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Gardening
Tips Week Ending 7thMarch 2009 Hello Folks The garden centres are filling up
with lots of young bedding plants for baskets and tubs already pricked
out for you in modules. It is still very early and they will soon get
leggy if you keep them in the house as they need the light. They are
best kept in a greenhouse, but it must be well heated for such delicate
little plants. The only plugs I have bought so far are small Geraniums
as they are a little bit slower to grow. Perennials such as Lupins, Fox
Gloves, Aquilegias and Penstemmons, etc can be planted out now. If you
have Penstemmons and Sedums already in the garden, the old stems from
last year can be cut down to reveal the new growth that will grow to
produce the coming seasons flowers. It will soon be time to start
general seed sowing, but with many of the bedding plants such as
Lobelia, the germinating seedlings are so tiny, it is a lot easier to
buy a few plugs. On the other hand there are hundreds of dust like seeds
in a packet and one packet would last you for years if the seeds keep
germinating each year. I usually think of sowing Tomato seeds 6 weeks
before putting the young plants out in a cold greenhouse, (normally in
the last week of April,) and Runner Beans, Courgettes and Peppers should
be alright by then as well.
If you are sowing Marrows,
Courgettes, Squashes, Cucumbers or any other flat seeds, it is better to
put the seeds on edge in the compost as they may rot if they are lying
flat. Begonia corms can be started into growth now and they should be
placed on damp compost, but do not cover the corm with compost. They
shouldn’t be watered as such, but should be sprayed lightly and
occasionally with water to start the buds swelling. Well that’s all for now, good
sowing Frances Hartley Hello Folks
Just a few words about Orchids. They are Epiphytes which
naturally cling to the trees in the wild, so if you have had one as a
present, or bought one, do not pot it as an ordinary bulb. They virtually
sit on the compost and only dip their roots into it. The compost, which
should be very open and only watered when dry, can be bought in
reasonably small bags in Garden Centres. You can mix your own if you
want by using one third ordinary compost, one third grit, one third
shredded bark and a little charcoal. Garden
Centres are getting their plug plants in now and they do vary a bit in
price, but they are ideal for potting on to use later in tubs and
baskets, etc.
Amaryllis
Bulbs that were bought in the Winter will have probably flowered by now
and be coming to an end. The one I was given for Christmas had ten very
large beautiful pink and white flowers on it. Don’t stop watering or
feeding the bulbs just yet though, because they will develop healthy
leaves that feed the bulb for next year. Wait until the leaves start to
loose their colour and then gradually dry the pots off until the
leaves are dead all the while keeping the pots in full sun to ripen the
bulbs. They won’t flower at the same time next year as they did this
year, because those for sale this winter were forced, but they should
produce a new bud next year. If Amaryllis Bulbs are properly rested
after flowering and then coaxed back into life they usually flower again
every year as normal garden bulbs do, but sometimes they miss the first
year after they were first bought when they had been forced. I have
several that I kept from previous years that are now starting to produce
new flower buds. Good Gardening
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coming on
fast now. A small Hazel tree, which I grew from a nut some years ago,
had a few catkins last year, but looks lovely this year with lots of
bright pale yellow catkins hanging all over it.
I will try a few less popular and
unusual vegetables in large tubs again this year. I put 3 Baby Sweet
Corn plants to a tub last year and they did quite well, because with the
plants being so close to each other it meant they pollinated well to set
the corn. 
Begonia
Corms are now about and best started into growth by standing a few on
some compost in a half seed tray. They should be sprayed with water each
day to encourage them to shoot. Summer flowering bulbs, Dahlia Tubers,
Potatoes, Onion Sets and Shallots can also be bought. It is a bit late
for Shallots now though, but they should still have plenty of growing
time. Tomato seeds should be sown in the first week of March so that
they will be ready to go into a cold greenhouse in April.
Hello Folks
It
is time to check all your tools after the winter when you probably did
not use them much in the garden. To make sure I can find my tools easily,
when I put them down while I am using them, I have bound the handles
with yellow and green striped sticky tape which shows up quite well.
This is especially a good idea with small tools like secateurs and
trowels.