Gardening tips for February 2012
One memorable moment of 2011 was eating elderflower pancakes on the beach at Branscombe just a few miles from where we live. This was the treat at the end of a foraging ramble run by the National Trust, which fed our small group very well.
While we were hard at it bending for sorrel leaves and wild garlic or stretching up for elderflowers, a fire was being lit on the beach so we could cook what we’d found. Our guides brought along basic utensils, some potatoes for the nettle soup, flour for dough and a basic pancake mixture for the elderflower heads.
I know outdoor cooking on allotments is becoming popular and features in the book Our Plot by Cleve West, one of last year’s treats. This year, I’m determined to try and cook simple meals on our kitchen garden patio next to the greenhouse. We have a portable one-ring gas stove and a fire pit with a grill, there should be plenty of vegetables around and edible weeds too (we’re already partial to chickweed salads).
Even if you don’t have a plot and only a tiny garden, I still urge you to try some al fresco cooking next summer, using veg grown in pots and other containers. This would be a bit different from the normal barbeque and more like reaching for fresh veg like courgettes to grill on a skewer, put in an omelette or fry in thick disks with fresh herbs added. There are some enticing varieties bred especially for containers, including courgette ‘Midnight’ (midnight feast?) which remains compact and bushy while producing prolific dark green fruits. Or you could go up and try a climbing courgette such as ‘Black Hawk’ (seed from Dobies www.dobies.co.uk). I tried a fabulous mangetout pea last year called Shiraz (www.thompson-morgan.com) whose pretty, bicoloured pink flowers set into purple pods never turned stringy, even when left for some time on the plants.
As for the elderflowers, common elder is a lovely large shrub or small tree for a wildlife garden. As well as the prospect of elderflower cordial, champagne and wine, flowers for eating and fruit for elderberry wine, insects and birds will love it too.
What to do this month...
…… in the kitchen garden
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Sow broad bean seeds into modules or trays in the greenhouse, ready to plant out later. These beans are easier to grow and enjoy earlier in the year. Protect from mice. Also start spinach, lettuce, calabrese and summer cabbage in modules.
- If you have trained forms of apple and pear (cordons, stepovers, fans etc) and forgot to prune them last summer, do it now before you lose control for ever. Most of last year’s stems should be cut away, leaving short spurs.
- Buy in seed potatoes and set them rose end (that with the most buds on and the furthest from where they were attached to the parent) uppermost in egg boxes in a cool, bright and frost free place to sprout or ‘chit’.
……in the flower garden
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Buy a Japanese quince (Chaenomeles) if you don’t have one already. These useful plants flower now even against gloomy north or east-facing walls and deliver aromatic fruits in the autumn. Existing plants might have produced suckers you can dig up and give to friends.
- Prune roses, then weed around them, dress with rose fertiliser and then a mulch of well-rotted manure or other soil conditioner for spectacular results later.
- Trim off the very old leaves of Lenten hellebores now they are flowering, to smarten them up and prevent diseases spreading.
……and in general
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Dig out and replace any hedges that look patchy and ugly after the previous cold winters. Condition the soil and choose a different hedging plant. Beech and yew are classics.
- Prune back rampant ivy so it has some space to fill when it starts back into growth.
- Cut back over-wintered plants such as pelargoniums, fuchsias, abutilons and bougainvillea to prevent straggliness.
Q and A
Q: When is the best time to cut back dogwoods and willows grown for their stems?
A: You really need to do this before they make any significant growth in spring. Some gardeners prune them now, in February but you can leave them a little longer, until March. Take the previous season’s stems right down to within a bud or two of older growth so they look like stumps.
Q: I’ve had problems growing decent carrots. What am I doing wrong?
A: Carrots are not always easy. You need good, preferably light, stone-free soil. If this is impossible, use a raised bed of imported soil or compost, or try growing them in pots. Use fresh seed, don’t sow outdoors until the weather is kind (usually April), thin to one per 5cm/2in and cover with fleece to keep carrot fly off.
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