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Author: tejvan

What Do Plants Need to Grow?

What Do Plants Need to Grow?

sunflowers

Plants grow in an extreme variety of climates from Cacti in the desert to Pines in the Arctic circle. However, whatever kind of plant, they all share the same basic scientific criteria for growing.

The essential things a plants needs in order to grow is:

  • Water
  • Sunlight (energy)
  • Carbon dioxide
  • Food – Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus and Trace Minerals
  • Warmth

1. Water (H2O) Water is indispensable for plants, and is nearly always taken through the roots. Main roots have many much smaller root hairs.

  • The water passes through the epidermis layer on the outside.
  • It then passes through the vascular rays until it reaches the centre of the root, the stele.
  • It is here in the centre of the root, that the veins or (xylem) carry the water up the plant to where it is needed.

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Gardening in England

Gardening in England

vegetables

home grown vegetables

1. Growing Vegetables.

You don’t have to be Percy Thrower to grow a few tasty, homegrown organic vegetables. The Allotment or back garden is a great English tradition which enables you to not only grow vegetables, but, also escape from the turmoils of life (i.e. wife / husband – delete as appropriate)

A good vegetable plot gives great satisfaction. True, it is pretty hard work – there are innumerable pests and it is much easier just to buy from Tesco’s. But, when you grow your own vegetables and pick straight from the plot, you realise how much mass produced farming has reduced taste. Through growing your own vegetables, you realise that nature never intended vegetables to be uniformly the same size, shape and colour. It’s not just hyperbole to say homegrown veg and fruit tastes much better, it really is true.
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Organic Methods for Dealing with Greenfly

Organic Methods for Dealing with Greenfly

Pot Marigolds may help attract hoverfly
Pot Marigolds may help attract hoverfly

1. Encourage Ladybirds.

You can encourage ladybirds by providing suitable places for them to hibernated. You can buy ladybird boxes from specialist retailers.

2. Encourage Hoverflies.

Hoverflies are voracious eaters of greenflies. You will hopefully attract hoverfly without any effort. But, you can increase the hoverfly population by providing boxes to overwinter them. Geoff Hamilton used to encourage hoverfly and used to even harden off the hoverfly boxes like you would young saplings. It is also said that having a bunch of nettles encourages hoverfly because nettles provide an early season supply of aphids which encourage hoverfly populations for later greenfly infestations.
You can also encourage hoverfly through companion planting. E.g. Marigolds are said to attract hoverfly.

3. Hose off Aphids
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Growing Cistus Rock Rose

Growing Cistus Rock Rose

rock rose

Cistus or Rock Rose are evergreen and provide a blast of colour in early summer. The flowers of rock rose are short lived, but, a healthy plant can provide a multitude of new flowers every day throughout high summer.

Growing Requirements for Cistus

  • Well Drained soil. Rock roses are susceptible to root rot. If necessary add grit or sand to the base.
  • Full Sun (Rock roses originate from the Mediterranean.
  • Poor to moderately fertile soil. It is not necessary to feed rock roses, in fact, they can give better performances in average soil. Over fertilising them will encourage lush green growth at the expense of flowers. The new growth may be more susceptible to winter frosts

Cistus
Optional requirements

Dead head after flowering (although this will be a lot of work and isn’t essential for a long display)

Pinch out growing stems after flowering to encourage bushy growth

Easy to propagate from cuttings

Wentworth Castle Cistus

A national collection and authority on the species is Bob Page who gives talks on his passion for the Cistaceae family. http://www.cistuspage.org.uk/

Choosing Bold Colours in the Garden

Choosing Bold Colours in the Garden

One of the most interesting aspects of gardening is the combination of colours that can be achieved by accident or design.
Leaves and bark can play their part but it is the bold colours of some of our favourite flowers that take centre stage.

colour

Sometimes, we like the delicate, soothing pastel shades or the zen of a ‘White Garden‘ but, this doesn’t mean we always have to follow decorum and good taste. Sometimes its nice to just choose great impact colours which add life, zest and sparkle to the garden. The kind of colour combination that makes a passerby think – ‘hmm that’s interesting’

colour

Deep Purple Delphiniums and bright red poppies

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autumn flowers
Late Flowering Autumn Perennials

Late Flowering Autumn Perennials

Autumn perennials offer some really deep vivid colours. A final flurry before the end of the season.

Here in Oxford, there are some wonderful Autumn borders.

autumn flowers

Autumn border at Christ Church College, War memorial gardens, offers a stunning back drop for this rich autumn border.

autumn

Oxford Botanic Garden’s autumn border. (This border effortlessly moves from summer to Autumn)

Great Perennials to Try for summer Colour

  • Heleniums – Deep Red ruset, daisy like flowers. Easy to stake and grow. These flower from August to October.
  • Aster / Michaelmas Daisies. Very easy to grow. These may need staking, but many new varieties are medium height and self-supporting. They are fairly low maintenance, though tend to be afflicted by mildew towards the end of the season
  • Penstemon. Another great perennial, which can flower from June, until the first frosts. Really the best value perennials in my garden.
  • penstemon

 

Autumn BOrder

Heliotropes and Asters offer a mixture of deep hues.

Autumn BOrder

Free flowing planting allows a riot of colour.

Oxford Botanic Gardens

Michaelmas Daisies

Autumn BOrder

Lovely Red Dahlias, really stand out against the darker leaves. They remind us of the hot days of summer
autumn
A close up of the dahlias; these really are offering great value. They are an excellent plant for having such a long flowering season. Dahlias can overwinter in mild winters, if you give it a good mulch. However, for safety is better to lift in November and bring inside.

autumn

enjoying the flowers

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Benefits of a Compost Heap

Benefits of a Compost Heap

compost

A well made compost heap has various benefits for both the environment and your own garden. Compost heaps are relatively easy to make and a well made heap gives a personal sense of satisfaction.

Main benefits of a compost heap.

Saves Taking Garden and Kitchen Refuse to Landfill. This will save you time, but also help the environment by reducing strain on landfill sites. You also save petrol and time of taking garden rubbish to local tip.

Provides Excellent Organic Soil Improver. Garden composts is high in trace elements and so helps fertilizes the soil. It is also an excellent soil improver adding much valued humus to the soil. Well rotted garden compost will help any soil, but especially if you have a sandy or clay soil.

Natural Cycle. Composting dead material to put back into the soil, is a natural process of Mother Earth. By composting material, we make our garden more of a living organic entity and can rely less on artificial fertilisers.

Attractive soil conditioner. Some people feel a compost heap is to be kept well hidden, but a well made compost heap needn’t be a source of embarrassment, plus the rotted compost has an attractive and sweet smell to it.

Healthy outdoor exercise is provided when you spread your eco-friendly compost

Provides a home for numerous insects, worms and creatures involved in the environmental cycle.

Get More Benefits from Your Heap of Compost

Greedy boards can be used in summer to increase the height of your compost heap. Leafy matter reduces in volume quickly and the extra space can be useful.

Adding a sprinkling of garden soil will improve the rotting process by adding bacteria, worms and trace elements. I do this when there is a lot of green matter and not much brown to compost.

Shred and chop your waste into smaller parts. The rot sets in to all the damaged and cut areas quicker than undamaged stems and stalks. A chipper or shredder may be used for branches and trees.

A compost heap provides a place to collect all rotting plant matter and helps to keep the garden tidy

Potential Problems of Compost Heaps.

Rats and other vermin – attracted by cooked food. – Don’t put meat or cooked food on a compost heap, but do put vegetable peelings and other uncooked organic waste.

Odour. A badly made compost heap made start to smell of methane. But, this tends to be compost heaps that become sodden and waterlogged. Solution – put a mix of green material with more woody stems. Provide aeration and cover in excessive rain.

Doesn’t Rot Down. This occurs if the compost heap is badly made. – too wet or too dry, or not enough sources of nitrogen such as grass clippings.

Disease. Don’t compost plants if they are infected with disease as these could be recycled, better to burn or dispose of diseased plants.

See:

compost heap

Tips for Growing Tasty Tomatoes.

Tips for Growing Tasty Tomatoes.

Green Tomatoes

There are few things that can beat the taste of home grown tomatoes. Growing tomatoes is not straightforward, they require constant attention throughout the year. However, they can be one of the most rewarding vegetables to grow. You will have no shortage of friends when you start to distribute home grown tomatoes…

Sowing Tomato Seeds

Sow seeds in Feb through to April. If you start them early they will need more early season protection, but, they will give a longer cropping season, rather than just a cropping season in late September / October.

In the UK, tomatoes will need to be grown under glass for most of the growing season. In the south, you will get some success from growing outside, but, you will gain a bigger crop by growing in a greenhouse.

Preventing Disease.

Tomatoes are susceptible to disease, especially when grown in greenhouses. These tips will help to prevent disease.

  • Avoid waterlogged soil
  • Replace the soil each growing season because many diseases remain in the soil. Use soil rotation techniques.
  • Keep the greenhouse clean and tidy of any dead and diseased leaves.
  • If any part of a tomato becomes effected with fungal rot make sure you remove it immediately to prevent it spreading.
  • Ensure good ventilation, remove lower leaves to give more air around the bottom of the plant
  • Deal with infestation of insects such as greenfly as they will help spread disease.
  • Disinfect the greenhouse at the end of the growing season with Jeyes Fluid

tomatoes

Watering.

  • After planting out your tomato plants do not water for 7-10 days so the roots start to seek nourishment and grow
  • Before fruits start to form, it is advisable to be moderate in watering. If you water and feed, you will just get more growth of the stem and they will be taller; this will not increase yields, but make them more unmanageable. However, once the fruits start to form it is important to ensure a good water supply, as it is essential for the formation of ripe fruits.
  • Tomatoes can need watering twice a day, if grown in growbags.
  • If you rely on a neighbour to water whilst you are away, make sure they are reliable and make sure they water in sufficient quantities.
  • Bury a plant pot alongside your tomato plants so watering is easy and it gets down to the roots
  • Tomatoes feed on roots near the surface and drink from deeper tap roots. Good watering makes for good tomatoes.

Feeding Tomatoes

Tomatoes are hungry feeders and definitely benefit from Tomato food during the formation of fruits once the first truss has set. This is particularly important if grown in grow bags

Support and Pinching Out.

For Cordon varieties of tomatoes, make sure you pinch out side shoots so that the plants focus their energy on a single stem. If you don’t you will get a lot of green growth and not many fruits. Also after about 7 branches develop, pinch out the top of the plant and focus on these 7 branches and their fruit.

This is an important tip, often forgotten by first time tomato growers. If you don’t have time to pinch out sideshoots, grow bush varieties.

Support your tomato plants with strong canes and string. They become very heavy with fruit.

Optimal Heat for Tomatoes

Tomatoes like a warm temperature. However, you should try to avoid temperatures above 85 F. In the height of summer, you will need to whitewash your green house and water down the floor of the greenhouse in the morning. The optimal temperature is around 75 to 80 degrees.

Tomatoes and Marigolds.

It is suggested growing marigolds or poached egg plants in between tomato plants to encourage hover flies who eat greenfly.

Tomatoes in grow bags.

Tomatoes in grow bags can be a good way of changing the soil every year. One tip is to use a double grow bag. cut a hole in the top of one and the bottom of another giving a double layer of growbag. This makes watering easier and gives the soil more reserves.

Popular Varieties of Tomatoes

My Tomatoes 2012

  • I like variety and am growing 5 types of tomato this year.
  • Moneymaker is my main cordon variety that I will keep in the greenhouse and pinch out.
  • Sunbaby yellow cherry tomatoes will go in the greenhouse along with the old favourite Gardeners Delight.
  • Garden Pearl is a new venture for me bred for hanging baskets I will try this cherry tomato in a container.
  • I expect least from an outdoor Marmande a beefsteak variety.

Cherry-Tomato-Plants_Autumn__55843
Cherry-Tomato-Plants_Autumn__55843 by Public Domain Photos CC BY 2.0