So Much To Be Getting On With
THE VILLAGE GARDENER
So Much To Be Getting On With
As always there is so much to be getting on with in our gardens. Regular watering is another task to add this time of year, along with weeding and feeding. All this is essential to make the best of our displays. Hanging baskets will need feeding every week and watering every day. There never seems enough time to sit and enjoy the garden during the growing season but that’s the way of gardening. Just being amongst the plants makes us feel better.
Now is the time to take cuttings from lavender, forsythia and fuchsias. Plant seeds of primroses and pansies for transplanting out in the autumn. Canterbury bells and foxglove seeds can be planted now for flowering next year. Seeds planted at this time of year take a bit more looking after as shallow seed trays seem to dry out very quickly.
Watering is key to success. We are advised by the RHS of the need to water wisely due to some areas of the UK having severe water shortages. They advise we water in the mornings as plants start to use water when the sun comes up, with the soil and foliage likely to stay drier for longer than when watering in the evening, which will discourage slugs snails and mildew diseases. When watering soak the soil well as light watering encourages root systems to reach towards the surface and as soon as the top of the soil dries out the plants will suffer. The less room a plant has to collect water the more water it needs as in containers or pots.
If the weather patterns continue with very long dry spells, we will need to consider the plants we buy and look for more drought tolerant varieties, which seems not in keeping considering we have just had the wettest spring on record. So it’s a water butt on every down pipe on every house with a garden in future.
The National Allotment Society advice on jobs for June. Hoe at every opportunity to remove weeds and break up the surface of the soil to allow water to soak in. Train in your climbing beans and continue to add sticks to the peas and water these well to get the pods to swell. Successional sowing of salad crops and sow winter cabbage seed. Use soapy water on any black fly or greenly. Cabbage root fly can be a problem, the fly lays her eggs in the soil close to the young plant. When transplanting put a collar of cardboard at the base of plant to prevent the laying of eggs. There are nematodes for this problem that destroy the larvae.
Take care and happy gardening
THE VILLAGE GARDENER