FREE SWEET PEA SEEDS! Plus in-depth guide to sowing & growing February 21, 2015
S D E E S E E FR ÂŁ1.99! worth
CAROL KLEIN
"You can ft in a mini-meadow!"
SMALL PLOTS
BIG CROPS
HOW TO GROW FRUIT IN POTS
Start lily bulbs fonrt a summer of sce order Plan a brand new b Get your veg patch ready for sowing
Spring
is coming!
Plant hellebores for FLOW ERS NOW Create IN DOOR DISPL AYS with bulbs TOP 10 GA RDENS to visit for dafodils
ON YOUR FRUIT & VEG F YOU JUST can’t wait to get new veg crops started, cover the soil now to warm it up. This will allow you to sow spring-sown veg, such as carrots, parsnips and peas, early next month and still see quick results. Warming soil is particularly useful if you have heavy clay because it is slower to warm up than lighter, sand-based soils. Make sure the soil is damp before you cover it or you could end up uncovering parched, dry soil when you remove the cover. Use feece, Enviromesh, weed-suppressing membrane or polythene to cover the soil. Make sure you weigh the covering down well so it won’t blow away. Using a spade, ‘dig in’ around the sides of thick coverings to stretch it and you’ll have neat, tucked-in corners too. Covering the soil now will also get you ahead of the game in the battle against weeds. A thick, black membrane is the most efective at excluding light from the ground. It will stop weed seeds from germinating on areas that you won’t be ready to work on and plant up until later in the year. Skim of weeds from the surface of ground that you have earmarked for tender summer veg, cover the area and then remove the covering after the risk of frost has gone. Hey presto, a lovely clear, clean patch to plant or sow into!
PLOT
I
Warm up
your soil Cover veg beds now and you can sow earlier, says Greg
Space tubers at 30cm (12in) intervals
Plant frst early potatoes
in) apart Mark out rows 45cm (18
30 Garden News / February 21 2015
Seed potatoes that have chitted in the past few weeks should be producing fat new shoots by now. If so, plant some of them outside now or in planting bags or deep containers and you can have a super-early crop of new potatoes. Choose a sunny patch outside where you haven’t grown potatoes for a couple of years. Plant each potato at a depth of 10cm (4in) and space potatoes at 30cm (12in) intervals along the row. Space rows at least 45cm (18in) apart.
In containers, place each seed potato on top of a 10cm (4in) layer of multi-purpose compost mixed with equal parts John Innes no.3, with the fat shoots pointing upwards. Cover them with a layer of compost so the potatoes are completely covered, then keep covering them as they grow. Keep the bag or container in a well-lit spot and water when the compost is dry.
Plant 10cm (4in) deep
What to
chop!
Prune autumn raspberries There’s still time to cut back autumn raspberries if the canes that fruited last autumn remain intact. Just chop them back to ground level, as close to the soil as you can, so you don’t leave a prickly stump! This may seem drastic but you’ll soon have new growth emerging from ground level when the weather warms up. And these canes will fruit this autumn. The prickly prunings makes good cat deterrents to put on empty areas, or shred them so they rot down more easily in your compost heap.
The show veg king who’s won 11 Chelsea golds and been awarded an MBE!
Medwyn Williams Growing for
Shu erstock
Onions sown in the past few weeks should be at the ‘shepherd’s crook’ stage, where they have developed crooked seedlings around 5cm (2in) tall. This is your cue to transplant the strongest seedlings into individual 8cm (3in) pots or into modules within a module tray. If you leave the seedlings much longer, they’ll become weak and leggy and won’t make strong plants. Gently water in each seedling after transplanting, label and keep somewhere that gets good light. Regularly turn the pots or trays around so that the plants grow evenly, ready for planting out in early spring. Photos: Neil Hepworth unless stated
Sow broad beans If your soil is sodden or frozen, don’t let it stop you starting a broad bean crop, just sow indoors. Fill some deep module trays with multi-purpose compost (ideally from a bag that’s been kept somewhere warm), then push one seed into each module so it is covered by twice its depth in compost. Water well and keep in a sunny place in a cold greenhouse or cool windowsill indoors. Once germinated, move the young plants to a sheltered spot outside. Bring them indoors if sub-zero temperatures are forecast. Pot up the young plants when they are 10cm (4in) tall or plant out if conditions allow.
Competition leeks, 20 to a tray, reach for the sky
Potting on the leeks
M
Y ‘PENDLE IMPROVED’ blanch leeks are in the Aberystwyth University glasshouse, with controlled heat and light, spaced out on capillary ma ing covered with perforated thin black polythene. This allows moisture to permeate, keeping the bench cleaner and preventing rot. Leeks perform much be er when regularly po ed up, and mine are ready to go into 12.5cm (5in) pots. I aim to move them without disturbing the rootball – when they have sufficient roots wrapped around the base of the pot but aren’t root bound. My po ing mixture is a 75-litre bag of Levington M3 with 10 litres of topsoil that’s been overwintered in my polytunnel and 7.5 litres of Vermiculite to ensure the mix is airy and free draining. These go in my electric concrete mixer, together with 113g (4oz) each of Nutrimate powder and my complete base fertiliser. We tend to think that the more light and heat leeks receive, the bigger and be er specimens they will become. But the leek is a winter vegetable and perfectly capable of growing on in relatively cool conditions. Last year they received too much warmth and light in the Aber greenhouse, so this year I’ll move them to my polytunnel much earlier. But
12 issues of GN for £12 and get a free gift! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
Medwyn Williams
Check on onion seedlings
I still haven’t decided if I’ll grow them on in large pots or a bed. From now on, it’s really important to keep the plants upright and straight, so I use pliable, green plastic plantsupport clips. They simply clip on to green split canes, forming a circle around the plant, which maintains upright growth. You can actually bend the barrel while it’s young and supple, but once it reaches about an inch in diameter, any curvature is almost impossible to straighten out. As soon as it’s practical, you need to pull or extend the bu on height of ‘Pendle’ leeks. I use a collar of black builder’s damp course, rolled into a pipe and a ached to a cane. I cut the material to form 15cm (6in) tubes, then extend the size in increments of 7.5cm (3in) each time, up to a final collar of 45-53cm (18-21in), depending on growth. My ‘Cumbrian’ pot leeks are also ready to be moved into bigger containers. Last year Alan Davidson gave me a ‘Yorkshire Giant’ pot leek to try, which comes from excellent stock and won many prizes for him last year. Again I’ll be moving both types much earlier and placing them on a bench in my large polytunnel. This is double skinned with air pumped between the layers a good defence against hard frost.
February 21 2015 / Garden News 31
Tranquil splendour: Over 100 water lily varieties adorn the lakes at Burnby Hall
ories this week The big gardeningEditst ge ed by IAN HODGSON Editor-at-lar
National Plant Collection in Lottery revamp Water lily garden to get new lease of life
A
LITTLE-KNOWN garden, home to a National Collection of water lilies, is on the way to achieving full funding for a complete refurbishment. Burnby Hall Gardens and Museum at Pocklington, near York, has received £20,900 from the Heritage Australian bred – Lottery Fund to progress plans for a nymphaea ‘Moorei’ Golden Jubilee Restoration Project. Work, which is scheduled to start in November 2015, will see the upper and lower lakes in the 3.6ha (9 acre) gardens completely drained and de-silted. “We’ll also take the chance to propagate and replant all the 100 or so varieties in the collection,’ said estates manager Ian Murphy. “Some haven’t been tended to for 50-60 years when they were first installed by Perry’s of Enfield.” Lake edges are also to be strengthened by a new concrete revetment. Also planned is an overhaul of a noted, but overgrown, rock garden by Backhouse of York. “We want to expose the rock faces so they can be seen, interplanted with ferns and other alpines,” said Ian, who is currently involved in producing sets of detailed drawings for the various projects. Work is to be undertaken by members of gardens staff, volunteers and landscape contractors. “We hope these developments will encourage more people to become involved and become friends of the garden,” added Ian. The garden, which also boasts woodland, formal and ornamental gardens, an aviary and a stumpery, was started by adventurer and collector Major Percy Stewart, who left the estate to the local community in a Trust after his death in 1962. His artifacts, which are housed in an eponymous museum, recall eight world tours between 1906 and 1926. The gardens are five-times winners of the Yorkshire in Bloom gold award. ● For more information about the water lily collection, tel: 01759 307125 or visit www.burnbyhallgardens.com
Photos: Burnby Hall Gardens and Museum Trust
38 Garden News / January 24 2015
THEQUESTION
GN readers have over a MILLION years’ gardening experience between them, and we’re tapping into it every week!
How good is gardening on tv? (And what would you really like to see?) Shu erstock
Small space advice Most new houses now come with tiny outside areas, so we need a practical programme to help us make the most of small spaces! R Ingram
Let’s get serious! Let’s have something serious and grown u – no over-enthusiasm, plonkyplonk music or celebrity ‘gardeners’. Let’s study the history of gardens, different aspects of garden design, the development and changes of a garden, and view gardens as culture not a hobby. Anne Wareham
Bring back the basics I want simple tips on pest control, growing, feeding and general maintenance. There are too many prime spots devoted to garden makeovers with expensive potted plants! John Bocking
Down-toearth
More practical advice
A
! s a 66-year-old total beginner I’ve watched all the shows but have rarely learned much. I would dearly love to see truly practical advice on how to grow things from flowers to fruit and veg. We need to get a new generation growing by showing them just how easy it is. I want to know how to grow things, how to make compost without attracting rats, how to get rid of slugs and carrot fly and blight. I’ve learned a huge amount from Garden News in the last year, but kids watch TV. Diana Hudson
Not well served
Gardening isn’t as well served as it ought to be. It’s very annoying I like Beechgrove Garden. It’s when they take off the shows for snooker, football or whatever. down-to-earth and much Why not put the sport on BBC3 more interested in the plants or BBC4 and leave Gardeners’ than in personalities. World alone? Rosie Lindy Jennifer Deegan Robertson
Quick quotes
Let’s see presenters getting their hands dirty not showing us gardens someone else tends Peter McIsaac Beechgrove Garden is fantastic! Anne Booth We could do with more like Geoff Hamilton on TV today – a great gardener and unpretentious! Betty Higden More about sustainability or permaculture please M I Boden It’s mostly bought-in plants on the programmes. No skill in that! Frank E Davidson
JOIN IN! Coming questions: What are your top tips for keeping houseplants alive? ● What’s your plant heaven and plant hell? Pick your best and worst plant and tell us why Go to www.facebook.com/GardenNewsOfficial, click ‘Like’ and post your comment on the Question of the Week. You could win free plants just by having your say! /GardenNewsOfficial Shu erstock
Next week in RRP
WER sUNFLO Giant’ ‘Mongolian
kin Grow a record-brea
2
£ .39
g whopper!
Early irises Expert advice on ALPINE SAXIFRAGES
Celebrate the year FREE SEEDS! of the sunflower! Sunflower ‘Mongolian Giant’ How to start off
xxx x
BEGONIAS
Sarah Raven on the best varieties for cutting ● Grow the tallest for a £100 prize ● Best ones for your garden