Back to the Land

 BACK TO THE LAND   

Allotment life was supposed to be about living the dream. A place for quiet recreation, fresh air, sunshine, an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, then after a wee bit of horticultural exercise and graft, we relax on the patio by our sheds enjoying the scent from the flower border while we have a wee refreshment.

There has not been a lot of leisure time on the land this year. The season has not been in our favour, at least not in the north east of Scotland. The summer did try to appear on more than a couple of occasions, but was rapidly followed by cool and wet conditions.

Those plants of a more tender nature, beans, courgettes, pumpkins, sweet corn and Cape gooseberries have not had a chance.

However, our native weeds have not been deterred and hoeing just seemed to transplant them rather than eradicate them. Still, we plod on as there is always a job to do and hope that sometime soon the sun will return and plant growth will be back to normal. 

Vegetables

Onions are looking really strong this year. The ground had a lot of compost dug in and had been green manured with an early mustard crop. The onions were sown at home on a windowsill in cellular trays then hardened off in my cold greenhouse. The plants germinated in groups of one to four plants per cell, then each cell clump was planted out six to nine inches apart. This close spacing has not held back the onion size. The wet season has caused a few plants to suffer white rot, but these diseased plants were removed as soon as they appeared.

Beetroot, lettuce, radish and spring onions have all grown well and continue to crop with repeated sowings.

Sweet corn is very poor with only half the plants putting up a flowering spike.

Pumpkins and courgettes have been in a state of shock for weeks, though the French beans have now decided to grow.

Cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts and kale have been very mixed. I lost most of the first two through some very serious clubroot fungus, but the others seem to resist it and are putting on excellent growth. Turnips and Swedes are also growing very well in the wet season.

Broad beans have now been harvested, but I am trying another sowing to see if I can catch a late crop. I am also cutting the old plants down to a few inches of ground level to see if they will regrow and give me another crop. Sometimes you get lucky.

Fruit

Red currants are now in the demijohn, and black currants in the freezer. Some will be for jam, some for compote and some for wine. The bushes can now be pruned. Red currants get side shoots shortened by a third to encourage spurs on the main shoots and blackcurrants get one third to a quarter of older fruited wood removed. You can usually find a strong one year old shoot that you leave as it will produce the best fruit next year.

Bramble Helen is now in full cropping as is the gooseberries and saskatoons. They are all bearing heavy crops and do not seem to be affected by this years weather. It is the beginning of the Saskatoon pie season, though there is plenty for eating fresh off the bush, jam, compote and wine.

Flowers

This is a time for planning ahead for the next spring flowering display. Wallflower seedlings are now ready for transplanting into rows a foot apart so they can grow on and make a bigger plant for flower beds in October. They get dibbled in at four inch spacings. If you want really good plants you have to grow your own from seed as garden centres will only supply smaller plants in boxes.

However pansies, polyanthus, primroses, myosotis, daisies and Iceland poppies can either be home grown or bought from local garden centres as the plants are usually smaller and easily produced.

Pests, diseases and weed control

The weather affects these just as much as us. Caterpillars have had a great time and greenflies and blackflies had a slow start but are now at epidemic levels. You can only go so far with picking these off. However there are still some chemicals available that will do the job without harming the environment.

Mildew is now a big problem as the chemicals available to the amateur gardener are very weak and continual wet weather means the sprays get washed off before they get a chance to work.

Weed control is at the same stage. Glyphosate is available, quite environmentally friendly and an excellent herbicide, but needs at least two to three days of dry weather to work effectively.

The formulation available to the amateur gardener is about a quarter of the strength of the commercial product used by farmers, growers and local authorities.

Allotment Open Day

The City Road Allotments are having an open day to let the public see our plots.

Refreshments are available and there will be many plants for sale, fresh vegetables, home baking, jams and tablet. Open on Sunday 7^th August 2011 from 10. 30am to 2.30pm

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Preparing for Winter

PREPARING FOR WINTER

Autumn is a very important time in the gardening calendar as it is this time we assess the results of the seasons work so we can plan for the next year. It is also the time to get overwintering outdoor crops tidied up before winter sets in and prepare those requiring winter storage. Then there is the winter digging, fruit tree and bush pruning and before long the leaves will have started to fall.
In fact its quite weird and very unusual, but the seasons seem to be normal. Autumn leaves are falling in autumn instead of early winter, snow is falling at low levels in some places, summer bedding would appear to be finished and the rain has stopped. I cannot remember much wet weather during the tattie picking season, though it was often frosty in the mornings. Then as usual thousands of geese flying in formation overhead are making their way up the Tay estuary. Now, this is autumn.

Allotment work

The cold weather is just what we need to sweeten up the winter cabbage, leeks, kale, Brussel sprouts, swede turnips, Swiss chard and my four parsnips that grew from a whole packet of seeds. Next year I will definitely change the variety and supplier.

Last year I left my beetroot in the ground rather than lift for storage and even though we had a very cold winter they came to no harm, so I will try the same again this year, but earth them up a wee bit to give the roots some protection from frosts.

It is a good idea to try to complete winter digging, adding manure or compost, before the end of the year, but this usually depends on good weather so the soil is not too wet to walk on. Any land sown down to a green manure crop such as mustard must be dug over immediately the first flowers appear otherwise they may set seed and end up being a real nuisance.

Gladioli and chrysanthemums have now finished so they can be lifted and stored for next year. Gladioli are dried off and stored in a cool box in dry sand or dry soil in a frost free shed. Chrysanthemum stools are boxed up and kept moist in a cold but frost free greenhouse over winter.

My strawberry varieties Symphony and Florence have both had three fruiting years, so now is the time to replace them from runners. They have produced a lot of very strong healthy runners so I can afford to give the new strawberry bed on freshly prepared and composted ground special treatment. Rows are spaced three feet apart, but I can afford to make each row a double row six inches apart and space the plants up each row at six inch spacings. This way I will establish a thick row in the first year to give a far heavier crop than traditional planting distances.

Winter Storage

Pumpkins have been lifted, washed and are now stored as an ornamental feature in our utility room where it is not too warm. They will be used fresh for fantastic soups up till next April, then any remaining will have the flesh scooped out and frozen for use later. The seeds will be used for next years crop.

Onions have been dried off and stored in nets hung up in the garage.

Carrots are lifted and stored in between dry straw and covered over with soil to keep them frost free.

Potatoes are now all lifted, dried, sorted out and stored in boxes in a cool but frost free spot.

Apples have now all been harvested, even my Bramleys, sorted out and stored in cardboard trays in the garage. The Discovery variety is finished so now we are eating the Fiesta. Red Falstaff and Red Devil will be stored a bit longer to ripen up.

The freezers are packed with enough fruit and vegetables to keep a large family well fed for well over a year. French beans, broad beans, (it makes a brilliant winter soup) and the best of our sweet corn crop are all frozen and surplus kale leaves get frozen as this makes it easier to break them up for soups without losing any of their nutritional value.

When you add soft fruit to the freezer such as strawberries, rasps, red currants, black currants, gooseberries, saskatoons and brambles it makes sense to pack them in square shaped plastic containers to maximise space and minimise empty air space.

Rhubarb, surplus pears and plums which do not store well can also be frozen to be used throughout the rest of the year.

The latest health trend to use any surplus fruit is in a delicious smoothie. This retains the healthy properties of the fruit or vegetables and can be taken as a food or thick drink. They can also be used in place of cream for summer puddings. Our favourite smoothie at present is made with our Aronia berries. This new berry crop is also called the chokeberry as the fresh fruit is astringent if eaten raw, but easily loses this when cooked. As far as superfood status goes the aronia ranks near the top of the list having ten times as much anti-oxidants as a blueberry. As well as smoothie it makes a great jam and can be juiced for a drink with some sugar added.

Propagation

Geraniums are easily overwintered as rooted cutting taken early in October and put in small pots. Keep them cool and don't over water, but if you wish to build up stock then water and feed oftener and grow in a light warm greenhouse or windowsill. Take the tops out for cuttings as soon as big enough, then take another cutting from the second cutting once it has put on a bit of growth. Grow them fast and repeat the process. It is possible to get ten plants from one plant by late spring.

I will be sowing my Meconopsis, (Himalayan blue poppy) now that it has been in the fridge for three months. It will remain outdoors to complete its stratification period and hopefully germinate in spring.

My saskatoon seed and now Aronia also get stratified before they will germinate. Select good berries at harvest time and squeeze them out of the flesh as soon as possible as the flesh contains germination inhibiting hormones. Wash them and use a kitchen roll to remove the worst of the moisture then store them in moist kitchen roll in the fridge. Do not let them dry out. Sow the seed outdoors in a prepared seedbed or in containers and keep these outside to weather. Germination should occur in spring. However this year my saskatoon variety Smoky has started to germinate. This is October so I do not know if the young seedlings will survive the winter so Smoky will go into my cold greenhouse for a wee bit of protection.

Spring bedding

Now that autumn appears to be with us most of my summer display of bedding plants in beds, tubs and hanging baskets is over. My geraniums are still colourful, so I will leave them alone for another week, and my tuberous begonias still think it is summer. They are still brilliant so no harm will come to them at this stage, even if I have bags of tulips, hyacinths and crocus eager to get planted.

Tubs of begonias will be replaced with a mixture of polyanthus underplanted with scented hyacinths. Smaller pots and hanging baskets will be planted with winter pansies and some crocus, and my main flower beds will be planted with wallflower grown from seed on my allotment, and a mixture of Darwin Hybrid tulips once I finally decide the geraniums are past their best.

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Planting Spring Bulbs

PLANT SPRING BULBS NOW

It is always very uplifting to see the emergence of the first spring flowers after a long dark cold winter. They are the sign that winter is ending and warmer weather is on its way.

Traditionally March was the turning point when shoots started to appear, then up popped the first snowdrops and winter aconites. Global warming has changed all that, but climate change is not occurring gradually. It is a bit like the stock market, over time it improves but has wild swings along the journey. Several years ago I was enjoying a coffee break outdoors in glorious warm sunshine at the end of February. Last April my early tulips were broken down with the weight of snow on them. I used to think Narcissus February Gold was a joke as it flowered in April, but now it almost does flower at the end of February. See the drifts of them along the Lochee Road next February or maybe March.

This is the time of year to be planning, buying and planting bulbs for that early flower display. The garden Centres, nurseries and stores are full of bulbs for every situation around the garden.

Bulb planting ideas

Bulbs start to flower in February with the snowdrops and continue till mid summer with the lilies. They will give a more impressive display if they are planted in bold drifts. They can also be mixed together with several types of bulbs to extend the season of display. Snowdrops can be mixed with crocus and tulips which are planted deeper and also summer lilies which flower much later, but all grow happy together.

However consider the location for each type. Snowdrops, aconites, bluebells, chionodoxa and grape hyacinths are all happy in partial or dappled shade, whereas crocus need sunshine to open up the flowers. Many bulbs thrive under deciduous trees as they do their growing early before the trees develop a dense canopy. Often this canopy will dry out the soil surface in summer which may suit the bulb during its dormant stage.

I find numerous places to grow bulbs in association with other plants such as in the herbaceous border, coloured stemmed or winter border, woodland border amongst the Himalayan blue poppies, and of course in the spring bedding displays in borders and tubs.

Bulbs, such as hyacinths and narcissus can also be grown in pots for the house, then later after flowering dried off and planted out in the garden.

Early flowering bulbs such as narcissus and crocus can be planted in lawns, but remember to let the leaves grow to feed the bulbs for the following years flowers. Always allow a minimum of six weeks from flowering before mowing off the leaves, though many people will advise to leave them till they begin to turn yellow. In some wet years that can take a long time especially with the large headed daffodils.

Another great plant association is a drift of Anemone blanda with Cyclamen hederifolium as they both have totally different flowering and growing seasons. Anemone blanda flowers in spring, then grows quickly till mid summer before dying down. The cyclamen flowers emerge in late August to September and continue to grow till winter before dying down.

To capture and enjoy the beauty of those first flowers in late winter plant some snowdrops, aconites and crocus species in view of the main house windows. Then even after a snowfall you can still see them emerging unscathed from the comfort of a warm house. I have a drift of these next to a beautiful pure white Christmas rose, Helleborus niger which flowers at the same time and viewed from the patio window.

Bulbs for the house

Hyacinths are hard to beat for a flowering scented house plant and come in many colours. My favourite was always the red Jan Bos, but there are excellent blues, pinks and whites. For the earliest flowers choose bulbs that have been prepared for forcing and try to get them potted up at the end of August or early September.

Bulbs can be planted close together, even one above the other in bulb fibre compost in wide pots. Water them in then put them outdoors against a north wall. They prefer to be kept dark at this stage for about ten or so weeks and protect them from frost and mice.. This encourages root growth but holds back leaves and flowers. They should not need much watering. Keep checking them for signs of shoot growth and as soon as they begin to grow, probably in late November to December, introduce them to a light but not sunny place such as a cold frame or cool greenhouse. Keep them cold but frost free, until the flowers begin to show. Gradually warm them up but leave it to the last minute before you take them into the warmth of a house otherwise they will grow too tall.

Early narcissus and dwarf tulips e.g. Red Riding Hood, can also be grown in pots for early flowering. I like the scented Cheerfulness types which have double flowers and a heady perfume. Grow them the same way as hyacinths.

Bulbs for the garden

My season starts in early February with a clump of snowdrops planted under my grape vine on a south facing wall which gets a lot of heat from the sun. Then other snowdrops, aconites and crocus species all come together. Crocus should come after the snowdrops, but not any more. Anemone blanda is drifted under our apple trees and follows the crocus before the bluebells smother the ground under our Bramley apple and Victoria plum, all happy to grow together. In the front of our fruit tree mini orchard, (five trees) there are drifts of lilies which grow up into the sun.

The herbaceous border is covered in hyacinths previously grown in pots but now naturalised plus Chionodoxa, the Glory of the Snows. One display after another.

Where ever there is a space amongst shrubs I have planted sacks of daffodils, narcissus, tulips and grape hyacinths which are all left to grow and spread as they wish. I keep adding to them every year. Types of fosteriana tulips have large flowers, are very early and naturalise well.

Tubs and Beds

My Parks Dept training as a gardener was very thorough so I always follow our tradition of planting both summer and winter bedding plants in borders, tubs and hanging baskets.

At this time of year the normal selection will be Wallflowers, Myosotis, Polyanthus and winter flowering pansies.

I choose the tall Darwin Hybrid tulips for interplanting amongst the wallflower, but dwarf early tulips or species to go between the others.

Tubs and pots are also planted with dwarf tulips amongst the pansies and myosotis and often a few crocus are added to give an early display.

I do not use bulbs in my winter hanging baskets as these are usually filled with winter pansies which can suffer from too much foliage from the crocus which just loves to grow when you water and feed them.

All of these bulbs get dried out after flowering to be reused elsewhere in the garden the following year.

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Harvesting Fruits of your Labour

HARVESTING FRUITS OF YOUR LABOUR

The harvesting and picking season is just getting into full swing. Times are very busy as there is so many fruit and vegetable crops to be picked and eaten or preserved.

Salads have been available for some time but now the summer cabbage, courgettes, early carrots, Swiss chard, baby beet thinnings, mangetout peas, broad beans, early potatoes and leafy kale are all needing to be regularly picked.

Soft fruit picking is almost a daily task with blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, Bramble Helen, and my huge crop of saskatoons all needing to be picked. There is still a few perpetual strawberries, (Malling Opal) popping up though most of the summer ones are now finished. As usual there is always a glut so the summer diet is extremely healthy with ample spare to pass to family, friends and the freezer.

This used to be the time of year for jam making from summer soft fruits in season which would then be stored in a cool spot for use till spring. However the freezer has now taken over and fresh jams are made as they are needed, provided you can find freezer space.

My partner Anna created a brilliant compote of blackcurrants and rhubarb stewed with sugar to taste. It is added to the muesli at breakfast with a sprinkling of saskatoons or brambles and often at lunchtime with yoghurt and a dash of honey and again some soft fruit, rasps, brambles or gooseberries. As the summer season fresh fruit crops finish there is plenty in the freezer to continue the fruit diet all year round. All those anti-oxidants and vitamins must be doing us some good apart from the feel good factor from home grown produce..

Summer Flowers

Flower beds, tubs and hanging baskets are all at their peak but to keep them flowering they need feeding, watering and dead heading regularly. Shasta daisies are a picture and my exotic Japanese lilies are giving a fantastic show with a heady perfume that permeates the whole garden. I bought a couple of bulbs five years ago and after flowering kept the seed heads for sowing. They were quite easy to germinate and grow on, so now I have masses of them.

I grow a large drift in my winter border of coloured stemmed shrubs, (cornus, kerria, leycesteria, salix britzensis and acer Sangokaku) which is quite a dull border at this time of year. The lilies grow through and above the shrubs in harmony adding colour and scent.

Climbing roses as well as bush and shrub roses have all finished their main flush but many can be repeat flowering with a wee bit of summer pruning to take off seed heads, straggly shoots and any showing signs of mildew, blackspot or rust. I have a policy of only growing those varieties that are resistant to these diseases since there are no longer any chemicals available to the amateur gardener to control them other than Dithane which must be used regularly and preferably before the first signs of any disease appears. However if you grow organically it may be possible to look into the latest idea to use of milk sprayed at 10% dilution every ten days throughout the whole season to prevent some fungus diseases from getting started. This idea is still in its experimental stage, but you can keep up to date with this new method on a range of gardening and allotment forums on the internet..

My other main flower task at this time of year is disbudding early flowering chrysanthemums. I grow one bed with a range of decorative, reflex and incurving flower heads and another bed of sprays which need no disbudding. These will give me cut flower for the house from August till October. I grow these in beds three feet wide and support them with 6 inch weldmesh wire held between four posts. As the plants grow up I raise the weldmesh to keep them supported.

Gladioli are now coming into bloom and will be cut for the house with some left on my allotment to give a show of colour throughout the summer. These are grown on well manured good soil in rows one foot apart and planted four inches apart along the row.

I have kept the corms for years and add new varieties to the collection every year.

Looking ahead to next spring my wallflower seedlings sown in the middle of June, are just perfect for transplanting so they can make a sturdy bushy plant by autumn. I transplant my four inch seedlings into rows spaced 12 inches apart with the plants at 4 inch spacings.

These will be planted on good ground that has just been cleared of my broad bean crop. I also had some land left over from my early summer cabbage, but as they are all in the same family, cruciferae, the risk of clubroot disease is too great to risk it.. I can sow some late summer lettuce and radish or even a fast growing dwarf early pea variety here. There should just be enough season left for these to grow and give a crop in autumn.

Hanging Baskets and Tubs

These are now at their most colourful and can be kept like that with continual dead heading, watering and feeding. My hanging baskets usually combine a central geranium with petunias and nemesia, then Impatiens and trailing lobelia around the perimeter to hide the container.

Some pots which were planted with winter flowering pansies for an early spring display dont seem to realise it is summer. They were to be replaced with summer bedding weeks ago, but they refused to stop flowering and continue to provide an excellent display so I will just leave them a wee bit longer.

Often in late summer I will replant any pot or tub that is going past its best with cyclamen in flower which become available in garden centres in late summer and early autumn. They will then flower till the frosts come.

Larger tubs get my best tuberous begonias as they need more space and in full flower they are very impressive. I bought a box of young begonias nearly twenty years ago and at the end of the season, usually late October I lift and dry them. The dormant tubers are stored in my garage over winter.

I should be finding some time to do some painting, but art has been relegated to late evenings often going well beyond midnight as I need the daylight hours for gardening tasks.

Just finished potting up a batch of indoor and outdoor grape vines which I will take to the Camperdown Flower Show in September to accompany my saskatoon fruit bushes.

Summer pruning fruit bushes

Mid summer is the best time to prune currants and gooseberries, peaches and of course grape vines need continual pruning throughout the growing season.

Blackcurrants fruit on young shoots produced and ripened the previous year, so cut out old wood that has just fruited down to the nearest young shoot. Also cut off any branches too close to ground level.

Red and white currants are spur pruned on a framework of about nine main branches which can be replaced every third year. Cut back all sideshoots to four or five leaves on these main branches.

Peaches are also better spur pruned in late summer to encourage fruit buds to form and restrict growth.

Grape vines need all new growths cut back to one leaf in summer. Earlier on all shoots would have been cut back to two leaves after each flower truss.

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