Gardening Ideas March 2010
Post questions, comments and answers in the Gardening Ideas section on Candis Chat
I wouldn't
dare call what I do flower arranging, but I do enjoy cutting
flowers I've grown myself, bundling them together and
displaying them in the house! Success seems to depend on having a
vase of the right dimensions, so I've collected quite a few
over the years, manly from charity shops. Some plants, lily of the
valley for instance, don't have a long flowering season, so
it's great to gather a bunch of stems, along with a few leaves,
to bring indoors where their prettiness and perfume is right under
your nose. Home-grown flowers are, by they're very nature,
seasonal and a constant reminder of what's going on
outdoors.
Often, I'll collect tiny sprigs from flowering shrubs, for posy vases that stand on my desk, or the windowsill of the downstairs loo. At more abundant times, there will be stems of claret-leaved smoke bush, roses and ammi (like a cultivated cow parsley), ready to fill larger containers. Anyone with an allotment or a few veg beds can slip in a row of flowers here and there, especially for cutting. Sometimes I plant the cheap bulbs of tall Dutch iris or, as last autumn, a bargain pack of mixed narcissus bulbs for cutting now. Arrange them with home-grown dogwood stems, or pittosporum. Pink and maroon shades of scabious and some flashy pot marigolds are both being sown into modules now for planting out as youngsters. Sweet pea plants and butterfly gladiolus corms are in the shops, dahlia tubers can go straight in and you can start making spaces and preparing soil for the likes of zinnias and lime green tobacco ready for planting in May.
Garden cuttings
......in the
kitchen garden
- Plant lettuce, calabrese, summer cabbage and onion plants raised from seed in modules under glass or bought as young plants. Stand outdoors first to acclimatise and cloche lettuce and calabrese on frosty nights in cold areas.
- Weed the strawberry bed carefully, without disturbing the roots and remove dead leaves . If you forgot to give a dressing of sulphate of potash in late winter, do it now following the packet instructions.
- Sow land cress direct to the soil, or into modules first to plant later. Pick by the leaf to use in salads instead of watercress. Save seed for an August sowing to last through winter.
...... in the
flower garden
- Prune large, overgrown winter-flowering shrubs which have outgrown their space. Cut out up to one third of the tallest, oldest or most invasive stems, taking them back to the base or a good, young side-stem.
- Add new herbaceous perennials to the garden, such as campanula (bell flower), anthemis (lots of daisy-like flowers) and obedient plant. They'll have time to put down new roots before the (hopefully) hot, dry summer weather.
- Plant new clematis and other climbers, such as chocolate vine (Abebia quinata) to climb up into large, established shrubs. Remember to water them during dry spells.
...... and in
general
- Prune back dogwoods and willows grown for their colourful stems. A ruthless cutting, to remove almost all of what grew last season will encourage them to grow long, slender stems to brighten next winter.
- Mow lawns with the blades set quite high to start with. Trim edges and knock soil away from them. Treat bare patches in turf by forking up compacted soil. Let it settle before raking smooth and then sowing next month.
- Water cacti back into life (many will have been dry since last October). Move plants like African violets from south facing windowsills to north or east facing ones, where they'll be safe from strong sunshine.
Q and A
Q: What type of
plant looks good but won't be eaten by wild rabbits?
Michele Lyons, Northamptonshire
A: I can only tell you what they don't eat
in my garden, but rabbits are quite fickle. They'll have a go
at almost anything new, including spiny plants and their tastes
seem to vary from garden to garden. Here, they never touch strongly
aromatic plants like catmints. Plants with traces of poison in
them, such as toadflax (Linaria purpurea), hellebores and
hydrangeas are safe. They haven't eaten oriental poppies or
felty-leaved Stachys byzantina. Primroses, spurges (we've
recently discovered the fabulous Euphorbia characias 'Black
Pearl') and New Zealand flax have not been eaten.
Q: How can I
stop my potted clematis from developing brown spots on its leaves
which then fall? It stands on a patio and starts out well in
spring.
Jill Gannon, Weston-super-Mare
A: My guess is that as the weather heats up, the plant comes under stress from hot, dry roots (these plants prefer cool, shaded roots) and as a result, it gets mildew. If you can't plant it out, at least treat your clematis to a slightly larger pot of good compost and as summer progresses, move it to a shadier spot out of full sun. Give it a dressing of rose fertilizer in early spring and then general purpose liquid feeds roughly every three weeks up until July.
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"I found the information and advice on this site very welcoming and helpful, thank you, Sue Bennion"
Suzan Bennion - Monday 29th Mar 2010