SUNNY WEATHER BRINGS ON THE FRUIT

SUNNY WEATHER BRINGS ON THE FRUIT

The sun continues to shine, temperatures remain high and the rain has stayed away for several weeks. The garden has never looked better and last week I marvelled at the improvements to roses, but this week it is the turn of fruit crops to show immense benefit. After last year’s cold wet summer where fruit either rotted on the bush (strawberries,) or suffered diseases (apple scab) or lack of pollination, it is very pleasing to see crops so healthy and plentiful.

However last year’s rotten weather has affected this year’s crop as top fruit trees, (pears and peaches) did not get a chance to ripen up the shoots in autumn, so fruit bud formation just did not happen. It is such a pity as this would have been the year to ripen up a good crop of Scottish outdoor peaches. The bushes are very healthy with very little peach leaf curl, so I can just hope that 2014 will be their year.

Apple trees have such a heavy crop that I gave them a good thinning to improve fruit size.

Cherry Cherokee fruits are very large, sweet and well ripened up this year.

Strawberries

This has been a fantastic year with over sixty pounds picked so far, and I have not even started on my Flamenco perpetual variety. Mae has been a very heavy cropper with very little botrytis, but Symphony and Rhapsody though not such heavy croppers have very large sweet berries with excellent flavour. You can only eat so much fruit, so the freezer is taking all our surplus crops.

Currants

Another bumper year for red and blackcurrants, but as there was still ten pounds of blacks in the freezer left from last year, these had to be used up in jam and a couple of demijohns of wine.

Ben Conan has large sweet berries great for eating if very ripe, but also makes excellent jam, compote and summer puddings, and I always keep back some for wine making.

Red currants get used the same way, though the wine is my favourite product.

My new Big Ben blackcurrant bush is putting on excellent growth in its first year, but I will have to wait till 2014 before I sample these very large sweet berries.

Raspberries

I started to pick my first Glen Fyne in mid July, but my Glen Rosa (sold to me as Glen Ample) is running at least a week or two later. Flavour and texture of Glen Fyne is excellent.

I gave a spray to combat raspberry beetle maggots at the first pink fruit stage to both my raspberries as well as my Bramble Helen. They will need another spray a week later.

Gooseberries

A good year for gooseberries as the warm weather is sweetening up the fruit and I managed to remove several hundred sawfly maggots as they appeared over three weeks and before they gobbled up too much foliage. A very messy and unpleasant task, but quiet necessary.

We use the gooseberries in summer puddings, compote, stewed and sweetened for use in desserts and in my breakfast muesli, and of course it also makes a brilliant wine.

Saskatoons

Picking started a bit later than last year, but berries are a good size and the sun has really sweetened them up. The two rows are all under netting for protection from birds, yet the blackie still managed to find a way under the net. Saskatoons are used in the same way as blueberries, eaten fresh in season, then, compote, summer puddings, jam and brewed for wine.

Anna has continued to experiment with Saskatoon jam recipes and her latest one, adapted from a Canadian recipe is a definite winner. This fruit is very low in pectin so setting can be a problem. It also lacks juice to give a smooth consistency, so rhubarb has been added to help setting and soften the texture. This Saskatoon jam is delicious.

6 large cups crushed saskatoons

4 large cups chopped rhubarb

6 large cups warmed sugar

Juice of one lemon

One rounded teaspoon of citric acid

Add a half cup of water to pan with rhubarb, soften for ten minutes then add saskatoons and soften for another ten minutes. Add lemon juice, citric acid and warmed sugar, bring to a rolling boil for another ten minutes then test.

Plant of the week

Lilium candidum the Belladonna lily grows about five feet tall with pure white scented trumpet flowers in July and August. Give it a sheltered spot in full sun in well drained but rich soil. Do not plant deep. They are a wee bit susceptible to virus and botrytis, so propagate from seed which is usually free from diseases.

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THE YEAR OF THE ROSES

THE YEAR OF THE ROSES

I imagine the jet stream must have sorted itself out and the feared repeat of last year deluge has been replaced with long spells of summer weather. The garden plants were all running about three weeks later than normal, but they are now catching up very quickly. The garden hose has even been in use after clearing off two years dust from lack of use. The extra moisture together with sun and high temperatures has transformed every part of the garden. I have picked over 30 lbs of strawberries from my wee strawberry patch and I am only a third of the way through the season.

Other soft and top fruits are swelling and ripening up brilliantly. All the vegetables on the allotment just love this year, and salads, rhubarb, turnip, cabbage and beetroot has been getting picked regularly.

However the one plant that is responding above all others is the roses. I have never seen them flower so profusely. The weather is also keeping blackspot, mildew and rust at bay.

Climbing Roses

My two climbing roses, Gertrude Jekyll on a west wall and Dublin Bay on a south wall are always a good show, but this year they outstanding. They are absolutely packed with flowers from base right to the top of the bushes. Climbing Mme Alfred Carrier must be twelve foot tall but only supported by a six foot fence, yet she is still growing so I will give her more room. She shared this fence with a clematis macropetala, which has not been great, so I have dug it out to let Mme Alfred Carrier get more space. I have another three climbers Etoile du Hollande, Climbing Iceberg and Morning Jewel, which all got severely cut back last year as I replaced the fence line and I needed access to work. They very soon put on good growth and are now all in flower, but it will be another year before they make maximum impact.

Shrub Roses

Ispahan and Lavender Lassie are both excellent pinks with gorgeous scents. Ispahan is now over seven foot tall but has plenty of space, but Lavender Lassie is beginning to outgrow its space and block a footpath so it will get shifted next winter. I might plant it against a fence and train it into a climber.

Bush Roses

These have had no feeding or compost this year, (they got plenty last year) and have to compete with the ravenous roots of a huge eucalyptus tree which is growing in the middle of the bed, but they all seem to exist together just fine. The eucalyptus does not have a dense canopy so the roses get plenty of sunlight, but I have to water in this present dry spell as our stony soil can be very dry.

This year’s display is brilliant. Although there are more hybrid tea types than floribundas, the HT’s are acting like floribundas with a mass of blooms. The star player this year is Myriam which was purchased from Cockers of Aberdeen following a visit to their display gardens several years ago.

It is a large headed soft pink hybrid tea rose with a strong scent growing about four to five feet tall with very healthy foliage. I counted twelve flower heads all in bloom at the same time on one bush.

However they no longer stock this variety.

Another brilliant rose that I can no longer trace is a strong beautiful deep yellow floribunda called Julie Goodyear purchased from Dobbies Garden Centre about eight years ago. Has some rose bush supplier to the trade made up the name to gain sales. This variety is not listed anywhere in the rose world, so what is the real name of this wonderful rose.

However next week another rose (the orange hybrid tea Dawn Chorus or white floribunda Iceberg) will be the star performer while Myriam takes a wee rest.

Plant of the week

Philadelphus virginal, the mock orange is one of the easiest shrubs to grow, but as it can grow up to ten feet tall it needs a bit of space. It used to be one of the dominant shrubs in Dundee Parks as it is very easy to propagate from hardwood cuttings in winter, so it got planted all over the town. However in those days shrubs were used to cover the ground to stop weeds growing so our philadelphus never got above five feet and I never ever saw a flower on it. Today we let shrubs grow naturally so if it is a ten foot tall shrub we let it grow. If you feel the need to prune, then remove some older branches after flowering to encourage younger growth.

This mature shrub is a mass of double scented white flowers in July and one of my must have specimen plants.

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BIG CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

BIG CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

I have always been very impressed with large specimen plants given pride of place in the landscape.

When studying for my National Diploma at Essex Institute of Agriculture at the end of the sixties there was a magnificent Cedar, (Cedrus atlantica glauca) on the college lawns. I was determined to have one for my garden, so ten years later I planted one in my small garden in Darlington. Six years later I realised my wee garden was just not big enough, though my young specimen was a real show stopper. Ever since then I have always planted a few specimen plants where ever space permitted.

Every garden, no matter how small can accommodate at least one specimen plant that makes that garden special if only for two to three weeks each year.

My first garden in St. Mary’s was very small but I planted a weeping birch tree, Betula pendula Youngii and trained the main stem ten feet up a tall cane before I allowed it to start weeping. When I left six years later it was just reaching the perfect specimen stage.

I have seen numerous gardens around Dundee that are very special with one having a particularly large and colourful Azalea, others with a Camelia, Eucalyptus, Cedar, a long tall fence smothered in Clematis Montana and a lovely specimen of bright red Chaenomeles Crimson and Gold.

Although my present garden is not huge it is big enough to allow me to indulge in a few medium sized specimen plants. This creates impact almost all year round as there is always one part of the garden looking good in each season.

Spring specimens are plentiful but space available will dictate number and type. Rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and even Forsythia will all make very impressive specimens if given ample space to grow unimpeded. If you have a good length of tall fencing plant a clematis montana rubens and let it ramble at free will. It will take a few years to thicken up but once established it covers itself in flowers every year. If you want an impressive tree plant the upright cherry, Prunus amanogawa, or if you have more space try Kanzan or Prunus shirotae both of which have immense flower power.

Summer specimens continue with the white scented shrub Philadelphus and Viburnum mariesii with its horizontal branches covered in white flowers. An excellent small tree is the golden leaved Robinia frisia but can be a bit fickle if we continue to get cold wet winters. It doesn’t mind the cold but not if its roots are in wet soil. Eucryphia can grow very tall as a small tree and gets smothered in white flowers in summer, but it is hard to beat a good climbing rose if you have space to let it grow to its full potential. My white Mme Alfred Carrier is over twelve feet tall and still growing and my scarlet Dublin Bay on a south facing wall about the same height. However they will need pruning in winter to maintain shape, removing some old wood and keeping a balance of young growths.

Autumn specimens are short lived when autumn colour is the theme, but some plants are so vivid they linger in the memory for a long time. Most rowan trees give brilliant autumn colour as well as all forms of maple and if space is plentiful try oaks, beech and hornbeam. Rowans also have loads of highly coloured berries of red, white, yellow and pink. The flowering cherries are also brilliant in autumn as well as spring. My best Japanese maple specimen is the coral bark maple Acer palmatum Sangokaku.

Winter specimens are a bit scarcer, but the maple Acer sangokaku has bright scarlet bark and twigs which are brilliant when the sun hits them. It is a small tree but deserves plenty of space to grow. My specimen fits in perfectly in my winter garden full of deciduous shrubs with highly coloured stems such as dogwoods, Kerria, red stemmed willows and Leycesteria. It is also a great specimen to add height to a heather garden.

A bigger specimen tree is the white stemmed birch tree Betula jacquemontii. It is important to make sure you get a well branched good specimen with a straight stem. As it grows remove just a few of the lower branches to expose the white trunk which peels off to reveal a warmer shade of white bark. In time this bark turns white. My tree is about ten years old and nearly twenty feet tall.

Plant of the week

Petunias are one of my favourite summer flowering bedding plants used for tubs and hanging baskets and come in numerous bright colours. They need warmth and sunny weather to bring out the flowers so recent summers have not been the best. I would never be without the large flowered blue variety as it is good to have strong dark blues amongst the other reds and yellow flowers and the blue form has a fantastic scent. They mix very well with geraniums, Impatiens, lobelia and French marigolds.

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HEALTHY LIVING FOR SUMMER

HEALTHY LIVING FOR SUMMER

Summer always takes a long time to come, and then our Scottish climate only gives us a few sunny days at a time in between showers, so it is very important to make the best use of this period.

The garden and allotment have been cultivated and planted so we have had plenty exercise, and as crops begin to mature we can start to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables picked and table ready in a few hours. As these crops have had no chemicals added to help them grow or increase their shelf life they could not be healthier.

Radish is so quick and easy to grow that they are nearly always the first of the new season’s crops to be picked. Many salads can be brought on early by sowing in cellular trays in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill then hardened off for transplanting in spring. Lettuce, spring onion and beetroot all lend themselves to this method. Other crops such as strawberries can planted under low polythene tunnels to ripen two to three weeks ahead of open ground crops.

Some vegetables such as spring cabbage April sown in July 2012 and overwintered can now be cut as spring greens or left another couple of weeks to heart up.

Soft fruit such as raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries will soon be ready as will my cherries Cherokee though I will have to net them as the local blackbird would just love them for breakfast.

We are spoiled for choice for great fresh healthy fruit and vegetables from now till winter.

They all have merit as a health food product but differ in the levels of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants they possess.

Some of the best can reach superfood status and are also some of the easiest to grow. The following list is always on my allotment plot. I have covered the health benefits of these in depth last November, now archived in date order in my blog, the “Scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.co.uk”

Rhubarb is available from late winter as forced stems, then in season from April till autumn. Plant crowns in well manured rich soil about three feet apart and keep it well watered and fed in the growing season to harvest a wealth of stems. These can be used as fresh stems and any surplus frozen for winter use.

Beetroot, Kale, Swiss chard and spinach are leafy vegetables for stir frying, soups, and added to stews. Beetroot also makes an excellent deep red soup that is very nourishing as well as being very tasty. These vegetables are all very easy to grow from seed, and kale is one brassica less appealing to pigeons, caterpillars and clubroot.

Broad beans are my favourite bean mainly as they make fantastic soup as well as added to numerous other dishes. My first beans will be ready in July from a late February sowing, but I had spare seed left so I did another sowing at the end of May. There is always some crop that fails so these will be planted where a sowing of spring onions and Paris Silverskin pickling onions failed miserably. The latter like good soil plus a warmer climate than they have been getting lately so germination was very poor. My broad beans from the late sowing will crop at the end of summer.  

Onions can just about be used with every cooked dish and now I have found a great variety they are very easy to grow. My onion Hytech grown from seed gives me a huge crop of large bulbs that store perfectly from the late summer harvest to May the following year.

Tomatoes need to be home grown. Sorry, but supermarket tomatoes just do not compare. A hard skinned tasteless watery orange ball is absolutely useless as a salad or cooking vegetable no matter how cheap, or on the vine or having a brilliant long life on a supermarket shelf. At home we can grow varieties for flavour and pick them fresh when they are red and fully ripe. These are delicious.

Black fruits include blackcurrants, blueberries, saskatoons and chokeberries. They are all very easy to grow except the blueberry which demands an acidic soil. They are all very high in vitamin C and antioxidants. Most can be eaten straight off the bush, though chokeberries are better cooked and sweetened. The new blackcurrant Big Ben is very large and has enhanced levels of sweetness and vitamin c.

Plant of the week

Rose Gertrude Jekyll has been my first rose to flower this year, appearing in early June, though much later than last year. It gets smothered in large pink Old English style flowers that retain the strong old rose scent. It can be grown as a wall climber or free standing shrub.

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