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Gardening
Tips Week Ending July 4th 2009 Hello
folks
The gardens are all looking good now as bedding plants in the
borders, tubs and baskets are growing well and coming into full flower
with masses of colour.
After
putting in the edging and digging the borders we had some heavy rain, so
we put a thick layer of bark chippings on the beds. It not only keeps
the moisture in, but will improve the soil as the worms will gradually
pull the chippings down into the soil over the coming months. We
have 4 water buts installed on all the down spouts of the house and with
the changeable weather up until now, as they have been emptied for
watering the tubs etc, one days rain has filled them up ready for the
next few days sunshine.
Dahlias
though, have been very slow to come into growth this year. In fact if
they were left in the ground over Winter, even in well drained sandy
soil, they could well have rotted with all the wet we had, so it is
worth checking. There
are still flowering bulbs on sale which have been reduced, but do check
that the bulbs, tubers or corms have not dried out or shrivelled up
while they have been on sale in the shops. If they have, save your money
as they will do no good. Well
that’s All For Now. Gardening
Tips week Ending 7th July. It is supposed to be Summer time now and everywhere bright and cheerful with flowers, but enough said about that. It is a good time to take cuttings of shrubs now, soft tip cuttings or semi-ripe are the easiest. You can buy small bags of cutting compost, but I prefer ordinary compost with either extra fine grit added or I just use compost with a thinnish layer of silver sand on top so that when pushing cuttings in the sand goes in as well. Don’t use builders sand as there will probably be lime in it and it will burn the tender stems. Take cuttings 2 or 3 inches long, trim off to just below a leaf
joint, take off excess leaves leaving just 2 or 3 small ones, if
remaining leaves are large cut them in half. Cuttings can then be dipped in
rooting powder and put in the pot you have ready prepared. It is best to use a dibber,
old biro, or pencil to make a small hole for each cutting, then firm the
soil round them. You can put several round the edge of the pot as they
seem to root better in company. Cuttings should be put in an unheated
propagator or in a polythene bag, but leave some air in the bag and tie
the top and stand it in a shady, fairly cool place.
Bye
for now Gardening
tips week Ending July 13th 2008 Hello
folks
The months are passing by so quickly we shall be seeing Christmas
cards and crackers in the shops soon, but we have had no Summer where we
could laze in the garden and listen to the birds and bees yet.
If you are going on holiday and cannot get a friend or neighbour to do any necessary watering for you, you can get drip hoses to connect to the tap to water tomatoes etc in the greenhouse. Some seep hoses as they also called can be bought to fit on water tubs rather than the tap. Or another idea is to put a large tub of water with a piece of very thick string or even rope (not Nylon) dangling with one end in the tub and the other end trailed through the soil where the tomatoes are. This is not ideal but will help. Also you should shade the greenhouse and make sure there is plenty of ventilation to keep the temperature down, but ensure that the windows are secure in case the wind gets up while you are away. If you place a really wet, dripping, thick towel or small blanket in the bath with a small amount of water in the bottom as well, house plants that have to be left, can be stood on it. Of course the pots should be well watered first, and if the bath is not suitable and the kitchen sink is not in full sun, you can use that instead. Now
is the time to trim conifers and tidy them up. Winter and spring
flowering shrubs should have all been trimmed by now, but Spring
flowering perennials that have finished flowering can be lifted and
divided. The whole clump should be uprooted and split with the old
central piece discarded on the compost heap. When replanting the new
young pieces they should be well watered to give them a start and not
forgotten if we have a dry spell. Hostas are better divided earlier in
the Spring and things like Polyanths in the autumn, but things like
Lupins and Red Hot Pokers (Kniphophias) should be finishing flowering
about now. Well
that’s all for now Cheerio, Frances Hartley Gardening Article 15/7/06 Hello folks – This is not really for the garden, but felt I had to write this as I have heard quite a lot of people say Amaryllis bulbs won’t flower a second time. At the moment I have one bulb out with two stems each holding 4 large flowers. It was a dormant bulb when I had it and it is in flower for the third year. I have another different bulb also in bud for the 3rd year. With a little T.L.C. Amaryllis will flower every year for as long as you have them. When the flowers have died, snap off the heads and
leave the stems on 'till they start to go yellow. If you don’t remove
them, the old
heads might set seed and that drains the energy from the bulb. Later cut
the yellow stem down and give the leaves a foliar feed, then water
sparingly till the leaves go yellow as well. When they have yellowed
give them a very gentle pull and if they don’t come away leave them as
they are still When re-potting do not over pot the bulb. There should be barely enough room to put two finger widths between the bulb and pot each side, or you will get lots of babies come up round the bulb and no flowers. When potting these bulbs, half the bulb should be above the compost. I have flowered Amaryllis from seed which takes about 5 years, and that is why they are so expensive to buy in the shops. If the bulbs are in flower at Christmas it means they have been forced and may miss their natural flowering time, which is round June-July, but if you treat them as described before they should flower the next year. Well, good luck with them. More gardening next month. Cheerio. |
In
fact everything is growing vigorously in our garden including the lawn
and to save the everlasting job of edging it all round the flower beds,
my son has been putting green plastic lawn edging down. It is rather
awkward to put down, but the job is much easier after some heavy rain,
because then it almost taps into the ground with a rubber mallet, or can
even be pressed in with a well placed boot. Put in properly, so that the
top is just below the lawn edge, it keeps the edge of the lawn tidy,
stops the roots from the lawn coming through and the lawn mower will
still go over it. We have put the edging in because our lawn is full of
“Twitch” or “Couch Grass” as some people call it and the plastic
edging stops the shallow “Twitch” roots from spreading into the
borders. The edging is a bit expensive at about £5 for a 30 foot roll,
but it will last for many years.
Most
of the garden plants seem to like the changeable wet and dry spells this
year with the shrubs especially putting on a lot of growth and they have
made lovely splashes of colour with both their early flowering and
foliage.
Tomatoes
should be setting well now so they should be given a potash feed such as
Tomorite, as that encourages the fruit, where as a nitrogen feed
encourages more growth, if you want to grow perennial seeds for
flowering next year, now is the time to sow them. These include primroses and
primulas, winter pansies, penstemons and foxgloves. There are more, but I
will leave it at that. Runner beans are making good growth but I
haven’t seen many bees about yet for pollination. Let’s hope the
weather will warm up and dry up soon.
If
you have tomatoes in the greenhouse it is wise to give the canes a
gentle shake each day to distribute the pollen as there doesn’t seem
to be many bees about. Another little reminder for you is it’s a good
idea to start giving tomatoes a weekly feed with a high potash
fertilizer such as Tomorite when the young fruit are like small marbles.
feeding the bulb. When all the leaves are off stop
watering, peel off any crisp brown bits on the bulb and keep the bulb in
full sun for as many hours a day as possible for several weeks. They
like a real baking. Do not water at all until you see a green shoot
coming up from the centre of the bulb at the start of the next season.
Then water sparingly until in full growth. Flowers usually come before
the leaves.