An early harvest

AN EARLY HARVEST

It is very rewarding to pick those few early vegetables right at the beginning of the season. Nothing found in any supermarket can beat a freshly picked young lettuce or radish served on the plate within a few minutes to a couple of hours later. It is surprising that with a wee bit of research and planning you can have some fresh produce from the garden all year round.

Fruit

Although not truly a fruit, rhubarb is regarded as a sweet used in crumbles, tarts, stewed or added to compote. It also makes a fantastic jam when combined with figs and prunes.  Forced rhubarb gives the earliest sticks, but outdoor natural season comes in quickly behind the frozen and those spring bright red stems are just bursting with vitamins and minerals as well as flavour.

Strawberries are now becoming very popular as an early crop advanced with the help of low polytunnels which are cheap to make, and easy to erect. Use an early variety such as Mae, and follow this with a maincrop such as Elsanta then extend the season using a late e.g. Symphony or Florence. If you wish to have strawberries right up until the frosts come use a perpetual such as Flamenco. Protecting my early strawberries for a very early harvest has paid dividends this year as it has protected them from the continual wet weather. Modern strawberries have been bred to withstand the fungus botrytis which used to devastate crops without at least three chemical sprays of Elvaron (now withdrawn). However even these resistant varieties are struggling very badly trying to cope with constant rain showers, and botrytis is back but not as severe as in the past.

Vegetables

Radish, lettuce and spring onions have been used for a few weeks now. I thin my lettuce to about 4 to 6 inches apart, then do a final thinning over a few weeks using alternate young very tender lettuce plants for salads.

Radish and spring onion are usually sown as a quick intercrop between other slower growing crops such as sweet corn, parsnips and courgettes which are spaced wide apart but take a few weeks to cover the ground. As long as the ground has been well manured these salads will grow quickly.

Early carrots grown under fleece have come along very quickly and although the fleece did get a few holes in it over the weeks, it has given protection from the carrot fly. These small carrots are very tasty and tender.

Baby beetroot are now ready to harvest as the thinning from normal rows allowing the rest more space to grow.

Spring cabbage April is now just about finished, but these have been terrific, despite slugs, caterpillars and pigeons. The earliest cabbage were so tender they only needed two minutes boiling and were plate perfect. I will definitely grow this variety again with a sowing at the end of July.

Stored and frozen crops

The last twelve onion Hytech will be used this month. I did not expect them to store so well in my garage over such a long period and still remain so sweet.

French and broad beans are still available from the freezer as well as a few raspberries, blackcurrants and saskatoons. However with this year’s crop only a few weeks away, some of these will have to go to make room in the freezer.

Another batch of wine is being planned, as nothing gets wasted.

Cut Flowers

The first sweet peas are now flowering but the cool wet weather has held them back from other years, though growth is still quite strong. Always remove old flowers and do not let them go to seed.

Roses make a great display for the table, but it is hard to sacrifice the garden display. However we can always spare a single scented rose. Ernest Henry Morse is one of my favourites.

Garden pinks and border carnations are another excellent cut flower available in early summer and the clove scented varieties are hard to beat.

Plant of the week

Fuchsia Swingtime is my favourite hanging basket fuchsia now in full flower though still has plenty of growth to make. Purchased as plugs in early spring and grown on in a pot before planting alone in a hanging basket. I give it a feed once a fortnight to keep it growing. At the end of the season it will get dried off and stored in a cold but frost free place till next spring.

There are numerous different varieties to choose from for pots, tubs, baskets or outdoors in a border, and coming cheaply from plugs it is always worthwhile trying a few different ones each year.

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SUMMER JOBS IN BETWEEN THE SHOWERS

SUMMER JOBS IN BETWEEN THE SHOWERS

It looks like we are going to get a third wet summer, so I watch the weather forecasts and take every opportunity to get into the garden on every sunny day. Growing good garden plants has always been a challenge, but this weather does not make it any easier. On the plus side the garden hose is getting a good rest. It seems we rush out on a dry day to sow and plant, then sit back as they get watered in the following day. However some plants are doing just fine. Climbing roses have plenty flowers on them and not too much mildew. Greenfly begin to build up then a heavy shower comes along and washes a few away, but if I can get a couple of dry days I will give the remainder a rose spray to tackle greenfly, mildew, rust, and blackspot. I no longer grow those varieties susceptible to blackspot so it is not a major problem in these wet summers.

Flag iris, oriental poppies, Iceland poppies, Californian poppies, honeysuckle and peony roses have all been a mass of flowers despite the rain. The Californian poppies have naturalised themselves in the front of a border holding masses of crocus bulbs, but as they have different growing and flowering times they are perfect partners.

Delphiniums are putting on good growth and showing a lot of promise for a good display, but they need strong canes and tying in as they can reach five to six feet tall.

Bedding geraniums and petunias need sunshine so they are beginning to lose their flowers while they wait on summer returning. Busy Lizzies don’t mind rain, but they do not like cold weather which makes them look really sick.

Weeding continues on any sunny days to keep on top, but they seem less of a problem this year.

Seed sowing

Wallflower seeds have now been sown in an outdoor seedbed. After germination and they grow to about four to six inches tall they will get transplanted into rows a foot apart spacing the seedlings about four inches apart. They should make sturdy plants for planting out in late autumn.

Forget me nots (Myosotis) can also be sown this way but in past years slugs have devoured them as soon as they germinate and slug pellets are so weak that they are just not effective enough, so I have sown mine in compost in trays. They will go into plug trays after germination, and then a few weeks later they will be lined out outside to bush up.

I have sown a batch of broad beans in cellular trays to catch a late crop. They will replace my spring cabbage when that crop is finished in July.

Fruit trees

Primary infections (mildew infected young shoots) on my apple tree have been removed to prevent the disease spreading. It looks like a very poor year for Bramley apples. There was plenty of flowers, but very poor pollination or fertilisation, as much of the young crop has fallen off.

Plums are also having a rest this year as there is no more than a dozen fruit on a large mature tree which should have a couple of hundred young plums.

Oddly enough the outdoor Peach Peregrine (hand pollinated with a sable brush) has an excellent crop of young peaches, but the tree is so badly infected by peach leaf curl that there is just not enough foliage to support a decent crop. The tree was sprayed twice in late winter/early spring and once at leaf fall. I blame a combination of wet weather and poor chemical control. Chemicals available in garden centres are now formulated so weak that they are no longer very effective.

I just hope that if we get some warm days I might get a surge of growth and save the crop.

Greenhouse

Tomato Gardeners Delight is growing strongly and now flowering on its fourth truss, but Alicante fared rather poorly in the cold dull weather. It is alive and growing but nothing to be proud off.

My favourite Sweet Million cherry tomato could not handle this climate. Root rots set in and killed off my plants. They have now been replaced with fresh plants.

Feeding is done on every second watering.

Grape vine pruning continues on a twice weekly basis cutting all shoots to one leaf to prevent them taking over the glasshouse.

An Amaryllus potted up last autumn should have flowered just after Christmas, but all I got was a wealth of green leaves. I gave up after Easter and it got relegated to a quiet corner in the greenhouse where I could ignore it. It has now decided to flower. All very nice, but this is just not its time.

I reckon Anna felt sorry for it and every time she went on tomato feeding duties she gave it a wee drink.

Plant of the week

Serbian Bellflower known botanically as Campanula poscharskyana is a great rock garden plant displaying a carpet of lavender blue flowers in June. It is very easy to grow as long as you plant it in a moist but well drained soil and although it will grow in a shady spot it flowers more profusely in full sun. Propagate by dividing up bits around the edges of the clump in late autumn.

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Allotment diary

EARLY SUMMER ON THE ALLOTMENT

This is June so it must be summer, I think. To take advantage of every dry day it is necessary to monitor weather forecasts and get on the land in between showers. For those gardeners still in full time employment and having difficulty getting onto the allotment I can only sympathise. It is hard enough to keep on top of planting and sowing, but weeding also needs attention.

Green manures

Some crops such as sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins, winter cabbage, kale and chrysanthemums do not get planted till early June so there is plenty of time to sow a green manure and get it dug in before planting. This weather has been great for my green manures. Mustard quickly reached the flowering stage, so it has now been trampled down, chopped and dug in. This will be my last sowing of mustard as it is liable to infection with clubroot, so in future I will use clover or other plants for green manuring. One patch of clovers is growing strongly, but not yet in flower so I will give it another couple of weeks to grow before it gets dug in.

Cabbages

The wet weather does seem to favour my cabbages, Brussels sprouts and Kale. Spring cabbage April has been cropping since the end of May and as it is still hearting up will go on for another few weeks. Summer cabbage Golden Acre is growing strongly and winter cabbage January King has now been planted. These, plus Kale and sprouts Wellington have all been given full protection from slugs (pellets), rootfly (mats) and pigeons and cabbage white butterfly (netting), so hopefully growth should be reasonable if my four year rotation has sorted out the clubroot.

Compost for planting and sowing

Gardeners are being discouraged from using peat composts, and for really good reasons, but compost suppliers should try a lot harder to provide us with a suitable alternative. I have been using B&Q Verve which only has 58% peat. What a disaster. It drains very poorly creating a wet stagnant medium which rots plants and seeds. There is not enough air space for drainage. From a sowing of forty French beans only ten germinated. Aronia transplants, grape vine transplants, cabbage and nemesia transplants have all been at deaths door, till I uprooted them and put them into my home made compost based on the John Innes mixture. This has a lot of soil in it and only 25% peat, but it can grow plants. The old formula or a variation based on its principles makes a very good growing medium. It was 7 parts loam, 3 parts peat, 2 parts sand or course grit and some base fertiliser and ground chalk to keep the pH acidity levels nearly neutral.

Sweet corn Plants were raised from seed sown at the end of March on a windowsill. After potting up, the young plants were ready to plant and about a foot tall. They were planted into a freshly dug green manure (mustard) crop in early June. Hope they get a better summer than last year when pollination set was miserable due to lack of warmth.

Cape gooseberries Young home raised plants were also planted in early June on soil which had a green manure crop of mustard dug in. As the weather is still cold and wet I am protecting them with some old glass windows till they get established and I see a return to summer weather.

Chrysanthemums will also benefit from my green manuring efforts. I am growing a new batch of spray flowering plants which do not need disbudding. They all got planted in mid June.

Fruit crops Started to pick my first strawberries at the end of May. I have the early variety Mae under a polythene tunnel. Red and blackcurrants, gooseberries, saskatoons and raspberries are all showing heavy crops to come. Outdoor sweet cherry Cherokee has lost half of its crop in a June drop, probably due to cold weather and lack of sunshine. I have protected the rest of the crop from birds with a net. They just need a return of summer weather to ripen them up.

Grape Solaris is growing strongly on a south fence, though no sign of flowers this year. I can wait another year and keep hoping that this could be my global warming winner. You have to dream.

Allotment plot vacancies The last three poor years with too much rain and not enough sunshine has tested quite a few allotment holders. Turnover has been high and we have now virtually used up our waiting list, so if any other keen gardener wants to live the good life we would like to hear from you at City Road.  We open for visitors both Saturday and Sunday from 11am to noon.

Allotment life is very hard work, but the exercise, fresh air, social environment and an abundance of great fruit, vegetables and flowers gives immense satisfaction.

Plant of the week

Flag Iris has always been one of my early summer favourites. The flowers are big, colourful and most are scented. There are many brilliant varieties to choose from and they are very easy to grow. They are happy in a dry sunny area, don’t need a rich soil, and just lift and replant the clumps every three or four years. I start of new plantings with a bit of decent soil and compost to get them established, and then leave them alone.

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Gardening Scotland at Ingliston

GARDENING SCOTLAND

There are two major gardening events in my annual calendar. The Gardening Scotland at Ingliston in Edinburgh is in June and the Camperdown Flower and Food Festival in September. I take stands at both to promote and sell my Scottish saskatoons, but it also gives me the chance to see the best of horticultural products and new plants coming to the market as well as meeting gardening friends. There is such a wide range of great plants that you always come away with something special.

Last year our special purchase was Peony Doreen, and this year Anna chose three very colourful Heucheras and I found some gorgeous deep purple early flowering spray chrysanthemums. I have grown early flowering incurving, reflex and decorative chrysanths, but life is so busy I am now concentrating on sprays so I do not need to spend time disbudding to get those large single heads. I have most colours, but not the deep purple so now I have Jalta and Regal Mist.

The grower, Oska Copperfield Nursery in Leicester also had a very deep mauve from China called Barca Red which was not getting released for another four years. However I did get a full flowering shoot which I will try to find leaf bud sections and see if I can get them to root and grow.

My favourite Arisaema sikokianum from Japan was there in full flower. It is really weird and spooky, but I just love it. It is known as the Circumcised Jack in the Pulpit and starts life as a male plant but changes to female as it matures. One day it will be my choice to bring back.

Binny Plants had a fantastic display of Peonies, but you need to have a few bob in your pocket as they are not cheap with some new ones well over £200 each. However they were gorgeous and perfect for that one off special purchase to add a bit of sparkle to the garden.

The Scottish Begonia Society had a very colourful display of tuberous begonias and instructions on how to grow and propagate them. The large headed types can also be very expensive and are best grown under glass, but there are plenty more compact types suitable for outdoor flower beds.

Rhododendrons and azaleas were on show on many stands including Glendoick Gardens. Ken Cox was on the stand also promoting his new book “Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland”  Three hundred pages with ample pictures showing hands on growing from both amateur and professional gardeners growing their own plants to perfection. This book is a wealth of information covering every fruit and vegetable you need to know about. There is even a great article about this fellow in Dundee growing saskatoons.

I brought back a large bag of peat free compost made from composted sheep wool by Simon at Dalefoot composts. It comes in a range of strengths and looks good, so I will be potting up my young saskatoons in this new medium for showing at Camperdown flower show in September.

Several workshops were arranged each day just outside my stand so I got the full story. It was very interesting to hear Andrew Lear (the Appletree man) talk about the heritage apples, pears and plums which used to grow on the Carse of Gowrie. These old varieties may not be as commercial as those found in supermarkets, but they had flavours far superior to most of those around today.  Andrew is doing his best to find and restore these fruits.

Dundee College Gardeners won a silver gilt award with their Garden of Tranquillity showing excellent landscape skills integrating hard and soft landscaping to create a garden of calm and peace to relax in. Design and use of landscape planting was very impressive.

Plant of the week

Osteospermum is a low growing summer flowering plant that thrives in a sunny border, flower bed or hanging basket. There are hardy types that come up every year provided the winter frosts are not too severe, and the herbaceous ones grown from seed or cuttings and used as annuals. Although many people discard these at the end of the flowering season, if you have a particularly good one, it can be retained for another year by taking cuttings in the autumn and overwintering these on a sunny windowsill. Keep the cutting shaded for the first few weeks till well rooted.
This plant, a native of South Africa, needs full sun for the bright daisy like flower to be at their best.

Painting of the month

Paps of Jura from Port Askaig. A couple of years ago I visited some friends on Islay during the Whisky Festival week at the end of May. We were very fortunate in having a heatwave at the time, though our host Maggie told us it happens all the time. The scenery was breath taking and artistically I came away with photos and ideas for numerous paintings. However the highlight had to be our trip to Ardbeg distillery where a very happy and sociable crowd were celebrating the festival in great form with live music in the yard and the best malt whiskeys at £1 a nip. A trip across the island to Jura taking the ferry from Port Askaig gave me even more images to paint, and another brilliant whisky to sample. It was a fantastic trip that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a wee dram, some great music and Scottish island landscapes. A wee touch of heaven.

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