Thursday June 15, 2006

Basket cases

Hanging baskets at the front of a house can really provide an attractive addition to stark red brickwork. But in my humble opinion nothing can beat the riot of colour you can see on houses in countries like Switzerland, Austria at this time of the year. I Had mixed feelings about publishing this idea as showing a crime prevention idea also gives it away to the criminals of course. The picture shows ( blurry - sorry ) how a simple cable tie wrap can be used to put off the casual thief. Don't forget to water your baskets twice a day.

Thursday June 01, 2006

Time to put the Polyanthus to bed for the summer This years Polyanthus were even better than last year . To save buying new plants every year I take them out of the ground and put them somewhere shady out of the direct summer sun.

I use plastic troughs and put the plants in them and make sure they are kept fairly moist during the summer. This is better than throwing them away or trying to keep them alive in the heat of summer in their regular spot in the garden. Late autumn I then return them to the main bedding area and very often they can be split into two or more plants.

Wednesday May 31, 2006

Coriander tip

Growing herbs like Basil and Coriander are a borderline positive experience from an economic standpoint. There is however the fun of growing your own instead of buying from a supermarket. I have always found Coriander to be a difficult to germinate and now I know why. I saw an edition of Gardeners world where they visited a site in Birmingham and had many different cultures all growing crops they used for their home dishes. One chap was growing Coriander and he showed us a tip. Each seed is actually a seed pod contains many seeds inside it each capable of germinating. His tip was to gently grind the pod between two bricks ( this releases the seeds) and sow the grinds. I did this expecting that I had destroyed the seed but they came up like cress.

Wednesday May 24, 2006

Wysteria wandering...

I wanted to extend the Wysteria's coverage on the back of the house. It covers our pergola and I decided last year to get it to go over the flat roof and scramble up the top story of our house and then hang from the fascia board at the bottom of our roof. So last year I picked two branches and started them scrambling across the roof. The purple one has got further and is flowering nicely:

With it getting to the wall of the house it was time for the next support. I put in a second screw in the wall and secured a length of vertical wire for the Wysteria to climb on. The next stage was a horizontal support and I had one of those Eureka moments and worked out how to fit the wire to the guttering bracks and not having to fix a load of eyelets to the fascia board. You can just about see the wire:

Eventually as the branch becomes heavier I will have to support it with something stronger but I am hopefull the wire will do for this and next season. As long as the Wysteria keeps to its normal growth rate the two colours should meet in the middle of the guttering by the end of the year and flower on those branches in 2007.

Monday May 01, 2006

Frozen Banana

I took the straw blanket off our banana a few days ago. I was hoping to find the stems intact and possibly even a bit of new leaf growth. But after everything was removed this was all that was left.

I am surprised that the stems have rotted given the protection they had from the cold and rain (thick layer of straw). So the plan is to see if any green shoots appears from this and if not it will be time to buy some new seed and leave it in the airing cupboard for up to three months to germinate. It might be time to try a different variety possibly one that is hardier than this one was.

Thursday April 27, 2006

Chilli tips

My chilli seeds have now germinnated and the second pair of leaves have appeared. It is now time to pot them onto a larger pot. I found a couple of tips regarding chilli seedlings.

Never water them after 4pm, the water will stay in the pot and they might get chilli [sic] roots from the Standing water.

Pot them on into a light soil which is well drained and incorporate perlite/vermiculite into it.

When you move them to the new pot don't compress the soil around them - just fill the pot to the top.

When they are bigger and flowering etc feed them on a regular tomato fertiliser

Tuesday April 25, 2006

Fabulous Forsythia and Marvelous Magnolia

Two early flowering shrubs that are doing a great job of brightening gardens up around here are these two. The only problem with both is once the flowers go then thats it until next year, although Forsythia makes a good green hedge and Magnolia makes a good shaped tree - even if it is known as a shrub. Forsythia has small spiky flowers on it and while these start to fade the leaves appear. The shrub can get woody so it is best to cut it back quite hard. Magnolia can suffer from frosts so if you are unlucky then you may loose the flowers. The leaves again appearing after the flowers fade. There are many types of Magnolia I like the cream coloured ones but the dark pinks are also nice. There are also many different flower shapes. Here is a nice example of Magnolia:

And finally Forsythia:

( Apr 25 2006, 12:00:01 AM PDT ) Permalink

Thursday March 30, 2006

Bracknell in bloom

The town of Bracknell is not generally known for its attractive appearance. It has lots of industrial units and mass housing. But the local council are really doing their bit to make it look nicer. In the spring many of the roadside banks have masses of crocus flowers that when planted in the number that they have doen look verry impressive. In the summer near the railway station they have large tubs of bizzie lizzie flowers that are equally good to look at.

Wednesday March 22, 2006

Seedlings...

So I have just set this years new seeds. You must always use new soil or compost. If you use soil from the garden or second hand compost you will get weeds which will confuse things and also expose the seedlings to bugs that might finish them off. I am using trays with up to eight bays in each of them. I put one seed in each bay. This saves a lot of potting on later on. I use a permanent marker pen to write the name of the seeds sown on the tray. I also put each tray in a food bag to keep the moisture in and keep a stable temperature. You must not overwater. The bags will steam up so you need to make sure on a regular basis if the seeds have germinated and then put them in a full light site to stop them becoming leggy.

I am growing:

Tomato; Sub artic plenty which is a cherry type and Gardeners delight both which will be set outside once the frosts have gone away.

Agastache; Purple pygmy these plants have a very strong pungent smell.

Geum; Blazing sunset a double scarlet flower 50% larger than regular Geums.

Perenial Poppy with silky booms a punchy red and a mixture of pinks and oranges

Aquilegia Chrysantha yellow star , Roman bronze and Caerulea; the state flower of Colorado; light blue to deep blue flowers 2-3 inch across, which are large for a Aquilegia.

Foxglove; Pam's choice creamy white flowers the throats with an attractive burgundy markings.

Finally Chilli pepper a bush type which should produce loads of chillis that start green then turn to orange.

Thursday February 16, 2006

One day son you will be as big as me....

So the gardening season has started. The shallots and garlic are in the ground ( the garlic went in, in November and are sprouting leaves nicely) and I have just bought the onion sets and seed potatoes. For the onions I am trying Sturon and Centurion. These will go in the ground in late March, early April depending on the weather conditions. Last years onions are doing well we have at least five strings of them left. The major problem with keeping them now is the heat than can make them sprout. I am trying to let the car cool down before putting it in the garage as the bonnet is right under the onions ! But the picture shows how much bigger the sets become in a season. The sets or no bigger than a small marble when you buy them.

Thursday February 09, 2006

The Blackberry in winter

Well due to the fact our neighbour kindly replaced the fence between us this year the blackberry has had to be retied to its supporting wires this year. It has also allowed me to rethink my strategy for this vine which is very big. The vine produces berries on last years stock so in the spring these vines will be covered in lovely pink flowers, then fruit from late August onwards. At the same time the vines that will produce fruit in 2007 will appear and these will be tied to the left of this picture out of the way of this years producing vines. The pattern then repeats itself.

Tuesday January 10, 2006

The Pergola - pruned

Well it is winter and time to prune the unruly mess of branches that both the grape and wysteria vines have become over the previous year. You are meant to prune wysteria twice a year and the grape at the end of January. However when I did the pruning last year at this time it was a mild winter and the pruning knocked off lots of the flower buds of the wysteria which were in an advanced state of development. So I did it earlier this year. If you look at the wysteria you can see where the flower buds will form. These can be seen as clusters of buds on short twigs. So you leave them alone - if you can. Any long vines I cut back to the main stem - but I keep some to climb over parts of the pergola where there is a gap to be filled or a vine that is weak or damaged. The grape is similar but I do replace the old branches when they get very old and cut them right back to the main stem. If you look carefully you will see that the vines are tied to wire and hooks by means of raffia which needs replacing every year. The trimmings of both vines go to the local refuse site to be ground up and composted. The whole job takes at least an afternoon and I find it very satisfying to do this job - it looks tidy until both vines start growing again.

Thursday December 15, 2005

Raspberries in December

So half of the second plot I took over a few months ago is dug over and the first section of it is already used. I wanted to grow raspberries but the season can be short. New varieties have been developed to extend the season in particular having plants that fruit on this years canes. Usually they fruit on last years canes. So I ordered three varieties carefully chosen to give me a long season.

The canes need securing too wires to protect them from the wind. Six feet is about as high as they get but my posts are a bit higher than that as I hope to use them to support netting to keep the birds away from my precious fruit. There is about five feet between each row and the plants about eighteen inches away from their neighbour. The plants as delivered were bare rooted and I wanted to get them in the ground as soon as possible. The top most part of the root does not want to be any deeper than two inches - these plants are not deep rooting. This causes another problem. As you weed with a hoe or similar tool you stand a good chance of snagging a part of the root system and damaging it. So my cunning plan is to use a lining material to keep the weeds at bay. The problem with doing this is it needs to be secured properly and also as raspberries like a good amount of manure every year I will have to lift this lining before spreading the manure. A trick with posts and wire. A top 'beam' of wood holds the posts apart so you can tighten the wire properly. If you do not use my beam idea all that happens when you tighten the wire is the posts are dragged closer together... The lining is held in place with old bricks I ha d ying around and the edges are buried into the ground. I won't be able to allow the canes to produce fruit next year - so my first crop will be in the summer of 2007.

Thursday December 01, 2005

Urban gardening

This months RHS Garden magazine concentrates on the various aspects of urban gardening.

The first article coveres the myths of gardening in urban areas, that it is a hostile environment to growing things successfully. These myths were dispelled by various unexpected facts. Urban areas can get up to 30% more rain than rural areas and are not dry arid places that people assume they are. Urban areas can also be warmer due to the heat dome that sits over towns and cities ( drive into a town and see your cars outside temperature reading climb). Buildings and tarmac can act as storage heaters soaking up the heat in the day and releasing it at night. This can result in 2-3 degress centigrade higher temperatures and extend the growing season by two-three weeks. Frost risks are also reduced. Buildings and trees can also reduce the effect of wind damage to small plants but as a negative can also tunnel winds into violent gusts between buildings. Pollution is a perceived problem but trees can reduce this by three quarters, even climbers on buildings reduce atmospheric pollution.

The next article discuss green roofs that is roofs on houses that have grass and other plants growing in a specially created living environment. These are popular on the continent where subsidies are offered to encourage their use. Such green roofs can be very useful in the avoidance of flash flooding as they soak up a lot of the rain that falls instead of it going straight into drainage systems. Also heating and air condtioning costs can be reduced as the layer acts lie an insulator.

Another artical discusses the benefits of planting unusual trees in urban areas. Selected varieties can often survive and flourish where native trees do not. This website tells us more.

One of the final main articles was on the conversion of front gardens in cities to parking places for cars. The knock on effect of this being done means the risk of flooding increasing during heavy rainfall as the water has to run off into drains. In extreme heavy rain the sewerage systems have no choice to to pass on this rainwater ( and the pollutants it now has picked up off roads etc) into rivers. This can cause immediate damage to marine life. The alternative to hard paved/tarmaced areas often look more attractive and can increase the resale price of a property. These include gravel or partial paving. This paving can be placed where the wheels of the car will stand. The other areas can be plants with low lying plants which can make the area attractive. Other options are to build pergolas over where the car stands and have plants growing on them to disguise the view of a car parked underneath.

Tuesday November 22, 2005

A banana in a freezer or the leaning banana of Twyford

Our banana must be feeling like a third class citizen. First it lived in the dining room and then was ejected to being in the greenhouse in winter or on the patio in summer. Now it and its pot are so big neither will fit through the greenhouse door. So it was time to protect it by other means. I was a bit late in doing this as we already had had some strong frosts this week so it was looking badly frost bitten already - but I think it will be ok now. I went out in the morning when it was still minus three degrees and visited a stable where I know they separate used straw from horse manure. I wanted the straw. The idea is to enclose the banana in straw which is held in place by netting. The now brown leaves were cut off and the stems trimmed. After fixing the netting to the pot I started filling it. Once this was done I cut a piece of netting to go over the top which I held in place by canes. The top is then protected from the worst of the rain by a piece of polythene. The pot terracota also needs protecting so more netting and straw. The birds will love the straw in the spring for nesting material and I hope I don't get any rodents hibernating in it. A cunning plan of mine is this, the straw being used has a few lumps of manure still in it and is soaked in horse urine ( remember to wear gloves next time..) The plan is the straw should start to compost slowly over the winter. As it does so it should generate heat and warm the banana up a bit further protecting it from any nightmare winter promised us.