POTATOES

POTATOES

The potato planting season is not too far away, so now is a good time to give it thought and decide what varieties to grow and get them ordered, so there is time to chit the seed potatoes in advance of planting. Make sure land intended for potatoes has been dug and well manured or composted. Potatoes grow best in fertile well drained soil especially if it has had a green manure crop grown on it, but make sure this is dug in well ahead of

Planting Casablanca potatoes

planting in March for earlies and April for maincrops.

Varieties

There is a very wide selection to choose from so individual taste determines whether you prefer a dry or wet potato. Blight is always a problem especially in a wet warm year like 2017, though every year is different so maybe 2018 will be just fine, but if you don’t want to take the risk go for

Two favourite potatoes

Sarpo Mira which has some resistance to blight. It also produces huge tubers, perfect for roasting and peeling. There are quite a few blight resistant varieties in the Sarpo range. Another potato with large tubers is lady Christl, an early variety, but if you like an early salad potato choose from Casablanca or second early Charlotte, both with excellent flavour. Tuber size is a bit lacking with the early salad varieties, but flavour more than makes up for this and I was picking some decent spuds of Casablanca at the end of June last year. A couple of years ago I tried Gemson, another salad early variety, but even as a salad potato size was desperately not in its favour.

Casablanca potatoes

My heaviest cropping maincrop potatoes last year were the Sarpo Mira, Lady Christl and Amour which had massive tubers, but was not a good keeper as it started to sprout in store in December. Most others will keep a lot longer, especially if you can store them in a cold but frost free, dark place with good ventilation.

Cultivation

The practice of chitting the seed potatoes in a light, but cool location, to encourage formation of short sturdy green sprouts is often under debate. I have always been in favour of the practice and start mine upright (rose end up) in seed trays as soon as I receive them about mid February. Planting of first early begins about mid March, second early at the end of March, then maincrops by mid April, but all depending on weather. No rush to plant if you get a cold or wet period, but if some warm dry spell happens along, then get them in.

Chitting seed potatoes

Space rows about two feet apart for earlies and a wee bit wider for maincrops with the tubers getting spaced a foot apart. I take out a deep furrow and line the bottom with well rotted compost, placing the tubers onto this before filling in the furrow to leave just a small mound to mark the rows. Add some potato fertilizer along the rows. Once shoots appear they will need the first earthing up for protection, as late frosts are still likely. Then once the shoots are more than six inches tall give them a final earth up. Earthing up kills weeds, then once the canopy covers the soil weeds have no chance to grow. Water in any dry spells, and a few weeks before lifting sprinkle some slug pellets along the rows as slugs can be a real

Earthing up potatoes

menace with potatoes. Start lifting early varieties a few shaws at a time to see if they have enough size for a meal. I start mine at the end of June, and am happy to get one meal per plant at the beginning, as they are at their most flavorsome while young. Otherwise lift on a dry sunny day and leave the potatoes on the ground for an hour or so to dry off as they need to be dry for storing. Hessian potato sacks are still favourite for storing.

Repotting a phalaenopsis orchid

Wee jobs to do this week

Phalaenopsis orchids that flowered towards the end of last year may need repotting if the plant is getting too high for its pot and becomes unstable. Remove it from its pot and take away all the old orchid compost plus any dead roots. Shorten existing roots and pot up in fresh orchid compost. Do not remove the aerial roots and make sure some stay outside the pot as these absorb moisture from the atmosphere. Keep the plant warm, moist, but not wet and give it plenty light but not direct sunlight, though in Scotland our winter sun will not harm them.

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BERRIES

BERRIES

Saskatoon berries

There is an assumption that we all overindulge during the festive season, and that is hard to avoid as the boxes of delicious chocolates and biscuits appear in great quantity under the Christmas tree. However television and the press are taking this opportunity to address the problem of those of us who have gained a few extra pounds. There is no shortage of recommended gentle and strenuous exercise regimes to follow with music so we can go with the beat. Then advice on diets is very popular with information on both balanced diets, good foods to eat, foods to avoid and just how good are our super foods should we wish to add a plentiful supply of these in with our daily meals.

The jury is still debating exactly what is a superfood and just how beneficial these are. Many of our berried crops often fall into this group due to their red colour, vitamin C content, high in fibre and antioxidants. However our breeders have been adding to the list by crossing one with another so it can be quite confusing to know where we are so I am hoping to clear up some of the mystery.

Blackcurrant breeding at James Hutton Institute concentrates on varieties suited to commercial production where harvesting is done by machines, but some varieties are brilliant for the domestic market as not many amateur gardeners machine pick their berries. Ben Connan has large sweet fruit and is a heavy cropper. Big Ben is similar but with even bigger and sweeter fruit.

Gooseberry

Redcurrants and whitecurrants have smaller berries but still give heavy crops, but with bigger seeds in the fruit are more suited to jelly rather than jam use, and make brilliant wines.

Gooseberry breeding is currently looking for spineless bushes resistant to mildew with upright growth and a good yield of berries with flavour. Several new varieties are under trial at James Hutton and RHS gardens in Wisley.

The Worcesterberry a separate species, ribes divaricatum, originally from North America makes a huge and very spiny bush producing small black gooseberry looking fruit.

Boysenberry

The Jostaberry on the other hand is a cross between the blackcurrant, the gooseberry and the worcesterberry. The fruit is similar to the worcesterberry but the bush is thorn free.

The Boysenberry has an even more mixed up parentage. It is a cross between the raspberry, the blackberry, the loganberry and the American dewberry. The fruit is similar to the blackberry and though the bushes may lack vigour the stems are thornless so picking is easy.

The blackberry, loganberry and tayberry all grow in a similar fashion but fruits vary from black to red and breeders have now got most of them in thornless forms.

The Japanese wineberry is an asian form of raspberry with small sweet fruit but very spiny stems.

Chokeberry

The Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa, the Saskatoon, Amelanchier alnifolia and the blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum and the honeyberry, Lonicera caerulea are all separate species of plants having edible sweet black fruits all high in vitamin C and antioxidants. They can be eaten fresh (though the chokeberry is a wee bit astringent) or used for jams, summer puddings, added to yogurt or brewed for a delicious red wine.

Goji berries gained popularity as the new superfood, but claims were not conclusive, so by all means try them out as part of a balanced diet, but other fruits may be just as beneficial. I tried growing goji bushes on my allotment but after three years of great growth but not a single berry, they got dug out.

Wee jobs to do this week

Kale ready for steaming

Both kale and Brussels sprouts are very tolerant of cold weather so picking these fresh healthy greens can continue for many weeks, but keep them netted from pigeons as their food

supplies in winter are thin. Pick young leaves of kale to leave the older leaves to keep the plants growing. Sprout buttons may show weather damaged outer leaves, but after these are removed there is a lovely sprout inside ready to be cooked. Anna’s favourite is to chop up both and steam for five minutes after adding some garlic, ginger and onion, salt and pepper.

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CREATE A NEW GARDEN

CREATE A NEW GARDEN

Everybody, at some point in their life will have a new garden to sort out or create. We leave the comfort of home, we get married and find our own home, move location to suit our job or get promoted and move to another town. Some of us will stay put and inherit property and the garden from our parents. The garden is now ours, but just where do you begin. This all depends on whether you are faced with an existing garden or a

Lunch on the patio in spring

totally new one around a new house just vacated by the builders. This new garden gives us a blank canvas with nothing to stop our creativity.

Walls needed for steep slopes

If you have come into an existing garden do not rush to make changes. Take a year to see what the garden has to offer but keep the grass cut, hedges trimmed and weeds controlled. During this time analyze the site and note trees, shrubs, hedges, roses, rock garden plants and other features worth retaining as well as marking those that have to be dug out. Think about paths, walls, patio and fences, garden sheds, ponds and flower borders. Take time to gather all your ideas together and draw up a plan on how best to fit everything in.

Aspects to consider include the following. Do you need a patio in a sheltered sunny spot for relaxation and will this need some degree of privacy. This is always a good location for scented climbers, tubs and flower beds to create an attractive surrounding.

Upright cherry for small garden

If you are in an elevated location and subject to winds then shelter is important with hedges, tall shrubs and trees if space allows them, although there are many columnar types suited to the small garden. The upright flowering cherry, Prunus Amanogawa and the white Eucryphia Rostrevor are very attractive and ideal for small gardens. Trees are also important to give the garden scale and add specimen plants for impact.

If your garden is on a slope you will need to consider terracing, walls, steps and some cut and fill of some slopes to create flat areas. Use plants such as dwarf conifers or even London Pride if the slopes are very steep as they reduce maintenance and stabilize the soil.

Areas in the shade can be planted up with Euonymus, heathers, azaleas and variegated ivy if the shade is very dense. Use Pyracantha or Camellias against walls in the shade. Keep sunny areas for the more special plants, bedding plants, herbaceous plants and if drainage is good try some of the exotics such as figs, grape vine Brant and the palm tree, Cordyline australis. Climbing rose Dublin Bay is brilliant on a sunny south facing wall.

Climbing rose Dublin Bay

While putting all your ideas together keep in mind the garden impact of flowers and lawns for recreation and tranquility. If you have a young family lawns are essential, but give thought to whether the lawn is to be your challenge to create a bowling green surface mowed with manicured straight lines or just flat and full of dandelions, buttercups and daisies which are much more attractive to the kids.

Now the plan is in place it is time to look at the soil. Is it clay, sandy, loamy, deep, well drained, devoid of life

Small trees in the landscape

and full of stones, boulders and builders rubbish. This is where the hard work begins, clearing up debris, digging over the soil and adding manure, compost or whatever you can find to add organic matter to relieve compaction and put life back into the soil. If you are not in a hurry you can plant up the garden with potatoes which are great for breaking down heavy soils, then add a green manure such as clover after harvesting. This will break down the soil further and add nutrients once it is dug in and rots down. You are now ready to order in plants for planting from late autumn till early spring.

Wee jobs to do this week

Spreading lime

Cabbages, cauliflower, kale and sprouts all like an alkaline soil rather than acidic, so it is a good idea to grow them all together and add some hydrated lime a couple of months before planting. As it is normal to rotate crops only lime about a quarter of the vegetable plot and lime another patch the following year. Potatoes prefer acidic soil otherwise they are liable to get scab, so they come last on the rotation after liming.

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LOOKING AHEAD

LOOKING AHEAD

Gardening and information technology have one thing in common, that both move forward as new ideas emerge, though in gardening the pace of change may be just a wee bit slower. The dark cold days of winter give us the chance to sit down and make plans for the year ahead. We may be trying out new varieties in the vegetable garden,

Phlox with tulips

buying in a new flowering shrub or rose or grape vine or just looking forward to seeing the result of new plants and bulbs planted last year. Control of plant pests and diseases and weeds is always worth looking into as many can devastate crops such as rose blackspot, slugs on everything, vine weevils eating roots of flowers, clubroot of brassicas, caterpillars on cabbages, cauliflower, sawfly on gooseberries, carrot fly, and the list just goes on.

Tulips with narcissi

Then breeders bring out new varieties of fruit, flowers and vegetables for you to try out.

Flowers

Last spring my crocus and tulips put on such a brilliant show, that while we stood and admired them, we decided to extend the show next year where ever possible. Although our garden is a fair size we still struggle to grow all the plants we love so we now try to intercrop bulbs with shrubs, roses (Tulip Sunlover) and herbaceous plants and are trying one area with layers of bulbs planted at different depths and

flowering at different times. This area is a carpet of grape hyacinths. These start to grow in autumn but the leaves bed down in winter to allow my new planting of crocus bulbs to flower in March quickly followed by the grape hyacinths. Underneath these bulbs is a layer of narcissus to grow above them and flower at the same time as the grape hyacinths. When this spring show ends another layer of lilies appear for flowering in mid summer. By this time the spring bulbs foliage is dying down so I can scatter some fast growing annual flower seeds such as Candytuft to accompany the lilies. It is an ambitious plan, but time will tell how successful it turns out to be.

Crocus have been so colourful that I decided to clear out a drift of peonies growing under my apple trees and replaced them with 1000 mixed crocus. Looking forward to seeing these flower in spring.

Tulips and Oriental lily bulbs were purchased for mass planting at a few strategic points for impact and near the patio and entrances for scent.

Fruit

Older strawberry beds have been replaced but I have gone back to reliable varieties such as Honeoye for early summer, Symphony for late summer and Flamenco for the autumn.

New fruit plantings last year of Raspberry Glen Dee, Peach Avalon Pride and Pear Concorde will now begin to crop as they are in their second year. As land is limited and I came across an impressive pear called Beth, so I will get some shoots to graft them onto my family pear tree, which  has Comice, Beurre Hardy, Conference, Concord (from last years grafting) and The Christie.

Vegetables

Plans on the vegetable garden include using clubroot resistant Cauliflower Clapton in three monthly sowings to give curds from summer to autumn. With Swedes I will go back to standard varieties which have turned out to be more reliable and better flavoured than clubroot resistant varieties.

I will no longer be adventurous with onions, so it is back to well established varieties, and same applies to Sweet corn Bountiful as the cobs were rubbish. The pollination failed to set the corns.

Wee jobs to do this week

As winter weather starts to bite and restricts our outdoor gardening activities, take time out to browse the internet on the ipad, mobile, laptop, tablet or computer in the comfort of a warm room and look out some information on any number of gardening problems. Pruning apple trees, plums, pears, grape vines, blackcurrants, gooseberries, brambles and roses of all types. Methods of growing all plants and crops are only a few clicks away, with YouTube videos are plentiful and all my gardening articles for the Dundee Courier magazine going back nearly ten years can be looked up on my blog, archived in date order at scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.co.uk

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