October is ending…

And I haven’t posted for week 3, and now we are on week 4. In my defence, for the last week I have had no Broadband connection: It’s very difficult to use the internet when you can’t get on it except on a mobile phone.

But it is the end of October, and even with 2 weeks of work, there is fortunately not much to do.

• Lift your gladioli bulbs, well corms technically. If you have some you really want to keep, lift them, knock off the damp soil, tie the tops together and hang them in a shed or garage until they are dry and the tops are withered and dead; then clean the corms, cut off the tops, and store corms in a cool, dry (but frost-free) location until next spring. Alternatively, treat them as an annual and just lift and dispose of the whole lot. Baby corms should be kept, as although they may not flower next year, they will grow and in time give you more and more corms.
• Dig and lift your Turnips: Cut off the tops and pile them up. They keep in any frost-free location, but are best if you can also cover them in dry sand or clean ashes.
• Cut the tops off any asparagus or globe artichokes you may be growing. Cut off all the tops with shears, collect and dispose of the tops cleanly; Mr. Hellyer suggests burning them. Of course, in this modern age of low-carbon emissions, of course we wouldn’t burn them… Who am I kidding? Burning destroys the bacteria and fungi that accrue in the annual growth of these plants. Don’t compost them and put them back on the ground, unless you have a love of using chemicals to save your crops. I’m no organic champion, just use your common sense. After you have removed the tops, lightly fork between the crowns of the plants.
• Plant your tulips and hyacinths for next year. Add bone meal to the soil as you plant to give good flowering.
• Anything you may be growing on the green house for next spring, pot it on into the next size pots: seedlings into 3″ pots.
• Re-pot any deciduous shrubs you grow in pots that need to be moved into large pots. But don’t disturb the root ball, just put the root ball into a larger pot and fill around the edges with new compost.
• Grow your own winter mint: Lift roots from outside plants, and lay them in shallow trays of compost and cover them. Place the trays in cool, frost-free location and keep them damp but not wet. Take a tray at a time, putting them in a warmer place (such as a kitchen window sill) and keep watered; this will stimulate growth, the rate of growth being affected by how warm or cool they are kept.
• Plant Lily of the Valley. Make sure you include lots of humus (leaf mould, fine well-rotted wood chip and other well-rotted garden waste) as they love free-draining but moisture-retaining soil.

I hope you forgive my delay in posting, and of course, next week is the change from October to November, so November’s 1st week will be in October’s last week… Confusing huh?

I hope the weather stays fine for a few days at least! Happy gardening!

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Half a day off

I have worked nearly 16 days back-to-back. So Monday we decided to take Tuesday afternoon off.

After a little discussion later and we were off to RHS Harlow Carr.

It was a very relaxing few hours; watching the Crows steal food from the Squirrels as we drank hot chocolate and shared a Fat Rascal.

The flowers were stunning.

But what was notable by its absence was buzzing. A huge display of Alliums and not a Bumble Bee in sight (or in ear shot). There should have been; it was the 11th of June. I’m not going to say it’s the fault of insecticides, gardeners, farmers, the weather or any single cause. I know the web of cause-and-effect is far more complex than one thing causing a collapse of a bee population, but as a certain supermarket would say, “Every little helps”.

…notable by its absence was buzzing.

I’m not organic. But I am As Organic As Reasonably Practical; I use herbicide to control perennial weeds where it would not be practical to try to control them by digging them out. I try not to use insecticides at all. I believe that there are enough natural predators (wasps, lady birds (lady bugs), hover flies, lace wings, spiders, birds, frogs, toads, newts, hedgehogs…) to control most insect, snail and slug infestations. And a little careful planning can prevent the need for chemical bug control: We grow poached egg plants under our gooseberries and raspberries as these attract Hover flies, and Hover fly larvae eat Sawfly larvae, which eat the plants. So far we haven’t had any major damage to our ‘berries. Nature often has the best answer, if you have the space or inclination to let it work. If I have an aphid infestation on my rose buds, I gently but firmly run my fingers over the infested area and squash the aphids; simple mechanical control. You don’t need to kill every aphid, just give nature a helping hand to restore the balance.

I will use insecticide; wasp nests in areas where they will come in conflict with humans -you know, nesting in your roof, the composter, the green house, the garage, the wood store- for instance. I’m not going to say we shouldn’t use chemical controls, just that we should think carefully about what is important, and how what we do will impact that much bigger, far more complex web of life.

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Jobs in the Garden: What to do in October

Somewhat late…

But it’s really all about winter. Tidy, reduce, remove, protect…

But first: Don’t cut the grass. Leave it shaggy for winter. It’s better on many levels.

1. Longer grass protects the roots and growing tips from the worst of the winter weather, helping make a sort of microclimate at ground level when the frosts or snow fall
2. Moss grows much later into the year than grass, and starts earlier the following year; long grass helps shade out the moss, reducing its growth
3. If you have dogs or children who will use the lawn over winter, long grass is more resistant to damage in wet, muddy conditions; meaning your lawn has more chance to still be a lawn in Spring.

Tidy. Do keep fallen leaves under control. There is a balancing act. I keep layers off lawns (reduces the growth of moss), and I remove them from hard-standing for the same reason. But I tend to allow them to stay on beds and borders as they provide protection from frost and snow for young shoots in later winter and early spring. It’s also good for the wildlife; bugs, amphibians, small mammals all need shelter. Finally leaves rot, and worms dig them into the ground, improving the soil conditions.

Finally on lawns: improve drainage, dethatch, scarify and autumn feed. If you don’t have the equipment you can hire it, or you can get a professional gardener to do it for you. Call for a quote if you’re in my area!

But it’s really all about winter. Tidy, reduce, remove, protect…

A note on lawn feed. Make sure you use an Autumn feed. These are low in Nitrogen (which plants only need when growing) but high in Phosphorous and Potassium (which stimulate root growth). Using a Spring or Summer feed, which is high in Nitrogen, is counter-productive as you will feed the moss rather than the grass.

Reduce large shrubs: Buddleia, roses, etc. If they are too tall, high winds, snow, heavy rain and other winter weathers will cause damage to the stems. And if that damage happens too low it will allow frosts or disease into the wound which, at worst, can kill even quite large specimens, and at best, will result in loss of shape and form for next year.

Remove dead herbaceous material. Again, this is a balancing act; I tend to only really do this if an area is very unruly and overgrown, or is somewhere that is really wanted to be very tidy. This is because the dead provides protection for new growth and somewhere for wildlife to overwinter.

Protect you more tender plants. This can be simply putting pots into a greenhouse, garage, shed, conservatory; digging up tubers; or cutting Gunnera (huge rhubarb relative) leaves off, turn them upside down over the crown and peg them in place; or wrapping tree-fern or banana plants in layers of straw and plastic bags to keep the frost out and rain off of the growing crowns at the top of the plants.

So that’s about it for now. If anything exciting occurs in the world of gardening I will share it with you all.

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What I do on a day off.

I don’t really take much in the time of time for myself. Evenings, when it’s dark. Sundays.

I tend to work bank holidays in the summer, and at least half of most Saturdays.

Last week my van had to go for its service and MoT. So I had an enforced day off. So me and the wife went for a day out. Packed a picnic, took the dog, and headed off to Roundhay Park in Leeds.

I’ve lived here for 12 years, and never got round to exploring this gem of a park. I think I’ve still only scratched the surface, but for those people who are unlucky enough not to have their own green space… I’d be tempted to trade my space if I could have windows over looking this park.

Leeds is one of the greenest cities in Europe… 1537 Hectares of Municipal Parks and Gardens, or about 30% of the city’s total area. Then there are private golf courses and Parks open to the public (such as York Gate Gardens… I must get back to them as well at some point soon)

Anyway, Roundhay is the smallest of Leeds’ “big three” parks, having only 700 acres (or 283 Ha). It only has 3 lakes as well. Tinchy huh?

And on a sunny Friday it was glorious…

Please forgive my Leeds Tourist Board look…

I mean, we all know the truth. “It’s grim Up North”. Honest. Don’t visit… I don’t like crowds…

But we do have some beautiful Parks and Gardens!

 

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Why you should weed that patch at the bottom of the garden!

I leave a tiny patch at the bottom corner of the garden (about 1 metre long 40cm wide) for nature – partly because nothing but weeds flourish there but also I figure if nature has its own patch it wont eat my favourite plants! This week I had a timely reminder that although it is natures patch of garden every so often I should check on it & give it a light weed. As you can see from the picture below 2 minutes in the middle of seeding wild geum causes havoc with the hair! The hour I could have spent tending the garden was lost as I had to brush the dog (which he hates) & hoover up shed seeds (which I hate). The thing is you can’t be cross at something as cute as that – he is pulling his specially sad face because he knows the brush is coming!

The Garden Gnome

x

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When good roses are treated bad(ly)

Damage to stem of standard rose caused by plant ties being left on too long

The picture shows something I come across all too often: Damage caused by a plant tie being left on too tightly for too long a time.

This is a very nice standard rose at the top, and it has a good root system from the resistance it has to being moved. But now this constriction will be a weak-point in the stem for all time.

Plant ties are useful… vital… to allow new plants to become firmly rooted, or well-grown around supports such as trellis or obelisks. But they are often misused, or over-used, and forgotten about and left on far after they should have been removed.

Plants tied to support need to be reviewed each year.

Are the ties still needed? Is it well enough rooted so it no longer needs to be supported? Has it grown sufficiently around the trellis/obelisk/growing support? If the ties are still needed, they need to be loosened to allow the plant to grow: If you have a child, would you put a tie on them at 11 and expect them to still have the same size neck at 16? No? So why do we do it to plants?

This poor plant wasn’t in a private garden. It is in a commercial garden. The last gardening company planted the roses. So you would expect them to care for them well? No. Doesn’t work like that. Checking ties isn’t on the list of jobs you get given to do at that location. So you don’t have time to do it. It’s a problem with many larger companies… they are so busy chasing the bottom line, they forget what gardening is about; beautiful gardens, full of well-tended plants. Diatribe over. For a while.

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Better weather for a Gardener?

Well, Sunday and the weather seems to be shifting back to sun. At least for the day light hours. But surely that’s all we need isn’t it?  The aquifers and rivers can be refilled as we sleep, then dry days for working. All told, next week looks to be promising in terms of work and of weather. But whatever the forecast may say, still the best indicator for this time of year is looking out of the window.

It reminds me of a joke from a TV show called “Mrs. Browns’ Boys”.

“You can tell the weather by hanging a dock leaf in your garden”.

“Really?”

“Yes, go out each morning, If it’s wet, it’s raining.”

Well,it made me smile. I told a friend who said it’s like the Yorkshire Stone forecasting device. Hang it in your garden… if it’s wet it’s raining; if it’s white it’s snowing and if you can’t see it, it’s foggy.

Both of which seem just as reliable as the Meteorological office.

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