PERFECT GARDENING WEATHER

PERFECT GARDENING WEATHER

This unusually brilliant summer reflects my first summer as an apprentice gardener in Dundee Parks Department in 1959. We had three months of very hot weather from June till early September with no rainfall, but then the heavens opened up and Dundee got a wee bit of flooding. I never forgot that summer heatwave as I was more used to Scotland’s normal three day summer record.

The new Courier magazine is a new beginning, so although many of the Courier readers will be familiar with my column, my garden and allotment I thought it might be of use to give a wee bit of background to John Stoa, the “Courier Gardener” to understand where all the gardening came from.

My father always encouraged me to do a wee bit of gardening as a young kid. I got the digging and weeding, he did the sowing and planting. I got the gardening bug, so when I left school in 1959 I went for a gardening apprenticeship which lasted six years with Dundee Parks dept. I was very lucky as the Parks were full of very experienced gardeners who had been trained in private service but after the war there was no work left for them so they came to work in Dundee parks, nurseries and greenhouses. We got training in every aspect of gardening from growing fruit and vegetables, glasshouse crops, trees, shrubs, roses, flowers, lawns, propagation, sports and hard landscaping. At fifteen I got my first allotment on the Law Hill and really enjoyed allotment life, though I was very much the learner. I then had a spell at the Scottish Crops Research Institute in Invergowrie studying weed control on fruit and vegetables. After getting married in 1968 I travelled south to Sussex to work on a fruit farm before going to college in Essex to study for my National Diploma in Horticulture. A year later I was manager on a fruit farm near

Worcester, but later went back to Parks work in Dudley. It was here that I took the role of allotments officer for the area. I moved on to Darlington in the late seventies and managed to get a massive allotment about 500 square metres. It took a lot of looking after, but I was younger then. After about ten years I moved back to Scotland to Livingston, and then returned to my home town of Dundee.

You have to leave Dundee and experience other parts of UK before you realise what a great place it is. We are close to fantastic Scottish scenery, clean beaches, vibrant towns, friendly residents, great pubs, good social life and even the weather is no bad in most years.

If this year’s weather was to become normal as we embrace global warming who needs to go abroad for their holidays, and in the garden I could successfully be growing figs, cherries, peaches and outdoor grapes.

Flowers put on a better show in a good year, and this year roses, begonias, geraniums, sweet peas and lilies have just about flowered themselves to death. Dead heading has been a big job to help plants to keep flowering.

Fruit crops have never been more prolific and apples and plums have both got drooping branches weighed down with developing fruits. Black currants and gooseberries gave me huge crops, now either in the freezer or brewing away quite happily in a demijohn.

Figs are plentiful, but need a dry warm spell in late summer to ripen up the fruits.

Vegetables are also having a great year with brilliant cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, salads, broad and dwarf French beans and any amount of large beetroot. Only failure this year is my onions which are all suffering from white rot. I put this down to continual watering during the dry spell as they would have been ok as they are quite drought tolerant. My good deed turned out to be a bad idea.

Greenhouse tomatoes, peppers, cape gooseberries and grapes are all happily growing together with vents fully open as well as the door most days; otherwise it would get too hot for healthy crops.

My best tomatoes have been Alicante and Gardeners Delight, both which are very heavy with huge trusses of ripening tomatoes and grape Black Hamburg has numerous bunches ready to ripen in early September. Red seedless Flame grapes are beginning to ripen now.

Jalapeno peppers have a great crop, but although they can be used green I am waiting till they turn red but as yet there is no sign of that.

Plant of the week

Cosmos is a very useful half hardy annual which can be sown direct outdoors or sown in a glasshouse in late March then pricked out into cellular trays. Harden them off for planting out at the end of May or early June. They can grow quite tall so give them plenty of space. They do not need soil that is too fertile and do not give them fertiliser or they will grow huge at the expense of flowering.

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PLAN A HEALTHY GARDEN

PLAN A HEALTHY GARDEN

Television, newspapers and other forms of media bombard us with the need to look after our health.

In our youth we never gave a thought about health as we just assumed we were healthy. We had youth on our side, were always very active as few people had cars or televisions and computers had not been invented. We walked to the hills for recreation, climbed trees, (and often fell out of the trees, but we just bounced back on our feet) cycled everywhere, went swimming, skating, running, played football and enjoyed the less active sports of snooker and pool. Then as we matured we went dancing, smoked and started drinking and enjoyed our staple diet of fish suppers, sausages, pies and mince which we considered very tasty as long as no-one ruined it by adding a few green vegetables. Nothing seemed to affect us, though there was always a strain on the wallet.

Moving on to today and being able to look back in hindsight, the long term effects are there to be seen. So many friends from the past paid the price of too much smoking, drinking and a very poor diet.  The youth of today have an even bigger problem, as no-one walks any more as cars take us everywhere, television is on all the time and is very entertaining and kids spend a lot of time in a chair in front of a computer or other forms of social media. Instant meals and takeaways are very popular and cooking skills are being lost, apart from those who enjoy it as a hobby. I am amazed at so many newcomers to allotment life who grow their vegetables, harvest them but have not a clue on how to cook them. They also do not appreciate how cheap it is to live a healthy life with fresh fruit and vegetables, though preparing and cooking food can be quite time consuming and hard work.

However the media is now educating us on the evils of our way of life, warnings of obesity, lack of exercise, heart problems and diabetes. Then when you factor in the age effect for us beyond retirement it compounds the problem. Recently when standing on a chair to reach some ripe brambles high up on my bush, the chair collapsed and I crashed down onto a nearby Ben Conan blackcurrant bush, which did it no favours whatsoever. This time I never bounced back on my feet, so maybe I am losing my youth. No great damage was done as Ben Conan is very hardy.

Having a garden and allotment provides a perfect solution to most of today’s problems. Exercise is required in varying amounts all year round to cultivate, weed, plant and harvest the produce.

One small plot can provide a massive range of fresh produce for year round use.

Summer is the berry and salad season and combined with perfect growing weather crops have been prolific. Cabbage and cauliflowers, courgettes, peas, French beans, beetroot, turnip and early potatoes are all available at the same time. Strawberries started very early, then rasps, black currants, gooseberries, cherries and saskatoons were coming in one after another.

If anyone is worried about reaching their minimum of five fresh fruit and vegetables a day they should get a garden or allotment. I reach my five a day with my breakfast mixing in fruit, bananas and grapes into my muesli, then lunch will add another five, then by supper time a few more.

However summer is the season of plenty, and as we go into autumn there is almost just as much other crops available to give us more variety. Onions, leeks, kale, autumn maturing cabbage and cauliflower, Swiss chard, Swedes will all have there day and autumn fruit trees will start to mature.

Autumn crops are sown in summer on land vacated as early crops are harvested. There is still plenty time to sow more lettuce, radish, spring onions, rocket and late peas. Autumn is also the time to harvest the apples, plums, pears if you have any, grapes, figs, brambles and autumn raspberries. I am also hoping my Flamenco perpetual strawberry will give me a crop of autumn fruit, though this is its first year and growth has not been great.

However towards mid autumn it is too late to catch another quick maturing crop, but soil can suffer from leaching if it is left unplanted till next spring so now is the time to sow a green manure crop of clover, vetches, ryegrass or mustard if you do not have a clubroot problem. Some green manures can be left to overwinter but others will need to be trampled down and dug in if they start to flower. These crops wont give you anything healthy to eat, but the exercise of all that digging in is very good for your heart.

 

Plant of the week

Rudbeckia is an herbaceous perennial native to North America though some forms are biennial and annuals. They flower in September to November and vary in height from one to six feet. Colours are mainly yellow and orange with a darker centre hence the common name, Black Eyed Susan.

They like heavy, moist but well drained soil and planted in full sun or partial shade. Only the very tallest will need support.

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MID SUMMER MADNESS

MID SUMMER MADNESS

There is usually a short spell in July when the busy gardener can relax as the bedding plants are all planted and growing and the allotment is also fully planted up and seed is sown. The dry sunny weather was perfect for killing weeds, so just when I thought a few days on the sun lounger would fit in nicely, the garden and weather had other ideas. With almost a month without rain the hose was kept busy on both garden and allotment, though I still managed to lose a few mature heathers which dried out. However although I was up to date with tasks it was just too hot to relax in the sun, so it was back to the studio with the paint brushes and all the doors and windows wide open.

The mini heat wave gave all my plants a huge boost so before long a backlog of jobs built up.

It started with the strawberries needing picked every four days, then my spring cauliflower Aalsmeer grew faster than planned and needed planting out. However I had to harvest two rows of broad beans which ripened up quickly to make room for them. The broad beans gave us a very heavy crop which had to be shelled then the beans were skinned before freezing.

At the same time my first row of peas matured, so they had to be picked and podded.

This year I have had almost no bother with clubroot on my brassicas which I put down to using resistant varieties, using Perlka fertiliser and maintaining a good rotation. Nets over the crop kept the pigeons off but they did not stop the caterpillars arriving in droves. Slug pellets kept down slug attacks but I lost a few plants to rootfly where ever I didn’t put on protective collars.

Once the last strawberries were picked one row was dug out and the other cut back to encourage fresh growth and a few runners as I will now plant up a new bed in the autumn.

The old strawberry patch is getting dug over so I can plant up my spring cabbage, which are now ready.

Black and red currants, gooseberries and saskatoons have all ripened together so picking is constant, then topping and tailing the berries, and then cleaning them up before weighing and bagging them for the freezer.

As the freezer could not take everything at the same time I have started big batches of blackcurrant wine, Saskatoon wine as well as gooseberry wine.

Raspberry picking continued on my Glen Fyne and Glen Rosa, but the latter is a very big disappointment. The fruit is small and flavour not great, so after cropping I will dig them out.

Bramble Helen has ripened up so picking has started.

New Plant Discovery at City Road

I have always had excellent results with my mammoth pumpkins, so when the last one, a huge bright orange cracker, was ready for cooking at the end of March I decided to save the seed. I soon got a large batch of strong healthy plants. I kept about six for my own use and offered about twenty young plants to my fellow allotment plot holders.

It is a normal regular practise to pass on your spare plants.

However, unknown to me some bumble bee had pollinated my pumpkins after visiting my nearby courgettes. I never thought for a minute that they would cross pollinate, so now City Road plot holders have a range of strange looking pumpkins disguised as courgettes, but which may turn orange in the autumn or they may not. Will we get orange courgettes, striped marrows or green pumpkins? Only time will tell. Sometimes the experts can get it very wrong.

Plant of the week

Lavander is a very attractive garden herb, excellent for ground cover or a small boundary hedge covered in purple flowers in mid summer. The flowers are rich in nectar so bees just love it. It grows best on poor dry stony or sandy soil in full sun and needs good drainage. It is very easy to propagate from cuttings in autumn. It is grown commercially for its essential oils, used as an herb in the kitchen and for aromatherapy, used to add scent to potpourris and the essential oils aid relaxation and help with sleep disorders. It is added to sachets to keep linen smelling fresh.

Painting of the Month

Tullybaccart Walk. There are two excellent short walks at the top of Tullybaccart. One goes east past Tullybaccart Farm and the other west from the car park. They are both very pleasant with long panoramic views. It was a cold winter’s day with a good snow covering when I took the route west and fortunately had my camera with me to capture several views. I must have painted this area over a dozen times and this latest one was completed recently during the hot spell as it was too hot to go outdoors. So I kept cool by painting my snow scenes.

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ALLOTMENT LIFE

ALLOTMENT LIFE

The brilliant summer has allowed a lot of crops to almost catch up on the late season with quality at its maximum. This will be seen with the fresh garden produce on display for sale at our City Road Gardens Open Day tomorrow 4^th August from 11am to 3pm.

Our Cafe on site will offering plenty fresh home baking and there will be plenty of plants and garden produce for sale.

Another benefit from the long summer has been an upsurge in interest in people wanting to get an outdoor gardening activity and putting their name down on our allotment waiting list. The Open Day allows new gardening enthusiasts to wander around our site and see what allotment life is like.

People will see a very wide range of plants grown from fruit and vegetables to flowers, grapes apples, figs, sweet corn, courgettes, peppers, saskatoons and many other unusual plants.

There is always a fair bit of turnover of tenants on plots. Many people love the idea of working outdoors with nature, growing a few healthy plants to eat, and then relaxing on the patio enjoying the sunshine. However weeds will not stop growing in between rows of plants and along the paths. Fences rot and fall over, sheds start to leak or get vandalised, and when crops are successful, they have to be harvested, cleaned, and cooked or stored. Few people realise just how much hard graft is required to keep the plot clean and productive, so the moments of pure bliss in the sunshine are often short lived.

An allotment is hard to maintain, but very rewarding when the crops come in.

It is always best to go for a smaller plot at the beginning to see how it can be managed, then for the young family with volunteer helpers needing more land to cultivate they can always request the next available larger plot.

The average plot will need attention of someone for a few hours at least three times every week. Anything less than that will mean the weeds will take over or the dedicated gardener is really brilliant at his job.

Modern allotments

We are well past the times when allotments were necessary to feed the population, and people were quite poor so growing your own vegetables and fruit was very economic.

There are a lot of families living in flats with no garden, so it is quite normal for allotments to be used as a recreational garden. It can be a place to relax in the sun, once you are up to date with cultivations, or sit out on your own wee bit of lawn, or patio next to your shed. A shared barbeque with your fellow plot holders can be very sociable, and leaning over the fence to chat with your neighbour is very popular as there are plenty of neighbours. They all want to know what you are growing, and how you manage to grow great crops with the “No Digging” technique. This idea could prove to be a winner as it cuts down on a lot of hard graft.

Visitors to the Open Day should ask about this method and check out the results.

Allotments are also a great place to bring the kids to teach them about nature. Give them their own wee patch and start them off with some sunflowers, a pumpkin, a wee row of peas or a strawberry plant. They love watering and eating the berries, but most are not really big into weeding or digging, and it will take time for them to develop a taste for healthy vegetables but persevere as they are the future gardeners.

Allotments also play a part in local community life. Several of our plots left to go wild when it got too much for the plot holders, were brought back into shape with the help of Community Pay Back Scheme using young male offenders doing work for the community.

They really did a great job for us.

Another scheme run by Dr. Bernardo’s uses one plot to assist young kids from 18 to 25 with learning needs to educate them in horticulture.

Gardeners often suffer from back problems as they get older so our committee is trying to address this problem by providing a plot designed with raised beds so access is easy without the need for continual back bending. However we are hoping that some charitable person or company can help with the supply of suitable timber for the construction.

This plot will then always be retained for a keen gardener with a bad back.

Plant of the week

French marigolds are an annual half hardy summer flowering bedding plant with lemon, yellow and orange flowers. Seed is sown in March, pricked out into cellular trays then planted out into beds, troughs, hanging baskets and tubs. They are often part of a mixed display with geraniums, petunias and lobelia. Although they only last for one year they are very bright and colourful.

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