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Gardening Ideas July 2009

Post questions, comments and answers in the Gardening Ideas section on Candis Chat.

Our vegetable plot here in Devon is a kitchen garden in every sense of the word, because it lies right outside our kitchen window. For this reason, it is a very informal version of what the French would call a potager, or pretty mixture of veg, fruit, flowers and herbs. We've just enjoyed a mass of blooms on thyme and sage plants growing along the pathways, closely followed by pinks. Self sown heartsease pansies and golden feverfew pop up where they will and are left to grow and flower unless they are in the way of a crop.

Best of all, the flowers attract pollinating insects and also a whole army of bugs and birds that eat garden pests like aphids and slugs, helping my plot stay productive and healthy. By day there are birds and butterflies (we've had a large number of painted ladies this summer) and at night toads creep about under the foliage. I can't think of a more satisfying way of enjoying a garden than this fabulous mixture of crops, flowers and wildlife. Even when mice ate my newly germinated carrots and the second sowing of peas I was still smiling!

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......in the kitchen garden

• shear all the old foliage from fruited strawberry plants as soon as they've finished. This treatment might seem brutal, but it removes pests and diseases as well as letting in light and air for healthy growth before winter.
• loosen shallots shallots, garlic and onions from the ground using a fork when their foliage turns yellow and starts to topple over this month or next. They'll have finished growing and should lie on the soil surface to dry in the sun.
• plant leeks when they are about 20cm/8in tall, setting them 15cm/6in apart in rows 30cm/12in apart. Make a dibber hole 17cm/7in deep, drop a leek in and water to settle. This style of planting helps a long stem develop.

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......in the flower garden

• prune unruly wisterias by shortening their long waving side shoots. You can cut each of these back to five leaves without doing any harm to the plant. In fact it slows growth down and helps next years flower buds form.
• Treat dahlias, fuchsias and other large, floriferous plants to a general purpose liquid fertilizer. This will boost their growth and help them form many flowering shoots.
• shear back sage and thyme plants as soon as they stop flowering. Don't cut into old wood, but leave 5cm/2in long stumps of soft green stem behind. The plants will soon sprout new shoots and form neat, dense plants.

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...... and in general

• collect seed from your own plants and save a fortune. Snip pods into labelled bags on a dry day, choosing parents with good form and colour. Avoid highly bred plants, as offspring are less likely to resemble parents.
• Care for plants like rhododendron, camellia, hebe or photinia pruned hard in spring to restrict size. Make sure they have moist roots and spread a mulch over the top. Spray with a seaweed feed to generate healthy new growth.
• Trim hedges of quick-growing, small-leaved plants like privet and Lonicera nitida every 4-8 weeks. This will keep their growth dense and attractive, while preventing the hedges from growing too thick.

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Q and A

Q: My pond is looking really tatty and I'm not sure how to bring it back under control

A: High summer can be tricky for ponds. First, tidy marginals like iris and marsh marigold by removing dead leaves and old flower stems. Next, tackle aquatic weeds, floating and hanging plants (like water soldier) by hauling out excess. Finally, twirl and net out blanket weed and duckweed to clear the surface and top up with fresh water (rain water is best but you can use tap water, as the chlorine will evaporate). Leave water lilies well alone.

Q: Instead of developing into pears, our fruitlets set and then dropped off. What went wrong?

A: Cut open one of the fallen fruitlets and I bet it's full of white maggots, or shows signs of damage. The maggots pupate in the soil and emerge the following spring as pear midges ready to lay their eggs in the flowers for another round of infestation. Break the cycle by collecting up and destroying fallen fruits every year (keep the grass low to make this easier).