ALLOTMENT LIFE

ALLOTMENT LIFE

The brilliant summer has allowed a lot of crops to almost catch up on the late season with quality at its maximum. This will be seen with the fresh garden produce on display for sale at our City Road Gardens Open Day tomorrow 4^th August from 11am to 3pm.

Our Cafe on site will offering plenty fresh home baking and there will be plenty of plants and garden produce for sale.

Another benefit from the long summer has been an upsurge in interest in people wanting to get an outdoor gardening activity and putting their name down on our allotment waiting list. The Open Day allows new gardening enthusiasts to wander around our site and see what allotment life is like.

People will see a very wide range of plants grown from fruit and vegetables to flowers, grapes apples, figs, sweet corn, courgettes, peppers, saskatoons and many other unusual plants.

There is always a fair bit of turnover of tenants on plots. Many people love the idea of working outdoors with nature, growing a few healthy plants to eat, and then relaxing on the patio enjoying the sunshine. However weeds will not stop growing in between rows of plants and along the paths. Fences rot and fall over, sheds start to leak or get vandalised, and when crops are successful, they have to be harvested, cleaned, and cooked or stored. Few people realise just how much hard graft is required to keep the plot clean and productive, so the moments of pure bliss in the sunshine are often short lived.

An allotment is hard to maintain, but very rewarding when the crops come in.

It is always best to go for a smaller plot at the beginning to see how it can be managed, then for the young family with volunteer helpers needing more land to cultivate they can always request the next available larger plot.

The average plot will need attention of someone for a few hours at least three times every week. Anything less than that will mean the weeds will take over or the dedicated gardener is really brilliant at his job.

Modern allotments

We are well past the times when allotments were necessary to feed the population, and people were quite poor so growing your own vegetables and fruit was very economic.

There are a lot of families living in flats with no garden, so it is quite normal for allotments to be used as a recreational garden. It can be a place to relax in the sun, once you are up to date with cultivations, or sit out on your own wee bit of lawn, or patio next to your shed. A shared barbeque with your fellow plot holders can be very sociable, and leaning over the fence to chat with your neighbour is very popular as there are plenty of neighbours. They all want to know what you are growing, and how you manage to grow great crops with the “No Digging” technique. This idea could prove to be a winner as it cuts down on a lot of hard graft.

Visitors to the Open Day should ask about this method and check out the results.

Allotments are also a great place to bring the kids to teach them about nature. Give them their own wee patch and start them off with some sunflowers, a pumpkin, a wee row of peas or a strawberry plant. They love watering and eating the berries, but most are not really big into weeding or digging, and it will take time for them to develop a taste for healthy vegetables but persevere as they are the future gardeners.

Allotments also play a part in local community life. Several of our plots left to go wild when it got too much for the plot holders, were brought back into shape with the help of Community Pay Back Scheme using young male offenders doing work for the community.

They really did a great job for us.

Another scheme run by Dr. Bernardo’s uses one plot to assist young kids from 18 to 25 with learning needs to educate them in horticulture.

Gardeners often suffer from back problems as they get older so our committee is trying to address this problem by providing a plot designed with raised beds so access is easy without the need for continual back bending. However we are hoping that some charitable person or company can help with the supply of suitable timber for the construction.

This plot will then always be retained for a keen gardener with a bad back.

Plant of the week

French marigolds are an annual half hardy summer flowering bedding plant with lemon, yellow and orange flowers. Seed is sown in March, pricked out into cellular trays then planted out into beds, troughs, hanging baskets and tubs. They are often part of a mixed display with geraniums, petunias and lobelia. Although they only last for one year they are very bright and colourful.

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SUNNY WEATHER BRINGS ON THE FRUIT

SUNNY WEATHER BRINGS ON THE FRUIT

The sun continues to shine, temperatures remain high and the rain has stayed away for several weeks. The garden has never looked better and last week I marvelled at the improvements to roses, but this week it is the turn of fruit crops to show immense benefit. After last year’s cold wet summer where fruit either rotted on the bush (strawberries,) or suffered diseases (apple scab) or lack of pollination, it is very pleasing to see crops so healthy and plentiful.

However last year’s rotten weather has affected this year’s crop as top fruit trees, (pears and peaches) did not get a chance to ripen up the shoots in autumn, so fruit bud formation just did not happen. It is such a pity as this would have been the year to ripen up a good crop of Scottish outdoor peaches. The bushes are very healthy with very little peach leaf curl, so I can just hope that 2014 will be their year.

Apple trees have such a heavy crop that I gave them a good thinning to improve fruit size.

Cherry Cherokee fruits are very large, sweet and well ripened up this year.

Strawberries

This has been a fantastic year with over sixty pounds picked so far, and I have not even started on my Flamenco perpetual variety. Mae has been a very heavy cropper with very little botrytis, but Symphony and Rhapsody though not such heavy croppers have very large sweet berries with excellent flavour. You can only eat so much fruit, so the freezer is taking all our surplus crops.

Currants

Another bumper year for red and blackcurrants, but as there was still ten pounds of blacks in the freezer left from last year, these had to be used up in jam and a couple of demijohns of wine.

Ben Conan has large sweet berries great for eating if very ripe, but also makes excellent jam, compote and summer puddings, and I always keep back some for wine making.

Red currants get used the same way, though the wine is my favourite product.

My new Big Ben blackcurrant bush is putting on excellent growth in its first year, but I will have to wait till 2014 before I sample these very large sweet berries.

Raspberries

I started to pick my first Glen Fyne in mid July, but my Glen Rosa (sold to me as Glen Ample) is running at least a week or two later. Flavour and texture of Glen Fyne is excellent.

I gave a spray to combat raspberry beetle maggots at the first pink fruit stage to both my raspberries as well as my Bramble Helen. They will need another spray a week later.

Gooseberries

A good year for gooseberries as the warm weather is sweetening up the fruit and I managed to remove several hundred sawfly maggots as they appeared over three weeks and before they gobbled up too much foliage. A very messy and unpleasant task, but quiet necessary.

We use the gooseberries in summer puddings, compote, stewed and sweetened for use in desserts and in my breakfast muesli, and of course it also makes a brilliant wine.

Saskatoons

Picking started a bit later than last year, but berries are a good size and the sun has really sweetened them up. The two rows are all under netting for protection from birds, yet the blackie still managed to find a way under the net. Saskatoons are used in the same way as blueberries, eaten fresh in season, then, compote, summer puddings, jam and brewed for wine.

Anna has continued to experiment with Saskatoon jam recipes and her latest one, adapted from a Canadian recipe is a definite winner. This fruit is very low in pectin so setting can be a problem. It also lacks juice to give a smooth consistency, so rhubarb has been added to help setting and soften the texture. This Saskatoon jam is delicious.

6 large cups crushed saskatoons

4 large cups chopped rhubarb

6 large cups warmed sugar

Juice of one lemon

One rounded teaspoon of citric acid

Add a half cup of water to pan with rhubarb, soften for ten minutes then add saskatoons and soften for another ten minutes. Add lemon juice, citric acid and warmed sugar, bring to a rolling boil for another ten minutes then test.

Plant of the week

Lilium candidum the Belladonna lily grows about five feet tall with pure white scented trumpet flowers in July and August. Give it a sheltered spot in full sun in well drained but rich soil. Do not plant deep. They are a wee bit susceptible to virus and botrytis, so propagate from seed which is usually free from diseases.

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THE YEAR OF THE ROSES

THE YEAR OF THE ROSES

I imagine the jet stream must have sorted itself out and the feared repeat of last year deluge has been replaced with long spells of summer weather. The garden plants were all running about three weeks later than normal, but they are now catching up very quickly. The garden hose has even been in use after clearing off two years dust from lack of use. The extra moisture together with sun and high temperatures has transformed every part of the garden. I have picked over 30 lbs of strawberries from my wee strawberry patch and I am only a third of the way through the season.

Other soft and top fruits are swelling and ripening up brilliantly. All the vegetables on the allotment just love this year, and salads, rhubarb, turnip, cabbage and beetroot has been getting picked regularly.

However the one plant that is responding above all others is the roses. I have never seen them flower so profusely. The weather is also keeping blackspot, mildew and rust at bay.

Climbing Roses

My two climbing roses, Gertrude Jekyll on a west wall and Dublin Bay on a south wall are always a good show, but this year they outstanding. They are absolutely packed with flowers from base right to the top of the bushes. Climbing Mme Alfred Carrier must be twelve foot tall but only supported by a six foot fence, yet she is still growing so I will give her more room. She shared this fence with a clematis macropetala, which has not been great, so I have dug it out to let Mme Alfred Carrier get more space. I have another three climbers Etoile du Hollande, Climbing Iceberg and Morning Jewel, which all got severely cut back last year as I replaced the fence line and I needed access to work. They very soon put on good growth and are now all in flower, but it will be another year before they make maximum impact.

Shrub Roses

Ispahan and Lavender Lassie are both excellent pinks with gorgeous scents. Ispahan is now over seven foot tall but has plenty of space, but Lavender Lassie is beginning to outgrow its space and block a footpath so it will get shifted next winter. I might plant it against a fence and train it into a climber.

Bush Roses

These have had no feeding or compost this year, (they got plenty last year) and have to compete with the ravenous roots of a huge eucalyptus tree which is growing in the middle of the bed, but they all seem to exist together just fine. The eucalyptus does not have a dense canopy so the roses get plenty of sunlight, but I have to water in this present dry spell as our stony soil can be very dry.

This year’s display is brilliant. Although there are more hybrid tea types than floribundas, the HT’s are acting like floribundas with a mass of blooms. The star player this year is Myriam which was purchased from Cockers of Aberdeen following a visit to their display gardens several years ago.

It is a large headed soft pink hybrid tea rose with a strong scent growing about four to five feet tall with very healthy foliage. I counted twelve flower heads all in bloom at the same time on one bush.

However they no longer stock this variety.

Another brilliant rose that I can no longer trace is a strong beautiful deep yellow floribunda called Julie Goodyear purchased from Dobbies Garden Centre about eight years ago. Has some rose bush supplier to the trade made up the name to gain sales. This variety is not listed anywhere in the rose world, so what is the real name of this wonderful rose.

However next week another rose (the orange hybrid tea Dawn Chorus or white floribunda Iceberg) will be the star performer while Myriam takes a wee rest.

Plant of the week

Philadelphus virginal, the mock orange is one of the easiest shrubs to grow, but as it can grow up to ten feet tall it needs a bit of space. It used to be one of the dominant shrubs in Dundee Parks as it is very easy to propagate from hardwood cuttings in winter, so it got planted all over the town. However in those days shrubs were used to cover the ground to stop weeds growing so our philadelphus never got above five feet and I never ever saw a flower on it. Today we let shrubs grow naturally so if it is a ten foot tall shrub we let it grow. If you feel the need to prune, then remove some older branches after flowering to encourage younger growth.

This mature shrub is a mass of double scented white flowers in July and one of my must have specimen plants.

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BIG CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

BIG CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

I have always been very impressed with large specimen plants given pride of place in the landscape.

When studying for my National Diploma at Essex Institute of Agriculture at the end of the sixties there was a magnificent Cedar, (Cedrus atlantica glauca) on the college lawns. I was determined to have one for my garden, so ten years later I planted one in my small garden in Darlington. Six years later I realised my wee garden was just not big enough, though my young specimen was a real show stopper. Ever since then I have always planted a few specimen plants where ever space permitted.

Every garden, no matter how small can accommodate at least one specimen plant that makes that garden special if only for two to three weeks each year.

My first garden in St. Mary’s was very small but I planted a weeping birch tree, Betula pendula Youngii and trained the main stem ten feet up a tall cane before I allowed it to start weeping. When I left six years later it was just reaching the perfect specimen stage.

I have seen numerous gardens around Dundee that are very special with one having a particularly large and colourful Azalea, others with a Camelia, Eucalyptus, Cedar, a long tall fence smothered in Clematis Montana and a lovely specimen of bright red Chaenomeles Crimson and Gold.

Although my present garden is not huge it is big enough to allow me to indulge in a few medium sized specimen plants. This creates impact almost all year round as there is always one part of the garden looking good in each season.

Spring specimens are plentiful but space available will dictate number and type. Rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and even Forsythia will all make very impressive specimens if given ample space to grow unimpeded. If you have a good length of tall fencing plant a clematis montana rubens and let it ramble at free will. It will take a few years to thicken up but once established it covers itself in flowers every year. If you want an impressive tree plant the upright cherry, Prunus amanogawa, or if you have more space try Kanzan or Prunus shirotae both of which have immense flower power.

Summer specimens continue with the white scented shrub Philadelphus and Viburnum mariesii with its horizontal branches covered in white flowers. An excellent small tree is the golden leaved Robinia frisia but can be a bit fickle if we continue to get cold wet winters. It doesn’t mind the cold but not if its roots are in wet soil. Eucryphia can grow very tall as a small tree and gets smothered in white flowers in summer, but it is hard to beat a good climbing rose if you have space to let it grow to its full potential. My white Mme Alfred Carrier is over twelve feet tall and still growing and my scarlet Dublin Bay on a south facing wall about the same height. However they will need pruning in winter to maintain shape, removing some old wood and keeping a balance of young growths.

Autumn specimens are short lived when autumn colour is the theme, but some plants are so vivid they linger in the memory for a long time. Most rowan trees give brilliant autumn colour as well as all forms of maple and if space is plentiful try oaks, beech and hornbeam. Rowans also have loads of highly coloured berries of red, white, yellow and pink. The flowering cherries are also brilliant in autumn as well as spring. My best Japanese maple specimen is the coral bark maple Acer palmatum Sangokaku.

Winter specimens are a bit scarcer, but the maple Acer sangokaku has bright scarlet bark and twigs which are brilliant when the sun hits them. It is a small tree but deserves plenty of space to grow. My specimen fits in perfectly in my winter garden full of deciduous shrubs with highly coloured stems such as dogwoods, Kerria, red stemmed willows and Leycesteria. It is also a great specimen to add height to a heather garden.

A bigger specimen tree is the white stemmed birch tree Betula jacquemontii. It is important to make sure you get a well branched good specimen with a straight stem. As it grows remove just a few of the lower branches to expose the white trunk which peels off to reveal a warmer shade of white bark. In time this bark turns white. My tree is about ten years old and nearly twenty feet tall.

Plant of the week

Petunias are one of my favourite summer flowering bedding plants used for tubs and hanging baskets and come in numerous bright colours. They need warmth and sunny weather to bring out the flowers so recent summers have not been the best. I would never be without the large flowered blue variety as it is good to have strong dark blues amongst the other reds and yellow flowers and the blue form has a fantastic scent. They mix very well with geraniums, Impatiens, lobelia and French marigolds.

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