Browsed by
Category: Gardening

General gardening tips and hints

Growing Top Ten Euphorbia

Growing Top Ten Euphorbia

The most popular Euphorbia purchase in December is the poinsettia but many cacti are also Euphorbias.
euphorbia

Euphorbia is one of the most diverse genera in the plant kingdom with over 2100 species. Members of the family and genus are sometimes referred to as Spurges. They range from annual weeds to trees. They all have a latex sap which can be an irritant and a unique flower structure. Many Euphorbias are succulent and the characias species are an architectural perennial with fresh bluish-green foliage.

Top Ten Euphorbias

  1. Euphorbia milii or Crown of Thorns is a succulent houseplant which has spiny stems and comes from Madagascar. Easy to grow in cool, bright conditionsit is propagated from tip cutings.
  2. E. griffithii ‘Fireglow’ one of the few euphorbias with orange-tinted bracts and a red flush to its leaves. ‘Fireglow’ has the Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
  3. Euphorbia pulcherrima is the plant often associated with Christmas the Poinsettia with flame red bracts or cream and pink varieties for indoor growing. …

    Read More Read More

Tips for Growing Mint

Tips for Growing Mint

Mint is a flavour-some herb. Growing good leafy plants is easy, too easy when it tries to take over.

Mint is perennial and clumps up or spreads quickly so a good tip is to constrain the roots in an old bottomless bucket. Mint likes fertile ground and the roots will travel in search of better conditions. Large clumps can be cut back in autumn, on one side encouraging growth then next year on the other side so the plant is encouraged back.

Oberlin Summer - Mint

Mint Cultivation and Growing Tips

  • Mints grow in shade, partial sun and full sun although they prefer cool, damp, shady locations. They like poor and stoney soil.
  • Mint’s strong scent wards off insects and can be quite effective if planted with cabbage and tomatoes.
  • Mint attracts few pests or disease and doesn’t need fertilizer. If you get brown spot on the leaves destroy the plant.
  • Mint has the best flavor if trimmed every two or three weeks.
  • Use the newest young leaves for the kitchen.
  • Pot up some mint into a pot and grow in doors.

…

Read More Read More

Top Ten Vegetables from Gardeners Tips

Top Ten Vegetables from Gardeners Tips

A million gardeners everyday pick up a spade and thank the beans.

organic-vegetables

Every list of top ten vegetables to grow your own would probably differ, mine would vary based on season, current successes and even personal hunger. Most of this top selection of ten varieties are part of the RHS vegetable collection available from Thompson & Morgan amongst other seed merchants.

Broad Bean Bunyards Exhibition
One of my all time favourites, Bunyards Exhibition has a very good flavour and is excellent for freezing. They prefer a well-drained, moist, rich soil. A reliable performing heavy cropper with of long pods it will grow in most soils.  Pick regularly once pods are full to promote further pod production. Support the plants as they grow by placing a cane or stout stick at each corner and tying in with string. Keep well watered particularly when flowers are setting. Pinch out growing tip when first flowers set pods to deter blackfly. …

Read More Read More

Protecting Hostas from Slugs

Protecting Hostas from Slugs

Hostas should be renamed ‘Slug Food’

hosta

Every year my Hostas have been nibbled when young, eaten in Summer and decimated by Autumn.
Guess what I have done this year – yep I have potted them up into containers and so far so good (until the little devils learn to fly or crawl up the pot sides).
It is the little black slugs rather than the fat juicy brown slugs that do the most damage but knowing that won’t make you feel any better.

Top Tips for Protecting Hostas from Slugs

    …

    Read More Read More

Growing Fothergilla Shrubs

Growing Fothergilla Shrubs

A cottage garden structural shrub that is making a comeback in popularity
fothergillia

All plants and shrubs seem to move in and out of fashion and Fothergilla are currently enjoying a cult status amongst many gardeners. However they are not so commonplace that you should be put off growing one.

Fothergilla major is a favourite plant for Autumn colour of reds, oranges and yellows that also produces frothy and fragrant white flowers in mid Spring. The spring leaves are glossy, dark green and rounded with toothed edges. Fothergilla leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow in autumn. This deciduous shrub can grow to 20 feet but is best restricted in a small garden. It produces suckering stolens that may be propagated and plants can also be grown from seed.

Fothergilla gardenii or the Dwarf Fothergilla also called Dwarf Witchalder grows upto six foot high and is a better mannered version of Fothergilla major. All Fothergillas seem to like wet or moist soil and they should not be allowed to dry out.

A superb introduction from Commercial Nurseries is Fothergilla Blue Shadow with powdery blue foliage that was discovered as a sport from the cultivar ‘Mount Airy’.

Avoid too Much Water and Wet Gardens

Avoid too Much Water and Wet Gardens

You can have too much of a good thing in the garden and this also applies to water.

After prolonged rain some rose buds fail to open and the outer petals start to rot, creating a soggy mess (prune them off if it happens).
Waterlogged soil is the bain of badly drained soils – water displaces air and turns the soil sour. I can drown plant roots and invertebrates.

Water Excess

  • It is no accident that many if not most plants require soil with good drainage or free draining compost. That is because roots can drown and rot.
  • Do not stand pots in deep saucers or containers full of water or you may loose the plant.
  • Even too much rain can cause tender alpines to rot. Some need a glass roof or semi-shelter to keep off the worst excesses of heavy rain.
  • Flower-heads can fill with rain and droop or bring a plant too its knees. Shake out excess rain of possible.

    • …

    Read More Read More

Garden Colour Wheel – Hints and Tips

Garden Colour Wheel – Hints and Tips

Am I a bit colour blind? I see shades in black and white because I do not think and digest what I see.

Colourful gardens are not hard to achieve but here are a few hints and tips to help you with various aspects of planning and using colour.

Tips and Hints for Colourful Tints

  • Light creates colour so think about the Sun’s effect in the morning, around mid day and in the evening. It has a cooler temperature and helps yellows and pastle colours early, can burn out soft colours in the full glare but adds warm tones later in the afternoon. Look at some old photographs to see what I mean.
  • Throw your own light into dull corners by painting trellis and furniture white. Light coloured bricks, paving and gravel can also make a huge difference.
  • Small gardens appear larger if you place soft colours furthest away with vivid colours nearest. For the appearance of width put dark blue at the back and pastels at the front.
  • Vivid colours make pastel colours seem washed out so separate them with the neutrality of white flowers.
  • Soften large areas of blue with its complementary colour orange. A complementary colour is directly opposite in a colour wheel. So red and green work well.
  • Cream, white and mauve can have a peaceful tranquil effect.
  • It is easy to forget the colour of a flower so tie a piece of coloured nylon yarn to the plant. Then when you move it or plant a companion you know what you will get.
  • Green is the predominant colour in the garden and has more shades than any other colour. Mix variegated leaves and yellow leaved plants for effect.

Read also Purple coloured flowers on Gardeners Tips
Orange Flower Photo club
This extract is from Red and Green in the Garden
Colour is classified in three ways.
1. Hue- This is the kind of colour and whether it is intense or greyed
2. Brightness – is the total light reflected that provides the tone or luminosity. It is how the eye perceives light to dark colours.
3. Saturation – Is intensity or pureness. spectral colours are the maximum intensity the eye can appreciate. Mixed with any other colour reduces saturation.

Alstroemeria

Wheel shaped arrangement of orange Alstroemeria

Acid or Alkaline Soil Improvers

Acid or Alkaline Soil Improvers

Don’t let pH be a mystery, it is easy to get the soil you need for a small contained area or even garden wide if you know the science.
Book Cover

Acidity and alkalinity are measured on a pH scale. Below pH 7.0 is verging towards acidic so pH 4.5 is very acid. Test kits are available from many sources.

Increasing Alkalinity.

For vegetables a pH of around 6.5 is ideal and to achieve this it may be necessary to add some lime into the top 6 inches of your soil.
Garden lime is available from most garden centers. Builders lime or quick lime is more aggressive to plants.
If your soil is around a pH of 7.0 (neutral) I would not bother to try adjust it. Above that it is limey soil and less suitable for acid lovers like rhododendrons and blueberries.
Adding lime helps vegetables take up nutrients. It also suppresses club root in members of the brassica family.
Manure then a couple of weeks later lime your soil during winter, it helps to break up the soil.
For lawns, shrubs, roses, fruit or trees, apply lime before planting.
Calcified seaweed and ground chalk or powdered limestone are other forms of calcium carbonate that will help reduce acid soil.

The RHS has a table of lime quantities needed to correct different levels of acidity read more

Acidifying Soil

To change the pH of the top 6inches of soil from neutral pH 7.0, or slightly alkaline pH 7.5 to slightly acid pH 6.0-pH 6.5 sulphur powder may be required.
Aluminium sulphate or Ferrous sulphate can also be used as a soil acidifiers. The effects are rapid, but large quantities can interfere with phosphorus levels in the soil and may also reduce pH excessively.
Soil-acidifying materials can be applied at any time of the year but products containing sulphur take longer to work when the soil is cold so are normally best applied from spring to autumn.

Dead or Environmentally Friendly Grass

Dead or Environmentally Friendly Grass

Halloween grass is special and only grows one day of the year.

Dead grass

Assuming you have elected not to leave your grass to become a wild flower meadow, or a rough patch as a haven for wild life, there are still measures you can take to be environmentally friendly.

Green Watering Tips

  • Save water by selecting a tough grass mix including Rye, fine Fescues and other seeds.
  • If you must water do it thoroughly and evenly, early in the morning to avoid too much evaporation. Do not over water or water too frequently as this encourages surface roots and weak grass.
  • Use rain water caught in a water butt or grey water collected from your bath or shower.
  • Do not waste water in a drought, brown grass will recover when the rain comes.

    • …

    Read More Read More

Winter Trees With Winter Tips

Winter Trees With Winter Tips

At the first sign of snow I walk round my trees or at least the garden they are planted in.

Snowy Winter Tips

Conifer branches were weighed down with wet snow and a cane was used to knock excess off before branches broke or were set at an ungainly angle. Some ornamental conifers can be wired up so the shape is retained.

Rock salt was not used on paths where there was any danger of ‘run off’ as the salt could poison the ground and plants.

I tried to avoid walking on lawns when the ground was frozen or covered in snow.

Birds were fed with seeds, peanuts and fat balls to help them through the winter. They will pay back by eating insects later on.

…

Read More Read More