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Gardening
Tips Week Ending May 2nd 2009 Hello
Folks
It
is still risky to put bedding plants out yet, except hardy Annuals, such
as Cosmos, Alyssum, Stocks and Antirrhinums. If you have a gap to fill up
and aren’t familiar with Cosmos they grow to about 2 ½ - 3 feet tall
and 1 ½ - 2 feet across and will get covered in Daisy like flowers that
come in various colours. There is a Chocolate Cosmos that does smell of
chocolate very close to, but the flower is not very impressive with its
dark brown chocolate colour. I
have just sown my Runner Beans in trays in the greenhouse that should be
ready for planting out at the end of May, but you can of course sow the
large seeds individually in the fibre “Sweet Pea” type pots so as not
to disturb the roots when they are transplanted outside.
We
are trying vegetables in large pots again including Sugar Snap Peas and
are also under planting the Tomatoes in the greenhouse that I always grow
by the “Ring culture” method. That is where the Tomato plants are put
in large bottomless pots and stood on a fairly thick layer of compost
which means they can make a much bigger root system and are less likely
to suffer from drying out too quickly. My son Alan put the tomato plants
in this year, as I was unable to do it and he put an extra thick layer of
our homemade compost down, so now we have sown a catch crop of
baby Carrots, Lettuce and Radishes in between them and we will see
what happens.
Well,
that’s all for now. Gardening
Tips Week Ending May 3rd Hello folks. We are getting a few odd days of summer now mixed in with cooler and wetter weather. Some plants in the garden like this kind of Spring and the Daffodils and Tulips, especially the dwarf ones seem to have excelled themselves this year. Don’t forget to take off all dead flowers from your bulbs otherwise they will form seed pods which will take the strength out of the bulbs and that prevents them from flowering so well next year. I also like to give some slow release fertilizer to feed bulbs up to make next year’s flowers. There are a lot of vegetable plants on sale in
the Garden Centres and according to the seed suppliers, vegetable seeds
have outdone flower seeds sales this year as more and more people are
deciding to grow a few vegetable plants. I have only a small vegetable
space which has Garlic, Raspberries and one or two soft fruit bushes
already in it. I will sow my runner beans in there as well, but when I
sow them, I like to I think it is still a bit early to put hanging baskets out yet, just in case we have a really cold spell, but if you have anywhere to keep them they can be made up ready. Plants for hanging baskets have been available for a few weeks now and there are a lot more trailing plants about this year than there used to be. Trailing Surfinia Petunias, which are very popular, now come in a big range of colours and look good in baskets, but there are many other trailing plants for baskets such as Begonias, Trailing Geraniums, Impatiens, Bidens, Nepeta, Trailing Fuchsias, Trailing Lobelia, Scaveolans and Trailing Ivies. That’s all for now. Cheerio. Frances Hartley.
Gardening
Tips Week Ending May 5th. Hello folks
I think Spring has come at last although it is very wet. If you
haven’t pruned your roses yet, do them now. Hybrid Tea should be cut
back really hard as they flower on the new shoots. Don’t prune
Floribunda roses so hard and Shrub and climbing Roses should be pruned
after flowering is over.
I
hope the ground dries up soon although my soil goes like concrete when
it is very dry because it is full of clay. Does anybody make clay pots? Going
along the road it is lovely and cheerful with daffodils and the bright
yellow of the gorse bushes and in some places the white of the Hawthorn
can be seen. Well
that’s all for now.
Frances
Hartley. A few hints and tips for you.
If
you grow tomatoes and they are fruiting, start and feed them with a high
potash feed such as Tomorite. If the leaves start to go yellow or pale,
mix one teaspoon of Epsom salts in a pint of water and water the plants,
not leaves. This is also good for any citrus plants you might have. It
perks them up and gets them going!!! Cut the old fruiting canes out of the late raspberries and tie the new ones in. Red currants fruit on spurs on the old wood and black currants on the previous years wood so do not cut these back. Well that’s all for now. Cheerio Frances Hartley
Gardening Tips May 27th First a little tip for saving water. When running the hot tap to get it hot for washing, run the cold that comes first into a bowl and then tip this into a bucket. It is surprising how much it mounts up to during the day. It can then be used for watering tubs, baskets, the greenhouse or even on the vegetable patch. I keep my watering can just outside the backdoor and fill that. If
you have not planted runner beans yet, dig a trench and then put a layer
of two or three sheets of newspaper all along the bottom. If you are
emptying the vacuum cleaner spread the contents of the bag on top of the
paper as well. This will all rot down and help to keep the moisture in.
Add a little soil, then some water retaining crystals, fill the trench
up with soil and water well before planting the beans in. I do this each
year and usually get a good crop. This could be also done when planting
courgettes or marrows. I
don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but if water retaining
crystals are used in baskets and tubs it does help with the watering,
but don’t be overgenerous when mixing them in or you will think you
have frogspawn all over the place when they get wet. The crystals look
like sugar when dry but swell up like frogspawn or sago as they absorb
water. It is always a good idea to add one or two slow release food
tablets in the compost when planting tubs or baskets as well. Both the
water retaining crystals and food tablets can be purchased from any
garden centre or gardening type shop.
Frances Hartley
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What
a lovely few days we have had, everything is growing like mad with the
Daffodils and Tulips looking really lovely this year and even the Blue
Bells are already making an appearance. I have a pot of bulbs on the patio
that I haven’t seen before called Camasia. The deep blue flowers are on
a spike about 18 inches tall and grow a bit like a miniature Delphinium. I
shall certainly get some more bulbs in the Autumn if I see any.
I
shall put Courgettes in again this year even though last year mine were a
bit of a failure as they produced plenty of large flowers, but they all
were male ones, and so of course there were no Courgettes produced. One of
my sons had some plants off me that he did really well with, but that is
how it goes.
In
a recent newspaper article it said that the authorities in Manchester are
planting lots of fruit trees around the city, especially in its many
parks, which people will be able to pick themselves. The idea is partly to
educate children, as many don’t have any idea where fruit comes from,
and the trees will be labelled to say when they will be ready for picking.
I hope they will not be vandalised, but I do think it is a splendid idea
as we are always being encouraged to grow vegetables and fruit trees
hardly get a look in. We used to have huge orchards in this country many
years ago, mainly of Plums, Apples and Pears, and coach trips were
organised from the towns so that people could go and pick their own fruit
with no need to rely on migrant workers from other countries.
sow the beans on edge, because like all flat seeds
such as Melon, Courgettes, Cucumbers, etc they are better sown on the
edge otherwise they tend to rot. I am experimenting growing some seeds
of a special small carrot in large pots. I have also sown some Salsify
that looks like a large white Carrot when fully grown, but is really
more like a Radish with a peppery flavour. It can be eaten raw and
sliced up like a normal Radish, or sliced and put in with mixed
vegetables and cooked. I am also trying baby Sweet Corn and Squash. We
are already picking young Spinach leaves from plants grown in a trough.
Try anything once that’s my motto!
Onions
should be in the ground now as should carrots and parsnips. With all
this wet it is better to sow Runner Beans in pots and plant the young
plants out at the end of this month. Slugs are still playing havoc with
all types of plants. They have been in my Cold Frame even though the
base is gravel. They have been in the Greenhouse as well, so I have now
put slug bait all round. If you want to use slug bait in the garden and
are afraid of birds getting it, place a piece of broken pot over it.
All
winter and early flowering shrubs should have been cut back and shaped
up by now so that the new wood has time to grow and ripen before flowering next
year. If you have been tempted as I have by the bright and scented
lilies that are about now, it is a good idea to snap off the flower
heads when they have faded so that they don’t produce seed. Give them
a feed as well so that the leaves absorb it to feed the bulb and they
will then flower next year. Ornamental Sage, Thyme and Aubrietia can be
clipped over now as well.
In
the greenhouse I never get aphids on my tomatoes because I hang none
toxic yellow cards up which are sticky. I put up two cards in a twelve
foot greenhouse. They do not give off any nasty fumes but do collect the
aphids very effectively. Each card will last for whole a season. When
watering in the greenhouse don’t get too close to the cards though, I
sometimes forget and get a hair pulled out, very careless of me!