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Gardening Ideas November 2009

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As surely as the weather grows colder and wetter, so my thoughts turn to the greenhouse. Every gardener should have one of these and if you do, but it's full of empty pots, spiders and old bicycles, turf them out and spruce up your indoor space. A greenhouse quickly becomes the nucleus of the garden and even without heat you can raise winter salads, overwinter slightly tender plants (potted agapanthus, olives, canna) and in the New Year, make early starts with vegetable sowings. In summer, it's a natural home for tomatoes and peppers. Best of all, you can work inside it. Set up a potting bench (a potting tidy on the staging will do) and there you can pot bulbs, sow seeds and take cuttings. An unheated greenhouse also makes a great winter home for early flowering potted camellias and slightly tender Rhododendron fragrantissimum. You can make a little seating area in a corner and suddenly you have a mini conservatory for sunny days. Now's the time to give your greenhouse a good washing down, ready for moving slightly tender plants under cover for winter.

Garden Clippings for November

...... in the kitchen garden

• make outdoor sowings of hardy broad beans like 'Aquadulce Claudia' and (in milder regions) the magnificent 'Imperial Green Longpod' (Simply Vegetables 0870 460 9445 www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk) Sow about 23cm/9in apart plus some spares.
• remove every single fig left on fig trees, apart from tiny pea-sized ones at the tips. The medium-sized ones will fall off anyway and energy should be saved for the small ones which will give you a summer harvest.
• buy new fruit trees and bushes for the garden. Some are as ornamental as other garden plants and when producing fruits, are easily netted individually against birds. Raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries make great summer puddings.

. .....in the flower garden

• plant tulips for a stunning display next spring. They vary in height and flowering time from early to late, so read the packet as well as being wowed by pictures. Set bulbs so they are covered by twice their depth with soil.
• add new peonies to the garden, choosing well-conditioned soil and a bright, open position. Soak crowns before planting and bury the top of the crown no more than 3-5cm/1-2in below soil surface or they may not bloom.
• When roses have finished their autumn blooming, reduce their stem length for the winter to neaten them up but also to prevent wind rock. Pull out any weeds and mulch around the plants with well-rotted manure or compost.

... ...and in general

• plant new hedges, whether they're natural wild ones full of food and shelter for wildlife, classic hornbeam or smart yew. Prepare soil well and use a garden line for straightness. Bare rooted plants from local nurseries are likely to be cheapest.
• Feed Christmas cacti, azaleas and cyclamen due to flower soon. A high potash liquid feed at half strength will encourage plenty of quality blooms. Keep plants cool but bright for maximum performance.
• Wrap outdoor water pipes and taps against freezing cold. You can buy well-designed, easy to slip on insulation these days. It's an easy job and saves a lot of heartache and plumbers bills later.

Ask Anne

Q: Please suggest a bush to climb onto my garage for birds to nest in. It is north facing, so roots will be shaded and top lightly shaded. Reaching 12ft and winter flowering would be good - perhaps a winter jasmine?

Mari-Anne from Bo'ness Scotland

A: Dear Mari-Anne,

Winter jasmine would be ideal as long as you don't mind it becoming a dense thicket with some dead material. The birds would love it, but pruning would be impractical because they'd be nesting when you're supposed to do it (immediately after flowering). You could, every so often, give it a good sorting out in summer even if this meant missing out on a years flower. Plant now and tie in as it grows. Honeysuckle or rambling rose 'Felicite Perpetue' are alternatives.

Q: What is the best way to store apples for winter use? In previous years, our keepers have wrinkled up and gone off.

A: We store some of our Bramleys by cooking and then freezing them, or freezing them in slices (though they do turn slightly brown when thawed). The rest, along with eaters like 'Crispin' or 'Ashmead's Kernel' are placed carefully into supermarket carrier bags with about six or seven holes made per bag for ventilation. Kept in a cool, frost free place they keep well and don't dry out.