5-6 weeks, when rooted, acclimatise to outside conditions and overwinter in a sheltered spot
• Plant out in March

Climber Cutting Tips Read the rest of this entry »

This family of herbaceous perennials can make attractive ground cover with its wide variety of foliage. Plant in dry ground between shrubs that give some shade from hot sun. Starting to flower in May many varieties go on until the first frost.

Gardeners Tips on Lamiums

• Plants are at their best when the weather is cooler in Spring and Autumn.
• Clip or deadhead plants that are looking untidy. That will encourage new foliage and flowering.
• Some varieties are very invasive, avoid Lamium galeobdolon ‘Florentium’.
• Lamiums Canon’s Gold and Beacon Silver tend to scorch in full sun.
• Some favourites include L. Maculatum ‘Elisabeth de Haas’ with mauve flowers and green, silver and yellow foliage or ‘Roseum’, ‘White Nancy’ or ‘Checkers’.
• There are many varieties and plants that don’t live up to expectations should be composted
• L. aureum is less vigorous and does best in shade

Pros

• I am still actively deadheading many plants in the hope of a more flowers from a long, warm, sunny Autumn - some hope editor
• Plants look tidier if they are lightly trimmed when deadheading
• Energy is put into the remaining plant rather than seed production. So plants may be better able to withstand winter and some will have a better established root system.
• Softwood that has no time to ripen will probably suffer in the first frosts so it is pruned out
• Dying flowerheads may rot or damage other flowers or leaves.
• Deadheading stops unwanted seedlings from prolific seeders

Cons

• If you want to save seed you want seedheads to ripen on the plant. Some will dry in a greenhouse or garden shed before being stored in an airtight container. I put seeds in small ex-mail order envelopes first.
• Some seed heads such as Honesty, Rose rugarosa,  Echinops and Teasels are left through winter for shape and to look attractive in a frost.
• Do not deadhead ornamental plants grown for their seedheads like Iris Foettisima or Physalis
• If you want to save seed or berries for birds and wild life do not deadhead
• If you want self-sown seedlings for a natural garden then select what flowers to leave to run to seed.

Agapanthus are one of the trendy flowers of this decade. The ball shaped umbrels are masses of tubular flowers in blue, violet or white. The deciduous sword shaped leaves grow from a bulb and root clump. Since new varieties have been bred to be hardy it has been practical to move Agapanthus from the cold greenhouse into pots and now into the border.

Gardeners Tips about Agapanthus

• Commonly called the ‘African Lily’ or ‘Lily of the Nile’ this picture is Agapanthus Snow Cloud. It and  blue varieties prefer a warm sunny positions without the danger of waterlogged soil.
• Agapanthus are part of the Allium family and are not fragrant unlike so may Lilys.
• Flower stalks can be over 3 foot tall.
• Read the rest of this entry »
  

‘Kinlough Beauty’ is an exceptionally hardy Primrose from the Primula family. . To maintain vigour divide ‘Kinlough Beauty’ every couple of years or so after blooming. This is when your free plants arise. I have just got nine new healthy plants from one clump. Other primroses can be divided in a similar manner.

Gardeners Tips

• To divide a primrose separate new crowns with some roots from the old root. Pull apart or prise loose with two forks back to back.
• Alternatively take divisions with a trowel whilst plants are still in the ground for more reliable performance.
• Do not split into too many divisions as they take longer to establish.
• Plant firmly in soil and keep moist as new roots are established.
• Kinlough Beauty is a hardy evergreen or semi-evergreen Juliana cultivar with deep green, oval leaves 6 inches long. Plants produce loose clusters of wine red to rose-pink yellow eyed flowers held above a mound of foliage.
• Plant labeling of primrose family can be a bit hit and miss. Read the rest of this entry »
  

More plants die from over watering than lack of water and this is particularly true for African Violets. These blue, pink, white and violet or bi-coloured plants are native to mountainous tropics and need very little water. Here are some gardeners tips to avoid killing your favourite African Violets - Saintapulia.

Watering Tips

• Only water African Violets when the soil is dry and I mean dry!
• Soak the plant with (soft) warm water when it is begging for a drink.
• Let all the surplus drain off. Do not leave any water in the saucer.
• Top or bottom watering are both acceptable but it may be easier for beginners to start with bottom watering to avoid drenching the fleshy leaf stalks.
• Read the rest of this entry »
  

I grow mixed nasturtiums in the top of a wall. They trail down but can be encouraged to grow up twiggy supports to cover unsightly areas although they tend to trail even if planted on the flat.

Gardeners Tips for Nasturtiums (Tropaeolium)

• Plant in poor soil they will put on a lot of leaf if the soil is too rich
• The leaves, buds, flowers and seed can be eaten. The peppery taste adds good flavour to a salad.
• If left Nasturtium seed profusely and return  year after year.
• Seeds are large and can be planted individually by children.
• Try Indian chief with dark leaves or the newer double Tropaeolum majus.

These flowers goes-in-’ere

Gazania are one of the most colourful of garden flowers. The star shaped daisy like flowers can be up to 3 inches across and are available in a range of colours as this photo shows. Most varieties are stripped and zoned in ‘hoto display their vibrant colours even in cloudy conditions but prefer the hot sun.

Gardeners tips on Gazania

• Whilst they are perennial they are best grown as half-hardy annuals
• Plant in free draining soil
• The Gazinia uniflora are all yellow
• Take a close look at the interesting lance shaped dusty grey leaves
• The ‘Talent’ series has an AGM