Garden News January 2

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B rit a in'sed st m o st t ru in vo ice g a rd e n in g

"Get your garden off to a flying start with my soil masterclass" Chris Beardshaw

Carol Klein "I'm starting

2016 with new plants!"

Every garden needs

A CONIFER!

For shape, height and colour

GROW CORONILLAS!

Easy-care & flowers ’till spring

JOBS TO DO !

THIS WEEK ✔ Prune wisteria ✔ Make a bean trench ✔ Winter wash fruit trees

Heavenly s e r o b e l l e H !

s e i t e i r a v 0 1 p To loving ● Extra hardy ● Shade quisite flowers x E ● e ag li fo g in k ri St ●

PLUS

How to prepare Easy ways to grow and care for a NOW for the sowing season! GRAPEVINE

W eat h e r W is e With Ian Currie

So mild the daffs are out!

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or much of England and Wales, it looks like being the warmest December on record. For my part of Surrey, it’s averaging several degrees warmer than the previous mildest December set in 1934. I’ve failed to record even a grass frost.

Winter has made it south though into Scotland. Dalwhinnie in the Highlands recorded a chilly -8.7C (16F) on December 13 and at Balmoral it was -2.9C (27F). Snow lay 12cm (4¾in) deep at Aviemore and covered the hills as far south as the Pennines.

In many places further south, though, daffodils are poking through the soil and in the extreme south some are actually in bloom!

I was sent a picture of daffodils waving in the breeze in Dorking, Surrey, and in my garden on the north side of the Downs, they are nearly a foot tall and snowdrops are in flower.

In a very mild 1934 in my area of Surrey, 10 of the first 15 days of December reached 10C (50F) or more. Last year, 14 of the 15 days exceeded 10C (50F) and on December it stayed above 12C (54F) during the night. By way of contrast, during the whole of the cold December 2010, no day reached 10C (50F).

December 1934 is currently the warmest December in UK records with an average of 8.1C (47F). Gardeners then were bemused by the lack of frost and the state of their gardens.

One from Somerset said: “My scarlet geraniums are bright in colour and many other summer plants are lingering.”

But December 2015 is warmer by several degrees and may prove the most phenomenal for warmth of any winter month in our history back to at least medieval times. l Visit Ian Currie’s website at www.frosted earth.com

Daffodils providing an unseasonal splash of colour in the south

6 Garden News / January 2 2016

Bare-root lovelies Looking for something special to welcome in the new year?

‘Fab-u-lous’ Fab-u-lous’

New

ROSES

Huge blossoms, Huge with central petals shaded fawn.

Light fragrance.

Small-leaved.

H: 1.2m (4ft). Price: £12.95 br/£14.95 cg

‘Fragrant Beauty’

hese varieties from Style Roses are high performers.

Available to plant now as bare-root (br), or year round as container-grown (cg) specimens.

Tel: 01406 424089 or visit www. styleroses.co.uk

T

Classic-shaped rose. Very strong, sweet fragrance.

Good repeat blooming. H: 1.2m (4ft). Price: £12.95 br/£14.95 cg

‘Billet doux’

‘Sunny Sky’

Long flowered.

Rosette-shaped blooms. Good fragrance. Bush or climber. H: 1.2m (4ft)-3m (10ft).

Price: £11.95 br/£13.95 cg

Rose of the year 2016. Excellent repeat-flowering variety. Light, fruity scent.

H: 0.9m (3ft). Price: £11.95 br/£13.95 cg

‘Always you’

‘Wonderful you’

Classic-shaped hybrid tea variety.

Strongly fragrant, rain-tolerant blossoms. H: 1.2m (4ft). Price: £11.95 br/£13.95 cg

Single blossoms or clusters of burntorange flowers.

Light fragrance.

Great for cutting.

H: 1.2m (4ft). Price: £10.95 br/ £12.95 cg

The Windowsill Ga rde n e r

Kalanchoe for flowers all year

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hese pretty flowering succulents are often included in floral displays in winter, whether on their own in a container or mixed with other plants. They adapt well to life indoors.

The flowers appear in broad, flattened clusters above fleshy leaves. Compact enough to fit on any windowsill, the blooms come in cheerful shades of pink, red, gold and cream. Often known as flaming Katy, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is one of the most popular.

Native to southern Africa and Madagascar, these tender perennials enjoy a warm, sunny spot in summer, up to 21C (70F), but in winter they’ll cope with cooler temperatures, and will need less light, ideal for our short winter days. Don’t

be tempted to over-water water plants because it can cause them to rot, only water when the compost starts to dry out. Nip off the faded flowers as they go over.

Kalanchoe often flower all year if they’re given the short day length they prefer. In spring and summer you can mimic these short winter days by keeping plants in darkness for a few extra hours a day.

By reducing light and lowering temperature, the plant is fooled into thinking it has had a winter dormancy period, which is the key to plenty of repeat flowers.

All photos: Style Roses

AboutNOW

MY LIFE In Plants Ray started his veg growing as a child with le uce

Ray Warner Heritage seed merchant, and owner of Thomas Etty Seed Company Lives: Puddlebridge, Somerset Age: 62 Gardening type: Experimental!

The taste of homegrown asparagus far surpasses shop-bought varieties

“I refuse to cut the grass grass!”

The first plant I ever grew was…

Lettuce, at around the age of six. Apparently, my mum was so surprised that anything came up she refused to let me transplant them, so we picked them as salad leaves. Very middle-class for a London council estate!

That short row of lettuce plants started me off on a life-long gardening journey.

The plant that shaped the gardener I am today… Grass lawns! I have always hated cutting grass, and it was the job I was always given to do. I spent around 10 years working as a jobbing garden designer and I specialised in low-maintenance gardens, none of which, I am pleased to say, featured a lawn. To this day, the only job I refuse to do in the garden is cutting the grass. grass

Ray’s passion for chillies has taken him to many autumn festivals

My favourite plant in the world is...

I would usually say tomatoes, but we always get blight here in Somerset. A close second would be chilli peppers. Each year I grow four of five different varieties purely for display. We sell our seeds at quite a few chilli festivals each autumn, and find that people always appreciate seeing what the finished article should look like.

The plant that changed my life…

An old-fashioned red geranium (pelargonium). This was the first plant I ever grew from seed that I had saved myself. With this came the realisation that plants come from seeds, and that seeds actually come from plants and not from seed packets.

The plant that’s made me work hardest is... In the garden of the first house we bought ought was a small, spindly peach that had been een planted in the wrong place and grown ass a tree, rather than a fan-trained bush. It was also suffering from a bad case of peach leaf eaf curl. I spent hours carefully cutting it back ack to shape and ‘curing’ the leaf curl.

Finally, inally, two years later (typically, just before we moved), it produced three small peaches.

For or the amount of time and effort I spent, I suspect uspect it would have been cheaper to have bought ought a box of fruit from Fortnum & Mason!

The plant that sums up the human side of my job… Having a life-long interest in the history and origins of, and the preservation of, heirloom varieties of flowers and vegetables, together with the wish to share that knowledge with as many people as possible.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn

Ray grew a classic red pelargonium from seed he saved

The plant I'd love to grow more is…

Asparagus. There is definitely something very special about the flavour and texture of freshly picked asparagus, especially if it has been coated in a good olive oil before being roasted in the oven. It's something that just can’t be matched when using shop-bought or frozen produce.

The plant I miss most while I'm travelling… The plants I always check first when I get back from a trip is our small collection of orchids. My wife, Jane, has a sure touch when it comes to keeping them flowering, and I’m always amazed at how long the individual flowers last, and also how quickly they start to produce another flower stem once the old one has been cut back.

The plant I am in human form…

A Brussels sprout plant. Very tall, heavily built, and often troubled by greenfly. ● Ray Warner set up Thomas Etty Seeds, which now offers some 450 heritage seed varieties, ranging in date from 1633 to the end of the Second World War, all hand packed by Ray and his son Dan. Ray’s book, Heirloom Plants: A Complete Compendium of Heritage Vegetables, Fruit, Herbs & Flowers is out on January 4, published by Ivy Press, RRP £18.99, and available from all good bookshops and online retailers.

January 2 2016 / Garden News 7

What to do this week

IN YOUR FLOWER GARDEN

Clean and sh p blades sharpen Prepare your tools for precision gardening!

I

28 Garden News / January 2 2016

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t’s a quiet time in the garden, but if you’re looking for a reason to escape the cold turkey and drooping tinsel, here’s a job that will let you while away an hour or so in the shed. This is the perfect opportunity to shape up your tools ready for next year, and the first priority is anything with a cutting blade. Shears and secateurs become blunt over time and they get gummed up with a sticky green residue from plants, called cellulose. Give the whole tool a good scrub with a wire brush and water to remove the worst of the dirt before you start.

It pays to be thorough. On a day-to-day basis you can keep your secateurs sharp with a handy pocket sharpening tool, but it’s good practice to completely dismantle and scrupulously clean your secateurs regularly, so they work like new.

If you have good quality tools you can normally separate the parts to make cleaning and sharpening easier. Felco and similar brands can be dismantled with a small spanner. You might be surprised how many parts go into a set of secateurs, including springs and tiny screws! As you remove each part, place it in a line on a piece of paper to keep it in order, and put any tiny parts in an egg cup, which will make the task of reassembling much easier.

The blades will be last to come out and can be completely removed for a thorough clean and sharpen. You can now hone the whole thing evenly from end to end.

Use a whetstone or sharpening file to sharpen the blade. With firm strokes push the file along the blade away from you, making sure it’s flush with the existing bevelled edge.

Work your way along the whole edge. Use a piece of paper to check the sharpness, rather than your finger!

Give the other parts a clean too, then coat the moving parts, especially the central pivoting bolt, with thick grease such as WD40 Lawn and Garden Heavy Duty Grease. Reassemble the parts, checking the central bolt isn’t too tight or loose, to make sure the cutting action is perfect.

Secateurs often cut by one tapered sharpened edge passing a blunt blade, rather than both blades being sharp.

Only the tapered edge of the blade should be sharpened.

Put a few drops of oil onto the flat whetstone and hold the stone at an angle, the same as already on the cu ing edge.

Push the blade along the stone, exerting a li le downward pressure. Wipe with a rag before storing somewhere dry.

CHRIS BEARDSHAW

Gold Medal

MASTERCLASS

Award-winning garden designer, Chelsea Gold medallist, radio broadcaster and Beechgrove Garden presenter

Enrich your soil

f o h t o r b A rich matter will organircish your soil no u

Create humus to improve aeration, drainage and nutrient retention

W

hen conditions are good, this time of year offers opportunities to steal a march on the season ahead.

With this in mind and with many plants revealing the soil to the elements, consider enriching and enhancing this often overlooked but essential part of your garden.

The challenge is to determine exactly what needs, or doesn’t need, doing.

Under normal circumstances, and unless you happen to be plants and 10 times more gardening on a peat bog, the efficient at nutrient addition of composted organic retention than even the matter will revolutionise best soil particle. The rooting prospects. Traditionally robust humus particles this was forked into the ground aid the formation of good but, where soil compaction soil structure, filling isn’t evident, or where spaces between mineral surrounding roots may suffer particles and acting like damage, application can be as Just about all shock absorbers to simple as spreading 5cm (2in) kitchen waste can minimise compaction, or so of well-composted be composted thereby improving air, material onto the surface. root and heat penetration.

Timing of this is key since, if it’s Even better for those gardens completed after a warm spell, the compost acts as a duvet, retaining warmth in prone to drought, humus retains up to five times its own weight in the root zone. Gradually this organic matter water, increasing water-holding is incorporated via macro organisms, capacity of the soil by up to 50 per such as the armies of ground beetles and cent. And, if all that isn’t enough earthworms that each munch through their to get us out spreading organic body weight of organic material every day. matter, remember that the dark The process of organisms migrating brown colour of humus absorbs upwards through the soil to gain access to the sun’s energy quickly, so a the organic matter inevitably improves well-tended soil, rich in humus, has up to aeration, drainage and relieves compaction, a 3C increase in soil temperature, meaning thanks to the myriad of tunnels they create.

And once digested down into small particles, a longer growing season for plants.

The sum of all this is that while the organic matter breaks down further into soil weather is inclement, I shall be looking humus, a stable series of compounds based through seed catalogues, dreaming of next on carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. year. But the moment the conditions are This magical humus substance is favourable I will be getting my garden off to a something to get excited about, since it flying start by emptying the compost heaps carries an electrical charge that binds and spreading a little horticultural magic. nutrients into the soil, making it available to

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn

Leaf mould conditions soil, and is a great top dressing in winter

January 2 2016 / Garden News 31