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Category: Gardening

General gardening tips and hints

Berry Fruit Cages

Berry Fruit Cages

You have grown some bush fruit in an organic garden and as the berries ripen all the birds you have fed through winter decide to feast on your well grown crops. What a good job you protected them in a fruit cage!

red currant

If you do not have a fruit cage yet, you can buy a Two Wests Standard 6′ High Fruit Cage 6′ x 12′ Cage from Amazon.

Blackcurrant and Jostaberry
Blackcurrants prefer a cool, clay-loam soil which is not too acidic pH 6.5.
They are gross feeders and like a rich fertile soil.
Blackcurrants are shallow rooting and require irrigation or good watering when dry.
Protection from frost may be needed for early flowering varieties.

Redcurrant and Whitecurrant
A potash rich, moist, well drained soil with a pH 6.0 is optimum. …

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Growing Good Crocosmia

Growing Good Crocosmia

The national plant collection of Crocosmia in Lincolnshire has 270 different varieties.
Most are grown in containers to make use of the available growing space.

Growing Hints and Tips

  • The bronzed leaf varieties are a bit tricky being more tender and slower to bulk up. Given good drainage and a warm sunny spot then Nigricans or Dusky Maiden may be OK. ‘Dark Leaf Apricot’ (Coleton Fishacre) should be even easier.
  • Crocosmia like plenty of water in the growing season and are hardy in winter as long as they do not get too wet.
  • A warm sunny spot suits Crocosmia best but do not forget the water.
  • Crocosmia attract insects and if possible leave the leaves on through the winter as wildlife utilise these leaves to make their homes. The old leaves also help protect emerging shoots from spring frosts but you can mulch instead if you wish.
  • Montbretia can be rampant and others you should watch out for include Red King, Meteore, Red Star and Marcotijn.

Choice Varieties
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Growing Ghosts – Eryngium giganteum

Growing Ghosts – Eryngium giganteum

Mrs Willmott a formidable gardener is said to have secretly sown seeds in other peoples garden, an idea that appeals to me as a guerrilla gardener. Growing Eryngiums that look spooky in the moonlight is how they got the name Mrs Willmott’s ghost plants.

Growing Tips

  • Sea Holly or Eryngium giganteum is an odd looking perennial with prickly, silvery-grey bracts under steel-blue cones.
  • Wonderful for dried arrangements, especially at Christmas.
  • Happy in sandy dry soils this draught tolerant plant has spikey growth can deter unwanted visitors! I have a few scars this year to prove it. Suitable for exposed coastal planting
  • An architectural plant that attracts wildlife to feed or nest.
  • Suitable for container growing; – ideal as a ‘stand out’ plant.

Raising Plants

  • Surface sow and just cover with vermiculite. Do not exclude light. Germination can be slow.
  • Sow in February to get a bit of frost or place in a refrigerator (not freezer) for 3-6 weeks.
  • Transplant to a cold frame then grow on in full sun
  • Prefers a rich, light, well drained soil.

Chiltern Seeds have 18 different varieties of seed or try Eryingyum from Thompson & Morgan

Honesty seed heads look a bit ghostly once the seeds have gone and the coin shaped, white paper disc is left to reflect low winter light. If you want a ‘ghost of Christmas past’ combine these two in a dry flower arrangement.

Read Plants for dry gardens

Lawn Games for Summer

Lawn Games for Summer

Book Cover

The top ten garden games need a Lawn and a gardener who bites their tongue occasionally.

French Cricket the game where the feet must stay still and together and the ball is bowled at the feet from wherever it lands. Hitting the ball into another garden or favourite bush is 6 and out except there is no scoring anyway.

Tip it and Run is a short version of cricket with an L shaped pitch where the bowler bowls at the wicket as soon as they have the ball and a batter has to run at right angles a defined distance and back if he tips or hits the ball anywhere.

Croquet need some equipment similar to that show which can be bought from a sports or toy shop or from Amazon.

Carpet Bowls or even bowls if your lawn is large enough. The fun is in the bias that makes the ball roll in a curved line. Unless the grass is very wet it is unlikely to damage the lawn.

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Improve Your Garden

Improve Your Garden

Despite the lack of sun this summer there has still been quite a splash of colour in the garden. In my case a bit too much colour perhaps. I have several desires when it comes to changing my garden and it is time I put thoughts into action.  If I do not act this Autumn next season could be a frustrating repeat.

Masters Degree in One Plant

  • First I have to graduate from GCSE grade D but there is aspiration – so watch this space.
  • I would like to get the best out of one type of plant. Genera, family and even species may be too wide ranging to start with but who knows.
  • A real best of class performance would be a good start. Good show winning characteristics from good perennial flowers or fruit rather than vegetables.
  • Due to my acquisitive nature a selection of varieties a ‘mini national collection’ is what may be in my mind.
  • First chose your subject! I started with ‘P’  plants, primula, pansy, pelargonium and peony.

Better Colour Schemes

  • I should be able to organise more harmony with less sharp contrasts.  I must discipline myself not to squeeze in more plants of the wrong sort just because I like the individual plant but  thereby destroying the main theme.
  • I would like to have a natural flow of colour, not as in your face as purples, pinks and yellows all mixed in.
  • Separating blocks of colour may be the answer and I will try with annuals. Self colour seeds rather than mixes would be a start. There are some good selections in the new  catalogues.

Shock and Awe

  • More unique eye catching or even startling features that make passers by want to pause
  • Grow some unusual or unexpected plants to display their full pomp.
  • Exploit the clever use of garden hardware as containers or weird features (like the eponymous, continually pouring watering can )

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening

Growing Hydrangea

Growing Hydrangea

Hydrangea at Sunset
Hydrangea at Sunset

Hydrangea is a great plant that offers a long flowering season on a nicely shaped bush. Books suggest sun / partial shade. But, our experience is that it can thrive in full sun, but heavy shade will leave it stunted. It is relatively pest free which is a real boon. It is also fairly resistant to frosts, though new blooms may get damaged in a heavy frost. It is a heavy feeder, especially when in bloom. Give a good feed in spring with a general plant fertiliser.

Flowers come from new shoots, so you can prune back the old shoots in Autumn. But, we like to just dead head to encourage more flowers.

Getting More Flower Heads

  • Feed with phosphorous rich fertliser like bone meal.
  • Water well from early spring to encourage growth but remember Hydrangeas flower on old wood.
  • Prune with care I repeat ‘remember Hydrangeas flower on old wood.’
  • Blooms come from buds set in the autumn at the tips of stems.
  • Reduce the number of stems on the plant in early autumn.

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Garden & Allotment Safety

Garden & Allotment Safety

This allotment goes someway towards safety for the gardener, the allotment and the plants.

For personal safety the canes can poke out your eyes so the upturned bottles offer ugly protection. In a garden you can buy designer cane tops and if you spend a lot on the garden this may be a worthwhile finishing touch.

The trailing hose pipe could cause a trip but at least these paths are clearly marked out with the tanalised boards that also raise soil levels. Good well maintained none-slip paths are a must in the garden. Poor paths reflect on the plants, no matter how good they may be and paths are visible all year.

Most things and activities can be dangerous if used incorrectly but a bit of garden common sense particularly with sharp objects can save a lot of pain.

Get an upto date tetanus injjection just incase to prevent wound infection leading to lock jaw.

Bend the knees not the back when lifting and do not strain by over reaching.

For crop safety the mesh netting is keeping the birds off the strawberries underneath. The sun and rain can still get through and this type of fruit cageing is popular for all soft fruit.

The support for Sweet Peas is essential to help them get off the ground and support them whilst growing. They would not be safe from slugs, twisted flower stems and a poor crop yield without some protection.

Beware of communally supplied animal compost it may contain chemicals you do not want on your crops. Hormones and selective weed killers used by farmers and stables are often present in manure.

The site protection has linked fencing, barbed wire along the top and numerous fences and barriers. A bit over done for a garden but essential for an allotment that is unmanned and often out of sight.

Take valuable tools home and have a strong lock up at the allotment and or home. An old rickety shed wont stop the determined.

Valuable features like sculptures and fountains may need to be firmly fixed into the ground using special fittings to frustrate the thieves.

Grow Acanthus Varieties

Grow Acanthus Varieties

A large clump of Acanthus can produce many flowers on the 2-3 foot stems and you get the architectural leaves thrown in as an extra. The sturdy stems carry a whorl of 30 or so flowers, each producing a shiny, rich-brown, elliptical seed capsule.
Acanthus common name Bears Breeches is a genus of flowering plant named from Greek Akanthos, thorn plant.They were brought to the UK by Romans. An old herbal credits the following treatments which a Roman soldier may have needed:

“The leaves, being bruised or rather boiled and applied like a poultice are excellent good to unite broken bones and strengthen joints that have been put out. The decoction of either leaves or roots being drank, and the decoction of leaves applied to the place, is good for the king’s evil that is broken and runs; for by the influence of the moon, it revives the ends of the veins which are relaxed.”

“There is scarce a better remedy to be applied to such places are burnt with fire that this is, for it fetches out the fire, and heals it without a scar.”

Why are they named Bears Breeches or the Oyster plant?

In the 17th century, these were called Brank-ursine, meaning bear’s claws, which referred, possibly, to the shape of the flowers. They contain mucilage and tannin, which makes or rather made them useful in traditional medicine systems in Europe.

Acanthus in Cultivation

  • Acanthus grow in well drained soils, they don’t like to sit in water especially during winter.
  • The herbaceous species are native to dry rocky hills and make striking border plants. They thrive equally well in both sun and dense shade, although they tend to be more compact and flower more prolifically in sun producing more leaves in shade.
  • Acanthus have distinctive leaves at the base and some have fragrant flowers. The flower spikes are useful, when dried, for winter decoration.
  • Acanthus make excellent specimen plants in tubs and pots.
  • Slow to get a hold they can become hard to eradicate once they get going as they grow strongly from bits of root.

Acanthus Varieties

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Rose Hips for Gardens & Coughs

Rose Hips for Gardens & Coughs

‘Three cheers for Rose hips’

Roses produce hips to carry seeds if we do not deadhead. The colour of the hips (aka heps, haws, Pixie Pears or even Pig’s Noses) vary with some strong reds and bright orange varieties. The wild varieties and species rose are often better hip producers as other roses have been bred for floral purposes. Tip do some research when buying roses to get good hips.
Rose hip
Good Hip Roses

  • Rosa Rugarosa are grown for the hips that follow the flowers. They make a good hedge with masses of small bristly thorns up to 6 feet high. Rugarosa Alba are fragrant white flowers of heavily scented large white flowers June to September followed by large orange-red hips early autumn .
  • The climbing Rose Francis E. Lester has large bunches of small blooms with a strong fragrance. This is followed by masses of small orange hips in autumn.
  • Rosa ‘Geranium’  is a large, vigorous shrub with arching branches and dark-green leaves. In summer, it produces red flowers with prominent yellow stamens, followed by bright-red, long hips in autumn.
  • Rose Macrophylla has clear pink flowers followed by long bristly, flagon-shaped hips.

Rose hip
Using Rose Hips

  • Hips help attract wild birds and  feed them through winter.
  • Many hips from wild roses are colourful and can be used in flower arrangements.
  • Fruiting varieties like ‘Buff Beauty’ ‘Felicia’ and ‘Penelope’ are usually edible and pleasantly sweet, especially if you wait until the frost has concentrated their sugars.
  • Hips are decorative and can look spectacular during winter with a rime of frost.
  • Rose hips are made into syrup for vitamin C and here are some other recipes.

HT roses seem to produce more boring hips.

dog-rose41

Rosehip Syrup, Tea and Cordial
Before setting out for school in the 1950’s I remember taking a spoonful of Rosehip syrup. The vitamin C must have done me some good as I am still here.

Rosehip Syrup Recipes

  • Crush about 2lbs rosehips and put into 3 pints boiling water.
  • Bring back to boil, remove from heat and let stand for 10 mins.
  • Strain through jellybag. When it ceases to drip, return to pan with another 1½ pints boiling water.
  • Pour into a clean pan, reduce by boiling until juice measures 1½ pints.
  • Add 1lb sugar.
  • Stir over gentle heat until sugar dissolves and boil for 5 minutes.
  • Pour into hot bottles and seal.
    With thanks to Hedgerow recipes see

more uses for Rosehips

 

Other Uses for Rosehips

  • The real reason for Rosehips is to produce pollinated seed from which to grow more roses.

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Gardening Jobs We Hate To Do.

Gardening Jobs We Hate To Do.

windingpath

Cutting the grass is hard work, (you could just leave it like this natural meadow)

Gardening is a beautiful pastime, working with plants is one of the most rewarding activities. But, there are sill some jobs that never seem particularly attractive. These are some of the jobs I try to avoid doing, or at least get someone else to do. (It’s about time to invite my Mother to cut my edges)

1. Dealing With Slugs

There is no easy way to deal with slugs. Using pellets leaves a slight feeling of guilt. Any other method is either gruesome or hardwork.

2. Cleaning equipment after use.

When you’ve spent along time clipping a hedge, putting the clippings away, the last thing you wont to do is to clean all the tools you’ve used. But, it is an effective way to extend the length of tools.

3. Cutting the edges and picking up the clippings.

Mowing the lawn isn’t too bad, but, going round all the edges and cutting them is hard work with little reward.

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