THE CHILDREN'S GARDEN

THE CHILDREN'S GARDEN

The world today is vastly different from our world when we were kids. As people moved away from city centre slums to the new housing estates around the town periphery, everyone suddenly had a garden, and soon learned about growing a few vegetables. As this was a source of cheap food, every family got involved including the kids. It was our job to do the digging and weeding as well as watering. However we soon reaped the rewards as the first radish were quick to appear, followed by early pea pods. In autumn we chose the biggest swede for our Halloween lantern as pumpkins hadn’t been invented for that task. As we grew up we started adult life with an understanding about

Sophie weeding the tub with fuchsia

gardening and a love of outdoor activities. Today electronic gadgets have taken over our kid’s lives and very few kids go outdoors to play thus knowledge of nature is being lost. This is a recognised problem, so now many adults and schools are taking steps to get our kids involved in nature and gardening. Kids love to be involved in seed sowing, planting and watching their own plants grow. My kids wanted to grow their own apple trees, so after eating an apple they kept the seeds and sowed them in pots. They got a dozen apple seedlings which they then planted on my allotment. Realising it would take about fifteen years for them to mature and fruit, I quietly grafted some shoots of Cox, Laxtons Superb and Worcester Pearmain onto them in spring. They all fruited two years later and my kids were really chuffed.

We just love the tulips

Some quick growing plants are great for the kid’s garden as they see results soon. Radish, lettuce, peas, rocket and beans are all favourites and the runner beans let them see how plants can grow tall quite quickly, but for a really tall plant give them some sun flower seeds.

Pumpkins are another favourite to see how big they can grow them, and then they get the biggest for their Halloween lantern. To carve a scary lantern is another skill to master.

To get them involved in cooking the produce, rhubarb picking for a crumble fits the bill. It is easy to grow, easy to pick and the crumble is delicious. Another summer favourite for kids is strawberry picking, but try to stop them eating them all before you get them home.

Even garden pests can prove attractive to kids as they search the cabbages for a pet caterpillar to take home in a ventilated jar and feed it up with fresh cabbage leaves. Then patience is required when it forms into a chrysalis and hibernates over winter before the butterfly emerges in spring.

Garden birds can be encouraged with feeders well stocked up, and kids can learn to identify all the different types.

Smith family planting pumpkins

Another good idea is to get kids to plant up a scented garden of herbs and flowers to see the variety of scented leaves and flowers that also attract butterflies and bees. Lavender is perfect for bees.

Although there is a massive range of different flowers, they are all involved to seed production, so it is a good idea to let children study and draw the different parts of the flower and the function they perform. This also involves the flowers of trees that are wind pollinated. Kids find this knowledge fascinating. This can also involve collecting leaves in the autumn for plant identification, as well as seeds and pods. Many plants will come true from home saved seed, so the kids can grow plants from their own seed collections.

Back at home the windowsill is a perfect place for a small cactus collection, many of which will flower if they face south and kept on the dry side.

Wee jobs around the garden

The war on garden pests continues, and with recent wet weather the slugs and snails are very active. I use slug pellets for lettuce, strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower and Kale and French marigold flowers which they seem to just love.
Greenfly are also breeding in plague proportions so an insecticide spray should sort them out.

The same spray will work on scale on the undersides of rhododendrons, which is becoming a new problem.

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Figurative oil painting, Waiting Patiently

My figurative oil painting of "Waiting Patiently"can be seen in my studio in Dundee.

Waiting Patiently is a figurative oil painting

A FEW FAVOURITES

A FEW FAVOURITES

Gardening is a year round activity with flowers, fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers for the house, winter landscaping and digging and trying out new plants and ideas. I grow a very wide range of plants and am often asked, “What is my favourite plant”. I suppose everyone has their favourites, but I like so many that I cannot single out just one, so I thought I would look at those that have the biggest impact on me throughout the seasons. I try to create a garden that has at least one area of impact for a couple of weeks or so then another area has its day. This means bringing together plants that flower at the same time, rather than have them scattered around the garden.

Betula jacquemontii

Winter

There is a distinct lack of flowers in the garden from November to the end of February when the snowdrops appear and indicate that winter is coming to an end. Though the last few years, with mild winters, the snowdrops have been coming into flower from December onwards. My winter border has Kerria, Japanese maples, cornus and other coloured stemmed shrubs that brighten up the dark winter days, with my favourite, white stemmed birch tree, Betula jacquemontia. The main trunk is a brilliant white and on a clear day with blue skies it is very dramatic.

Spring

Once the warmer weather comes along there are numerous plants all competing for their two to three weeks of glory. At ground level the crocus can make a great show followed by daffodils then tulips in late spring, but this is also the time for rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias to flower as well as the flowering cherries. It is very hard to pick a favourite as each group can make a bright splash of colour in their own time before the next one has its turn. Last year my favourite would have been my red Camellia Adolph

Doronicum with tulip Negrita

Audusson, but this year the biggest impact was from a large group of yellow Doronicums which I had underplanted with a purple tulip all flowering at the same time.

Summers

This year after a long cool spring summer arrived and lasted a lot longer than we could have hoped for so the garden just burst into flower. Summer colour usually belongs to the roses, but before they came into flower I got a fantastic show from my oriental poppies, flag iris and Euphorbia polychrome.

Climbing rose Dublin Bay

Then at ground level my deep pink phlox and bright yellow Delosperma were outstanding and both came with a fantastic perfume. By mid summer my red climbing rose Dublin Bay stole the show as it covers the front of the house from ground level right up to the roof. Just a pity it has no scent, but for sheer impact it has to be the favourite.

Autumn

Fuchsia Mrs Popple

As summer fades and autumn takes over the dazzling colours of deciduous trees and shrubs will brighten up most gardens with my maple Sangokaku hard to beat, but Fuchsia Mrs Popple comes into flower from mid summer and last year continued till the first frosts arrived. It was definitely the favourite with the added bonus that the mass of flowers all produced a wealth of edible fruit. These all got picked and put into the juicer for a delightful and very different drink.

Wee jobs to do this week

The allotment has benefitted from great growing conditions, but now many rows of radish, lettuce, dwarf French beans, beetroot, chard, turnip, Swedes and parsnips are all needing thinned out. I usually do this in two operations with the first to remove weeds and give the seedlings room to develop, then the final thinning is to select the strongest plants and thinned to the desired spacing.

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Lady in Red project

Lady in Red in the High Street

Lady in Red is my latest art project painting in oils on board and canvas. The lady in Red is seen in many iconic locations around Dundee City Centre, including the McManus Gallery, Mercat Cross, town centre, Tay Bridge, beside the Bandstand at Magdalen Green and outside the Trades Bar and the Bank Bar in Union Street.

Lady in Red has a Night Out

Lady in Red goes Shopping

Lady in Red in the Rain

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

Summer has made a very welcome return to the Tayside region, and unusually the west of Scotland including Glasgow is properly tropical. It has been too hot to garden except early mornings and evenings and the hose pipe has been in constant use. Garden plants are just loving this weather. Rhododendrons, azaleas, ceanothus, viburnum mareisii, laburnum trees, phlox subulata and Iceland poppies are running the show, but roses and flag iris are not far behind.

Tubs, pots and hanging baskets have now all been planted up with geraniums, fuchsias, begonias, marigolds and other summer flowering bedding plants. The pansies removed from them still had flowers on them so they got planted in a spare patch of border, and after watering them in, they are now putting on a great display.

Mixed Azaleas

However this weather is also perfect for greenfly now breeding in plague proportions on roses, lilies, gooseberries and my young lettuce, but this is good weather for spraying in the evening.

Delosperma nubigenum

My first few strawberries got picked in mid May and serious picking began at the end of May from Elsanto grown under low polythene tunnels. Fresh strawberries for breakfast and lunch; now you know summer is here, and added to the pleasure of summer strawberries is the summer scents around the garden. I never really thought that Phlox subulata was scented, maybe it is just the right weather, but it has been outstanding and the ground hugging Delosperma nubigenum smothered in yellow daisy like flowers is positively exotic with a heady perfume. Then of course the azaleas are also well scented in my heather garden and near the entrance my blue petunias in tubs and baskets have always added perfume to all who enter.

This is the time for healthy eating with lettuce, radish, spring onion, baby beet and rocket all ready together, and rhubarb is throwing up healthy stems faster than we can pick them. Space in the freezer has been created for the spare crops as they come in, and I will be getting some demijohns ready as the Saskatoon berries will be ready for picking in mid July.

Most other fruit crops are showing a massive potential of crop, especially apples, currants, gooseberries, blueberries, chokeberries, strawberries and grapes. However apple Fiesta had a great year last year and has a biennial tendency so it looks like this could be its “off” year.

Phlox subulata

Raspberries also look good, but too early to assess at this stage. Though not everything is looking rosy as my pear tree with four different varieties on it produced plenty of flowers but I only see a handful of pears.

In the greenhouse full ventilation is essential with windows fully open and doors open while the heat wave continues. Tomatoes are now flowering on the third truss and looking very strong, even though I have only just started to feed them.

Black Hamburg grapes look brilliant, and my new Siegerrebe vine is just a mass of fruit, so I hope it produces more foliage to support this heavy crop which looks like it may need to be thinned out later on. Outdoors all my vines are looking good, but Rondo is ahead with Regent not far behind. Solaris and Phoenix are trailing but may just be late starters. If this weather continues it could be the vintage year our grapes require so they can produce enough sugar in the berry to produce a wine with at least 10% potential alcohol or higher. Last year my grapes only achieved 8% potential alcohol so to make a decent brew I had to add some wine concentrate and sugar. While this is fine for the home brewer it is not commercially acceptable, so Scotland’s potential for vineyards is still in the experimental stages.

Wee jobs around the garden

Herbaceous perennials are now putting on plenty of growth so make sure the taller ones such as peonies, oriental poppies and delphiniums are well supported as many have large flower heads.

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FLOWER SHOWS

FLOWER SHOWS

Flower shows have played a very important role in most gardeners’ lives. This is the place where plants can be seen at their best, new landscape design from professionals and colleges is on display and new plants appear so we can try out something different. The competitive gardener can also compete with others to see who can grow the best plants in the show. The shows are a meeting place for gardening friends, and now come with a huge range of other entertaining events including food, drink, forestry, art, live bands and dancers. There are so many plants of every description grown to perfection on display and for sale that it is impossible to leave the show without at least one must have essential plant. Most shows have a sell off on the last hour of the last day when bargain hunters have a field day, and traders try to reduce their stock as they really do not want to take it all back home. Even composts, fertiliser, rock dust, hanging baskets and large specimen plants are all there for the taking at hugely reduced costs. The mass exodus of people and plants leaving at the end of a show with a smile on their face and struggling home with huge plants is a very entertaining sight. My first flower show was in the Dundee Ice Rink over fifty years ago, and I have been going to one or other show ever since. Although I go as a visitor, I have attended many shows as a trader.

Anna with white clematis

I had three years displaying paintings in the art marquee at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, then several years selling a range of plants including saskatoons at Ingliston in Edinburgh and Camperdown Park in Dundee. Traders are a very friendly and helpful group and friendships are made at every event.

One year at Ingliston I found my onion hoe in constant use ever since, plus a bag of rock dust and a bag of compost made from sheep wool and bracken and Anna got her Peonia Doreen, then the next year at Camperdown I think Anna got the national collection of Heucheras which she just could not resist. The shows always leave you with great memories of the plants you find, the people you meet and for me one great afternoon at Ingliston was hearing the Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing Snow Patrols Chasing Cars. Fantastic music on a lovely summer’s day.

Camperdown Park hosts our local food and flower show in early September and further afield at Ingliston in Edinburgh Gardening Scotland has a massive show on now from 3^rd to 5^th June 2016, then in August the Southport Flower show is on from 18^th to 21^st August 2016.

In the Midlands in rural Malvern the RHS put on a spring festival in May then an autumn show at the end of September at the Three Counties show ground.

Peonia Doreen

For those visiting London a visit to see the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show from 5^th to 10^th July 2016 is an unmissable experience. Although I attended three shows as a trader, I still had plenty time to see the show as fellow traders looked after my stand as I took a wee break.

However it is the Chelsea Flower Show held at the end of last month that has the most prestige. It is not the biggest show, but held in the highest regard. Exhibiting with the RHS at Chelsea would be most exhibitors dream. Chelsea is where you can see Royals and celebrities from the gardening world as well as entertainers, past and present, and the countries best garden designers will create a modern vision of how a garden can look. As a gardener it is always the use of plants that has the biggest impact for me, but the creative use of hard landscaping, integrating the house into the outdoor environment has been really outstanding.

Visitors to Kew Gardens

The Royal family gives great support to this show and look out for Mr Motivator, Twiggy, Dame Judi Dench and Jeremy Paxman and a host of other very famous faces from the world of entertainment.

Wee jobs around the garden

Lift young leek plants grown from seed in an outdoor drill and after a gentle top and tail transplant them into dibbled holes about six inches deep, spacing them six inches apart. Water them in to secure them.

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THE ALLOTMENT WORKOUT

THE ALLOTMENT WORKOUT

Gardening can be an exhausting hobby. As an apprentice gardener we were often used as a source of cheap labour. The Parks dept grew fields of potatoes and Swedes at Camperdown park for the schools kitchens and it was us that planted, weeded and lifted them, as well as sorting, cleaning, bagging and lifting the hundred weight sacks into stacks for storing. We were always competitive so hard work to us was fun, and as a wee treat we got a small bag of tatties home.

Digging drains by hand at Dawson Park all winter, as the machine kept breaking down, was also our task. We must have had plenty energy, as me and my fellow apprentice lived in St. Mary’s and we cycled to work each day. In the early sixties Dundee embarked on a programme of bringing flowers to the town so we grew roses by the thousand. All rose beds got double dug two feet deep adding in plenty of manure but the hard work was rewarded when the roses came into flower.

Today I have a fair sized garden plus an allotment, and as all works have to be done by the book, so single digging and double digging where necessary still have to get done.

Planting potatoes

It is a modern idea that the nation needs to get fit, so going to the gym for a workout is quite popular and fashionable. However it is not cheap and at times the repetitive exercises can be a wee bit boring, so I analysed all my gardening activities and reckon that getting an allotment will give you just as much exercise, but at a fraction of the cost. Annual renting of a plot of land is well below £50 a year. Add to that all the very fresh fruit and vegetables available all year round makes allotment life a better option to keep fit with added health benefits of fresh produce.

Shredding prunings at City Road allotments

During the winter months there is the digging, manuring, pruning fruit bushes and trees, then shredding the prunings which get wheel barrowed up steep paths to the compost heap. Any permanent planting of fruit trees and bushes will require soil to be double dug.

Then on dry days fences need fixing and sheds and greenhouses are sure to need repairs to keep them wind and water free.

In spring we break down the soil and rake it level ahead of sowing and planting. Deep furrows are needed for potato planting adding some compost to the bottom of the trench, then earthing them up.

The compost heap is beginning to build up, so it will need turning over to help fresh garden and kitchen waste to rot down. This task will need repeating another twice in summer and autumn.

As seedlings begin to grow they will need thinning out and weeds will take over unless you get down to soil level. Gardeners always develop strong backs with all this bending, and it doesn’t get any better with age as your sight is not as good as previous so you need to bend even closer to the ground so you can tell the weeds from the rows of seedlings.

Harvesting the Red Devil apples

Summer is when we get our rewards for all the hard work as we pick our first strawberries, raspberries, peas and the first of our early potatoes. Then as the temperatures rise we can relax on the patio with a small glass of Saskatoon, blackcurrant or apple homebrew. However these moments of sheer heaven are short lived as the harvesting season kicks in with a very heavy crop of broad beans, picking the whole crop in the morning, get the beans out of the pods, remove the skins from each seed, then bag up for the freezer, to be completed so we can sit down and relax before the ten o’clock news comes on. Then it is the onions to lift and dry off, followed by sweet corn.

Autumn now kicks in and serious harvesting begins with potatoes then apples, plums and pears.

When you look back over the year, you begin to wonder if membership of a local gym might be no such a bad idea.

Wee jobs to do this week

As new crops begin to grow but will take several weeks to use up their allotted space, sow some quick maturing catch crops such as radish, salad leaves or rocket.

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LIFE ON THE PLOT

LIFE ON THE PLOT

The gardener’s weather plays a very important role in our activities. Plant growth was running around two weeks or more later than normal, then all of a sudden we get our Scottish summer (three, sorry, four continuous cloudless hot days in mid May) on the east of Scotland while the south of England has been basking in hot weather for weeks. However it was brilliant to see the Isle of Skye as the country hot spot for sun and high temperatures. It has always been one of my favourite holiday destinations and gives me a wealth of images to paint.

However coming back from holiday mode and down to soil level, it has been great to catch up with planting and sowing, and even watering as our soil begins to dry out.

City road allotments has been a hive of activity as plotters enjoy a spot of leisure gardening. Weeds have not been a big problem as the cool spring held them back, but now seed sowing and planting are at full speed, but land is scarce as some overwintered crops are still taking up space. I have excellent winter hardy lettuce, Swiss chard, rocket and spring onions ready for the table from early March onwards and my cauliflower Aalsmeer, sown last autumn will be ready at the end of May.

Overwintered lettuce and chard

Lettuce, radish, spring onions and beetroot sown early in cellular trays indoors and transplanted under low polythene tunnels is now well established and I should be picking the first of these fresh healthy salads at the beginning of June.

Strawberry Elsanta, also under tunnels is well ahead and I hope to pick my first fruit at the end of this month especially if this warm spell continues. I am trying a new perpetual strawberry called Albion. This everbearer was bred in California and gets a good rating so I hope our Scottish climate doesn’t give him a fright. Another strawberry newcomer to try out is Sweet Colossus said to have gigantic fruit and still very sweet and juicy. Better make sure the slugs and local blackbirds are kept well at bay.

Strawberry Elsanta under tunnel

Parsnip, turnip and swede have all been sown and my first early pea Kelvedon Wonder and first early potato Casa Blanca are all well up. Both got earthed up earlier just in case of a late frost.

Dwarf French beans are now sown and other plotters have planted out their runner beans, started earlier under cold greenhouses.

Summer cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts and kale are now all planted and protected from slugs, (pellets) rootfly (collars) and pigeons with nets.

Pumpkins and courgettes sown at the beginning of May and pricked out into individual pots in mid May are well ahead, but the land where they are destined to grow has been sown down with a clover green manure. Unfortunately the cold weather has held this back, so the idea might not be successful this year. Time will tell.

Saskatoons in flower

This green manured patch was also earmarked for my sweet corn, but these grew so rapidly that they needed planting well before the clover even germinated, so they are now planted on another patch earmarked for root crops. As this area had not been manured, I brought in a load of well rotted garden compost and forked it in just a few inches deep. They seem quite happy at this stage.

Gladioli and chrysanthemums give me some cut flower for the house as well as adding colour to the plot, so they always find a spot in the crop rotation. Good weather has allowed planting of these.

Wee jobs around the garden

Heathers of the Calluna type often flower in summer to autumn. To keep the plants bushy trim back any long shoots removing about 4 to 6 inches as they are now beginning to grow beyond last years flower spike and looking a bit leggy.

Remove seed heads from daffodils and tulips and discard. Seed heads from other bulbs such as snowdrops, crocus, anemone blanda, chionodoxa and aconites can be saved or scattered to increase stock as these will all grow again. However bluebells and grape hyacinths should be discarded once they have filled their allotted space otherwise they would love to take over the garden.

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A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

April and early May have had more than their share of cold biting winds, but the greenhouse is protected from this, so plants have been putting on a lot of growth. Trying to harden off my onions, dahlias and sweet corn has been a real headache. They go out on a sunny morning but with strong cold winds, then with a wee frost forecast over nights, they had to go back inside, only to repeat this process day after day. The hardier plants such as my cabbages, cauliflower and sprouts went out, never suffered much so they are all now planted. Geraniums are quite tough, so they went out early, then in mid April many got planted in tubs and pots. However some had put on a good bit of growth, then along came the strong winds and broke them in half.

I still have a lot of young dahlia and chrysanthemum cuttings recently rooted and now ready to pot up, but they will stay in the greenhouse for a week or so to get established.

Fig cuttings, grape vine cuttings and some gooseberry cuttings will stay a bit longer under glass as they are slow to put on growth.

Planting tomatoes in prepared border

Pumpkins & courgettes sown in late April have now germinated and will soon be potted up into individual pots, and will remain in the greenhouse for a few more weeks.

Tuberous begonias are always slow to grow. I have about forty growing in deep polystyrene boxes, but now the foliage is expanding they will need separating and either boxing up with a lot more space or potting up into big pots. They may take up a lot of glasshouse space, but they would not be happy with these cold nights and strong winds, so hardening off will be a wee bit later.

A summer hanging basket planted with fuchsia Southern Belle, is still under glass as the fuchsia has been extremely slow to put on any growth. My outdoor hardy fuchsia Mrs Popple has more shoots on it. Southern Belle needs a few more warm sunny days.

The tomato border has now been prepared with digging in a lot of good garden compost and adding some fertiliser. It was then well watered and a couple of days later my tomatoes got planted. My main crop is still favourite Alicante with Sweet Million my best cherry type and this year I am trying another cherry, the yellow fruited Sungold, and a beefsteak type known as Costoluto fiorentino, an Italian Heirloom variety.

Pepper Tobasco sown in mid March germinated just fine then got potted up, but they really need warm conditions, so growth has been at a standstill. Just like humans they eagerly await the summer. Whatever happened to the promise of a wee bit of global warming for Scotland!!!

Fuchsia Southern Belle

Grape Black Hamburg and Siegerebe both appear to be well ahead in growth and many shoots are showing two bunches of grapes. There was an abundance of young shoots from every spur and most had bunches, so some thinning was necessary. I took out all the weakest shoots and on one upright rod thinned all the grapes to one bunch per shoot to give me a bigger dessert size bunch, but on another rod I am allowing all the bunches to develop. This will give me smaller grapes, but hopefully a heavier crop which is better for my wine making.

Wee jobs around the garden

Late spring is often a time when we can take advantage of a few dry days to do some spraying. Knowing the rain will not wash the chemicals off is important as most need a few dry days to work. Spray paths with an herbicide containing glyphosate which is absorbed by the leaves which then translocate it to the roots to kill all of the weeds.

Moss on lawns and drives can be controlled with sulphate of iron at a rate of one dessert spoon per two gallon can.

Greenfly on roses, blackcurrants, gooseberries and blackfly on cherries can be killed off with an insecticide designed to tackle greenfly and a host of other pests.

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TULIPS

TULIPS

This must be one of the best ever years for spring flowering bulbs. In normal years we get a spring flush when a few really sunny warm days all come along together, but there has been none of that this year. Instead the long cool spell has been a boon as flowers are slow to open but remain in place for much longer than normal. Thus the tulips are having a great time alongside the daffodils and narcissi which are continuing to flower well past their season.

The garden is now seeing the benefits of flower bulb recycling over the years, as all bulbs used in flower beds, pots, tubs and baskets are replanted all over the garden and allowed to naturalise. Left to do their own thing without disturbance, and given a wee dressing of well rotted garden compost in early winter they seem to thrive and clumps build up over time to create magnificent drifts of mixed colours.

Tulip Carnaval du Nice

Last autumn flower tubs were planted up with polyanthus and winter pansies all underplanted with tulips, hyacinths and crocus. The tulips used were all dwarf early types so the flowers would show just above the bedding plants. Some of my favourite tulips included Monsella, Red Riding Hood, Peach Blossom and Abba. One large wooden tub has a group of scented oriental lilies for summer colour and fragrance. To give some spring colour the tub was also planted with Iceland poppies and a yellow single early tulip Cape Town. These will all be left to naturalise, but if the Iceland poppies begin to go over in mid summer they will be replaced with another late summer bedding plant.

I have always experimented with companion planting, so I thought it would be great to start the show early with tulips flowering alongside other garden plants. Tulip Scarlet Baby, an early flowering kaufmaniana type was planted adjacent to a large established drift of lemon yellow saxifrage. This year timing was perfect as they both came out together in early April, but my plan to add early orange tulips into a drift of blue pulmonaria is another story. I used a dwarf early variety, Monte Orange which never opened up till the end of April while the Pulmonaria was in full flower at the beginning of April. Just can’t win them all. This autumn I must find an earlier tulip.

Tulip Monsella

However my triumph tulip Negrita a deep purple growing 18 inches tall was just perfect mixed amongst a new planting of yellow Doronicums. Both are flowering together this year so I will leave them to naturalise, hoping next year they will still flower at the same time.

Last year I found a highly scented white tulip, Purissima. The scent was very pleasant so after some research I discovered there are quite a few scented tulips so I thought I would try several scented tulips to see if this feature had any prominence.

I bought another batch of Purissima, a fosteriana type frowering in mid April, some William of Orange, Abba and Monte Orange. I cannot say I got one whiff of scent from any of them, unless they need a warm humid atmosphere to give off their perfume. Even my own established Purissima let me down. Maybe it is just too cold this year for exotic scented tulips.

Up at the allotment I have a flower bed next to the main path to brighten up the plot. It has a permanent planting of a few roses, flag iris and Iceland poppies, with bulbs between them. It is

Tulip Aperdoorn

packed with daffodils, crocus, aconites and tulips so I get a continuous show from spring till autumn. The bulbs have been in the ground for many years and I add more whenever I see a wee gap. It is no longer possible to cultivate the soil so I just add some garden compost in autumn and the worms do the rest.

Wee jobs around the garden

As cold north winds continue to blow and frosty nights remain a problem, watch out for growth on early potatoes and earth up to give them some protection. My Casablanca appeared above ground in mid April one month after planting, but now towards the end of April there is still little sign of warm spring days. Similarly, early sown peas such as Kelvedon Wonder is now showing the tips breaking through the soil, so if frost threatens the either cover them with fleece or some soil.

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SPRING SOWING AND PLANTING

SPRING SOWING AND PLANTING

Sunny days are arriving so now we can get down to some serious sowing and planting on the vegetable patch. A lot of plants have been ready to plant, but it was necessary to wait till the soil had warmed up as cold north winds continue to dominate our spring weather.

Broad beans however are quite hardy so these were planted at the end of March and are now getting established, though the late cold weather did not help them.

Onions sown at the end of February had to wait a fair bit in the cold greenhouse to thicken up before they were big enough to plant out near the end of April.

Pea Kelvedon Wonder was sown at the beginning of April, but more in the hope that warmer weather was just round the corner. I am sure they will appear and grow just fine, but weather forecasts keep warning us of cold winds coming from the north, so I will be ready to give them a wee earth up if necessary.

John with lettuce ready to plant

Lettuce, radish, spring onions and beetroot grown in cellular trays eventually made some decent plants to plant out on my plot under a low polythene tunnel. This protection should bring them on fast, so salad days will soon be with us, though I am still getting plenty of use from my overwintered lettuce, spring onions and rocket. The rocket may be running up to seed, but the plants are still producing plenty of fresh leaves to use. Swiss chard sown last autumn has overwintered just fine and is now growing strongly so the row will get thinned out.

Other overwintered crops are now either finished such as my Swedes, sprouts and leeks but there is still plenty kale, cabbage, parsnips and soon my cauliflower Aalsmeer will be hearting up.

Turnips and parsnips have now been sown as we have had quite a few dry sunny but cool days when working the soil has been good.

My first green manure crop of clover has been sown on the ground allocated to my pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn as these will not get planted till early June. I hope to get a good cover then dig it in a week before planting. Some people prefer to cut off the top growth and compost it in case it hinders planting. This ground has been well composted in winter as pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn are heavy feeders and need fertile soil. The sweet corn has now been potted up into final pots to grow into bigger plants ahead of planting.

Sweet corn potted up

The greenhouse has been a hive of activity as plants get potted up and need more room so anything that is hardy goes outside. My tuberous begonia collection just gets bigger every year and although growth is well behind they still take up a lot of space. So young cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts plants are now all outdoors getting hardened off. The greenhouse border got a load of well rotted garden compost added and dug in to get ready for tomato planting direct into the border.

Sweet peas are also quite hardy so they went outdoors in mid April for planting out in very fertile soil at the end of April.

Geraniums are another hardy flower and several got so big I just had to get them planted into some tubs, at present full of pansies and tulips. So I had to remove some pansies to a flower border to make room. I now have geraniums in flower with a group of tulips waiting to open up. I’ve not tried that combination before.

Wee jobs around the garden

Rhubarb is now in full growth as the ground is still moist and warmer days appearing every so often, so start pulling off some sticks for immediate use and if you get a heavier crop than you can use then put some in the freezer. Remove any flower stalks as soon as they appear. Rhubarb used to be the poor man’s fruit as it was easy to grow and very cheap, but now research has shown it to be very important for good health. It is packed with vitamins C, K and B and the minerals calcium, potassium, manganese and magnesium. It should be eaten all year round and is just about reaching superfood status.

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DAFFODILS

DAFFODILS

The cool spring weather has been a bonus for spring flowers coming out a lot later than normal, but lasting a long time. We have had the snowdrops and aconites, then the crocus took over but now it is the turn of the narcissi and daffodils, though all the flowering bulbs are overlapping each other with some colder areas having their snowdrops still in flower in April.

Daffodil Westward

My daffodil season usually starts with February Gold, but a bit later this year in early April. This is followed on with the large yellow trumpets of King Alfred and Golden Harvest and the white Mount Hood. These are all scented like most narcissi though some have very pronounced scent such as the Cheerfulness group as well as the smaller flowered Jonquils. Daffodils have been around for a very long time and have been very popular with plant breeders so there are hundreds of varieties to choose from with new ones appearing every year.

Daffodils play a very important role in brightening up towns and villages as it was the custom to mass plant them in parks and verges in more prosperous times in the past before cut backs were created. Dundee has a wealth of spring colour from drifts of daffodils all over the town, and as new developments take place I hope the impact of this flower will continue to hold its place.

Narcissus Cheerfulness

They also brighten up our gardens letting us know that spring is here, and if you can spare some from the garden they make a great scented cut flower for the house. They are also very showy when grown in pots and tubs. They respond best when kept in a cool spot (against a north facing wall) after planting in autumn for a few months. This will help the roots to grow well ahead of the rest of the bulb so the plant flowers earlier in spring. When flowers are finished slowly dry off the bulbs and replant them somewhere else in the garden as they will come up again the following year.

This is a good time to note what is flowering, which colours you prefer and what empty spaces can do with planting next autumn. Plan ahead now so you can make sure you get your preferred bulbs while stocks last. There will also be some new varieties to try out.

New shrub borders always have a plenty of bare soil for several years as the shrubs slowly take up the space and this provides an ideal opportunity for bulb planting. If the shrubs are deciduous then the daffodils and narcissus can be a permanent feature and the leaves can die down and dry off as the shrub foliage grows in summer.

Field of daffodils

Daffodils make a greater impact if planted in large drifts where they can naturalise and increase as time goes by. Allow about six inches apart when planting in drifts. After flowering, the plant foliage remains green for a couple of months depending on weather. They will go yellow and dry off quicker in periods of dry warm weather. Do not be in a hurry to remove the foliage as this is what builds up the bulb for flowering the next year, but once the leaves have been removed disturb the soil surface to fill in any holes left by the dying leaves as this helps to deter the narcissus fly maggots from burrowing down into the soil to infect the dormant bulbs.

Wee jobs around the garden

Warmer days have started to arrive and young tomato plants are filling up their pots so they can now be planted out in the greenhouse. You can grow them in large pots, growbags or directly into a well prepared border. Traditionally I always used growbags, but always up for something different, two years ago I planted them out into my greenhouse soil border which I had dug over incorporating good garden compost. I got a great crop so I repeated the idea last year and got an even bigger crop, so I am again going to run with this idea. I will remove a few inches of topsoil and dig in plenty compost before planting out. Time will tell how they perform. I am growing Alicante as my maincrop, Sweet Million as my cherry, Sungold as my yellow tomato and Costoluto Fiorentino as my beafstake tomato.

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BUSY TIMES IN THE GARDEN

BUSY TIMES IN THE GARDEN

Spring seems to be a wee bit late this year. It has not been very cold, but the lack of a few really warm days is holding plant growth back. The ground outside is taking a long time to warm up so there is little point in making an early start to seed sowing and planting. However in some ways we still use the calendar to determine sowing times hoping the weather will behave and not drift too far off normal. Some plants are just fine but others can be very sensitive to low temperatures and lack of sunshine. Tomatoes are all now in the cold greenhouse, but seem quite happy and although most need potting up I will wait until we get better growing conditions.

Picking early rhubarb

Cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts have all been pricked out into cellular trays and are well established but not really growing well at present. Early sowings of lettuce are fine, but beetroot in cellular trays is looking decidedly cold and not really wanting to grow.

Onion Globo gave a brilliant germination on the windowsill, but then after transferring to the cold greenhouse look very unhappy. The tips are turning yellow suggesting poor compost or just not enough sunny days. I gave them a general liquid feed, and put on the greenhouse heater for a few days to cheer them up.

Sweet peas have all had the tops pinched out after three leaves and once new shoots put on a bit of growth they will go outside for hardening off.

Broad beans ready for planting

Broad beans have been hardened off for several weeks, and normally I would have planted them out, but the soil is still too cold to get them well established.

Geraniums retained from last year and potted up have been outdoors for two weeks hardening off, but the strong winds blowing them over and thunderstorms with hailstones is not doing them any favours. Smaller geraniums grown on from cuttings are now ready to pot up and should make strong sturdy plants for tubs, beds and baskets by mid May.

Last month a couple of nice days encouraged me to plant my row of first early potatoes Casablanca, but cold weather followed so no sign of any growth as yet. My other potatoes will all get planted whenever we get a few dry days as it is time for planting by the calendar, if not the temperature.
However all is not gloomy, as the rhubarb is quick to push out new fresh bright red sticks, perfect for pulling for the kitchen, and a row of rocket and over wintered lettuce are both ready for cutting. With the mild winter I have been able to pick rocket continuously since last summer.

Leeks and parsnips are still plentiful, though they will need to get used up before they run to seed.

Sowings of turnip, peas, outdoor salads, leeks, kale, chard and parsley are due for sowing once the rain stops, and the sun reappears.

Sweet corn gave a good germination of thirty plants from forty seeds, but will need to grow for another couple of weeks before potting up into bigger pots.

Once the ground warms up I will be sowing green manure crops on the land allocated to pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn which do not get planted till early June. My favourite has always been clover which has very fibrous root systems that help to break up the soil and the nitrogen fixing bacteria on the roots adds nutrients once the clover rots down after digging in.

The fruit garden is also suffering from lack of warm days. Flower buds are swelling on the apples and pears, but my new peach, Avalon Pride and plum Victoria are only just beginning to grow.

Outdoor grape vines remain dormant, but under glass all the vines are in leaf.

The cool weather does have some advantages with spring flowers that seem to last a lot longer with dazzling daffodils and early tulips.

Wee jobs around the garden

Pot up chrysanthemum cuttings that have now rooted and continue to take more as the old stools keep growing. Dahlia tubers boxed up a few weeks ago are now growing and surplus shoots can be used to increase the stock.

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