Plantpassion

Reviewing my garden, post holiday

i've just got back from 2 weeks in Normandy France. A great holiday with 2 weeks of watching my son

Watering while you're on holiday

it's typical, you've spent the last 4 months getting the garden how you want it, - the plants are thriving, the pots are full the fruit and veg is producing and...... you want to go on holiday.

If like me, you need a full 2 weeks away over the July and August period, but don't want to come back to a dessicated garden, what are your choices.

1) Get a friend or Neighbour to water, - hopefully there will be someone you can trust to come every week, or every couple of days if it's hot, to make sure that your most cherished plants make it through. If swapsies don't work, how about hiring a local student to do the watering? - but make sure you leave a list of what's important to water and how often, - I once came back to rotting potatoes and bone dry hanging baskets.

Do water, Newly planted borders, everything in the greenhouse, Vegetable plots.

Don't waste water on, Lawns or established borders (unless there are visibly wilting plants)

for more details about watering look at this post

2)Plant up your new plants into the largest pots possible or get seedlings and plantlets into the ground. Large pots (3 litre size) hold water better and for longer than seedling trays

3) Put any pots on Plastic trays, or rest them on thick Newspaper or capillary matting so that any runoff isn't lost to the plants completely and can be soaked up.

4) For your most precious trees and shrubs put in watering bottles, so that your watering help knows how much and which to water.

This Acer was bought at a show last year and has survived in a pot being planted up through various sizes for the last 12 months, - now it is in the ground, I don't want a week of dry weather to kill it and its newly released rootball, - so a watering bottle will direct 2 litres of water to the roots rather than spreading it through the surrounding soil.

5) make sure that your hose fittings or your watering cans are easy to find and at the ready - if you want to use waterbutt water, then 2 large watering cans are a must have, so that one can be filling while the other is used for watering

6) Enjoy your holiday, - just think the worst that can happen is that something doesn't make it and you can go plant shopping on your return.

Wildflowers in a small space update

since my last blog post about my vergeside wildflowers, they've enjoyed baking sunshine, and so here are some more pictures for you

i've had several people asking me which mix I used as well, so here are all the details so that you can plant a lazy border too.

Flowering lawn mix from Suttons, - Harebell, Cowslip, Poppy and others £2.85

Wildflower mixture from Suttons - Cornflower, Corn Marigold, Poppy and others, £2.85

Pictorial Meadows Contrasting Mix, - Cornflower, Red and Blue Flaxs and Larkspur.

Corncockle (agrostemmon) from T&M - £1.99

plus it is mixed in with some grass seed (a patch pack)- £2.99

Yes that's the whole summer flowering border for less than £15

Gardeners World Live show review

Well I had a great Saturday at the Gardeners World Live show, - we went early in the morning, so we were at the NEC just after nine, (for anyone that hasn't been there the NEC is a massive convention centre, and although this show was huge, it only took up 3 of the halls plus some outside area)

There was a full days viewing, so it was worth getting there early.  This year the show was partnered with the BBC good food show, so there was a hall of food goodies before you got to the plants, - Bacon butties later, we started on the display stands.

My first bit of interesting new garden stuff was this garden furniture set. 

This plasticised woven set is waterproof, but the interesting thing is that when you don't need it out, it stacks up like a rocket.(yes the phallic brown shape in the background)

It was actually very comfy to sit in, although it wasn't a full size eating table, and I do like to do dinner in the garden

After some demonstrations of various gardening gadgets, and finding out about Eglu chicken houses, We succombed to buying a tool sharpening device (not as easy to use as it looked at the show, - i've been trying it out today)

I then got to do a bit of plant retail therapy, and wandered first the inside plant stalls, and then the RHS pavillion to get ideas about the best colours, varieties and bargains.

 I was very pleased to see that a lot of the stalls in the plant pavilion were displaying Supporting British Horticulture signs, showing that their plants have been grown in Britain rather than imported. Paeonias, Clematis, Hosta and Fuchsias later, I was laden down and ready to look at the show gardens.

Which were a very impressive batch of gardens, and I really liked the theme running through of lots of recycling and lots of Children in the garden, - one garden was an outside classroom, with a fantastic shade sail and a fence of Raspberry and other fruit.

My favourite though was the credit munch garden, - showing just how great fruit and veg can look as well as taste

All in all I had a great day at the show, I came home with some goodies, - which I must get in the garden this week! - I would go again, but next time i'm going to see the gardens first while the light is still better, - the midday sun didn't make for easy viewing of the displays.

Watering the garden - when? and how often?

After the hottest weekend of the year so far, i'm very glad that my waterbutts were full from last week, but when should you water your plants?, with what? and how much??.

What doesn't need watering - most importantly the thing not to waste water on is a lawn, unless you are establishing a new lawn, here in the uk, even in the driest summers the roots of the lawn will stay alive, and when you get rain again it will green up.

Borders, - as long as your plants have been established more than a year, very few border plants will need watering unless we have a prolonged period of dry weather (more than 2 weeks).  Save your bath water to spot water hydrangeas, roses, clematis and fruit trees.

Vegetables & fruit, - this is where to use all your waterbutt water on, water each plant or row of seedlings by using a gentle stream from a can nozzle to the soil at the base of the plant, - gentle so as not to wash away the soil from the roots and slowly so as to ensure that water goes deeply down to the root system of each plant rather than soaking away on the surface.

It is better to water deeply once every 3 days than with a sprinkling of water every day.  Early evening is a great time to water, as less water will be lost in evaporation

Plants in pots, - these will rely on you for water and how often they need water depends on the size of the pot, the type of compost and whether they are standing on a tray- at this tiime of year get everything potted up into as big a pot as possible and use watergel for your hanging baskets and pots.

It's commonly believed that you shouldn't water during the day if it is sunny, however if a plant needs water, don't ignore it to the evening, - it is ok to water during the day, but not ideal -don't get water on the leaves, as that may cause scorching.

Propagating plants to swap and sell

Tis the season of Plant sales, an ever popular way for local Horticultural societies and other organisations to raise money and a great way to get different plants for your garden, - normally varieties that are likely to do well as they come from gardens locally and obviously multiplied so that they could be given away.

So if you want to provide plants for a sale, what should you look for.

1) Have you sown any seeds this year that are surplus to requirements?, - this year as every year i've managed to germinate enough tomato and pepper plants to feed West Horsley, and I managed to get the cucumber seed packet wet and soggy, - so I had to plant all the seeds, - these have been nurtured, watered every day and turned towards the light a half turn every couple of days so that they are upright and not bent at an angle. - This is a great time to look at what you really need and give away all the others.

2) Didn't get round to sowing seeds? - did your garden plants do it for you? - over the last few weeks i've planted up seeds in clients gardens of Acer palmatum, Hellebores, Astrantia, Lychnis, Aqueligia, Verbena bonariensis and Erigeron karvinskianus, - have a look round your borders and see if any plants have done the propagation for you.

3) Have you got anything that can easily be split? - although May is later than the traditional border splitting season, a lot of plants can still be easily divided without harming them and you often won't be able to see that anything has been taken within a couple of weeks, - easy splitters include some Geraniums, Hostas, Mint, plus late flowering perennials such as Asters, Schizostylus and Heleniums.

When you've decided what to pot up, don't forget to wash your pots (so as not to pass on any fungal diseases), use a potting or multipurpose compst rather than garden soil and take as much plant and as little soil as you can to keep the roots intact, - this will ensure that there are no pieces of weed root clinging to your plants to pass on to another gardener.
When you've planted up your treasures to pass on, - don't forget to labels them, - even if you don't know the full latin name, any idea of when it flowers/ is in full foliage and what colour will help to ensure someone else take your plant away to treasure.

i've got to find 3 plants each for us as entry for the West Horsley Horticultural Society Show on Saturday, so i'm off to make sure my tomatoes are labelled.

Lawn renovation: what to do when you've been away

I've just been lucky enough to spend a long weekend at my Holiday cottage in Normandy.  it's a 2 bed Normandy style modern cottage on a port complex, and so is perfect for a short break away, for a spot of eating cheese, drinking wine and walking along the sandy beaches, but the downside is that the garden although small, grows while we're away. It has a "lawn" - mostly a patch of weeds, surrounded by hedges which need to be kept at the perscribed 5ft high to prevent us getting letters and fines.  This weekend we spent a lot of Friday, and some of Sunday afternoon getting our little patch back in shape, - so here are my tips for those times you've ignored the lawn for too long / been away on holiday / it's rained eveytime you'd planned to get out in the garden.

1 - if your lawn looks like a meadow, don't expect your lawnmower to be able to plough through it, - use a strimmer first on the longest parts and rake the cut grass away with a spring tyne rake
2 - then mow the lawn on the highest cutting height, - if you have anything more than a small garden this is best done without the grass box on, unless you are willing to empty it out after every "stripe" - rake this up as well
3 - now cut on the highest cutting height again, at a 90degree angle to the first cut
4 - let the grass dry out for a few hours
5 - cut it on a lower cutting height
6 - edge the lawn to finish it off

this will encourage lots of growth, so plan to cut it again in 4-5 days,  - you'll now be back on track for weekly mowing again.

Award winner at showing Daffodils

Last night, for the first time, I entered a Horticultural Society Show.  I've only been a member of my local hort soc. for the last 4 months, and last night was their annual spring show and supper.  Having looked through the show programme and searched my garden, I found my pot grown hellebores were over, and only 3 stems of daffodils worthy of showing, so I went along with my vases and stems and entered them into the appropriate class (of which there are 11 for daffodils and 26 in total).  after a fantastic supper (most of which was homemade, - so competition will be fierce in the homecrafts later in the year) Our judge, a Mr Peach (think David Bellamy with silver beard) gave us a huge amount of advice about how to choose and display plants and flowers, - here are some of his words of wisdom and some other pearls that I picked up from other members .

HP sauce bottles make good single stem vases
Colour isn't as important as form - someone asked why the white camellias never won, and was told that it wasn't colour discrimination, just that they were more likely to be marked.
Twist and tweak until it's facing the right way
Daffodils should have their largest 3 petals at 12, 4 and 8 o'clock
Make sure you take a close look at all blooms for signs of damage, holes or discolouration
Don't be afraid to take off dead heads to tidy up stems of shrub flowers
Read the rules properly, someone entered a primrose in a polyanthus class, - it was cast aside
If you're growing plants on a window sill give them a 1/4 turn every day so they don't grow one sided.

I learnt lots and came away with an urge to grow all the things on the spring show list, just so that I can have a go at winning the coveted cups or best in show trophy. -
BUT I didn't come away empty handed, my 3 headed Triandrus and Large cup daffodils were both awarded 2nd prizes in their class (yes more than 2 entries in each class!) so beginners luck served me well, and now i'm off to get some Hellebores for floating and some Sauce bottles for soaking! so I can be well prepared for next year.

Carpets of Snowdrops

This week has seen the first of the spring bulbs in full bloom.  Snowdrops as an real galanthophile will tell you come in many different varieties, but I have to be honest that to me the common snowdrop (galanthus nivalis) on mass beats any fancy flower with yellow of green petal patterns, so this week it's important that you note and maybe mark the biggest clumps of your snowdrops. - I know they look great now, but in a couple of weeks time, they will just be green floppy leaves getting hidden by everything else that is growing away, and that is when you want to know where they are, so that you can split and propagate each large clump into 4 or 5 sections (not individual bulbs) to give you even more of a carpet next year. - Check that any large clumps hidden under hedgerows or behind bushes are noted, so that you can give them pride of place for next year.

Can I still plant spring flowering bulbs now?

I was asked this question this week, and the person who asked me, had been a bit over enthusiastic at the end of season bulbs sell offs.  I had to admit that I had too, and still had bulbs to plant, - so will they still flower now this season?

Well this isn't the first year that I've gone overboard with buying bulbs, and run out of time and energy to plant them before the Christmas onslaught.  I've normally planted them in pots in the greenhouse at the beginning of January (it's usually my post New Year overindulgence head clearer!) but last year, January was a nightmare in this household with tradesman everywhere, and I didn't get round to planting out the last of my tulips and narcissus until the last weekend in February. March last year was warm, and a lot of tulips came up early, but my pot planted ones came up later than most, and were flowering at just the right time for a client that needed them in Mid May. The Tete a Tete daffodils gave me a show of yellow by the front door after i'd finally got rid of the workman, and the remainder of the tulips were planted in a container on the patio, - these are now poking up again for this year, - i've just spent a while planting up some of this years extras, so i'm hoping for a continueing show of tulips, muscari, crocus and tete a tete, from my pots, when those in the ground have gone over.

So if you've still got bags of bulbs lurking, - as long as they are still firm, and havn't dried out or gone mouldy, plant them in pots and enjoy the display this year, - and let me know how you get on.