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Month: November 2012

Storing Garden Tools

Storing Garden Tools

Old tools need venerating and some have become real collectors pieces. Some of these older spades have had new shafts fitted and I know of some really old tools that have had several new handles and 3 new blades!

It is  a sharp idea to look after good quality tools.

tool rack

When I say hang up your garden tools I do not mean you should stop gardening, quite the opposite. You will get more gardening completed if you can find the right tool, in the right place, at the right time. Hence my quick selection of ways to hang up your garden tools from a range of photographer-gardeners.

Tools Of The Trade

When I say hang up your garden tools I do not mean you should stop gardening, quite the opposite.
You will get more gardening jobs done if you can find the right tool, in the right place, at the right time. Hence my quick selection of ways to hang up your garden tools from a range of photographer-gardeners.

The DIY model has much to commend it. You can tailor to fit your shed, garage or work space. You can vary height and inter tool spacing and use your own design flair.
I like the string through the handle method rather than the nail in the wall style.

Gardening Tools, Chandos Lake, 2009-07-19

Well stored tools should not be damaged as easily as those thrown into a box or drawer at random.
It is easier to see which tools need oiling, cleaning, sharpening or repairing.
Unfortunately it looks like someone has hung up their garden tools and left them to the spiders and their webs.

 

Credits
Tools Of The Trade by Barefoot In Florida CC BY 2.0
Gardening Tools, Chandos Lake, 2009-07-19 by Open Texture CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
tool rack by robotson CC BY-NC 2.0

Five a Day Strawberry Growing

Five a Day Strawberry Growing

There are many reasons to grow one of the nations favourite fruit & here are our five with a bonus five health benefits.
There are many ways to grow Strawberries and here again we offer five tried and tested tips.

alpine strawberry

Reasons to grow Strawberries

  1. They taste better when picked fresh as a result of your own efforts.
  2. Strawberries have many healthy properties.
  3. Jam made from strawberries and particularly wild strawberries is a top conserve.
  4. Plants can look ornamental and still produce a good crop.
  5. By selecting a range of varieties you can eat strawberries from May to September.

Newby Hall gardens Strawberry
Health Benefits

  1. Your daily need for vitamin C is covered with only 25 calories of sweet juicy fruit.
  2. Strawberries have health benefits that include cholesterol lowering properties and contain elligic acid reputed but not yet proven to fight cancer.
  3. Ignoring cream (if you must) then strawberries have half the calories of an apple and a quarter of a banana weight for weight.
  4. Strawberries are rich in manganese essential for controlling blood sugar levels and enhancing memory.
  5. Eating strawberries is a comforting peace enhancing activity.

The Best Tips for Growing Strawberries

  1. Select the best varieties from a good nursery.
  2. Remove runners to channel energy into fruit not new plants.
  3. Mulch with straw or strawberry mats to conserve moisture and keep fruit clean.
  4. Feed with high potash feed when the first flowers appear. Check for cultivation tips.
  5. Force strawberries to produce fruit early and beat the imports. Lift crowns at the end of January and pot up in John Innes No 2. Water well and keep in a cool well lit greenhouse or cold frame.

Strawberry

Best UK Varieties

  1. Royal Sovereign is a mid season variety that can be forced in 5” pots in a cold greenhouse for an early crop
  2. Cambridge Vigour is a very good cropper of sweet aromatic fruit.
  3. Ellana is used by jam makers and on some pick your own farms.
  4. New varieties have been bred for the patio and hanging baskets like ‘Sweet Success’
  5. Honeoye is an early fruiter with shiny deep red fruit. There are many more varieties to select from Thompson Morgan
What’s What With Our Weather

What’s What With Our Weather

We have got some ‘right weather’ again so the garden is on the windy & muddy side. Therefore I have taken time out for a quick drink and think about climate.
Last year we were being told that the plight of the bumble bee was in our hands and that they were an endangered species. Blame global warming and loss of habitat we were told.
Gardeners were planning for another dry summer in the UK and we even started the year with drought restrictions.

All ‘ain’t what it is cracked up to be’ and our clay soil was never cracked up to be much especially this year.
As a ‘global warming denier’ I was more than content to whinge on about a poor summer for a change and only regret the low yield on fruit crops.
We have had floods, freeze ups and climate change before and doubtless we will experience more change in the future.

UK Gardeners Tips Views
Bees have had a better year and I will continue to support them in my garden and whenever I get an opportunity.
Mediterranean gardens are for the Mediterranean area and unless I want to fight the natural order of things I will be very careful with any plants from hot dry climes.
Rain, wind, sun or shine the weather is great – enjoy it when you garden.

Madiera insect

Growing Chilli, Sweet and Hot Peppers

Growing Chilli, Sweet and Hot Peppers

Help Growing Peppers

    • Sweet Bell peppers ripen from Green to Yellow, Orange, Red or Chocolate colour.
    • Average plant height is 30 inches and most varieties can be grown in 8 inch pots from seed which takes 1-3 weeks to germinate. Hotter varieties may take a bit longer.
    • Pinch out the growing tip to get laterals and give plants plenty of support
    • A nitrogen feed helps young plants followed by tomato food once flowering starts.
    • Peppers need a long growing season
    • Orange Bell is a productive plant producing typical ‘blocky’, thick walled fruits with delicious sweetness. The fruits start green, ripening to a gorgeous orange.

Hot Chilli Peppers

  • None Bell peppers have conical, curved or long tapered fruit. Arousa is used in Spanish Tapas and Conquistador can be dried then ground to make Paprika
  • Extreme heat is found in the seed oil. Flesh is hotter at the shoulder than the blossom end.
  • Capsicums Chinese are some of the hottest Chilli Peppers around. Seeds from 10 Habanero vaieties and  Scotch Bonnet are able to compete with C. annuum ‘Tepin’ and C. frutescens ‘Zimbabwe Bird Pepper’ for the hottest seeds around.
    Available from Thompson Morgan a seed, Chilli and vegetable specialist.
  • Jalapeno are a traditional early strain popular in tex-mex cooking. They are a mid range heat.
  • Georgia Flame sounds like a good variety for a salsa with thick crunchy flesh.
  • Heat can vary even on the same plant so test several to find a varieties you like.

Gardeners Tips
Naga types need heat to germinate
Cayenne types are generally quite prolific.
Bell peppers have no heat and are ideal for salads, stir fries and stews

Book Cover
The Complete Chilli Pepper Book: A Gardener’s Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking

Christmas Poinsettia

Christmas Poinsettia

A favourite indoor plant at Christmas is the seasonally coloured Poinsettia. These potted plants can be better value than a bunch of flowers in December.

  • The picture shows thousands of Poinsettia in a propagating glasshouse.
  • I wouldn’t bother with the pinks and white plants as it is the red and green that reminds me so vividly of Christmas.
  • Poinsettias need special light conditions to get the colourful bracts so I would recommend buying not growing your plants. With care they can be kept but seldom excel twice.
  • Poinsettias are part of the Euphorbia family and originate from Mexico.
  • The flowers are the small yellow centres the coloured section are ‘bracts’ a modified leaf.

 Care Tips

  • When you buy a Poinsettia make sure it is wrapped as exposure to cold will damage it and make leaves drop.
  • Plants showing yellow pollen are mature and will drop leaves quicker than those with closed yellow buds.
  • Place in indirect light, out of a drafts and without leaves touching cold windows.
  • High temperatures above 70°F shorten the plants life.
  • Water when dry to stop the Poinsettia from wilting and dropping leaves plant .
  • Do not fertilise when in bloom.

Poinsettia

Selecting your Poinsettia

  • Do not buy drooping, wilting or yellow leaved plants.
  • Poinsettia should be about 2-3 times the size of the pot.
  • Plants should look full, balanced and attractive from all sides.
  • Chose plants with dark green leaves down to soil level.
  • Select plants where the true flowers are tight and green or tipped red for a longer lasting show.
  • There are over 100 varieties so you may wish to try several.

Growing your Own

  • Our local nursery dedicates two glasshouse to this December crop.
  • Poinsettia need 14 hours a day complete dark for ten weeks before sale to form good bracts.
  • Commercial information can be found in the Poinsettia Growers Guide
  • For more information such as reflowering tips try  ask.com  ….. Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) remain one of the most popular holiday flowers.
  • Hybridizers have expanded the range of colors from the familiar red to pastel yellow and vibrant bi-colors. One of the most common questions after Christmas is “How can I care for my poinsettia so that it will bloom again next Christmas?”. While this can be done, it’s a very fussy, exacting process and since the plants are not that expensive, you might just choose to start fresh next year. For those of you who are undaunted, the process for saving your poinsettia and getting it to rebloom begins with the care you give it the first season.

Thompson & Morgan for gift plants including Poinsettia

Uses of Garden Compost

Uses of Garden Compost

compost heap

How do you Use Organic Compost

  1. Good compost mixed in with soil improves the condition, texture and water retention .
  2. Put compost in a planting hole for new trees and shrubs it helps to give them a good start.
  3. Compost around plants and trees acts as a mulch to conserve moisture and protect from frost.
  4. Feeding nutrients back into the soil particularly for heavy feeders like Dahlias, Onions or Runner Beans is one of the main uses of garden compost.
  5. Suppressing weeds can be achieved by mulching with compost.

Preparation with Compost

  1. Replace the soil in the greenhouse where tomatoes have been grown.
  2. I have just made a new bed for next years Sweet peas from lots of home made compost.
  3. Mix garden compost with leaf mould and grit for a container of cuttings mix.
  4. Make your own seed compost mix with loam, compost, leaf mould and vermiculite
  5. Compost recycles waste, reduces landfill and carbon dioxide emissions whilst saving you money.
November’s Backend Bonanza

November’s Backend Bonanza

Americans call it ‘Fall’ and the Brits call it ‘Autumn’ but November’s ‘Backend’ can produce a garden Bonanza.
These flowers are still showing their true colours despite all that our English weather has been able to throw at them.

November Cyclamen

You can tell the leaves know it is fall and the Cyclamen hederifolium know it is autumn and time to flower.

November Fucshia

Dollar Princess was a group of Fucshias I received as cuttings. It took awhile for the flowers to arrive but the late profusion is very welcome.

November Hydrangea

A bit over blown and beginning to loose their colour the Hydrangeas have enjoyed our wet season this year. The reward is going to be a winter windfall of flower.

November Dahlia

The Dahlias have also been a stroke of luck, lasting very well without as much deadheading as they should have received.

November Lobelia

The annual Lobelia has surprised my with its deep blue colouring that has lasted all through summer. It may be the autumn light but the intensified colouring seems to have strengthened as the seasons moved on.

For next year I will try some more Lobelia seeds from Thompson & Morgan

Sourcing Plants that are ‘Good to Grow’

Sourcing Plants that are ‘Good to Grow’

The horticultural trades association (HTA) has over 2700 member locations, many of which are one site nurseries often specialising in a small quality range of own locally produced plants.
The UK gardening industry has a retail turnover of over £5 billion a year and according to the HTA it is a buoyant and growing market. (well it would be growing!)
Rose garden

Garden Centres

  • Like supermarkets the modern garden centres now sell more than plants and garden accessories, they even provide cafes and coffee shops.
  • Much of the stock has been grow abroad and brought to you at the cost of many ‘garden miles’.
  • Garden centres often have special offers and vouchers often designed to get you to spend in a way that extends their selling season. Not quite BOGOFF’s but 4 for 3 at Hayes or 20% off in November on selected items are examples.
  • Stock that is past the retailers sell by date may be reduced. You need to understand why the reduction is offered – if the stock is weak, damaged or unfit then stay well clear.
  • If Tulips, say are reduced in October to make way for Santa and the Christmas stock (that is so important to us gardeners) then fill your gardening boots because Tulips can be planted in November.
  • Normally look these gift horses in the mouth – a cheap wilted plant may never recover
  • There seem to be as many chains of garden centre as there are plants nowadays. Hayes, Dobbies, Strikes, Wyevale, Nocutts, Webbs, Klondyke and RHS are just some of the 130 members of the Garden Centre Association. http://www.gca.org.uk/
  • You may get a money back guarantee but will you return in 12 months to be told you killed the poor little plant.
  • Many large perennial plants can be split before you plant them to make several smaller plants that rapidly grow on. I have just bought and split a robust aster that I bought pot bound from a nursery and got 3 good and several smaller plants that will grow in the next couple of months.

Mail Order Companies

  • I like Thompson & Morgan for seeds and Jersey Direct often have good offers for annuals that provide bulk colour.
  • Buy-in seedlings and grow on yourself. Kinder pots and seedlings at the cost of a seed packet can be an economic way of getting a lot of stock for your garden.
  • Mini mail order plug plants are the next level of cost up but can be good value particularly for seeds that are difficult to germinate like begonias.
  • I like buying seedlings as a way of getting several vegetable varieties that will crop at different times and provide variety and insure against one crop failure.

    • In Praise of the Nursery

  • Of the retail choices available to gardeners my preference is to buy from Nurseries. The stock is likely to be local, hardy and ‘good to grow’.
  • The choice and selection of many varieties may be better although the overall range will be tighter.
  • The knowledge is often detailed and willingly imparted.
  • Many nurseries specialise and offer something different.
  • Owner managed business units need or help it is unnecessary for big business to cream off the profits made from hard working gardeners.
  • Nurserymen and women are some of the most knowledgeable gardeners I know.
Growing Varieties of Eggplant -Solanum melongena

Growing Varieties of Eggplant -Solanum melongena

Aubegine

The Solanum family includes peppers, potato, tomato and even deadly nightshade as well as our aubergine (Eggplant). The small flowers all look similar but the resulting fruit are quite different.

Aubergines Varieties to try

  • Aubergine ‘Antar’ fruit can be dark purple and are a satisfying 9” long
  • Aubergine ‘Moneymaker’ produces good, early crops whether it is grown in the greenhouse, in patio containers or outdoors. The Height and spread is upto 24”. The purple fruit are long and slender with an excellent flavour.
  • Dwarf Baby Belle F1 should have lots of 2” fruit on a 20” plant
  • Red Ruffled also more prolific fruit but bitter and used for Asian cookery
  • ‘Florida High Bush’ Aubergine has an upright branching habit and carries its fruit well off of the ground. The white flesh is delicious grilled, baked or fried.
  • Aubergine ‘Listada de Gandia’ produces a large and early crop of stunning, white streaked, purple skinned, oval fruits up to 6” in length.
  • There are 15-20 different varieties of eggplant mainly of Asian origin.

Other Eggplants
Thai long green is one of the modern thin skinned varieties that should grow well in the south of the UK.
Diamond Eggplant is mild with no bitterness and coming from Russia it should thrive in the UK
Aubergine ‘Black Beauty’ is an heirloom variety worth considering.
Aubergine ‘Prosperosa’ produces spherical, ribbed, pale purple fruits with firm, flavoursome flesh. This Sicilian heritage variety has a mild flavour and no bitter after taste

Aubergines from Thompson Morgan
Read tips for growing Aubergines

Aubergine

Tips for Growing Michaelmas Daisy

Tips for Growing Michaelmas Daisy

November Aster

Michaelmas Daisy can be fun to grow with lots of small daisy shaped flowers. Given reasonable conditions they can grow quickly and provide excellent height and flower in late autumn.

Asters of which Michaelmas Daisy is one species are considered easy to grow and are often considered to be a good plant for children. However, to get the best out of most plants requires a few careful points.

Choose the right variety. If you want to grow a tall sunflower try a specific variety such as

  • Aster novi-belgii ‘Royal Ruby’ is a red flowering varieties, bursting into bloom in late summer when many other plants are beginning to fade. A superb clump forming perennial for the front of borders, and an excellent cut flower.
  • Michaelmas Daisies or Aster novae-angliae are available in a contrasting rich colour range of long stemmed autumnal flowers for cutting.
  • Aster novae-angliae ‘Harrington’s Pink’ grows 5 feet tall and is one of the easiest plants to take cuttings from.

Grow as Bunch or clump. Michaelmas Daisy can make an excellent impromptu screen for late summer. The height of taller varieties can divide a garden creating a natural sense of rooms – something top garden designers often go for.

Proper Staking. Preventing tall Michaelmas Daisy from falling over is one of the great challenges of growing them. Stake with bamboo canes or brushwood in early spring. If you grow them in blocks it will be easier to provide staking for the group; they will give each other support as they grow. Shorter varieties need no staking.

Feeding. Michaelmas Daisy enjoy a rich, moist well fed soil. If going for height, use a nitrogen based fertiliser, switching to potash (tomato food) as the buds begin to appear.

Watering.Michaelmas Daisy don’t like drying out and they can soon start to get mildew. Make sure they are well watered; each watering should aim to reach its roots, rather than just touching the surface.

Best Location. Michaelmas Daisy like a sunny position and preferably not too windy.

Michaelmas Daisy alba
Michaelmas Daisy alba