END OF THE HARVESTING SEASON

END OF THE HARVESTING SEASON

As the growing season is now all but finished apart from a few winter vegetables, we gather in the last of our crops while still trying to get them ripened off with any promise of a decent sunny day.

Salad crops continue to grow happily from later sowings with good lettuce, spring onions, radish and a weird mixture of leafy plants including mizuna, sorrel, corn salad, polycress, mustard and rocket. It is nice to try new things, and no doubt we will be very healthy, but I still prefer a good lettuce.

Apples

All my apples have now been picked and are being sorted out for eating, cooking, storage and wine making. Fiesta, Red Falstaff and Red Devil are all late varieties that get picked on a sunny day in mid October when they are just ripe enough. This year they have all been picked in between rain showers and none of them are fully ripe, (when the seeds have turned black) so I hope they ripen up in store. They all lack normal sweetness this year and Red Falstaff  has a bit of scab on the fruit so although I have a great crop a lot of them are destined for wine making. Red Devil has been outstanding. It suffered no disease whatsoever, has given a very heavy crop, and has really brightened up the garden with large scarlet apples that seem to glow. Early tastings indicate that after a couple of weeks of storage it will be a brilliant dessert apple.

Bramley has been a very poor cropper this year and suffered a wee bit of mildew, but it is still hard to beat for a great cooking apple. All damaged, split, scabby and small fruit will be used for making apple pectin to help set jams and plenty left over for a good couple of demijohns where I add raisins and bananas to make my dessert apple sauterne style wine.

Pumpkins

This was not their best year. They need warmth, plenty moisture, feeding and sunshine as they are very vigorous growers. They need plenty of large leaves to make food to swell up the pumpkins. I did get the numbers expected, but not at a decent size and there was never enough warmth or sunshine to ripen them up to that brilliant orange colour. I noticed that they were not plentiful in the shops, and the sizes were poor, but prices a lot higher than normal. I will ripen mine indoors though it may be a few months before they find the soup pot.

Figs

Every week I manage to get four to six figs just ripe enough to eat. If I leave them any longer on the bush, botrytis will start to rot them. I still have a few left but unless that Indian summer appears it will be hard to get them ripened. However growth has been good so some late summer pruning was carried out to help initiate small fig buds which will carry over to fruit next year.

Grapes

This is another crop that needs warmth and sunshine.

Black Hamburg in the greenhouse is very slow to ripen with some grapes shrivelling up. However they are very erratic with several bunches maturing, so I am getting grapes, but not like last year.

Flame, my red seedless has been a total failure and produced no grapes at all from two rods.

Perlette, my white muscat flavoured seedless grape produced many huge bunches, but struggled to ripen. Some of the grapes split allowing botrytis to gain a hold, but these were removed as soon as seen. Many grapes dropped off during the ripening period, but those bunches that did ripen gave a fantastic flavoured grape well worth all the trouble.

Brant, my outdoor black grape is giving a nice crop of small bunches, some of which are slowly ripening so they may have to be picked over a few weeks. These will be kept to make a delicious grape juice that can be stored in plastic bottles and frozen to be used at any time.

I must have lost my local blackbird as he was always the first to start sampling them and picking was necessary before he ate the lot. Either he is no longer with us, or he thinks they are just not ready yet.

Plant of the week

 Lamium White Nancy is a ground cover hardy perennial plant that loves to brighten up a shady spot in the garden, growing to 6 to 9 inches tall. It will grow in any soil that retains moisture but does not get waterlogged. Although it belongs to the nettle family it has no stings. Propagate it easily by cuttings, division or let it run over the soil where the stems will root on contact with the soil. It has dense variegated foliage that smothers any weeds trying to grow.

Painting of the Month

“Sweet Peppers” is a still life study with some of Asda’s best peppers. This painting is one of many studies in watercolour and acrylic of still life with peppers, mushrooms, cape gooseberries, grapes, bananas and summer fruits. Some of them will be on exhibition at Dundee Art Society winter exhibition in Roseangle Gallery from 2^nd to 5^th November, together with many more beautiful paintings from the members.

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SEASONAL JOBS IN AUTUMN

SEASONAL JOBS IN AUTUMN

Yesterday I had a very pleasant hour sat on the patio having my afternoon coffee break in full sun. It was pleasantly very warm. Then just when I thought summer was about to have a late flurry the following day the heavens opened up and we had flooding and a severe weather warning. I think we are now definitely in autumn, therefore my gardening thoughts turn to tidying up the last of the summer flowers and looking ahead to next years fruit, flowers and vegetables.

This is the time to do a final clear up of weeds before we spread compost over beds and borders before the leaves fall and early bulbs start to pop up. Weed control this year has been different. The cool wet weather has discouraged weed growth, so there was not a huge problem provided you watched weather forecasts and were able to weed on those few dry days. However many people just did not get enough dry days to hoe or spray, so the few weeds that did grow became a big problem. We are still getting very wet weather so end of season weeding means removing weeds rather than hoeing or spraying. This will give us clean ground for bulb planting, compost spreading or planting new trees, shrubs, roses or other plants.

Flowers

Summer bedding plants are now finished so these can be removed and chopped up before adding to the compost heap. Remove old potting compost from tubs and baskets add it to the compost heap, though I often reuse this after adding some extra fresh compost and some fertiliser. I purchased some rock dust so I will be adding this as I go. Check all old compost for vine weevil maggots and kill these if spotted. They love fuchsias, begonias and busy lizzies, but don’t seem to bother geraniums much. If you are replanting with spring bedding the vine weevils love polyanthus and primroses, but will also have a go at pansies.

Geraniums can be propagated by taking cuttings from the top three inches or so. I snap these off at a leaf joint and never use a knife which can spread disease. Put about three to five around a shallow pot using free draining compost. I keep mine shaded for a few weeks till they root then bring them onto a sunny windowsill for the winter.

Tuberous begonias can be lifted and dried off in an airy shed after knocking some of the soil off. The tops can be composted. Keep checking the corms for signs of vine weevils which burrow into the tuber to feed. When it is drying off they are easy to spot as the holes are moist. Begonias keep from year to year and get bigger unless you cut them in half in spring from time to time.

Spring bedding

I replant my tubs, baskets, pots and beds with wallflower, pansies, myosotis and polyanthus. Tulips and hyacinths are used in between the plants. I prefer to use the tall Darwin hybrids or fosteriana tulips amongst wallflower, but dwarf early tulips under the others, so they don’t get shaded out with excess foliage. I seldom use triumph, parrot or lily flowered tulips as these are too late for spring bedding mixtures, but are fine on their own in borders.

Now is a perfect time to top up with other spring flowering bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops and daffodils. I have often got good bargains at the end of the bulb planting season when garden centres want to clear the shelves for Christmas gifts, but always make sure the bulbs are still healthy.

Iceland poppies are one of my favourite spring flowers which continue right into summer with bright dazzling flowers. These are now ready for planting from seed sown in late spring.

Vegetables

Spring cabbage April was sown a couple of months ago and are now ready to plant out now as  there is time to get them established before winter sets in. Germination was good in a seed pan, then I transplanted about thirty of the best seedlings into cellular trays. The battle then commenced. First they were spotted by a cabbage white butterfly, so picking off caterpillars was a frequent task. Slugs and snails then found them, followed by some cabbage rootfly maggots. I moved them into my cold greenhouse before the pigeons spotted them, but the warmer conditions were perfect for the local greenflies. I prepared a strip on my allotment a month ago by forking in some well rotted compost. As clubroot is also a problem I dusted the ground with some Perlka, a nitrogenous fertiliser with 50% lime said to be effective as a control for clubroot. Time will tell.
I intended to use the Councils Discovery compost, but got turned away as the weighbridge closes down for lunch and I got chased off the site. They are also closed all weekend.

Does Dundee Council not want to offer the public any compost? It is not easy to buy it.

The plants get collars to keep out rootfly maggots and netted against pigeons.

Plant of the week

 Desfontainia spinosa is a slow growing evergreen shrub ultimately reaching two metres. It is happy on a wide variety of soils and is fine in semi shade. Coming from Chile and Peru it grows in fertile rain forests but with good drainage and enjoys constant wet conditions. It should feel perfectly at home in Scotland. It has holly type leaves but it produces many very attractive single red tubular flowers with golden tips.

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TIME TO HARVEST THE APPLES

  TIME TO HARVEST THE APPLES

Every person I speak to about their apples, plums and pears seem to have a story to tell, and none of them are positive. The keen gardener can dig, drain, manure and cultivate his soil to improve it as necessary. We can buy strong healthy plants of good varieties. We can provide shelter and irrigation (in a dry year) but we can’t do a thing about the weather. I am very conscious that this year almost every article has had a reference to how the weather has adversely affected most flowers, fruit and vegetables. Now it is time to assess how the top fruit has fared in this unusual climate.

I grow six varieties of apples though next year it will be nine once my new grafts start to fruit. I also have a huge thirty year old plum tree, a pear tree with four varieties grafted onto it and of course my peach tree. I am sure my experience this year will sound familiar with many others all over UK.

That wonderful sunny March

The growing year started with great promise when the summer arrived in early March and stayed the whole month. It was very warm and sunny and got many trees off to a great start.

My peaches were the first to flower and although I hand pollinate with a fine sable brush, there were a few early bees around to assist with the pollination. I got an excellent fruit set.

The plum tree was also laden with blossom and bee activity was in evidence. I have a Berberis darwinii planted underneath it which flowers at the same time. Bees absolutely adore it so they go for the berberis then fly up to the plum for a wee change of diet. Everything looked great.

If this is the effect of global warming in Scotland, fantastic!!!

Into April, but winter’s not yet finished

We all got fooled. Winter came back, temperatures dropped and the rain came on, and never went off. In fact it is now October and it is still raining!!! The pear tree varieties Conference and Comice came into flower in early April brought forward by the brilliant March, but the bees had disappeared so pollination never happened. However some people have had good pear tree pollination with good crops. Results are very variable.

The plum tree flowers never had a chance. Instead of my normal one hundred plus plums I only found two that survived. It did not take long to bring in that harvest and this year there was no risk of me falling out of the tree trying to reach that gorgeous Victoria plum hanging at the end of a long branch at the top of the tree.

Apple trees were a beautiful sight on a few sunny days towards the end of April and did manage to get pollinated. The pollen has to grow down the flower pistil to the ovaries to fertilise the embryo and needs mild conditions. It did not get this so a successful fruit set was very patchy.

Dessert apples were quite good except for Fiesta a biennial bearer in its off year so no surprise there. Though to be fair getting about twenty large apples in its off year was quite pleasing.

Bramley was the big disappointment with only about a 20% fruit set, and the fruit is small and misshapen. Apple seed produce growth hormones to swell the fruit. If some of the seed is infertile because it never got fertilised then that part of the fruit does not develop and results in a lumpy misshapen fruit.

A cold and wet summer

Good crops of Oslin, Discovery, Red Falstaff and Red Devil gave a lot of early promise, but constant rainfall together with cool weather allowed brown rot to attack the fruit and take out a lot of fruit, especially the Oslin. Then fruit cracking affected a lot of the Discovery. Cracking can start with very small fruit affected by a late frost, or too much water. This causes the fruit to swell faster than the skin can grow so a small crack appears. Discovery is quite resistant to scab, but in this very wet year scab gained a hold and the scabs can cause cracks to form often allowing brown rot fungus to enter. In a normal year Discovery is one of the best early apples for our area. The poor fruit harvest in 2012 has affected growers all over the UK as well as Europe and the USA.

However Red Devil and Red Falstaff are the success stories as neither has been troubled too much, though sweetness and flavour are not at their best.

My good crop of peaches slowly succumbed to the wet weather and one by one the fruit rotted and fell off, though we did get a few sweet juicy survivors.

Plant of the week

 Nerine bowdenii commonly known as the Guernsey Lily provides a very welcome splash of bright pink flowers from September to the end of October. They come from South Africa so prefer to grow in full sun. They need good drainage and are quite happy in poor to normal garden soils that can retain moisture. Good soil only encourages foliage at the expense of flowers. Once planted leave them undisturbed for many years as they flower best when overcrowded. Bulbs planted in autumn should be mulched for winter protection in the first couple of years, or plant them in spring. The foliage appears in spring and grows through summer, then dies down just before flowering.

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LAST OF THE SUMMER FLOWERS

 LAST OF THE SUMMER FLOWERS

The prospect of an Indian summer was always high in our hopes to make up for an otherwise mediocre summer to put it mildly. However gales and floods were on the menu, so the sun lounger has now been stored away till 2013 which I am sure is bound to be a good year.

Garden plants however, do not give up so easily and will continue to push out some flowers at every opportunity. It is very pleasant to wander around the garden when that elusive sun nips out for the occasional half hour and just see what nature provides.

Confused plants

The weird weather has confused the garden plants just as much as humans. However we have papers and television to inform us what is going on. They get no guidance so expect the unusual.

Just like last year, my brilliant white Hellebores, (Christmas Rose) started to flower in September with green flowers, so looks like I have lost another year with this little beauty which normally sits outside my patio windows in full flower in the middle of winter.

Purple Delospermas are still in full flower even as we are now well beyond summer, when this succulent ground cover plant is at its best in a dry hot climate.

Oriental poppies and even my Delphiniums are having a second go at flowering, though both put on magnificent displays in early to mid summer.

Anemone Honorine Jobert just keeps on flowering, though the early flush at the end of summer was brilliant. They just keep going.

Fuchsia Mrs Popple can always be relied upon to flower till the first frosts appear. This year it has given us a lot of very tasty fruit to eat. If you have not tried it, give it a go. They are quite edible and different from other sweeter summer fruits.

Back on the allotment, one lady had a few onions run to seed. These were left to develop into huge purple balls of colour which Helen had cut to take to school to show her pupils how plants grow.

Normal late flowering plants.

Roses gave a far better second flush than the first one which suffered the worst of the cold wet weather. They are now continuing to flower quite profusely, though black spot disease has decimated the foliage. Spraying this year has been impossible as frequent rain showers washes the spray off before it gets a chance to work. You really need to work with forecasted weather and hope that they have got it right if they indicated two or three dry days in a row.

Sweet peas on my allotment were ok, but the variety I chose for being highly scented did not have a good colour range. However my next door neighbour Lynn had an excellent show which I managed to get a good picture from. Sweet peas have been good this year.

Early flowering chrysanthemums are only now beginning to flower. They should have started in August. I bought in a batch of spray varieties from Harold Walker Nurseries from Chester. They do not need disbudding so are quite labour saving, but it has taken them a long time to make some decent growth. The range was topped up with some lovely pink and purple sprays bought from a chrysanthemum grower at Gardening Scotland in June. His Regal Mist is a cracker. He had a huge display on his stand, but one, Barca Red was outstanding. It was the deepest rich purple I had ever seen, but when I tried to buy some plants there was none available. He imported the new variety from China and it is not to be marketed for another four years. However he didn’t like to see me so disappointed so he offered me a spare flowering spike. It was a gorgeous colour so I looked after it very carefully. The stem had been disbudded, but there was still some leaves on the stem that had not yet grown buds. Always keen to try my hand at propagating, so I took about ten leaf bud cuttings about two inches long and dropped them around some pots in compost. Every one rooted and most produced growth from the dormant buds. I am now waiting on them to give me some flowers, but I really do need that Indian summer.

Plant of the week

 Houttuynia is a brightly coloured foliage plant growing about a foot tall. It is a herbaceous perennial that loves moist, even boggy soil and well placed around the edge of a pond. It will thrive in shade to full sun preferring clay soils which hold moisture. The species, H. cordata can become invasive but the variety Chameleon is less vigorous and makes a bright splash of colour.

It is easy to propagate by division.

It comes from Japan, Korea and China where it grows in moist shade.

In Vietnam the leaves are used as a vegetable, the Chinese cook and eat the roots and the Japanese use the foliage for a herbal tea tonic. The plant has featured for years in traditional Chinese medicine and now it extracts from the plant are being studied by scientists for use against numerous ailments.

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