Garden Centre

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Composting

This time of year causes compost! Vast huge amounts of compost ingredients are generated as we cut lawns (often for the first time this year) and trim hedges, not to mention cutting back all those deciduous shrubs that need to be pruned after flowering, like forsythia and buddleia. And that means that canny gardeners will be able to do what we’ve done, which is dig out a large bucket of last year’s twiggy prunings to go in with the green stuff.

It sounds a bit convoluted I know, but after years of watching our compost go through a stage of being slimy, vile-smelling and wet, we’ve finally worked out how to stop it. All the gardening books will tell you that your compost will not do this (it’s called becoming anaerobic) if you turn it often enough. Poppycock! If, like us, you have to rely on plastic bins for composting, there’s every chance it will happen for several reasons:

The bins have no side ventilation to allow air in and moisture to evaporate out
Their sloping construction means that they concentrate weight downwards, pushing the air out of the contents, and also making it impossible for you to get to the bottom outer edges of the bin to turn the contents adequately
Their lids tend to form airtight seals.

Anaerobic inactivity happens because the oxygen is squashed out of the compost – if you put a lot of wet greenstuff in (like grass clippings and soft hedge clippings for example) and then it rains (like now and for the foreseeable future) you’ve got the worst conditions for making good compost.

Your choices are to get in their with a hoe, hook or fork and turn it, as best you can, or to do what we do, use an ounce of prevention to save a pound of work. Each winter, as we prune the hard twiggy plants in the garden, we stand the prunings in a really big bucket which lives through the winter in our shed. Come April, when we’re inundated with greenstuff, we cut those twigs to one foot lengths and layer them with the greenstuff – the rule of thumb is that we scatter the twigs to about the same depth of each layer of greenstuff we put in. The green will distribute itself through the twiggy material, which keeps lots of oxygen in the bin, and means we don’t have to go out in the rain and turn the compost all the time!

Compost by chika

Labels: garden compost

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:32 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Apple blossom time

This is one of my favourite sights – apple blossom. It annoys me that I have to crane my neck to see it in my garden, because even after three years of remedial pruning, you can’t reach the apples in my garden without a ladder. Infuriatingly, the previous owners didn’t prune the trees for over a decade and ten years is a long time for a tree to grow unchecked! We actually reduced their height by nearly half, but they are still too tall and the branches we are working on are bigger round than my thigh, so there’s little hope of getting them any shorter.

There is a lot of confusion about “dwarf” apple trees. What makes an apple tree dwarf? Why would somebody want a dwarf apple? How dwarf is dwarf? Apple varieties must be cross-pollinated to set fruit. This means that apple flowers must have pollen from a different apple/crab apple variety in order to set fruit. This is why you have to plant two different apple varieties - unless you have a crab apple nearby because they pollinate anything.

The seeds produced in the apple will be a hybrid of both parents but the fruit will always be the same as the parent tree so you can’t plant seeds from an apple and have it bear the same fruit. To propagate a named apple variety, a branch from the desired tree is grafted or budded onto a rootstock. There are many “dwarfing” rootstocks that will reduce the size of the apple tree – some to as low as ten feet, some to around fourteen. Of course, you still need to prune them.

How tall are my apple trees? Twenty feet plus!

Labels: apple blossom, apple trees, pruning fruit trees

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:59 AM 1 Comments

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Loving up my summer bulbs

I find some summer bulbs do well in my chalk and clay soil, others just vanish without trace (rotted, or eaten by grey squirrels) but that doesn’t stop me buying and planting them every year!

To give them the best start you have to choose bulbs that are plump and firm, and usually heavy for their size, rather than shrivelled or soft. If you are planting out bulbs you overwintered in a safe place, get ruthless now – remove any rotten or hollowed out bulbs, or any with evidence of fungal growth, because planting them will be a waste of time and may actually infect other nearby bulbs with their problem whatever it may be.

Most prefer well-drained soil in a warm spot, although Zantedeschia, (which we all know better as Calla Lilies) prefer damp conditions and some lilies like dappled shade. The basic rule, with your average bulb, is to plant with the pointy bit up and set the bulb about twice as deep as the bulb is tall! I put a handful of sand under each bulb too, because of the tendency to rot out in my clay soil.

If you have pets, especially young cats, who do like to wander through your flower borders, think about planting lilies in pots rather than directly into the garden. Lily pollen, especially that of Stargazer, can be very toxic and there was a case last year in which a cat died after brushing against a Stargazer lily and then licking the pollen of its fur. It is unusual, as most animals will stay well away from pollen, but remember that small children don’t have the same instincts and are likely to have strong reactions to the toxic elements in the plant if they get it on their skin.

Calla lily courtesy of robbie jim

Labels: calla lilies, lilies, planting bulbs, summer bulbs

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:22 AM 0 Comments

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Time to plant summer bulbs

Late flowering bulbs are the best way of extending the British growing season past the intense flowering periods of May and June, through to the first frosts. Bulb means all kinds of things, by the way, the white onion-shaped bulbs we all think of, but in summer bulb terms we’re also talking about corms (gladioli), tubers (dahlias), rhizomes (irises). And we’re also talking about plants that were considered a bit ‘vulgar’ a few years ago, such as the dahlia and the Edna Everedge-style gladioli.

Also included in this list are crocosmia, cannas, calla lilies, gloriosa and nerines - all of which flower from July onwards, by picking the right combination of bulbs you can have flowers right through to November. Amongst my favourites for this period are:

Tigridia pavonia: The tiger flower, which is an odd name, as you might expect it to be called the leopard flower (it’s spotted or blotched, not striped) and even more confusingly, aka the peacock flower although it doesn’t come in blue or green as peacocks do! Colour range includes orange to pink, red, yellow or white flowers from July to October if planted in good soil and sheltered conditions with plenty of sunlight. Sprinkling the ripe seeds around in autumn seems to produce a good range and rate of new bulbs too.

Cosmos astrosanguineus: The small brownish burgundy coloured flowers don’t look that special, but they do smell of milk chocolate! Needs a dryish spot in warmth and flowers from July to October.

Tigridia courtesy of Rodnei Ferrato

Labels: cosmos, crocosmia, gladioli, late summer flowers, summer bulbs, tigridia

The All Seasons Gardener at 12:45 AM 0 Comments

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Public Service Gardening

This is the front garden of a neighbour of mine. It’s definitely at its best at this time of year, with a stunning array of spring flowers and bulbs. I’m never quite sure what to call it: two rocks don’t exactly make a rock garden and certainly can’t be dignified with the name ‘rockery’ and ‘alpine bed’, while it’s a fairly accurate description always makes me think of that Citroen advert where all the Germanic things happen (duelling, bratwurst, buxom serving lasses with blonde plaits and immense cleavages, Berlin opera house) and then they tell you the car is actually French – Alpine Bed sounds like the suspension system or something, to me.

Anyway, the point isn’t what you’d call the flowerbed, so much as the pleasure it gives me each time I walk past. It’s a riot of colour and shape and beautifully maintained, although it will be nothing but muscari in a couple of years if my neighbour doesn’t get ruthless with that particular invasive bulb. And that’s why I say it’s public service gardening – my neighbour can’t sit out in it with a well-earned icy drink, or sunbathe in the middle of it (well, I suppose she could, but it’s on the main road and she’s a lady in her sixties so I don’t think she’d be up for it) and she can’t really even show her friends and family around it with pride. So really, she puts in all that work for passers-by, which is generosity personified.

Labels: alpine bed, rock garden, spring flowers

The All Seasons Gardener at 1:11 AM 0 Comments

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

We are what we sow

It’s a sobering thought to discover that a recent survey shows that the contents of the average garden total up to around £1,230, although one in ten is packed with goodies worth over £3,000 and 5% of all gardens actually contain more than one item worth more than £1,000. 25% of British gardeners have invested their hard-earned cash in statues and ornaments and 22% are the proud owners of a water feature. More than a third claim to have ‘ornamental’ plants, which is a mind-boggling definition in the first place – apart from vegetables, what else could you have – ugly plants?

And it’s not just the money that’s stacking up – the very same garden owners claim that 26% of them spend more than six hours a week in their garden in spring and summer, which is more garden time than at any point since World War II. Possibly the increase in garden time arises because almost one household in ten has a patio heater, while 6% of gardeners have invested in a conservatory, or some other form of weatherproof structure.

It’s a long haul from the days when a garden contained a place to store coal or chop logs, a cinder path made from the ashes or rakings from the fire that had its fuel stored in the garden (see, gardeners were always recyclers at heart!), an outdoor privy (more recycling) and some fruit trees and vegetables – but the British themselves have not changed at all. Most people still say they got into gardening because an older relative: usually a grandparent, gave them their first packet of seeds and a plot in the garden to sow them in … some things never change.

Child in garden courtesy of Drawings with Light - Paul

Labels: garden insurance, garden plants, starting to garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:07 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Right now I'm on the Rosneath Peninsula, where there is still snow on the hills, but down at lochside, the conditions are damp and much more temperate - the evidence is this Gunnera manicata which is obviously getting to its full rainforest size in conditions that it loves.

By late srring it will have immense rhubarb-like, prickly leaves up to 6 feet across but don't let its tropical origins fool you, this Brazilian plant, once established, is very hardy and clearly makes an imposing feature even this early in the year. The crowns are best shielded from frost in winter, and a lot of folk cut last year's leaves to lay over the top, but as you can see, new leaves start into growth early in the year and seem to cope with almost every weather condition except arid soil.

Labels: garden tropicals, gunnera

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:21 AM 0 Comments

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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Spring tips for perfect looking gardens

Well, if you can see your garden at all, that is. We had several inches of snow on Sunday and it took a lot longer than anybody had anticipated to melt! If your plants are actually getting their heads above the white stuff, then this is the time to demonstrate some TLC to spring-flowering container plants to ensure they look gorgeous right through to May by picking off dead flowerheads from primulas and winter-flowering pansies to encourage the plants to develop further flowers. You can also pick off the faded heads from spring bulbs like daffodils, but leave their foliage intact and don’t do that awful thing of tying the leaves into a little bundle as this starves the bulb of the energy it needs to produce a good flower the following spring.

This is also the ideal time to clip old flowers off winter-flowering heathers but you need to make sure you don’t trim back into old wood or your plant will not be happy with you, and it’s also the last possible moment to complete rose pruning before your plants start into strong growth. Shorten all shoots, cutting back to an outward-facing bud. And, if you can see your spring bulbs through the snow, it’s the time to put a stake or label next to any clumps that have flowered poorly this spring, so that in high summer when they’ve died down you can lift and divide them to give them plenty of space and scope to flower at their best next year. The exception to the die-down rule is snowdrops which are best moved ‘in the green’ or when they are still in full leaf. Simply divide up congested clumps, spacing out the bulbs when replanting. Plant them fairly deeply, watering in well with a liquid feed.

Labels: april garden tasks, april pruning, deadheading

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:35 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, April 4, 2008

April garden tasks – Sweeney Todd your shrubs!

A lot of plants benefit from a ‘trim’ this month to keep them tidy and encourage new growth for the summer. It’s a good time to get Cape fuchsias back into shape, taking growth back to strong sideshoots to encourage width and taking out central growth if the plant is getting overly congested. Winter jasmine should have finished glowering now and you can cut back the forward-facing growth and tie in the long shoots that are growing in the right direction so that the plant looks neat and puts on a good display of colour next winter.

This is also the time to really cut back some tougher shrubs of prolific growth. The repeat offender here is Buddleia davidii which should have lots of its old wood taken out to give space to the new growth and nearly always needs to have about a yard taken off the top! Other plants that benefit from a Sweeney are the dogwoods and willows that are grown for winter colour – I normally cut mine back in late February, as they get away very early on the south coast of the UK but if you live inland or to the north, you can probably leave this until late March or early April. These plants only give their glorious shades of red, glowing yellow or lime green on new growth, so you need to be drastic, cutting right down to a stubby base, about a food from the ground.

Buddleia courtesy of The Marmot

Labels: shrubs, spring pruning

The All Seasons Gardener at 12:03 AM 0 Comments

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