Tips To Make More Of Your Garden
THE VILLAGE GARDENER
Tips to make more of your garden
By folk visiting the Wenvoe village show.
- Reuse your grow bags by taking the top off and growing late salad crops.
- After harvesting cabbage cut a cross in the remaining stump and, as if by magic, you will get another crop.
- If you want gardening gifts for Christmas, make sure you write a list, or you’ll get underpants.
- Never plant bulbs too shallow; the deeper the better.
- Old compost makes for a good mulch.
- Don’t bother taking a cuppa into the garden, it will without doubt be cold before you drink it.
- Get a mushroom kit; you can’t fail and you’ll have something to enter in the show next year.
- If your neighbour has a leaf blower, be prepared to do a lot of raking.
- Just had a tetanus jab at A&E; make sure you keep this jab up to date and a First Aid kit handy.
- £3 for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and someone to talk to! When’s the next show?!
Thanks to Bernard’s chivvying, a lot of allotment folk entered the show and put their reputation on the line. Veg gardeners will be picking the last of their spring sown produce now and filling the compost bins with the waste. Any bare ground will have broad beans, onion sets and garlic planted and other bare patches will be covered to stop soil erosion and prevent weeds finding a good home. Another idea to think about is planting one of the many green manures you can buy. You just let them grow and then dig them in, sounds easy but it is a bit of work.
Trying to garden by reading the gardening magazines is so blooming difficult as there is a couple of weeks difference between the south and north of the country.
We had a friend who moved from Somerset to Aberdeen and could never grow a runner bean. As soon as it came into flower the first frosts got it. Down South we are tempted to plant early but it rarely works. A little more patience would save us a lot of wasted time and money. Like a fool I was tempted by the rows of delightful plants that had not sensed a breath of wind or cold until I got them home. Plants you buy now for the Autumn will need some protection from the elements before you plant out. They recommend at least 2 weeks of care before planting in their final position.
With cost a major factor in gardening, it is beneficial to try and store plants over winter. This is not easy as last winter proved, when pelargoniums perished in green houses even with bubble wrap insulation. You need to make sure there are no draughts. A friend recommended that begonia tubers should be thoroughly dried and then put in kiln dried sand to over Winter. This has worked for me over the past few years.
If you still have daffodil bulbs to plant, don’t delay as the sooner they go in the better.
Take care and happy gardening