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Category: Gardening

General gardening tips and hints

Lawns in Winter

Lawns in Winter

Don’t smoke your grass but cultivate it as a lawn.
January Lawn

You might get sent to the Tower of London if you damage your Lawn during winter. One gardener must be there as the picture of their lawn in January after the snow is shown above. You can start your own business with the book and tips below.

Winter Lawn Care

Do not walk on frozen grass the leaves and stems will snap and damaged patches will show when the frost has gone.
Do not walk on very soggy grass or when covered in snow as this will also damage turf and soil structure.
Do not be afraid to smarten up your lawn on a fine dry day. Trimming the edges and removing any dead leaves or debris always gives a lawn a lift.
If you want to cut the lawn set the blades on the mower at the highest level and give it a light trim not a short back and sides.

Preparation for a Summer Lawn
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Start Gardening by Getting your Soil Right

Start Gardening by Getting your Soil Right

Where there’s muck there’s brassed off gardeners unless they have the right soil to take the extra nutrient.

Book Cover

‘The Gardeners’ Book: For the Gardener Who’s Best at Everything’ is really grand for novice gardeners taking up gardening for the first time or those seeking to grow some green fingers.

Improve Your Own Soil’s Consistency

  • Great soil contains air, water and nutrients appropriate for the plants you want to grow.
  • Digging soil over introduces air then weather breaks it down into a fine tilth.
  • Worms aerate soil and improve the texture. They feed on humus or rotting vegetable matter so encourage worms by feeding the soil with humus.
  • Sandy soil needs more humus to help it retain water. Clay needs more humus to hold the soil open for delicate roots.
  • Soil should drain excess water away so some stones are not a problem. If there are lots of stones and rocks remove them or grow plants that like those conditions.
  • Do not walk on very wet soil. Use a plank or duck board.

Bought Soil and Compost

  • Compost in bags can be perfect for pots and containers. It usually has some fertilizer, some wetting agent to make it easy to water and is of a consistancy that helps plants grow. It is not economic for larger garden areas although I use it in the greenhouse beds.
  • Peat, as well as being out of favour as unsustainable or eco-unfriendly, has no nutritional value and is hard to water once it dries out.
  • Top soil can be bought in various quantities but may contain stones, weeds and poor soil so beware.

The Right Soil Chemical Content

  • Plants need Nitrogen, Phosphates and Potassium (NPK) as food from the soil. Sun is the enegy to turn this food into growth through photosynthesis.
  • Hearty soil will have accessible NPK that can be augmented, for heavy feeding plants, with a balance fertilizer such as Growmore or Blood, Fish and Bone.
  • Some plants prefer a slightly acid soil from which to extract the nutrients and animal manure and peat mixed with your soil will increase the acidity.
  • Vegetables often prefer an alkaline soil so you can add a dusting of lime.

I thought my humus was a funny bone until they gave me the elbow.

Growing Monkey Flowers Mimulus & Musk

Growing Monkey Flowers Mimulus & Musk

Not a relative of Monkey nuts nor peanuts when it comes to colour.

Musk

You can learn strange facts about nature from Gardener’s names for the different plants. Monkey-flowers are so named because some  flowers are shaped like a monkeys face and others have painted monkey faces.  Some species of Monkey flower (Latin name Mimulus) have a wet aromatic smell hence another gardeners name ‘Musk’.
However the item that caught my attention was Monkey flowers provide for for the Mouse Moth.

Growing Monkey Flowers

You can easily grow annual Mimulus from seed and they flower in 7-8 weeks.
You can also grow perennial Mimulus cupreus or M. luteus and in mild areas another Mimulus, the Scarlet Faced Monkey flowers may be hardy.
Most Monkey flowers grow in moist or wet soils with some growing in bogs or shallow water.
You can grow from plug plants called Magic rainbow
Monkey flowers grow well and bloom in partial shade.
Mimulus genome is being studied in depth and you can find out more at the Mimulus Community.

In the meantime I wait for the newspaper headline ‘Mouse eats Musky Monkey’

Musk

Plant Thickly for Maximum Effect

Plant Thickly for Maximum Effect

‘…when all at once I saw a host a host of golden daffodils’…

Monardia Gardenview Scarlet
I do not want to look at soil so I try get plants that will do an effective job!
Why sow one when 100 will create a staggering display?
Why plant in small numbers when a surplus can be used for a flower arrangement or given away to friends and neighbours?
Why not garden to ‘shock and awe’ by maximising the impact of colour in a bed or border?

tulip pattern

Why read this idiot if you don’t agree with his views? (Oh I see from Google analytic s you are no longer a reader – shame)
Why use the penultimate letter of the alphabet to pose these queries?

Aster

Gardening for Birds

Gardening for Birds

Where have all the blackbirds gone?

Viburnum opulus xanthocarpum

Are you bird friendly letting insects thrive, growing berried shrubs and trees and leaving a natural area in your garden? If so then you know the way to attract more birds into your garden is via the birds appetite.
I have been encouraged by the sight of Redwings and Fieldflares during this snowy winter gobbling up the many berries in the garden. The first to go were these Viburnum followed before Christmas by the Holly berries which never seem to last on the trees until Christmas.
Perhaps the birds are attracted by the red colouring because Crab apple Red Sentinel is also pecked to death later on in winter. The Redwings were the gross feeders on my Cotoneasters but there is still a snack or two left for the next snowfall. The Pyracantha are well sorted probably by Thrushes but I never seem to catch them eating.

If you want to give birds a supplementary feed then high energy foods are best in winter. It is no use feeding something that needs a lot of energy to consume so Sunflower hearts, crushed Peanuts, Fat balls, Nyjer seed and even raisins are popular.
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Grow Eranthis or Winter Aconites

Grow Eranthis or Winter Aconites

An early yellow flower grown under deciduous trees.

Aconites

Grow Winter Aconites

  • The tuberous Winter Aconite or Eranthis likes a loose, well-drained chalky soil but will naturalise in a lawn or under a deciduous tree.
  • In the wild these do exactly what bulbs are supposed to do – grow, flower and seed while light penetrates the bare branches of the trees above them.
  • The knobbly tubers need to be planted 2” deep. The tubers can be divided after flowering every few  years and transplanted ‘in the green’ . They dry out very easily, generally   dislike being moved and are best left to their own devices.
  • Winter aconite does well in containers as long as they get water and winter sunshine.
  • Winter aconites grow to 3-4 inches high and have upturned yellow cup shaped flowers around 1 inch across. The flowers sit stalkless on a ruff of bright green leaves and they can flower for up to six weeks.
  • They do particularly well in chalky soil. Good drainage is essential.
  • Some gardeners dislike aconites for the messy mass of foliage but allow the leaves die down and the plant will be dormant and hidden until next winter.

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    Grow Green Tulips

    Grow Green Tulips

    It is almost too late to plant your tulips for this year but if you have some unplanted bulbs get them into the ground before the worst frosts.

    Take a note book when you visit a spring garden and record the plants you want to grow for next year. When the Tulips are in flower look for those with a green band particularly on the outer petals as this adds a new dimension to your traditional tulip.

    Types of Green Tulips

    • Viridiflora Tulips can have a lot of green on the outer petals. ‘Florosa’ is a pink and white with a slim and elegant lily shaped flower. ‘Spring  Green’ is cream and ‘Greenland’ is rose but my favourite is the terracotta coloured ‘Artist’
    • Amongst Parrot tulips ‘Super Parrot’ has ivory and green petals that look a bit like a leaf and make a good cut flower.
    • Some of the new multi-flowered tulips have green tinges like ‘Ester Rynveld’ and ‘Greenwave’
    • Traditional cottage tulip ‘Palestrina’ combines Salmon pink with  a green vertical band.
    • Fosteriana are very early flowering and ‘Exotic Emperor’ is one of the best. See pictures on Tulips in the Wood
    • ‘Doll Minuet’ is a deep pink flower with a rich green at the base of each petal.

    Tulip viridiflora

     

    More Sources

    Cut Flower Tulip varieties

    More Scented Tulip varieties

    Reasons to Order Tulips

    Elephant Garlic 10 Tips

    Elephant Garlic 10 Tips

    A Mediterranean diet is allegedly good for us so eat more tomatoes and garlic.

    Elephant garlic is an allium but not a true garlic. It is technically a stem leek which produces massive bulbs approximately 4 inches in diameter. The cloves are also much larger than conventional garlic with a milder taste making it suitable for a wide choice of culinary uses, especially roasting.

    Top 10 Tips

    1. Suitable for Spring or Autumn planting I am starting mine off in February but I could wait as late as May.
    2. Cover the individual cloves with one to one and half inches of soil over the top of the clove.
    3. Give each plant space to grow, 6 inches plus.
    4. Garlic responds to well dug soil with adequate amounts of phosphate and potash.
    5. Sulphate of potash will help protect against rust disease the main problem with garlics.
    6. Never let the plants run dry until a couple of weeks before harvest.
    7. As harvest approaches lift the head with their green leaves.
    8. Hang is a warm dry area with all the leaves attached until there is no moisture in the necks.
    9. Store in a warm, dry place, a cool place will encourage the cloves to sprout.
    10. The curly flower stalks also called scapes should be removed to concentrate growth into the bulb. The flower arrangers may have different ideas.

     

    ‘Elephant garlic sprouts small bulbils on the cloves or on the leaf bases, usually at least three per head. If these become detached from the parent bulb and left in situ they develop into rounds. If, however, bulbils form at the leaf tips it is not elephant garlic, but Babington’s Leek, which some growers mistakenly offer as elephant. According to the National Vegetable Society
    The best crop will be produced on light, friable, well drained soil in full sun.
    When planting ordinary garlic plant only the outer cloves from each head. Those cloves, that is, with one rounded and one flat side, the inner cloves, which are square or triangular in section, should be used in the kitchen.’

    Roast Garlic

    To buy a selection of Garlic at Thompson & Morgan click here.
    For more read Tricks to get great garlic

    Increasing Gardeners Productivity in the Garden

    Increasing Gardeners Productivity in the Garden

    Plan to get more from your time gardening. That’s it; have a plan, and try these tips

    mixed border

    The garden is a place of both leisure and work. We create a garden to enjoy, but sometimes we find it difficult to sit back and relax; instead we find numerous small jobs to do. We may go out in the garden to do one thing, but get sidetracked and start doing several things at once. If we are not careful we can spend a long time working in the garden but not change very much. These are some tips to increase your productivity in the garden.

    1. Be Focused.

    Decide on the most important task and then stick to that exclusively. If you want to weed a border; just concentrate on weeding. Don’t start splitting up plants or trimming bushes.

    2. Economies of Scale.

    Think how long it takes to get out the equipment and then put it back. It can easily be 10 minutes to get started and 10 minutes to pack up. Therefore, it is better to spend 1-2 hours working rather than several 15 minute sessions. Set aside an hour and then work really hard on that task; don’t waste time always getting started and putting things away.

    3. Right Tools.

    The right jobs can make a big difference. If you are pruning with a blunt pair of secateurs, everything will be harder work. Make sure you look after tools and if blades become blunt replace them, it will save time and make gardening more enjoyable in long run.

    4. Choose Most Important Task

    In any garden there are always a 100 different things that we can do. It is therefore important to prioritise. Start off with the most prominent border or place you want to look good; don’t worry about the odd weed behind the compost heap.

    5. Create Time

    Some jobs may be labour intensive meaning you don’t have time for more important tasks. For example, if you cut the grass every 4 days, you could cut it every 8 days and create an extra hour a week for weeding and planting.

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