Plants, Colours or Books

Lilacs: A Gardener’s Encyclopedia by John L. Fiala and Freek Vrugtman

What comes first the chicken or the egg. In this case what comes first the name of a plant or the name of a colour. It is surprising how many colours and plants are the same. The citrus family provide most with Orange, Tangerine, Lemon and Lime!

The Rose Expert by Dr D G Hessayon

Colourful books in The Expert series have made sure of one bank balance in the black not the red!

Lavender Lover’s Handbook, by Sarah Berringer Bader

The dark end of the colour spectrum produces Indigo and Violet both plants of the hue. Lavender and Lilac are also of a similar persuasion.

Magnolias: A Gardener’s Guide by Jim Gardiner

Not the colour of Magnolia paint that all the walls in my first house was painted by I do not know of a plant called a beige.

There is an Orange book prize and so I thought we should consider a garden book prize we could call it Apple Green or Bookworm awards.

On The Eighth Day God Created Allotments

On The Eighth Day God Created Allotments for Kindle by David Boyle
So allotments should be exceptional because God had just had a rest before he created them. If you are fortunate enough to have an allotment make good use of it and enjoy.

Blurb on the Book

‘There are few things the British treasure as much as their allotments. A few square metres of land, usually on the outskirts of cities, they are an oasis of calm in a busy world, a source of fresh vegetables and flowers, and a retreat into nature for city dwellers.

But what is the history of the allotment? Where did it come from? And what were the principles and ideas that created this quiet but powerful force in society?

In this brilliant slice of social history, David Boyle traces the story of the allotment back to the great medieval commons – and to the potent but half-forgotten ideology which, throughout the nineteenth century, asserted people’s right to grow their own food.

This book is partly the story of the politician who made it possible, Jesse ‘Three acres and a cow’ Collings, and his ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (and vice versa). But it is also a look at the original ideology of the allotment, its radical claims about English history, its representative interpretation of modern economics, and where it has led us to today – and what might happen if the guiding ideology of allotments makes further progress.

On the Eighth Day God Created Allotments will be enjoyed by keen gardeners, but also by anyone interested in the history of British society. It magnificently mixes personal stories and social, political economic ideas to tell a little-known but compelling and important story. ‘

Credits
Allotments at Berwick-upon-Tweed Allotments by muggers! CC BY 2.0

Cheap Good Value Lawn Mowers

from Arizona Shona CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

My daughter has just moved into a house that was unoccupied for 12 months. The lawn was really a meadow with what looked like several years of neglect. I used my petrol rotary mower ‘Champion 375′ on the highest cutting setting. The varied height ability was very useful. After raking some dead straw from the grass it was cut again at a lower setting.

When I have left it for a week to settle then it will be cut on progressively lower settings. Fortunately I can also use a mower with a heavy cylinder to level out some of the little bumps. Shortly a weed and feed application either granules or liquid will probably be applied. I am not rushing this as I want to get the lawn into better shape without chemicals.

The problems then start encouraging my daughter to take over the maintenance. How will my daughter cut her new lawn without the tools? Well I recommend a lawn mower from the cheap end of the range. Amazon sell a Flymo Lite Electric Hover Lawnmower at £56.99. The lawn isn’t too large and a short extension flex will cope.

This hover mower is made from lightweight polypropylene and features plastic blades with a 28cm cutting width. This 1000w electric lawnmower has a hover action that makes it easy to manoeuvre when cutting and also has 2 cutting heights. There is a fold down handle for easy storage and is quite light.

A goat may be a cheaper alternative way to keep the lawn mowed but somehow I don’t think that would go down too well.

101 Garden Projects & Tips

101 Garden projects is an excellent small book offering simple but effective ways to transform a garden. The book is particularly aimed at the small garden. For example, tips include growing potatoes and herbs in pots. Most of the ideas are easy to execute and it simply provides a range of interesting ideas for you garden. There is a mixture between design ideas to growing vegetables and flowers.

Some of my favourite tips include:

• Taking root cuttings and making plants for free.
• Grow early strawberries using cloches.
• Simple design ideas such as the ‘dry river’ of pebbles.
• Plant early potatoes in large pots or bags in spring and again in September for new spuds out of season. (keep seed potatoes cold to stop them over sprouting.

The books is well illustrated with colour photos and simply explained. Would make an excellent gift for any gardener. It couldn’t be easier with projects including planting, pruning, composting, hanging baskets, lawns, ponds, greenhouses, indoor gardening and grow-to-eat ideas.

Keep Calm Carry on Gardening.

Gardeners’ World: 101 Garden Projects: Quick and Easy DIY Ideas by Helena Caldon only £3.77 from Amazon

Commercial Compost for Gardens

Commercial compost is a range of products sold in plastic wrapping in garden centres, DIY shops and sundry retailers. This is not to be confused with your own garden compost made from decomposed plant matter.
The contents of these types of commercial compost vary and can affect the growing result considerably. All have a base which has no or negligible nutritional value plus additives that make it useful for a specific purpose.

Typical Compost Constituents – Base

Peat base of small fibers of bog peat is excellent for many purposes but now seen as none ecofriendly due to the over extraction of peat and lack of replenishment of the resource which isn’t sustainable.
Coir as a peat substitute for the base. Coir is made from the hairs & fibers of coconuts and such compost are widely available. There are special organic compost products approved by the vegan society .
Wood pulp based composts and partially composted bark are other bases the industry is trying to develop into retail products but mixes and formulas keep changing
Steralised loam based composts, generically called John Innes after the guy who first formulated them, tend to be heavier.
Composted green waste is becoming popular if you can find a reliable supplier who uses undiseased raw materials

Typical Commercial Compost Constituents – Additives

Most composts are mixes of some of the base ingredients and possibly sand or vermiculite to open up the compost and improve drainage
Fertilisers are added that are appropriate to the end use. seed compost needs less fertiliser than a container planting compost where a plant has to live for at least a season
A wetting agent is often added as peat is very difficult to get wet and you need an even moisture in a pot or seed tray.
Water retaining gels may be added for hanging basket compost.

Typical Compost for Special Uses

Rooting and cutting compost is usually just a mix of sand loam and peat
Seed compost has crushed limestone and phosphates added to help drainage an promote root growth
John Innes No1, 2 & 3 has varying quantities of fertilisers; hoof and horn, superphosphate and potassium sulphate . No 1 Potting Compost is for pricking out young plants, No 2 Potting Compost is for potting on and No 3 Potting Compost is for established plants and shrubs.
Ericacious compost is for acid loving plants like Rhododendrons and lime hating plants like Mahonia and has flowers of sulphur added to the peat based mix.
Cactus compost, Bonsia compost, Orchid compost, Citrus plant compost even African Violet compost are all available from a range of suppliers. One brand with a range available in many outlets is Westland http://www.gardenhealth.com/latest-news.php
Bulb compost used to be called bulb fibre and has no fertiliser . It is used for bulbs like Hyacinths that have already got a store of energy to produce a flower.

Tips On Compost

As it is an organic product the quality can be variable but there will be a brand you like so try some out – currently I am using Arthur Bowers and B&Q own label.
Mix in a bit of grit, sand, vermiculite or water preserving gel depending on how you plan to use the compost
Try keep it uniformly moist.
Add a drop of liquid soap to the water to restrict the growth of moss on seed compost used for slow germinating seeds.
Grow bags contain compost and are a cheaper way of buying compost than small bags.
Compost deteriorates with age so buy fresh compost from a commercial supplier with a fast turnover.

Link to Garden Compost from Amazon

Garden Art Bottled Up

Tucson Botanical Bottle Garden? Not quite, but artistic bottles in the garden.
If you have the bottle to produce your own art then give freedom to your bottled up instincts.

A local garden has used their old empty wine bottles inverted and buried around a sapling to produce a circular no go area. It may not be good in the longer term for the sapling but for the wine drinkers it seems to work.
I am less sure about the bottle tree below but everyone to their own tipple.

The final picture has little to do with bottles but shows art in the garden in the garden so to speak.

Credits
Garden Art by SearchNetMedia, CC BY-NC 2.0
SF Garden Show | Bottle Tree by lawgeek CC BY-NC 2.0
Art in the Garden, Tirau by EssjayNZ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Plant Health Chemicals

Some plants suffer if they can’t take up the right mix of chemicals from your soil. Some soils do not have enough of the right chemicals to sustain certain plants. These situations call for the judicious use of plant health chemicals that either free up the plants ability to draw sustenance from the soil or add the chemical to the soil to improve the plants health.

Many useful plant heath additives are available as ‘mix them your self’chemicals like those sold under the brand Chempak.

Key Plant Health Chemicals

• Magnesium is a trace element that helps the uptake of nutrients. Useful for improving the colour and vigour of Chrysanthemums and greening up yellow leaves. Try it on your tomatoes to correct magnesium deficiency. Epsom salts are a useful way of improving the magnesium content to soil.
• Sulphur has a couple of garden uses including reducing the soils ph for the health of ericaceous plants. It can also stop some bacterial rots.
• Sequestered Iron or Chelated Iron is used as a tonic for ericaceous plants.
• Calcium is a basic building block and helps prevent many disorders. Lime is often used to add calcium to the veg garden or to prevent other soils becoming sour and too acidic.

Soil Health Chemicals

• The health of plants and the health of soil go hand in hand. It is very hard to have one without the other.
• Chemical assitance for soil health comes in improving the constituents of the soil by fertilisers or correcting deficiencies (as above) and by improving the structure of the soil (below).
• Clay breaker is designed to stop the very fine particles of soil sticking together in wet weather and baking rock hard in the sun. The addition of grit and humus will do a similar job.
• Humus in the form of spent mushroom compost, peat or manure are basic garden chemical additions to improve soil condition.
• Potting base is not added to your soil but to peat to make your own seed or potting compost. It usually contains a wetting agent, chalk and trace elements and the resulting mixture is fine for growing your own seedlings or cuttings.
• Soil improvers like Forti8 or seaweed extract claim to add minerals and trace elements to your soil. They do not do anything for the soil consistency or structure.

Here’s to Good Health

Plant Specific Fertlisers

Manufacturers have increased the variety of genus specific fertilisers.
At one time variations on the proportion of NPK was enough with Fish, blood, hoof, horn and bone and Growmore amongst the staples. Rose food, ericaceous plant fertiliser and seaweed extracts were then made available with the allegedly all too necessary ‘trace elements’. Good husbandry will replace most Plant specific fertilisers if you follow the basics.

Orchid feed and cactus food were amongst the next batch of prepacked products. Then Citrus plant special fertiliser became a ‘necessity for the millions who grow Oranges and Lemons (although special packs for winter and summer fertiliser seems another step too far.’

Now the choice is wider still with Fuchsia fertiliser, Clematis food, Onion fertliser, Potato fertiliser all prepacked for the ‘gullible gardener.’

Bonsai food and Palm fertiliser are available from Chempak which is now owned by Thompson & Morgan as are Orchid growth and Orchid bloom food. Baby-bio Orchid feed is identical to baby-bio normal except it is watered down by 50% and packaged in a different colour.

Peonies and a special Peony fertilizer from Thompson & Morgan.

The only specialty feeds I use are African Violet and Tomato fertiliser

Dicentra Art for £10

Dicentra are both photogenic and artistic. We often feature them on our Gardeners Tips site as they are rewarding plants to grow.
Growing Bleeding Heart (Dicentra Spectabilis)
Spring Shoots of Dicentra
Plants are widely available for less than £10.

New Dicentra Art for £10

Photographic Prints of Dicentra specabilis Alba from Science Photo Library are available from Amazon. Check here for the actual image which differs from the one above which is credited to Facing North East on creative commons BY-NC-SA 2.0

Technical Details of Dicentra Art

A 10×8 Print features an image chosen by Science Photo Library. Estimated image size 254x169mm.
Printed on 254x203mm Fuji Crystal Archive paper for stable image permanence and brilliant colour reproduction with smooth tones, enhanced sharpness, and excellent definition. Size refers to paper used
Image Description: Bleeding Heart (Dicentra Specabilis Alba) in flower in the spring.
For any queries regarding this item please contact Science Photo Library c/o Media Storehouse quoting Media Reference 6281632
© Adrian Thomas/science Photo Library

Garden Chemical Shelf Life

Can you use last years garden chemicals for this season? Do your herbicides, composts, fungicides and pesticides have a shelf life and if so for how long? Let’s look at ready made garden chemicals, mix them yourself chemicals and dry goods.

Ready Mixed Garden Chemicals

These chemicals should not loose their potency from one year to the next.
Do not store them in conditions of extreme heat or cold.
The factory based mixing should have been done so there is no chemical reaction between the constituent parts of the mixture.

Mix them Yourself Garden Chemicals

Concentrates that that you have mixed yourself can go off within a day or so, certainly the shelf life is less than a week.
The concentrate will last but the act of mixing with water can cause problems.
Impurities in the water and even air bubbles can start a chemical reaction that renders the solution unviable or not fit for purpose.

Dry Garden Chemicals

As long as powders and granules are kept dry, in suitable packaging and at a reasonable temperature they will have a good shelf life unless indicated strongly on the packaging.
Growmore and granular fertilisers should have a good shelf life.
Mix it your self fertilisers like Chempak have a good shelf life but make sure they are properly dissolved when mixing them.
Composts and soil mixtures have a shelf life of around six months. Fresher the better.
Where a product can get damp or starts damp it will deteriorate.

Other Issues on Garden Chemical Shelf Life

Always read the instructions and dilute to the correct strength.
RHS advice on garden chemicals
Pesticide safety education programme
Beware old chemicals should not be kept after they have been declared unsafe by EEC regulation.
Treat homemade organic chemical mixes with the same care as bought chemicals.
Keep equipment clean and wash out when you are finished.
Pesticides and other chemicals don’t spoil suddenly. They deteriorate over several years and even at 70 to 80 percent they may still be effective.