Just a quick hello to the sun.

It started raining last Wednesday night. It carried on for nearly 7 days without any significant let up: When it did stop it wasn’t long enough even the grass to dry out.

We had a Bank Holiday Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon, and now today, Friday, without rain. Even though it has been dry all day, still by 4pm the grass was wet to the roots. In an ideal world too wet to cut. But we don’t live in an ideal world, so I have cut grass all day.

Now I have a cunning plan. (as Baldric would say, “As cunning as a fox who has been to Cunning University and graduated with a degree in Cunning”). As I’m basically 7 days behind, so on Monday I will start this week again, a do-over of this week, if you like.  So rather than being a week behind, I will just change the schedule and move everything by 7 days.

Gardening can be like that: If you get too far behind, just ignore the stuff you missed and jump forward. You’ll still catch it up, the work will still get done, just in a different way.

Well, now I will go check on my dinner; it’s in the oven as I speak -or should that be type?

Catch you all between the rain.

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3 weeks in 1 day: Jobs for May

May has been an odd month for me.

It started with Bank Holidays and bad weather, rolled into superb, long, hot, dry days; then deteriorated back into storms and torrential rain in time for the Bank Holiday again…

Just as you think you’re caught up in gardening (working till 6 or 7 on the dry days) the Great British weather firmly re-establishes that it sets the time tables.

But we have a few things that need doing, if the weather permits;

• Keep planting out hardy perennials.
• Start moving out your Hot house plants; that’s to say tropical plants. Cover them at night, and bring them back in if there is any chance of a frost.
• Prick out and thin Winter Green seedlings.
• Sow sweet corn. Sow close together, in rows, in a warm, sheltered situation. Make sure if you live in The North, you choose a variety suitable -one with a short growing season.
• Try growing Chicory. It can be a little bitter, but it’s usable cooked and raw, so lends itself for stir fry.
• Plant tomatoes in an unheated greenhouse.

“Dust strawberries with sulphur…” and “spray pears with Bordeaux mix…” if they had any diseases last year is the standing instruction from Mr. Hellyer and 1936: Of the many chemicals now available, in many ways, in gardens, you will probably cause less damage to the environment using 70-year old advice than 21st century chemicals. Recent studies on bee colony collapse suggests fungicides make the colonies more prone to collapse.

• Clear beds for summer displays.
• Tidy daffodil leaves by tying them with elastic bands. Don’t remove them until the leaves have gone yellow.
• If you are growing Sweet peas as a cordon (straight up), you will need to pinch off side shoots.
• Sow runner beans out doors. Put in your canes or sticks, build a tepee or whatever type of frame you want to use, then plant 2 beans at the base of each pole.
• Plant out celeriac if you started any in March.
• Early, green Gooseberries may be ready to pick. These will only be cooking berries, but it gives you an early picking.
• Plant out bedding and half-hardy annuals.
• Plant up window boxes and hanging baskets.
• Sow marrows outdoors.
• Plant out French beans that have been hardened off.
• Thin out raspberry canes; cut off the canes that are growing in paths, or out of the line of the supports.

That covers us for May. There is plenty of work, we just need a bit more good weather.

 

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Another week, a new selection of garden jobs.

I said I’d get back with the next jobs sooner rather than later. And for a change, I’ve managed to hit my target!

I’m surprised how quickly time is going right now. Not just the weeks, but the hours and the minutes! You know how you can not know where the week has gone but you seem to have spent most of it in long, drawn-out tedium? (Not a problem I suffer from, I’m going to be smug and say I don’t have a job, I have a vocation…) Well, even this evening. I got home at 5pm. Walked the dog. Did a small amount of gardening at the allotment. Helped cook diner. Now it’s nearly 9pm. I’ve no idea where the time has gone!

Anyway, I’m here to help with the next list of garden jobs…

• Sow grass seed, if the soil isn’t still too wet. It needs to be dry enough to make a loose tilth when you rake it over. Scatter the seed evenly at the rate recommended on the box. The cover with a dusting of dry topsoil. Cover the area with long pruning’s from spiky plants or birch tree twigs to stop cats using it as a toilet, and to deter birds from eating all the seed and seedlings…
• Finish pruning roses, and give them a good feed: top dress with compost or use a proprietary rose food.
• Prune back hardy fuchsias, Buddleia for a good show of flowers this year. Also cut back Cornus and Salix (Dogwoods and Willows) grown for ornamental bark.
• Lift and store any leeks you have left from last years plantings.
• Plant second early and late potatoes. Any first early potatoes will need the growth protecting from frost; either bury any green with soil or use a fleece.
• It’s a good time to plant Globe Artichoke if you want to give them a go. Being a statuesque plant, they can be grown as a vegetable or as an ornamental: Or even, put them in your flower beds but harvest them for eating!
• If you like Asparagus, and are willing to invest a few years of waiting, now is a good time to establish an Asparagus bed. Plant established plants, but you wont get a harvest even then for at least 2 years.
• If you have gooseberries and black currents that were badly affected by mildew last year, just before the blossom bursts with fungicide.
• Sow hardy annuals where they are to flower. Sow in nice straight lines… I’ve explained why before…
• Start French beans under glass.
• Sow main crop carrots outside, where you want them.
• Salsify and winter greens can be sown directly into the ground now. What are winter greens? Any green vegetable that is harvested in the winter months: cabbage, sprouts, kale… the list is long. I always say choose something interesting that is expensive or difficult to get in a shop.
• If you started any green vegetables under glass, harden them off and get them planted out.

Well, I hope it’s not too much to be getting on with: Personally I’m still trying to get my new reclaimed green house built. Next year, a I keep telling myself, I’ll be ready!

Did I mention it’s 9:30 already??

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It’s March: The sun is out, and it’s time to get going.

In like a lamb, out with a roar, goes the old adage about March. Well it’s certainly come in, in a manner we were all hoping for; without rain!

It’s not only been dry though, the sun has been shining and it’s been relatively warm. The land seems to be drying out quite rapidly up here in Yorkshire. But then we don’t have huge amounts of flat land. When there is heavy rain, flash-floods and landslides are more of an issue than standing water.

But hopefully, the worst is now behind us. This time last year, we had that much snow you couldn’t see the ground. Today I’ve been cutting lawns. So what should we be doing at the minute?

It’s dry, warm and sunny. Make the most of it, get out and garden!

• Scarify and dethatch lawns. With how wet it has been, improving drainage is going to be vital this year.
• Give first cuts to lawns. To give a first cut lift your mower blades to the point where they just about cut the grass. It’s really to start levelling the spiky growth of the lawn. The next time you cut, lower the blades 1 setting. Each time you cut drop the blades until you are at the height of grass you want.
• It’s time to start planting those seeds. Under glass, on windowsills, in unheated green houses. Some even go straight out at this time of year.
• Onions, broad beans, peas and sweet peas can be planted straight out, and should be put in the ground sooner rather than later.
• Go through your seed box/bag/draw. Check the backs, they tell you when to plant… You don’t need me to tell you. If you have missed a date by a month, don’t worry; plant them anyway. It may be the crop/flower is a little late, but it wont be the end of the world.
• It’s a good time to lift, move and split any herbaceous perennials that are too big or in the wrong place. Just lift clumps and split them by cutting them into sections using a good spade, cutting ideally top-to-bottom, making sure each clump has roots and shoots. Where plants have crowns (e.g. peonies) use a knife to carefully cut the crown into sections, making sure each section has intact roots.
• Lay any fresh turf, either as spot repair, new lawns, or edge repairs.
• Plant out any hardy annuals you started last Autumn. These should be ready to be planted out to their final flowering positions.
• If your pot plants seemed a little sad last year, try re-potting them, either into a pot 1″ larger than they were in, with fresh compost around them, or in the same size pot but cut the bottom 1/4 of the old roots and soil away and put fresh compost in the bottom of the pot, then put the plants back into their pot on top of the new soil.

Some things have changed for the better: “Spray for blossom weevil with DDT” says Mr. Hellyer. Thankfully, that’s no longer available.  Insecticidal sprays should, I believe, be avoided at all costs. Although none are as environmentally bad as DDT was, still they are not selective enough to just kill 1 species. As a gardener, I understand the need for insects to pollinate our plants: No insects, no food, no people. If I have a few maggoty apples or a lower yield so be it.

Well, enjoy the sun while we have some, and I’ll post some more work for March in a while.

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February rolls on, and the rain keeps falling

Since the start of February, we have not had a continuous 24 hour period without rain: Then the wind arrived.

Much of what should be done now still off the books: The rain has left the ground sodden. This has been a hard start to the year, and it will impact the rest of the year. As a gardener, you know if you fail to start your crops, you will have a late harvest at best, or no harvest at worse; so now you can start to imagine how farmers feel when it’s not just a few rows of bean or peas, but acres of them and their livelihoods… But that’s another story altogether.

On a brighter note, I have seen Crocuses showing colour…

Seeds that could go out to start should only be planted if the soil is crumbly; most of the UK is sticky at best, liquid mud at worst.

Ranunculus and Anemones could go in the ground, but again, planting into mud is not good. Parsnips and Turnips can be started outside from seed, and Shallot sets could be planted; but again, not into mud. If you are desperate to get things started, you could plant into pots, trays and the likes, and keep them under partial cover. However, pots etc., are easily blown away in high winds; and we’ve had a lot of high winds in the last week or 2 as well…

Things you could do in your frost-free green house or cold conservatory? Well, semi-hardy annual bedding could be started now. Seed trays, seed compost, vermiculite, and clear plastic bags are needed. Fill the seed tray to the top with the seed compost, then firm it down. Sprinkle the seeds onto the compost then cover with a light covering of vermiculite. Water lightly with rain water, then put the tray into a plastic bag and tie it shut. This keeps the atmosphere humid for the seeds until the germinate. Once you have 1/2″ of growth, take them out of the plastic bag, as too much humidity causes the fungal problem of damping off.

Begonias, Gloxinia and  Hippeastrums can be started, as can “main crop” tomatoes; just keep the green house frost-free. Any that you may have started last month will (hopefully) need potting on. Pot into 3″ pots, and pot on regularly a they grow: Planting into large pots too soon actually inhibits root growth.

So, weather the weather be good, or it seems more likely, when the weather is bad, we gardeners must still try to get the year started…

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Lets hope we don’t have the wettest February on record!

Here in the UK, we’ve just had the wettest January on record. The month was almost a complete wash-out for me; postponed work, soggy lawns, quagmire borders… So congratulations if you did achieve anything outdoors. Don’t feel too bad if you didn’t. You wont be the only one!

So where did we get up to? I said I’d post the last couple of January jobs 2 weeks ago, and I didn’t. To be honest, there didn’t seem much point; I’ve spent my time decorating.

• Potatoes: It’s too early for outdoor spuds, but you could start Early varieties in tubs in your greenhouse. Again, just frost-free should be enough to give you a crop before outdoor growing gets close to yielding anything!
• Mulch Asparagus beds: A healthy layer of well-rotted manure will make a marked improvement to the crop!
• Protect fruit trees and bushes from birds: For bushes, a fruit cage is easily made. For trees, it is harder by far; Mr. Hellyer suggests spraying the trees with a strong quassia wash, which seems a very organic thing to do (especially since the book was published in 1936). Quassia is a plant extract that is renowned for being bitter. Spraying the trees makes the buds unpalatable to the birds so fewer are lost.
• You can start forcing outdoor rhubarb and sea-kale: Either use a special forcing pot (a ceramic dome which excludes all light) or use a large plant pot that you have blocked all the drainage holes in. The important thing is to exclude all light. Place these over old, established crowns then heap up old dead leaves etc.. around them to act as insulation. Sea-kale is treated as per rhubarb.
• Sow your leaks in the green house or a very cool windowsill… the temperature doesn’t want to exceed 12 Celsius, 55 Fahrenheit.

That’s enough about January, let’s get on with February!

I hear you cry. You didn’t? Well, a man can dream. So what are we on with? Well…

• It’s still a good time for planting bare root trees and shrubs.
• Apparently only sluggards still have digging to complete in February, so I guess I’m a sluggard as well. And the soil that has been dug needs to be finished now to a nice fine finish. However, this is where it gets problematic at the moment… to break down soil to a fine tilth you need dry weather, as the soil needs to be relatively dry. A problem for most of the UK…
• Keep an eye out for the need to ventilate cold frames and green houses; it should be getting brighter and hence warmer under glass.
• Did you start cauliflower last Autumn? Yes? Well, it’s about time to start hardening off the young plants; take away all sources of artificial heat and bring them outside for a few hours in the day (when it’s not frosty), making sure to put them away again at night.
• Clematis should be cut back now. Most of the garden varieties, I believe in cutting back to about 18″-2′ (45cm-60cm) from the ground. This encourages bushy growth from the base, and leaves plants less prone to Clematis wilt. Once established, clematis grow remarkably fast, and by cutting back low most of your flowers should stay at eye-level, rather than ending up at the top of whatever you have it trained up.
• Dogwoods (Cornus spp.) grown for their ornamental stems (bright red, yellow, green or black bark) should be cut back hard now. Remove twiggy branches completes, and cut all the others to within 2 nodes of their start.
• Sow Broad Beans under glass for an early crop. Once germinated and the seedling are big enough to handle, they can go outside provided they are covered by fleece or similar on frosty nights. Culinary peas can be treated in the same way now.
• Start more cauliflowers in your green house.
• If you have the space and the heat, you can also start early cucumbers. I say heat, s cucumbers need to be kept warm (24C, 75F) to encourage germination and rapid growth.
• Plant Jerusalem Artichokes: These are a tuberous crop, that is very low maintenance (put ’em in and leave ’em!). They grow in all but the poorest soils; crop well; and even if you think you have removed them all, you still find enough growing next year to give you a good crop again… They can be an acquired taste (a bit “Marmite”, you either love them or hate them). They roast, boil, or mash. are a nice addition to soups. But par-boil before use and change the water; they have an unfortunate side-effect on the alimentary canal that can be reduced but not removed…
• Cut away the old stems of autumn-fruiting raspberries. Cut to within 6″ (15cm) of the ground.

That’s it for the moment. Is it too much?? Possibly, but remember, all the timings are for guidance. If it doesn’t happen this week, there’s still next week… And sometimes things just have to give, and it’s easier and cheaper to buy a small pot of leeks in March than start them in February. Starting from seed is fun, but it’s time-consuming; and if you don’t have lots of pots and space can be expensive to start.

Speak to you all again soon!!

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November is definately here!

I’ve had a few days off from gardening. We went to Whitby (for the Goth Weekend as it happens; yes, I am a Goth-gardener, or is that I’m a bit punk rock?)
But while we were there (in a Static caravan) we had some pretty impressive storms, heralding the arrival of Winter weather.

But now it is November, and there are a few jobs we could be doing if and as the weather permits…

Jobs to fit in through the month:

• Finish tidying your beds and borders. Cut back dead and dying Herbaceous plants, and prick over the soil (fork lightly so as not to disturb the roots). I usually only clear those nearest the house, that you will be looking out over during Winter. I try to leave the others a little messy to allow nature a little room to hide until the Spring.
• Dig over all available soil; don’t worry about breaking up clod too much, as freezing weather should break it down for you. Add fertiliser as you dig, and you only have to dig once. The Book suggest double-trenching. This is something I would only suggest if you are going to grow potatoes, or similar deep-growing plants. Double-trenching involves digging out a trench to 1-spade-depth, removing the soil to another location, then digging down another spade deep, breaking up the soil then refilling the trench with the top soil again. It’s hard work, and for most plants, produces very little improvement.
• Prune deciduous hedging. This isn’t about trimming, this is about drastic reductions to rejuvenate old hedges, or to reduce badly overgrown hedges.
•  Gather rose heps (hips); Mr. Hellyer suggests this for growing roes from seed. Lay them on silver sand and leave them open to winter but protected from mechanical disruption (wind, cats, hedgehogs, birds, and the likes). Frost opens the hips and prepares the seeds for germination.
• Winter is the best time for planting most deciduous trees; fruits, ornamentals, hedging, all while they are dormant. This also means you can get bare root plants, getting better plants for less. Bare rooted plants also tend to establish better, and grow more vigorously than pot-grown equivalents.
• If you have a green house, beware of the damp: Cold means the windows will stay shut, warm days drive moisture to the air, cold nights deposit it on all surfaces, meaning an increased risk of fungal growth. Electric heaters reduce the risk of damp.
• Protect late cauliflower and early broccoli from the frosts; either by a thick layer of fleece or by tying their leaves over the curds.
• Hard prune fruit trees. Remove dead and diseased branches, and those that reduce air flow through the canopy.

Jobs for the 1st week of November:

• Cover alpines with glass. This is to stop them getting excessively wet. Prop the glass so it keeps water off the plants but does not restrict air flow.
• Lift early flowering chrysanthemums, putting them in a cold frame; again, cold is not the enemy, but wet and cold causes them to rot off.
• Finish planting your hyacinths and tulips.
• Start bringing early bulbs from plunge beds into a greenhouse; don’t warm the temperatures too rapidly or they will bolt. Only once the flowers have formed should the temperature be raised further.
• Make an outdoor sowing of broad beans. Once they are planted, cover them with a fleece tunnel or similar.

So there we are, for a few days at least…

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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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October is here. And so are the jobs.

As I am still following Mr. Hellyer and “Your garden Week by Week”, I shall share his wisdom, but as usual I shall temper it slightly. I am not going to quote him word-for-word, and I shall add in those things I think are important but Mr. Hellyer did not think so.

In general terms, this month:

• Dress your beds, borders and lawns with slow-release fertilisers. As most of those that Mr. Hellyer talks about are no longer generally available (if at all, like basic Slag… I’ll leave it to your imagination. The truth is far less interesting!) I shall give you the modern equivalents: Autumn feed for the lawns (very low in Nitrogen), bone meal for herbaceous borders, well-rotted mature around fruit trees (don’t let it lay on the bark though) and on new beds or borders. Where you already have plants, try to avoid high-nitrogen fertilisers during winter, as it encourages fungal growth and moss growth. Potassium- and phosphate-rich fertilisers encourage root growth (ideal for winter time). They don’t need to be dug in, as the rain and the worms will do the job for you.
• Clear fallen leaves. I always say clear them from lawns and ornamental beds, where rotting leaves can result in fungal growths and allow slugs and snails to thrive. On lawns laying leaves result in yellow-leading-to-dead patches and increased moss problems. But, I like to leave leaves in quiet corners, as they allow over-wintering of invertebrates, small mammals and amphibians, and give winter-active animals something to forage through.
• Re-turf or repair lawns. There’s loads of stuff out there… You don’t need me to tell you how to do it. Really, you don’t. It’s even on YouTube.
• De-thatch your lawn. Spring-tine racks for smaller areas. Or a powered rake for larger areas. Also aerate your lawn; this can be done by using a fork, a hollow-tine aerator, or a verticutter (also known as a scarifier). If you don’ own one, you could rent it. If your garden isn’t large enough to justify either of those, get a professional in.
• Prepare new beds. Dig them over; you don’t need to over-work the soil, as frost and winter will help break up the clumps if you add plenty of organic material (such as well-rotted manure, or cheap bagged compost. Or compost from your heaps… Anything really, as long as it’s of plant-origins)
• Lift your tender bedding plants, if you want to keep them for next year.
• Once you have cleared summer bedding, plant in your hardy spring bedding and spring bulbs, ready for an early display next year.
• Unless you have very heavy or wet soil, there is still time to plant herbaceous perennials.
• If you have a favourite shrub, now is ideal to take hard-wood cuttings: There are a lot of instructions out there, they are not difficult to do, and in the current economic climate, it’s a good way to propagate plants you like. give it a try, it doesn’t cost anything if it fails.
• If you have a heated green house, or you want to try growing winter French beans, now is the time to start turning on the heat at night.

Now, for 1st week of October jobs…

• If you have Chrysanthemums out and still flowering, if you can keep them flowering by covering them at night to keep the frosts off.
• If you  have that heated green house, you can have Arum lily for Christmas if you plant now and put them in your heated green house.

That’s it for a few days…

For me it’s now also hedge laying season… the first competition is tomorrow, in Durham. If I’m not too tired, I’ll try to write about that tomorrow.

In the mean time, enjoy your gardens!

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September, week Two: More jobs from Mr. Hellyer

That book? By A.G.L Hellyer? It’s week 2 of September, so I need to give you some more jobs. Me to. If the weather allows.

Can Autumn be tropical? I mean, blazing sun shine 1 moment, torrential rain the next, then back to no clouds and bright sun…

Anyway, what are we on with?

• Prune back rambling roses. Remove old, diseased stems from ground level; leave the young fresh stems. If there is no new growth from ground level, select and keep the best of the old stems and remove old flower trusses and hips. Treat weeping standard roses in the same way, I’m told. Does anyone still have weeping standard roses? They are very out of fashion, so  I must try find one for my garden. Start the revival…
• Lift main crop carrots and beetroot. “Your Garden…” gives extensive instruction on how to keep these vegetables without the aid of refrigeration or cooking: I’ll keep that for next year, when we’ve had a planting season.
• Fix grease bands. 1930’s gardeners had a barrage of chemicals we no longer have. They also had less pre-prepared boxed garden goods. Whereas I could give (from Mr. Hellyers’ book) instructions on making grease bands, it’s not necessary. You can by them in most garden centres and nurseries. Start using them on fruit trees, especially apples and pears, about 30cm above ground level. Also put them on any stakes supporting trees that cross above the grease bands. Keep them fresh and tacky from now till March, to prevent Winter Moth, March Moth and Woolly Aphid.
• Prune Logan Berries. Once all the fruit is finished, cut old stems back to the ground and train new stems back into your growing frame.

Growing frame? Cane fruit needs supporting. I use a post at each end of the row with a piece of timber nailed to it, so it forms a t-shape. Then I run 4 wires the length of the bed from t-bar to t-bar. Then I tie my raspberry canes to the wires. Logan berries, which form whips rather than canes, I use posts and 4 wires arranged vertically rather than horizontally. This gives you a physical frame to keep the fruit trained to.

Enjoy the month in between the rainfall.

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