BERRIES

BERRIES

Summer and autumn is the time when most flowering trees and shrubs produce fruit. Some of these we consume as fruit such as apples, pears, plums, raspberries, brambles and hazelnuts. Others we grow as ornamentals for the display of brightly coloured berries, though some fall into both camps.

I had an old dessert apple fruit tree that gave us some reasonable crops, but it was no great display so it got cut back and grafted with several apple varieties that were a bright red splash of colour such as Discovery and Red Devil.

Similarly my huge climbing outdoor grape vine Brant has autumn colour and a lot of small bunches of black grapes in October. I leave these on till about the beginning of November, by which time the local blackbird has decided he fancies a few grapes for breakfast, lunch and tea. As these grapes are quite sweet and edible we have always used them, but when you collect over a hundred wee bunches, we eat a few but most get brewed into a couple of demijohns of wine. Another large climber that gets covered in orange or red berries is the firethorn, Pyracantha Orange Glow. It is very useful, as it is quite happy on a north wall and having ample vicious thorns it can be trained around any low windows to keep burglers at bay as it can be quite impenetrable. Bees love the flowers in mid summer and birds get the berries in winter.

The garden gets crowded at this time of year as the blackbirds, robins, bluetits and numerous others all fight and forage as they stake their claim to the feast of berries.

Berberis darwinii is one of the first to ripen up its black berries, and as this evergreen shrub can grow massive it provides several birds with enough food for several months. Berberis wilsoniae is a better garden plant as it is low growing, with good autumn colour and gets covered in coral pink berries in winter. Other good ground cover shrubs include the evergreen Pernettya with pink, red, white and mauve berries. However these plants come as female forms so will need a male plant for pollination. If you like deep lilac berries try a Callicarpa which is medium sized and its foliage turns pinkish in autumn. For a long display of white berries the snowberry is aptly named, and for orange berries the sea buckthorn is very attractive.

Elderberries are more often used in shelterbelts and windbreaks, but if you have room and wish to provide food and shelter for birds they will fit the bill. However if you also enjoy elderberry homebrew, the

birds will have to find other berries, which fortunately are in plentiful supply.

The Cotoneasters range in size from ground cover to small trees, but all of them are prolific with their berries, most of which are red with some yellow varieties. Cotoneaster frigidus can be spectacular at this time of year and will keep several blackbirds fed well into winter, unless of course the flocks of waxwings and fieldfares coming in from Scandinavia find them.

Several small trees put on a great fruit display in late autumn especially the Malus John Downie and Golden Hornet, but it is the rowans that are essential in the Scottish garden. They are very versatile with brilliant autumn colour as the leaves turn a fiery red, and a range of berry colour from red, orange, pink, yellow to white.

 Wee jobs to do this week

Autumn is not too early to be drawing up a plan for 2016 for fruit and vegetable growing to incorporate a crop rotation to help prevent any build up of pests and diseases such as clubroot on brassicas and white rot on onions. The rotation plan will show where next year’s heavy feeders (peas, beans, courgettes, pumpkins, onions and leeks) are grown so that they get well manured or composted during the winter digging. Potatoes and brassicas get some compost but do not give any to the root crops as carrots, turnips, Swedes, parsnips and beetroot are likely to fork instead of growing as one swollen root. I also add well rotted compost to the bottom of my potato drill at planting as this boosts growth.

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AUTUMN COLOUR

AUTUMN COLOUR

Summer may now be truly over, but many plants go out in a blaze of glory to cheer us up before winter sets in. As gardeners we can capitalise on this by planting trees, shrubs and even fruit bushes for both autumn colour as well as fruit and flowers. Choice is usually determined by garden size, though we can all be tempted to buy that special plant we just have to grow even though our small gardens are just not big enough for them. My weakness happened after my year at College in Chelmsford studying my National Diploma. There was a massive spectacular blue atlas cedar in the college grounds. I knew that once I got a decent garden I would have to get one. Sure enough on moving to Darlington I purchased my Cedrus atlantica glauca which had a space of about six by six feet in the back garden. I enjoyed it for about eight years before realising it was going to need my whole garden plus a few of my neighbours as well. Unfortunately it had to go.

There is so much choice that selection for garden size is easy. Other factors to consider are privacy, shelter, a specimen for the lawn, closeness to the house and even food and shelter for birds. Although my cedar will be fine in any huge garden, its beautiful blue colour lasts all year round as it is evergreen and creates a perfect background for deciduous plants with good autumn colour. However if you wish to have some conifers with good colour then try some of the deciduous ones such as larch, Gingko or swamp cypress, Taxodium, but again check space available as some can ultimately require a fair bit of room. Coming down in size, you can’t go far wrong with our range of rowan trees in Scotland. They all have dazzling scarlet foliage in autumn plus ample berries of red, pink, white or yellow. On a similar size are the maples which are one of the first to show their dazzling autumn colours, though my favourite is the Japanese maples. Acer Sangokaku will grow up to ten feet tall

with brilliant golden autumn colours followed by red stems in winter. Other maples such as Acer palmatum atropurpureum with crimson foliage in summer turns a fiery red in autumn growing to about five feet tall. Other medium sized trees worth growing for autumn colour are the flowering cherries, liquidamber, amelanchiers and upright forms of hornbeam and oak.

However if your garden is too small for a wee tree there are plenty of shrubs to use from the deciduous azaleas, hammamelis molis, Cotinus the smoke bush, chokeberry and Spiraea. There are many more large, small and ground cover shrubs with excellent autumn foliage, so it is worthwhile growing some of these together so one colour enhances the other. My Euphorbia griffithi Fireglow has turned a decent shade of yellow, but with the fiery red dwarf maple behind it they both make a great splash of colour together. Down at ground level some of the evergreen heathers take on terrific autumn colours once they get a few frosty nights, particulary Calluna Goldsworth Crimson and Golden Feather. Climbing shrubs should not be

overlooked but be careful with the dazzling red Virginian creeper as it loves to climb and scramble to great heights. My favourite has to be the grape vine Brant mainly grown for autumn colour, but also provides us with an ample supply of small black sweet and juicy bunches of grapes that never fail to ripen up on my south wall.

                                             

Wee jobs to do this week

Bring wooden patio tables indoors for winter protection as they are most unlikely to be used for the next five months. Once they are totally dry they can be repainted with an outdoor varnish to last for another couple of years.

Once all the old tomato plants have been removed, the grapes harvested from vines and the leaves have all fallen off the inside of the greenhouse can be washed down to clean it up for the winter. If you get a good sunny day take the chance and wash the outside of the greenhouse, which can be very important for those who have applied some glass shading for the summer. I stopped that practise years ago as the sun in Scotland is just not strong enough to cause any problems unless you grow orchids.

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SUNNY AUTUMN DAYS

SUNNY AUTUMN DAYS

Late October was always tattie picking time, and memories are still very strong of cold mornings but it always seemed to be dry and sunny. We no longer pick spuds in the field, just on our allotment plot, but sunny days are still with us. The garden flowers and fruit are taking advantage of the mild spell, and like us probably hope it lasts long enough.

Outdoor fuchsias are still a mass of flowers, and I struggle to replace my begonias with the spring bedding plants as they won’t stop flowering. Several plants are totally confused not knowing what season they are in. Ceanothus and philadelphus have started to flower. Wallflower is a spring bedding plant, but mine are all in flower now. On the vegetable patch my spring cabbage is hearting up now, ahead of my winter cabbage.

Climbing roses are now in their second flush, but greenfly are a proper nuisance, and blackspot is never far away. Bush roses continue to flower and I expect them to keep going into winter unless we get an early cold snap. The jet stream seems to be behaving itself for now, giving us a fair bit of decent weather, but reports of potential problems with the path of El Nino could tip us back into a severe winter. Gardeners always keep an eye on the weather as it affects all our plans.

Dahlias are showing a wee bit of distress following a few cold nights, so they will soon get lifted and dried out for storing in a frost free place.

Autumn raspberries are now just about finished, and perpetual strawberry Flamenco still produces very large attractive fruit, but they are not soft or sweet without warmth from the sun.

I keep thinking I have picked my last fig, but then we get a couple of sunny days and a few more figs ripen up. My small bush five feet tall on my allotment plot has been unbelievable this year. I had hoped for a good year of about 100 figs since I got 80 last year. However the summer was so cool that I lost faith in this exotic plant that really

needs a sunny hot summer. My first figs were not ready till the very end of August. Then the jet stream changed direction, the sun returned and my figs jumped for joy. I have now picked over 160 figs, and as they ripen over a long period it is easy to use them all. It is hard to beat a fresh picked ripe fig for flavour.

Autumn salad leaves love the mild, moist autumn and provide a wealth of fresh leaves including mizuna, rocket, mustard, lettuce, spring onions and radish. Many of these can keep us in fresh salad greens well into winter provided it is not too severe. To be on the safe side some can be transplanted into the greenhouse after the old tomato plants have been removed from growbags or borders.

Pumpkins have been quite poor this year due to lack of sun and warmth. Only got three pumpkins from three plants and they were not all that big, though a bad infection of mildew did not help.

It has been a funny year for root crops. Carrots and summer turnips seem to be having a good year and parsnips a fantastic year with huge thick roots more than two feet long, but beetroot is taking a rest. Size is poor and they all seem to have rust infected leaves.

Apples and pears have never been better, but sweetness and flavour is lacking compared to other years. They have all given record yields, and Anna has taken on the task of finding out how to utilise this crop. The juicer has been working overtime, and compote, stews, pies and crumbles are all appearing. Many of these dishes can be frozen for future use, and there will still be plenty left over for my wine brewing.

Grapes, however are having a terrible year. Outdoors the early varieties Rondo was ready at the end of August and Regent in mid September, but as these are all new vines it is really too early to judge. Phoenix is well established outdoors and produced a lot of bunches, but most failed to ripen up.

In the greenhouse muscat flavoured Siegerrebe was ready in September, but Black Hamburg suffered from shanking where more than half the grapes failed to ripen and just shrivelled up.

Wee jobs to do this week

Assess potatoes in store and on the plate to decide what to grow in 2016. Blight has again been bad on most varieties other than Sarpo Mira, but my best spud for flavour is Lady Christl.

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HARVEST THE APPLES

HARVEST THE APPLES

October is usually the busy month for apple harvesting, though this year the cool summer has delayed ripening by a few weeks. My first Oslins, the Arbroath Pippin, were picked at the end of August, but were not truly ripe till early September. Although this apple has a distinct flavour it is very prone to brown rot and in this cool year with a wet August losses have been very high.

Apples like all other fruit need warm sunny days to increase sweetness so it is understandable that apples, pears and most other fruits have lacked the sweetness of previous years.

Catherine picking her step over apples

My main early apple Discovery was picked in mid October, a good month later than previous years. The crop yield with this and all other apples has been very high, but I fear at the expense of flavour. Apples came into flower quite late so there were plenty of bees around for pollination, then good weather for fertilisation. The spring and summer season gave us cool but moist weather so growth was slow, but apples and pears all swelled up larger than normal. A week of brilliant summer weather at the end of September certainly helped to ripen up the fruit, but then it was very short lived as we returned to a cold and wet October. This mixture of warm dry weather followed by cold and wet affected the Discovery apples by causing the skin to split on a few before I got them harvested. As yet my Fiesta, Red Falstaff and Red Devil are still on the tree, but will be picked before the end of this month.

Apple Red Devil

This years heavy crop came in for some thinning in July, both naturally then by hand where ever I thought the crop was too heavy. However as the fruit swelled the trees have continued to drop apples all October but before they were fully ripe. This harvest was not lost as Anna has got herself a juicer and now everything she can get her hands on gets juiced. Apples, pears, carrots, beetroot, Lettuce, chard, kale and tomatoes have all gone through the juicer. Never thought I would be drinking my lettuce and kale, and it tastes just fine. It can be stored fresh in the fridge for a couple of days, but all surplus gets frozen for future use.

We lead a very healthy life!!!

Apple Discovery

Bramley apples can hang a long time on the tree so it is usually early November before I pick my cookers. Again the crop is very heavy so there is plenty to store into next spring. I pack all fruit in boxes placed in my cold garage, but keep a check for any rots, or shrivelling or mice.

Once all my apples are picked, cleaned and sorted I can see just how much surplus I have so I can allocate a fair bit for brewing into my Sauternes style dessert apple wine. I will need 30 pounds of apples for three demijohns of wine, which will be ready in a couple of year’s time.

Starlight apple Firedance

Plant an apple tree now

We get so much value from our apple trees that I feel everyone with a wee garden or plot should plant at least one apple tree. Now is the time to plan which variety you wish to grow and garden space will determine what size of tree to purchase. There is a size and shape to suit all situations, from standards, bush, fan trained, cordons, espaliers and now for those with very limited space we have the step over tree growing only a few feet tall but kept small with summer pruning. Another development has been the introduction of the single stemmed Starline apple trees coming in five different varieties. These dwarf trees are kept narrow and columnar by summer pruning all side shoots to a couple of buds. They are ideal for those with very limited space but wish to grow a few varieties, which also helps with cross pollination. I like the bright red Starline variety Firedance.

Wee jobs to do this week

Now that the tomato crops are just about finished, it is better to remove all ripe and unripe fruits which can be ripened in a warm place indoors. Remove the old plants and chop up for the compost heap. Growbags or border soil can still be used for an early winter salad crop of salad leaves, mizuna, cress, rocket, mustard and radish.

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END OF SEASON CARE

END OF SEASON CARE

As the growing season comes to an end it is time to harvest some crops that need winter protection, and find winter quarters for those tender summer flowers that will continue for many years as long as you look after them during the critical winter months. Some vegetable crops such as leeks, Swedes, winter cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Swiss Chard and parsnips are quite happy to be left alone as they are perfectly hardy and exposure to frosts help to sweeten them up.

Beetroot and carrots can be lifted and stored in dry soil or sand in a frost free shed, although with milder winters becoming normal, I have tended to just earth up my beetroot and leave them where they are. So far this strategy has been fine, but a severe winter like in 2010 could test this method.

Onions and potatoes are best drying off before storing them in hessian sacks, onion nets or for small quantities of potatoes I use large cardboard boxes in my frost proof garage. Onions need plenty of ventilation to keep them sound, and potatoes need darkness as exposure to light will turn them green and be inedible. However if you have a good variety and you wish to keep some smaller spuds for growing the next year, then exposure to light is good for them.

Pumpkins are usually left till the end of this month to let them ripen up and turn orange before taking them home and storing them in a cool room. They should store quite well up to March.

Geraniums and impatiens can be kept from one year to another by taking cuttings and growing them on a windowsill over winter. I take geranium cuttings by snapping the top of a strong shoot off at a leaf joint with just one leaf. I do not use a knife. These cuttings go into shallow pots with a sandy compost mixture. Impatiens cuttings are taken about three to four inches long and after removing all the lower leaves they are placed in a jar filled with water with only the leafy tops showing. Keep them on a light windowsill that is not in the sun. They will root in a month and can then be potted up into compost to grow on and flower in late autumn to mid winter, on a sunny windowsill.

Fuchsias grown in pots or baskets are best dried off and kept in a cool frost free place over winter, but check they don’t completely dry out. However keep young fuchsias grown from cuttings taken in summer growing for as long as possible to establish a strong plant before they go dormant and need drying off slightly.

Begonias are lifted in October when flowering finishes and the cold weather causes the leaves to fall off. I dry my tubers out in the sun for about a week, provided there is no risk of frost. Then remove all the soil before packing them in polystyrene boxes for storing in my garage. I use the dry old soil to cover over the tops for added protection and make sure they don’t completely dry out.

Gladioli are lifted in mid October and the old stems cut off just above ground level. The corms are dried out under cover, then cleaned up removing the old spent corm and all small cormlets. The biggest of these can be retained for growing on, and will flower after one or two years. Store in a frost free garage or shed in boxes and keep them dry.

Chrysanthemum stools are lifted after flowering, cut back to about six inches and boxed up in compost. Make sure all stools are labelled. Over winter in a cold greenhouse or frame, and keep them moist as they will continue to grow, though ever so slowly till spring.

Wee jobs to do this week

Although our autumns seem to go on longer and winter slow to appear, deciduous trees and shrubs will start to lose their leaves from now till winter. Rake these up regularly and add them to the compost heap. Once mixed with old grass cuttings, annual weeds and vegetable debris they will soon rot down and provide an excellence source of compost to enrich the soil.

Summer bedding plants that are finished can also be added to the compost heap plus any old soil from tubs and hanging baskets that needs replacing. If the compost heap has been gathering material since late winter, give it a turn over with a fork to mix old rotted compost with fresh new material as this will help to rot it down.

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SUMMER TUBS AND BASKETS

SUMMER TUBS AND BASKETS

Summer may have been a long time coming, but the end of September went out in a blaze of colour responding to the dry, warm, sunny weather. The summer flowers should have been going over, but they are trying to make up for the lost season. Several petunias that had survived the cold summer put on a bold display as did the impatiens which has sulked all summer. However, now is the time to assess just how the summer flowers have performed. So before they get pulled out and added to the compost heap to be replaced with our spring flowering plants, take stock of the best plants and varieties to grow in 2016.

Geraniums and tuberous begonias have been my star attractions this year. Geraniums have been in flower from late spring till mid October and I am loath to remove them, but I have pansies, polyanthus, wallflowers and tulips all eager to get planted. Both red and white geraniums had a great year, but one tub with a mixture of cerise pink geraniums planted with shell pink impatiens and deep purple petunias were let down badly as the impatiens and petunias just did not grow this year, until the end of September. However every year is different so I will try out this combination next year hoping that the summer comes in a wee bit earlier. Dark blue and purple petunias can be very attractive in a good year and the blue petunia has the added bonus of a great scent.

Begonias were a bit late in coming into flower, but then they put on a dazzling display. My red and orange varieties were particularly impressive so they will get prime locations next year as individual colours in each tub rather than mixed to increase the dramatic effect. My tubers must be approaching twenty years old, but they are very easy to keep over winter, and when they get too big I just cut them in half in spring when I can see the shoots begin to grow.

Both geraniums and impatiens will be propagated from autumn cuttings and grown indoors over winter. The impatiens makes an excellent flowering house plant, and can be in flower almost up till Christmas in a mild year.

Fuchsias are another plant that just loved this cool sunless summer. Southern Belle is used in my hanging baskets by the entrance doorway, and Mrs Popple grows freely in borders established years ago. In a cold winter it may die back to ground level, but then in spring it bursts into life. It was a mass of flowers in mid summer, producing loads of ripe berries which we collected and put through the juicer for a tasty drink. It had a wee rest in early September, but by the end of the month with the late arrival of a week of summer weather brought out more flowers in a dramatic burst of colour.

African marigolds and annual calendulas provided the yellow garden colours, but they could have been better in a different year. Marigolds really need a hot dry sunny summer. I’ll think twice about growing them again next year. Cosmos grew from seed left in the ground from the previous year providing a nice splash of pinks and mauves against fresh green feathery foliage.

Lobelia is another dwarf annual that keeps appearing all around the garden and if it is not interfering with other plants we just let it grow to provide a deep blue relaxing colour.

Poppy Ladybird and Californian poppies also appear everywhere, but they can overwhelm the garden so we give them some space but don’t let them take over. Grown together the red and yellow flowers compliment each other.

Wee jobs around the garden

Once fruit bushes go dormant and lose their leaves they can be propagated easily with hardwood cuttings. Red, white and blackcurrants and gooseberries are all pretty foolproof. Take current years shoots about nine inches long and insert at least half of it into the soil outdoors having forked over the ground to loosen it up and aerate it. Prepare the cutting with a basal cut below a leaf joint and the other cut at the top above a bud. Space out about four inches apart and after rooting in spring grow on for the rest of the year. They will be ready for lifting and planting out the following winter.

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CUT FLOWERS FOR THE HOUSE

CUT FLOWERS FOR THE HOUSE

The garden flowers always seem to know that summer is just about gone but are determined to go out in a blaze of colour and glory. Everything is at its best and as yet the first frosts have not arrived, even though the weather forecasters keep warning us of winter doom every time we get a clear night. So just in case it could happen we cut a few blooms to brighten up the home. I tend to take this a stage further and grow several plants just for cutting for home decoration. On recent occasions when autumn continues well beyond its time and the winters are still delayed I have had a small bunch of roses cut for the festive table. They do not last very long, but it is brilliant to see roses at that time of year.

I grow some roses on my allotment to brighten it up and also give me some cut flowers in summer so I don’t have to reduce my garden displays. National Trust is an excellent bright red rose with great form, but unfortunately no scent. Piccadilly is great in bud, but not long lasting. Wendy Cussons is a lovely pink carmine with a terrific scent as is the white Margaret Merril.

Although there are plenty of great plants for the summer season, including sweet peas, flag iris, border carnations, gladioli, lilies and chrysanthemums, you will need some tulip and daffodil bulbs for cut flowers in spring.

Late summer is a good time to be planning well ahead for next year as the past year is fresh in our minds, and before we forget we can assess how different varieties have performed. If some varieties perform badly, don’t last very long or are just not impressive, then discard them and try some new varieties. Sweet peas for cut flower need a long stem and a good scent and it may be better to grow them as single stem cordons rather than letting them ramble up some tall support. This is a lot more work with feeding, disbudding tendrils and tying in, but the results are so much more rewarding.

Chrysanthemums come in many forms, and if you want really large impressive heads then opt for large decoratives or even giant incurves or reflexes, but they all need a lot of work and attention. However, if you just wish for a really good display of colour, then try the spray varieties, which do not need disbudding. At this time of year I go over all my varieties to decide which to keep till next year and discard any that failed to impress. I will try out a few new varieties each spring.

Gladioli are now just about all finished, but we can look back and see if we are missing any colour that would enhance a mixed display. Make notes for ordering next spring.

Carnations for cut flower can be grown in a cold greenhouse very successfully, but need plenty of light and room so do not mix well with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers or grapevines. If you can’t afford greenhouse space but really want a few carnations then grow a range of outdoor border carnations, most of which have a strong clove scent. The colour range is also very interesting, and there are always new types to try out.

Lilies make great cut flower with their long stems and exotic scent. I grow the oriental types for perfume and large upright heads, but most of the bulbs are for a spring delivery.

Daffodils and Tulips grown for cut flower can be ordered now. The best narcissi for scent are the Jonquills, large cupped daffodils and the Cheerfullness range. When choosing tulips for cut flower, get those with tall stems, such as the single earlies, triumphs, lily flowered or Darwin hybrids.

They can all be planted in good well drained soil and left to naturalise.

Wee jobs to do this week

Collect windfall apples every few days before the slugs do any damage. Apples tend to ripen unevenly so while some go ripe and fall off others hang on a bit longer. The test is to cut them in half and check the colour of the seeds. Ripe fruit has very dark seeds and unripe fruit has white seeds. Fruit that is only slightly damaged or bruised can still be used after cutting off the bad bits. They are perfect for stir fries, curries, crumbles, fried together with egg, tomato, mushroom and bacon, and keep some back for the juicer which seems to be the latest way to enjoy a healthy drink.

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TIME TO ORDER SPRING BULBS

TIME TO ORDER SPRING BULBS

The summer flowers in tubs, baskets and borders are still flowering in great profusion, but as autumn is not too far away we need to plan ahead for the spring displays that will replace them once the cold weather arrives to put an end to the blossom.

In past times you could expect frosts in October and snow in November, but climate change has pushed back the cold weather so summer flowers continue to bloom well beyond their normal season. However, next years bedding plants of wallflower, pansies, myosotis and polyanthus will want to be planted in October with tulips, hyacinths and crocus planted between them. Now is the time to be ordering these bulbs from suppliers online or from garden centres while they are in stock and before they clear everything out to replace them with the Christmas trees and decorations.

I did a fair bit of planning last spring looking at my existing bulb displays and noting gaps to be filled and new landscape planting to be tidied up. One drift of crocus has too many yellow bulbs so I will add more purple, white and striped crocus.

In another area underneath my apple trees, I have a large drift of blue pulmonaria which I will enhance with an underplanting of dwarf red and yellow early flowering tulips.

Next to it one massive ceanothus shrub died out and was replaced with a large group of the yellow flowering doronicums. I will add to their spring display with a batch of early red tulip Red Riding Hood, which should contrast perfectly with the yellow flowers.

Another newly landscaped area with peonies, which are excellent as ground cover, I will plant a large drift of the tall Darwin Hybrid tulips to flower in spring before the peonies need the space. The display will be further enhanced with a planting of tall scented oriental lilies for the mid to late summer display, by which time the peonies are all finished.

Every year fresh tulips, hyacinths and crocus are purchased for planting in between the spring flowers in tubs and borders, then when they are finished I always find a spot in the garden for the old bulbs which will naturalise and spread from year to year.

Some bulbs will spread very readily themselves from seed. Aconites, snowdrops, crocus, anemone blanda and grape hyacinths are all easy to grow and spread from their own seed but grape hyacinth can become very invasive so be careful where you put them.

Although there has been a fair bit of mild winters since 2010, it is still very pleasing to see the arrival of the first flowers in late winter. This is normally the snowdrops and aconites, though I had snowdrops in flower last December. It is a good idea to plant these snowdrops and aconites where they can be seen from the comfort of a warm room.

The next spring display is often the crocus, so I try to enhance this show by adding more bulbs every year into the existing drifts. These are quickly followed by the daffodils and narcissi, so find some room for these under deciduous trees and shrubs and around plants in the herbaceous border.

When the tulips arrive you know that the spring is here and warm weather will allow you to have your coffee breaks outdoors in the sunshine. This is when the patio comes back into use so make sure a lot of the displays are in this area and use plenty of hyacinths to add scent to the atmosphere.

Wee jobs to do this week

Now that the lawn grass growth is starting to slow down we can start on the autumn renovation work. Any bare patches can be top dressed with some sterilised top soil or compost and sown with a fine lawn seed mixture as there is still time for germination before winter arrives. Any lawn with a moss problem can be treated with lawn sand, or you can buy in some sulphate of iron and mix a dessert spoonful to the gallon and water it over the moss. This will kill the moss and feed the grass.

Later on in October lawns can be scarified to remove surface thatch (accumulations of dead leaves) then aerated with a fork. Fill in the holes with an autumn lawn compost containing a slow release fertiliser and brush it in.

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SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

It has been a weird year for gardening weather. Summer came at Easter and stayed for a whole week, but then the jet stream looped down to the south pulling in cold wet winds from the north which lasted up till early September. Then the summer came back to Scotland mid month, but only for a couple of days around Tayside as clouds spoiled the fun. However it was dry so we took every chance to crack on with the harvesting and weeding. Hand weeding and hoeing were fine between crops and paths got a spray of glyphosate which should work just fine as it really needs a couple of dry days to work. Rain too soon after spraying will wash the weedkiller off the leaves. This herbicide is inactivated on contact with the soil, but is readily absorbed by healthy foliage.

Summer flowers

Summer poppies

The recent warm dry weather has brought out the summer flowers in a late but terrific blaze of colour. Chrysanthemums, gladioli, poppies, roses, sweet peas and African marigolds have added colour to my allotment and at home the dahlias, fuchsias, lilies, tuberous begonias and geraniums have never been better. Drifts of lavender have been a mass of purple for weeks. However it has not been a good year for petunias and impatiens (bizzie lizzies) most of which have just about died out.

Summer and autumn vegetables

Harvesting is in full swing with sweet corn, cauliflowers, cabbage, onions, beetroot, turnip, peas, and French beans all heading for the kitchen table and the freezer. Sweet corn is not as plentiful as last year with smaller cobs, some with poor fertilisation and only one cob per plant this year.

Onions are a different story as my one packet of Hytech seed has given me a massive crop of huge onions now drying off just fine in the sun, getting ready to be roped up for storing. After lifting the onions I spread some compost on the bare soil, forked it in, then after firming and raking it level, it got sown down with a clover green manure. I will dig this in during winter.

Cutting a cauliflower

Tomatoes are another crop that seems to be liking this rotten summer. The crop is massive with plants fruiting on the eighth truss. A lot of the surplus crop is getting frozen and will be used for soup and pasta sauce. Fresh tomatoes not picked till fully ripe are perfect in salads and soups.

Autumn fruit crops

Anna picking the chokeberries

The cool damp summer did no harm to the autumn raspberries, brambles, blueberries and aronias, but a wee bit more sun would have made them all a wee bit sweeter. I have been trying out two new varieties of autumn raspberry to compare them with my standard Autumn Bliss. Polka definitely has very large sweet berries, bigger than Autumn Bliss, though the latter has been exceptionally big this year. Autumn Treasure also said to be very large has still to fruit so nothing to compare at this stage. Aronia Viking was picked mid September from young bushes but as this is the first crop my three pounds will be kept for compote and jam. I should get a far bigger crop next year when hopefully I will have some spare for a couple of demijohns of a healthy dark red wine high in antioxidants.

Perpetual strawberry Flamenco continues to produce lovely large red berries but lack of sun creates a harder berry lacking juice and sweetness.

Early apple Oslin has now all been picked and bright red Discovery has now taken over.

Grapes growing outside on south facing walls and fences just love this weather and growth is hard to keep under control, but young bunches really need warmer weather to swell and ripen up. Two varieties, Siegerrebe and Rondo have already produced the first bunches and an older vine of Phoenix (three years old) has about twenty large bunches showing great promise if that sun would make an appearance for a week or longer. Who knows, we could get lucky !!!

Wee jobs to do this week

Autumn salad crops of lettuce, rocket, mustard, radish and mizuna will need thinning out if germination has been good. The recent mild spell combined with moist soil has been perfect for germination. I thin out radish to about an inch apart and the others to two inches, and then they will get thinned out further as you use young leaves for tender salads.

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LATE SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

LATE SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

For those of us still waiting for summer to arrive, we may be in for a wee disappointment as time is not on our side. The patio tables did not get used a great deal, but the garden plants varied tremendously. Plants preferring a cooler wet atmosphere such as fuchsias have never been better. Anna bought a new juicer machine to help use foliage of numerous vegetables such as beetroot that normally get discarded, and as an experiment I harvested a lot of fuchsia fruits from Mrs Popple to make a refreshing drink with a difference. Leafy vegetables had a great season, though slugs were a real nuisance. We needed some parsnips so I lifted three very luxuriant specimens. Roots were nearly two feet long, but they still have time to thicken up so could be another great crop.

My new raspberry Polka is living up to the description as being a lot bigger than Autumn Bliss, with plenty still to come. However some sun and warmth would help to make them sweeter.

However those plants that need a good sunny autumn such as my figs and grapes are still living in hope. I have had over a dozen large ripe figs, but there is still plenty to come. I got some nice grapes from the early varieties of Siegerrebe and Rondo, but my Black Hamburg in the greenhouse is very slow to ripen up.

Tomatoes just seem to like this weather as the crop is huge, so soups, salads, pasta sauce and pizza toppings are plentiful and surplus tomatoes are being frozen for future use.

Late summer is a good time to start tidying up herbaceous plants that have finished flowering, dead heading roses and lilies, pruning some shrubs, blackcurrants, gooseberries, summer raspberries and if you can get a couple of dry days do a bit of hoeing to kill weeds. Weed control has been very difficult this year up north as hoeing has been ineffective without the sun to shrivel up the weeds and the constant rain just washes off any glyphosate herbicide before it has time to be absorbed by the leaves. It has been a year for hand weeding and putting the weeds on the compost heap.

Shrub propagation

Late summer is a good time to propagate many shrubs by taking semi ripe shoot cuttings. Rosemary, Lavander, Cistus, Fuchsias, Forsythia, Ceanothus, Philadelphus and many others respond to this method. Take cutting about four to six inches long, cutting under a leaf joint with a very sharp knife and removing all the lower leaves. Dip them in hormone rooting powder, but shake off any loose dust and dibble them around the side of a pot in compost with added grit or sand to increase drainage. Place them in a warm but shaded spot in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse.

Keep them moist but not wet and they should root in a couple of months.

Apple, pear and plum harvesting

Start picking the first of the early apples. My first is always the Oslin (Arbroath Pippin) followed by Discovery. The crop this year is very heavy, but now Anna has a new juicer toy we are able to use all the Oslins. This very old variety of apple has a fantastic flavour, but suffers from brown rot very

easily, especially in this wet year. It is also a poor keeper so it has to be used within a week or so after picking. Pears are looking good but the crop is not heavy and we still await some sunshine to ripen up the fruit. I have no plums this year as I lost my old tree to silver leaf disease and my new replacement plum Victoria is just a baby trying to put on some growth. Maybe next year I will get a few plums.

Wee jobs to do this week

Most onions have now finished growing and once the tops have fallen over they can be lifted and put somewhere in the sun to dry off before storing in a dry frost free airy shed. They can be roped or cleaned up and stored in onion sacks.

Turn over compost heap to mix older compost with new material to help rotting down as the heap will soon be needed for the winter digging.

Do the final thinning of Swedes to about nine inches apart giving them room to grow before the end of the season.

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