SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

We have waited a long time for some decent sunshine and a warm breeze that wasn’t blasting down from the north. Every year has its own climate that just seems to be different from all the past ones. Plants respond to both day length, temperature and rainfall, and this year we have to factor in continual strong winds that shrivelled up any soft leaves. The cool year has held back growth on most plants, which have then pushed their energy into fruiting and flowering. Daffodils kept flowering into early summer and tulips lasted for ages. So did my rhododendrons and azaleas, which put on a brilliant display lasting into early July. Most fruit crops are looking fantastic.

Fruit crops

Fruit trees are all laden down with heavy crops that will have to be thinned, as the June drop this month did not remove enough fruitlets from my apple trees. I needed to give them an extra fertiliser boost to help swell up the crop.

This year I have at least thirty fruits on my outdoor peach and although I have removed all infected leaves with peach leaf curl, the remaining growth is slow to recover. Time will tell how they develop in a few weeks time.

My cherry tree also got a heavy crop, but a lot of fruit never ripened and just fell off. The black fly infected all the terminal shoots which had to be cut back, but removing these tips is also a form of spur pruning so no harm done.

Outdoor grape vines are now all showing reasonable growth and Phoenix is just covered in numerous wee bunches of grapes. There is at least two bunches per shoot so some thinning out was needed. Summer pruning all strong growth continues to keep the vines under control.

My new blackcurrant Big Ben does seem to have larger fruit than other varieties and also ripens up a week or two earlier than Ben Conan, but bramble Reuben only grew two foot tall before the primocanes started to fruit. Similarly my new autumn raspberry Polka has only grown three feet tall before fruiting commenced, but that may not be a bad point.

My fig tree just seems to get better every year. Last year I got over eighty ripe figs as I never removed any figlets the previous year ahead of winter and these survived and produced a heavy crop. I did the same again for 2015 and now I hope to get over one hundred figs with the first ready in early August.

Vegetables

Cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, root crops and salads all seem to enjoy the cooler summer but are now putting on some growth. Onions were very slow as they enjoy warmer weather, and as the dry weather prevailed all spring I had to keep them watered. This can bring on white rot, but thankfully not this year, and now they are growing vigorously in the summer heat.

Leek seedlings have spurted into growth so they have now all been transplanted.

Broad beans are not as tall as last year but the crop looks just as heavy. Dwarf French beans were sown in early May when the ground was really too cold, but germination was still very good and thinning had to be carried out to leave plants four to six inches apart.

Potatoes are also thriving in the cooler year and most are now flowering. I dug up a few shaws of my International Kidney as it is a real treat to sample the first your own home grown spuds.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep removing the old flower heads from roses, poppies and other summer bedding plants growing in borders, tubs and hanging baskets.

Take cutting of Rosemary and Lavender as the shoots should now be mature and will root easy.

Wallflower seed sown a few weeks ago will now be ready to transplant into nursery rows to grow into bushy plants for autumn planting.

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ROOM FOR BIG ROSES

ROOM FOR BIG ROSES

I have been a rose lover all my gardening life. In the early days a garden with roses was a sign of wealth, but with good training we could order a hundred Rosa canina briar very cheaply and bud our own plants with nearly 80% take. Later I discovered a new rootstock, Rosa multiflora, which was more difficult to bud, but gave terrific roses.

I grew hybrid teas, floribundas, ramblers and climbers, and a few shrubs. My council house in St. Mary’s was too small for large roses, but I could use three walls for climbers, so it was Zephrine Drouhin on the west wall, Etoile du Hollande on the east wall and Gloire de Dijon on the north wall. Today, these would not be my favourite choice, as we now have many more to choose from and more information at our finger tips just a mouse click away.

As life moved on and I moved from one house to another my gardens slowly got bigger so my choice of roses also changed as I had more space to try out some really big cracking roses.

I now grow climbers on many walls and fences but also give space to some shrub roses.

Rose breeders have spent so much time over the years bringing out the most colourful flower to increase sales, but with little regard for the plants health. The gardening public do not have access to the range of chemicals available to commercial growers so we have a problem with disease from black spot to mildew and rust. So when a rose grower brings out his latest catalogue describing his brilliant new varieties all with strong healthy foliage, take it with a pinch of salt. I have tried numerous bush and shrub roses over the years, only to discard them as they suffered uncontrollable rose diseases. However if you go back to the old roses still available before the rose breeders mucked them about you will find most of them to be quite healthy.

A few favourites

Ispahan was introduced from Persia hundreds of years ago. It is a deep pink, highly scented damask rose growing up to eight feet tall with very healthy foliage. One of my favourites.

Canary Bird is a similar size but is one of the earliest in bloom with deep yellow single flowers arriving in late spring.

I no longer have a north wall, but would recommend climbing Iceberg or my other favourite massive rose Mme Alfred Carrier, also with white flowers and a lovely scent. This one has grown twelve feet tall with me, and takes some controlling.

My south walls are clothed with my grape vine Brant which needs the heat to ripen up its grapes but also the deep red climbing rose Dublin Bay. It is really fantastic as it reaches over sixteen feet tall and smothers itself with red flowers, but unfortunately it has no scent.

Another deep red but with a great scent for a south wall is the climbing sport of Ena Harkness. The flowers have always had weak necks so the large blooms hang down, but as a climber this is an advantage. Another massive red scented climber that needs plenty of space is Etoile du Hollande.

Gertrude Jekyll is a shrub rose that can also make a perfect climber if you train it up a wall. Mine is restricted to about ten feet tall. It gets covered in early summer with scented old English pink roses, and often has a second flush in autumn.

For the garden with room to spare another three large growing roses worth a trial are Morning Jewel, Gregoir Staechelin  and Alberic Barbier.

Wee jobs to do this week

Start Continue to sow summer salads such as lettuce, radish, rocket, corn salad, mustard and mizuna. I find that spring onions give poor germination outdoors up north, so I sow them in cellular trays in my greenhouse then transplant them into the soil when a decent size. There is still time to sow beetroot, autumn carrots and a fast growing pea such as Kelvedon Wonder on land recently cleared after lifting the first early potatoes.

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STRAWBERRIES

STRAWBERRIES

I have enjoyed growing strawberries all my life for a variety of reasons. Summer would be incomplete without some fresh strawberries and I have always felt I am eating a very healthy fresh fruit that has to be really good for you. However there is also the nostalgia of memories of childhood when we went berry picking as soon as the school holidays arrived. It was both raspberries and strawberry picking around Dundee but I always made more money at the strawberries and I preferred to pop the occasional strawberry in my mouth rather than a few rasps.

Today commercial strawberry growing is no place for kids, and all the plants have moved indoors under tunnels. This gives better control of seasonal picking so the grower can supply the market with fresh berries over a far longer period using a range of varieties grown from cold stored runners.

As gardeners we can also extend our season and pick fresh fruit from the middle of M

Strawberry Elsanta

ay till October using several varieties and putting the earliest one under a low polythene tunnel.

Culture

Planting runners

Strawberries will grow on a wide variety of soils provided it is well drained, weed free and fertile. It also helps if the rows run north to south in a sunny spot and cropping is best if the site has some shelter. Planting can be done with freshly dug runners in late summer to early spring or later with cold stored runners. Plants are normally planted a foot apart in rows spaced three feet apart. Don’t be tempted to space the rows closer as you will need that spacing to straddle the rows for picking.

If using your own runners and they are plentiful you can plant thicker along the row to give a heavier crop in the first year. When growth commences and runners start to form these can be trained along the rows to give a matted row of more young plants, or rooted runners can be used for planting up the next bed or given to friends.

Once the small fruits begin to swell in early May bed some straw along the rows under the fruit to prevent soil being splashed by rain onto the fruit. Then as they start to colour up sprinkle some slug pellets along the rows to control slugs and snails and put nets over the strawberry bed to keep the blackbirds from pecking them.

Strawberry Flamenco and rasp Autumn Bliss in October

Pick about twice a week in season. As soon as the crop is finished it helps to chop down the old foliage and remove it and the straw to the compost heap. This will allow fresh growth from the crowns so fruit buds for the following year can be initiated in autumn.

Extended fruiting

There are many varieties to choose from so experiment to find those best suited to your own conditions and taste buds. I start off my season using the variety Mae which gets a low polythene tunnel placed over the row in early March after the plants have had a fair amount of winter chill.

This is followed by a row of Mae without tunnels. I then go onto my main crop variety of Elsanto, but have also grown many others, and all been very good. This is followed by a couple of late varieties Symphony and Florence taking me into August, but then my perpetual variety Flamenco will continue to crop till the frosts come in November. However although the berries still look great in late autumn they are pretty tasteless without sun and warmth to sweeten up the fruit.

Wee jobs to do this week

Spring flowering shrubs such as forsythia and early summer flowering ones such as Ceanothus can now be lightly pruned to encourage some growth in the summer months which will ripen up by winter and flower next year. Remove straggly shoots, ones that are too low down and trailing along the ground, and any dead branches from the middle. Do not cut shrubs into square or round shapes. That may look tidy, but is very amateurish and destroys the natural attractive shape of each individual shrub.

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A WEEK ON THE PLOT

A WEEK ON THE PLOT

I find I can get the best results from my wee allotment plot if everything is well planned in advance, and activities only vary to a lesser extent as weather permits. However we all know what happens to the best well laid plans. In the middle of June I would be expecting all my seeds and plants to be in the ground, getting well established, while hoeing out the odd weed and spending a lot of time relaxing in the sun watching the crops grow. No such luck, the sun only appears very briefly for a couple of days, then the cold north winds return, plants get blown over and my sun lounger goes back in the shed. Rain has been very sparing which is great for holiday makers but not so good for gardeners. The hose has been in constant use for several weeks, especially to keep my pumpkins and courgettes happy. Crops are still running at least two weeks late, but there is still time for a catch up if our luck turns around. We just need a few days of heavy rain, over night preferably, followed by a long period of hot sunny weather.

Vegetables

Sweet corn planting is now complete but establishment slow as cool weather continues to hold back growth. Watering has been a constant task as the ground is still very dry.

Pumpkins, courgettes and squashes are now all planted, and also need plenty of watering to keep them growing.

Onions are well established, but some warm weather would be welcome to give their growth a boost. Peas, broad beans, dwarf French beans are also now into a bit of growth, and the cool weather is doing no harm to my root crops. However clubroot resistant Swede Invitation failed to germinate. Not one seed germinated from the whole packet. This is another case of very bad seed from the same supplier that gave me the first batch of sweet corn where I got two plants from eighty seeds. I wont be sending any more seed orders to Devon again.

Fruit

Apples have a huge crop that will need thinning out after the June drop in July (Scottish climate)

Peaches have managed to get through the pollination stage with over thirty small fruits wanting to grow. However Peach leaf curl has been devastating and their may not be enough healthy leaves left for a crop to develop.
Figs look like having another great year with potential of eighty fruits possible, if we get some warmer weather.

Blackcurrants look excellent and Big Ben fruit size may yet live up to its name.

Gooseberries are also showing a huge crop which this year have not been troubled with sawfly.

Outdoor grape Phoenix looks quite impressive this year compared to Solaris, Muscat Bleu and Polo Muscat. Growth is strong and there is a lot of grape bunches.

Flowers

Flag Iris and poppy Ladybird are the star attractions on the plot adding a bit of colour to my front border. Geraniums, African marigolds and petunias will follow on later.

Roses are also starting to flower, but keeping greenfly off the growing shoots has been a big task.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep watching for greenfly, caterpillars and gooseberry sawfly larvae and remove immediately.

Make sure the strawberries are protected from birds by netting and slugs by sprinkling some slug pellets along the rows.

Dead head annual poppies once the flowers are finished so they can continue to bloom for several weeks. Some will keep flowering well into autumn.

The compost heap will be getting bigger, so now is a good time to give it a turn over to let the worms have some fresh material to work on.

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EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

Early summer is that in between stage, when the bulbs and other spring flowers are all finished and the summer flowers and roses have not yet got started.  It is often said to be the green phase in the garden, as it rests after the spring floral feast to build up its reserves for the summer bonanza.

Yet when we look around there seems to be no lack of plants in flower from ground cover, border plants, herbaceous and shrubs.

The old foliage from snowdrops, aconites, daffs and tulips has all been removed and added to the compost heap, and hoeing for weeds is on its second run. Once this old foliage is gone, we see quite a few bare patches which is ideal to use up all our spare bedding plants of geraniums, begonias, impatiens, petunias. We now have a clean garden completely planted up, so there is nothing to spoil our summer flowers. We can wander around and enjoy the odd flowers during this in between stage.

It is surprising to find that a lot of these flowers belong to the poppy family. The boldest displays come from the herbaceous oriental poppies with their massive bright red flowers. Another herbaceous perennial is the deep blue flowered Himalayan blue poppies which are not bold but a very relaxing deep sky blue colour. Then the biennial Iceland poppies which are semi naturalised in our garden give us the orange, white and lemon yellow flowers. We have two annual poppies that have become established as an annual event without any sowing or planting. They just reseed themselves every year, and they put on such a fantastic display that we just let them get on with it. These are the orange Californian poppy and poppy Ladybird which is bright red with a black blotch.

Another herbaceous plant at its best in June is the flag iris. There are numerous bold and very colourful varieties to choose from so go for the best. They have colour and scent and are very easy to grow in a sunny spot with very well drained soil.

Back at ground level the succulent Delosperma nubigenum growing only an inch high, but smothers the ground so no weeds can compete, and is a mass of yellow daisy type flowers providing you give it a sunny well drained spot. I have several plants growing in crevices in our tall retaining walls. They don’t have any soil, and get dried out very quickly, but they just seem to love it.

Slightly taller are several Campanulas at three inches tall but covered in deep blue purple flowers.

Then the garden pinks growing up to a foot tall give us a whole range of red, pink, mauve and white highly scented flowers.

Garden shrubs are often used to give us shelter and privacy and provide the intermediate stage between garden plants and trees, but many can also be highly attractive when in flower. For dry sunny gardens the Cistus types such as Silver Pink and Cistus purpureus are at their best in June as is the taller blue flowered Ceanothus thyrsiflorus.

Again another medium sized shrub for the seaside and drier gardens is the dwarf brooms, Cytisus praecox and Genista hispanica, both of which are a mass of bright yellow flowers.

Wee jobs to do this week

Greenfly are having a great time so check over vulnerable plants and rub off where practicable. Blackcurrants and gooseberries are a bit prone so remove the growing tips if badly infected.

Now that the weather has improved and weed have started to grow this is an ideal time to spray with roundup weedkiller, especially if perennial weeds are a problem. Some weeds such as Japanese knotweed, mares tail and even couch grass may need two sprays a month apart. On cultivated soils keep the hoe going to keep on top of annual weeds.

In the greenhouse ventilate every day to keep a buoyant atmosphere so condensation does not build up over night. Good ventilation also helps to prevent fungus diseases on tomatoes, cucumbers and grape vines.

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AN EARLY HARVEST

AN EARLY HARVEST

The feel good factor runs high when the first crops of the year are advanced enough to pick. After a rhubarb picking in April, this usually starts off at the beginning of May with lettuce Hilde overwintered outdoors in a sheltered spot. The outside leaves may be a bit storm battered but the centres are soft and tender and the fresh flavour is hard to match. This is followed by the radish, lettuce and spring onion grown under my low polythene tunnels on the allotment. First crops are ready in early May in a normal year, but mid May in this cold year with strong cool winds. Radish grow very fast under a tunnel, so this crop was soon used up and the space used for a second batch of spring onions grown from seed germinated in plug trays.

The tunnel also has a small batch of beetroot but it will be mid June before we can enjoy some fresh baby beet.

Strawberry Mae grown under tunnels started to crop in mid May and will provide the first batch of fruit for the next three weeks before Elsanta ripens up.

Overwintered crops, (leeks, kale, Swedes, sprouts, cauliflower Aalsmeer and parsnips) are all finished apart from a batch of rocket salad leaves which started to go to seed, but was then cut back to give some more young leaves. Red stemmed chard also ran to seed and was promptly cut back to give more young shoots in a few weeks time.

Spring cabbage suffered a lot of clubroot disease, so remaining plants were quickly used up.

Now we are in June and warmer weather is quite possible, some of my early sown Golden Ball turnips can start to be lifted as small roots to allow the rest more space.

Rocket sown at the end of March is now just about ready for the first harvest of leaves, and once it grows a wee bit bigger I can remove last years row of rocket.

We must not forget our old and well established clumps of rhubarb which have been giving us fresh sticks since the end of April. Timperley Early is always the first to pick. It will be used for compote mixed with some frozen strawberries from last year as well as a jam blended with Saskatoon berries also from the freezer. Saskatoons have a sweetness that is enhanced by the acidity of the rhubarb.

Early potato International Kidney was planted at the end of March. Although weather has been cool with strong winds we have not had any frosts so growth has got away quite strongly. Earthing up was completed in mid May and I hope to sample my first salad spuds at the end of this month, though a lot depends on the weather. The first pickings will give smaller potatoes if a wee bit too early, but that is no loss if the taste of those first salad potatoes is to die for. A useful guide to harvesting is when the first flowers appear as the plant is then mature, though bulking up is only just starting.

Wee jobs to do this week

Finish off planting up any bare areas in the flower borders using spare summer bedding plants such as impatiens, marigolds, geraniums or petunias.

Spring flowering hanging baskets with polyanthus and pansies have been replaced with summer flowers, but the pansies still had plenty of flowers to come so they have found a spot between some young newly planted shrubs. The polyanthus have been lined out to grow on, and will be used for bedding in the autumn to flower the following spring.

Sow wallflower seed thinly in rows outdoors, and then after a couple of months they will be ready to transplant into nursery rows to grow into strong bushy plants for autumn planting. They are perfect for flower beds with tall Darwin hybrid tulips planted in between each plant for a glorious spring display.

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POTTERING AROUND

POTTERING AROUND

Early summer is the time of year when we have caught up with most of the major gardening tasks, but there is a never ending list of wee jobs needing our attention, so we potter around. Then as we complete one wee job we sit down in the sun and have a coffee.

Most of the allotment is now planted up and the long cool spell of relatively dry weather has meant that weeds have not been much of a problem so far. However my tatties have emerged and earthing up should keep them happy for a fair bit.

Other vegetables

Beetroot, turnip and parsnip all germinated quite well so thinning was needed to let individual plants have room to grow. Germination of peas has been very poor, but I put that down to bad seed, as my supplier, who also supplies many of us at City Road, won’t be getting any repeat orders next year. Other seed supplied from same source has been very poor. There are plenty other places to try for our seed orders. Leeks germinated a month ago but growth has been very slow so transplanting is still a fortnight away. Onion Hytech grown from seed and planted out several weeks ago is also growing very slowly, but lack of any warm weather does them no favours.

Cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts have all been transplanted and are establishing well. Both cabbage and cauliflower are being sown in three stages several weeks apart so I can harvest small quantities over a longer period, cutting out previous year’s gluts. Keep an eye out for the cabbage white butterfly caterpillers and remove as soon as seen.

Courgettes, squashes and pumpkins have now all been planted out as it is the right time by the calendar, but I would be happier if we got a bit warmer weather to cheer them up.

Remove poly tunnels from early salads as the weather is warmer and this will reduce the need for constant watering. Radish, lettuce and spring onions have all been ready for use since mid May.

Fruit crops

Put nets on strawberries unless they are under polythene tunnels, and bed them along the rows with straw to prevent soil splashing onto the developing fruit. Although I feel our seasons are running a fortnight later than normal, I was happy with my first picking of strawberries under tunnels the third week in May.

Remove diseased leaves from peaches infected by peach leaf curl.

Fruit crop potential from bushes and trees looks excellent at this stage except for my peaches and pears. They flowered quite late, and there were plenty of bees around, but at that time there was any amount of other plants in full flower so bees could be choosy. So although there was plenty of flowers on the trees the crops looks to be very scarce.

Flowers

Thin out annual flowers such as poppies, calendulas and godetia sown from seeds if germination is good, or use some as transplants.

Prune kerria, spirea arguta and forsythia and other spring flowering shrubs, removing old flowering shoots so new growth can fill the space and ripen up in the autumn for flowering next spring.

Dead head rhododendrons and azaleas once flowering has finished so they can keep their strength for producing strong young shoots which will flower next year.

Plant up hanging baskets, beds and tubs with geraniums, begonias, petunias, impatiens and trailing lobelia to give us the summer colours.

Wee jobs to do this week

Turn compost heap once it is a couple of feet deep

Keep pruning grape vine sideshoots to one leaf only now that the bunches have been secured.

Remove sideshoots from tomatoes grown as cordons and continue weekly high potash feeds.

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PLANT OUT THE TENDER PLANTS

PLANT OUT THE TENDER PLANTS

Summer is a bit late this year so I have been in no rush to plant out my sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins or runner beans. Early June still gives plenty of time for these crops which will soon put on strong growth once the warmer weather arrives. Most of these plants have been raised from seed inside on a warm windowsill, then after germination, transferred to the cold greenhouse. It was late May before the weather warmed up sufficiently to put them outdoors for hardening off.

In the meantime land allocated for them has had a clover green manure crop sown down in March. Growth was quite slow this year due to lack of warmth, but eventually I got quite a thick stand of clover for digging in a fortnight ahead of planting.

Sweet corn

The ground was raked level and some fertiliser added. I usually take out a shallow furrow to mark the rows. Sweet corn was planted in one large square block with plants spaced about eighteen inches apart each way. The plants require wind pollination as the female cobs get their pollen from the male tassels. If the land is in good heart and kept weeded and watered in any dry spells they should be just fine as they are little troubled by pests or diseases.

Pumpkins and Courgettes

These both like the same 

growing conditions of well cultivated and 

composted soil, added fertiliser and watering and feeding in summer. Again they do not suffer much pests or diseases though mice can nibble young courgettes. Allow plenty of room for them to grow with spacing plants three feet apart. Two courgette plants are quite enough for normal use and three plants for a larger family with ample spare courgettes to hand out to anyone passing by the plot. In a good summer they can produce an embarrassing number of courgettes, and when they grow too big to use as a delicacy because you are not eating them fast enough, find a good soup recipe as this is not only delicious and very healthy, but any surplus can be frozen and stored. I grow about five pumpkin plants and try to get one or two fruits from each. When growth starts to wander all over the plot it is time for a wee prune provided you have got a couple of decent sized fruits. Harvest them once they have attained the bright orange colour usually towards the end of October and store them in a cool but frost free place. They should last till the following spring. With large pumpkins it is best to cut them up into smaller slices for roasting then the skin is easy to remove. The flesh can be used as a vegetable or soup or as a sweet in a pie and stores a long time in the freezer.

Runner beans

These also enjoy a rich well drained soil that holds moisture and prefer a more alkaline soil rather than one too acidic. Plant out about a foot apart in early June or sow seeds at that time. Grow them on a wigwam support, trellis, tall fence or the traditional double row of eight foot canes leaning inwards and crossing at six feet with horizontal canes tied in to secure the frame. They will soon find the canes and twine around them as they reach upwards.

Wee jobs to do this week

Give support to all tall growing herbaceous plants such as oriental poppies, peonies, delphiniums and pyrethrums as we seem to be in a period of strong winds.

Now that warmer weather has arrived weeds are starting to become a nuisance so keep the hoe going or pull them out and add them to the compost heap as long as they are just annual weeds.

Keep checking the tips of roses, blackcurrants and gooseberries and other plants with young succulent shoots as greenfly will very quickly multiply. At this stage they squash quite easily.

Gooseberries are also prone to attacks by the sawfly larvae, so be vigilant and continue to squash as necessary.

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UNDER GLASS

UNDER GLASS

The greenhouse has been straining to cope with young growing plants waiting on a decent spell for hardening off. Dahlias and African marigolds have been out during the day but as our weather forecasters keep threatening us with an overnight frost they go back indoors for protection over night. Geraniums have been hardened off ages ago but cold nights and severe winds have shredded a lot of the leaves. They may look a bit sad, but they are tough and will grow out of it once summer arrives.

A second sowing of cabbage and spring onions were grown under glass, but have now been hardened off and planted out.

Early spray chrysanthemums have all rooted well and have been potted up so they are also outside for hardening off. They are destined for planting on the allotment to brighten it up and provide cut flower for the house. Fuchsias and Impatiens are still under glass as I don’t want to chance exposure while this cool windy spell prevails.

My sweet corn has been moved outside to harden off as glasshouse space is fully used up with tomatoes planted in one border and tuberous begonias, young geranium cuttings recently rooted and aubergines taking up other borders and paths.

Courgettes and pumpkins grown from seed are coming along just fine but cold winds prevent me putting them outdoors to harden off as my garden is quite exposed to winds.

Tomatoes are again planted in borders hoping I can get another decent crop in really good soil which has had plenty rotted compost added a few months ago. The border also got a dressing of a general fertiliser to get the plants established. I support my cordon grown plants with strong polypropylene binder twine dropping down from heavy duty wires tied to roof brackets. The plants are twisted around the twine as they grow. All sideshoots are removed as soon as they are long enough to break off. The first truss is in flower so feeding has commenced. A few spare plants have been potted up and will be planted outdoors against a south facing warm wall.

Grape Black Hamburg has now produced small bunches on the sideshoots coming off the upright rods so pruning has commenced. This continues almost every week till autumn, otherwise growth would be rampant at the expense of grapes. It is always worth repeating information on pruning grapes as I see so many unpruned vines taking over greenhouses. Once sideshoots show a wee bunch of grapes let them grow a few inches then nip the ends off leaving two leaves after the bunch. Thereafter nip every sideshoot after just one leaf so it can concentrate on developing the grapes.

I am trying a new grape under glass to see how it likes our Scottish climate. Siegerrebe is not new having been around for over eighty years. This pinky white grape was bred in Germany for wine and dessert use and is said to favour colder climates, so should be very happy in Scotland. I will take a few cuttings and try a plant outdoors once they root and put on a years growth.

Aubergines sown a few weeks ago have been potted up into small pots, but growth has been quite slow as they wait on warmer weather to arrive. This is a new crop for me but we all like to try something different.

Wee jobs to do this week

Plant up tubs, hanging baskets and flower borders with summer bedding plants which should now be perfectly hardened off. Most of these are quite easy to grow from seed, bulbs and corms, and you can top up to extend the range with a few special plants from garden centres. To add height to flower borders I can always find room for a few dahlias, chrysanthemums, Oriental lilies which have a strong exotic scent and even some gladioli.

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FRUIT CROPS

FRUIT CROPS

Top fruit

The dormant season may have passed but there is still time to plant fruit trees and bushes as most plants are containerised today. There is a wide variety of top fruit trees and soft fruit bushes in garden centres, but care is needed in selecting the right varieties for your own locality. Some shops and garden centres are selling plants that may not be suitable for Scottish gardens. The Scottish climate is wetter and cooler than the south of England, so some popular varieties down south such as Cox and russet apples are not great up north. However, Discovery, Katy, Fiesta and Red Devil are all good for our climate, and Bramley is still an excellent cooking apple in Scotland.

Apple Discovery

Pear Beurre Hardy and Concorde seem to do well, but Conference struggles to ripen up properly and the best flavoured Comice is a sucker for scab disease.

I lost my plum Victoria to silver leaf disease, but have replaced it with another as it has always been one of the best varieties.

Peaches grown outdoors are a gamble on getting a good year. Pollination of flowers is a real struggle and in our wetter cooler climate peach leaf curl is a major problem.

Cherries are a better prospect now that they can be grown on a dwarfing rootstock such as Gisela 5, but you need to know that they are on that stock otherwise they will grow so big that netting is impossible and the local blackbirds will reap the harvest.

Soft Fruit

Strawberry Flamenco

There are just as many new varieties of soft fruit arriving on our doorsteps, so just when you think you have the latest, out pops another type sweeter or bigger or with less thorns than the last one.

I still await my new Big Ben blackcurrant to show me if I really do have a bigger and sweeter berry than my lovely Ben Conan. I enjoy eating fresh blackcurrants straight from the bush when fully ripe, but are we ready to munch our way through a whole punnet then go back for some more.

This will also be the year to sample my first autumn fruited raspberries Polka and Autumn Treasure said to be much bigger than Autumn Bliss, and at the same time my new blackberry Reuben claimed in catalogues to be much sweeter and twice as big as other brambles. Reuben is a primocane bramble fruiting on canes grown in the same year.

Sophie picking grape Phoenix

 

My other venture into the unknown is my variety trial of grapes grown outdoors on south facing fences hoping to find the perfect Scottish grown grape. Earlier plantings gave a lot of promise before phytophthora root rot took out two good varieties, Rondo and Regent, both of which had given me small bunches of ripe grapes. These have now been replaced on land hopefully free from this disease. Solaris has been grown for several years and although slow to establish, did give me a couple of small bunches of Muscat flavoured grapes last year. Muscat Bleu and Polo Muscat are now well established so maybe I will get some grapes this autumn. Phoenix has somehow survived on my diseased ground, and had three bunches last year. Growth has started well this year, so could be another

Saskatoons ready to pick

winner if we can get a good warm and sunny autumn.

New varieties of saskatoons such as Martin, Northline JB30 and Pembina as well as Smoky and Thiessen have arrived in Scotland and will soon be available.

Strawberry Mae is just about ready under tunnels, then fresh strawberries will continue all summer with Elsanta, Florence and Symphony, then into autumn with Flamenco.

Wee jobs to do this week

Start thinning out any seedling of radish, lettuce, parsnips, turnips or even beetroot before they get too big. Lettuce thinnings can be used to increase supply if required and planted as an intercrop between sprouts or other slower growing fruit or vegetables.

Annuals sown in rows can be thinned out or used as transplants. Some types sown in cellular trays can now be planted out as plugs. I use Livingston daisies and poppies this way. They are perfect for adding colour to areas devoted to my aconites and snowdrops which will soon be dormant.

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A DAY ON THE ALLOTMENT

A DAY ON THE ALLOTMENT

As the risk of frost gets less, we can now start to sow those less hardy vegetables such as dwarf French beans and runner beans direct into the soil, provided we are out of this cold spell and the soil has warmed up. These can also be raised indoors from seed to gain an extra couple of weeks, but I find the later outdoor sowings soon grow rapidly once the warmer weather arrives. I got a bad result two years ago with an indoor sowing of French beans when the poor quality of peat free compost was so bad that all the seedlings rotted off. Outdoors, Dwarf French bean seeds are spaced a few inches apart in a single row and then thinned to four to six inches, but runner beans are planted around the base of a six foot tall wigwam support which they can then twine around.

Broad beans are now well established and starting to put on a bit of growth so now is the time to put in some stakes and twine for support. Keep them weeded and keep on the look out for blackfly on the growing points. Remove the growing points if they are a problem.

Early peas are also in need of support, even the lower growing Kelvedon Wonder which can reach four feet tall. I use the prunings from my coloured stem border as the cornus and salix get cut back to ground level every year at the end of March. The cornus reached four feet long and the willow (Salix britzensis) grew nearly ten feet last year, so is perfect for staking my peas after cutting back a wee bit. Peas also suffer attacks from pigeons, so I protect them with a couple of rows of black thread. It is an old fashioned trick but still works. Last year I lost my Goji berry which was trained up a six foot fence, so I will now use this fence for a sowing of Pea Alderman which will use the entire fence as it knows how to grow tall.

Now that family feeding is just down to two people, there is precious little sense in growing masses of cabbage and cauliflower that are all ready to eat over one month, so I now grow them in small batches over the whole season. The first batch was sown in March and is growing just fine, but now my next batch is ready to succeed them. I will sow a small batch of cauliflower Clapton and cabbage Kilaxy, both of which are clubroot resistant. This will be followed at the end of the month with a sowing of cabbage Tundra to give me my autumn and winter hardy cabbages.

Potatoes are now growing and in need of earthing up, which also helps to kill weeds.

Salads grown under my low tunnels have been giving me some early fresh radish, spring onions and lettuce leaves. They should continue for another month then the ground will be used for another sowing of peas.

Rhubarb has also been very plentiful this year as the long cool but dry spring seemed to suit it just fine.

Other crops are all at an early stage but growth has been good on onions, leeks, turnip and now my parsnips are appearing and will soon need thinning out.

Fruit crops are all showing plenty of promise. However I am waiting to see if the cold snap at the end of April has affected the fruit crop fertilisation of apples, pears, cherries and peach.

I keep checking my gooseberries for presence of sawfly maggots, but they are nowhere to be seen.

The ground underneath the bushes has been regularly disturbed then mulched in spring which must have helped to discourage them.

Wee jobs to do this week

Remove cordon trained tomato sideshoots as soon as they are big enough to handle to retain the plant strength for fruiting, and continue to feed every week with a high potassium tomato fertiliser.

Greenhouse grapes are also grown on upright rods just like a cordon with fruiting laterals growing every ten inches or so up its length. Remove any lateral that is barren and pinch out the growing point on all fruiting laterals at two leaves beyond the fruiting bunch. Thereafter as new side shoots grow keep all of them tipped after just one leaf otherwise the vine will take over the greenhouse at the expense of grapes.

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SPRING FLOWERS

SPRING FLOWERS

Early May is tulip time, and this year our dry warm spring has brought numerous other plants into flower. Our season is running at least two weeks behind normal as winter and early spring have been remarkably cool, though dry. Bulbs, rock garden plants, spring bedding plants and many spring flowering shrubs are now all competing with each other for the best display of flowers.

Bulbs

Snowdrops and aconites finished a long time ago and will soon be dying down so make sure you save seeds and scatter them to increase the size of drifts.

Doronicum

Anemone blanda is still in flower but soon they will also produce seeds for establishing bigger clumps. Daffodils, narcissi and tulips don’t spread from seeds so cut the seed heads off after flowering to save the bulbs energy for growing bigger before summer dormancy.

My earliest tulips started to flower in March with Scarlet Baby accompanying a bright yellow saxifrage. This lovely combination was also reflected a couple of weeks later with tulip Monsella and Red Riding Hood planted amongst a drift of golden herbaceous Doronicums. I intend to keep this theme going so next autumn there will be a drift of tulip Scarlet Baby getting planted amongst a large drift of blue pulmonaria.

Hyacinths have been outstanding planted and naturalised amongst my herbaceous plants. Timing is perfect as the hyacinths are in flower when herbaceous growth is only just beginning, and then they die down as the taller plants need the space.

A bed of peonies which will flower in early summer have now got an under planting of tall oriental and highly scented lilies. They will flower in mid summer and being quite tall will fit in with the peonies just fine.

Darwin Hybrid Tulips

Ground cover

Aubretia, phlox, doronicums and Japanese azaleas are now all at there best, and the spring bedding of wallflower, pansies and polyanthus are giving us a fantastic spring display. They are made all the more brilliant as this dry sunny weather has been fantastic for tulips which are lasting longer than usual.

Shrubs and trees

Forsythia and kerria have never looked better and now the scented viburnum carlesii and carlcephalum are in flower, but the best shows of colour are seen in numerous azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias. However for size and impact it is hard to beat magnolias, especially varieties of Magnolia soulangiana. My garden is too small for this one so I grow the smaller Magnolia stellata. Cherries are now stealing the show as they have height as well as flowers. The upright form of cherry Prunus Amanogawa is perfect for the small garden and the flowers are scented as well as quite prolific.

Tulip Yokohama

Even my fruiting cherry Cherokee has given a great display. Other fruit trees such as pears, apples and peaches have all had a great time flowering profusely. This could be a great year for top fruit.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep a check on recently planted vegetables and flowers and water if weather turns dry. Any plants such as salads or early strawberries under tunnels will need watering as rain will not reach them under the polythene.

Gooseberry bushes are prone to attacks from the sawfly maggots, but these are easily spotted and removed, but if there is a heavy infestation removal can be a bit messy. Not all gardening jobs are pure excitement. While on this topic it is worthwhile keeping an eye out for cabbage white butterfly maggots, as these are even bigger than the gooseberry sawfly, but removal just as essential.

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