FLOWER SHOWS

FLOWER SHOWS

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

Anna with white clematis

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

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

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

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

Peonia Doreen

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

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

Visitors to Kew Gardens

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

Wee jobs around the garden

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

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THE ALLOTMENT WORKOUT

THE ALLOTMENT WORKOUT

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

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

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

Planting potatoes

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

Shredding prunings at City Road allotments

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

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

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

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

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

Harvesting the Red Devil apples

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

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

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

Wee jobs to do this week

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

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LIFE ON THE PLOT

LIFE ON THE PLOT

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

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

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

Overwintered lettuce and chard

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

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

Strawberry Elsanta under tunnel

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

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

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

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

Saskatoons in flower

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

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

Wee jobs around the garden

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

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

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A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

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

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

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

Planting tomatoes in prepared border

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

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

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

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

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

Fuchsia Southern Belle

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

Wee jobs around the garden

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

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

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

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