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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SPRING FLOWERS AT THEIR BEST

SPRING FLOWERS AT THEIR BEST

Last year we got blessed with a good week of brilliant weather at Easter, but as no two years are the same, we have not been so lucky this year. The garden is just full of potential flowers waiting to open up once the temperatures rise. We get plenty sunshine but always accompanied by cold winds.

Plans for bulb planting last autumn included an attempt to combine tulips with different spring flowering herbaceous and rock garden plants that would compliment each other. The idea was to create several areas of great impact over the season rather than having garden colour scattered all over the place. I first saw this idea a long time ago with a large drift of Tulip fosteriana Red Emperor planted underneath a group of yellow forsythia shrubs.

Anna beside a tub of polyanthus

The show was terrific and although short lived the memory stayed with me. Taking the idea a step forward I have large drifts of yellow saxifrage, blue pulmonaria and golden doronicums in different parts of the garden. They always give a good display but I thought the effect could be enhanced with some complimentary bulb planting. The idea can work in most years, but as all plant growth and flowering is determined by day length and temperature the varying weather can affect the show if one flowers ahead of the other. Tulip kaufmaniana Scarlet Baby was planted next to my lemon yellow saxifrage drift and this year they are all flowering together, but low temperatures prevent the tulips opening up fully.

Blue pulmonaria has tulip Monte Orange and Red Revival planted within the drifts. They are not yet out but flowering and timing are looking good.

Chionodoxa

Golden doronicums were under planted with purple triumph tulip Negrita which is also said to be scented, but flowering is still a week away.

Another area where I grow peonies  has been underplanted with a mixture of Darwin hybrid tulips as well as the early fosteriana tulip Red Emperor and Purissima. The latter is also scented, but can vary depending on temperature. These tulips will be finished and drying off by the time the peonies need the space. In addition to the tulips this area also has tall oriental lilies planted here and there to show the exotic scented flowers in summer when the peonies are finished.

Narcissi February Gold, daffodils, Chionodoxa, grape hyacinths and Crocus are now all looking great and most tulips and hyacinths are not far behind.

At the edge of my winter garden the pink heather, Erica carnea is in full flower and has some blue Anemone blanda mixed into the drifts. These look like one of my successful groupings as they are all flowering together and at the same height, but in reality seeds were scattered by birds and in compost mulches.

Crocus and primroses

The first rhododendron praecox is in flower though the show has been somewhat thinned out due to an attack of scale on the leaves over the last two years. Not an easy pest to control.

Coming up in height Forsythia is now providing a great golden display and the Viburnum carlcephalum has white highly scented flowers at their best on every decent day.

Plant tubs with wallflower and polyanthus add colour to the patio but hanging baskets planted up for a spring display with winter pansies are still slow to grow, desperately needing some warmer weather. Good job I added some mixed crocus to brighten them up as the pansies are not at their best so far.

Wee jobs to do this week

Dahlia tubers stored dry over winter, or recently bought in can now get potted or boxed up in fresh compost. You can wait a bit longer until risk of frost has passed and plant the tubers into the ground allowing two to three feet spacing depending on variety. Tubers started earlier with a bit of heat, should produce several young shoots from the base of last years flower stems. These can be used as cuttings once they are about three to four inches long. I root these in small pots in a seed compost and keep them in a warm place to encourage rooting. A polythene bag over them retains moisture and prevents them drying out.

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TIME TO PLANT POTATOES

TIME TO PLANT POTATOES

Lifting early International Kidney

Potatoes have always played a major role in feeding the nation, and we gardeners always allocated a big portion of our allotment space to the humble spud. It was our staple diet and used daily as boiled, baked, roasted, mashed or as chips or even fritters. Life moves on as we try to live a healthier life style and we now have access to a much wider variety of foods including rice, pizza and pasta and numerous healthy green vegetables, so our humble spud takes on a lesser role.
In my youth we grew a lot of the variety Majestic as it was a huge tuber that was perfect for chips. Today we (well, some of us) don’t eat so much chips so a variety that produces small potatoes is just as important as we can use them in salads. I practice a four year rotation on my plot so potatoes take up one of these sections each year. I grow a range to suit my own needs which is one really early variety, Casablanca, a second early salad type, Charlotte, with Sarpo Mira, a heavy cropper with good blight resistance, as my maincrop. I am also trying Genson and Amour as they get good reviews and it is always good to try something different.

Planting a row of potatoes

Other good potatoes to try include Lady Christl a very early variety, Desiree a maincrop and Maris Peer an excellent small salad type and its bigger brother Maris Piper a great spud for chips.

Purchase seed tubers only from Scottish or Irish sources where very strict hygiene conditions ensure the crop is clean and gets the highest certification. This information will be shown on labels on all bags purchased.

If you are tempted to retain seed potatoes from your own healthy crop, only do so for one year and only if the crop was very clean and free from blight and any other pest or disease. Never accept seed potatoes from a friend as the risks of potential infections are too great.

Potatoes are heavy feeders so grow best on land that has been well manured in autumn and left rough over winter.

It is a good practice to chit early varieties as it gives them a head start. Place the seed potatoes upright, (rose end upwards) in trays or egg boxes and leave in a light frost free position for a few weeks to get them to sprout.

Planting time is very much depending on weather, so in a mild period it could be early to mid March for the first early varieties, otherwise as soon as you feel there is some warmth in the ground.

Earlies are spaced about 12 inches apart along the rows which are 18 inches apart. For maincrops increase the spacing to 15 inches apart with rows 2 to 2.5 feet apart.

Take out a furrow six inches deep and run some well rotted compost along the bottom. Cover this with some soil and plant into this. Cover the rows but leave a slight ridge to mark the line, and then give a dusting of potato fertiliser high in phosphates and potassium.

Potato flowers

Once the foliage emerges keep an eye on the weather and if frost threatens earth over to protect them. Continue to earth over as this kills weeds and creates a friable structure.

Lifting can begin at the start of June with first earlies and continue till October for lates. Lift on a sunny day and leave the spuds to dry on the surface for an hour or so. Discard any tubers that show any greening as this contains poisons. Potatoes are best stored in the dark in hessian or paper bags in a frost free shed protected from mice.

Wee jobs to do this week

Continue with outdoor sowing of leeks and indoor sowing of sweet corn. I sow leeks thinly outdoors in a fertile well prepared seedbed, where they can grow strongly for a few weeks prior to lifting and transplanting.

Sweet corn is sown at the end of March indoors in cellular trays (40 cells/tray) and kept warm to germinate then transferred to my cold greenhouse to grow on. Once they are a decent size I pot them up into individual 7cms pots and grow on for a few more weeks before hardening off for transplanting at the beginning of June.

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GARDEN PLANTS MAKE AN EARLY START

GARDEN PLANTS MAKE AN EARLY START

Plant growth and emergence are determined by many different factors, but temperature and day length play very important roles. At this time of year as the days get longer a lot of plants are ready to grow and flower, but if the temperature is just not warm enough they will get held back. We are in spring so the crocus should be in full bloom with daffodils starting to show a lot of colour. Like humans the plants need a decent rest, which they normally get during the dormant season from November till March, but winter never really got cold and spring has not really took off, so the garden is not quite sure where it should go. The snowdrops started to flower in December and kept going till March as temperatures have remained fairly constant. Crocus have been very slow to flower then opening up sporadically over several weeks. Daffodils are slow to emerge, but should pick up once we get a few warm spring days. However some of my tulips are in flower, and my scented viburnum carlcephalum has started to flower a good month ahead of normal. If this is climate change it certainly makes the garden very interesting and unpredictable as it seems the normal season of growth and flowering no longer applies.

Crocus Yellow Mammoth

Spring bedding plants in tubs are very variable. Polyanthus and primroses are full of flower but winter pansies seem to be waiting on better days. Hyacinths and tulips are emerging but are in no hurry to grow.

The early allotment vegetable crops grown from seed are all looking strong. Broad beans, onions, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts have all germinated and will soon need pricking off, other than those grown in cellular trays. Beetroot and spring onions have also been sown in cellular trays and are now just germinating. These salads will be planted out under a low polythene tunnel to give an early crop of fresh greens.

Seed potatoes have been placed in a cool room with good light so chitting can progress as the first earlies will get planted at the beginning of April if we get some decent weather.

Dogwood and snowdrops

Tomato seed sown a few weeks ago have now all germinated and been pricked out into individual pots. I am growing Alicante as my maincrop with Sweet Million as my best cherry type and a beef stake tom known as Costuluto Fiorentino. I am also trying out the yellow tomato Sungold as it got great reviews from growers last year, though you don’t get many plants from the packet. Ten seeds gave me eight plants. I have good wide south facing windowsills so my tomatoes can stop there for a few weeks as my greenhouse is bursting at the seams. In a couple of weeks we should get warmer weather and more plants can go outside for hardening off to make room in my borders for the tomatoes. I will again prepare the borders by excavating some soil and adding compost for the third year. Last year my composted border produced very strong tomatoes giving me eight trusses with a great crop and yet the summer was dreadful. Anna had to freeze the surplus crop, so now we regularly enjoy healthy home made tomato soup.

Polyanthus in a tub

Grape vines under glass are now beginning to show bud swelling letting me know the growing season is now well under way.

I have just taken delivery of two new strawberry varieties to try out. Sweet Colossus is said to have large and very sweet fruit and Albion will be my new everbearer taking fruit picking from mid summer into the autumn.

Wee jobs to do this week

The winter border has had a great year with Cornus sibirica and Mid Winter Fire, Kerria japonica, Salix britzensis and Japanese Maple Sangokaku all dazzling from leaf fall in autumn till the end of this month, but now growth is starting so now is the time to cut back the cornus and willow. These get cut back severely to ground level and always manage to grow again quite strongly. I use the ten foot tall willow cuttings as support for my rows of peas on the allotment. This keeps the coloured stem border well managed and allows the show of crocus more light. These are then followed by daffodils and tulips then tall scented oriental lilies in mid summer.

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THE LEAN MONTHS

THE LEAN MONTHS

We grow fruit and vegetables to provide healthy food throughout the year. Mid summer to autumn is the harvest period, then we store and freeze crops to take us into winter and the following spring. It is the March to early May that is the difficult lean months when our own produce can be scarce. The challenge is to be self sufficient over twelve months, but that takes some planning.

We bring the cropping seasons forward by growing salads, strawberries and other crops under tunnels or in cold frames or greenhouses. Early potatoes is another challenge so we use a very early variety like Casa Blanca or International Kidney planting chitted seed potatoes on the first warm day in spring. The first shaws can be lifted as soon as the plant has flowered and although the crop may be light, the salad potatoes will be delicious. Early strawberries grown under tunnels can also be ready for picking by the end of May.

The last two pumpkins

Rhubarb is another delicacy that can be brought forward by forcing. Lift mature crowns in winter and replant under the greenhouse staging, but enclose them with black polythene to exclude light. This will produce tender deep pink stalks well ahead of the outdoor crops. However the mild winter has helped existing rhubarb crowns to put in an early start so it won’t be long before we have fresh stalks, though there is still a lot in our freezer from last year needing to be used up.

The poor summer of 2015 followed by the wet winter has thrown up some real anomalies. Beetroot grew but did not swell up so the meagre crops did not last much beyond Christmas. Spring cabbage was so badly affected by clubroot that none of them survived, and winter cabbage was very poor to grow and is only now beginning to heart up. Brussels sprouts on the other hand have never been better, and it looks like they will be cropping well into April.

The last Fiesta apple

Leeks suffered from water logging but are alive and edible, once all the rotten leaves have been removed. Swedes all failed, but this was down to poor seed as the germination was a total failure.

Parsnips were a success and still enough in the ground to last into early April.

Crops stored in cold dry dark conditions in my garage have done remarkably well. Sarpo Mira potatoes look like lasting for another couple of months, and Hytech onions just the same. Carrots are still in the ground as the mild winter has been in their favour and should last till the end of March. Apples have not lasted as in previous years as the poor summer and autumn did not help to ripen them up. Brown rot has been quite a problem. Only Fiesta has lasted into March, but there is still a few good Bramleys for cooking. However a lot of the apple crop was used to make my dessert apple wine, leaving it for two years in demijohns to mature then enjoy a wee glass every so often. Pumpkins stored very well but numbers are in short supply as they like warm growing conditions but never got any last year.

Rhubarb forcing

It is the freezer that has been the winner in giving us plenty of crops of a wide variety right through the lean months. Last year our bumper tomato crops ended up in the freezer and now Anna makes an excellent tomato soup. Broad beans were also plentiful last year and although these are used in many different dishes my favourite is still the soup. Dwarf French beans and cauliflower from the freezer give us variety in the lean months.

Blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, saskatoons and brambles have all frozen well and will give us plenty of berries before the new season ones are ready. These will be used for compote which we use daily, and also crumbles and summer puddings.

Wee jobs to do this week

Gardeners always love the challenge of growing the best, the biggest fruit and vegetable or to be the first to harvest their potato or early strawberry. It also gives great satisfaction to pick fresh salads ahead of the normal season. We can do this with a sowing now of lettuce, rocket, radish, beetroot and spring onions in cellular trays to germinate in a warm place, then after a few weeks they can be hardened off before planting out in early April in a cold frame, cold greenhouse or a polythene tunnel. The radish will be ready first and the beetroot last.

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PLANTS FOR PROBLEM AREAS

PLANTS FOR PROBLEM AREAS

Helianthemum

My life in the gardening world has taken me all round the country. This has given me the experience of working with a huge variety of soils, sites, climates and problems which had to be solved with a suitable plant cover. Some sites around the coastal areas were very dry with soils containing a lot of sand; others down south were shallow and overlying gravel beds or chalk. In the midlands there is a lot of deep but fertile clay soils in the country areas but many industrial towns had no soil what so ever. It was normal practise to buy in top soil for our landscape works in the Midlands, and the north east had stiff heavy clays that could hold too much water. Some coastal areas suffered a lot of wind exposure and salt sprays which could desiccate the leaves of vulnerable plants. The south east (the fens) has a lot of flat peaty soils reclaimed by draining, and some areas around Manchester have very deep peat soils with drainage problems. In Scotland we have a lot of boulder clay soils left over from the last ice age, but when well managed they can be very productive. However our country is not flat so we have the added problems of dealing with gardens on a slope. Shade from buildings and tree cover needed solutions. Building often created wet shade while trees often created dry shade, as the roots absorb moisture from the soil which is then lost through transpiration from the leaves.

Cistus Silver Pink

Most plants are very tough and adapted to growing in their own environment. It was our job so sort out the best plants for each situation. I worked as a garden designer for large scale local authority projects, but also got involved at individual garden level. Whatever the location, soil, or problem it was our job to find plants for all these situations.

Many areas exposed to the coast can suffer gales as well as salt spray. We all see the affect of this salt damage on grass verges along the highways after winter as the road salt usually kills out vegetation a few feet from the kerb. In gardens we can plant up those plants known to tolerate wind and salt to some degree. Escallonias, broom, sea buckthorn, holly, willow, eucalyptus and tamarix, and at ground level use pinus mugo, senecio, rosemary, lavender, delosperma or euonymus and for flowers the shrub rose rosa rugosa, cistus and red hot pokers will all have a place.

Red Hot Pokers

Most of these plants can also be used on soils away from the coast but still suffering from dry conditions. Other favourites can include the hardy outdoor fuchsias, all kinds of heathers, cotoneasters which vary from ground cover to small trees, gorse, and for the exotic garden try the yucca, New Zealand flax or the palm tree, Cordyline australis.

Many gardens suffer steep banks that make maintenance a problem so we tend to plant them up with ground cover which also smothers weeds. Heathers, camellias, dwarf rhododendrons and evergreen azaleas are useful but if the garden gets too much shade you can use variegated ivy, euonymus, London Pride, dwarf pines, pernettya, mahonia and viburnum davidii. However if the steep banks get a bit of warmth and sunshine this allows another range of plants. Flag iris, Helianthemum, the dwarf rock rose, senecio, hardy fuchsias and flag iris will all enjoy a steep well drained bank in the sun.

Outdoor fuchsia

Wet soil problems vary from damp soil to ponds and each has its own range of plants adapted to the degree of wetness. Cornus, willows, aronias, ornamental elderberries, bamboos, spiraea and snowberry are all fine as long as they do not get too much waterlogging.

Wee jobs to do this week

All fruit bushes and trees can benefit from a mulch of rotted manure or compost about two inches deep. Make sure all weeds have been removed before spreading the mulch. It will conserve moisture and add nutrients as it rots down. The plant will also benefit as surface feeding roots will not be disturbed or killed by hoeing. The mulch is also useful under gooseberry bushes to assist prevention of sawfly maggot infestations.

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