Category: The Village Gardener

Replacement for Trevor’s Garden

Prolonging The Flowering Season

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Prolonging The Flowering Season

It’s now all about prolonging the flowering season. All the work that’s been done to get to this point shouldn’t be in vain by slowing up on the basics. Hoeing weeds before they set seed is a must. Picking sweet peas for the house will keep them producing new blooms, along with removing seed heads. Alstroemeria also benefits from being picked and these flowers last a long time in a vase. Cut back early flowering plants like delphiniums and herbaceous geraniums to ensure a second flush. You won’t get as many flower heads but it’s well worth doing. A second and last feed for the roses along with deadheading is essential. The roses have been brilliant during early June. The week of wet weather followed by the sunshine at the end of May seemed to be just perfect for them. Try to keep up with the watering, especially the pots and any newly planted flowers. One house in the village has put in a watering system with timers and soaker hoses, it is working very well for them as they are away a lot and control the system from an app on their phone. It can be a bit expensive, but it suits them.

One exception to watering regularly is the lawn. Unless you are prepared to waste reservoirs of water and time on it then don’t even bother as you’ll do more harm than good. Just sprinkling a bit of water on your grass will bring the roots nearer to the surface searching for the small amount you had time to do. This would mean that a dry spell will leave the roots, now nearer the surface, exposed to drought and this weakens the grass more than anything.

If you are starting an allotment now, chances are it will be overgrown with brambles and full of weeds. There may, if you’re lucky, be some veg you can use. Don’t try and attack all of it in one go, just clear a little at a time and cover the cleared ground with weed control fabric until you’re ready to plant. There’s a lot of veg to plant now – broccoli, cabbage, kale etc. The one thing you won’t be short of is advice. Allotment folk love to share their knowledge and they’re a good bunch.

The gardening club at the hub is going well and with the likes of Joyce Hoy there you are guaranteed to get both good advice and the Latin names of plants.

The village show will take place at the community centre on Saturday 29th August, so bring your produce along and show what you’ve accomplished.

Hanging Basket Time Is Here!

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Hanging Basket Time Is Here!

Summer is here and the gardens should be full of colour. To keep the flowering going we will be succession planting by removing late spring flowers and planting summer bedding. Deadheading of the roses has started along with the calendula, these annuals will flower all summer with a bit of care. Add hoeing of the weeds to this and we’ll be well on the way to a lovely garden. Plants such as Aster, Phlox and penstemon can have the Chelsea chop if they’re a bit leggy or you wish to delay their flowering. This will give you a bushier plant with more blooms. Cut the plants down by as much as half and water well after.

Hanging basket time is here! Things started off slowly but I’m now having to reduce stems on the trailing fuchsias to bush them out. Baskets are a lot of work but done properly they add so much to a garden. Heather Thomson at the top of Gwenfo Drive has the best display of hanging baskets I’ve seen. Summer months in the garden can give so much pleasure and make all the hard work worthwhile. Another garden on Gwenfo Drive is the home of Sid & Lyn Cottle which always looks well cared for.

Are you growing veg? If not, why not? It doesn’t take much space, and nothing tastes like home grown. No greenhouse – no problem, at this time of year tomatoes and cucumbers can be grown outside in a sunny position and will taste all the better for it. Runner beans give a good floral display before providing you with a deliciously flavoured vegetable. Sow some garden peas, they are nicest when picked and eaten straight off the bush. Nicola at the allotments is so knowledgeable and loves sharing her skills on gardening and her love of wildlife is well known. Barry Oliver on the other hand, although knowing a great deal about growing food stuff, will only pass on his knowhow if you cross his palm with silver or tell him a tale of old Wenvoe he hasn’t heard, which will be a feat in itself. Alex Cooper is your go to fellow if you want to feel like a gardening expert, as he knows little on this subject and will make you feel like a horticulturist.

Take care and happy gardening

It All Kicks Off In The Garden

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

It All Kicks Off In The Garden

This is the month where it all kicks off in the garden. Warmer weather brings out all the pests we will be fighting against for the rest of the growing season. Most of the slug eggs will be baby slugs within 2 weeks and ready to forage straight away. Green fly will be attacking the soft leaves on our roses, with my neighbour telling me not to spray as the ladybirds will eat them. Unfortunately, by the time the cavalry turns up these days the damage is done. Timing seems to be out of sync in the world of nature to deal naturally with pest control. With fewer small birds around to help, green fly are having a good time.

The colder weather during the middle of April caught out those who put in their bedding plants because of some good weather over Easter. Just be patient and wait for Mr Brockway to give you the all clear. Keep hardening them off and they will come on in no time when the weather’s right. One thing you shouldn’t delay is cutting back your Spring flowering shrubs as most produce their flowers for next year on this year’s growth so if you want to keep the shrubs in shape and manageable start trimming. Because of a cooler spell after Easter my hanging baskets have been slow to fill but as any nurseryman worth his salt will tell you, do not put baskets out until the 1st of June. They will definitely flower longer and be healthier

Here we go with lazy bones homeowners advocating No Mow May. When you hear the reasons that naturalists give it makes good sense. But when June arrives and your house looks like no one has occupied it for a while you will have ticks biting your limbs when you’re rummaging around in the long grass trying to find the lawn mower you discarded at the end of April. Then you try and cut it which sends mice and other vermin scurrying for cover while the machine that was so efficient at keeping the lawn cut before chokes up and stalls under the enormity of the task. When you’ve finally cut it and look at your handiwork it bears no resemblance to the lawn you once had. Grass was meant to be cut. Cattle, horses, geese and goats all graze it while sheep munch it down to root level and it bounces back stronger. Have a small wild patch instead with a mixture of meadow grasses that will benefit insects.

This is the time of year to get the kidney bean seeds in. They’re easy to grow and with a little care will give you enough beans to freeze for use over winter. Grow these in tubs with a few sticks for support and water well. Second crops of peas along with carrots will keep the veg coming for months. Later grown carrots are better in raised beds or pots to avoid the dreaded carrot root fly.

Take care and happy gardening.

Fed Up with What Claims to Be Compost

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Fed Up with What Claims to Be Compost

I am so fed up with what claims to be compost just being a poor excuse for it. Even the expensive stuff for growing seeds and seedlings, needs to be sieved before you can use it to any effect. The wastage from general purpose is ludicrous. The gardener at Weycock Barns is using coir now, which comes in blocks and you just add water. He’s mixing it with Supagrow from British Soil for seed planting as there are no weeds and no wastage. Silvia Davies, one of Wenvoe’s really good gardeners, is using Lidl’s compost, which she says is the best of a bad lot. Best of all, make your own if you have room.

The tremendous amount of rain we’ve had over the winter will have washed a lot of goodness and structure out of the soil unless you had it covered or had a deep mulch on it. The best way to replace this is with manure. If you’re using something like blood fish & bone then only put it where you’re going to plant, or you’ll only be feeding the weeds.

The lawns have taken a battering over the winter. Even the ones that drain well will have moss in them. Any treatment due now should include moss killer. When this has taken effect, you can rake it out. Don’t panic when it looks awful, as this is the only way to start on improvement. Next job is to mix some grass seed with compost and sand then rake it in and water.

The village gardens have had their fair share of pest and diseases over the last couple of years. These include fuchsia gall mite and, unless your garden is sheltered, you will be affected. This affects the ends of the plant, and you will need to cut these off and bin them. The other pest which has caused devastation through the south of the country is the box tree moth. The caterpillars of this moth hide in a web on the bush, and they affect most strains of Buxus. There are some treatments, but you will have weeks of work in front of you and the bad news is that they will return. Even Alan Titchmarsh has taken them out and replaced with yew.

On the allotments there is a lot of growth on show. On inspection they look very vulnerable with their bright green leaves just perfect for a late frost or a hungry mouse or rabbit. Controlling weeds is always a full-time job whether it’s a flower border or veg patch. The late Trevor Case always had a hoe on hand to tackle them on dry days and would leave them to wilt on the soil.

Take care and happy gardening.

Desperate To Go Out into the Garden

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Desperate To Go Out into the Garden

March brings longer days but not necessarily better weather. We are desperate to go out into the garden and get it ready for Spring. We need to be sowing annuals and getting veg beds ready to plant carrots, turnips, beetroot, peas and broad beans. I’ll be planting some more tomato seeds to replace the ones planted earlier in Feb when I couldn’t wait to get started, then didn’t take enough care of them. Get a couple of pots of French tarragon and leave on the windowsill, this is lovely for fish dishes and will keep growing back when you use it. Hostas will be putting up new shoots now, so will need protecting from slugs. Purchasing copper rings and tape are expensive and not very effective. Sand and ashes will deter the little blighters but best of all are containers with beer in them as they can’t resist it and you can rest assured that they passed away in good spirits.

This month is the best time to prune back the roses and being careful where you prune will give a brilliant display by the end of May. Also, a slow-release fertiliser containing seaweed will help them to be at their best. This type of feed would benefit most shrubs, except for the likes of blueberry, azaleas and rhododendrons which need an ericaceous feed (acid loving). If in the unlikely event the weather is kind enough, we can repair some of the bare patches on the lawn, in my case caused by the jackdaws looking for leatherjackets in the late Autumn. I considered buying nematodes to kill the leatherjackets, but you have to do this annually, so decided to let the birds do it for me. The only way to solve this problem is to add more drainage to the lawn, which is not always good considering the summers we’ve had in recent years as it means more watering. So I will just live with it.

Any early Spring bulbs which are going over will need to be deadheaded, preferably before the seed head forms and then give the leaves a liquid feed to ensure a good show the following year. When the likes of Alex Cooper and Barry Oliver were in Wenvoe school there wasn’t a daffodil out to pick for St David’s Day. Everyone wore a leek and chewed at it which used to stink out the classrooms. They’re both getting on now, but are well which proves the benefit of fresh produce, even unwashed. Nowadays daffs are in bloom on the village green before Christmas.

I know I keep on but just resist those tender young plants on show in the shops and garden centres until the weather improves, think twice buy once.

 

Take care and happy gardening.

With Care They Will All Come Up

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

With Care They Will All Come Up

Keen gardeners will have the windowsills covered in propagators and pots with plastic bags over them. These will be full of tomato, sweet pea, leek and calendula seeds. Hopefully with a bit of care they will all come up. The ones that survive the grandchildren poking their mitts into the soil, looking impatiently for signs of growth, should be ready to go into a cold frame in March. Try, if you have room, to spread the seed planting out over a couple of weeks or more to give you a longer flowering season.

 

To get a decent display from snowdrops you need to buy them in the green during February and March and plant them as soon as they arrive, you will then have a good chance of a tidy display next year. Planting just the bulbs when they’re available in the Autumn never gives a satisfactory outcome. Have you remembered to plant that amaryllis you were given for Christmas? Better get on with it as the giver will want to know how it’s doing.

After an initial rough cut back last Autumn, the roses can be given a tidy up at the end of the month and into March. Cut the stems back to just above a bud and try to leave an open aspect as this will allow air to circulate, discouraging disease. Take some of the

tatty leaves off the hellebores, this will give the flowers a chance to show off. If any of the leaves have black spot, make sure you bin or burn these.

At the allotments pest control has started. Broad beans and peas that were planted in the Autumn are showing off their new foliage to the pigeons so netting or cloches are the order of the day. If using cloches make sure the ends are blocked off as the pests love nothing better than eating your veg when they can be out of the elements. Cover freshly dug soil or weed seeds will soon cover it for you. The jury’s out on whether chitting the seed potatoes before planting has enough going for it to make it worthwhile. Spread the planting time out so you have a longer harvest of new potatoes. Growing asparagus is a long-term investment, it would be worthwhile speaking to Bernard as he grows a fantastic crop.

Last Summer the folk round the village who grew grapes and figs had a remarkable year. Growing grapes is a little more work but with a bit of care the results are a joy.

Take care and happy gardening

A Programme for the Coming Year

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

A Programme for the Coming Year

January. Just browse the seed catalogues and, if you do venture into the garden, consider whether you’re going to make things worse by compacting the soil and trampling the bulbs that are doing their best to come up straight.

February. Weather permitting, look out for the crocus and snowdrops brightening up the garden in the last month of winter. Plant tomato seeds and put on the window sill; it’s a good feeling to see them poke through the compost.

March. Now we should have lots of colour in the borders and pots with daffodils and anemones signalling that spring is here. Weeds of course are the first to realise it’s spring and will cover the borders in no time unless we curb their activity. Do not be tempted by the new young plants in the garden centres unless you have a warm place to store these tender plants.

April. Now some of the earlier bulbs like daffs are starting to fade, you need to be deadheading and give them a liquid feed on the leaves to ensure a good display next spring. Tulips come to the fore now with brilliant displays to gladden any heart. The end of April is a good time to purchase annuals from the shops.

May. The greenhouse is full of plants that are ready to go into the garden. Look for a good spell of weather; you don’t want to put them out to get battered by heavy rain and wind in their first few days in the open and ruin your good work. Plant kidney bean seeds now, they’ll soon catch up with some you were tempted to put out early which were attacked by slugs.

June. Patience will be rewarded if you resisted the temptation to put your hanging baskets on their brackets until now. That’s why professional people always have great displays. The gardens and allotments are in full swing now. Allotment folk will be carrying water daily to look after their precious crops while house holders will be wishing they’d installed an extra water butt

July. Controlling weeds and deadheading is the order of the day. In the greenhouse tomatoes are coming faster than you can eat them. You’re afraid to go on holiday as all your hard work in the garden will just shrivel up.

August. Everything is at its maximum now and you’re starting to look like a kidney bean because you’ve eaten so much of this king of veg. The longest bean you’ve kept for the village show has been nibbled by a pest. Start to pick some apples to give the rest of the crops a chance to get bigger. Dahlias are starting to show why we love them with gorgeous displays. The village show is at the end of the month in the community centre.

September. Here we go, it must be Sept as the garden centre shelves and most of the floor space are full of Christmas stuff. If you don’t like it you have to go and look around the aquarium section with only the odd Father Christmas in a fish tank. Plant some potatoes in a spare pot to ensure new potatoes for Xmas lunch. Foxgloves, hollyhocks and Canterbury bells need to go in seed trays now for displays next year.

October. Leaves starting to fall in abundance now. If you can bear it leave the ones on the border, it’s a great mulch and the worms love them. We now buy a load of pumpkins and carve them for the kids, then leave them outside until they’re mushy and try to stuff them in the food bin.

November. A dreary month, but force yourself into the garden to tidy up; you’ll be so glad you did come the spring. Everyone loves a bonfire, so get your hedgehog recipes out in case one has decided to hibernate in yours.

December. Rummage through the shed looking for the Christmas decs and lights, wishing you’d put labels on the boxes, then finding stuff you were looking for in the summer. Give the garden waste collection workers a tip, don’t leave it all over the road. Then cancel your subscription.

January. Start again!

Take care and happy gardening

When It’s Wet To Stay Off The Ground

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

When It’s Wet To Stay Off The Ground

We are advised when it’s wet to stay off the ground. It causes a lot of damage if the soil gets compacted. This causes problems with drainage and restricted plant growth and includes the grass. There is still plenty to be getting on with, starting with trying to make room in the shed. This is for the stuff we are going to throw out from the house in spring but can’t bear to take to the tip. It’s the same ritual every year.

It has been such a strange year with a dry summer and a warm autumn. This has meant we have bedding plants still flowering in November. Pelargoniums are sometimes discarded but an old method of storing them is cut them back, pull up and shake off the soil, dry them out and store root ball pointing up and wrapped in newspaper. Ieuan uses the Guardian newspaper for his, but I’m quite sure the Telegraph would suffice as long as you don’t mind the plants leaning to the right when you replant them next spring. When the rain eventually came it seemed to bring all the insects, that had been waiting in the soil, to life. With not as much to eat in Autumn, they even started eating geraniums which are usually left unscathed. A lot of gardeners were bitten as well. A noticeable absentee from the late summer was the wasp, very few around.

Another piece of advice handed out at this time of year is to up the feeding of our feathered friends. They say it will encourage them to feed on the pests in the garden. I can’t say I’ve seen those little darlings ignore an easy meal to go hunting for the odd insect. What it does encourage is the larger pests (mice and rats) if we don’t keep the area cleaned regularly. If you’re putting apples out for the blackbirds, you will need to quarter them as they won’t peck through the skin. If you leave them whole, you are just inviting Pam Williams to recover them for her apple distribution network. Open feeders will bring in the sparrow hawk, it works like a McDonald’s drive through for these small raptors.

Working in and around the village throughout the year it’s an absolute pleasure to see the way the gardens are kept. I have to mention Mr& Mrs Cottle who always keep theirs in lovely order.

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas. Take care and happy gardening.

Go For It – Plant The Bulbs

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Go For It – Plant The Bulbs

Go for it – plant the tulip bulbs, they will produce excellent blooms if put in this month. Just make sure the pointy bit is aiming to the sky and they are deep enough. Daffs are cheap to buy now as the success rate diminishes with each week that goes by. Don’t even think about buying snow drop corms, they never do well. Wait until they are available next year, in the green, around March and April; you will be guaranteed a display the following Spring.

Some of the begonias flowered right through October. The mild, if somewhat windy, weather saw to that. Just make sure you save the tubers by drying them out and storing in a dry place, free from frost. The roses have also been producing blooms later this year, which has delayed any pruning until November. I will be putting the hedge trimmer through the roses and leaving the real pruning until the end of March, or when the buds show signs of growth. Do not leave any of the infected leaves around the base of the plants, as the black spot spores will thrive in the soil.

A lot of berries on the holly again this year, so if you need some for Christmas then cut off what you need and stand in water, it keeps for ages. If you don’t do this the wreath makers and wood pigeons will make short work of it before the first day of advent.

November is the start of the bare root season, these shrubs and hedging plants are generally cheaper than pot grown ones and take very well when planted. Apples and pears can be pruned at the end of the month through until the end of February. Don’t prune plums or any stone fruit until the Summer.

There is still plenty to get on with at the allotments. Mike Johnson along with others will be collecting leaves to fill the compost bins along with waste generated off his patch. This Autumn Mike is going to dig some of the leaves directly into the soil so the worms can speed up the process of decomposition. In the village you can leave the leaves on top of the soil for the same effect but up at Twyn Yr Odyn the wind will blow them into the Bristol Channel if you use this method.

Old hands Colin and Bernard have been pleased by the way the allotments have been cared for this year, producing good results in what has been a challenging year weather wise.

Reminder, if you’re having a bonfire, please check for hedgehogs. If you leave them in for too long they become crispy and take on a barbecue flavour. Barry Oliver wraps his in foil, to avoid any mishap.

Take care and happy gardening.

There Are Good Gardeners Around Wenvoe

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

There Are Good Gardeners Around Wenvoe

The village show highlighted the fact that there are good gardeners around Wenvoe. Bernard, who judges the vegetables and takes his job seriously, was so impressed by the quantity and quality on display. There is of course a small minority that get their produce from Waitrose, but the judge has seen it all before and advises that removing the price sticker might help. He was nevertheless taken by surprise by an entry from Nicola of the Twyn, who had obviously been on her travels to Lilliput. Nicola brought along what she claimed were tomatoes, in what can only be described as a Lilliputian snuffbox. Without glue they refused to stay on the display plate, being blown off by the waft of a butterfly wing. The only way they stood a chance of being judged was a taste test; unfortunately, they slipped down the throat like a greased paracetamol before you could bite them. All this added to what was a really enjoyable day.

The garden will start to look bare after the annuals have been discarded and the perennials cut back. You have choices to make now on how you’re going to protect the soil from erosion over winter. Using the spent compost from pots that had annuals or tubers in, buying in bark or leaving the fallen leaves on the borders for the worms to mulch down for you will work. Admittedly the leaves look messy, but they will do your soil a power of good. You can, of course, dig them in which will speed up the composting process. Always collect rose leaves with black spot and burn them.

Some have managed to keep displays of begonias and dahlias going until recently. Looking after the corms and tubers of these showy plants is a must. We need to make sure there is no foliage left on them and that they are dried out properly before storing in a dry frost-free environment. The late John Rich always kept his in kiln dried sand and had a very good success rate.

Take cuttings of your favourite shrubs, just cut below a leaf joint, peel off the leaves and poke in the ground next to the shrub, so you’ll remember where it came from.

Take care and happy gardening

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