PLANT A FEW SPRING BULBS

PLANT A FEW SPRING BULBS

As summer gives way to autumn, now is the time to skip thoughts of winter and start to plan for the spring garden displays. Hopefully notes were taken last spring as the weather was in our favour and bulbs from snowdrops to crocus and then daffodils to tulips had their best show for years. It was relatively dry and warm without being too hot so the spring display lasted for weeks, but as always although we meander around enjoying the colourful flowers, we always find areas for improvement.

In my case some areas of crocus were fantastic, but the drifts can be enlarged into new areas. One large rhododendron got too big so will be removed and replaced with dwarf azaleas and underplanted with crocus. This will give more colour for a few years till eventually the azaleas take over, and the crocus can be shifted to a new home.

John planting a few tulip bulbs

Another area with a palm tree, Cordyline australis reaching for the sky, is now ripe for an under planting of bulbs as the older leaves around the base are withering and will be removed. This palm sits adjacent to a large drift of yellow flowered saxifrage at its best in March, so I will plant a drift of early flowering tulip Scarlet Baby to add a touch of red alongside the yellow saxifrage. As this display has its day it is followed by another show elsewhere as my yellow Doronicums come into flower in April. These were under planted last year with some deep purple Triumph tulips Negrita, but I will add to the show with another triumph tulip Ile de France, a blood red colour. Hopefully they will all flower at the same time; at least that is the plan.

Apeldoorn and Golden Apeldoorn tulips

The tallest tulips with the largest size of flowers have always been the Darwin Hybrids with the red Apeldoorn and yellow Golden Apeldoorn the two most spectacular for a dazzling display. I have a drift of these in several locations, but will buy more to make the drifts larger and create an impressive flower power border.

Tulip Abba

Flower tubs around patios and entrance door ways get planted up with wallflowers, polyanthus and pansies. Good tulips to go with my Golden Monarch wallflower are the Fosteriana type Red Emperor and the pure white Purissima. When warm humid spring weather coincides with the flowering of Purissima the scent is brilliant, but it is not guaranteed. I purchased a whole range of scented tulips last autumn, and not one lived up to the catalogue description, but maybe the weather was to blame; who knows.

For tubs planted up with low growing polyanthus, myosotis or pansies I use crocus in between otherwise the tulips would

Tulip Monsella

compete for space, and some will get a planting of hyacinths for colour and scent that is guaranteed.

Even in these times of mild winters we still like to see the first signs of spring, and this is usually when the snowdrops appear, which with our unpredictable climate can be anytime from late December onwards. Snowdrops are followed on with the aconites flowering in February to March.

Other less prominent bulbs but always very welcome are the blue flowered Anemone blanda and the Chionodoxa, Glory of the Snows. Every garden should find space for these beauties.

Anna picking the last Rhubarb

Drifts of daffodils and narcissus fill the gap between the early bulbs and the tulips so they allow the show to continue without any breaks.

Two colourful favourites with blue flowers are the grape hyacinth and bluebells, but use carefully as they can be very invasive and will want to take over the whole garden.

Wee jobs to do this week

It is still possible to take another picking of rhubarb, but as the growing season is just about over only pick a few leaves so there is plenty of foliage left to build up strength in the crowns for the next year. Rhubarb has now come back into fashion, as health conscious people realise just how healthy this product is. It is packed with vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and proteins. It can be used fresh in pies, stews, crumbles and mixed with saskatoons or blackcurrants for a delicious jam, and any surplus can be frozen for future use.

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Art Exhibition "Summer Colour and Nostalgia"

A HEALTHY SCOTTISH DIET

A HEALTHY SCOTTISH DIET

There was a time when everyone had a garden or allotment to grow food, as money was tight and a packet of seed could go a long way. Being almost self sufficient saved a fortune, but we were never fully aware of the health benefits at that time. As wage levels rose and working hours decreased we found ourselves with time to spare so the range of leisure pursuits grew to satisfy this demand. Unfortunately gardening became a bit out of fashion as space was needed to park a car or two, and most of our food was available in supermarkets, much of which was ready to eat so less time was needed in the kitchen.

Anna picks a feast of summer berries

Nothing stays the same for long, as knowledge through travel, television, the internet and magazines broadens our horizons. Manual labour is being lost through technology, so slowly the nation is getting less fit and putting on a wee bit of weight. This has been recognized as we now get bombarded with ways to keep fit and eat healthy food, and programmes on cooking are now a major industry. As we are still in summer many folk will have been abroad on holiday and looking for a break from the kitchen, so salads will be high on the menu, and even when you go out for a meal we tend towards the Mediterranean diet as it is quick and tasty and has a great reputation as a healthy way to dine.  It includes plenty of fresh salads, ripe tomatoes, olive oil dressings and a range of fruit in season, plus nuts for variety and oily fish high in omega 3 oils.

Early salads under tunnels

Looking back over the years, I have come to realize that I have been unconsciously on this diet for a fair time, but thought it was a Scottish diet, not Mediterranean. In younger days our true Scottish diet did have a fair bit of fish suppers, and chips appeared on a daily basis to accompany the pies, bridies, mince, beef burgers and sausages (we liked to have variety,) but as we did a fair bit of manual labour and in our spare time we were always active so gaining weight was never a problem. Today we may not be quite so active, but with more knowledge on good foods and superfoods combined with a great cook in the kitchen the diet has evolved. The first changes happened a long time ago when a TV show highlighted what gastronomic delights from the abattoir went into various meat products, so sausages, mince, beef burgers got dropped, and pies and bridies became a low priority. Then a surgeon attending my art classes had done a study on the affects of sugar on humans and gave me his thoughts. I immediately stopped taking sugar in coffee and tea and even omitted my spoonful of honey in my porridge. My weight went down by ten pounds within one year. Chips were next on the endangered list when I accidentally set the chip pan on fire. The kitchen is no place for a man with artistic and gardening skills. However I soon found that chips could be replaced with salad potatoes (Casa Blanca is a favourite) and baked potatoes from the larger Sarpo Mira and Amour spuds, and now we have been exposed to so many other exotic food dishes the Scottish chip is becoming a rarity.

John picks early apple Discovery

Having a garden, a greenhouse and allotment means that with a wee bit of forward planning you can have fresh fruit, vegetables and even salads just about all year round. A good range of nuts (unfortunately not home grown) are now added to many dishes, such as walnuts with our salads and I mix ground almonds, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and walnuts into my muesli in the morning as well as adding at least three different fruits. This is seasonal fruit though at present I have autumn raspberries, perpetual strawberries, blueberries and ripe figs to last through till late autumn.

To replace our fish suppers we have now turned to trout as it just needs 2 minutes each side to cook on a pan with some Scottish rapeseed oil rich in Omega 3 oils, and served with beetroot, French beans and some salad potatoes.

Clover green manure

Wee jobs to do this week

Late blight and a wee bit of blackleg caused potato foliage to wither away sooner than intended so the last of the crop of Sarpo Mira has been lifted. There is still time to use this land for a green manure crop to grow through autumn and be ready to dig in during winter. This helps to break up the soil and add humus.

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EXOTIC GARDENING

EXOTIC GARDENING

The gardens we create are very much an extension of our personality, and if you have been around for a year or two you will see massive changes in what we grow. Gone are the days when the ornamental border was mainly geraniums, antirrhinums, marigolds and asters with an edge of alyssum and lobelia and vegetables were mainly potatoes, turnips, swedes, peas, cabbages, lettuce and radish. Exposure to foreign holidays and the influx of immigrants of all nationalities bringing over their own variety of food has widened our gardening horizons, and as we all love to experiment with something new, the range of plants grown continues to expand.

Cordyline australis

When my horticultural career moves took me to the south of England I discovered runner beans, leeks, courgettes and pumpkins, and thought I was really innovative, but life (and gardening) moves on so now the range continues to grow. We have heard so much about climate change and global warming that we in Scotland tend to think of it more as an opportunity than a disaster. We have always had our share of rain, but now we get warm rain and often into winter instead of snow so plants previously considered too tender for our climate are being given a trial. Provided the weather behaves itself these tender plants can give us many years of service, but however there is always that one off rogue year like 2010 when winter returned with a vengeance, temperatures plummeted and the deep snow lasted for months. The following spring most gardens had lost a lot of tender plants, such as outdoor fuchsias, Cordyline palms, date palms, Agapanthus, and my special Leptospermum Red Damask. Plants have a very strong will to survive so I never give up on them. The Cordyline palm died down to ground level but then new shoots emerged two years later. It is now ten foot tall with five main stems. Agapanthus and some Canna crowns all died out so they got chopped up and added to the compost heap. The Cannas came back into life a year later and the Agapanthus three years later. Bad winters seem a distant memory so we continue to try out a few exotics and keep our fingers crossed. Next spring I may even have another go at growing the date palm as it makes a great specimen plant.

Peach Peregrine

Up at City Road allotments our plot holders are quite keen to try their hand at a few exotics, so sweet potatoes, Oca, sweet corn, Cape Gooseberries, Goji berry, Honey berry and Kiwis can all be seen somewhere. Success of these new crops often depends on getting a decent summer  with sunshine and warmth, a wee bit less rainfall and then a good warm dry autumn like we always got way back in tattie picking days.

My own garden experiments continue with figs, peaches, cherries and grapes.

Figs are my success story as one bush will give me well over a hundred figs ripened over several weeks so there is never any glut of crop. Picked as soon as the fruit droops and given one or two days to ripen indoors they are just perfect. So far I have picked 35 in August.

Cherry Cherokee is now cropping with enough fruit for both me and the blackbird, though the main pest of blackfly on the shoots requires an insecticide spray in early summer to control it.

Grape Rondo

Peaches can ripen up outdoors in Scotland if grown on a warm south facing wall or fence, but the peach leaf curl disease can be devastating so I am now trying partially tolerant Avalon Pride.

Grapes outdoors and in the greenhouse still depend on good weather. My Seigerrebe grape was ready in mid August, so I have one demijohn brewing away quietly. This variety has loads of bunches which require thinning, but the grapes are small, though they are very sweet with a strong Muscat flavour. Outdoors only Regent and Rondo have a good crop and Rondo is ripening up now, but my Brant still gives over a hundred small bunches of black sweet juicy ripe grapes in October.

Wee jobs to do this week

Onions drying off

Lift onions that should now be ready for drying off before getting cleaned up prior to storing. They are best laid out on a hard surface above ground level in full sun so the foliage can dry off and let the bulbs ripen up. It can take about two to three weeks before they are ready for roping or removing all the dried leaves and storing them in nets.
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CUT FLOWER FOR LATE SUMMER

CUT FLOWER FOR LATE SUMMER

At this time of year especially after a good growing summer, the garden is so full of flowers that we can happily take plenty of cut flower for the house without reducing the floral impact of our flower borders. It is nice to have flowers in the home all year round and there is plenty of pot plants around both for foliage and flowers, but we tend to supplement this with a few cut flowers from the garden. To be honest it is hard to resist cutting some flowers to enjoy them around our homes. In early summer there may not be a huge surplus of blooms to choose from but in August and September we are spoilt for choice.

Lily Stargazer

As a gardener I like to create a great floral impact and not wishing to lose this by cutting flowers for the house I use space on my allotment to grow plants specifically for cut flowers. Thus I have my dahlia collection, spray chrysanthemums, sweet peas, gladioli and now this year my oriental lilies. I have only recently seen the benefit of these when a few stems broken off after the early August gales found their way into some vases and suddenly the house was filled with an exotic perfume for a fortnight. However it will be next year before I get the chance to increase my stock of lilies with some purchase of new bulbs in the autumn.

Scented sweet peas

Sweet peas have been available from early summer as the warm weather in May got them off to a great start. I grow mine up a six foot support of weldmesh, and let them grow at will. This gives plenty of flowers for display as well as cut blooms, but if I just wanted cut flowers then I would train them as single stem cordons and remove all sideshoots and tendrils. Growth would be supplemented by feeding fortnightly and before planting the area would get double dug in winter incorporating plenty of compost. Sweet peas are gross feeders and respond to well rotted compost, manures and fertilizer.

Vase of gladioli

Gladioli are grown on my allotment plot in a double row in good soil where the corms are planted at least four inches deep, then they are usually self supporting in a normal year, but the August gales put that to the test. Every year I add a few extra corms to increase the range of colours. In late summer the plants get dug up and dried off so the corms can be stored safely over winter. The small bulbils removed during the cleaning up stage before storing are usually discarded unless they are a decent size. However if you want to increase stock of some favourites these bulbils can be retained and sown thickly like peas in a six inch wide row to grow and bulk up. They will become flowering size in two to three years.

Chrysanthemum Pennine Ice

Chrysanthemums make great cut flowers and last a fair time in a vase, and they flower over several weeks from August till October in a good year depending on variety. Spray varieties make excellent cut flower stems with impact but if you want bigger heads then go for decoratives and grow one flower per stem by disbudding leaving the top bud only to grow and flower. There are numerous varieties available so keep trying out new ones to find your own personal favourites. One of mine is Pennine Ice, a white spray that always impresses with its purity.

Dahlias provide a brilliant splash of colour in any border and there is always plenty of flowers for cutting for the home. We all have different preferences and mine has always been the cactus shaped flowers as they are not too big so stand up well on the bushes.

Wee jobs to do this week

Most summer strawberries have finished fruiting so now is a good time to cut off the old leaves and remove the straw, both of which can go on the compost heap. Strawberries can be cropped for two or three seasons then they should be discarded. If the rows have plenty of healthy runners then these can be used to start a new strawberry patch on a fresh area of soil that has been well manured and is weed free. Otherwise buy in new runners especially if you wish to try a different variety.

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