INTERNET GARDENING

                                                INTERNET GARDENING

There was a time way back in the dim and distant past when we gained our gardening knowledge from gardening magazines, and those more wealthy individuals who had a television were able to see the professional gardeners like Percy Thrower and Geoff Hamilton from the box in their living room. Growing up in Dundee we also had Crolls nursery in the Ferry and Lauries Nursery in Ninewells where we could wander around and see garden plants all named up.

John tackling the Windows 10 computer

I was lucky to get a five year gardening apprenticeship, with trained gardeners at Duntrune Terrace for practical help and the Kingsway Tech for our written lessons. Those were great days, but now relegated to pleasant distant memories as we head at great speed into the new world of technology.

Tomatoes from Dobbies Seeds

This may be fantastic for the young kids introduced to this world from primary school where even those kids from poor backgrounds all have the essential mobile phone. Alas we silver haired surfers are left to struggle trying to understand this massive knowledge now available with information technology. We no longer need to ask some expert for gardening advise, just ask Mr Google. He has all the answers, or knows someone with answers to every question. I had thought that I had a fair grasp of computers, even building my own website, www.johnstoa.com but the world moves on quicker than I can run, so now Google frowns at my website as it is not mobile friendly.

Rhododendron Sneezy from Glendoick

Microsoft has now brought out a new Windows 10 to replace my old Windows 7. The last few weeks have been a nightmare. Emails disappear, photos disappear, jpegs that I normally resize to just over one megabite are now well over ten. New folders appear that I haven’t asked for and I struggle to use my new posh keyboard as it is black and needs a light so I can see which keys I am using.

However once you calm down and embrace this new world there is no limit to finding answers to all your gardening queries. We hear about problems on the high streets with so many shops closing down as folk today do so much shopping on the internet.

Pumpkin Mammoth from Simply Seeds

The gardening world is going through the same problems. I am now more likely to buy online rather than go to my local garden centres, which I notice are filling up with household goods at the expense of garden plants. In the autumn my tulips, daffodils and crocus were ordered online from,www.peternyssen.com oriental lilies from www.hartsnursery.co.uk and Angels Trumpets from www.vanmeuwen.com My garden seeds ordered in January from www.simplyseed.co.uk and www.dobies.co.uk . A great source for fruit bushes is www.pomonafruits.co.uk and www.kenmuir.co.uk and the best chrysanthemums come from www.walkersplantcentre.co.uk If you are looking for tuberous begonias, delphiniums or polyanthus try www.blackmore-langdon.com. A great nursery from Bath.

Previous Courier articles are archived in my weekly blog scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.co.uk which goes back to 2008. Today every nursery and garden center has a website, and there is also one for our

Tulip Scarlet Baby from Peter Nyssen

local Botanic Gardens www.dundee.ac.uk/botanic and for horticultural research see our local www.hutton.ac.uk However there is still garden centers to walk around at www.glendoick.com who specialize in rhododendrons and www.dobbies.com They are only a short drive away and both have excellent restaurants. If you are looking for quality rose bushes try Cockers Roses in Aberdeen, www.roses.uk.com and www.davidaustinroses.com

Allotments are also fairly well covered with websites with www.allotment.org.uk which has links to everything you are likely to grow, then check out both the National Society at www.nsalg.org.uk and the Scottish Society at www.sags.org.uk. Then off course the City Road allotments have a

website at www.cityroadallotments.com, though there is a tendency to go modern and use social media with Facebook and Instagram. Now I wonder if Google can help me with the digging !!!

Wee jobs to do this week

Winter border

The winter border is at its best just now with the bright coloured dogwoods and willow but keep the ground free of leaves and weeds as the crocus and snowdrop bulbs are now all through the ground and keen to open up their flowers as we all enjoy the mild winter. Even the tulips are emerging up into the sunlight so spring may come early this year.

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A FEW WINTER JOBS

                                                    A FEW WINTER JOBS

The gardeners weather has been very kind over winter. Seems like we must be getting

another mild winter, as we are now at the end of January and I have yet to see a snow flake. In fact it has been dry and warm with

Checking tree stakes and ties

just a few morning frosts and ground preparations up on the allotment are well ahead. Digging has been completed apart from where winter

Fig cuttings

vegetables are growing, but it is always very easy to find other jobs needing attention.

Fruit trees and bushes and roses, (bush, shrub and climbers) have all been pruned. Most grape vines inside the greenhouse as well as outdoor varieties have all been pruned though I left a few shoots on so I could get a batch of cuttings. Grape vines like an early start and with the mild winter they are quick to spring into growth, so to prevent sap bleeding from pruned shoots the pruning is best completed by the end of January for those under glass and a couple of weeks later for those grown outdoors. Where ever they are grown adopt a

Grape vine cuttings

system that allows good air circulation around developing bunches and continual summer pruning to prevent the vines

Top of pruned vine rod

from growing excessively at the expense of grapes. Establish a permanent framework of rods and laterals with spurs every six inches or so. Vines are very adaptable and are happy to be restricted to any space available, and perfect on a warm south facing wall. During December to early February cut all shoots back to one bud on the rods or laterals. Once growth starts in spring wait till you see the young grape bunches appear then start the summer pruning. Cut the shoot tips after two leaves have formed beyond the fruit bunches then subsequently cut all shoots after one leaf. When the vine is prevented from growing excessively it puts all its energy into developing the bunches of grapes.

Vine rods pruned in winter

Grapes are very easy to propagate. Retain some of the strongest shoots and cut to lengths of two to three buds and putting them into small pots, three to a pot. Grow them indoors in a cold greenhouse or on a windowsill. Once rooting takes place and growth commences

remove them from the pot and place them in individual pots. They grow very quickly.

Rhubarb crowns ready to divide

Figs growing outdoors can also be propagated by hardwood cuttings taken about four to six inches long and treated the same as vines.

Another task on a dry day is to check over tree stakes and ties and replace where necessary.

Picking a few sprouts

This is also a good time to dig up and divide rhubarb clumps that may have been growing for several years. Dig up the clump and divide them into strong roots with at least two or three good buds. Replant these on fresh ground that has been dug over and compost worked into the soil. Add a dusting of fertiliser to help them get established in spring.

Harvesting continues with swedes, cabbage, sprouts, kale, parsnips and leeks. The mild winter has allowed excellent growth of overwintered vegetables.

Indoors it is time to start the first seed sowing. Peppers need a long growing season so they are first to get sown. Varieties worth trying include Tabasco, Basket of Fire, Krakatoa, Demon Red and Padron. Peppers will be followed by onions, broad beans and sweet peas and if the mild winter continues my tuberous begonias will be coming out of storage to get boxed up in good

compost and placed in a warm room.

Leaf spot and greenfly on pansy

Wee jobs to do this week

Check over young spring flowering pansies for greenfly (aphids) and leaf spot disease and spray all affected plants with a rose combined pest and disease insecticide. Plants in sheltered spots are liable to infection in our mild winters as both greenfly and leaf spot disease keep growing.

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THE NEW GARDENING YEAR HAS STARTED

                                THE NEW GARDENING YEAR HAS STARTED

Now that 2019 has passed and that very wet year is behind us we now look forward to 2020 hoping that a warmer and sunnier year is ahead. Yet again we seem to be having a mild winter, and half way through January the garden has not seen one snow flake. I always draw up a rough guide at the end of the last season of where the next crops are going in the following year so I can plan a rotation which I need so I can allocate garden compost to those crops that need the most. The peas, beans, onions, leeks, sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins get a good helping, then the potatoes and brassicas also get some, but the root crops and salads are fine on land that was composted the previous year.

Time for a break on a sunny January

The first snowdrops are in flower and the aconites are not far behind. The wet December put a stop to the winter digging, but there were a few frosty days when it was ok to crack on with the digging, then

Greenhouse in January

in early January the strong gales dried up the surface just enough to allow digging without mud sticking to the wellies. My compost heap got emptied and a new one started. I was pleased that the winter digging session got completed by the middle of January. Other allotment plot gardeners were all on site getting the land sorted, erecting greenhouses, repairing fences, sheds and installing bed systems to help organise the plots. Our communal shed was busy as you always need a break from the graft and there is always someone putting on the kettle. It was brilliant to be sitting outdoors for a coffee break on a warm January day.

The short day length limits time spent outdoors, but we can always find a few indoor tasks. This is a

Potato Casa Blanca

great time to browse through new catalogues and see what new varieties of vegetables flowers and fruit we can try out. I try and get my seeds ordered by the end of January as some plants such as onions, broad beans and sweet peas get an early start. Last year the winter was so mild that my early seed sowing started in early February with onions and sweet peas, then I was taking chrysanthemum cuttings in mid February as there was plenty growth on the stools in my unheated greenhouse. I also started my begonias in mid February followed by broad beans and salads on a warm windowsill. February last year was so warm that I got my first early potatoes planted at the end of the month. That was a bonus as they were able to put on a lot of growth before the wet

Angels Trumpet

summer blight appeared. This year my first early potatoes, Casa Blanca are being chitted beside a window in a cool but bright room, as the sprouts are already growing though they are still quite stocky. Time will tell whether I can again get planting done by the end of February.

In the past I had always grown some Cape Gooseberries outdoors in a sheltered spot, but after a few wet, cold and dreich summers when ripening of the fruit was a problem I gave up on them. However this year I will try them again as they are a lovely fruit when we get a decent summer.

Cape Gooseberry painting

Another plant from the past that will get planted is the Brugmansia, also known as Angels Trumpets as I just love the scent, and they make a great dot plant in a large tub with other summer bedding plants around it. This flower is pollinated by night flying moths so the best scent comes in the evening, so best to use it on patios where you often relax on a

warm summers evening.

The greenhouse got tidied up after the tomato plants had finished and old plants removed and the grapes harvested. Once they had lost their leaves in December the vines got spur pruned back to the upright cordons. The borders then all got some compost and a light dressing of fertiliser and I planted a few plants of lettuce Lollo Rossa and some spring onions. This will give us some fresh salads over winter, but as we go into early spring the greenhouse will again be bursting at the seams as young growing plants fight for space.

Wee jobs to do this week

The Geraniums taken from autumn cuttings are now all rooted and beginning to put on growth. To

create short jointed plants grow them in a cool room with plenty light and remove any flowers as they appear. Also remove the tops to hold back growth and encourage a bushy plant.

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DANGER IN THE GARDEN

                                                 DANGER IN THE GARDEN

I chose a career in horticulture as I just loved growing plants and enjoying the beauty of flowers, and it has only been lately that I discovered just how many garden plants contain toxins, poisons and skin irritants. In the early training years it was the Laburnum with beautiful golden yellow flowers followed on with poisonous seeds.

Laburnum vossii

Later on when hogweed became notorious we knew not to touch the sap or hairy stems. As kids we all got stung by nettles and were amazed that folk gathered the leaves to make tea. Growing up in St. Marys in Dundee we grew rhubarb (the poor mans fruit) and were well aware that we only ate the red stems and not the leaves. They are rich in oxalic acid, but no-one was ever tempted to stick the leaves in their mouth so there was no problem.

Dumb cane

Similarly the host of plant poisons is seldom a problem as there is little reason to eat something that would taste horrible. When looking into garden plants with poisons I was just amazed at the long list, (the Royal Horticultural Society has a list of over two hundred plants) and so many are our every day plants grown in gardens and house plants. Rhododendrons, daffodils, aconites outdoors and indoors we grow poinsettias at Christmas and forced hyacinths as well as dumb which if ingested can cause immobility of the mouth and tongue, difficulty in breathing and asphyxiation. Aconites have powerful toxin, aconitine, which can kill people who come into contact with it.  All parts of the plant are toxic but the sap in particular is a skin irritant, causing burning of the lips and mouth, vomiting, diarrhoea and spasms.

Winter aconites

cane

Over time plants have developed numerous ways to aid survival from thorns on stems to poisons in leaves, stems, bark, seeds, flowers and roots to discourage other animals from eating them.

Arisaema sikokianum

Outdoor public landscapes contain laurels, rhododendrons, snowberry and yew trees. Every part of the yew tree is poisonous The stems, leaves and seeds contain the toxic alkaloid taxine. Monks would use them to mark and protect the routes of their pilgrimages. They would collect the yew seeds as a food source and eat the aril, but spit out the seed as they travelled on their pilgrimages.

except the fleshy aril around the seed.

Brugmansia Angels Trumpets

Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow has a milky sap, which is extremely irritating to the skin and eyes.

Deadly nightshade

English Yew with berries

Arisaema sikokianum, an attractive bog plant produces fleshy seed coats contain oxalic acid in the sap. Opium poppies are quite commonly found in gardens brought in by birds, but the sap in the seed head contains opium. Another garden plant used in tubs to flower in summer is the Angels Trumpets, Datura stramonium. It has attractive large scented tubular white flowers, but every part of this plant is toxic. South American native Indians use it as a drug because of its hypnotic and hallucinogenic affects, but in the wrong dose it can be fatal. However to keep matter in perspective, very few folk suffer from plant poisons as we usually only eat those foods that we know and like, but then you find that some of our everyday foods contain poisons. Take apples, tomatoes and potatoes and look a bit deeper into their properties. We eat apples right down to the core which gets discarded. Just as well as apple seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, a cyanide compound that could be fatal in high enough doses, but that means eating an awful lot of apples in one sitting. The potato and tomato belong to the solanacae family that contains some very poisonous members including the deadly nightshade. In the kitchen we all know to discard any potatoes where the skin has turned green on exposure to light. It contains the toxin glycoalkaloid solanine. This toxin is also present in tomato leaves, stems and unripe fruits as well as tobacco and peppers. These alkaloids in tobacco can be addictive and in belladonna fatal as it contains tropane.

Winter garden

Wee jobs to do this week

The winter garden has been the centre of attraction since early December once all the leaves dropped

to the ground. Cornus, Kerria, Salix Britzensis and the Japanese maple Acer Sangokaku have all got very brightly coloured stems, adding winter colour up to the end of March. However remove all the fallen leaves and any weeds that may spoil the show. This also lets the early snowdrops grow up into the light to add some colour contrast.

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GROW FRUIT TO IMPRESS

                                                     GROW FRUIT TO IMPRESS

The dormant winter season is a great time to ponder the crops we will be growing in the year ahead. After a few years growing a wide range of normal fruit, flowers and vegetables most gardeners like to try something a wee bit different as we all like a challenge. Our allotment plots are not just areas to produce crops, as every time we get a bumper harvest someone will want to know what variety we are using and how did you grow it.

Harvesting the pumpkins

It could be a few rows of large onions, several massive pumpkins or a great crop of saskatoons. They all become talking points and add to the social life on the allotment as there is always someone

Aronia Viking

putting the kettle on and another pops into our communal hut with a few home made cakes. Looking back over the years my interest was always strongest with fruit. In the early fifties, as a wee laddie, I got introduced to raspberry picking on our local farm on the edge of St. Marys. Then in my early teens on my first allotment at Stirling Park on the Law hill I grew a row of Baldwin blackcurrants. A few years later at the Scottish Crops Research Institute where I studied weed control, one of the farm gardeners taught me how to graft apples.

Cherry Cherokee

As my gardening career took me south I got a job on a fruit farm in Pulborough in West Sussex growing blackcurrants, strawberries and apples. As I moved around the UK my garden was always used to experiment with fruit crops from growing early strawberries under tunnels, growing blueberries from seed and I continued to graft apples. My garden was not big so I needed to graft a few varieties on the same tree to give me early, mid season and late crops as well as a cooker, which was usually Bramley. However I am now back in Dundee with a fair sized garden and a decent allotment where I can indulge in my passion for growing fruit.

I now have an apple tree with six different varieties on it and a

Grape Brant outdoors

pear with five different varieties, and every year I find someone with a cracking variety I hadn’t seen before so I acquire some shoots for grafting in the spring, but I keep my Bramley tree separate. Breeders and nurseries have been busy and now you can get an upright apple, Starline Firedance perfect for small spaces and there is a wide range of stepover apples which form a low hedge with pruning.

I tried growing a peach outdoors but with no success due to peach leaf curl disease, but outdoor cherry Cherokee is fine, It gets blackfly, but just give it a spray and the birds are not such a problem as the fruits are so big the blackbirds just leave them alone.

Apple Starline Firedance

Growing strawberries in summer is very easy, but the challenge is to grow a few out of season, so I use an early variety, Mae or Christine and put it under a low polythene tunnel to crop from mid May onwards. The season is also extended with autumn fruiting Flamenco though the rains in 2019 wiped out most of the crop. For something different try a few Saskatoon fruit bushes or the chokeberry, Aronia Viking with black fruit extremely high in antioxidants.

Figs are another very impressive crop that seems to love growing outdoors in Scotland. They are very east to grow and crop for over a couple of months. Eat them fresh, but when crops are heavy they make an excellent jam and chutney.

Outdoor grapes can vary. Brant has never let me down, but last year Rondo and Regent just rotted in the wet weather. However they were great the previous year when we got a great summer. I will still keep them just in case better summers return. To grow successfully though, you need continual summer pruning of young shoots so the plant puts all its energy into producing large grapes.

Keep the birds well fed

Pumpkins are always a great challenge to get big fruits that ripen up to a brilliant orange colour, but select a good variety and keep the plants fed and watered if the season lacks rainfall.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep bird tables topped up with seed, and clean tables and feeders regularly. On frosty mornings, replace frozen water dishes with fresh warm water. I no longer put out bread for the birds as it encourages pigeons and seagulls which are very messy.

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THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

The new year has just begun, so it’s a great time to plan the year ahead determined that 2020 will be better than 2019, so we can start off with good intentions. Climate change and global warming are constantly in the news, and the level of all my

Australian Bottlebrush

successes and failures in the garden have largely been due to weather. While it may be nice to see warmer weather in Scotland which would be great for my outdoor grapes and peaches, unfortunately it is accompanied with excessive rainfall, and our mild winters are also so damp that we cannot get on

Eucalyptus gunnii

the land to do our winter digging. However it is not just us gardeners that are suffering. Newspapers and television tell us about the problems of climate change on a global scale, so action is needed to play a part in trying to address the problem.  We now all understand the part trees play in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the soil and with energy from the sun they create food for the plants through photosynthesis in the green parts of leaves (the chlorophyll). Oxygen is given off as a bi-product which we need to breathe. However man has been removing trees all round the planet at an alarming rate for fuel, building materials and clearing land for crops. It is time to redress this imbalance on a global scale, but at the domestic level, gardeners can play a small part by planting a few more trees in their gardens. Although most houses today only come with very small gardens we can still find some trees for small sites. As it is leaf coverage that is important, even some shrubs will help to add to the green coverage for

Eucryphia Rostrevor

those with small gardens. I have seen some huge Berberis darwinnii, magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias and even my fig bushes have grown into wee trees.

Many trees now come in upright forms so do not require a lot of space. My favourite is the upright cherry, Prunus Amanogawa and Eucryphia Rostrevor with white flowers. There are also upright forms of hornbeam, oak and rowan trees. The dwarf cherry tree Prunus Shirotae has horizontal branches and is a mass of flowers in spring. Another tree form suitable for small gardens is weeping forms of birch, beech, lime, flowering cherry and ash. Then of course we have our local dwarf weeping elm, Ulmus camperdownii, first found in Camperdown Park by forester David Taylor in 1835 to 1840, but now all over the world.

I have grown the weeping birch, Betula pendula youngii from a small sapling,

Flowering cherry

but trained it up a tall stake for five years to give it a bit of height then removed the stake to let it weep. I now grow the white stemmed very impressive Betula jacquemontii, which makes a great specimen for the small garden. However in Scotland Rowans are a favourite and my orange berried Sorbus Joseph Rock puts on a great display of berries just loved by blackbirds and thrushes.

Mature fig tree Brown Turkey

Lilacs come in many varieties and the best hawthorn for small gardens is the Crataegus Pauls Scarlet. If you have a sheltered garden it is worth trying the Australian bottlebrush tree Callistemon citrinus. A hardy palm tree is also very impressive, but Cordyline australis can get cut back to ground level in a severe winter. Eucalyptus gunnii is another evergreen, but a wee bit hardier, though these two usually grow back again from the ground.
Gardeners on an allotment plot may wish to plant a fruiting tree of apple, plum, cherry or pear. We are spoiled for choice as there are so many, but where space is limited apples come as narrow columns in Starline Firedance and other come as low stepover forms, and for planting against a wall you can get a fan trained tree. Even our humble gardener with a small garden can still plant a tree in the fight against climate change.

Rose pot plant

Wee jobs to do this week

Pot plants bought in ahead of Christmas to add to the festive atmosphere such as poinsettias, orchids,

Christmas cactus, cyclamen, azaleas and potted roses can still be attractive for a few more weeks, so keep them watered and give them a wee feed to keep them happy. Grow them on in a light but cool room, though my red potted dwarf rose will be kept in a warm room as it has started to grow and I hope it continues to flower and stay dwarf. Time will tell.

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REVIEW OF THE YEAR

                                                      REVIEW OF THE YEAR

The year is now just about behind us and we look forward to 2020 and wonder what lies ahead. There will be new varieties of fruit vegetables and flowers to try, but the biggest challenge is always the battle with the weather. It is a complete unknown as there is just no way of finding out which way it will go. We will all remember 2019 as a very wet year,

John and Anna wish everyone a Happy New Year

though records in some parts had it as very warm, but I cannot say I noticed any long dry very warm periods in Dundee, apart from a fortnight in the middle of May when summer arrived after a long cool spring. There was a great show of daffodils and tulips which went on for ages as cool weather

Apple Discovery

slowed down growth. The show of tulips has been the best ever, so a note was made to buy a lot more in autumn as the display created was worth every penny spent. I now use them for companion planting to enhance the show so I choose varieties to plant along with doronicum, forsythia, border phlox, saxifrages and amongst my roses. I use dwarf early varieties so there is no conflict for space and they die down before the roses need more room to grow. We had come through the normal mild winter to be followed by a cool but dry spring and plants were ready to get going. Seed potatoes went in very early. First early Casa Blanca went in the last week in February followed by all the others the first week in March. As shoots appeared through the earthed up furrows there was no late frosts to worry them.

The hose came out regularly in May as we went through a nice wee dry spell, but all was not rosy in

Dave's spring flowers

the garden. The mild winter was perfect for over wintering greenfly eggs and before long they arrived in plagues on roses, fruit bushes, lilies, pansies and the rosy leaf curling plum aphid wiped out all foliage on plum trees. The plum trees recovered by mid summer but nearly all of the fruit was lost. My outdoor peach tree Avalon Pride only produced one fruit, but it fell off before it ripened.  Apples and pears all fruited very well, but apple Oslin suffered from brown rot wiping out all that variety. Figs on the other hand gave great crops for nearly three months. The dry spell was perfect for the spread of mildew and blackspot smothering roses. The summer display was really severely reduced. It was not long, however, before the pleasant

Summer hanging basket

spring weather gave way to summer and the rain arrived. It forgot to go off. Wet mild weather is perfect for lettuce, cabbages, sprouts, kale and Swedes, but onions suffer badly as wet rot runs riot. However I had got my crop sown and planted early, so as soon as the rot began to spread they all got lifted and dried off. Strawberries also suffered from botrytis rotting a lot of the summer crop and the autumn crop, (Flamenco) which could have been a great crop but was wiped out by botrytis rotting all the fruit. Early strawberry Christine however started to fruit at the beginning of May, before the rains arrived and a good month ahead of last year. Many pumpkins and courgettes all rotted as they grew.

Brant Grapes at City Road Allotments

Although a wet year, garden flowers have all mostly done well. Lilies and garden pinks like a hot dry climate, but both put on a great show, in spite of heavy attacks of greenfly. Geraniums also flowered profusely especially those in hanging baskets.

Top Awards for allotments for John and Dave

Outdoor grapes varied. Brant excelled itself both on my house wall and up at City Road allotments, but rain rotted all fruit on Regent and Rondo. Greenhouse grapes Black Hamburg, Solaris and Siegerrebe all fruited well and most of the crop is now maturing away quietly in demijohns. Tomatoes were all good under glass, and my cherry tomato trial went very well with Supersweet 100 and Sungold both getting top marks for sweetness and cropping.

City Road Allotments won an award for the best allotment site in Dundee and I got the cup for the best plot in the town. New communal flower borders and outdoor grape trial against our south facing sheds may have caught the judge’s eye.

Euonymous needs pruning

Wee jobs to do this week

Shrubs grown for their impact of coloured foliage such as the Euonymous Emerald n Gold and

Emerald Gaiety provide great interest in winter, but once well established like to keep growing and spreading. However once they have filled their allotted space cut back any branches blocking paths.

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FESTIVE THOUGHTS

                                                             FESTIVE THOUGHTS

As we enter the few days left in the run up to Christmas our thoughts may well turn to activities other than gardening. The Christmas decorations are everywhere and there is a wee Santa Claus looking out at every turn. The Christmas tree emerged from the attic, a bit dusty, but otherwise in good form, and the wee fairy for the top fitted on perfectly though after a few falls as her dress is now a wee bit dishevelled. We are strong believers in recycling

John looking over new catalogues

so our plastic Christmas tree of over thirty years is no bad going, and the tree lights are still in perfect working order.

However it is not possible to forget gardening duties entirely as there is watering of numerous pot plants and rooted cuttings in the greenhouse and numerous windowsills, and with every dry day I must return to the allotment to continue the winter digging. The year seems to want to end just as wet as it has been since early summer. There has been plenty well rotted garden compost to spread and dig in, as the growth year created an abundance of leaf growth which ends up in the compost heap. Autumn and early winter was surprisingly calm, so as leaves fell they all dropped onto the ground instead of blowing away. So again there was plenty for the compost heap. The fresh compost will have a few months to rot down and should be ready by late spring for digging into the areas for late planted heavy feeders such as courgettes, pumpkins and sweet corn.

Cotoneaster berries for the birds

Weird summer and autumn weather played havoc with early chrysanthemums. They were not early as most flowered in November, and grew nearly six feet tall, well above their supports so strong winds blew them over. Lifting the roots and boxing up ended up as a December task on a rare dry sunny day, so they are now under cover in the greenhouse.

Harvesting outdoor crops to keep the kitchen supplied with fresh vegetables continues, but it is difficult finding a dry day. There is plenty of sprouts, cabbage, kale, Swedes, leeks, winter lettuce, spring onions, parsnips and beetroot though the latter are a lot smaller than normal. I put this down to adjacent crops being so vigorous this year that they have all been fighting for room and the beetroot lost out.

Fresh harvested winter vegetables

Sprout buttons are suffering from attacks of mealy aphis so Anna has to remove a fair number of leaves, though we have huge crops this year. The fresh vegetables together with those in store and freezer will make us near self sufficient all winter, but I really miss my home grown cherry tomatoes produces totally free from any chemicals and grown in border soil so they all came with fantastic flavour and soft skins.

Garden produce in store

Although wet weather keeps us indoors it gives us time to watch the garden birds feeding in our feeders which we keep topped up. They seem to be having a time of great opulence as berried shrubs and trees are just laden with heavy crops from Cotoneasters to Rowans and even those few apples left on the tree after harvesting help the birds get a balanced diet. Berried trees and shrubs, winter flowers on Mahonia Charity and the coloured stems of Cornus and red maple Sango Kaku brighten up the garden in the winter months.

Back indoors the festive period is a great time to relax with a wee drop of three year old Saskatoon or

John completes painting of Arthurs Plot

gooseberry wine and browse over catalogues to see what new plants we can try next year. The allotment rotation plan for 2020 is in place but seed variety selection has still to be sorted out. I usually do a review of the previous year’s crops to drop failures, reorder the best ones, and add in some new fruit and vegetables. However I always have my other hobby of painting when the garden is out of bounds, but as I am painting a winter scene of Arthur’s Plot it is back to the allotment.

Wee jobs to do this week

Polythene lining around greenhouse

This year was one of great growth, so all my geraniums ended the season looking very healthy, so I will try and over winter them in my cold greenhouse, but to keep the cold out it will be lined with sheets of bubble polythene. This can be attached to the framework with plastic plugs which fit into channels in the glazing bars. I have left a few geraniums outdoors in a sheltered spot to see if they will survive if we get another mild winter.

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