Category: Nature

Must Do Gardening Tips for May

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Must Do Gardening Tips for May

Rita Edwards gives her sound advice.

  1. Be careful of late frosts, cover tender plants with fleece.
  2. Hold hanging baskets back till the end of this month, as show people do.
  3. Check roses for black spot.
  4. Sow nasturtium seeds in gaps as ground cover.
  5. Pinch out tips of fuchsias to form a a bushier plant.

Mat Holland of Dyffryn has his say.

  1. Leave daffs to die down for at least six weeks after dead heading.
  2. Take fuchsia cuttings and just plant in ground around mother plant, so you know what plant it came from
  3. Plant runner beans seeds direct into rows, for a later crop.
  4. Dead head tulips before they set seed.
  5. Make sure all plants that need support are staked by now.

 

Advice on controlling pests without resorting to chemicals has TV gardening personalities telling us that we need to strike a balance with nature and learn to live with these pests. The R H S has declared slugs are no longer pests. If my garden was the size of a Tesco car park I’m sure the critters could munch away without causing me too much concern. On the average plot a pest infection can be devastating, ruining the growing season.

These same people have said that if you have a problem with aphids you need to buy plants that attract ladybirds. For goodness sake if you have aphids you will definitely attract ladybirds, who will then breed and whose larvae are voracious aphid eaters. All without splashing out on special plants.

Another stunner of an idea was to attract more birds to your garden so they could eat the slugs. Be honest, have you seen garden birds eat slugs, because I haven’t. The best animals to have around your garden to help control slug problems are hedgehogs, frogs and toads. A lot of Wenvoe residents have hedgehog boxes and this has resulted in the village becoming a hotspot for these mammals which is bad news for slugs. Frogs and toads spend very little time in water, they prefer a damp area and cover. Toads only use the water in the mating season so you only need a small pond to accommodate these amphibians. Helen, Hugh & Mathew of Vennwood have foxes visiting their garden taking care of their Gastropods. The slug problem has been with gardeners and growers forever so the balance must still be ok. Just one more thing, the French won’t even eat them.

Right then – are we ready to plant out knowing we will have a fight on our hands to keep the plants safe? If you can be patient and hold back your bedding plants a little while, the warmer soil will give them a good start. As has been said many times, to get the best from your hanging basket display keep them sheltered until the very end of May. Sow some hardy annuals direct into the garden where there are gaps to fill. With the weather warming up and less rainfall the pots will need extra attention, try not to let them dry out or the plants will not recover to their full potential. Spring flowering shrubs that have finished blooming need to be cut back as soon as possible. Weeding is one of the tasks that has to be done but we don’t enjoy. You can keep pulling them up but your back won’t thank you for it, the best is always little and often on dry days with a Dutch hoe, just keep cutting them off and it will weaken perennial weeds and kill annual ones. Leave the waste to shrivel on the soil but do this before they set seed.

Allotment holders are busy as usual with this years rhubarb looking good throughout April. Eric & Joyce donated some of their crop to the Wenvoe Wild life Group to sell at the plant sale in April. The allotmenteers are obviously well informed about the fact that bare soil is the major factor in soil erosion as there very few patches with nothing growing. The library will be running the Village show again this year and Gordon Jones is intent on keeping his prize veg a secret with an extra high fence and a guard cat.

Take care and happy gardening

 

 

 

Conifers at the Community Centre

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

On Monday 14th March the team set about tidying up the front border and removing rubbish from under the hedge of the conifers at the Community Centre. A couple of members were absent. The usual reasons for not turning up are forgetting the day or not remembering where we are supposed to be working. This problem has now been resolved by Big John who has set up a What’s App group; the really old ones are being fitted with trackers by their carers. One member has a tracker on his ankle fitted by a government official, he claims it’s because they may need to contact him if an emergency arises!!

Next meeting – 11th April at 9.30 by the library.

The building on the immediate right is part of the Old School (the headmaster’s office), which is now the Com-munity Centre. Next door is the headmaster’s home followed by the old police house where the infamous Dai Cannon now resides.

 

Last Wildflower Meadows Near Cardiff

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Visitors to the Upper Orchid Field will have seen that the field has been cut. This is one of the last wildflower meadows near Cardiff so is an invaluable resource for wildlife as well as being a popular recreational location for walkers, joggers and other visitors. An annual cut is essential to prevent brambles, ash saplings and the ranker grasses from taking over. When we started maintaining the site over 10 years ago this was just what had happened and most of the slope was covered in self-seeded trees. Our contractor, John Crockford, has done a great job, particularly in controlling the brambles which had started to take over the top of the field

 

 

Must Do Gardening Tips for April

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Must Do Gardening Tips for April

Tips from two of the nurseries that will be attending The Tuckers Plant Sale on Saturday the 30th April at 29 Vennwood Close.

Firstly Joyce Alpine Hoy

  1. Give the plants in the greenhouse a bit of space so air can circulate and prevent disease taking hold.
  2. Make sure the drainage is adequate in your pots and containers especially for Alpines.
  3. Keep potted plants near the house as this helps with shelter and when watering.
  4. Always remove the top layer of soil from pots in Spring and replace with fresh compost. Doing this removes weed seeds and pests.
  5. If you order plants by post, unwrap water and repot as soon as possible, or they will take a long time to recover.

Gordon & Elizabeth Jones of Belgrave Horticulture.

  1. Composting is essential to bring balance to the work of gardeners.
  2. If you have room plant a native tree. Crab apple are great for wildlife. If you have a larger area then an oak tree would be great as they support the most life.
  3. Put freshly mown grass under your trays of seed. The heat generated will bring them on in no time.
  4. Remove some of the leaves from hellebores to expose the flowers.
  5. Foxgloves are easy to look after and great for bees and other insects.

It is quite the thing at present to plant a wildflower patch. If you follow the instructions on the packet to the letter then a good display will follow. The main thing to do is to make sure the area is weed and grass free as the wild flowers cannot compete with perennial weeds. The wild flowers prefer poor soil, so no need for fertiliser. What they don’t say on the packet is that, if you don’t want your garden completely smothered in wild flowers the following year, you will need to cut them down before they set seed.

A greenhouse or cold frame will enable you to buy smaller, and inevitably cheaper, plants to bring on in April. Repot these young plants as soon as you can and be careful not to overwater, especially at this stage, or the plants may rot. There is still time to sow sweet peas and they will be ready a little later and prolong the season. As the weather warms stand the plants outside during the day. This may seem a bit of a fuss but will give you a lot stronger plant.

Compost. We endeavour to make our own but usually buy a few bags every year. As long as the compost used in pots growing annual flowers or veg has not caused plants to suffer from disease then it can be reused. Folks mostly put the spent compost on the garden as a mulch but it can be rejuvenated by simply sieving and adding a slow release fertiliser. The one thing it shouldn’t be used for is seed planting as it may contain pathogens that will harm new seedlings. There are loads of tutorials online which will save you quite a bit of cash

April is a good time to give roses a preventative spray against the main diseases they are about to face. To get bigger blooms on roses you need to reduce the amount of buds, this is done by growers who enter shows.

On the allotments the tenants are planting early potatoes. Runner and French beans are sown under glass ready for planting out in May when all risk of frost has passed. Peas and beans have long roots so toilet roll holders are great for giving them a good start. Planting carrots early will beat the carrot root fly but if too cold the seed will not germinate so cloches are used to warm the soil. You will always see onions grown on allotments. They are easy to grow and store well. If your intention is to grow oregano, make sure you keep it in check or it will take over your patch.

With everything costing more, it is worth shopping round. The cost of wooden fencing has rocketed and the price of plants is ridiculous. Blue Diamond garden centre at St Mellons always have a table where prices have been reduced. British Soil in Wenvoe sell their products well below D I Y stores and garden centres. If you need timber then Bruno fencing in Barry are good value. If you know of other places that give good value please share. Pam & Phyllis always make a list before venturing into garden centres, otherwise it’s like shopping in the middle of Lidl where you come out with things that make you wonder how you ever managed without them.

Take care and happy gardening

 

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Work Needs To Be Done

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

The orchid field has now been cut and we can see what work needs to be done. There are paths to keep clear, overgrowth along the boundary, cut material to be collected and burnt etc. If you would like to volunteer in helping to maintain the area please just turn up. We normally meet on the third Monday of the month from 9.30am but as this is Easter this month we will meet on 25th. You will need to provide your own tools, – gloves shears secateurs etc. and be responsible for your own safety

 

 

Least Favourite Wild Animals

The Adder 

The Adder is possibly one of the public’s least favourite wild animals yet it has an important role in our local ecology. Maybe its reputation as Britain’s only venomous snake does not help but cases of humans being bitten are few and far between, less than one case a year over the last hundred years and most of these occur when people pick the snakes up. Between 1950 and 1972 there was only one death from an adder bite in England and Wales compared with 61 who died from bee or wasp stings.

There should be records of them in the parish but there are none on the Aderyn database. Despite that there are several anecdotal reports of them, so if you do come across one locally, do get in touch with the Wildlife Group preferably with a photograph and details of the location. The snake is quite easy to identify with its characteristic zig-zag pattern, the female brown and the male black. You are more likely to come across a grass snake which is much larger and completely harmless. They have been seen at the Watercress Beds and the Elizabethan Orchard.

Like so much of our wildlife, adders are in decline. Much of this is down to habitat loss and disturbance by people and dogs. They are also predated on often by pheasants which frequently kill slowworms as well. Larger birds of prey, like Buzzards, are likely to be a threat. The future for this unique species does appear bleak.

 

 

Surprised to See Big John

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

On our February outing we were all quite surprised to see big John joining us. It is well known in Wenvoe that John doesn’t come out until Spring has sprung. He said the early daffodils had tricked him. Some of the team can be seen cutting overgrowth off the old wall on Walston Road; the other members are clearing up the waste which filled our trailer. There will be very little cutting back of any hedges from March as birds will be nesting. The team will be assisting in any way it can leading up to the Jubilee celebrations in June.

The next meeting will be on Monday 14th March at 9.30am outside the Community Centre

 

Gardening Tips for March 2022

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Must Do Gardening Tips for March

St Mary’s Church florist Sandra Jones tips for the month

1. Start feeding shrubs with slow-release fertiliser.

2. Trim winter flowering heathers.

3. Clean up paths and patios.

4. Put supports in place before plants start to grow.

5. Dead head daffodils but don’t touch leaves

Ray of Church Rise and the perfect lawn.

1. Always brush away worm casts or weed seeds will find a home.

2. Cut as often as needed but not too low.

3. Spend time on edging as finish is everything.

4. Clear thatch annually.

5. In dry weather don’t attempt to water the lawn unless you have enough time to do it properly.

Here we go then, Spring is here, and we look forward to the growing season. We will see what plants have survived the Winter in the greenhouse and shed. What we can be sure of is that hundreds of slugs and snails will be gearing up to eat anything tender that pokes it head above the soil. After listening to gardeners over the years slug pellets were always the favourite form of eradication but the most popular now is a margarine tub sat in the soil with some beer in it. The little blighters can’t resist it. You must empty it often because they will stink if you leave them. As slugs and snails are mainly nocturnal, you can catch them in the act by taking a torch and removing them as they forage. For pots on a path or patio a ring of salt around the base of container will sort them out.

We often have some inclement weather in March, so don’t be tempted to put tender plants out. Once the warmer days come things will soon catch up. Going by last year’s weather when there were roses blooming in the garden on Christmas Day and daffodils in flower on the village green by mid-January, I will be staggering the sowing of seed to have a longer season. The one plant that does well by planting now is the snowdrop. Buy them in the green just after they’ve flowered, and you will be guaranteed a good display next year. If you just plant the dried bulbs they don’t often multiply. With Spring bulbs such as daffodils, take the flower head off as soon as it starts to go over so the plant can put its energy back into the bulb for a good display next year. Remember to make a photographic diary of your garden as it comes into life so you can make adjustments for the following season and not put the spade through dormant bulbs later in the year. You need to give the roses a prune now if you haven’t already done so. We are trained to cut them back to an out facing bud like rose experts Mr & Mrs Cottle of Gwenfo Drive but don’t worry as they are tough plants and can take a lot of misplaced secateurs. Clematis is another plant that needs cutting back before growth starts. There are so many varieties that flower at different times of the year, so you should check before you cut into it. If you have a problem with this plant, then Mrs Clare Ellis is the lady you need to speak to as she is very knowledgeable on these plants. You can usually find Clare working in the library on a Saturday.

There will be a plant sale on Saturday 30th April in Vennwood Close, where local growers will have stalls showing off their wares. There will of course be loads of free gardening advice, a few local crafters, cakes and a raffle with proceeds going to the Wildlife Group.

Take care and happy gardening.

 

 

Walston Road Ivy Cut-Back

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

The team’s first outing of the year took place on the old narrow section of Walston Road adjacent to Grange Avenue. The gang set about cutting back the ivy growing on the wall to give pedestrians a better view of oncoming traffic. We must have looked a sorry bunch as Jenny, a nearby resident, came out with biscuits to cheer us up.

This road used to take all the Quarry traffic from Whitehall Quarry before the owners built a road down to the Tarrws, which is now an extension of Walston Road. The photograph is of two cottages lived in by the Crump and Watts families that were situated at the far end of Walston Road next to the old Whitehall quarry. When the quarry first started blasting the owner, Mrs Osmond, had to send some men to the Watts’s cottage to relay the slabs on the floor of the house which always dislodged during blasting. This happened regularly until the quarry workings moved further away from the cottage.

The Environment Team would like to thank the people who help to keep Wenvoe looking good by regularly collecting litter.

The Environment Team will meet again on 14th February at 9.30 at the same location on Walston Road. As always, we would be very happy to welcome anyone who would like to join us for a couple of hours.

 

 

February Tips From the Experts

 

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Must Do Gardening Tips for December

February tips from Sharon at British Soil.

  • Cut down deciduous grasses left standing over Winter.
  • Cut back late flowering clematis.
  • If you need to move deciduous shrubs, then now is the time.
  • Cut back elder and buddleia
  • Give Winter flowering heathers a light trim, being careful not to cut into the old wood stems.

 

Advice from Barry Harper of Twyn allotments.

  • Chit early potatoes.
  • Plant rhubarb crowns in rich soil.
  • Cover strawberry plants with fleece or cloches to give them a good start.
  • Prepare beds for sowing by weeding. Then cover soil with garden compost.
  • Check what the other allotment folk are up to, so you don’t miss out.

 

There are countless magazines, radio and television programmes offering advice on what we ought to be doing in the garden in any given week. We need to be checking the local weather forecast before we start planting. There can be as much as four weeks between planting times between the southeast of England and the Scottish Highlands. Plants grown under nursery conditions will not take kindly to being put out in cold wet weather. Unless you can take care of the plants you see early in the season looking very inviting in neat rows on the garden centre shelves, please wait until clement weather can give them a good start.

The really warm weather in December has kept the grass growing as well as weeds and has also brought on daffodils early. During January the cyclamen and pansies were being pushed out by overzealous, under planted bulbs and corms. The Autumn sown sweet peas have put on a lot of growth and need the tips taken out to promote new side shoots. Repotting will help to give the roots space to grow.

Wisteria should have its Winter prune now to make sure it flowers well. Cut the shoots back to three or four buds but be careful to leave the main frame alone. Mahonia can be cut back now as the flowers fade. If the shrub has a good shape about it just remove the flower spikes. If it’s looking straggly you can prune it hard, and it will come back strongly.

The wet weather in late Winter will make greenhouses damp, the lack of sun to dry the air out can bring about grey mould which can do serious damage to over wintering plants. On milder days open doors and windows, check the leaves of plants and remove damaged ones. If some plants are badly infected remove the whole plant to the outside.

Allotment and veg gardeners have been troubled with potato blight over the last couple of years. It is very difficult to control but there are some preventative measures to take. One thing which can help is to grow early varieties such as Charlotte and Anya. Sarpo potatoes have a good resistance to blight. Experienced gardeners always leave a bigger gap between the tubers when planting as an increased air flow when plants are maturing helps enormously in blight prevention. If you grow potatoes in containers make sure you clean them out and disinfect to stop any infection and change the compost. Those gardeners who planted broad beans in the Autumn have seen a lot of growth due to mild conditions, which means they will need support.

Take care and enjoy your gardening

 

 

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