THE GARDEN BATTLEGROUND

THE GARDEN BATTLEGROUND

Gardeners, growers, farmers and foresters have always struggled in the war against pests and diseases. In years gone by there was always some chemical you could use to prevent or cure most troubles. Today most of these chemicals are no longer available and those newer ones taking their place are just not as effective as health and safety ensures they have to be perfectly safe to the user.

The problems of today are made worse by the ease of world wide travel for people and plants so that we are now subjected to new types of pests and diseases brought in on plants and soil from all over the world.

Global warming is also helping those pests from warmer climates to spread into our temperate areas as temperatures improve. Climate change has also given us milder winters which allow pests and diseases to come through the winter period unscathed.

The landscape of our fathers is changing rapidly as man is unable to control the ravages of pestilence brought on by our modern way of living.

Way back in the sixties while studying horticulture at college there were two essential reading books called The Silent Spring and The Harvest that Kills. These brought to our attention the damage to man and wildlife by the indiscriminate use of chemicals as a cure for everything. That message was well understood and acted upon, but now we have left our crops unprotected at least at garden level where access to chemicals is severely limited.

Back at college one of the main talking points was the expansion of armillaria root rot and Dutch elm disease. Armillaria could be very easily spread and infected a wide range of shrubby plants. There was no cure if you got it in your garden.

Dutch elm disease was rife in Europe wiping out most of the mature elm trees. As the UK bought a lot of nursery stock from the continent, it was not long before infected plants arrived and then the disease started its journey all over England, then Scotland killing almost every elm. There are very few elms left in UK apart from Brighton and Hove where protection existed on one side with the South Downs and the English Channel on the south side. Some species are however resistant and breeding to produce new resistant varieties has been carried out.

It is good to see that our local dwarf weeping elm Ulmus camperdownii is still growing and looking quite happy in Camperdown Park in Dundee.

The weather can also create profound effects. In the summer heatwave of 1979 farmers in central and southern England took advantage of the good growing conditions and doubled up the nitrogen fertiliser applications on the cereal crops to increase yields. However this increased the green foliage on which greenflies were feeding giving them perfect conditions for a breeding frenzy. Once all the foliage was packed with greenfly standing shoulder to shoulder there was no room left for new offspring so the next generation produced was winged aphids which could rise up on the next wind to carry them to pastures new. A massive plague of biblical proportions rose up in a black cloud spreading out from Kent to Newcastle.

Scientists estimated that there were at least 200 000 tons of greenfly in this wave. I found myself in the middle of the plague while on holiday on Scarborough beach with the kids. The approaching black thunder storm on the horizon rained down billions of greenfly covering everything and everyone in its path. We all ran off the beach for shelter, back to the caravan with all the windows shut. The next day the outdoor swimming pool was like pea soup. The following year there was a plague of ladybirds which had fed on the greenfly.

Wet weather can also devastate plants such as the potato blight disaster in Ireland many years ago following a very wet year. This was caused by the fungus phytophthora infestans. Other species of phytophthora has wiped out our local raspberry plantations so now growers have to grow them in containers above soil level. Other species of this disease are affecting many other garden plants and making me wonder if this has been responsible for my loss of goji, outdoor grape vines, white currants, blueberries and my robinia frisia. New raspberry canes bought in several years ago were all infected with phytophthora which then spread to other bushes and trees.

Today we now have ash dieback, sudden oak death, and serious diseases affecting pines and beech trees. It was bad enough losing our majestic elm trees but it would be a disaster if Scotland lost its pine trees.

The battle never ends.

Plant of the week

Oriental poppies can give a brilliant splash of bright colour to any herbaceous border. They come in bright reds, deep reds, white, pink and orange and are very easy to grow. They like good soil and a sunny position. Propagate mature clumps by digging up and pulling apart rooted stems to replant.

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ALLOTMENT LIFE

ALLOTMENT LIFE

This is the time of year when we reap the benefits of our garden and allotment, in theory.

Most crops will have been sown or planted, the flower beds full of flowers and so we relax on our sun loungers, enjoying the warmth of the early summer on the patio as the scent from our climbing roses wafts over the scene. Ok, now let’s get back to reality. Tayside has had too much cool easterly winds and not enough warmth this spring, at least up till the end of May. This has been fine for cracking on with the digging and soil preparation ahead of sowing and planting, but not great for those seed crops trying to germinate. Carrots, pickling onions, spring onions and even my leeks are all looking proper miserable. Germination on all, except leeks has been very poor, though parsnips, turnips and beetroot have excelled. I have used the clubroot resistant swede Marion this year. You do not get many seeds in a packet, and the germination has been a bit wanting so I may have to fall back onto a standard variety if I don’t get a few more seedlings appearing. Last year I used the other clubroot resistant variety Gowrie and got great results.

A lesson for 2015, or change my seed supplier as too many packets gave poor germination.

It has been too cold to plant out sweet corn, courgettes or pumpkins. The latter were outside hardening off from early May, but looked really sad, so I had to pop them back into the greenhouse to cheer them up. They will get planted out sometime in June when warmer weather arrives.

This will give my green manure crop of clovers and tares more time to rot down after I dig it in ahead of planting. The pumpkins and courgettes will get extra compost worked into their patch before planting as they are both gross feeders and require ample moisture all summer. This year I will separate my planting of pumpkins and courgettes just in case I get some cracking pumpkins and wish to save the seed. Previous experience has shown that bees have no respect for my horticultural principles in preserving a good strain of pumpkin. They are quite happy to jump onto my large golden yellow pumpkin flowers after first visiting my courgettes. This cross pollination does not show up in the developing pumpkin, but it does give you quite a surprise the next year when the pumpkins all grow very oval in shape and are useless for a lantern.

Numerous wee tasks

Turnip Golden Ball and Purple Top Milan have now been thinned out to four to six inches apart and kept weeded. Parsnips have also been thinned out to six inches apart.

Blackcurrants and gooseberries needed another spray to kill greenfly which seem to be in plague proportions this year. However there are no signs, yet of any gooseberry sawfly, and it seems the cabbage white butterfly is a bit slow of the mark with its egg laying so caterpillar removal has not yet started.

Peach leaf curl is still a big problem so infected leaves still need removal as the disease appears.

The wet cool spring has not been favourable for my pear tree. Conference and Comice shoots have now been infected with scab and opened up wounds allowing bacterial canker to girdle a couple of shoots. These had to be pruned out.

Wallflower seeds have been sown in between the rows of cabbage and cauliflower as they all like the same type of soil, (limed) to prevent clubroot. Hopefully I will be lifting and transplanting the wallflower as young sturdy seedlings before the other brassicas need the space.

Later sowings of cabbage and cauliflower in small batches have now been planted in the ground dedicated for my brassicas rotation. This will give me a succession of cropping as the young plants are about two months later than my first batch. They have all got protection from the war against pests and diseases which brassicas suffer from. The ground has been limed in winter and dressed with Perlka before planting. Perlka is a nitrogenous fertiliser high in lime content which helps ward off clubroot. Nets will keep the pigeons and butterflies away. All plants have collars around them to prevent the cabbage rootfly laying eggs which then hatch out into root eating maggots, and slug pellets have been spread for slugs and snails which after the mild winter seem to be very numerous.

First harvests

Low polythene tunnels planted with lettuce, radish, spring onion and beetroot are now giving us our first tender delicious salads, and hopefully by the time this appears in the magazine I will be sampling my first strawberries also grown under low polythene tunnels.

The wind has just turned around and now a warmer breeze is blowing up from the south, high pressure is overhead so the sunny spell could last a good few days. I am well ahead with garden tasks so now it is time to relax on the patio and maybe open up a wee bottle of Saskatoon wine to see if it is ready yet.

Plant of the week

Lilac Michel Buchner has warm purple coloured flowers. Most lilacs are very scented and give a great show in late spring before other summer flowers appear. These large shrubs or small trees are very easy to grow, so even those with a small garden can usually find space for one.

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EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

The spring flowers have long since faded away and the summer flowers are only just getting started but the year has been very favourable so there seems to be no shortage of flowers around with herbaceous plants, shrubs and rock garden plants. It is possible the long hot summer of 2013 helped to ripen up buds in autumn then nothing much suffered in the mild winter so now we are reaping the rewards when the climate is in our favour.

Early summer can be a bit quiet when the roses and summer bedding plants are only getting started, but then the herbaceous border comes alive, clematis adorns our fences and the air is heavy with the scents of the deciduous azaleas and lilac.

Azaleas and rhododendrons have been fantastic this year from early February right through till June. It has been cool and moist with some strong winds but not enough to worry the garden plants.

The brightest dwarf azaleas I have seen are those in the open fully exposed to the sun. Although a lot of these shrubs are recommended for cool moist positions with dappled shade as they cannot stand drying out, we do not often suffer too much drought and scorching heat in Scotland so full sun seems to suit these plants just fine.

This year my ceanothus thyrsiflorus, now about ten years old has settled down and instead of putting on loads of growth it has covered itself in a mass of bright blue flowers. The bee’s just love it and one bush had about thirty bees all working away happily. Where were they a few weeks ago when I needed them to pollinate my plum, pear, peach and apple fruit trees.

They are also having a great time now that my oriental poppies have started to flower at the back of my herbaceous border, and there is no shortage of them on my chives at the front of the border.

I have a small group of dwarf evergreen azaleas as well as some taller deciduous ones and keep the low growing theme going with drifts of heathers. However to add height I have planted the taller tree heath Erica arborea. It is very slow growing but at eight years old has now reached four feet tall. Every year in late May to June it is covered in scented white flowers which also attracts loads of bees. Every time you disturb this heath in flower it sends out a cloud of pollen which is quite a sight to see. Unfortunately once the flowers die the stems are left quite bare as growth restarts from the top of the shoots.

Another shrub in full flower just now is the Cistus Silver Pink and Cistus purpureus. The flowers do not last very long, but there are a lot of them so these low growing evergreen shrubs still put on a marvellous show.

Coming down in scale the biennial Iceland poppies are now at their best, but these plants can last well into summer. The large flowers held high above the foliage come in reds, pinks, orange and white and are a perfect flower for the artist wishing to capture them on canvas.

Since they grow one year then flower the following year there is still time to sow some seed now to grow on into small bushy plants. These can then be transplanted where they are to flower in the autumn spacing them about six to twelve inches apart randomly in drifts.

Now coming down even further in scale is the ground hugging succulent Delosperma. The species nubigenum grows about two inches tall but smothers the ground with rounded succulent shoots that burst into flower with daisy like yellow flowers. Another type, Delosperma cooperi grows to about four inches tall and flowers in June to July with purple flowers. They are both perfect for a very dry and stony soil in a sunny location. They will colonise the surface of a wall very easily if you poke a few shoots into a crevice holding them in place with some soil, where they will root within a few weeks.

Plant of the week

Peony suffruticosa commonly known as the tree peony has been grown and hybridised in China for hundreds of years. This flowering shrub is very culturally significant in China and has been used in Chinese medicine for over 2000 years.

It is slow growing eventually reaching up to ten foot tall and needs a moist soil rich in organic matter. It flowers best in dappled shade, but in Scotland it should be fine in a sunny position as long as it is kept moist. Although the species has a white flower there are numerous hybrids with large flowers six to twelve inches across in colours ranging from white to pink, red and yellow.

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CHECKING OVER THE FRUIT CROPS

CHECKING OVER THE FRUIT CROPS

The fruit season is just about starting as the early strawberries under my polythene tunnels begin to show the promise of the first fruits. To make sure we bring in a decent harvest crops must be checked for pests and diseases and birds. The mild winter has helped most fruits, but not all as some prefer a period of cold weather with frosts to keep them dormant and give them a decent rest. Frost also helps to kill off some pests and diseases. Plants are affected by weather patterns occurring in the two previous years as well as last winter. The wet year of 2012 did not help to ripen up wood for fruiting last year so some crops failed to produce any fruit. However this helped them to build up their strength in the off year and now this year there is a huge potential crop everywhere.

 

Top fruit

As usual apple Arbroath Pippin was very early to flower and now there are plenty of young fruitlets. Last year all apples cropped very well, so this year although there was plenty of flowers, I reckon they are a bit down on last year. Fiesta has a tendency towards biennial bearing and last year cropped brilliantly. I expected a poor result this year, but it had plenty of flowers so looks like another bumper year.

My pear tree has not given any fruit for several years but had been grafted with new varieties which take time to grow before ripening up fruiting wood. This is their year, with plenty of flowers and ample small fruits forming.

I reported a few weeks back that although my plum was a mass of flowers I never saw a single bee anywhere near my tree so I was not hopeful for a crop as the flowers need insects for pollination then warmth for fertilisation. Someone must have been on nightshift, as there are plenty of wee plums along most branches. The tree suffered a major attack of greenfly, so I had to get the sprayer out and give the whole tree a good soaking with insecticide.

Cherry Cherokee was also a mass of flowers and now a good crop of cherries are swelling up. So far no signs of blackfly, but I will keep checking as they can build up quickly.

Soft Fruit

Strawberries look very promising, but I have scattered some slug pellets around just in case a wet spell comes along. They will soon need to be bedded with straw to keep the fruit clean from soil splashing when it rains.

Gooseberries appear to be having a huge crop, but I will keep an eye on them as no doubt the sawfly will have a go at them soon. Growth is also strong, so some summer spur pruning will get done to assist easier picking. Some greenfly attacked the tips, so an insecticide spray was needed. Blackcurrants were also infected by greenfly so got sprayed at the same time. Roses nearby also needed the spray as greenfly seem to be having a field day.

Exotics

Peach Peregrine was hand pollinated as there was no signs of any pollinating insects. At this moment I would appear to have about thirty young peaches on my tree, but a lot of things can happen so I am hopeful, but time will tell if they all ripen. Peach leaf curl disease is still a problem even though the tree has been sprayed frequently. I remove all infected leaves as soon as they are seen.

Figs just loved the mild winter and now I must have nearly a couple of hundred wee figs. However it is too early to judge as I expect a fair few to fall off.

My Goji did not survive the mild winter. I can see no obvious reason for its demise. However the most likely cause could be the spread of the root rot phytophthora introduced on raspberries several years ago. They died within two years then many other bushes died down the slope from the rasps. There are many strains of phytophthora that can infect plants. The reason I have this as the culprit is that I have also lost my two outdoor grape vines which were brilliant all last year and even fruited, but none has grown this year. Grapes Phoenix and Rondo were planted where the diseased rasps used to be. Other grapes not in this area are all doing very well. Disease spores could be getting transmitted in my garden compost, or by soil on my boots as I walk over my plot.

Greenhouse grapes are all showing plenty of bunches so I will let these grow a bit longer then start my pruning by tipping all the fruiting shoots at two leaves after the last bunch. Later on in summer all shoots get stopped at one leaf otherwise they will take over the greenhouse.

 

Plant of the week

Bluebells can be very attractive planted amongst trees and allowed to spread into thick drifts. However take care as they can soon become very established and will want to spread well beyond their intended area. The bulbs can be quite deep in the soil and also spread by underground runners and seed on the surface. Do not compost the bulbs or seed heads as these will all grow again.

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