THE GARDENING YEAR STARTS QUIETLY
Recent weather
has curtailed progress of any outdoor gardening activities. The gales continued
to blow and now my greenhouse has lost over twenty panes of glass, as well as
the ventilator and the door which blew off. Another two days were taken up with
collecting shattered glass fragments blown over a huge area of garden. Gales
also blew down about thirty feet of fence panels, so I may change the fence to
a ranch style which should not be so vulnerable to strong winds.
We have also
had a lot of rain, and not much frost or snow, as I pen my thoughts early on
Hogmanay, but knowing that when the magazine appears on Saturday 11th
January 2014 we could well be seeing a wee bit of serious winter.
Who knows
what global warming has in store for us in 2014.
It has
been too wet to walk over the soil surface, other than for harvesting the
numerous fresh vegetables available following the brilliant 2013 summer.
However we did have a long dry spell just before Christmas when I got most of
my fruit bushes pruned as well as some roses. The dry spell also encouraged a
full team effort, (me and Anna) to get all the surface weeds removed and clear
up all the leaves.
My main
rose bed and all my climbers will be pruned and tied up in mid January to mid
February depending on weather. Apple trees will also get pruned at this time to
encourage a balance of fruiting wood and strong young growth. I will also
continue to lower the crown on our old Bramley apple tree to allow most of the
picking from the ground. I am told I am getting too old to clamber up trees to
reach that perfect apple just slightly out of reach at the end of a long
slender branch.
Pruning grape vines
My other
pruning task to be completed in January is my grape vines both in my gale
damaged greenhouse as well as all my outdoor vines. I am hoping that the
greenhouse vines are well hardened off and quite tough so should not suffer
removal of the greenhouse in winter and building a replacement around the main
rods. My ten foot long greenhouse has a permanent framework of five upright
rods spaced two feet apart in a row on the east side of the greenhouse. It is
side shoots from this that produce the bunches of grapes. I grow my tomatoes on
the west side as well as the south end. They all seem to be happy growing
together.
I prune
every shoot on my grape vine back to one or two buds in January, as if left
till February or later they are liable to bleed as sap rises up quite early in
the season by which time the cut ends should have healed over.
Indoor tasks
Geranium
cuttings taken last autumn are now all well rooted and can be potted up in
individual pots. I will add extra grit to my compost to improve the drainage
and pot them up in the smallest pots available as geraniums are prone to
damping off in winter. I also grow them cool otherwise they will grow too big
for windowsills, and I don’t know when I will have a greenhouse ready for them.
My
Amaryllis bulb pot started off with one strong flower spike, but then another
three flower stems appeared. Finally two of the smaller bulbs in the pot have
produced flower stems, so it is going to be an absolute cracker. The foliage
and flower stems are all quite tall so they needed four bamboo stakes and ties
to give them support.
Keep them
moist but not wet and feed once a month at this time of year, but once a
fortnight in spring and summer. Although they prefer to remain pot bound to
encourage good flowering, I will need to pot mine up after flowering as the
bulb growth has been very strong and the pots are now distorted and the top
very heavy and liable to topple over unless they get a stronger pot with a wide
base.
Plant of the week
Elaeagnus pungens maculata is an evergreen shrub with golden
variegated leaves. It will grow on just about any soil and can reach up to 4
metres eventually, so is perfect for screening and adding bright colour to the
garden in winter. It is happy in sun or shade, and although the flowers are
very insignificant, they are said to have an exquisite perfume. My five foot
tall elaeagnus planted eight years ago has yet to reward me with its perfume,
but I am patient. It does not need any pruning other than removing any straggly
shoots or those that revert back to green and lose their variegation.
It can be
propagated by semi ripe cuttings in mid summer.
END
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