Colourful Annuals are Easy

COLOURFUL ANNUALS ARE EASY

Most gardens at some time always have some bare areas needing something to brighten them up. Although this winter was very mild, the previous two winters really sorted out a lot of not too hardy plants leaving bare patches which need replanting or continual weeding. Annuals can be used to add some summer colour and interest to these areas. They are also invaluable in the new garden as freshly planted permanent planting may yet be a few years away from filling up their space leaving a lot of bare ground.

Annuals do not need rich soil and may flower better if the ground is quite poor, though to get good germination and establishment it is worthwhile ensuring the soil surface is well prepared adding some well rotted compost or old used growbags into the top few inches. Do not use any fertiliser otherwise you may get lush growth at the expense of flowers.

Some annuals are so colourful that it is well worth setting aside a special border to grow them in every year. They will flower best in full sun on well drained soil even if it is a bit dry so long as they have enough moisture to get them established.

Sowing and planting

Seed sowing can be started at the end of March to mid April direct onto the ground where they are to grow. If you only have a small patch of ground then just broadcast the seeds lightly and rake them in. However if your border is a fair size and you are growing a range of annuals it may be better to mark out drifts with builders sand then sow each type in rows in its own patch. When these grow to a few inches they can be thinned and transplanted to where ever they are needed. This method also makes weeding a lot easier. It gives a more natural appearance when planting up drifts if the different plant types overlap. Some types such as Livingston daisies and Osteospermums can be sown in plug trays and grown on for a few weeks before planting out. They will need to be kept well watered until they get growing.

My favourite selection

Many half hardy bedding plants such as petunias, marigolds and geraniums are treated as annuals, but these are best for traditional beds, tubs and hanging baskets, so I am concentrating on the hardy annuals usually sown direct onto the ground or raised for a few weeks in plug trays.

You can also buy a wide selection cheaply from your garden centre as plug plants to try out something new.

Top of my list has always been the Shirley poppies as they are very easy to grow, very colourful and often find themselves the subject of a painting. Californian poppies and poppy Ladybird are also firm favourites. The best fully double pink poppy is varieties of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum which arrived as a stray weed in my garden but put on such a fantastic show that I saved seed for future years.

Godetia, Livingston daisies, osteospermums and candytuft are very showy at the front of borders and clarkia, cosmos, cornflower, larkspur and amaranthus better at the back.

If you have young kids around grow some statice or helichrysum (everlasting flowers) at the front as they love to feel the rustling flower petals.

Calendula and nasturtiums are easy and give a great show, but keep them dead headed as if left unattended they can become very invasive in the following years as the seed remains viable for years and germinates readily.

Nigella (Love in a mist) is another favourite with soft blue flowers.

Plant of the week

Daffodils are the largest and boldest members of the narcissus family flowering from February to April as the traditional herald of spring. Golden Harvest and King Alfred are the two most popular trumpet varieties, but Mount Hood is a brilliant white with a great perfume. The range also includes doubles, the highly scented Jonquils, paperwhites, miniatures and numerous others.

They naturalise very easily so are often mass planted in drifts in grassed areas, deciduous woodlands and shrub borders and will fit in perfectly in herbaceous borders. Once planted they will flower reliably every year. They make excellent cut flower and their scent can be heavenly. Grow them in tubs and pots to flower early then planted in the garden once the foliage has died down.

Painting of the Month

Chinese Beauty is a large acrylic painting on canvas showing a close friend Hongmei Li dressed in a Tang dynasty gown. Hongmei spent some time with us in Scotland while studying for her PHD trying to identify an unknown nematode devastating the Chinese pine forests. She was also a very keen photographer and brought with her a small portfolio of fantastic photos of herself in traditional costume taken in a studio in China. Several paintings of Hongmei followed, so she had memories of her wonderful time spent at her Scottish home in Dundee to take back to China.

She was my only Chinese model and a great friend.

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TASTY TOMATOES

TASTY TOMATOES

Home grown tomatoes take skill and patience from sowing to harvesting but the rewards of tasting a fully ripe tomato whether a cherry type, beefsteak or my favourite Alicante make it all very worthwhile. The crops from an unheated cold greenhouse may not be ready till mid summer, unless the weather is in your favour, but the wait is always worthwhile when you can savour that first tomato ripened on your own vine. The supermarkets prefer to buy in tomatoes just turning colour as they are still very firm and travel well without damage, but at a great loss to flavour. Out of season tomatoes get a lot less sun and are virtually devoid of flavour, only suitable for cooking.

Come mid summer when we get a glut of our cherry tomatoes, they ripen faster than we can eat them, but they are so sweet that they are perfect for snacking on in between meals, and young kids just love them. No summer salad is complete without some freshly picked ripe tomato.

Uses

Eat them fresh at every opportunity, but summer gluts allow us to have them fried with our cooked breakfast, the beefsteak types are perfect for stuffing, and gluts of courgettes and other summer vegetables can combine together for the ratatouille. Summer gluts of fresh tomatoes will make a gorgeous tomato soup which can also be frozen for use when the season is over. Tomatoes will also freeze very well as whole fruits, and then they can be skinned easily for use after thawing.

Varieties

Selection of varieties depends on where they are to be grown and your own personal favourites. Tomatoes can now be used in tubs and hanging baskets using tumbler and dwarf bush varieties and traditional types can be red, yellow or orange and come as large fruits, (Shirley and Alicante), huge fruits (beafsteaks), small fruits (plum varieties and Gardeners Delight) and very small such as the cherry types. My favourite has always been Sweet Million as it is very sweet and produces long trusses with loads of fruit on them.

Propagation and growing

I sow my seed at the end of February, but grow them on a sunny windowsill until the unheated greenhouse warms up a bit. However, sometimes the electric fan heater gets turned on if an unexpected cold snap occurs. If you have a heated greenhouse, or if it is lined with bubble polythene to conserve heat, then go for a January sowing. This should then bring cropping forward considerably. Sow thinly in seed trays in warm conditions then prick out into small individual pots when they are big enough to handle. They need plenty of warmth and light to keep them sturdy, but do not feed them at this stage.

Plant out when the first flower truss appears into growbags, pots, borders and nowadays there is a return to the use of strawbales as a growing medium.

Put a support system in place if growing them as cordons.

Start feeding half strength when the first truss has set, then progressively go to full strength. Give a feed every second watering. Tomato fertiliser is high in potassium which helps fruiting, so sometimes in late summer it is a good idea to give a high nitrogen feed to maintain good growth.

Remove sideshoots as they appear and keep the stems well supported. Stop the growing point after the fourth to sixth truss depending on weather. In a poor year the cold greenhouse only ripens up four trusses, but a good summer will allow at least six.

Tomatoes love plenty of water so do not ever let them go dry, especially when you are away on holiday.

Pests and diseases

Blossom end rot is mainly a problem with careless watering when the trusses get wet or if the soil has gone too dry. Botrytis and potato blight are a problem in a cold wet summer like last year, but it helps to keep the greenhouse well ventilated to prevent any build up of condensation.

Keep an eye out for greenfly, whitefly or red spider and spray with whatever is available from your garden centre. They are not normally a big problem.

Plant of the week  

Anemone blanda is a very easy to grow plant producing a carpet of blue daisy flowers in early March. When it appears you know spring is here. You only need a few plants to get started as it multiplies very easily from seed or splitting up the dormant rhizomes in mid summer. However it does not get invasive as it is easily controlled. It will grow in full sun or partial shade and likes a well drained moist soil which has had plenty of compost added in the past. It is perfect for deciduous woodland that gets sun ahead of the canopy and there is plenty leafmold in the top few inches. It is the perfect partner for cyclamen hederifolium which comes into growth as the Anemone dies down, then it dies down in early spring when the anemone needs the light.

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EVERY GARDEN NEEDS AN APPLE TREE

EVERY GARDEN NEEDS AN APPLE TREE

Apple trees are extremely good value as a garden plant. They are not too difficult to grow, but will provide a decent challenge to your gardening skills. Information on growing them is easy to find and getting the right varieties for your area has most likely been sorted out by someone who has then published his findings on the internet in a gardening blog or website.

Modern dwarfing rootstocks and a wide variety of tree types mean that most gardens no matter how small can find space for at least one tree.

Then with a wee bit more technical information it is possible to graft another one or two varieties onto your tree to assist cross pollination and give a heavier crop with more fruit varieties, which in turn helps to extend the cropping season.

We now have knowledge of modern varieties plus a resurgence of interest in older heritage varieties from the past so we can grow really delicious fruit that has true apple flavour very hard to find on a supermarket shelf. These dessert apples can be picked fresh from August till October with a range of varieties then stored in an airy cool place for several more months.

Cooking apples store even better and have so many uses in the kitchen and wine cellar that they should be compulsory in every garden where healthy living is high on the agenda.

The taste of a freshly picked Discovery apple allowed to fully ripen on the tree is pure bliss.

However I start my season even earlier with the Oslin (Arbroath Pippin) which is a golden coloured fruit with a very unique flavour but unfortunately is not a keeper so only grow enough that you and your family and friends can eat in its short season straight off the tree.

I covered a fair bit about apples for this locality last October, which is still easy to find in my gardening blog at scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.com

Bramley, a fantastic cooking apple

I love growing apples to pick and eat fully ripe straight off the tree, but when it comes a cooking variety there is nothing to touch the Bramley. The variety is quite vigorous, has disease free foliage, and is a very reliable cropper producing large fruit which store happily till March in a cool garage.

Commercially in controlled storage it becomes available all year round.

The fruit has numerous uses with the obvious crumbles, pies and apple sauce, but also chopped up as a stir fry ingredient, then again chopped up and added to the pan for a cooked breakfast of bacon, egg, tomato, mushroom and apple adding that hint of sweetness. Then there is apple jelly, or stewed and added to compote, chopped and added to curries, and baked in their own skin. In the years when you get a glut it is perfect for both cider and a beautiful apple wine. My first brewings may not yet be ready, (only 6 months old) but tastings so far have been very promising.

Bramley has just the right balance of sweetness, acidity, flavour and tang. It has been around for a long time as there has been nothing to beat it.

It has a very interesting history which fortunately has been well recorded.

It started life when a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford sowed some pips in her garden in Nottinghamshire in 1809. One tree turned out to be quite outstanding. Many years later in 1846 a local butcher, Mathew Bramley bought the cottage and garden complete with this apple tree. Word about this amazing apple tree spread and ten years later local nurseryman Henry Merryweather asked if he could take cuttings to sell the apple tree. Mathew only agreed providing it could be named after him as Bramley’s Seedling.

Henry Merryweather then propagated it by grafting and started to exhibit the fruit at shows.

The fruit was highly commended by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1876, and then ten years later received a first class certificate in Manchester at the Royal Jubilee Exhibition of Apples. It continued to receive awards at numerous shows in England.

In 1900 disaster struck the original tree when violent storms blew it down. However it managed to survive and is still alive and growing today and still producing fruit.

During the early 1900’s Bramley was extensively planted as a main food source during World War 1 and continues to be widely grown in England as the main culinary variety of popular choice in a £50 million industry. Commercially it is grown in England, but domestically in the Scottish garden it is proving to be the perfect cooking apple. I still have a tray of my Bramley in use for March.

Plant of the week

Rhododendron praecox is my choice for this week. This is one of the earliest Rhododendrons to flower, (botanically “praecox” means early or premature) creating a dazzling display of bright lilac flowers in late February to mid March depending on the weather at this time of year. It only grows about two to three feet tall and likes a well drained moist soil in sun or partial shade. It benefits from a heavy dressing of well rotted leaf mold, bark chips or pine needles worked into the top nine inches of soil before planting. It does not have deep roots so make sure it never dries out in a dry summer just in case such an event occurs, as life is full of surprises.

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THE GARDENING YEAR BEGINS

THE GARDENING YEAR BEGINS

The garden ticks over quietly during the long winter months, but by mid February numerous wee jobs begin to crop up. After our very mild winter there is a temptation to get ahead of the game, as garden plants are taking full advantage of all the unseasonably mild spells. We could get caught out if a late frost occurs, but then if we hold back we could miss a golden opportunity.

I suppose it depends on how much you wish to gamble.

My sowing plans are determined by previous year’s experiences, though it is hard to remember what a normal year looks like. Soil conditions have been perfect as it is quite dry on the surface and early digging and leaving the soil rough over winter has allowed the soil to break down to a fine tilth very easily.

Outdoor jobs

Compost was spread on borders in late autumn. This has allowed early flowering bulbs such as snowdrops, aconites and crocus to appear without any disturbance. Other flowers such as pulmonaria, anemone blanda, and narcissi are now beginning to appear.

Fruit tree pruning is now getting completed, though I am keeping a lot of shoots of apple and pear back for grafting as I now have some great varieties that I want to reuse.

Redcurrant bushes got their winter pruning taking all the young sideshoots back to spurs and tipping a few young main shoots which will replace a few older branches after fruiting.

I keep two rows of early strawberry Mae, but to give a succession I put one row under tunnels to bring on an early crop. Strawberries need a winter chill period to ripen up fruiting crowns, but by mid February they should be ok and now milder weather is here a tunnel will hasten on the fruit.

My roll of polythene purchased over twenty years ago from LBS Polythene for strawberries is not yet finished. It has been excellent value, though appeared dear at the time.

Now is the time to give the peach tree its spray of Dithane fungicide to prevent peach leaf curl, which would destroy the leaves in spring and summer.

Indoor jobs

Tomatoes, broad beans and onion seeds can now be sown. I have a cold unheated greenhouse so the seed is sown in trays and kept under a table in the living room. As soon as germination appears they are brought onto a sunny windowsill in good light to keep them strong and short jointed. The tomatoes are grown in seed trays then pricked out into cellular trays, the beans are space sown individually in cellular trays, and the onions are sown in small clumps in cellular trays where they remain till planted out. Once germination is complete the onions and beans are put in the cold greenhouse to harden off, but the tomatoes are a wee bit more tender and stay in the warmth on a windowsill until the greenhouse warms up.

Check begonia tubers and if the buds are beginning to swell now is the time to box them up into compost and start them into growth. They are another plant that I start under a table in my studio where it is dark but warm. Once the young shoots start to grow they are brought into the light, then eventually taken to the greenhouse when the weather warms it up. Do not plant them deep, they just need enough compost cover to keep the whole corm moist.

Geranium cuttings taken in the autumn were rooted on a window sill, and then potted up in January. They are now putting on some growth so pinch out the tips to make them branch, but if they have good strong growth then use the pinch out shoots as cuttings to increase the stock.

They root very easily.

Sweet peas germinated a few weeks ago have now sent up shoots with a few leaves on. They are best pinched back to one or two leaves to encourage fresh young shoots to break from the base.

Busy Lizzy cuttings were taken in autumn and put into small jars of water where they will happily root. After a couple of months the rooted plants were potted up and are now in flower as an attractive house plant, though they are an excellent source of new cuttings to increase stock.

Plant of the week  

Crocus is one of the earliest flowers to create impact when planted in large drifts. They are very easy to grow and spread by seed and young bulbils. They are quite dazzling in mass displays. There are numerous species, though my favourites are Blue Pearl, Snow Bunting and Cream Beauty which flower about a week ahead of the larger flowering hybrids. Yellow Mammoth is the best for pure colour, but Joan of Arc (white), Pickwick (striped) and Flower Record (purple) are all very colourful especially when randomly mixed together.

Some species flower in autumn such as Crocus sativus which is used for the production of saffron by harvesting its red flower stigmas.

Crocus planted in tubs for early spring displays can be replanted in borders after flowering where they will continue to flower every year.

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