A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

Tomatoes reach the roof

Tomato varieties

Greenhouse crops have been growing and cropping at luxury levels following the long hot spell though watering has been a necessary and frequent task, and to control the high temperatures both ventilators and doors have been wide open. Even at night the doors were opened just enough to keep condensation down but keep resting birds out.

Tomatoes have been getting fed twice a week and grapes grown in the greenhouse border 

Peppers

once a week. This year I tried some new tomato varieties alongside my regular Alicante which always gives a great crop of large tomatoes. Included were Marmande a beefsteak variety, Yellow Delight a plum type, Red Cherry and Sungold a yellow cherry variety. In previous years Sweet Million was one of my better cherry types. This year Alicante is still my favourite large tomato. Armande was a poor cropper and the misshapen fruits were not attractive. Yellow Delight was a real bully as growth outperformed all the others and had to be stopped once it reached the top of the greenhouse and wanted to climb up and over my grape vines on the other side. It gave a good yield of yellow plum tomatoes, but some were slow to turn colour and the fruit had no taste. However Red Cherry was brilliant with huge crops of small sweet fruit but Sungold gave even heavier crops of very sweet tomatoes. It was this year’s winner. However both cherry varieties had long trusses with well over twenty small tomatoes, and one Red Cherry truss had branched out with fifty four tomatoes. Now, that is hard to beat.

Grape Phoenix

Excellent growing conditions on all types sent main stems skyward. All reached seven trusses, with Red Cherry reaching eight trusses and Sungold with nine trusses before tips were taken out. Lower leaves remained very healthy so stayed on a long time before removing, but from mid August onwards I allowed some sideshoots to grow to provide healthy foliage to feed the crop.

Grapes both under glass and outdoors are having a great year. Although we will eat as much as we can, the remainder will go into demijohns for a vintage year brew. I am hoping this year, providing we get a decent autumn (dry, warm and sunny) I can achieve good wine direct from the grapes without having to add sugar to achieve ten or even eleven percent alcohol. Siegerrebe was first to ripen in mid August. It is a sweet musk flavoured grape, but attracts wasps which have to be dealt with before word gets out and the whole nest arrives for a feeding frenzy. Sideshoots are still being removed as well as a third of the leaves to let sun in to ripen up the bunches of grapes. Both Black Hamburg and Solaris are ripening up well, and outdoors Brant has masses of bunches of huge grapes. It is outstanding as it is not normally grown for grapes as they are normally quite small. Rondo, Regent and Phoenix are all having a great year and potential harvest looks very promising.

Cucumbers started off with excellent growth, but then mildew arrived to hold them back. They like a moist atmosphere, but other crops like it dry otherwise diseases get a hold, so maximum ventilation is practised which may not suit the cucumbers.

Pansies

Peppers are the best ever as this hot summer is right up their street.

Freezer space is going to be tested this autumn.

Pansies normally grown for my spring display continued flowering right up till July, but then I let them go to seed. This was saved and sown, and now I have loads of young seedlings to grow on for next years spring and summer display.

Wee jobs to do this week

 

Land cleared early of peas, onions, brassicas and early potatoes and sown

with an autumn crop of salads (lettuce, spring onion, radish, rocket, cress, etc) will need weeding and the new rows of seedlings will need thinning. Some of the thinnings can be used to make new rows where space is available. These salads and baby beet will be much appreciated as we go into late autumn and early winter, and if we go back into mild winters these salads will be fine for many months.

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SWEET CORN

SWEET CORN

August is a great month for healthy eating as the garden and allotment are at the peak of the harvesting season with a huge variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sweet corn tends to ripen all at the same time so harvesting the cobs is a once over task. However, to know when best to cut the corn, sampling is done every few days to test the softness and sweetness. Sample when some of the cobs tassels have turned a dark brown colour. Push your

Sampling some sweet corn

fingernail into the corn and if it is watery it is not ready, as it should be milky when tested, but if it is left too long it will go pasty. I tend to pick a few cobs to sample for the table about two weeks before final harvest. The corn has a high sugar content at this stage, but the sugar is slowly converted to starch if harvesting is delayed. However for folk watching the calories, one cob has less sugar than an apple and only half as much as a banana. Some newer varieties have a higher sugar content known as super

Anna pots up sweet corn seedlings

sweet and are delicious to eat fresh straight off the plant. The sweetness in the corn is created by a recessive gene so keep the sweet corn block well away from other sweet corn plants otherwise cross pollination may cause loss of sweetness and make the cobs chewy.

Sweet corn has amazing health benefits both as a freshly eaten cob straight from the plant and also when cooked as many of the benefits are enhanced. They are rich in phytochemicals that promote healthy vision, rich in vitamins B and C, plus the minerals iron, magnesium and potassium. They are also rich in fibre which feeds the good bacteria in your gut, and aid digestion.

Culture

Sweet corn is still seen as a novel crop in Scotland though it has been grown here by amateurs and

Sweet corn and pumpkin

farmers for many years. Our soils and climate (most years) are perfect for its growth and cropping, and this year my plants (variety Incredible) are huge with some showing a third cob on very vigorous plants. To get a strong and vigorous plantation grow on well manured and fertile soil. As planting is most often done in June, there is plenty of time to dig over the plot in winter adding plenty of compost and leaving the surface rough for winter weathering. In early spring break down the soil, rake level adding some fertiliser then sow down a fast growing green manure crop. This will add humus and assist drainage. Trample this down before it flowers probably in early to mid May then dig in the green manure. This will give it time to begin to rot down before planting then it will release its nutrients while the sweet corn grows. Sow seed indoors individually in cellular seed trays in mid March, then pot up into bigger pots when the plants are about six inches tall. Harden off in May then plant out in early June, but all depending on prevailing weather. Plant about two feet apart in square blocks to assist wind pollination. Give them

Sweet corn Incredible

wider spacing if you grow then together with pumpkins in the same block. Keep weeded and water in dry weather.
Varieties
Incredible sugar enhanced variety, very reliable. Grows quite tall.
Lark F1 tendersweet variety
Sundance F1, Early
Swift’ F1 Extra tender sweet. Plants have two to three cobs
‘Golden Giant’ AGM Supersweet, Large, good quality cobs.
‘Earlibird AGM Supersweet early variety with vigorous plants with good sized, uniform cobs.
‘Lark’ AGM Extra tender sweet. High yielding top quality cobs.

Wee jobs to do this week

Rhubarb crumble and jam

Rhubarb is growing very strongly now that the rain has returned and the plants have had really warm weather, so keep pulling off good stems for immediate use or if the crop is heavy it can go into the freezer for future use. Give the plants a feed to boost more growth as there is still time to pull more stems off before the plant slows down in autumn. Brilliant for crumbles, stewed rhubarb and added to saskatoons for a fantastic jam.

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SUMMER HARVEST CONTINUES

SUMMER HARVEST CONTINUES

Crop harvesting has started early this year, brought on by the fantastic hot dry summer. Provided plants got irrigated growth was excellent and many crops are now well ahead and ready for picking. It was the salads, lettuce and spring onion that were first to crop in early May, quickly followed by the strawberries. However both had a short season

Bringing in the gooseberries

and I was out of strawberries in mid July, though hoping my autumn cropping Flamenco, (young runners planted last autumn,) will continue with a few berries into autumn once it has established

Cauliflower Clapton

some growth. Salads needed several sowings a few months apart to give a succession, and now I am sowing those hardy varieties to last into winter.

First early potato Casablanca was ready for lifting in late May and now I have lifted second early Charlotte as all the foliage had withered, even although I had tried to keep them irrigated. No sign of any damage by slugs or blight which can be a real problem in a rainy season, but not this year. Both early varieties are salad potatoes so no huge spuds, but the crop was clean with good sizes and an excellent weight per shaw. Maincrop potato Setanta is still in foliage, but beginning to go over.

Onions ripened very early in July and needed lifting and laid out in the sun to ripen off. They do not like being irrigated as this can bring on white rot, but with the dry weather irrigation was necessary.

Successional sowings about six weeks apart, kept us supplied with Golden Ball turnips and beetroot,

Huge fresh produce from garden in August

though good growth let us have plenty baby beet as we thinned out the plants to four inches apart. The later beetroot sowing will keep us supplied into winter. I usually leave these outdoors, but will lift them for storage indoors if cold weather threatens.

Courgettes required continuous watering but with the heat they have been bountiful. Anna got a fantastic recipe for courgette soup, to use up the excess crop.

Cauliflower, cabbage and calabrese have all given great crops of huge vegetables, and unfortunately all the cauliflower ripen at the same time so it has been necessary to plant up several smaller rows a couple of months apart.

Peas were sown in two rows with Kelvedon Wonder and Onward cropped a few weeks apart so harvesting, shelling and preparing for the freezer were tasks well spread out. My granddaughter Sophie arrived for a few days on her school holidays just in time to help out. She just loved it!!!

The broad bean harvest however is a huge work load. Beans were picked in between rain showers, but then the old plants have to be dug out and chopped up for the compost heap. Once back home the sun came out so we could shell them outdoors

Workforce relaxes between harvesting

 

on the patio with help from Sophie. Later that evening we gathered round the table to remove the beans from their skins before weighing and bagging up for the freezer.

Then just before Sophie got too relaxed she needed to help out to pick the gooseberries, bring them home and top and tail about thirty pounds of fruit. However that was not the end as she helped me to crush ten pounds of fruit with a potato masher for wine brewing in buckets. The white gooseberry Invicta makes a brilliant wine but I give it three years to mature in demijohns before bottling. Surplus gooseberries were again mashed by Sophie to extract the juice for some gooseberry and mint jelly, then Anna and Sophie cooked up a jelly pan of tablet in time for the allotment open day.

Saskatoons ripened on schedule at the end of July with picking over two weeks so most of the crop has been frozen or brewed for wine. The final picking was done just as Sophie’s Dundee holidays came to an end and she could get back to a normal life with friends.

Siegerrebe grapes pruned and ready to pick

Raspberry Glen Fyne and Glen Dee both gave great crops and autumn fruiting Polka and Autumn Bliss have also both started to crop from early August.

Wee jobs to do this week

Remove all sideshoots on grape vines both in greenhouses and outdoors. Also remove some leaves to let the sun shine on the swelling bunches to help ripen them up. This year of the big heatwave should ensure a bumper year for outdoor grapes in Scotland, provided autumn is warm, dry and sunny. Fingers crossed!!!

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SUMMER FLOWERS

SUMMER FLOWERS

Sophie with clove scented pinks

Dahlia Otto's Thrill

We have had a fantastic spell of summer weather, followed by the rain, and the garden flowers have put on a brilliant display, apart from those that suffered in the drought, got their leaves scorched by too hot sunshine and those that got blown over by the gales. This year will be remembered as a very hot year, and it remains to be seen whether the next hot year is coming soon. My memory of hot summers goes far back to 1976 and 1959, the year I started work as an apprentice gardener in early July based in the Howff Cemetery. There was no rain for three months, and then the heavens opened up in a deluge. It was also a fantastic year for flowers at their best around McManus Gallery, Sea Braes, the City Churches and Baxter Park and many other Parks Department parks and open spaces.

Oriental lilies

This year my garden has been a mass of flowers from early spring. The mid summer thunderstorms were a bit much for some plants, so they had a wee rest before resuming flowering as normality returned. It is hard to pick out the winners as so many plants put out masses of flowers. My red geraniums have been the show stealers both at home in beds, tubs and hanging baskets, but you needed to remove spent flowers to give room for the next blossom. Roses were also having a great time, and again they kept flowering provided the spent flowers were removed before they went to seed. French marigolds and petunias both loved the summer heatwave, but there was a battle with slugs as the ground needed constant watering which suited the slugs.

Red geranium

Tuberous begonias, now well over twenty years old were a bit slow to flower but once they began they were a mass display with great impact. My secret is to split the corms in spring by chopping through them with a trowel once I can see where the new shoots are. It may be a bit of rough treatment, but they never complain.

Sweet peas quickly put on a great show, but keeping them from running to seed was a constant problem. Garden pinks were in their element as they just love hot dry conditions as long as they get some watering now and then. The scent was wonderful, and just as they were going over the strongly perfumed oriental lilies took centre stage. A few years ago I purchased a few, and then the next year a

Anemone Honorine Jobert

few more and now I devote a lot of garden space to them. They are great companion plants for planting amongst spring flowering bulb drifts, coloured stemmed cornus and willow which get chopped back to stools in early April, as well as amongst low growing spring flowering azaleas. They add colour to many areas which otherwise would be green, but dull.

Hanging baskets with spring flowering pansies were replaced with geraniums, petunias, lobelia and impatiens, but the pansies will continue to flower for many months, so plants were carefully

Poppies and geraniums

removed and planted in a border that had room to spare.

Chrysanthemums, dahlias and gladioli grown for cut flower started to open up at the beginning of August. They enjoyed the hot spell in June and July and put on

Shasta daisies and delphiniums

strong growth so now flowering can begin and continue till late autumn.

Annual poppies, candytuft, cornflower, Livingston daisies and godetia were sown on bare areas where spring bulb foliage has been removed and grow quickly to flower from August onwards.

The herbaceous border is now showing the summer flowers of shasta daisies, day lilies, oriental lilies, Japanese anemonies and delphiniums. The show continues as plants and gardeners reaped the benefits of this long hot summer.

Winter salads

Wee jobs to do this week

Now is a good time to look ahead to the late autumn and early winter to make sure there are some salads available as there are some varieties that are fairly hardy but still tender on the plate. Sow lettuce Hilde or Winter Density and spring onions on land cleared of a previous crop. The ground will already be in good heart so no need for compost or manure. Just firm the soil, rake level and take out drills about a foot apart. Germination is quick at this time of year so some thinning may be necessary, or use the thinnings for another row.

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SUMMER FRUITS

SUMMER FRUITS

This year will go down as one of the hottest in memory, and it has been brilliant for most fruit crops. They got off to a poor start after a miserable winter with the “Beast from the East” and a non existent spring lacking sunshine, but fruit tree pollination was excellent on trees covered in masses of flowers. The potential was strong for a good fruit harvest, though it would be about three to four weeks late due to rotten climate at the beginning of the year.

Anna picks Big Ben blackcurrants

However, along came the heat wave lasting a couple of months and crops made up for lost time, though some ripened fast and cropped heavily, but over a shorter period. Although the long hot sunny days were a tonic it came with very dry weather so constant watering was necessary to keep plants alive.

Strawberries were first off the block. Fruits were large and sweet with early, midseason and autumn fruiting varieties all fruiting together. Unfortunately that this gave us a glut, then from mid July onwards there was none left. I hope my autumn perpetual variety Flamenco picks up again as we go through summer. At City Road Allotments everyone was getting great crops, so although I never

Saskatoons in fruit

netted all my strawberry rows, I only noticed two berries which the local blackbirds had eaten. They could have been spoiled for choice.

Blackcurrants got picked in early July with massive crops and huge berries. Big Ben was smaller than expected but very sweet, whereas Ben Conan was not so sweet but fruit size was huge. Crops gave us plenty to eat fresh, some for compote, some for jam, some in the freezer for future use and enough for my three demijohns of wine.

Redcurrants were very sweet but did not crop as heavily as last year, so no redcurrant wine brewing in 2018. They also suffered a bad attack of leaf blister aphids.

Gooseberries gave a massive crop which weighed many branches down to the ground and sawfly maggots swarmed out when I took my eye off the ball for a couple of days. I just managed to tackle them with a quick spray before they did too much damage. Huge crops will give plenty for the kitchen and I will get my three demijohns of vintage gooseberry wine. Some berries were lost due to hot sunshine blistering the fruit making it unusable.

Raspberry Glen Dee

Raspberries were doing just fine putting on a lot of growth in the sunny weather coupled with my constant watering, then along came the early summer gales and two rows got flattened. Strong tall cane growth with full foliage cover got hit so hard that the supporting posts broke off at ground level and flattened a couple of rows. Once the gale died down Glen Dee got its posts replaced, but a lot of canes of autumn fruiting Polka snapped off at ground level. Picking continues however on Glen Dee and Glen Fyne, and the remnants of Polka are also producing a crop of massive berries.

Apple The Oslin

Saskatoons are having a fantastic year with heavy crops of large sweet black fruiting bunches easy to pick. Nets were put in place in mid July, but this year there is no sign of our marauding blackbird. Plenty fruits to eat, freeze and brew, as this makes another fantastic wine after its three years maturing in demijohns.

Bramble Helen was always reliable to give the first fruits in August, but this year the first fruits were ready in mid July, and sweeter than ever.

Apple Oslin, the Arbroath Pippin is usually my first apple of the season. It is quite delicious, but can suffer a lot of brown rot in a bad year, but not this year without any rain. First fruits were picked at the end of July, with more to follow and Discovery ripening fast so not far behind.

Wee jobs to do this week

Pea crops in succession

Many crops such as salads, onions, turnips, beetroot, peas and early potatoes are ripening ahead of normal due to the hot summer and some three years old strawberry beds which have finished cropping are getting grubbed out. All of these areas can be used for another quick maturing crop of lettuce, spring onions, rocket, radish and early peas. Give them a light fork over, firm down, raking level and adding some fertiliser before sowing. Watering will be essential if the ground is dry.

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SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS

SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS

Hydrangea Charme

Shrubs are invaluable planted around garden perimeters to establish boundaries, give some privacy and adjacent to patio areas to shelter from winds. However this hot summer has seen us look for a shady and windy spot to keep cool away from the blistering sun, though this all changes when temperatures return to normal and we start to seek

Berberis darwinii

out a sunny sheltered spot. Shrubs come in all sizes from ground cover Cistus to huge Philadelphus, Viburnums and Lilacs. Some may be evergreen like the Ceanothus smothered in blue blossom in early summer and the Euonymus which is grown for its colourful foliage in silvers and gold rather than its flowers, but it is a great ground cover plant that stands out in a crowd. Shrub roses were covered a few weeks ago, but must be included in a top selection of the best colourful shrubs.

For those gardening on dry soils or at a maritime location on sand Senecio, Cistus, Rosemary, Lavender, brooms, (Cytisus) and gorse (Genista) and many shrub roses will be happy to grow there.

Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Camellias are late spring to early summer shrubs that prefer a more moist soil that retains moisture, but is still well drained and tends towards a more acidic nature. Down at ground level the heathers (Erica and

Cistus Silver Pink

Calluna) are brilliant to cover ground, smother weeds, are easy to maintain and most flower from early spring e.g. Erica carnea, till autumn with Calluna H. E. Beale. Hypericum calycinum is also great for ground cover provided it keeps clear of rust.

A few good low to medium flowering shrubs will include the Potentilla, Senecio, Cistus purpureus and Silver Pink, Hypericum Hidcote, Hydrangea Charme and Helianthemums. Where there is plenty room try some of the larger shrubs like the white scented Philadelphus, Lilacs, Escallonia, Berberis darwinii and Buddleia. Eucryphia with a mass of white flowers in mid summer is probably a small columnar tree, but can be a shrub size for many years. Buddleia is another large shrub, but is pruned to six inches from

Euonymus

the ground every winter. It can easily grow six to eight feet in one summer depending on weather and produces a large flower spike in a range of colours, though my favourite was always the dark purple Black Knight. Fuchsia Mrs Popple normally grows up to five feet tall, but can get cut back to ground level in winter but nearly always recover and put on good growth in spring. By summer they are back to four feet tall and in flower.

Fences and walls are favourite places for climbing shrubs Solanum crispum has potato like flowers and can be very vigorous. It is very attractive in flower, but it produces berries that are highly poisonous. Eccremocarpus scaber is an evergreen

Fuchsia Mrs Popple

with orange tubular flowers. It can be difficult to get established, but then becomes quite rampant.

Clematis and Honeysuckle need something to clamber up, and the honeysuckle has an outstanding perfume. Clematis montana rubens puts on a fantastic show in early summer and just loves to scramble if space permits.

Saskatoons

Wee jobs to do this week

Saskatoon bushes started to turn colour early July so nets had to

be put in place to stop birds feeding on the crop. Blackbirds totally love these berries due to their sweetness. Picking will start towards the middle of the month and last about two weeks. Berries are eaten fresh in breakfast cereal, at lunch with raspberries and yogurt, and made into jam with the addition of some rhubarb as the acidity of the rhubarb balances the sweetness of the saskatoons. There is always a spare batch of about 10.5 pounds for my annual three demijohns of wine.

City Road Allotment Gardens have their Open Day on Sunday 29^th July from 11am to 3pm with plenty of fruit, vegetables, flowers, jams, chutney and of course tablet for the kids. The community hut will be offering teas, coffee and home baking. Visitors are welcome to wander round our plots and see how we grow our fruit and vegetables as well as exotic figs, cherries, sweet corn and outdoor grapes.

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PEONIES

PEONIES

Peonies are herbaceous perennials that have huge bright flowers that can be show stealers in the garden during May and June. They are very easy to grow on most soils but prefer one with some clay in it provided it is well drained. Plant in full sun or partial shade. Purchase bare root plants in the dormant season or containerised ones at any time.

Peony Shima Nishiki

Tree peonies are usually container grown and come as grafted plants. Normally plant the herbaceous types so the dormant buds are just below the surface as they do not like deep planting and this would inhibit flowering for a few years.

Peony suffruticosa

Prepare soil by digging over and adding plenty of compost or well rotted manure as they can be gross feeders to support large strong healthy leaves. Plant the tree peonies with the graft union a few inches below the surface. This will encourage it to grow its own roots and prevent the top breaking off at the graft union in strong gales. Deep planting will also discourage suckering from the rootstock, but if disaster occurs do not dig them out and discard as the rootstock can also flower and be very attractive. If the tree peony has been propagated from cuttings, then plant at the same depth as in the pot. All peonies are best supported with strong staking as the huge flowers are heavy and will bend over if not supported and suffer from soil splashing the blooms in wet weather.

Peony panoramio

The flowers can be very impressive as a cut flower in a vase, and some varieties are lightly scented.

Good varieties for scent include the pale pink Alexander Fleming and Raspberry Sundae, white Festiva Maxima and Krinkled White, the pale yellow Honey Gold and pink Tom Eckhardt.

Peonies do not seem to suffer from many pests and diseases but occasionally mildew may affect them, as can botrytis of the flowers and leaves in a wet year. Remove any infections to prevent the disease from spreading. Sometimes caterpillars can eat at the foliage, but are easily spotted so just

Peony Sarah Bernhardt

remove them by hand. Ants sometimes swarm onto the large flower buds as they often have a sticky secretion but soon disappear once the flowers open.

Herbaceous peonies well worth growing include the red Big Ben, Bunker Hill, General MacMahon and Karl Rosenfield, the white Avalanche and the very popular pale pink Sara Bernhardt and Pink Parfait. My favourite is the huge flowered pink with yellow centre Doreen.

Tree peonies are not so common being frequently sold as the more expensive grafted plant, and also come in a huge variety of colours. Tree peonies are actually deciduous medium sized shrubs. Select a sheltered spot, as although they are perfectly hardy, a late frost can damage the flowers. Paeonia delavayi has maroon flowers with yellow centres, Shima Nishiki has red flowers, Alice Harding is a double with lemon yellow flowers, Hai Huang has lemon flowers, Duchess of Kent is another double with deep rose red flowers

Propagation of the herbaceous types is usually by division of the tuberous roots during the dormant season. They re-establish very easily and often small roots left behind will grow into a new plant. Established clumps are best lifted and divided after about four or five years, though often some clumps left untouched can continue to grow, flourish and flower for many years to come.

A dressing of a general fertiliser in spring will feed the hungry plant and a mulch of well rotted compost will help the plant through a dry summer, but keep the mulch away from the crown. Water the plants in the summer if dry weather persists. In late summer cut back the foliage and add to the compost heap. As peonies do not emerge till late spring they can be under planted with some snowdrops, aconites and crocus as companion planting to give a good display in early spring.

Picking baby beetroot

Wee jobs to do this week

Root vegetables grown from seed are often thinned out in stages. Beetroot has the first thinning to about an inch apart. Small roots then develop but as final thinning leaves roots spaced four to six inches apart, these final thinnings can gives beetroot a perfect size for a crop of baby beet. The leaves are also young fresh and tender so make a perfect and very healthy drink once liquidised. The red stems and fresh green leaves can also be sliced and sautéed in a pan for a few minutes with a little butter and garlic. They are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

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GARDENING WITH TROPICAL WEATHER

GARDENING WITH TROPICAL WEATHER

Garden activities have always been dependant on prevailing weather. We expect frost and snow in winter, followed by increasing temperatures in

Aurelia with home grown mushrooms and strawberries

spring then onwards to our erratic summer of sun, rain and wind. Climate change appears to be happening so we are left trying to tie garden work somewhere in between normal seasonal weather

Dave hoeing his weeds

and its frequent variations. 2018 got off to a weird start as a mild winter continued into spring which almost failed to arrive. Then we were quickly thrust into summer for the whole month of May, until the storms arrived followed by gales. The rain passed away, summer returned and decided to stay for a few weeks. Both the gardener and his plants were left in complete bewilderment. Summer turned tropical. It was so hot that I had to find a shady spot for my sun lounger, but the garden plants (those that recovered from the gales) just adored it, provided the hose came out on a daily basis to make sure they never dried out. Growth and flowering have never been better. We may have been running three to four weeks behind in spring but now many crops are ahead and harvesting has started. My

Casablanca first early potatoes

first row of lettuce Lollo Rossa and spring onions have all been lifted and used, and my second row of spring onions and lettuce, Webbs Wonderful are getting used regularly.

The hot dry weather has been fantastic for hoeing weeds as they quickly shrivel up, and while it is dry there is very little germination of new weeds, apart from those areas which get irrigated.

Potato Casablanca, a first early has been getting lifted from early June, with excellent size for a salad spud, and the taste of this potato is fantastic. Other potatoes have now all finished flowering

Dave with his great cherry crop

and with very strong healthy foliage bulking up is well under way. Blight may well give us a miss this year as long as the sun shines and rain is just the occasional shower.

Cabbage, cauliflower and kale are growing very strongly, and it seems the normal spacing has been too close as they all want to grow to exhibition size.

Delosperma cooperii

Courgettes and Pumpkins are also growing like fury, though I have to keep them well watered. My first courgettes were ready at the end of June. These cucurbits are sharing space with my sweet corn Incredible, now about four to five feet tall, very robust and now beginning to flower.

Brilliant to see so much luxuriant growth.

Strawberry picking started in mid June with berries in abundance on early, mid season, late season and even my autumn perpetual Flamenco is cropping. However my new variety on trial, Colossus, turns out no bigger than any others, but has a high level of small misshapen fruit and a very low level of crop. It will be getting dug out and discarded in a few weeks time.

Raspberry Glen Fyne started to crop at the beginning of July and crop potential looks enormous. Raspberry Glen Dee suffered in the gales, but is recovering and also looks great. Autumn raspberry Polka got flattened with many canes broken, so looks like I will be depending on old favourite Autumn Bliss which was unharmed and now growing strongly.

Grape Siegerrebe

Fig tree Brown Turkey may not yet be in full foliage as many of the large leaves suffered in the gales, but it is determined to put on more growth to feed the huge crop of figs that just love this tropical climate. I hope to pick my first figs this month.

Cherry trees are having a great year and fellow plot holder Dave has had to protect his huge crop from birds who just love the juicy fresh cherries. Another plot holder Aurelia has had a terrific crop of mushrooms which she has grown in an old barrel full of compost.

The flower garden has never been better; with star of the show my purple Delosperma cooperii.

Apples after thinning

Tomatoes are well ahead with the first Alicante ready to pick in early July and yellow cherry Sungold now turning colour. Grapes under glass have huge bunches which may need thinning.

Wee jobs to do this week

The June drop has now thinned out the apple crop, but most trees are still carrying too many apples so go over the tree and thin clusters out to leave only one or two apples per spur. This will ensure they grow to a decent size.

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