HARVEST THE APPLES

HARVEST THE APPLES

October is usually the busy month for apple harvesting, though this year the cool summer has delayed ripening by a few weeks. My first Oslins, the Arbroath Pippin, were picked at the end of August, but were not truly ripe till early September. Although this apple has a distinct flavour it is very prone to brown rot and in this cool year with a wet August losses have been very high.

Apples like all other fruit need warm sunny days to increase sweetness so it is understandable that apples, pears and most other fruits have lacked the sweetness of previous years.

Catherine picking her step over apples

My main early apple Discovery was picked in mid October, a good month later than previous years. The crop yield with this and all other apples has been very high, but I fear at the expense of flavour. Apples came into flower quite late so there were plenty of bees around for pollination, then good weather for fertilisation. The spring and summer season gave us cool but moist weather so growth was slow, but apples and pears all swelled up larger than normal. A week of brilliant summer weather at the end of September certainly helped to ripen up the fruit, but then it was very short lived as we returned to a cold and wet October. This mixture of warm dry weather followed by cold and wet affected the Discovery apples by causing the skin to split on a few before I got them harvested. As yet my Fiesta, Red Falstaff and Red Devil are still on the tree, but will be picked before the end of this month.

Apple Red Devil

This years heavy crop came in for some thinning in July, both naturally then by hand where ever I thought the crop was too heavy. However as the fruit swelled the trees have continued to drop apples all October but before they were fully ripe. This harvest was not lost as Anna has got herself a juicer and now everything she can get her hands on gets juiced. Apples, pears, carrots, beetroot, Lettuce, chard, kale and tomatoes have all gone through the juicer. Never thought I would be drinking my lettuce and kale, and it tastes just fine. It can be stored fresh in the fridge for a couple of days, but all surplus gets frozen for future use.

We lead a very healthy life!!!

Apple Discovery

Bramley apples can hang a long time on the tree so it is usually early November before I pick my cookers. Again the crop is very heavy so there is plenty to store into next spring. I pack all fruit in boxes placed in my cold garage, but keep a check for any rots, or shrivelling or mice.

Once all my apples are picked, cleaned and sorted I can see just how much surplus I have so I can allocate a fair bit for brewing into my Sauternes style dessert apple wine. I will need 30 pounds of apples for three demijohns of wine, which will be ready in a couple of year’s time.

Starlight apple Firedance

Plant an apple tree now

We get so much value from our apple trees that I feel everyone with a wee garden or plot should plant at least one apple tree. Now is the time to plan which variety you wish to grow and garden space will determine what size of tree to purchase. There is a size and shape to suit all situations, from standards, bush, fan trained, cordons, espaliers and now for those with very limited space we have the step over tree growing only a few feet tall but kept small with summer pruning. Another development has been the introduction of the single stemmed Starline apple trees coming in five different varieties. These dwarf trees are kept narrow and columnar by summer pruning all side shoots to a couple of buds. They are ideal for those with very limited space but wish to grow a few varieties, which also helps with cross pollination. I like the bright red Starline variety Firedance.

Wee jobs to do this week

Now that the tomato crops are just about finished, it is better to remove all ripe and unripe fruits which can be ripened in a warm place indoors. Remove the old plants and chop up for the compost heap. Growbags or border soil can still be used for an early winter salad crop of salad leaves, mizuna, cress, rocket, mustard and radish.

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END OF SEASON CARE

END OF SEASON CARE

As the growing season comes to an end it is time to harvest some crops that need winter protection, and find winter quarters for those tender summer flowers that will continue for many years as long as you look after them during the critical winter months. Some vegetable crops such as leeks, Swedes, winter cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Swiss Chard and parsnips are quite happy to be left alone as they are perfectly hardy and exposure to frosts help to sweeten them up.

Beetroot and carrots can be lifted and stored in dry soil or sand in a frost free shed, although with milder winters becoming normal, I have tended to just earth up my beetroot and leave them where they are. So far this strategy has been fine, but a severe winter like in 2010 could test this method.

Onions and potatoes are best drying off before storing them in hessian sacks, onion nets or for small quantities of potatoes I use large cardboard boxes in my frost proof garage. Onions need plenty of ventilation to keep them sound, and potatoes need darkness as exposure to light will turn them green and be inedible. However if you have a good variety and you wish to keep some smaller spuds for growing the next year, then exposure to light is good for them.

Pumpkins are usually left till the end of this month to let them ripen up and turn orange before taking them home and storing them in a cool room. They should store quite well up to March.

Geraniums and impatiens can be kept from one year to another by taking cuttings and growing them on a windowsill over winter. I take geranium cuttings by snapping the top of a strong shoot off at a leaf joint with just one leaf. I do not use a knife. These cuttings go into shallow pots with a sandy compost mixture. Impatiens cuttings are taken about three to four inches long and after removing all the lower leaves they are placed in a jar filled with water with only the leafy tops showing. Keep them on a light windowsill that is not in the sun. They will root in a month and can then be potted up into compost to grow on and flower in late autumn to mid winter, on a sunny windowsill.

Fuchsias grown in pots or baskets are best dried off and kept in a cool frost free place over winter, but check they don’t completely dry out. However keep young fuchsias grown from cuttings taken in summer growing for as long as possible to establish a strong plant before they go dormant and need drying off slightly.

Begonias are lifted in October when flowering finishes and the cold weather causes the leaves to fall off. I dry my tubers out in the sun for about a week, provided there is no risk of frost. Then remove all the soil before packing them in polystyrene boxes for storing in my garage. I use the dry old soil to cover over the tops for added protection and make sure they don’t completely dry out.

Gladioli are lifted in mid October and the old stems cut off just above ground level. The corms are dried out under cover, then cleaned up removing the old spent corm and all small cormlets. The biggest of these can be retained for growing on, and will flower after one or two years. Store in a frost free garage or shed in boxes and keep them dry.

Chrysanthemum stools are lifted after flowering, cut back to about six inches and boxed up in compost. Make sure all stools are labelled. Over winter in a cold greenhouse or frame, and keep them moist as they will continue to grow, though ever so slowly till spring.

Wee jobs to do this week

Although our autumns seem to go on longer and winter slow to appear, deciduous trees and shrubs will start to lose their leaves from now till winter. Rake these up regularly and add them to the compost heap. Once mixed with old grass cuttings, annual weeds and vegetable debris they will soon rot down and provide an excellence source of compost to enrich the soil.

Summer bedding plants that are finished can also be added to the compost heap plus any old soil from tubs and hanging baskets that needs replacing. If the compost heap has been gathering material since late winter, give it a turn over with a fork to mix old rotted compost with fresh new material as this will help to rot it down.

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SUMMER TUBS AND BASKETS

SUMMER TUBS AND BASKETS

Summer may have been a long time coming, but the end of September went out in a blaze of colour responding to the dry, warm, sunny weather. The summer flowers should have been going over, but they are trying to make up for the lost season. Several petunias that had survived the cold summer put on a bold display as did the impatiens which has sulked all summer. However, now is the time to assess just how the summer flowers have performed. So before they get pulled out and added to the compost heap to be replaced with our spring flowering plants, take stock of the best plants and varieties to grow in 2016.

Geraniums and tuberous begonias have been my star attractions this year. Geraniums have been in flower from late spring till mid October and I am loath to remove them, but I have pansies, polyanthus, wallflowers and tulips all eager to get planted. Both red and white geraniums had a great year, but one tub with a mixture of cerise pink geraniums planted with shell pink impatiens and deep purple petunias were let down badly as the impatiens and petunias just did not grow this year, until the end of September. However every year is different so I will try out this combination next year hoping that the summer comes in a wee bit earlier. Dark blue and purple petunias can be very attractive in a good year and the blue petunia has the added bonus of a great scent.

Begonias were a bit late in coming into flower, but then they put on a dazzling display. My red and orange varieties were particularly impressive so they will get prime locations next year as individual colours in each tub rather than mixed to increase the dramatic effect. My tubers must be approaching twenty years old, but they are very easy to keep over winter, and when they get too big I just cut them in half in spring when I can see the shoots begin to grow.

Both geraniums and impatiens will be propagated from autumn cuttings and grown indoors over winter. The impatiens makes an excellent flowering house plant, and can be in flower almost up till Christmas in a mild year.

Fuchsias are another plant that just loved this cool sunless summer. Southern Belle is used in my hanging baskets by the entrance doorway, and Mrs Popple grows freely in borders established years ago. In a cold winter it may die back to ground level, but then in spring it bursts into life. It was a mass of flowers in mid summer, producing loads of ripe berries which we collected and put through the juicer for a tasty drink. It had a wee rest in early September, but by the end of the month with the late arrival of a week of summer weather brought out more flowers in a dramatic burst of colour.

African marigolds and annual calendulas provided the yellow garden colours, but they could have been better in a different year. Marigolds really need a hot dry sunny summer. I’ll think twice about growing them again next year. Cosmos grew from seed left in the ground from the previous year providing a nice splash of pinks and mauves against fresh green feathery foliage.

Lobelia is another dwarf annual that keeps appearing all around the garden and if it is not interfering with other plants we just let it grow to provide a deep blue relaxing colour.

Poppy Ladybird and Californian poppies also appear everywhere, but they can overwhelm the garden so we give them some space but don’t let them take over. Grown together the red and yellow flowers compliment each other.

Wee jobs around the garden

Once fruit bushes go dormant and lose their leaves they can be propagated easily with hardwood cuttings. Red, white and blackcurrants and gooseberries are all pretty foolproof. Take current years shoots about nine inches long and insert at least half of it into the soil outdoors having forked over the ground to loosen it up and aerate it. Prepare the cutting with a basal cut below a leaf joint and the other cut at the top above a bud. Space out about four inches apart and after rooting in spring grow on for the rest of the year. They will be ready for lifting and planting out the following winter.

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CUT FLOWERS FOR THE HOUSE

CUT FLOWERS FOR THE HOUSE

The garden flowers always seem to know that summer is just about gone but are determined to go out in a blaze of colour and glory. Everything is at its best and as yet the first frosts have not arrived, even though the weather forecasters keep warning us of winter doom every time we get a clear night. So just in case it could happen we cut a few blooms to brighten up the home. I tend to take this a stage further and grow several plants just for cutting for home decoration. On recent occasions when autumn continues well beyond its time and the winters are still delayed I have had a small bunch of roses cut for the festive table. They do not last very long, but it is brilliant to see roses at that time of year.

I grow some roses on my allotment to brighten it up and also give me some cut flowers in summer so I don’t have to reduce my garden displays. National Trust is an excellent bright red rose with great form, but unfortunately no scent. Piccadilly is great in bud, but not long lasting. Wendy Cussons is a lovely pink carmine with a terrific scent as is the white Margaret Merril.

Although there are plenty of great plants for the summer season, including sweet peas, flag iris, border carnations, gladioli, lilies and chrysanthemums, you will need some tulip and daffodil bulbs for cut flowers in spring.

Late summer is a good time to be planning well ahead for next year as the past year is fresh in our minds, and before we forget we can assess how different varieties have performed. If some varieties perform badly, don’t last very long or are just not impressive, then discard them and try some new varieties. Sweet peas for cut flower need a long stem and a good scent and it may be better to grow them as single stem cordons rather than letting them ramble up some tall support. This is a lot more work with feeding, disbudding tendrils and tying in, but the results are so much more rewarding.

Chrysanthemums come in many forms, and if you want really large impressive heads then opt for large decoratives or even giant incurves or reflexes, but they all need a lot of work and attention. However, if you just wish for a really good display of colour, then try the spray varieties, which do not need disbudding. At this time of year I go over all my varieties to decide which to keep till next year and discard any that failed to impress. I will try out a few new varieties each spring.

Gladioli are now just about all finished, but we can look back and see if we are missing any colour that would enhance a mixed display. Make notes for ordering next spring.

Carnations for cut flower can be grown in a cold greenhouse very successfully, but need plenty of light and room so do not mix well with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers or grapevines. If you can’t afford greenhouse space but really want a few carnations then grow a range of outdoor border carnations, most of which have a strong clove scent. The colour range is also very interesting, and there are always new types to try out.

Lilies make great cut flower with their long stems and exotic scent. I grow the oriental types for perfume and large upright heads, but most of the bulbs are for a spring delivery.

Daffodils and Tulips grown for cut flower can be ordered now. The best narcissi for scent are the Jonquills, large cupped daffodils and the Cheerfullness range. When choosing tulips for cut flower, get those with tall stems, such as the single earlies, triumphs, lily flowered or Darwin hybrids.

They can all be planted in good well drained soil and left to naturalise.

Wee jobs to do this week

Collect windfall apples every few days before the slugs do any damage. Apples tend to ripen unevenly so while some go ripe and fall off others hang on a bit longer. The test is to cut them in half and check the colour of the seeds. Ripe fruit has very dark seeds and unripe fruit has white seeds. Fruit that is only slightly damaged or bruised can still be used after cutting off the bad bits. They are perfect for stir fries, curries, crumbles, fried together with egg, tomato, mushroom and bacon, and keep some back for the juicer which seems to be the latest way to enjoy a healthy drink.

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TIME TO ORDER SPRING BULBS

TIME TO ORDER SPRING BULBS

The summer flowers in tubs, baskets and borders are still flowering in great profusion, but as autumn is not too far away we need to plan ahead for the spring displays that will replace them once the cold weather arrives to put an end to the blossom.

In past times you could expect frosts in October and snow in November, but climate change has pushed back the cold weather so summer flowers continue to bloom well beyond their normal season. However, next years bedding plants of wallflower, pansies, myosotis and polyanthus will want to be planted in October with tulips, hyacinths and crocus planted between them. Now is the time to be ordering these bulbs from suppliers online or from garden centres while they are in stock and before they clear everything out to replace them with the Christmas trees and decorations.

I did a fair bit of planning last spring looking at my existing bulb displays and noting gaps to be filled and new landscape planting to be tidied up. One drift of crocus has too many yellow bulbs so I will add more purple, white and striped crocus.

In another area underneath my apple trees, I have a large drift of blue pulmonaria which I will enhance with an underplanting of dwarf red and yellow early flowering tulips.

Next to it one massive ceanothus shrub died out and was replaced with a large group of the yellow flowering doronicums. I will add to their spring display with a batch of early red tulip Red Riding Hood, which should contrast perfectly with the yellow flowers.

Another newly landscaped area with peonies, which are excellent as ground cover, I will plant a large drift of the tall Darwin Hybrid tulips to flower in spring before the peonies need the space. The display will be further enhanced with a planting of tall scented oriental lilies for the mid to late summer display, by which time the peonies are all finished.

Every year fresh tulips, hyacinths and crocus are purchased for planting in between the spring flowers in tubs and borders, then when they are finished I always find a spot in the garden for the old bulbs which will naturalise and spread from year to year.

Some bulbs will spread very readily themselves from seed. Aconites, snowdrops, crocus, anemone blanda and grape hyacinths are all easy to grow and spread from their own seed but grape hyacinth can become very invasive so be careful where you put them.

Although there has been a fair bit of mild winters since 2010, it is still very pleasing to see the arrival of the first flowers in late winter. This is normally the snowdrops and aconites, though I had snowdrops in flower last December. It is a good idea to plant these snowdrops and aconites where they can be seen from the comfort of a warm room.

The next spring display is often the crocus, so I try to enhance this show by adding more bulbs every year into the existing drifts. These are quickly followed by the daffodils and narcissi, so find some room for these under deciduous trees and shrubs and around plants in the herbaceous border.

When the tulips arrive you know that the spring is here and warm weather will allow you to have your coffee breaks outdoors in the sunshine. This is when the patio comes back into use so make sure a lot of the displays are in this area and use plenty of hyacinths to add scent to the atmosphere.

Wee jobs to do this week

Now that the lawn grass growth is starting to slow down we can start on the autumn renovation work. Any bare patches can be top dressed with some sterilised top soil or compost and sown with a fine lawn seed mixture as there is still time for germination before winter arrives. Any lawn with a moss problem can be treated with lawn sand, or you can buy in some sulphate of iron and mix a dessert spoonful to the gallon and water it over the moss. This will kill the moss and feed the grass.

Later on in October lawns can be scarified to remove surface thatch (accumulations of dead leaves) then aerated with a fork. Fill in the holes with an autumn lawn compost containing a slow release fertiliser and brush it in.

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SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

It has been a weird year for gardening weather. Summer came at Easter and stayed for a whole week, but then the jet stream looped down to the south pulling in cold wet winds from the north which lasted up till early September. Then the summer came back to Scotland mid month, but only for a couple of days around Tayside as clouds spoiled the fun. However it was dry so we took every chance to crack on with the harvesting and weeding. Hand weeding and hoeing were fine between crops and paths got a spray of glyphosate which should work just fine as it really needs a couple of dry days to work. Rain too soon after spraying will wash the weedkiller off the leaves. This herbicide is inactivated on contact with the soil, but is readily absorbed by healthy foliage.

Summer flowers

Summer poppies

The recent warm dry weather has brought out the summer flowers in a late but terrific blaze of colour. Chrysanthemums, gladioli, poppies, roses, sweet peas and African marigolds have added colour to my allotment and at home the dahlias, fuchsias, lilies, tuberous begonias and geraniums have never been better. Drifts of lavender have been a mass of purple for weeks. However it has not been a good year for petunias and impatiens (bizzie lizzies) most of which have just about died out.

Summer and autumn vegetables

Harvesting is in full swing with sweet corn, cauliflowers, cabbage, onions, beetroot, turnip, peas, and French beans all heading for the kitchen table and the freezer. Sweet corn is not as plentiful as last year with smaller cobs, some with poor fertilisation and only one cob per plant this year.

Onions are a different story as my one packet of Hytech seed has given me a massive crop of huge onions now drying off just fine in the sun, getting ready to be roped up for storing. After lifting the onions I spread some compost on the bare soil, forked it in, then after firming and raking it level, it got sown down with a clover green manure. I will dig this in during winter.

Cutting a cauliflower

Tomatoes are another crop that seems to be liking this rotten summer. The crop is massive with plants fruiting on the eighth truss. A lot of the surplus crop is getting frozen and will be used for soup and pasta sauce. Fresh tomatoes not picked till fully ripe are perfect in salads and soups.

Autumn fruit crops

Anna picking the chokeberries

The cool damp summer did no harm to the autumn raspberries, brambles, blueberries and aronias, but a wee bit more sun would have made them all a wee bit sweeter. I have been trying out two new varieties of autumn raspberry to compare them with my standard Autumn Bliss. Polka definitely has very large sweet berries, bigger than Autumn Bliss, though the latter has been exceptionally big this year. Autumn Treasure also said to be very large has still to fruit so nothing to compare at this stage. Aronia Viking was picked mid September from young bushes but as this is the first crop my three pounds will be kept for compote and jam. I should get a far bigger crop next year when hopefully I will have some spare for a couple of demijohns of a healthy dark red wine high in antioxidants.

Perpetual strawberry Flamenco continues to produce lovely large red berries but lack of sun creates a harder berry lacking juice and sweetness.

Early apple Oslin has now all been picked and bright red Discovery has now taken over.

Grapes growing outside on south facing walls and fences just love this weather and growth is hard to keep under control, but young bunches really need warmer weather to swell and ripen up. Two varieties, Siegerrebe and Rondo have already produced the first bunches and an older vine of Phoenix (three years old) has about twenty large bunches showing great promise if that sun would make an appearance for a week or longer. Who knows, we could get lucky !!!

Wee jobs to do this week

Autumn salad crops of lettuce, rocket, mustard, radish and mizuna will need thinning out if germination has been good. The recent mild spell combined with moist soil has been perfect for germination. I thin out radish to about an inch apart and the others to two inches, and then they will get thinned out further as you use young leaves for tender salads.

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LATE SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

LATE SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

For those of us still waiting for summer to arrive, we may be in for a wee disappointment as time is not on our side. The patio tables did not get used a great deal, but the garden plants varied tremendously. Plants preferring a cooler wet atmosphere such as fuchsias have never been better. Anna bought a new juicer machine to help use foliage of numerous vegetables such as beetroot that normally get discarded, and as an experiment I harvested a lot of fuchsia fruits from Mrs Popple to make a refreshing drink with a difference. Leafy vegetables had a great season, though slugs were a real nuisance. We needed some parsnips so I lifted three very luxuriant specimens. Roots were nearly two feet long, but they still have time to thicken up so could be another great crop.

My new raspberry Polka is living up to the description as being a lot bigger than Autumn Bliss, with plenty still to come. However some sun and warmth would help to make them sweeter.

However those plants that need a good sunny autumn such as my figs and grapes are still living in hope. I have had over a dozen large ripe figs, but there is still plenty to come. I got some nice grapes from the early varieties of Siegerrebe and Rondo, but my Black Hamburg in the greenhouse is very slow to ripen up.

Tomatoes just seem to like this weather as the crop is huge, so soups, salads, pasta sauce and pizza toppings are plentiful and surplus tomatoes are being frozen for future use.

Late summer is a good time to start tidying up herbaceous plants that have finished flowering, dead heading roses and lilies, pruning some shrubs, blackcurrants, gooseberries, summer raspberries and if you can get a couple of dry days do a bit of hoeing to kill weeds. Weed control has been very difficult this year up north as hoeing has been ineffective without the sun to shrivel up the weeds and the constant rain just washes off any glyphosate herbicide before it has time to be absorbed by the leaves. It has been a year for hand weeding and putting the weeds on the compost heap.

Shrub propagation

Late summer is a good time to propagate many shrubs by taking semi ripe shoot cuttings. Rosemary, Lavander, Cistus, Fuchsias, Forsythia, Ceanothus, Philadelphus and many others respond to this method. Take cutting about four to six inches long, cutting under a leaf joint with a very sharp knife and removing all the lower leaves. Dip them in hormone rooting powder, but shake off any loose dust and dibble them around the side of a pot in compost with added grit or sand to increase drainage. Place them in a warm but shaded spot in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse.

Keep them moist but not wet and they should root in a couple of months.

Apple, pear and plum harvesting

Start picking the first of the early apples. My first is always the Oslin (Arbroath Pippin) followed by Discovery. The crop this year is very heavy, but now Anna has a new juicer toy we are able to use all the Oslins. This very old variety of apple has a fantastic flavour, but suffers from brown rot very

easily, especially in this wet year. It is also a poor keeper so it has to be used within a week or so after picking. Pears are looking good but the crop is not heavy and we still await some sunshine to ripen up the fruit. I have no plums this year as I lost my old tree to silver leaf disease and my new replacement plum Victoria is just a baby trying to put on some growth. Maybe next year I will get a few plums.

Wee jobs to do this week

Most onions have now finished growing and once the tops have fallen over they can be lifted and put somewhere in the sun to dry off before storing in a dry frost free airy shed. They can be roped or cleaned up and stored in onion sacks.

Turn over compost heap to mix older compost with new material to help rotting down as the heap will soon be needed for the winter digging.

Do the final thinning of Swedes to about nine inches apart giving them room to grow before the end of the season.

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LATE SUMMER CROPS AND WINTER SALADS

LATE SUMMER CROPS AND WINTER SALADS

Late summer is that in between time when harvesting most of this years crops is in full swing, but we find there is still some growing time left to get a fast maturing crop sown for use in late autumn and into winter. The early peas and broad beans are the first to get harvested and old plants pulled out and composted. Both of these plants have nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots so leave behind feeding for the next crop as they rot down. I just clear the site, level it, and rake a deep tilth ready for some seed sowing. Early potatoes and onions are also often lifted off the ground at the end of August allowing more land for a late crop. Sweet corn would also be harvested mid to late August, but I find them quite slow this year running about three weeks late.

The weather plays a big role in the success of late sowings and this year it has been quite wet as well as cool, so pick your moments carefully and don’t do soil works if the surface is wet.

Lettuce salad leaves, mizuna, land cress, rocket, mustard and radish are all quick to mature so an early September sowing can be quite successful. This should give a wide variety of salad leaves and roots to pick from autumn to winter.

Spring onion and winter lettuce are also added to this group, but I find they are best sown in cellular seed trays in good compost in my cold greenhouse. This gives them a great start for planting out in early September.

I sow my outdoor seed a wee bit thicker than normal, just in case the weather is not in our favour, but also as some seed supplier’s germination may be a wee bit questionable. I hear too many tales of germination disasters and I know it is not always down to poor gardening skills. If germination is brilliant the seedlings can always be thinned out and the thinnings used for additional plants or given to a friend.

As more land is cleared from lifting potatoes, turnips, summer salads, beetroot, carrots, summer cabbage and cauliflower in early September there is still time to continue sowing. It may be too late for autumn salads, but not too late to catch a green manure crop of clover, tares or mustard (as long as there is no clubroot problem). Plants chosen for green manures have deep and heavy root systems that break up the soil, and many have nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots so adding to the nutrient value of the soil. A green cover over winter also prevents loss of nutrients in the soil from winter rains and melting snow. Winter digging is also less damaging on the soil if it has a green cover over it. However try to complete all digging in of green manures a couple of months ahead of the next crop to be sown or planted, and always before they try to set seed.

Late summer fruits
Autumn raspberries, brambles, figs and perpetual strawberries continue to crop and are at there best after a few days of sunny weather. Autumn raspberries have really enjoyed this cooler wetter year and berry size has never been bigger. However figs are a different story. I had a potential one hundred plus wee figs on one tree. Figs need a long warm climate and this is not their best summer. The foliage was so late to grow that it could not support a heavy crop as it is the leaves that create the food supply to help the fruit to grow. There was just not enough leaves early on so the plant did a June drop in August by shrivelling up a few figs. I am still getting a great crop of really large figs with the first ones ripe in mid August, but I may not reach my potential of one hundred.

There’s always next year.

Wee jobs to do this week

Any potato varieties affected by blight should be lifted after clearing off all the foliage and dumping it. Choose a dry sunny day for lifting and leave the potatoes in the sun for a couple of hours to dry off so they can be stored in a cool dark place. They should last into next spring, but keep checking them for any sign of rotting.

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LATE SUMMER HARVESTS

LATE SUMMER HARVESTS

The temptation to get away for a wee holiday in the sun is very strong after our long cool wet summer, but then you find it does suit some of our garden plants which have had plenty moisture and just enough warmth to get them growing. Cabbages, cauliflowers and sprouts have never grown so well and root crops have all got plenty top growth and hopefully roots will be a decent size.

However sweet corn and broad bean plants are all smaller than last year.

Late summer is the peak season for harvesting so while a wee trip into the sunshine would be very welcome many plants have matured and are ready to pick. Holiday thoughts will have to wait.

French beans are later this year and I have only just started to pick them so no rush for freezer space just yet.
Peas were sown over three dates, so the earliest have been picked and used while a very tall row of Alderman is currently being harvested. Another row of Kelvedon Wonder was sown in early July so wont be ready till the end of this month and into early September.

Broad beans were all harvested in mid August in a mammoth operation over several days.

Beans were picked in early afternoon, and then shelled after tea outdoors on sunny evenings. The beans were then blanched, cooled and extracted from the skins over the next two hours indoors accompanied by some music and a three year old bottle of redcurrant wine to keep us sane as it was a Friday night. Lastly, just before midnight they were bagged up into small bags and placed in the freezer. They will be used as they are or for a delicious and healthy bean soup over the next year.

Sweet corn is the next crop to get harvested in a one off destructive harvest. This year they were not ready till the end of August, but then the whole crop is ready at once. The cobs are picked in the morning on a nice sunny day so they can get sorted leisurely in the afternoon on the patio tables. All husks are removed and the cobs sorted out into large cobs for freezing, and others for either immediate use or short term use in the fridge.

Cabbage and cauliflower have just loved this weather and growth has been very good. The cool weather has helped to ripen them over a longer period so we could use them fresh with just a small amount getting frozen. I have also done two sowings of each in short rows separated over a couple of months. Six cabbages and six cauliflowers is plenty for us to get through in two months.

Courgettes are now very prolific, but do make a great soup, as well as numerous other dishes.

Onions grown from one packet of Hytech seed has given me an enormous crop of large bulbs that now just need a sunny dry spell to ripen up the bulbs so they can be woven into ropes for storing.

In the fruit garden the soft fruit has all been picked except my perpetual strawberry Flamenco which continues with berries and the Autumn Bliss raspberries which fruit till the frosts come.

Bramble Helen started to crop at the beginning of August and is now nearly finished, but my new primocane bramble Reuben is just starting to fruit. This is its first year so too early to judge.

Aronia Viking, the chokeberry had to be netted from our resident blackbird, who stripped off last years crop in one night. Aronias get picked once they all turn black and we use them for jam, summer puddings, compote and if I can get any spare they make a fantastic and very healthy wine, being very high in antioxidants. They can be frozen for future use.

Wee jobs to do this week

Greenhouse grapes should now be fully grown so ripening up the bunches takes priority. They will not need any further feeding and if the roots are within the greenhouse border just give enough water to keep them happy. Keep the ventilators wide open and also the door on warm days to circulate air flow to prevent any build up of botrytis and mildew. Remove all sideshoots as they appear and remove some surplus foliage to let light and sun into the plant. The more sun gets to the ripening bunches the sweeter they will be. Do not handle the bunches as they ripen and get a protective bloom on the grapes, but if you wish to sample a few select a small bunch with the most ripe grapes showing. Pulling off a few grapes from larger bunches can lead to botrytis infection.

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ALLOTMENTS IN FINLAND

ALLOTMENTS IN FINLAND

I got into allotments in the early sixties during my five year gardening apprenticeship with the Dundee Parks dept. I was very keen to learn everything about gardening, but there was no chance of getting knowledge of vegetables or fruit growing in a park, so I got an allotment plot on Stirling Park on the Dundee Law. Our day release gave us a half day on the demonstration plots in Duntrune Terrace then another half day of written work at the Kingsway Technical College. The best way to remember this information was to get some land and grow the plants to text book standards.

Allotments also gave me the outdoor life, making numerous new friends and plenty exercise. It got into my blood and I have had an allotment most of my life.

However we all need a break so this summer we had a holiday visiting friends in Finland. To add variety to this holiday we visited a couple of Finnish allotment sites. Allotment life is taking off in Finland as a means of getting back into nature in the short summer season.

Finland is quite far north so winters start in October and can run well into March or April. It can be very cold and dark and snow depth of four feet can be quite normal. Most Fins I saw in Helsinki lived in flats without gardens as the growing season is so short that most folk don’t bother with gardening. However as life moves on and folk get a bit more money and leisure time the desire to get outdoors for fresh air, sunshine, exercise and to grow a few flowers is very strong.

Allotment gardening began after the war when people needed to get outside into the sun after
the dark long cold winters. Land was leased out to groups who would allocate plots for cultivation during the short growing season. This idea caught on but was taken a few steps further as many folk wanted to spend the whole summer months in their garden, so cottage allotments were born.
I visited one site of about sixty plots where there were no fences, sheds or greenhouses. Weeds were a big problem as everything had to be done in the summer months, as the land was frozen over and covered in snow for almost six months in winter. Most plots grow a range of fruit and vegetables but flowers cover a third or more of every plot. I am told that people have a strong urge to grow colourful flowers to brighten up their summers after the long winters. However the Marjaniemi Cottage Allotments in Helsinki were totally different. Here there are 305 gardens each about 400 square meters and every one has a small wooden cottage on every plot. They all have hedges around the boundaries and every plot holder is required to plant at least one fruit tree. Most have several. Again flowers are more evident than vegetables, but fruit growing is very important. Lawns are also everywhere for outdoor relaxation and a place for the kids to play on. Cottages may be small but they all have full facilities for summer living and all Fins have their saunas. The site has a very strong sense of community and organizes regular events for open days, harvest festivals for selling fruit, mid summer solstice parties and bonfire as well as Christmas parties. Children are well catered for in these events.

Wee jobs to do this week

They have a strong sense of community and get together in large groups for site maintenance, repairing roads, bridges and even demolishing and rebuilding cottages. The community has their own licensed clubhouse, with toilets, laundry, workshop with weaving loom, and of course communal sauna. No cars are allowed on site so children can play safely and roads have no tarmac. Water and electricity are only available from April to October as nobody is allowed to live in the cottages all year round.

Start Save seed heads from annual (Ladybird) and biennial poppies (Iceland) to grow on for next year. Once dried and extracted from their pods and kept in a cool place they will keep for over a year. Other annuals can also be saved this way.

Keep feeding bedding plants in tubs and baskets especially with geraniums, fuchsias and impatiens that you wish to keep for another year as strong healthy plants with good growth are essential for the best cutting material.

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PEONIES

PEONIES

The red double herbaceous peony may be very common, but it does give a bright splash of colour in late spring and early summer to very many gardens. I grew up with this peony from childhood days as neighbours would happily give you a wee root for your garden. They always grew well and flowered within a couple of years then they would form a large clump over time. Growing a few feet tall and having a lot of foliage and large heavy flowers they always needed staking.

Looking for some more peonies on a trip to Gardening Scotland at Ingliston we soon found that there were quite a few growers of this plant showing many different varieties in white, pink, red and yellow colours. Anna could not resist the variety Doreen that was centre stage on one stand so she bought it immediately as it was an absolute cracker.

Back home it got planted with care in our herbaceous border, but it took a couple of years to build up its strength before putting on a brilliant show this year. Another variety a bit less common but really superb is the large flowered and scented pale pink Sarah Bernhardt. A well established large clump is very impressive. There are numerous varieties to choose from, but I would advise going to a peony or herbaceous specialist grower to guarantee you get what it says on the label. My first purchase of Sarah Bernhardt bought on holiday from a large west coast nursery/garden centre took two years to flower then turned out to be the common red. Unfortunately this is a very common problem in the nursery trade. There are just too many instances of incorrectly labelled plants as well as diseased plants that just should not be up for sale. My phytophthora root rot problem on my allotment started with infected Glen Ample raspberry canes purchased locally, then three years later they were replaced with more canes planted in a different spot. Again bought locally, but turned out to be Glen Rosa, not Ample.

Anyway back to peonies, once you have decided on which varieties to buy you can get them as bare root or containerised plants ready to plant in late autumn or spring. Choose a sunny location or one with only minimal shade. They are not fussy on type of soil growing happily on both sandy and clay soils as well as acid or alkaline, as long as drainage is good, but make sure it is fertile by adding plenty of well rotted compost worked into the soil.  Plant with the crowns just below the soil surface, then give a dressing of Growmore or other general fertiliser to give them a boost to help them get established. Although peonies can be tolerant of drought, it will not help establishment if growth is curtailed in dry spells in spring or summer so give them a mulch of compost in the first couple of years, but avoid covering the buds.

Once your clumps are well established you can propagate from them by dividing the clumps in autumn making sure each portion has at least three buds on a good fleshy root system, and replant as above with the buds only just covered with soil. Deep planting is often the problem for plants failing to flower properly.

Peonies are herbaceous perennials that die back to ground level in autumn, however the tree peony is a different form. It is a deciduous hardy shrub growing from four to ten feet tall.

The tree peony might be less common, but then it is more expensive and considered a bit more difficult to grow. Both types are relatively easy provided you plant them in a sunny sheltered spot in Scotland in fertile soil that holds moisture but is well drained. As the flowers are quite large and the bushes tall they are prone to damage by strong winds so shelter is essential together tying in to support the flowers.

Wee jobs to do this week

Start summer pruning of fruit trees and bushes. Once crops have been picked from currants and raspberries they can be pruned to allow the remaining parts more light and room to mature. Apples, pears, cherries and peaches grown as cordons, espaliers, stepovers or fan trained against walls and fences are all grown on a system to encourage spur formation and restrict growth. Cut back side shoots to about four leaves or so once new growth is no longer likely to form. This will be further pruned in winter to form a spur system.

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