Open Day at City Road Allotment Gardens

Open Day at City Road Allotment Gardens

 

Sunday 9th August 2015

Open from 11am to 3pm

 

 

Explore over 60 allotment plots full of fresh garden produce

Enjoy refreshments and home baking in our cafe

Fresh vegetables, fruit, garden plants, jams and tablet for sale

Free event with free parking

GOOSEBERRIES

GOOSEBERRIES

Gooseberries are one of those garden fruit bushes that can be very rewarding, as they reliably crop every year, are easy to grow and the fruit is very nutritious and can be used in many different ways.

In the past success was limited to control of mildew which was a very serious problem, and gooseberry sawfly can still be a problem unless you take action to control it. Then of course the vicious thorns were a real pain at picking time. Time has moved on and the plant breeders have now brought out new varieties that are mildew resistant and some such as Iona bred at Dundee’s James Hutton Institute

is now almost spine free. It will be released to the trade in the near future. I have sampled this variety and have been very impressed, and picking was almost bloodless. I also grow Invicta, which is free from mildew but has so many spines that it is impossible not to have some blood spilled. However, it is such a great variety that the pain is worth the rewards.

Propagation and Growing

Gooseberries are very easy to propagate from cuttings of one year old shoots about nine inches long taken in the dormant season. Line them out about four inches apart, burying half the cutting in the soil and you should have some decent small bushes a year later ready to lift and plant out into permanent positions.

It is best to grow them on a leg (like a mini standard) at least a foot tall. This helps to keep the fruiting branches off the soil as heavy crops often weigh the branches down. They can also be grown against a wall and spur pruned to keep them in shape.

Plant the bushes about five feet apart into good well drained soil preferably in a sunny position up north. Sun helps to sweeten up the berries.

Pruning is carried out in winter and is quite simple. Remove any low branches hanging down to the ground and remove branches growing in the centre to allow easier picking. Cut a third off any long shoots and cut back several sideshoots again to make picking safer. This will encourage an open bush, allow developing fruit more light and space to grow which will give larger berries.

Pests and Diseases
The main pest is gooseberry sawfly, but can be controlled by destroying the overwintering pupae by cultivating the soil under the bushes several times in winter and early spring.  

Mildew was the main disease, but today there are plenty of good varieties resistant to mildew.

Varieties

Invicta has yellow fruit and is mildew resistant. Hinnonmaki Red and Hinnonmaki yellow from Finland and Lancashire Lad are also mildew resistant and very popular. Xenia is mildew resistant, quite sweet to taste and has been bred for reduced spines.

Health benefits and use.

Gooseberries may not be classified as a superfood, but they tick most of the boxes for a healthy food product. They are high in antioxidants, dietary fibre and the vitamins A, B and C and contain the minerals potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and iron.

Gooseberries can be used for jam, and stewed and sweetened for compote and crumble and in summer puddings. They make great compote mixed with apple, and are favourite with the home brewers for a delicious dry or dessert wine.

Wee jobs to do this week

Soft fruit picking will be at its peak just now with strawberries, raspberries, black, white and red currants all getting picked for immediate consumption, jams, compote or freezing for future use.

The harvest continues with salads, beetroot, peas, dwarf French beans, broad beans and digging up a few shaws of the first early potatoes to sample a very fresh spud.

END

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED

We have waited a long time for some decent sunshine and a warm breeze that wasn’t blasting down from the north. Every year has its own climate that just seems to be different from all the past ones. Plants respond to both day length, temperature and rainfall, and this year we have to factor in continual strong winds that shrivelled up any soft leaves. The cool year has held back growth on most plants, which have then pushed their energy into fruiting and flowering. Daffodils kept flowering into early summer and tulips lasted for ages. So did my rhododendrons and azaleas, which put on a brilliant display lasting into early July. Most fruit crops are looking fantastic.

Fruit crops

Fruit trees are all laden down with heavy crops that will have to be thinned, as the June drop this month did not remove enough fruitlets from my apple trees. I needed to give them an extra fertiliser boost to help swell up the crop.

This year I have at least thirty fruits on my outdoor peach and although I have removed all infected leaves with peach leaf curl, the remaining growth is slow to recover. Time will tell how they develop in a few weeks time.

My cherry tree also got a heavy crop, but a lot of fruit never ripened and just fell off. The black fly infected all the terminal shoots which had to be cut back, but removing these tips is also a form of spur pruning so no harm done.

Outdoor grape vines are now all showing reasonable growth and Phoenix is just covered in numerous wee bunches of grapes. There is at least two bunches per shoot so some thinning out was needed. Summer pruning all strong growth continues to keep the vines under control.

My new blackcurrant Big Ben does seem to have larger fruit than other varieties and also ripens up a week or two earlier than Ben Conan, but bramble Reuben only grew two foot tall before the primocanes started to fruit. Similarly my new autumn raspberry Polka has only grown three feet tall before fruiting commenced, but that may not be a bad point.

My fig tree just seems to get better every year. Last year I got over eighty ripe figs as I never removed any figlets the previous year ahead of winter and these survived and produced a heavy crop. I did the same again for 2015 and now I hope to get over one hundred figs with the first ready in early August.

Vegetables

Cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, root crops and salads all seem to enjoy the cooler summer but are now putting on some growth. Onions were very slow as they enjoy warmer weather, and as the dry weather prevailed all spring I had to keep them watered. This can bring on white rot, but thankfully not this year, and now they are growing vigorously in the summer heat.

Leek seedlings have spurted into growth so they have now all been transplanted.

Broad beans are not as tall as last year but the crop looks just as heavy. Dwarf French beans were sown in early May when the ground was really too cold, but germination was still very good and thinning had to be carried out to leave plants four to six inches apart.

Potatoes are also thriving in the cooler year and most are now flowering. I dug up a few shaws of my International Kidney as it is a real treat to sample the first your own home grown spuds.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep removing the old flower heads from roses, poppies and other summer bedding plants growing in borders, tubs and hanging baskets.

Take cutting of Rosemary and Lavender as the shoots should now be mature and will root easy.

Wallflower seed sown a few weeks ago will now be ready to transplant into nursery rows to grow into bushy plants for autumn planting.

END

ROOM FOR BIG ROSES

ROOM FOR BIG ROSES

I have been a rose lover all my gardening life. In the early days a garden with roses was a sign of wealth, but with good training we could order a hundred Rosa canina briar very cheaply and bud our own plants with nearly 80% take. Later I discovered a new rootstock, Rosa multiflora, which was more difficult to bud, but gave terrific roses.

I grew hybrid teas, floribundas, ramblers and climbers, and a few shrubs. My council house in St. Mary’s was too small for large roses, but I could use three walls for climbers, so it was Zephrine Drouhin on the west wall, Etoile du Hollande on the east wall and Gloire de Dijon on the north wall. Today, these would not be my favourite choice, as we now have many more to choose from and more information at our finger tips just a mouse click away.

As life moved on and I moved from one house to another my gardens slowly got bigger so my choice of roses also changed as I had more space to try out some really big cracking roses.

I now grow climbers on many walls and fences but also give space to some shrub roses.

Rose breeders have spent so much time over the years bringing out the most colourful flower to increase sales, but with little regard for the plants health. The gardening public do not have access to the range of chemicals available to commercial growers so we have a problem with disease from black spot to mildew and rust. So when a rose grower brings out his latest catalogue describing his brilliant new varieties all with strong healthy foliage, take it with a pinch of salt. I have tried numerous bush and shrub roses over the years, only to discard them as they suffered uncontrollable rose diseases. However if you go back to the old roses still available before the rose breeders mucked them about you will find most of them to be quite healthy.

A few favourites

Ispahan was introduced from Persia hundreds of years ago. It is a deep pink, highly scented damask rose growing up to eight feet tall with very healthy foliage. One of my favourites.

Canary Bird is a similar size but is one of the earliest in bloom with deep yellow single flowers arriving in late spring.

I no longer have a north wall, but would recommend climbing Iceberg or my other favourite massive rose Mme Alfred Carrier, also with white flowers and a lovely scent. This one has grown twelve feet tall with me, and takes some controlling.

My south walls are clothed with my grape vine Brant which needs the heat to ripen up its grapes but also the deep red climbing rose Dublin Bay. It is really fantastic as it reaches over sixteen feet tall and smothers itself with red flowers, but unfortunately it has no scent.

Another deep red but with a great scent for a south wall is the climbing sport of Ena Harkness. The flowers have always had weak necks so the large blooms hang down, but as a climber this is an advantage. Another massive red scented climber that needs plenty of space is Etoile du Hollande.

Gertrude Jekyll is a shrub rose that can also make a perfect climber if you train it up a wall. Mine is restricted to about ten feet tall. It gets covered in early summer with scented old English pink roses, and often has a second flush in autumn.

For the garden with room to spare another three large growing roses worth a trial are Morning Jewel, Gregoir Staechelin  and Alberic Barbier.

Wee jobs to do this week

Start Continue to sow summer salads such as lettuce, radish, rocket, corn salad, mustard and mizuna. I find that spring onions give poor germination outdoors up north, so I sow them in cellular trays in my greenhouse then transplant them into the soil when a decent size. There is still time to sow beetroot, autumn carrots and a fast growing pea such as Kelvedon Wonder on land recently cleared after lifting the first early potatoes.

END

STRAWBERRIES

STRAWBERRIES

I have enjoyed growing strawberries all my life for a variety of reasons. Summer would be incomplete without some fresh strawberries and I have always felt I am eating a very healthy fresh fruit that has to be really good for you. However there is also the nostalgia of memories of childhood when we went berry picking as soon as the school holidays arrived. It was both raspberries and strawberry picking around Dundee but I always made more money at the strawberries and I preferred to pop the occasional strawberry in my mouth rather than a few rasps.

Today commercial strawberry growing is no place for kids, and all the plants have moved indoors under tunnels. This gives better control of seasonal picking so the grower can supply the market with fresh berries over a far longer period using a range of varieties grown from cold stored runners.

As gardeners we can also extend our season and pick fresh fruit from the middle of M

Strawberry Elsanta

ay till October using several varieties and putting the earliest one under a low polythene tunnel.

Culture

Planting runners

Strawberries will grow on a wide variety of soils provided it is well drained, weed free and fertile. It also helps if the rows run north to south in a sunny spot and cropping is best if the site has some shelter. Planting can be done with freshly dug runners in late summer to early spring or later with cold stored runners. Plants are normally planted a foot apart in rows spaced three feet apart. Don’t be tempted to space the rows closer as you will need that spacing to straddle the rows for picking.

If using your own runners and they are plentiful you can plant thicker along the row to give a heavier crop in the first year. When growth commences and runners start to form these can be trained along the rows to give a matted row of more young plants, or rooted runners can be used for planting up the next bed or given to friends.

Once the small fruits begin to swell in early May bed some straw along the rows under the fruit to prevent soil being splashed by rain onto the fruit. Then as they start to colour up sprinkle some slug pellets along the rows to control slugs and snails and put nets over the strawberry bed to keep the blackbirds from pecking them.

Strawberry Flamenco and rasp Autumn Bliss in October

Pick about twice a week in season. As soon as the crop is finished it helps to chop down the old foliage and remove it and the straw to the compost heap. This will allow fresh growth from the crowns so fruit buds for the following year can be initiated in autumn.

Extended fruiting

There are many varieties to choose from so experiment to find those best suited to your own conditions and taste buds. I start off my season using the variety Mae which gets a low polythene tunnel placed over the row in early March after the plants have had a fair amount of winter chill.

This is followed by a row of Mae without tunnels. I then go onto my main crop variety of Elsanto, but have also grown many others, and all been very good. This is followed by a couple of late varieties Symphony and Florence taking me into August, but then my perpetual variety Flamenco will continue to crop till the frosts come in November. However although the berries still look great in late autumn they are pretty tasteless without sun and warmth to sweeten up the fruit.

Wee jobs to do this week

Spring flowering shrubs such as forsythia and early summer flowering ones such as Ceanothus can now be lightly pruned to encourage some growth in the summer months which will ripen up by winter and flower next year. Remove straggly shoots, ones that are too low down and trailing along the ground, and any dead branches from the middle. Do not cut shrubs into square or round shapes. That may look tidy, but is very amateurish and destroys the natural attractive shape of each individual shrub.

END

A WEEK ON THE PLOT

A WEEK ON THE PLOT

I find I can get the best results from my wee allotment plot if everything is well planned in advance, and activities only vary to a lesser extent as weather permits. However we all know what happens to the best well laid plans. In the middle of June I would be expecting all my seeds and plants to be in the ground, getting well established, while hoeing out the odd weed and spending a lot of time relaxing in the sun watching the crops grow. No such luck, the sun only appears very briefly for a couple of days, then the cold north winds return, plants get blown over and my sun lounger goes back in the shed. Rain has been very sparing which is great for holiday makers but not so good for gardeners. The hose has been in constant use for several weeks, especially to keep my pumpkins and courgettes happy. Crops are still running at least two weeks late, but there is still time for a catch up if our luck turns around. We just need a few days of heavy rain, over night preferably, followed by a long period of hot sunny weather.

Vegetables

Sweet corn planting is now complete but establishment slow as cool weather continues to hold back growth. Watering has been a constant task as the ground is still very dry.

Pumpkins, courgettes and squashes are now all planted, and also need plenty of watering to keep them growing.

Onions are well established, but some warm weather would be welcome to give their growth a boost. Peas, broad beans, dwarf French beans are also now into a bit of growth, and the cool weather is doing no harm to my root crops. However clubroot resistant Swede Invitation failed to germinate. Not one seed germinated from the whole packet. This is another case of very bad seed from the same supplier that gave me the first batch of sweet corn where I got two plants from eighty seeds. I wont be sending any more seed orders to Devon again.

Fruit

Apples have a huge crop that will need thinning out after the June drop in July (Scottish climate)

Peaches have managed to get through the pollination stage with over thirty small fruits wanting to grow. However Peach leaf curl has been devastating and their may not be enough healthy leaves left for a crop to develop.
Figs look like having another great year with potential of eighty fruits possible, if we get some warmer weather.

Blackcurrants look excellent and Big Ben fruit size may yet live up to its name.

Gooseberries are also showing a huge crop which this year have not been troubled with sawfly.

Outdoor grape Phoenix looks quite impressive this year compared to Solaris, Muscat Bleu and Polo Muscat. Growth is strong and there is a lot of grape bunches.

Flowers

Flag Iris and poppy Ladybird are the star attractions on the plot adding a bit of colour to my front border. Geraniums, African marigolds and petunias will follow on later.

Roses are also starting to flower, but keeping greenfly off the growing shoots has been a big task.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep watching for greenfly, caterpillars and gooseberry sawfly larvae and remove immediately.

Make sure the strawberries are protected from birds by netting and slugs by sprinkling some slug pellets along the rows.

Dead head annual poppies once the flowers are finished so they can continue to bloom for several weeks. Some will keep flowering well into autumn.

The compost heap will be getting bigger, so now is a good time to give it a turn over to let the worms have some fresh material to work on.

END