PLANT PROTECTION

PLANT PROTECTION

The last week in April saw a return to cold winds and frost so care had to be taken to protect vulnerable plants. Salads, cabbages, dahlias and even my onions from seed which had been hardening off for the last two weeks all went back to the greenhouse for a few days. Tomato and peppers need warmth so a heater had to be used in the greenhouse while the cold weather persisted. Today we all enjoy holidays in warmer climates and seeing and enjoying tropical crops we would just love to have some of these back home. Garden centres and mail order nurseries are also encouraging us by supplying a few specimens to try, and if we accept that global warming may arrive some time soon then we might just be successful with a few exotics.

Low polythene tunnel over strawberries

However, back in Scotland most will likely need some protection from cold winds and frosts.

This is where hedges, shelter belts, walls and fences all play a part. I use every south facing wall and fence at home and on my allotment to try and grow some exotic with a challenge.

Protection against birds and butterflies

A greenhouse with or without heat is almost an essential for tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper and melons. If you have a large greenhouse with plenty of space try a kiwi. Figs and grapes were normal under glass for a long time, but now there are varieties that will give a decent return outdoors though benefit with a warm south facing wall or fence. Fig Brown Turkey and grapes Rondo, Phoenix and Regent are all showing promise outdoors but I need a few more years to see how they fare. Cape gooseberries are another exotic that can crop outdoors in a good year if given some protection for a few weeks after planting, but also benefit from a good summer.

Protecting cabbages

In times past it was the practise to have a cold frame on the south side of all greenhouses to harden off plants and even grow some early crops with a bit of protection. Today these are less common as plastics take over.

Polythene tunnels which are a lot cheaper than a permanent greenhouse are becoming very popular.

They come in all sizes from massive and any length of walk in tunnel to low polythene tunnels and some quite small. Although most are purchased ready for assembly, some people prefer to build their own with a supply of timber and heavy duty polythene.

Coming down in scale some keen gardeners are quite happy to use plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off and then placed over individual plants to give protection in the early stages of growth.

Fleece over early peas

Protection is also needed from pests which like to lunch on our plants. From caterpillars on our cabbage, cauliflowers and sprouts to pigeons on the same as well as our young peas and then  the blackbirds devouring our strawberries, saskatoons, blueberries and red currants. Even our cherry

trees are not safe and difficult to net due to size, and under glass the wasps have discovered that my new grape Seigerrebe is quite sweet, so put word round their mates and now becoming quite a problem. When you purchase nets to keep birds off crops you are just as well to get one with a finer mesh to use to keep butterflies off the brassicas.

Glasshouse protection

Down at ground level success with carrots would be impossible without fleece protection to keep of the carrot fly, but I wish I could educate our local allotment site cats that these are not

hammocks to sleep on or to be used as a scratching pole.

Breeders have given us a great thornless gooseberry, but now our local fox can get into the bushes so sturdy netting has to be put in place as they ripen, or he will eat the lot.

Wee jobs to do this week

Red begonias for blue tubs

Start to collect summer bedding plants for tubs beds and hanging baskets as the spring flowers pass their best and we start to think about our summer displays. Looking ahead I have retained tuberous begonias from last year as well as fuchsias and geraniums in shades of red, pink and white. I will buy in some petunias, impatiens, French marigolds and trailing lobelias. I keep spare hanging baskets so I can plant up summer ones, kept in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks to establish, while the spring baskets full of pansies continue to flower.

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LATE SPRING GARDEN UPDATE

LATE SPRING GARDEN UPDATE

This must be the driest April for a long time. Scotland gets rain in the west, and the north, but seems to miss the Tayside region. The hose has been in use as even my tulips have been wilting. Aconites and Pulmonaria have all fallen over with the drought. On the positive side weed killing has been easy as the cool dry wind just shrivels up any weeds after some hoeing. It has also been a very cool month, so again the show of tulips and daffodils have lasted a long time. Mixing red and purple tulips into my drift of yellow Doronicums has been a great success as timing of both plants was perfect. Early dwarf tulips have been planted in my rose bed giving a terrific show of solid, but mixed colour, and as the roses are taller than the tulips they are all happy together.

Broad beans and onions ready for planting

Garden shrubs started flowering in early March with my Rhododendron praecox, then out came the Forsythia, Magnolias, Kerria, Berberis darwinii and Camellias with Donation a star performer. My red Camellia Adolphe Audusson has suffered with the drought and many of the top branches are dying off. Must keep that hose busy.  It seems to be a great spring for flowering trees, especially cherry blossom, but apples, pears and plums are also all in full flower.

Berberis darwinii

My new peach tree Avalon Pride which is sold as peach leaf curl resistant has a fair bit of this disease, and with a few very small insignificant flowers opening in late April, I reckon I will be back to the supermarket for my fresh peaches this summer.

Saskatoon bushes suffered from the mild winter, as these plants like a severe winter chill to ripen up the wood and produce a flower crop. They are very late this year and not covered in blossom as in previous years. However my fig tree did enjoy the mild winter and most of last years immature figs have survived and should help to produce an early crop.

Weird weather is playing havoc with my strawberries. They are all beginning to flower but the earliest one out was my perpetual Albion which is usually my autumn strawberry. Last spring I

Apple Red Falstaff flowers

bought in some of the new giant strawberry Colossus, but it never gave me a single berry. This year it is the end of April and still there is no sign of any flowers, but plenty of growth.
Maybe I have to be very patient before I can sample these colossal berries.

On the vegetable plot planting is well ahead with broad beans and onions, and leeks are quite sturdy. Potatoes are now pushing through the ground, but as frost is always a danger the rows need to be well earthed up. Early peas are also growing so they also get earthed up and soon they will need support and protection from pigeons.

Good potential grape crop

I use the pruning’s from my stooled willow shrubs for support and tie in a couple of rows of black thread which seems to keep the pigeons at bay.

Sowing continues with maincrop peas, salads, carrots and turnip. The carrots will have some fleece cover to keep out the carrot fly.

The greenhouse is getting a bit quieter as plants are moved outdoors for hardening off, but I keep some space available in case of an overnight frost, when plants can be returned for protection.

Chrysanthemums are fairly hardy so can remain outdoors but my dahlias are not so hardy, so they remain fairly mobile. Peppers and tomatoes have both been potted up to put on some growth before planting in permanent positions.

Camellia Donation with birch tree

The grape crop is giving signs of great potential as most spurs are laden with up to three bunches of grapes per shoot, so some thinning will be necessary to maintain a good berry size.

Wee jobs to do this week

As weather begins to warm up garden pests become more active. Slugs and snails can devastate young tender seedlings so watch out for them and take action or put down some pellets. Greenfly are active on new shoots of roses and pansies so if they become a problem use an appropriate insecticide. They can also be a problem on the tips of young growth on blackcurrants and gooseberries. Also watch out for sawfly maggots on gooseberries.

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LADY IN RED ART EXHIBITION

ART EXHIBITION LADY IN RED

I would like to invite my readers to pop in to see my LADY IN RED
art exhibition held in my studio at
17a Menzieshill Road in Dundee, DD2 1PS.

Lady in Red in the High Street

As an artist always looking for an interesting project for a series of paintings, I decided to make my home town the topic showing Dundee City Center in summer and winter in daytime as well as evening covering areas including McManus Gallery, High School, Reform Street, through to the Mercat Cross, and showing the
Trades and Bank Bar pubs, then further afield at the bandstand at

Benvie

Magdalen Green and of course our Tay Bridge.

So my Lady in Red has been traveling around the town.

The exhibition also includes some Scottish landscapes, snow scenes, figures, flowers and still life studies.

VISIT THE GARDEN

As my garden in spring is just bursting with flowers, visitors are welcome to walk around the garden to see and enjoy a feast of colour with tulips, rhododendrons and azaleas looking great.

Lady in Red has a Night Out

The exhibition starts on Saturday 29th April and runs till Sunday 7th May open every day from 11am to 5pm.

Summer Seas

Some of the paintings can be seen on my website exhibition page.

Lady Resting

SPRING FLOWERS ARE ARRIVING

SPRING FLOWERS ARE ARRIVING

Plum Victoria

Last year we got blessed with a terrific display of tulips so we thought it would be a good idea to run with this theme by adding another big bulb plant in the autumn. We are now reaping the benefits as these spring flowers are all competing with each other for attention. Many areas have two or more layers of bulbs planted at different depths but as they may have different flowering and growing times this idea is working just fine. The winter border with cornus, willow, kerria and red maple is underplanted with snowdrops and aconites (for late winter display) followed by tulips for a spring display, and then lilies grow up through this to give a summer display.

Another border with mass plantings of aconites has been added to with a drift of cyclamen which will grow once the aconites have died down for the summer. Normally the aconites grow from January/February till mid summer then go dormant allowing the cyclamen to flower in September then grow through till mid winter then go dormant for the spring and summer, but with the recent mild winters none of them want to go dormant. It makes gardening ideas interesting.

Tulip Abba

Another border packed with grape hyacinths has been underplanted with red and yellow tulips which flower just above this carpet of blue. The display will continue into summer as this border has a third bulb layer of oriental lilies planted underneath the tulips. Hopefully they will all live happily together. This drift of grape hyacinth flowers is at its best in mid April, but in mid March I noticed a couple of purple crocus in flower, unaffected by the leaves of the grape hyacinths which were still only a few inches tall. So now I am planning another layer of about 100 crocus bulbs planted amongst all the other bulbs to see if I can get in a third flower display.

Spring flowers

Blue spring flowers of Chionodoxa, Anemone blanda, Scilla and hyacinths are also all adding to displays all over the garden, and my purple tulip Negrita is accompanying the yellow flowers of Doronicum Little Leo.

Chionodoxa

A few years ago I noticed that a very early dwarf tulip, Scarlet Baby flowering in late February coincided with my yellow saxifrage drift, so I purchased more of these tulips to plant alongside the saxifrage to enhance the show. However the very mild winter brought on the saxifrage more than the tulip, so this year they had a fortnights time difference, but still brilliant to see.

Flowering trees are also giving us a great display with plums, cherries, pears and even my peach all

Hand pollinating peach flowers

in full blossom. My new peach Avalon Pride took over from Peregrine which got devastated by peach leaf curl. However peach leaf curl resistant Avalon Pride is flowering very late, so although I see plenty bees around I still need to hand pollinate as the flowers are so small that I doubt if any of  the bees will bother much with them.

Camellia Donation

Spring flowers continue with the white scented shrub Viburnum carlcephalum, and Camellia Donation a star attraction soon to be followed by a large Kerria japonica which has been allowed to grow full size. The garden displays then change as the rhododendrons and azaleas have their moment in the spotlight, and looking forward I can see the first flower buds on my climbing rose Dublin Bay waiting their turn for attention once we get a few warm days.

Potting up tomato seedlings

A garden full of flowers gives so much pleasure that I am happy to share these moments with anyone who wishes to visit the garden, so I will open the garden to visitors from Saturday 29^th April to Sunday 7^th May. Visitors can also view my artwork on display in my studio as I show recent paintings of Dundee town centre in my “Lady in Red” art exhibition.

Wee jobs to do this week

Pot up young tomato plants into their final pots where they can continue to grow before getting planted out in growbags, large pots or a prepared border. Wait until the first flowers open up on the first truss before planting out.

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HEALTHY FRUIT and HEALTHY LIVING

HEALTHY FRUIT and HEALTHY LIVING

Anna picking fresh rhubarb

Hindsight is a brilliant factor. Today I feel I live a healthy lifestyle and because of my interest in gardening it keeps me active and the fresh produce gives me my at least five but most often a lot more different fruit and vegetables daily. Looking back into the teenage years I couldn’t wait to leave school to earn a wage. I needed money not education, and I needed an outdoor life in the sun. Just could not be happy in an office or factory so I chose gardening. It is here I was taught how to grow a wide range of fruit and vegetables and how to use them. However quite soon I realised I did need education if I wanted to climb the horticultural ladder. This resulted in a career that took me all over UK, dabbling in fruit production, forestry, landscaping, education, and plant propagation. In the early years money is tight so you need an allotment to grow food trying to cover the whole twelve months with self sufficiency. A very hard task but is made easier today with the use of fridges and freezers. Gone are the days when I needed to make 110 jars of jam (two jars per week) during the berry season to be stored in a cool shed over the next twelve months. In the younger years life was very active with the normal diet of sausages, beef burgers, mince and chips from the deep fat fryer with everything, but we burnt off any excess by an active life. One day in my early

Saskatoons

thirties after a large helping of sausages full of gristle, I felt ill and vowed, no more crap, so sausages went out and the deep fat fryer got binned. From now on it was to be healthy foods only, though an occasional wee relapse at Christmas, and my two lassies needed help to get through their Easter eggs. Next on the list was sugar, so it was tea and coffee without sugar and nae mare honey in my porridge. Now that was a hardship!!! But we survive and prosper.

I now look into which foods give you the most benefits, and research gives very interesting reading. Green vegetables, roots and salads are now normal daily crops grown on the allotment, but it is the fruits that give you that extra boost. My healthy fruits include chokeberries, blackcurrants, saskatoons, blueberries, brambles, cherries, figs, rhubarb and black grapes.

The dark colour of these berries is caused by the very high levels of anthocyanin, an antioxidant. The fruits are also packed with dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. Antioxidants prevent free radicals from damaging cell components. These plus the other vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre  assist the fight against heart disease, cancer, diabetes, alzheimer’s disease, reduce the absorption of high cholesterol, and can delay macular degeneration.

Pumpkin Hundredweight

Pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers are three fruits we treat as vegetables, but all three score very highly in providing great health benefits, and although seasonal crops, they can be stored for future use. My pumpkins usually store till early April, but then surplus gets frozen.

Chokeberries are not very common at the moment but they produce one of the healthiest fruits on the planet, with very high levels of anthocyanin an antioxidant(1480 mgs per 100gms) high levels of dietary fibre, plus vitamins A, C and E and the minerals potassium, iron and manganese.

However chokeberries are too astringent to eat in any quantity straight off the bush but can be juiced, cooked, added to compote, yoghurts and makes a delicious jam and a healthy wine.

Blackcurrant Ben Findlay

Blackcurrants, red and whitecurrants may only have half the level of anthocyanin, but at over 700 mg per 100gms they are still very high. They are also high in vitamins, dietary fibre and minerals similar to chokeberries plus calcium and zinc.

Saskatoons are also very high in anthocyanin (562mgs per 100gms) plus high levels of dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. The berries can be eaten fresh, and frozen for future use in compote, summer puddings, juices, wines, added to cereals, yoghurts and cooked in cakes, oaties and jams.

John picking kale shoots

Blueberries, Brambles and Black grapes, similar to the above (blueberries have 386mgs per 100gms anthocyanin.) However they will allow you to extend the season of use for fresh healthy fruit from summer till winter. Black outdoor grape Brant has pips in the berries, but now we find that these seeds are packed with goodness. So instead of discarding these pips as a nuisance, give them a wee crunch and swallow them. They are anti allergenic, antihistamine and anti inflammatory. They strengthen blood vessels, aid circulation and improve skin elasticity.

Wee jobs to do this week

If old brassica plants (cabbage, cauliflower and kale) have been harvested but not yet been dug out leave them till young flowering shoots appear, usually with soft fresh leaves, then use these as a spring vegetable just perfect stir fried with a light oil dressing, or they can be steamed for a few minutes adding some ginger, garlic and seasoning.

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A GOOD TIME FOR SEED SOWING

A GOOD TIME FOR SEED SOWING

Spring weather seemed to be running a bit late this year, but then a warm sunny spell towards the end of May warmed up the soil just enough to let us get on with the seed sowing.

Root crops such as carrots, turnips and leeks, and salads such as lettuce, rocket, beetroot and radish all need a firm level surface with a good tilth. So choose a dry day and get that rake moving.

Sowing peas

Once the outdoor seed bed is prepared give a light dressing of fertiliser high in phosphates (potato fertiliser) for root crops but a balanced one such as Growmore for salads, then rake in before taking out seed drills. Most crop rows are spaced a foot apart

Tulips and pansies in a tub

but give turnips and parsnips 18 inch spacings as they need more room. Scottish conditions may be a bit on the cool side for spring onions sown outdoors in spring so I sow mine in cellular trays indoors to get them started, then after a few weeks plant them out. These can go in rows spaced just six inches apart as they are quite narrow and upright. Carrots are another crop that can be sown closer at six inches between the rows with three rows together so you can straddle them for weeding. Carrot fly is a real nuisance so cover the carrot bed over with fleece held up over the foliage with hoops.

Sowing salads

Leeks are sown thinly in a seed row and left to grow to pencil thickness before lifting, topping and tailing and transplanting into permanent rows by dropping them into a deep dibble hole and watering them in.

Early peas such as Kelvedon Wonder are best sown in a six inch wide trench a couple of inches deep and space out the seeds along the bottom of the trench in three rows a few inches apart.

A hardy annual flower border can be sown any time from early April onwards. Again they germinate best if the ground is well prepared with a deep friable tilth, but not manured or composted and adding fertiliser will give them a boost but then excessive growth will result at the expense of flowers. Annuals flower best on well cultivated but poor soils.

Back in the greenhouse seed sowing continues in seed trays and cellular pots. Cabbage, cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts are best sown thinly in shallow seed trays using a well drained seed compost. Once they have germinated they can be

Iceland poppies

pricked out into large cellular trays or pots to grow on for a few weeks before they are big enough to plant out.

Take care to protect young plants from slugs and snails and pigeons which like to feed on all brassicas as well as young pea foliage, and if your land is infected by clubroot grow some of the clubroot resistant varieties of cabbage (Kilaxy), cauliflower (Clapton), sprouts (Crispus) and Swedes (Invitation).

Sweet corn is best to go direct into smaller cellular trays for germination then a few weeks later they can get potted up into bigger pots so that you have a strong plant at least a foot tall for planting out.

Most summer bedding plants such as Impatiens, petunias, salvia, antirrhinum, French and African marigolds can all grow from seed, but in spring the garden centres are just bursting the these plants in cellular trays as plug plants just ready to take home and pot up. Grow them on for another three weeks or so and they will be ready for their summer quarters in tubs, beds and hanging baskets.

Wee jobs to do this week

Planting early potatoes

Recent sunny weather has warmed up the ground so we can now plant our potatoes. Start off with the first earlies such as Casablanca and Foremost, then second earlies such as Charlotte and International Kidney then go onto the maincrops where choice is wide so pick one to suit your own needs. For a good baked potato Amour is a winner, Lady Christl has taste and great flavour and Sarpo Mira has good blight resistance. I like to plant sprouted seed potatoes in a deep drill lined with compost to get them off to a flying start. Add some potato fertiliser to keep them well fed for a heavy crop. Space the sets about a foot apart in rows two feet apart for earlies, but give maincrops a bit wider spacing between the rows.

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A BUSY TIME IN THE GARDEN

A BUSY TIME IN THE GARDEN

The spring rush is just round the corner. Last year it was in full flow at this time, but spring 2017 has been quite cool, so there has been no rush to start outdoor seed sowing and planting.

Anna transplanting tomato seedlings

Last year I planted my first early Casablanca potatoes on the 20^th March, but this year the soil has not yet warmed up so they will have to wait a bit longer. The potatoes are all sprouting in their chitting trays but not putting on any growth to worry about.

Sweet peas are very disappointing this year. I bought three varieties to try but there was only ten seeds in each packet and I only got one of my favourite Air warden to germinate. The seed company from Newmarket will not be getting another order from me next year. Other seed packets were all very sparse. Gone are the days when you sowed half the packet one year and kept the rest for the next year. The sweet peas are very slow to grow so not yet big enough to go outside on a warm day.

Trying out some new chrysanthemums this year, so my delivery of plants from Harold Walker arrived on time with excellent strong well rooted cuttings, which are now potted up. Existing spray type chrysanthemum stools in the greenhouse are all growing well so a batch of cuttings was taken and will root in a small heated propagator.

Dahlias showing new growth

Dahlias boxed up a few weeks ago and kept in a warm place are now beginning to grow so soon another batch of cuttings will follow for the propagator.

Begonia tubers were beginning to sprout so they have

now all been boxed up and put into my cold greenhouse which I give some supplementary heating to on cold days and nights.

Broad beans and established geraniums are all growing well, but with continual gales and cool weather they will need to wait a bit before going outside to harden off.

Sowing continues with cabbage Kilaxy, cauliflower Clapton and Brussels sprouts Crispus (all my clubroot resistant varieties) as well as lettuce All Year Round, spring onions and beetroot Boltardy. These

Young seedlings

will be planted outdoors direct from their cellular trays into a bed warmed up with a low polythene tunnel at the end of April.

Last year’s leek crop of Musselburgh was very disappointing so this year I will try a different variety, Autumn Mammoth and sowing them earlier, but because of the cold weather they have gone into trays and will soon be needing pricked off.

Onions sown earlier are now all growing well and they are now ready for pricking off as soon as we get some warmer days. If you are using sets they can be planted at the first decent dry day onto well prepared and enriched soil.

Rhubarb ready to pick

As cooler weather limits what I can put outdoors for hardening off the greenhouse is getting very cramped, but I am lucky with having a lot of good windowsill space so my tomatoes are still indoors but needing pricked out into cellular trays. Later they will go into pots and get transferred to the greenhouse as the cooler atmosphere and better light will keep them sturdy.

The cool moist weather is just perfect for lifting and transplanting snowdrops and aconites in the green as they will get less disturbance, and continue to grow for a few more weeks, before dormancy begins and they die down for the summer.

Transplanting aconites in the green

Rhubarb crowns have had an early start so pull a few fresh shoots as soon as they are a decent size, and at this time of year they will try and run to seed so remove these as soon as possible. Rhubarb is a thirsty plant with its huge leaves and a gross feeder so give a fertiliser dressing then a mulch of well rotted compost to retain moisture throughout the growing season.

Wee jobs to do this week

Keep checking for slugs and snails and put down some pellets where ever you are planting young vulnerable plants such as salads, beans, sweet peas, as the mild winter has not helped to reduce the numbers overwintering, and they will be feeling hungry. Greenhouses with young seedlings and soft cuttings are a magnet as there are so many places to hide underneath pots and boxes.

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GROW SOMETHING DIFFERENT

GROW SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Grape Brant

Gardening just like technology is moving onwards at a fast pace. The days when we get an allotment to grow healthy food from a cheap packet of seeds are a distant memory. We still do that, but new plants are appearing at a fast pace, either an improvement on standard varieties so they are less prone to pests and diseases, (clubroot resistant cabbage Kilaton) or just a bigger version of normal plants like strawberry (Sweet Colossus), blackcurrant (Big Ben) or potato (Amour.) Every year we plan the garden with normal plants plus something

Aronia Viking

different to create a challenge to our gardening skills and give us an interesting topic of conversation to visitors to our gardens and allotments. Often new ventures one year soon become common place through success. I first tried sweet corn many years ago and was amazed how easy it was to grow this rare crop up north, but now they are almost a normal part of many allotment rotations. Mangetout peas were once a curiosity, but as a tasty and healthy crop to consume they have become quite popular.

Although I continue to try out new plants, so do many other plot holders on the allotment site.

Saskatoon berries

Last year the new crop was sweet potatoes, but it was not very happy with our climate.

Cape Gooseberry can be successful in greenhouses, but can be quite vigorous taking up a lot of space, so try them out on a south facing fence or wall in a sheltered spot. In a good summer they can be brilliant.

Scorzonera and Salsify were two root crops I just had to try out as I was intrigued by their names. They were easy to grow, and tasty on the plate, but a lot of work in preparation for cooking for such a small return. The same applied to kohlrabi as it does not have size on its side.

Our site will now have a Kiwi on trial, so I hope it has better success than my Goji which was very rampant for about four years then got wiped out as phytophthora fungus spread through my soil before I could see my first berry.

Fig Brown Turkey

Grapes growing outdoors are my latest venture into the exotics with some success but need a decent summer and autumn to ripen up the fruit and increase the sugar content. Both Rondo and Phoenix show a lot of promise, and Regent is also good but with smaller grapes. I want to try Siegerrebe outdoors, though it can be troubled by wasps as they know the grapes are very sweet.

Figs are another success, and I am very surprised they are not widely grown as they have been very successful year after year growing against a south facing wall on my allotment site. However I started them off by the book which indicated you plant them in a deep slab lined pit with a lot of drainage and only just enough good top soil to get them started. The roots will soon escape into the soil, but the initial restriction curtails excessive vigour and encourages fruiting.

Peach Peregrine

Cherries on the new dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5 is suitable for garden culture and saskatoons and chokeberries are some of the newer kids on the block for those into healthy black berries. If you can spare the space in the greenhouse, or have a very warm windowsill try the pepper variety the Carolina Reaper. The challenge is in the growing as it really needs a hot climate, but once you get the fruit what do you do with the hottest pepper on the planet where it has to be handled with protective gloves. This is not one to add to a summer salad dish, but there is plenty information around to keep you safe and enjoy its merits, and scientists are finding beneficial effects to sufferers of osteoarthritis. It will certainly be a great topic for conversation.

Wee jobs to do this week

Planting broad beans

This could be a long week as there are a hundred wee jobs all needing attention. Broad beans and sweet peas sown last month are now needing hardened off so they can be planted on the next warm day. Onions and leeks from seed as well as tomatoes are all needing pricked out, and it is time to sow cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, kale and any amount of salads. Then in spare moments take cuttings of early chrysanthemums and dahlias if they are big enough. Geraniums grown from cuttings last autumn have now been potted into their final pots.

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GRAFTING APPLE AND PEAR TREES

GRAFTING APPLE AND PEAR TREES

As the world moves on into an age of high technology, change and progress are happening at all levels. There is no excuse now not to buy an apple tree as I don’t have a big garden. Breeders and scientists have produced trees to suit both commercial orchards as well as the enthusiastic gardener with small gardens. The step over apple tree grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock grows only a few feet tall but is kept small with summer pruning. Another dwarf tree is the single stemmed Starline apple (Firedance is a great variety) kept narrow and columnar also by summer pruning all side shoots to a couple of buds. Other apples for small gardens come as cordons, espaliers, fans or dwarf bushes all grown on dwarfing rootstocks.

John picks Red Devil apples

However you still have to sort out a good variety that is disease resistant, easy to grow and has good flavour, but to complicate matters you want an early variety to start picking ripe fruit at the end of August, continue for a few more months on the tree then in store for a few more months.

Cutting a scion for grafting

Over the years I have grown many varieties so now I can pick from end of August with those in storage taking me through winter. My first apple of the season started with the heritage variety the Oslin also known as the Arbroath Pippin, then my early Discovery takes over for a few more weeks. Maincrop Red Devil, and Red Falstaff keep me in apples into winter then finally it was the end of February before my last Fiesta reached the plate though the cooker Bramley lasted till March.

My garden my be bigger than your average, and I have four trees, but to get my wide range of varieties one large tree is a family

Scion inserted into prepared branch

tree with at least six different varieties grown on it, and every time some-one shows me a must have variety, I get some young shoots and graft it onto my tree.

My pear tree has undergone the same treatment and now has Comice, Conference, The Christie, Beurre Hardy and soon Concorde will be added to it.

In my early youth I was shown how to graft while working at the Scottish Crop Research Institute which had a museum collection of apples from all over the world to try and find varieties suited to Scottish conditions so grafting was a common practise. It sounded very technical and difficult, but is surprisingly easy and it is a wonderful feeling when you check up in early summer and find all the grafts

Grafted shoot tied and sealed with grafting wax

have taken and are pushing up strong growth.

Today the technique is shown on many Youtube videos, and you do not need many tools other than a very sharp knife, a pair of loppers or a saw and a wee tub of wound sealer or grafting wax which can be applied cold.
In winter I collect strong one year old shoots of a good variety which I want to add onto my tree and heel them into a shaded cool spot in the garden. In spring once trees begin to grow the sap starts rising and acts like a lubricant helping the bark to separate from the stem to allow our graft to be easily inserted and the sap will bring the two together. The tree is prepared by selecting a branch to be grafted and cutting it down to allow space for a new shoot to grow. If this branch cut is about one inch across it will take one graft, but if you are doing a larger branch say four inches across it will take three grafts. Take the graftwood (also known as scions) and clean any soil from it. Now make a two inch long cut going right through the stem near the bottom of the shoot

Grafts begin to grow

between two dormant buds with one bud opposite the sloping cut. Trim this scion to about three or four buds. It is now ready. Make a downward cut about two inches long at the top of the prepared branch and gently flick open the bark slightly. This will allow the short scion to be inserted with the flat cut against the inside. Commercially this is now tied tight with grafting tape, but I don’t have any so I cut up strips from some polythene bags and they do the same job just fine. Now seal up any exposed cut surfaces with some wound sealant or grafting wax. If you are doing a few varieties tie a label on them so you know what they are, then await warmer weather for the new shoots to grow.

Paul Barnett from Sussex has grafted over 250 varieties on one tree over the last 24 years.

Wee jobs to do this week

Mixed pansies

Check over pots, tubs and hanging baskets planted last autumn with spring flowering pansies and primroses and replace any that have died in winter. There are now plenty in flower available now in most garden centres.

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TIME FOR TOMATOES

TIME FOR TOMATOES

Tomato growing has always been one of the gardening challenges with great rewards when you pick that first fruit fully ripened on the bush, and then followed by loads more as the season progresses. Summer salads would never be complete without some home grown tomatoes.

Beefsteak tomato

At this time of year they are available in the supermarkets, but you struggle very hard to find a ripe one with some flavour, though we did find a small red cherry one on the vine, to go with our salads with lettuce leaves and spring onions fresh from the greenhouse. They had been sown last autumn to utilise the greenhouse borders over the winter months.

Early March is soon enough to sow the seed as I germinate mine at home on a warm windowsill growing them on a few weeks before they go into my cold greenhouse. If any frost or cold nights threaten them I have an electric heater to keep them protected over night.

Alicante tomato

Sow them thinly in shallow trays in seed compost and keep them warm for germination. They are generally very easy to grow so germination is usually good. Prick them out into individual small pots once they have made strong seed leaves and only handle them by the leaves, (not the stem)

As my windowsill space is limited I keep them as long as possible in small pots, but soon they will need a bigger pot and transferred to the greenhouse. Keep them growing in the pots until the first trusses show, then they are ready for their permanent position.

Tomato Ilde

There are several options to consider. Do you use large pots, ring culture, grow bags, straw bales (very popular fifty years ago) or border soil. I have tried all methods and while grow bags make life simple, it is growing in fertile border soil that has given my tomatoes the greatest flavour. This used to be the traditional method (many years ago) but commercially the soil was sterilised every winter with steam injection or chemically with chloropicrin. My fertile border soil has been composted and dug every year and I got three years of great crops, but as I have no means of sterilising the soil, last year my crop  Anyway I will try the border again this year, but then go back to growbags in 2018. The border will have some fertiliser added then the tomatoes planted about 18 inches apart. Once they get established and the first trusses start to flower begin to feed the plants with a tomato feed every week.

Ring culture tomatoes

suffered from verticillium wilt. So this year I take no risk, so the whole border got dug out a foot deep and replaced with healthy fertile garden soil with added compost. Who needs to go to the gym for exercise when you can grow a tomato crop.

Tomatoes grow on a single stemmed cordon that needs a strong support especially when full of ripening fruit. I use six foot lengths of polypropylene binder twine hung from roof wire supports and tied to the bottom of the tomato plants which are then twisted around the twine as they grow.

Remove all sideshoots so the plant can use its energy for fruiting. Remove the growing point after six to eight trusses or more if you get a glorious summer as tomatoes love the heat.

There are plenty of varieties and different types to try out from normal fruits such as Shirley or Alicante, cherry types such as Sweet Million and Sungold, beef stake types, plum types and a good one for hanging baskets or tubs is Tumbler.

Let the fruit fully ripen before picking and if you get more tomatoes than you can handle they will make an excellent soup, or they can be frozen for future use.

Wee jobs to do this week

Sampling first strawberry in May

There is nothing to beat picking that first strawberry in early summer. Our target date was first week in June in my youth when Red Gauntlet was favourite down in Sussex. Today we have so many new varieties to choose from that you can try a few and see which ones suit your location and conditions best. However, to bring on them on a fortnight earlier cover a row with a low polythene tunnel held up with metal hoops. Last year I picked my first berries on 22 May, but with the mild winter we are running ahead so could be even earlier this year. Fingers crossed!!!

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