Browsed by
Category: Gardening

General gardening tips and hints

Gardener’s Mildew Cures

Gardener’s Mildew Cures

If gardeners have left wet leather gloves or shoes in a mild garage since summer they may now be covered in a white dusty substance that is powdery mildew. Powdery Mildew can affect many garden plants and it is especially vexatious on Gooseberries, Roses and Peas. The greying of leaves leads to yellowing, distortion and falling, it is unsightly and damages crops.
For help understanding mildew read these tips.

Mildew Causes and Cures

Stress through dryness at the roots can make plants vulnerable. Water well in dry spells. Do not plant too close to dry walls or in a rain shadow. Add a water retaining mulch.
General maintenance issues bin any fallen or damaged leaves. Well fed plants will have more resistance to disease, apply Growmore or Blood, Fish and Bone at the start of the growing season. Select varieties that are less prone to mildew like Klevedon Wonder Peas or Cascade Brussels. Do not encourage sappy growth with too much nitrogen based fertilizer.
Good air circulation will restrict mildew so prune or thin out branches to create an open framework. Damp humid conditions also favour mildew so water the roots not the leaves. Mildew is spread by spores so do not shake infected material.

If all else fails there are proprietary fungicides and sprays including organic Fish oil blend or Sulphur powder which can help particularly on roses. Powdery mildews spend the winter as dormant infections resting structures or leaves which then release spores the following spring.

Oh and if your boots have mildew you are not doing enough gardening.

 

Avoidance is better than cure read tips to avoid mildew.

Autumn Fungus and Fairy Ring Tips

Autumn Fungus and Fairy Ring Tips

fungus

Following my summer post Fine and Fantastic Fruiting Fungus I have been out in the local woods seeking these new pictures.

fungus

Fairy Ring Tips

  • Fairy rings in a lawn are a result of fungus such as Marasmius Oreades growing thread like spores.
  • Fairy rings are dark green circles of lush grass in the lawn or may also be noticed as a group of toadstools in mid-summer.
  • Do not compost the toadstools or even the clippings to avoid spreading spores.
  • Fairy rings like dry soil so one treatment is to water and feed the lawn so the whole area goes dark green.
  • It is hard to treat Fairy rings but a fungicide containing dichlorophen may help.
  • The last alternative treatment is to dig out the infected area and returf.

fungus

Foul Fungus -Damping Off

Foul Fungus -Damping Off

 

Solve the problem of seedlings ‘damping off’ by watering your compost before sowing seeds with Cheshunts Compound a soluble fungicide. Damping Off is a fungal disease that attacks seedlings causing them to suddenly wilt, keel over and die. Damping Off is a particular problem when sowing seed indoors or under glass.

Damping Off can affect most seedlings, particularly under levels of high humidity, poor air circulation, low light and temperature that makes seedlings grow slowly and if seed is sown to thick.

Preventing Damping Off

* Raise seedlings in commercial growing compost, which is usually free of the key fungi.
* Ideally, use new pots and trays whenever raising seedlings. If they must be re-used, wash them thoroughly and treat them with a disinfectant such as Jeyes Fluid.
* Never reuse pots and trays in which damping off has been a problem.
* Sow seedlings thinly to avoid crowding.
* Use mains water when irrigating seedlings grown in pots and trays. If using rainwater, ensure that the water butt is covered to prevent the entry of leaves and other organic debris that could harbour some of the damping off fungi.
* Keep seedlings well ventilated to reduce humidity. Do not over-water.

Cheshunts Compound

* Can be used on all seedlings whether edible or non-edible.
* Easy to use, dilute and water the solution onto compost before sowing and repeat after the emergence of the seedlings.
* For transplanting, water seedlings with the solution before and after the transplanting.
* Suitable for organic gardening.
* Cheshunts Compound uses inorganic salts copper sulphate and ammonium carbonate so it is the same type of copper-based fungicide as Bordeaux mixture.

Available from Thompson Morgan
See also Verticillium Wilt

Cardoons Thistle be a good Plant

Cardoons Thistle be a good Plant

artichoke-thistle

Plants of the thistle family and close relatives are particularly good for wildlife. When in flower they attract Bees and Insects and the fine seeds provide bird food particularly for Goldfinches. In many cases the Thistles can and have provided food and medicine for human consumption.

Cirsium Vulgare and Common Thistle

These plants are hardy and the flowers, leaves, root, seed and stem are all edible. The root is best mixed with other vegetable due to it’s bland taste,  leaves and young flower stems can be removed of prickles, cooked and used as vegetables.  The stem base of the flower buds can be used like the heart of a globe artichoke.  The seeds of milk thistle  have  been used for 2000 years to treat chronic liver disease and protect the liver against toxins.

Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum is popular with gardeners as it flowers 4-5 feet tall. It has spreading roots and the flower heads should be cut off before being allowed to seed unless you are feeding birds and prepared to weed. ‘Atropurpureum’ is a tall statuesque plant that is perfect for the back of the herbaceous border. It produces elegant, long, leafless stems, each topped with a huge magenta-pink thistle head.

Cardoons

A perennial plant of the Cynara family they are an old favourite. Originally grown as a vegetable and blanched for use rather like celery, the cardoon is now valued for its striking silvery, thistle-like foliage which adds a theatrical touch to the border. In summer, tall flower stems are topped by fat thistle buds which resemble small globe artichokes. The buds open into large purple thistles which attract lots of bees. The dead flower-heads can be left on the plants and will provide an attractive feature over the winter months.

Using A Potato Clamp for Storage

Using A Potato Clamp for Storage

Potato Store

Storing through winter

When storing potatoes you need to exclude light and moisture but retaining an even temperature. Do not wash spuds before storing. Do not allow them to be stored too cold or the starch will turn to sugar and start to go black. A fridge is too cold.

A clamp is a simple pile to store Potatoes or Turnips outdoors. Lay a 6 inch bed of straw on the ground and place potatoes in a pile after removing any loose soil. Then place straw on top and around the root crop. On top of the straw pile 6 inches of soil to keep it in place and pat it smooth so it can shed rain. Dig a drainage trench around the pile. Leave ventilation holes in the top by pulling some straw through.

If rodents are a problem place chicken wire over the straw and bend at the base to form a barrier against burrowing. When opening the clamp to get some potatoes out check for rotting, if it is bad remake the clamp with more straw in a drier area. The graphic is more complex than needed at home or in the allottment a round pile will do.

Seedheads Worth Growing

Seedheads Worth Growing

clematis seedhead

Decorative gardens can benefit from growing seedheads for their own sake.

Flowers With Seedheads

  • The clematis family produce a variety of interesting seedheads. Shortly after flowering the above heads looked truly golden in the afternoon sunshine. The fluffy seeds will eventually be dispersed from a ball of seeds that looks just as wooly.
  • Honesty is aka Lunaria after the moon shaped seedhead. After the purple flower the green seedhead, shaped like an old penny or halfacrown in old money, looses the green covering to reveal a translucent white disc and ripe seeds. Even more decorative than the flowers and they can be picked as dried flowers.
  • Rosehips make some of the most startling seedheads but then again berries are all seedheads of a sort. Below is a photo of Skimmia berries the main reason for growing these small shrubs

Skimmia Berries

Grasses and Other Seedheads

  • The natural look from planting a range of different ornamental grasses for their seedheads has become very popular.

…

Read More Read More

Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

You don’t need global warming to get a warm glow in your garden if you plant some Canna. The fiery hot flowers and leaves on some Cannas are hard to beat and are worth a place in any passionate garden.

What other plant starts flowering in June and keeps flowering right through until the first frosts. Do not deadhead the flowers at any price as new blooms arise from the center of old ones. They flower in shades of red, orange, pink and yellow often bi-coloured with blotches, spots and streaks. The foliage is also a most attractive feature, and can be shades of purple/bronze, red, green and striped.

Growing Canna

  • Rhizomes have to be started into growth in February and you can be certain that if you see a new root, then a new shoot will soon follow. Start them by putting them in a hot place in a poly bag. An airing cupboard is ideal.
  • Part fill a 2 liter pot with peat based compost improved with slow release fertilizer and insecticide and lay the rhizome on the compost. If any shoots are growing, place these pointing upwards. Be very careful with any shoots because they break off very easily.
  • Fill the pot, affix a label showing the variety and the date of planting. Give the compost a good drenching, and sprinkle a few slug pellets around.
  • Place the pot in a warm frost free place. They will grow much quicker if heat is provided.
  • They can be planted out in June in sun, shade or preferably semi-shade.
  • Cannas prefer a damp soil but can survive some drought conditions. Some varieties grow well in bog gardens.
  • Large clumps can be divided in Autumn when the rizomes are stored in a frost free environment. Keep slightly damp.
  • Canna are very strong and sturdy and do not require staking. They are generally insect free in the UK.

…

Read More Read More

Marijuana Growers are Potty

Marijuana Growers are Potty

Book Cover

One weed that some gardeners wish they were able to grow – well then can but not always legally.

A form of grass that if you water it with neat whiskey it comes up half cut!

Cannabis the easier name to spell than Marijuana is typically considered to be one of two species Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa.

Skunk and not Skunk cabbage but with an aroma to be sniffed at.

Humidity, temperature and ventilation  are all vital to getting your grow right.

Hash is concentrated resin produced from the flowers of the female cannabis plant or hash is the mess I make of sowing very small seeds.

Marijuana Grower’s Handbook is a perennial favourite on marijuana cultivation. Ed Rosenthal’s popular marijuana advice column and helpful web links are included as Rosenthal delivers all the basics needed for a novice plus advanced research useful to the more experienced grower. Buy from Amazon

Get a Joint to easy your joints or call it a spliff, bone, nail or, when smoked down to the end, a roach.

Mistakes Making Compost

Mistakes Making Compost

compost bins

Another wet and rainy day and all I can think about is the compost heap (well may be not all).
We all slip up, drop clangers and get it wrong so I thought I would list some of my own compost errors or lash-ups.

Gardening can be like that so I try not to beat myself up when things go wrong. There is always another season and a worse clanger elsewhere.

Soggy Compost Mistakes

  • An over wet compost heap will smell something rotten, really stink and I mean badly.
  • Nutrients will be washed out at the bottom of the heap and lost.
  • The composting process will be slowed almost to a stop.
  • I wish I had covered my heap before all this heavy rain.
  • Good compost needs air so it may help to turn and drain the wet heap.
  • Belatedly I have been putting some torn up newspaper in the heap as roughage and to soak up some excess fluids.
  • Because this time I have built the heap on soil I can reclaim some of the goodness by taking a level of soil when I spread the compost.

Construction Mistakes

  • In the past I have relied on a heap with no sides just a pile. This flattens out and spreads without ever getting to a good heat except perhaps in the center
  • As you may see from the picture below some wood has rotted. You need to use tanalised or treated wood to prevent the structure from rotting.
  • A plastic bin where ‘you can draw clean compost from the bottom whilst refilling at the top’ was an unmitigated, uncomposted disaster but I may not have followed the rules
  • For the first time I have two discrete piles. For too many years I made do and mended with one. Now I wish I had three piles – ho hum!
  • Compost heaped on a concrete base is easy to work, turn and collect for spreading.
  • Leave room for your barrow so you can unload and reload comfortably
  • Do not build too near your neighbors kitchen window or cover your own air grates (mistakes I have previously made).

Compost Content Mistakes

  • I do not put meat products on the heap but last winter a family of rats made a nest in the warm pile
  • For several years I did not compost rhubarb leaves as I heard they were toxic. Of course they rot down and are quite safe.
  • Everyone must have tried to compost too much of the same vegetation and I have had too many grass mowings in a dry clump or a wet mess more times than I should mention. I now try to aerate the pile or turn it over regularly.
  • Leaves from trees take longer to rot, contain less nutrients and are better in a leaf pile or punctured plastic bag. Twigs need to be shredded or cut very small.
  • Seeds from weeds and plants including fox gloves and forget-me-nots do not rot they survive
  • After the mistake of too much water do not forget a dry heap will not rot either – you need some damp or add water when very dry.

wet-heap-july

Compost Mistake Elimination

  • Good compost starts with a range of good materials from a mixture of green plants and shredded brown matter.
  • Fungi and creepy crawlies breakdown the material and they need air and moisture to do their best
  • Heat helps kill pathogens and unwanted seed so keep a lid on a good sized pile and insulate the sides.
  • Turn the pile for even rotting as this stops the edges rotting more slowly
Carbon Neutral Garden

Carbon Neutral Garden

tree

They are not making ‘Carbon’ anymore nor is carbon ever totally destroyed. Carbon is one of natures greatest recycling projects. Carbon is present in gaseous form like Methane(CH4), Carbon dioxide(CO2) and Carbon monoxide(CO). Carbon is also dissolved in water particularly the oceans but is naturally present most notably as a solid in rocks such as limestone, minerals like oil and coal plus trees and plant matter.

Do you think about the carbon cycle?

Is your garden carbon neutral?

Are you offsetting your own carbon emissions?

Environmental Benefits of Planting Trees

Common Sense Carbon Neutral

…

Read More Read More