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Month: August 2014

Spare a Thought for Hedgehogs

Spare a Thought for Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus are good for gardens, eating through a large volume of slugs. They deserve some help to preserve hedgehog family life otherwise they will fall into further decline. However they are not domestic pets and like to be able to roam in several gardens each night.

Book Cover

Hedgehog Diet

  • Beetles 28% are a major part of hedgehog food
  • Caterpillars and beetles make up more than half of the food they eat
  • Earthworms are about 17% of the average hedgehog diet
  • Other items in smaller quantities include slugs, snails, birds eggs, millipedes, earwigs, and even birds or small mammals dead or alive.

Heaven For Hedgehogs
Make your garden Hedgehog friendly with a wild area from piles of leaves and twigs to be used for shelter.
Keep ponds topped up and ensure Hedgehogs can climb in  or fall.
A specially made hedgehog home (eg.from a box on its side) would include nesting facility in summer and a space to hibernate in winter.
Hedgehogs need to be able to travel in and out of the garden (even if that means they risk crossing roads).
Meat based pet food and fresh water in summer are a help to a hedgehog family.

Safety For Hedgehogs
Slug pellets containing metahaldide can kill. Avoid pesticides.
Bonfires should be checked for hedgehog nests before burning
Take extra care using strimmers on rough brash.
Keep netting at least 12″ above ground so hedgehogs can get under without getting trapped.
Look out for hedgehogs when turning or forking a compost pile.

 

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society is organising Hedgehog Awareness Week which this year runs from 5th 11th May 2013.

Dwarf Rockery Conifers

Dwarf Rockery Conifers

Dwarf Conifer

Not everyone wants a Leylandii hedge, in fact few gardeners want Leylandii at all. Fortunately there are other conifers and shrubs to suit most people. I have just introduced some new dwarf conifers into my rockery with a range of alpines.

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Aurea'

Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Aurea’ AGM

  • This is sold as being ideal for small gardens and rockeries
  • It will grow a pyramid shape with sprays of yellow tipped blunt shaped leaves.
  • Chamai, means ‘dwarf’ Aurea means gold and Obtusa means blunt shaped.
  • After 10 years it should be no more than 2 feet high by 18 inches wide
  • It is now planted in well drained soil in full sun but with some shelter from the wind.

Picea pungens 'Montgomery'

Picea pungens ‘Montgomery’

  • This I bought as a grafted shrub with blue needle like leaves
  • A slow growing blue coloured specimen due to grow to 20-30 inches in 10 years.
  • These pictures look a good bit taller than the shrub I hope to grow. Well here’s hoping the graft is on small stock.
  • Female cones are cylindrical, green when young, maturing to pale brown.

Cryptomeria Japonica 'Golden Promise'

Cryptomeria Japonica ‘Golden Promise’

  • Taking 20-50 years to reach 24 by 18″ this is a true slow grower
  • It should make a rounded shrub with green foliage turning creamy gold in the heat of summer.
  • By autumn there will be a purple tinge to the leaves but it is a hardy evergreen.
  • Also known as Japanese cedar.

Tips and Comments

  • I was inspired to try more plants after visiting Perennial’s York Gate Garden. They have many prostrate and vertical conifers on display but disappointingly will not let me show you the photographs. Not very charitable from the Gardeners Royal Benevolent charity!
  • I bought the plants at Slack Top nursery.
  • The visible labels are made from copper. You scratch the name into the soft material and they should age gently but remain legible. I bought them from Wilkinsons and hope they help me with the names as my memory fades.
Control of Pests on Apples & Pears

Control of Pests on Apples & Pears

‘Understand the pest and you are part way to controlling the problem.’

Brown Rot
This rot is often associated with storage when a fungus permeates the fruit. Fruit on the tree can be mummified and this prolongs the life of the fungus. There are no effective organic sprays so rely on good cultural management. Take care picking and storing fruit.

The rot starts through wounds caused by birds, wasps and scab. At blossom time the fungus causes wilt and shoots to shrivel. Remove all rotting fruit and bury rather than compost. Prune and burn branches killed by wilt.

 

Aphids
Of the many species the green or rosy apple aphids and the woolly aphids plus the pear-bedstraw aphid can be very troublesome. Aphids mate in Autumn leaving eggs to over winter on spurs crevices and tips. Heavily infested shoot tips and flower cluster should be cut out and destroyed. Encourage beneficial insects like earwigs and ladybirds. …

Read More Read More

Causes & Cures for Bitter Pit on Apples

Causes & Cures for Bitter Pit on Apples

DSC_0125.jpg Gascoigne's Scarlet.

Brown spots in the flesh of your apples is a sure sign of Bitter Pit. Along with dark depressions in the skin, brown sports dotted throughout the flesh is typical of bitter pit on your apple trees.
Bitter pit is a disorder not an infection or infestation.
Unfortunately the flesh of badly affected apple trees will also taste rather bitter

What Cause Bitter Pit on Apples

  • The disorder is usually brought about by a calcium deficiency.
  • Another potential cause is a susceptibility of the variety.
  • An erratic supply of water will also encourage the disorder.
  • Young trees that are putting on a lot of growth are also rather susceptible.
  • Early picking can cause bitter pit to develop during storage.
  • Dry conditions can reduce the calcium uptake even if it is present
  • Vigorous trees with copious leaf area need more calcium. Bramley’s Seedling and Newton Wonder are large fruiting cookers that are prone to the problem.
  • Trees without adequate Calcium will rob fruit of the calcium to sustain other parts of the tree.

How do you Cure Bitter Pit on Apples

    • Spray the developing fruit with Chempak Calcium mulit-action
    • Foliar sprays of calcium nitrate or Calcium chloride solution can be applied from mid-June to mid-September
    • Make sure your trees are mulched and well watered.
    • Some varieties such as Bramley Seedling and Gascoigne’s Scarlet are more prone than others. Check what grows well in your area and try plant those varieties, Gala is said to be free of the problem.
    • Prevention is the best cure using good cultivation practices.
    • Install irrigation to give tree roots access to moisture and natural calcium.
    • Add lime or chalk to the ground then rake and water in.
    • Do not store apples showing signs of bitter pit. Rather eat or cook with them asap.

Has your Granny Smith got black spots or is your Golden Delicious not totally golden then you may have bitter pit. This is not a fungal or insect borne disease but a chemical imbalance. Bitter Pit is a problem with the fruit on Apple trees caused by a shortage of Calcium. The fruit have dark, sunken spots on the surface, browning flesh and a slightly bitter taste. The problem can continue or start developing after harvest so inspect stored apples. Cork spot and Jonathan spot are similar to Bitter pit in that damage to tissue occurs mostly on the surface and just below. Although apples affected with these disorders are still edible they are unattractive in appearance.

Read about other Apple problems and control


Credits
DSC_0125.jpg Gascoigne’s Scarlet. by northdevonfarmer CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ‘Gascoign’s Scarlet. These apples always seem to be affected by bitter pit here.’

Day Flowers

Day Flowers

LBA 070

This Inula is big and brash but only flowers for a relatively short time. After pollination the inflorescence of central flowers start to turn brown. It is still worth a place in a perennial flower bed when the heart shaped leaves provide extra interest.

LBA 064

Day lilies are so named because of there relatively flowering short life. The latin name is Hemerocallis.
New blooms on the same stem open regularly to prolong the display of these brightly coloured flowers.

Cistus maculata

Cistus is another flower that lasts a day but is replaced with new blooms on a very regular basis. Again one of my favourites for sunny perennial borders.

Rock Rose

Rock rose or Helianthemum is a much smaller flower than its cousin the Cistus. It tpoo has short lived flowers but in such profusion and range of colours that it is well worth growing.

Other Flower Pictures Born for a Day

Helianthemum

Day Lilies

Three Dimensional Garden

Three Dimensional Garden

Trapoleum

Make better use of your space by thinking in 3D.
Height is an obvious area for development of a more intensely 3D garden but depth can be developed by planting blues at the back as they make distances recede.
Root vegetables, roof gardens, living walls and other developments are pushing the boundaries (Oh yes pinching some garden from someone’s boundary is a new dimension). Stop this silliness Ed.

Vertical Dimension Ideas

  • Obelisks, pergolas, arbours, arches even simple wigwams can provide a structure for climbers and scramblers.
  • Cloth eyesores with some trellis or strong wires followed by plants.
  • Grow more cordons and standards for fruit, Roses even Fucshias.
  • Use hedges for Trapoleum speciosum (shown above) with it’s showy, fiery red flowers and prominent spur. Even conifers can act as hosts.
  • Hang potted plants from tree branches

Dry Stone Wall Gardens
Drystone Wall Garden

Rock plants and alpines are quite at home in the crevices between rocks in a wall.

Roof Gardens
Roof Garden

Roof Gardens do not need to have been constructed with layers of soil on top of a membrane. A range of pots and containers will be lighter, effective and easier to water. Some trailing plants near the edge may be interesting to break the roof or sky line.

Read Flowering Climbers

Grow Mandevilla Jasmines

Grow Mandevilla Jasmines

Mandevilla Brazilian Jasmine

There are over 100 species of Mandevilla but the best to grow are often sold under the name Dipladenia splendens. I rate these climbers from Central America as the type of plant you can expect to see in far greater numbers in the coming years.
Mandevilla generally have waxy, fragrant, showy, trumpet-shaped flowers during the growing season in early spring. They are fast growing woody vines that can reach heights of 10 feet so need support. Mandevilla growth is not frost proof and need winter protection although roots may survive.
The fragrant flowers of pink, red and white compensate for slightly sparse foliage.

Top Species to Grow

Mandevilla boliviensis from Bolivia and Equador flowers white
Mandevilla dodsoni Equador
Mandevilla equatorialis Equador
Mandevilla jamesonii Equador etc
Mandevilla sanderi, Brazilian jasmine vine Aphrodite shown above
Mandevilla scabra
Mandevilla splendens, Brazilian Dipladenia
Mandevilla suaveolens,
Mandevilla laxa, Argentina and Chilean jasmine white flowers

Cultivation
Does well in tubs, conservatories and hanging baskets. Keep above 50 degrees F
Repot as little as possible.
Requires a sunny position but tolerates partial shade.
Needs a well drained mulch or potting mix, with slow release fertiliser as it is a heavy feeder. Feed every two weeks with a fertilizer high in phosphor.
Keep moist but do not allow to stand in water.
Propagate from sturdy wood cuttings in spring.
Look out for cultivars Red Riding Hood, Alice du Pont (pink) and Yellow which has wide, bright yellow flowers. They are lower growing and shrubbier than the species and superb in hanging baskets.
Beware if you grow one as a houseplant as the sap or latex can be caustic and is reputed to remove warts (and all).

Alternative Names for Mandevilla

    • Synonym:Dipladenia suaveolens
    • Brazilian Jasmine
    • Scarlet Pimpernel or Red Riding Hood

Mandevilla coccinea
With thanks to Marcia Stefani under creative commons license on Flickr

Crammed Garden with too Many Plants

Crammed Garden with too Many Plants

Sedum & Fucshia

My son complains that I cram in too many plants into my garden. I guess he is right but I garden for plants not hard landscapes, not sculpture and certainly not for bare soil.

Problems of Too many Plants

  • There is often no space for that great new plant but I cram it in anyway. I often put a plant in the only place available rather than the location that would best suit it. I regret it later because the colour schemes become totally random.
  • Weaker plants can be smothered and killed by the thugs in the garden.
  • Plants need space to reach their full potential and look their individual best.
  • Plants that are too close together can attract mildew and other diseases.
  • Water needs to get down to the roots and a canopy of leaves can create dry spots.

Morley 020

Garden Areas with Too Many Plants

  • I have started collecting and growing Alpines because I can get a lot more plants in a small space. Even so I find it hard to create gaps when everything is in full flow.
  • The border is intended to become ‘low maintenance’ to give me time to focus on other projects. For this area it is fine for the plants to be close together.
  • Vegetable gardens need allotted space as you do want good crops.
  • Natural gardens are fine with lots of wild flowers or local plants but too much grass can then smother smaller plants.

Rhododendron group

The Case for Too Many Plants

  • Life is too short not to aim for abundance. I love the free seeds from RHS and AGS seed distributions. This provides me with lots of plants of varieties I have not already got.
  • A riot of colour, shape and form can be therapeutic as can my informality.
  • You generally have something available to give away.
  • If you neglect a part of the garden for a while it can still seem naturalistic and in keeping with the rest of the garden.
  • You do not need to worry about ground cover, real selected plants can do that job.

Intensive Gardens

  • The term intensive gardening is usually reserved for a raised bed system. Deeper richer soil will support more and better plants or so the theory goes.
  • Interplanting is second nature in a crammed garden, in fact I interplant the interplants.

 

INTENSIVE SPACING GUIDE

 

Plant Inches Plant Inches
Asparagus 15 – 18 Chard, Swiss 6 – 9
Aubergines 18 – 24 Courgette 18-24
Beans, runner 6 – 12 Lettuce, head 10 – 12
Beans, bush 4 – 6 Onion 2 – 4
Beetroot 2 – 4 Peas 2 – 4
Broccoli 12 – 18 Peppers 12 – 15
Brussels sprouts 15 – 18 Potatoes 10 – 12
Cabbage 15 – 18 Sweet corn 15 – 18
Carrots 2 – 3 Tomatoes 18 – 24
Cauliflower 15 – 18 Turnip 4 – 6
Cucumber 12 – 18 Leeks 3 – 6

Sources

University of Arizona for the spacing guide

Twin Oaks or Two Oaks

Twin Oaks or Two Oaks

Quercus bonsai

It takes a long time, a lot of skill and patience to grow an Oak bonsai like the one above.
With the right care and attention a bonsai will last for decades and longer.

Given that observation it takes a lot longer to grow a mature Oak in a forest or woodland.

Left to their own devices trees can take on extraordinary shapes.

may12 002

I like the oil painting Two Oaks by Jan van Goyen from 1642 available to view on Wahoo

Slender Crocosmia Plants

Slender Crocosmia Plants

Crocosmia Lucifer

Do you like frondy plants that wave in the breeze? There are many elegant grasses to choose from but I like a grassland plant called Crocosmia.

Crocosmia Lucifer

  • Crocosmia Lucifer shown above is a robust perennial with pleated or ribbed green leaves.
  • Tall linear leaves upto 3 feet tall are produced from corms.
  • The arching stems carry bold deep red flowers in summer.

Montbretia and Crocosmia

  • Makes an excellent cut flower and a dramatic impact to any border.
  • Also known as Montbretia of which there are several varieties in yellow and orange. Lucifer is the best red I have found.
  • Named from the Greek ‘Krokos’ (saffron) and ‘osme’ (smell) as the leaves are said to smell of saffron when rubbed.
  • Trouble free long lived and easy to grow at the back or middle of the border.
  • They enjoy damp soil and are rabbit resistant which is just as well in my garden this year.

 

More Growing Tips

Visit the National Collection of Crocosmia in Caister www.simplesite.com/crocosmia