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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