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Author: hortoris

Growing Winter Cabbage and Spring Greens

Growing Winter Cabbage and Spring Greens

cabbage

Your summer crops may have been cleared from your Veg patch but you can now plant winter cabbage. For many varieties it is too late (August) to grow from seed but you can buy suitable plants from nurseries, mail order or local market stalls.
Some loose leaf cabbage grown as spring greens can be sown in August.

Cultivating Winter Cabbage

  • Plant at 5-6 leaf stage allowing 2 feet between plants (less for spring greens).
  • The soil should be firm, contain plenty of well rotted compost and be well limed.
  • Just before planting, rake in 3oz per sq yd of balanced fertiliser.
  • Hoe occasionally and water if the weather is dry. Harvest in very late winter

Varieties to Try

  • Spring Cabbage Hero is a ball cabbage that will stand through winter to produce a solid head from early May.
  • Tundra F1 is solid and sweet with crisp heads, ideal for winter salads.
  • Thompson Morgan selection of plants and seeds
  • Spring Advantage is an excellent new variety suitable for providing both spring greens or small to medium sized hearted spring cabbage. From an August sowing it will keep well into April.
  • January King a hardy winter variety with heads which are crispy and crunchy and full of flavour.
  • Savoy cabbages can be grown through winter for spring use

For more on Brassicas read

More Cabbage Tips …

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What is Pollination and why is it important?

What is Pollination and why is it important?

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Pollination is the transfer of pollen (with male hormones) from the anthers of a flower to the stigma to create fertilization and sexual reproduction.

Types of Pollination

  • Some flowers will develop seeds as a result of self-pollination, when pollen and pistil are from the same plant but different flowers.
  • Many plants require cross-pollination, pollen and pistil must be from different plants.
  • Yet other plants will self fertilize from the same flower.

The Need For Pollination

  • Without pollination there would be no seeds or only sterile seeds.
  • Fruit needs pollination so it can mature and grow.
  • Farmers need pollination to produce crops.
  • Insects and animals that are involved in pollination are rewarded by energy food in the form of nectar or pollen.

Specific Pollination Issues …

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June Gardeners Tips Flower of the Month

June Gardeners Tips Flower of the Month

Burnby Hall Pocklington

It is invidious to select just one flower for each month so I have gone for a couple of photographs that I just like irrespective of the flower power.

Delphiniums were described in more detail earlier this month ‘Growing Delphiniums’.

To stop you getting bored with Delphiniums flowers I have included an example of active pollination as the Bee is helping to produce the hard, shiny, black seeds that can grow into future Delphinium plants.

Burnby Hall Pocklington

Garden Maintenance DIY Guide

Garden Maintenance DIY Guide

Book Cover

There are numerous books on garden design but not much information on garden maintenance. Some maintenance jobs are ‘as and when’ but others need to be done at least annually. Below are my gardeners maintenance tips.

Maintain Structure Maintenance

  • Keep on top of all repair jobs before they develop into rebuild jobs!
  • Paths need to be safe and that means obstruction free. I am guilty of using paths for seed trays and odd plants that I am waiting to plant out and I have been known to trip or kick them over.
  • Clean up after winter as concrete or flagged paths are often covered in slippy green algae. This needs to be removed or chemically treated.
  • Walls need re-pointing if stones become too loose. The   stones sometimes get loosened by frost or plant roots.
  • Fences may need treating with preservative or supporting if in danger of blowing down.

Maintenance of Services

Why hasn’t it Flowered? Top Ten Reasons

Why hasn’t it Flowered? Top Ten Reasons

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Twice this week I have been asked why a plant has not flowered despite receiving apparently good treatment. Most plants use flowers to start the reproduction and pollination cycle but below are some of the main reasons for failure.

Reasons for None Flowering

  1. Plants too young and immature, particularly trees and shrubs. Wisteria may take 6-7 years. Biennials grow one year and flower the next.
  2. Frost damage to the buds on early fruit like Plums or to early shrubs Hydrangeas, Camellias etc. Bird, aphid or other damage to flowering shoots.
  3. Planted too late in the season.
  4. Poor cultivar or plant variety with low flowering habit. Some plants are vegetatively reproduced from poor flowering stock.
  5. Poor and incorrect pruning that removes bud potential.

    6. …

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Aphids and Greenfly Pest Control

Aphids and Greenfly Pest Control

Aphids
All greenfly are Aphids but not all Aphids are greenfly.

What are Aphids

  • Aphids are sap sucking insects,
  • They damage  plants and introduce disease  makinge them enemies of farmers and gardeners alike.
  • There are around 4,400 species and that many flies on some of my plants.
  • The little black Aphids that trouble Broadbeans or Greenfly on Roses are from the Aphid family.
  • Aphids are often specific to one plant species.
  • Aphids breed several time in a season if left untreated.
  • One female hatched in spring may produce billions of descendants from 40 generations in one year

Read Gardening Products Killing Aphids

Pest control including Aphids

Aphids

Patriotic Perennials in Red, White and Blue

Patriotic Perennials in Red, White and Blue

sedbergh

This selection of perennials are easy to grow and produce summer colours in a range of patriotic blues, reds and whites.

Centaurea shown above has many varieties in different shades and is a good cottage garden plant. It grows2-3 feet tall and needs some support. It’s red colour is much more pink but the blue is strong and long lasting.

Geranium Rozane Gerwat

Hardy Geraniums are attractive and easy to grow. The colour range includes the purple to blue or pink and Splish-Splash below which is a white with occassional blue patch. My black geranium has very poor flowers and rampant foliage.

lupins

Lupins flowering above are another easy perennial. In addition to red, white and blue there are bi-coloured Lupins with a white eye that can be very attractive. This pink looks a bit wishy washy in the photo but in real life it was a stunner.

Poppy

Oriental Poppies are strongly coloured perennials but I have yet to see a blue one which is not a Meconopsis. There are many other poppy varieties to consider growing

Geranium

Tips for Growing Astrantia

Tips for Growing Astrantia

golden acre gardens leeds

Astrantia are unassuming garden perennials now coming into flower from June .

Tips for Cultivating Astrantia

  • Astrantias are superb perennials for the stream edge or a moist border.
  • They may tolerate drier soils as long as the plants are mulched
  • ‘Claret’ is a beautiful variety with deep red pincushion flowers.
  • After flowering, plants can be rejuvenated by cutting them back close to the ground – fresh new foliage and a late crop of flowers start appearing shortly after.
  • Plants do not make big clumps or spread but they can be split in early spring.
  • Grow from fresh seed or buy as plants. Thompson Morgan

Astrantia Varieties and Features

  • Astrantia have star-like flower heads in reds, pinks and pastel shades.
  • The variegated form has an AGM Astrantia major ‘Sunningdale Variegated’

    • …

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Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

golden acre gardens leeds

These tips may seem commonsense but they are always worth repeating.

Tips For Good Hanging Baskets.

  • Water early in the day ‘and or’ in the evening. Give plants a good drink regularly.
  • After 4 weeks in the same compost the nutrients will be reduced and you should add liquid feed. I use half strength fertilizer with every watering.
  • Many hanging basket plants will self deadhead but if you have zonal geraniums in the basket they will benefit from nipping the deadheads off.
  • Turn the basket round, if one side near a wall for example, is growing less well.
  • Look out for aphids on the soft lush growth.
  • If you get unexpected gaps in leaf or bloom you can still  put in new plants.

Hanging Basket Holidays

  • If you go on holiday you need to think about care of your baskets whilst away, even just for a weekend. …

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Good Soil and How to Get Better Soil

Good Soil and How to Get Better Soil

Book Cover

Soil that is fit for purpose will help your plants grow, thrive and even excel.
Some plants need special soils or composts but good general principles are discussed below and this book will provide detailed information.

Purpose of Garden Soil

  • Soil provides the base to anchor plants through their roots.
  • Good soil holds moisture and air necessary for the health of plant roots.
  • Soil feeds plants with nutrients (NPK) and makes other trace elements available.
  • Soil recycles dead matter and hosts a variety of life forms.


Features of Good Soil

  • Soil consists of “the living, the recently dead and the very dead.”
  • Soil should be able to hold moisture but not become water logged.
  • Excess water should drain away and not puddle under the plant. To prevent puddling the sub-soil, or lower layer of soil below cultivation depth, should be broken up and not compacted. …

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