PRESERVE THE SUMMER FRUITS

PRESERVE THE SUMMER FRUITS

Back in the mists of time, all the local kids went berry picking in summer as farmers grew raspberries and strawberries outdoors. We always brought back whatever spare fruit we could carry, so mother could make some jam. This delicious product was food, so it went on your piece quite thick. Although it was very high in sugar, we were very active outdoor kids surrounded with woods to explore and the Sidlaw Hills, only just over one hour’s walk away, so you soon burned off any additional calories. However, life moves on and everything changes. Computers are now many  kids pastime of choice, outdoor activities are limited by weather, health and safety, availability of cars for travel, and now we can all afford cakes and biscuits, so bread and jam is no longer a staple food. We are also a wealthier nation so very few locals go berry picking, leaving the harvest, now under tunnels, to East European immigrants.

Home made jam is now a special treat brought out to impress and delight guests with tastes and flavours of summer. As kids we just enjoyed the taste of fresh berries picked from the bush and eaten immediately. We had no idea that these were packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and would ensure good health. Today there is such a wide variety of fruit available to grow that you can eat a very healthy diet of fresh fruit from the first strawberries at the end of May till the last greenhouse grapes in December, all from your own garden.

Harvesting the soft fruit

Early strawberries were a disaster as botrytis rotted most of the fruit, but Rhapsody and Symphony being a bit later in fruiting missed the worst of the rain, so I got nearly 50% of the crop.

My summer raspberries are only recently planted, but the crop is being swamped by very vigorous growth from new canes. Autumn Bliss is very late so only time will tell if we get a crop this year.

Red currants, blackcurrants, saskatoons, blueberries and gooseberries are all giving huge crops, and if we get a late summer my figs will produce a bumper crop as it is really loaded with good sized figs. Bramble Helen has started to crop and looks excellent and my outdoor cherry Cherokee has a small but very tasty crop of cherries. The dwarf cherry trees are well netted from birds.

Using and preserving berries

Although we eat our berries fresh throughout the summer at breakfast, lunch and supper time almost every day, and consume a fair bit while picking them, there is always ample left over for freezing and preserves. We can eat all our cherries and figs as they ripen, but most other fruit get preserved as jam, compotes, summer puddings, muffins or fermented to stock up my wine cellar.

Summer is jam making time. In my youth before freezers were invented, I would make about 100 jars of jam and store them in a cool place over winter. I could easily eat 2lbs of jam a week.

However, today, jam is now made with fruit from the freezer as required, and I eat a bit less.

Anna has been busy making some blackcurrant, saskatoon and strawberry jam as well as apricot from dried fruit, and a particularly good mix of rhubarb, fig and prune.

As the crops come in and our four freezers fill up, I will have to start my wine making season to make room in the freezers for more berries. This will be the first year I will make gooseberry wine, but we have had very heavy crops, so nothing gets wasted. Gooseberries are also brilliant when slightly stewed and sweetened and used in muesli at breakfast or in Greek yoghurt and a spoonful of honey for lunch.

All of the summer berries make excellent compote used all year round and summer puddings. Compote is invaluable with muesli, yoghurt and puddings.

Our blackcurrant crop is so heavy that we will be trying some as a health drink high in vitamin C and antioxidants. This can be stored in plastic bottles in the freezer. We are also looking forward to trying the blackcurrant Liqueur De Cassis, which hopefully will be ready for Christmas.

Plant of the week

Tuberous Begonias are extremely reliable, and even in these wet sunless summers they still cover themselves in masses of bright flowers. They are perfect for mass planting in beds or individually as specimens in a large tub. Give them good soil, a wee bit fertiliser and don’t let them dry out in a normal summer. Tubers are not cheap, but they last a lifetime and will slowly multiply, as they can be divided in spring, (cut the tuber with a sharp knife) once you can see where the young shoots are.

 

Painting of the month

Summer Roses is a figure study in oil on canvas painted for my exhibition at Dundee Botanical Gardens at the beginning of October when I will be showing images of the Artist’s model. Although I paint flowers, landscapes and snow scenes, it is figurative painting that gives the greatest challenge, as there is little scope for error trying to combine the beauty of the female form as well as creating an attractive painting using colour, form, tone and line.

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A Crazy Summer

MID SUMMER MADNESS

This is supposed to be holiday time, when we relax at home on the sunny patio with a cool beer or take a trip to sunnier climates leaving our worries behind. This year has been different.  The sun lounger is going rusty from lack of use. It has been very hard to catch up with outdoor work, as the rain has been a constant pain in the arm. Lack of warmth and sunshine don’t help.

Weed control with glyphosate has been difficult as you really need a couple of dry days after spraying to allow the foliage to absorb the chemical. Weed control by hoeing is a waste of time this year, as it just transplants the weeds, so they have been allowed to grow a bit bigger so we can hand weed them.

Crops that need sun, e.g. sweet corn, pumpkins, courgettes, French beans, Cape gooseberries are proper miserable. However green plants such as lettuce, cabbage, broad beans and turnips have never been better, and my opium poppies are bursting with flowers.

Allotment vegetables

Spring cabbage April has been brilliant, but now they are finished the ground was raked over, fertilised and a late crop of broad beans planted in their place. These were sown in mid June, then potted up and are now about nine inches tall.

Summer cabbage Golden Acre is now just about ready for cutting. No sign of clubroot as my rotation has been good and nets keep most of the cabbage white butterfly and pigeons off the plants. Rootfly has been prevented with nine inch square covers made from carpet underlay and placed around the plants at planting.

Turnip Purple Top Milan and Golden Ball seem to like the wet climate and are now ready.

I harvested a great crop of Amsterdam Forcing carrots, sown first week in May and protected from carrot fly with fleece. Some of these will be used within the next fortnight and the remainder will go in the freezer. Growth under the fleece was great even though our resident allotment black cat frequently used it as his hammock bed.

Courgettes are really struggling to grow, with some fruit just rotting and others eaten by the mice.

Pumpkins and sweet corn are standing still waiting on summer weather. We all know that feeling.

Greenhouse

Greenhouse tomatoes are now growing, but most lost the first two trusses as the tomatoes just fell off in the cold sunless climate. Third trusses are fine, so instead of stopping them after four or five trusses I will keep them growing till the sixth or seventh truss.

Flame, my red seedless grape has totally failed to produce any grapes this year, but Perlette my white seedless grape is heavy with huge bunches of good grapes. Black Hamburg is always reliable, though excessive growth has had to be kept under control. It does not need too much foliage.

Fruit crops

Strawberries have not done well in this wet climate, suffering botrytis rot which took out about 70% of my crop. The remainder are not sweet and do not keep more than one day.

Raspberries are small and not very sweet. I think I have Glen Rosa, though they were purchased from Dobbies labelled as Glen Ample, which they definitely are not. However as I never retained my receipt they would not entertain my complaint.

Black and redcurrants, gooseberries and saskatoons are looking great and picking is well underway.

Autumn Bliss rasps and an excellent crop of figs both need sunshine to ripen them up.

City Road Allotments Open Day

Come along on Sunday 5^th August to our allotments when we open our doors to the public to check out allotment life and see the rewards of hard work, enthusiasm, and getting close to nature.

Sample our produce from our sales stalls with fresh vegetables, flowering plants, jams and tablet and pop into our cafe for a coffee or tea and some home baking.

I will be showing some of my allotment paintings and Saskatoon plants and berries.

We are open from 10.30am to 2pm. And there is plenty of free parking on City Road.

Plant of the week

Opium Poppy is widely available as seed from most garden centres as a very colourful garden poppy.

Botanically it is Papaver somniferum and there are many variations of colour with flowers both single, double and pompom shaped. My colony started as a colourful bright pink chance seedling, which seeded itself and now flowers every year, even in these wet cold summers.

It has a history going back over thousands of years due to its high level of opiate compounds contained in the seeds, seedpods from the milky latex sap. Although it has been misused as the opium gets converted to heroin, drunk as tea, or smoked, it is also very important as a source of other drugs including codeine and morphine. Opium poppies are now grown in England commercially for drug companies to address the shortage of morphine.

Recent research has also found noscapine, a cancer fighting agent, which is giving hope in the fight against breast and prostate cancers. Trials on animals and human cancer cells suggest it may shrink the cancer cells and help to stop the spread of cancer throughout the body.

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Saskatoon Fruit Growing

 SASKATOON FRUIT GROWING

Saskatoon fruit grows on the Amelanchier alnifolia bush, a member of the rose family, which grows wild in North West America and Canada from New Mexico to Alaska. Over time superior fruit has been selected to produce bigger and better fruiting varieties which are now very commercial. The industry is growing very fast to meet demand for this fruit, which is very high in nutrients and antioxidants.

They look similar to Blueberries, but have a different, sweeter flavour and are much easier to grow.

History of the Saskatoon
Native American Indians have been using the fruit for hundreds of years, eating it fresh, using it in soups and cakes, and mixing it with dried grated buffalo meat and fat to make pemmican. This is dried and stored for use throughout winter. Settlers in America soon realised the value of this fruit and started to gather it from the wild, then selecting the best bushes to cultivate.

The Saskatoon bush was also used medicinally for numerous ailments, the leaves were brewed for tea and the wood used for arrows, basket making and in the construction of canoes.

Saskatoons were growing prolifically along the banks of the Saskatchewan River and when the town grew up at this location it was named Saskatoon after the anglicized version of the Cree name, Mis-sask-a-too-mina for the fruit.

At present demand for the fruit far exceeds supply and it is estimated that soon over 4000 hectares will be under cultivation. Harvesting is done by machine, hand pickers and nearly half the crop by pick your own, as people love a day in the country picking native fruit.

The first variety, Success appeared in 1878, but it was not until 1952 that the first selections produced the superior varieties Smoky and Pembina. Smoky was the main variety used in the first orchards established about forty years ago. However with micropropagation techniques other varieties including Thiessen (this one has the largest fruit size), Northline, Martin and Honeywood were mass planted.

Nutritional value and use

The fruit is high in iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium and very high in anthocyanins. These antioxidants may help prevent heart disease, strokes, cancer, cataracts and other chronic illnesses associated with ageing.

They can be eaten fresh during the picking season of nearly one month and used in jams, jellies, compote, pie fillings, yoghurt, smoothies and wine. They make excellent fruit compote mixed with other soft fruit or rhubarb and used with breakfast cereals, dessert or a topping or filling with sponge cake. The berries freeze well for future use.

The bushes are quite dense with a strong root system, making them perfect for landscape planting in shelterbelts, hedges, urban and edible landscapes and on slopes viable to soil erosion. They are very attractive in May when they are covered in white flowers and are beneficial for bees, birds and other wildlife. Many varieties of Amelanchier have excellent autumn colour.

Cultivation

Saskatoons tolerate a wide range of soils from acidic to those with a high pH, clay, sandy, loams and peat provided drainage is reasonable. They are very hardy down to -50 centigrade, (they grow in Alaska), though a late frost or severe wind can affect young foliage and flowers. I have not experienced any severe Scottish weather that affects mature bushes, but have had some damage on young plants in the May gales last year.

For garden cultivations plant single bushes about 6 to 8 feet apart, or 3 feet apart for hedgerows.

Without pruning they could reach about 15 feet. They do not need pruning for fruit production, but do need height management for picking. Cut out a few tall shoots right down to ground level in winter. These will regenerate with fresh new shoots which keeps the bush young and wont need pruning for another five years.

They will produce 6 to 10 lbs fruit per mature bush from the middle of July to early August.

Young bushes start cropping about three years old and continue for over thirty years.

Birds just love the fruit so they will need netting or grown in a fruit cage.

Visitors are very welcome to inspect and sample a few berries from my crop of bushes, now 7 years old at the City Road Allotment site Open day on Sunday 5^th August from 10.30am to 2pm.

Plant of the week

Lavatera is grown in gardens both as an annual and a permanent perennial. Both types prefer poor dry soil and full sun for prolific flowering. The pink and white flowers can be very bold.

Perennial Lavatera should be pruned in late winter quite hard and it will still grow up to six foot tall.

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Bush roses

A GARDEN OF ROSES

Last week we were looking at large shrub roses and this week we shall look at bush roses.

I have been in love with roses from childhood. A garden with a rose bush was very special as they were quite expensive to buy when wages were still quite low as work study and bonus had not been invented. As a young apprentice gardener I had managed to get a few bushes of what was popular at that time, i.e. Peace, Ena Harkness, Queen Elizabeth and the new vermilion rose Super Star. However rose breeders were bringing out numerous new varieties every year so I had to stretch my budget a wee bit further. My council house garden in St. Mary’s was big enough for a fair few, but as apprentice gardener wages were quite meagre I decided to buy 100 rose rootstocks and bud my own. I got over 70 bushes, which for a first effort at budding was quite good. I had not yet had any training in budding, but had a very good book with pictures. However I had to source my stock of buds for new varieties from a wide source of locations around Dundee and beyond. Enough said!!!

 

The Rose Bed

I now always have a rose bed or border in my garden, and try out new varieties as space allows.

I do not separate my hybrid teas from my floribundas as there is great merit in both types.

Over the years you always find favourites that you stick with. In the past, breeders wanted the best colours and a perfect hybrid tea shape but now we have plenty of these so demand is for a return to scented roses and healthy disease resisting foliage.

Pests and diseases

However many of our favourites were a wee bit susceptible to blackspot, mildew and rust so breeders have been trying to introduce vigour, strength and disease resistance into their new varieties. Not an easy task as the blackspot fungus continually mutates to form resistance to chemicals, and our wet weather has not helped to keep diseases down. There are suitable chemicals for rose pests and disease control, but you need to spray regularly and your time and chemicals are wasted if the rain washes the chemical off not long after spraying.

I no longer tolerate diseased roses, so unfortunately many of my favourites have been dug up and dumped. I had always liked Blue Moon, but it had to go, and my best scented white Margaret Merrill is only just hanging on. Iceberg is also a good white but has little scent and needs a sunny year to get the best from its flowers.

My rose favourites

E.H. Morse has always been my best red as it is large, has a great shape, good scent and is quite disease resistant. National Trust is the perfect red rose but with no scent it is not top of my list. Fragrant Cloud, Alec’s Red and Ingrid Bergman have all got shape, intense colour and strong fragrance. Evelyn Fison is an old but very reliable red floribunda.

Dearest is top of my pink floribunda list, but Rose Gaujard, a very old variety, is also very attractive though it does not produce a lot of flowers. Congratulations and Blessings are both excellent pinks and Wendy Cussons, a deep cherry red is strong, disease free and has a strong fragrance.

Piccadilly is the most popular red and yellow bicolour, and often my first rose to bloom. Foliage is shiny and very healthy.

Alexander is now top of my vermillion colour and for a bright orange try, Doris Tysterman or Dawn Chorus. Arthur Bell remains my best yellow floribunda, and Margaret Merrill my best white.

Rose culture

Roses like a well cultivated clay soil rich in organic matter as they are gross feeders, but once well established go easy on fertiliser otherwise they may respond with too much vigour at the expense of flowers. They flower better in a sunny spot that is well drained but retains moisture. An annual mulch of compost is beneficial.

Prune in late winter removing old and weak shoots and shortening others by about half. Do not prune too hard as some varieties do not like it. Roses will still be just fine even if they are never pruned, or as I found out cut evenly to two feet with hand shears.

Watch for pests and diseases and spray as necessary in dry weather in the evening.

Plant of the week

Delphiniums are a very popular summer flowering herbaceous plant with huge spikes of

intense blue flowers. They can grow up to six or more feet tall and as the flower spikes are solid with flowers they need thorough staking. They are easily grown from seed from specialist growers such as Blackmore and Langdon of Bath. They are very reliable coming up every year as long as you keep slugs at bay as they will chew the young shoots.

Handle this plant with care as every part is very poisonous.

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Shrub Roses

SHRUB ROSES

I had always been a lover of roses, but it was only when I gardened on a larger scale that could I indulge in trying out the larger growing shrub roses. The individual flowers may not have the perfect hybrid tea shape, but the sheer floral impact and scent from a mature bush in full flower at its best can be quite breathtaking. Flowers vary from single, double and full petalled and you soon get attracted to the old fashioned flower shapes.

Shrub roses have developed from many rose species and new varieties created by breeding with other bush roses. They can grow from three to six feet or more depending on variety, soil and local climate. When given plenty of room to grow they can put on a fantastic display of flowers. Some only give one show each year, such as Rosa rugosa Fru Dagmar Hastrup but others such as Benjamin Britten and Brother Cadfael are repeat flowering from early summer till autumn and many are highly scented. Rose breeders from all over the world have been selecting and crossing every type they can get their hands on. Sometimes they go for a colour, or size, or disease resistance and nowadays there is a demand for a return to scented roses. Numerous new roses appear every year, so it is worth trying some of them out. However nurseries offer some wonderful descriptions which may be as they find them in warmer drier locations, but in Scotland we are cooler and often not as dry so our roses are more prone to blackspot disease. I have already tried and discarded eight bushes that failed to survive diseases, or the flowers were not up to an acceptable standard.

Types of shrub roses

The oldest roses were species from Europe such as the Gallicas (Rosa mundi is very popular even though it is from the 12^th century) grown hundreds of years ago by the Greeks and Romans.

The Crusaders brought back the Damask roses (Ispahan is highly scented) from the Middle East.

The Albas (Maidens Blush) appeared in the Middle Ages, and the Centifolias (Fantin-Latour) grown in Holland. In Victorian times, the Mosses were very popular. William Lobb is a tall moss with deep crimson highly scented flowers, and the buds are covered in balsam scented mossy glands. These types all have one summer flush but there is also a range of repeat flowering old roses, which have a main display, then continue to flower till the autumn. These include the Chinas, (Old Blush China), the Portlands, (Jacques Cartier), the Bourbons, (Mme Isaac Pereire), and the Hybrid Perpetuals, (Baroness Rothschild).

Zephirine Drouhin is a popular thornless pink Bourbon used as a highly scented wall climber.

Plant hunters have collected many rose species from all around the world. These are very popular with landscape architects for urban landscape plantings (Rosa glauca, R. pimpinellifolia, the Scottish Rose, and R. moyessii well known for its huge colourful red hips) My own favourite is Rosa xanthina Canary Bird which has masses of large single yellow flowers in early summer.

Plant Breeders have had ample stock to use to create further shrub roses including the Hybrid Musks (Felicia and Lavender Lassie) and a wide range of modern shrub roses, bred from Rosa rugosa (Fru Dagmar Hastrup)

Planting and aftercare

As these are usually fairly large, give them plenty of space. They are excellent at the back of borders and some make excellent flowering hedges.

Roses are gross feeders so enjoy good soil with plenty of compost added, with an annual mulch to feed the surface roots, keep down weeds and retain moisture. They do not need much pruning other than removing any straggly shoots, diseased wood and an occasional old shoot to keep a balance of young and mature shoots.

Watch out for blackspot disease and spray with a rose fungicide, but if it does not cure it, remove the bush and try a different one. Always remove and destroy all diseased foliage.

Plant of the week

Cistus Silver Pink is a variety of the Rock Rose or Sun Rose flowering in June to July. Cistus thrive in a sunny location on poor stony soils where good drainage is very important. They do not like feeding, mulching or adding organic matter to planting holes. Cistus come with white, purple, pink and spotted flowers which are set off against their grey foliage. The variety Cistus purpureus is also excellent.

 

Painting of the month

Madonna is an acrylic on canvas painted for the Madonna art exhibition showing at Art et Facts gallery in Roseburn Terrace in Edinburgh from 16^th to 28^th July to coincide with her tour and concert in Edinburgh.

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