THE NEW GARDENING YEAR HAS STARTED

                                THE NEW GARDENING YEAR HAS STARTED

Now that 2019 has passed and that very wet year is behind us we now look forward to 2020 hoping that a warmer and sunnier year is ahead. Yet again we seem to be having a mild winter, and half way through January the garden has not seen one snow flake. I always draw up a rough guide at the end of the last season of where the next crops are going in the following year so I can plan a rotation which I need so I can allocate garden compost to those crops that need the most. The peas, beans, onions, leeks, sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins get a good helping, then the potatoes and brassicas also get some, but the root crops and salads are fine on land that was composted the previous year.

Time for a break on a sunny January

The first snowdrops are in flower and the aconites are not far behind. The wet December put a stop to the winter digging, but there were a few frosty days when it was ok to crack on with the digging, then

Greenhouse in January

in early January the strong gales dried up the surface just enough to allow digging without mud sticking to the wellies. My compost heap got emptied and a new one started. I was pleased that the winter digging session got completed by the middle of January. Other allotment plot gardeners were all on site getting the land sorted, erecting greenhouses, repairing fences, sheds and installing bed systems to help organise the plots. Our communal shed was busy as you always need a break from the graft and there is always someone putting on the kettle. It was brilliant to be sitting outdoors for a coffee break on a warm January day.

The short day length limits time spent outdoors, but we can always find a few indoor tasks. This is a

Potato Casa Blanca

great time to browse through new catalogues and see what new varieties of vegetables flowers and fruit we can try out. I try and get my seeds ordered by the end of January as some plants such as onions, broad beans and sweet peas get an early start. Last year the winter was so mild that my early seed sowing started in early February with onions and sweet peas, then I was taking chrysanthemum cuttings in mid February as there was plenty growth on the stools in my unheated greenhouse. I also started my begonias in mid February followed by broad beans and salads on a warm windowsill. February last year was so warm that I got my first early potatoes planted at the end of the month. That was a bonus as they were able to put on a lot of growth before the wet

Angels Trumpet

summer blight appeared. This year my first early potatoes, Casa Blanca are being chitted beside a window in a cool but bright room, as the sprouts are already growing though they are still quite stocky. Time will tell whether I can again get planting done by the end of February.

In the past I had always grown some Cape Gooseberries outdoors in a sheltered spot, but after a few wet, cold and dreich summers when ripening of the fruit was a problem I gave up on them. However this year I will try them again as they are a lovely fruit when we get a decent summer.

Cape Gooseberry painting

Another plant from the past that will get planted is the Brugmansia, also known as Angels Trumpets as I just love the scent, and they make a great dot plant in a large tub with other summer bedding plants around it. This flower is pollinated by night flying moths so the best scent comes in the evening, so best to use it on patios where you often relax on a

warm summers evening.

The greenhouse got tidied up after the tomato plants had finished and old plants removed and the grapes harvested. Once they had lost their leaves in December the vines got spur pruned back to the upright cordons. The borders then all got some compost and a light dressing of fertiliser and I planted a few plants of lettuce Lollo Rossa and some spring onions. This will give us some fresh salads over winter, but as we go into early spring the greenhouse will again be bursting at the seams as young growing plants fight for space.

Wee jobs to do this week

The Geraniums taken from autumn cuttings are now all rooted and beginning to put on growth. To

create short jointed plants grow them in a cool room with plenty light and remove any flowers as they appear. Also remove the tops to hold back growth and encourage a bushy plant.

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DANGER IN THE GARDEN

                                                 DANGER IN THE GARDEN

I chose a career in horticulture as I just loved growing plants and enjoying the beauty of flowers, and it has only been lately that I discovered just how many garden plants contain toxins, poisons and skin irritants. In the early training years it was the Laburnum with beautiful golden yellow flowers followed on with poisonous seeds.

Laburnum vossii

Later on when hogweed became notorious we knew not to touch the sap or hairy stems. As kids we all got stung by nettles and were amazed that folk gathered the leaves to make tea. Growing up in St. Marys in Dundee we grew rhubarb (the poor mans fruit) and were well aware that we only ate the red stems and not the leaves. They are rich in oxalic acid, but no-one was ever tempted to stick the leaves in their mouth so there was no problem.

Dumb cane

Similarly the host of plant poisons is seldom a problem as there is little reason to eat something that would taste horrible. When looking into garden plants with poisons I was just amazed at the long list, (the Royal Horticultural Society has a list of over two hundred plants) and so many are our every day plants grown in gardens and house plants. Rhododendrons, daffodils, aconites outdoors and indoors we grow poinsettias at Christmas and forced hyacinths as well as dumb which if ingested can cause immobility of the mouth and tongue, difficulty in breathing and asphyxiation. Aconites have powerful toxin, aconitine, which can kill people who come into contact with it.  All parts of the plant are toxic but the sap in particular is a skin irritant, causing burning of the lips and mouth, vomiting, diarrhoea and spasms.

Winter aconites

cane

Over time plants have developed numerous ways to aid survival from thorns on stems to poisons in leaves, stems, bark, seeds, flowers and roots to discourage other animals from eating them.

Arisaema sikokianum

Outdoor public landscapes contain laurels, rhododendrons, snowberry and yew trees. Every part of the yew tree is poisonous The stems, leaves and seeds contain the toxic alkaloid taxine. Monks would use them to mark and protect the routes of their pilgrimages. They would collect the yew seeds as a food source and eat the aril, but spit out the seed as they travelled on their pilgrimages.

except the fleshy aril around the seed.

Brugmansia Angels Trumpets

Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow has a milky sap, which is extremely irritating to the skin and eyes.

Deadly nightshade

English Yew with berries

Arisaema sikokianum, an attractive bog plant produces fleshy seed coats contain oxalic acid in the sap. Opium poppies are quite commonly found in gardens brought in by birds, but the sap in the seed head contains opium. Another garden plant used in tubs to flower in summer is the Angels Trumpets, Datura stramonium. It has attractive large scented tubular white flowers, but every part of this plant is toxic. South American native Indians use it as a drug because of its hypnotic and hallucinogenic affects, but in the wrong dose it can be fatal. However to keep matter in perspective, very few folk suffer from plant poisons as we usually only eat those foods that we know and like, but then you find that some of our everyday foods contain poisons. Take apples, tomatoes and potatoes and look a bit deeper into their properties. We eat apples right down to the core which gets discarded. Just as well as apple seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, a cyanide compound that could be fatal in high enough doses, but that means eating an awful lot of apples in one sitting. The potato and tomato belong to the solanacae family that contains some very poisonous members including the deadly nightshade. In the kitchen we all know to discard any potatoes where the skin has turned green on exposure to light. It contains the toxin glycoalkaloid solanine. This toxin is also present in tomato leaves, stems and unripe fruits as well as tobacco and peppers. These alkaloids in tobacco can be addictive and in belladonna fatal as it contains tropane.

Winter garden

Wee jobs to do this week

The winter garden has been the centre of attraction since early December once all the leaves dropped

to the ground. Cornus, Kerria, Salix Britzensis and the Japanese maple Acer Sangokaku have all got very brightly coloured stems, adding winter colour up to the end of March. However remove all the fallen leaves and any weeds that may spoil the show. This also lets the early snowdrops grow up into the light to add some colour contrast.

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GROW FRUIT TO IMPRESS

                                                     GROW FRUIT TO IMPRESS

The dormant winter season is a great time to ponder the crops we will be growing in the year ahead. After a few years growing a wide range of normal fruit, flowers and vegetables most gardeners like to try something a wee bit different as we all like a challenge. Our allotment plots are not just areas to produce crops, as every time we get a bumper harvest someone will want to know what variety we are using and how did you grow it.

Harvesting the pumpkins

It could be a few rows of large onions, several massive pumpkins or a great crop of saskatoons. They all become talking points and add to the social life on the allotment as there is always someone

Aronia Viking

putting the kettle on and another pops into our communal hut with a few home made cakes. Looking back over the years my interest was always strongest with fruit. In the early fifties, as a wee laddie, I got introduced to raspberry picking on our local farm on the edge of St. Marys. Then in my early teens on my first allotment at Stirling Park on the Law hill I grew a row of Baldwin blackcurrants. A few years later at the Scottish Crops Research Institute where I studied weed control, one of the farm gardeners taught me how to graft apples.

Cherry Cherokee

As my gardening career took me south I got a job on a fruit farm in Pulborough in West Sussex growing blackcurrants, strawberries and apples. As I moved around the UK my garden was always used to experiment with fruit crops from growing early strawberries under tunnels, growing blueberries from seed and I continued to graft apples. My garden was not big so I needed to graft a few varieties on the same tree to give me early, mid season and late crops as well as a cooker, which was usually Bramley. However I am now back in Dundee with a fair sized garden and a decent allotment where I can indulge in my passion for growing fruit.

I now have an apple tree with six different varieties on it and a

Grape Brant outdoors

pear with five different varieties, and every year I find someone with a cracking variety I hadn’t seen before so I acquire some shoots for grafting in the spring, but I keep my Bramley tree separate. Breeders and nurseries have been busy and now you can get an upright apple, Starline Firedance perfect for small spaces and there is a wide range of stepover apples which form a low hedge with pruning.

I tried growing a peach outdoors but with no success due to peach leaf curl disease, but outdoor cherry Cherokee is fine, It gets blackfly, but just give it a spray and the birds are not such a problem as the fruits are so big the blackbirds just leave them alone.

Apple Starline Firedance

Growing strawberries in summer is very easy, but the challenge is to grow a few out of season, so I use an early variety, Mae or Christine and put it under a low polythene tunnel to crop from mid May onwards. The season is also extended with autumn fruiting Flamenco though the rains in 2019 wiped out most of the crop. For something different try a few Saskatoon fruit bushes or the chokeberry, Aronia Viking with black fruit extremely high in antioxidants.

Figs are another very impressive crop that seems to love growing outdoors in Scotland. They are very east to grow and crop for over a couple of months. Eat them fresh, but when crops are heavy they make an excellent jam and chutney.

Outdoor grapes can vary. Brant has never let me down, but last year Rondo and Regent just rotted in the wet weather. However they were great the previous year when we got a great summer. I will still keep them just in case better summers return. To grow successfully though, you need continual summer pruning of young shoots so the plant puts all its energy into producing large grapes.

Keep the birds well fed

Pumpkins are always a great challenge to get big fruits that ripen up to a brilliant orange colour, but select a good variety and keep the plants fed and watered if the season lacks rainfall.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep bird tables topped up with seed, and clean tables and feeders regularly. On frosty mornings, replace frozen water dishes with fresh warm water. I no longer put out bread for the birds as it encourages pigeons and seagulls which are very messy.

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THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

The new year has just begun, so it’s a great time to plan the year ahead determined that 2020 will be better than 2019, so we can start off with good intentions. Climate change and global warming are constantly in the news, and the level of all my

Australian Bottlebrush

successes and failures in the garden have largely been due to weather. While it may be nice to see warmer weather in Scotland which would be great for my outdoor grapes and peaches, unfortunately it is accompanied with excessive rainfall, and our mild winters are also so damp that we cannot get on

Eucalyptus gunnii

the land to do our winter digging. However it is not just us gardeners that are suffering. Newspapers and television tell us about the problems of climate change on a global scale, so action is needed to play a part in trying to address the problem.  We now all understand the part trees play in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the soil and with energy from the sun they create food for the plants through photosynthesis in the green parts of leaves (the chlorophyll). Oxygen is given off as a bi-product which we need to breathe. However man has been removing trees all round the planet at an alarming rate for fuel, building materials and clearing land for crops. It is time to redress this imbalance on a global scale, but at the domestic level, gardeners can play a small part by planting a few more trees in their gardens. Although most houses today only come with very small gardens we can still find some trees for small sites. As it is leaf coverage that is important, even some shrubs will help to add to the green coverage for

Eucryphia Rostrevor

those with small gardens. I have seen some huge Berberis darwinnii, magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias and even my fig bushes have grown into wee trees.

Many trees now come in upright forms so do not require a lot of space. My favourite is the upright cherry, Prunus Amanogawa and Eucryphia Rostrevor with white flowers. There are also upright forms of hornbeam, oak and rowan trees. The dwarf cherry tree Prunus Shirotae has horizontal branches and is a mass of flowers in spring. Another tree form suitable for small gardens is weeping forms of birch, beech, lime, flowering cherry and ash. Then of course we have our local dwarf weeping elm, Ulmus camperdownii, first found in Camperdown Park by forester David Taylor in 1835 to 1840, but now all over the world.

I have grown the weeping birch, Betula pendula youngii from a small sapling,

Flowering cherry

but trained it up a tall stake for five years to give it a bit of height then removed the stake to let it weep. I now grow the white stemmed very impressive Betula jacquemontii, which makes a great specimen for the small garden. However in Scotland Rowans are a favourite and my orange berried Sorbus Joseph Rock puts on a great display of berries just loved by blackbirds and thrushes.

Mature fig tree Brown Turkey

Lilacs come in many varieties and the best hawthorn for small gardens is the Crataegus Pauls Scarlet. If you have a sheltered garden it is worth trying the Australian bottlebrush tree Callistemon citrinus. A hardy palm tree is also very impressive, but Cordyline australis can get cut back to ground level in a severe winter. Eucalyptus gunnii is another evergreen, but a wee bit hardier, though these two usually grow back again from the ground.
Gardeners on an allotment plot may wish to plant a fruiting tree of apple, plum, cherry or pear. We are spoiled for choice as there are so many, but where space is limited apples come as narrow columns in Starline Firedance and other come as low stepover forms, and for planting against a wall you can get a fan trained tree. Even our humble gardener with a small garden can still plant a tree in the fight against climate change.

Rose pot plant

Wee jobs to do this week

Pot plants bought in ahead of Christmas to add to the festive atmosphere such as poinsettias, orchids,

Christmas cactus, cyclamen, azaleas and potted roses can still be attractive for a few more weeks, so keep them watered and give them a wee feed to keep them happy. Grow them on in a light but cool room, though my red potted dwarf rose will be kept in a warm room as it has started to grow and I hope it continues to flower and stay dwarf. Time will tell.

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