Category: The Village Gardener

This is the time of year when everything starts to grow. Weeds will be the first to shoot up, they are a good indication of spring. The RHS spring show is in Cardiff on the 7- 9th April and is well worth a visit if only to get expert advice from gardeners who really know how it's done.

It's now time for the first lawn treatment of the year. Whichever one you buy make sure it has mosskiller in it as this past few months' weather has been ideal for moss growth. When cutting your grass early in the season please do not cut too low as this can weaken grass growth and encourage moss. Aerating a lawn is a good idea as it helps with drainage, prevents soil compaction and allows nutrients in and air to circulate. There are various types of aerators on the market but the hollow tyne ones are better. It takes a while but is well worth the time and effort. Roses now need their first feed of the year. There are many brands of rose feed to choose from and all do the same thing. Take care to follow the instructions as too much feed will produce weak, leggy growth which will not hold up the blooms.

If your lavender plants are starting to get a bit woody now is the time to take cuttings from new growth. Pick a stem without a bud, cut to finger length and strip off lower leaves before dipping in rooting powder [this will help germination but also stop cuttings rotting] and place in 3'' pots of gritty compost to help drainage. Remove any cuttings that start to look sick in order to prevent spread of disease. This technique can be used for most softwood cuttings.

Pot up dahlia tubers and begonia corms and keep in a frost free place as this will encourage growth making them ready to plant out when all risk of frost has gone. Birds are nesting now so if you can resist taking the shears to hedges and shrubs all the better. It will also keep us all on the good side of the wild life group. Feeding birds all year round is a must as they depend on well stocked tables but at this time of year loose peanuts left on bird tables are taken back to nests with young who choke on these whole nuts. Peanuts kept in bird feeders don't cause this problem as they have to be broken up for birds to retrieve.

It is true that as you get older you appreciate things more. Passing through the village in March there was a definite sense of well being at the sight of the spring flowers in bloom. The daffodils around the park and church were beautiful and the great display of crocuses on the village green were a joy to see.

Happy gardening!

It’s never easy for our birds to find all the right nutrition they need and it’s even more difficult in the cold days of winter and early spring. It’s up to us to help out by making sure we always provide nourishment and water, and we’ll be rewarded by regular visits, not only from birds which are very familiar to us, but some we don’t see that often. Recent visitors to our garden have been a nuthatch, flocks of long tailed tits and even a rare visit from a thrush.

Garden centres provide a variety of choice bird food from seed to peanuts to dried mealy worms, the latter so loved by robins, but buying these in large quantities can prove expensive, so why not investigate your own larder to see what you can utilise to supplement what you have to buy, such as the afore mentioned products? I can tell you not much goes to waste in our kitchen. If we think it’s OK for the birds we save it and the list is endless and most of it is leftover- cheese, bacon fat, biscuit crumbs, bread, cooked pasta, grapes, apples etc. Before fat balls were on the market we even made our own bird cake – oats, cereal, sultanas, currants, nuts, bound together with melted fat and cut up when solidified. If you grow sunflowers, save the dead heads to hang in from a branch. They don’t look very attractive but the seeds are full of valuable nutrition and the birds love them.

Does anyone remember a pheasant which was a regular visitor to gardens on Walston Road many years ago? We used to put out peanuts for him and eventually he became quite used to us and would feed from our hands and we grew quite used to seeing him around.

This is my final piece in its present form, having provided the magazine with gardening notes since it was started, during which time many aspects of gardening have been covered, and I feel I have very little else to say. However if someone would like to take over from me, please get in touch with the editors.

In the meantime, if any reader has a gardening question let me know through What’s On and I’ll do my best to give you an answer.

From the Editor

Rumor has it that someone has volunteered to step into Trevor's Wellingtons.   Watch this space for when Trevor's Garden may morph into The Wenvoe Garden Guru

What an autumn it’s been, so mild with some days warmer and sunnier than many summer days. As I write this piece in mid November, the trees have yet to shed half their leaves and throughout the land the autumn colours have been spectacular, notably the maples of which there are several in the village.

I have only just emptied our containers and dug over the garden beds and really the geraniums and bedding begonias were in such good condition, they could have gone on until the end of the month. However the time is right for bringing my wallflowers down from my allotment for planting out in the garden and the winter bedding is ready and waiting in the greenhouse, to fill pots and containers. If you plan to fill your containers with bulbs, shrubs and other permanent plants, make sure water can pass through easily as good drainage is doubly important in winter. Clear any blockages in the pots and water should drain through readily. Ants and worms nesting under container bases can block holes but pots can be raised on broken pieces of tile or even half bricks.

I’ve been spending some time on my allotment in this fine weather, pacing myself with my digging – just a half hour at a time and not going mad as I used to do. I like to dig. I get the same satisfaction from the job as my dad used to do. I’ve got a rotavator but I still like to dig.

I was asked how long leeks, carrots and parsnips could be left in the ground. Leeks are winter-proof and can be left in the ground and lifted as required as can carrots and parsnips but these will begin to deteriorate after January if the tops begin to grow again.

Do you really want a poinsettia in mid- October which is when they’ve appeared in supermarkets this year? It wouldn’t do for us. We’re lucky if this plant lasts through December and rarely into the New Year, so we’ve admitted defeat and we now enjoy them in other folks’ homes.

So to all readers of What’s On I hope you have 

Autumn is well and truly here with trees and shrubs showing full autumn colour. What a good year it’s been for garden bedding plants of all varieties, but especially geraniums, and the various kinds of begonias. I grow both bedding varieties and the big showy ones and the latter have been huge this year, so much so that the weight of the flowers have often caused the patio pats to keel over in a bit of wind.

If you have a greenhouse now is the time to pot up plants you want to overwinter. They will survive quite low temperatures providing the compost is kept fairly dry.

Clear out greenhouses of tomatoes etc and wash down glass and glazing bars with ordinary household disinfectant.

Pot up spring bulbs to provide early flowers for next year.

On the allotment, take down bean sticks to store away for next year. Rough dig over bare ground and bury weeds, but remove perennial weeds such as docks, thistles and bindweed.

Sow autumn varieties of broad beans at least 3-4ins deep and protect rows to keep pigeons away. Thin out branches on blackcurrant bushes, taking out the dead wood. Remove blackberry canes that have fruited and tie in the long new shoots which will bear next year’s crop. Gooseberry bushes need very little pruning. Just remove some of the old wood.

Finally autumn is here and the leaves are falling. Don’t waste them! Leaf mould made from decomposed leaves is a great potting compost, soil improver and mulch Collect and store them in bin bags and leave to rot down. Chop them down and water first to speed things up.

In mid September I did my usual browse through the winter catalogues to decide on winter bedding plants. Not that there was much of a decision to make because I always send for the same plants anyway-pansies, viola, primula, polyanthus However I remembered that last spring I realised that I have been negligent in re-stocking with spring bulbs. When you plant your bulbs you think they go on for ever. Not so and crocus, snowdrop and even daffodils have all but vanished. I grow the latter in patio pots but there’s nothing as pleasing as the sight of a full bed of golden yellow flowers cheering up the dark winter days. So now that the summer bedding is almost cleared away, my priority will be to get in a selection of spring bulbs.

Now a question for readers of this column. Are your favourite flowers fashionable or uncool?

Recently I read an article on the increasing popularity of flowers which for some time have been considered to be unfashionable and the following is a breakdown of twelve flowers that are “in” or “out”.

These are the IN flowers – Gladioli, Dahlias, Roses, Gypsophila, Chrysanthemums, Peonies and Wild spring flowers.

OUT are Lilies, Orchids, Begonias, Carnations and Sunflowers.

So what do you make of that?

Most flowers have their charms but some are preferred above others. After all, like most things in life it’s down to personal choice. There are only four varieties on the combined list of twelve that would be top of my list, two of which are OUT, so I’ve concluded I must be UNCOOL!!

Summer is now almost over and gardeners are beginning to plan for winter planting in borders and containers. You can’t go wrong with the familiar plants like winter pansies, viola, primula, polyanthus, to name but a few, and pretty soon garden centres will be full of bulbs and there are many available in the catalogues that keep appearing through the post.

If you want to raise your own plants next year, late August/early September is the time for gathering seed. Home – grown plants will cost you nothing and seed sown fresh usually germinates more readily than long – stored options..

Early summer varieties will have already shed seed but many more will mature over the coming weeks. Be ready to collect seed when pods and capsules are dry or on the point of splitting. Gather seed in large envelopes ( not plastic bags) and keep them open in a dry place, to enable dehydration to continue. They will be ready for cleaning and packaging when they are completely dry.

Hippeastrum, more familiar to us as Amaryllis. If you have been watering and feeding these plants they should be carrying plenty of long leaves, but now they need rest. Stop watering and allow the leaves to completely wither. Remove the dead ones only when they have dried and don’t water until early to mid October. Re-pot only if the plant has become badly root-bound. Begin watering in autumn, sparingly until the first buds appear, then water more freely. Feed regularly with high nitrogen plant food when the first buds have appeared and continue until next summer.