Garden News September 26

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September 26, 2015

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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

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simple steps to revitalise clumps of perennials

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Giant redwood and bristlecone pine (right) seeds will be collected

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Exploring the tallest and oldest Shu erstock

T h e W in do w s ill Ga rd e n e r

The taste of summer O ne of the sweetest, summery flavours ever is the fresh, green crunch of a pea, popped straight from the pod.

Unfortunately, at this time of year, we’re more likely to be clearing strawy, spent pea plants from our gardens than enjoying that burst of flavour. Unless, that is, you start growing a batch of crunchy, vitamin-packed pea shoots on your windowsill.

These easy-sow, easy-grow salad additions not only capture that taste of summer at a depressing, winter’s-on-its-way time of year, but they’re absolutely delicious. The essence of pea, concentrated into a succulent, leafy shoot. All you need is a packet of pea seed – any left-over, half-finished packet will do, no

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need for a special trip to the garden centre – and a pot or tray of multi-purpose compost.

Sow the seed quite thickly across the level surface of your compost to get as many shoots as possible from your space, and sprinkle more compost over until they’re just covered. Water and keep warm on a bright, light windowsill and, before long, you’ll see those enquiring green shoots break through the surface.

Snip selectively with a pair of scissors when you harvest, and you should be able to get at least two or three croppings from the batch. Start another lot of seeds off in a fortnight and so on, to enjoy harvests throughout autumn and into winter. If you do need to buy seed, go for pea ‘Twinkle’, a fast-grower that’s perfect for the job.

Foresty staff search for seeds of key conifers

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eeds from some of the most important trees on the planet are being collected by staff from a UK botanic garden. Bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), the world’s oldest tree, and Sequoia sempervirens (the coastal redwood), the world’s largest, are both on the wish list of a team from the National Pinetum at Bedgebury in Kent.

The group is travelling through lush forests with the aim of bringing back wild seed to grow at the garden, to replace trees that are coming to the end of their life or expand the genetic diversity of species. The 128 ha (320 acre) Bredgebury National Pinetum & Forest is home to the Plant Heritage National Conifer Collection, containing more than 12,000 trees. “Knowing these seeds will one day become towering giants is what makes my job so rewarding,” said Bedgebury’s dendrologist Dan Luscombe. ● Visit www.forestry.gov.uk/bedgebury

Codling moth

6 Garden News / September 26 2015

Garden World Images

Ever found a maggot in your home-grown apples? Then you’ve experienced codling moth. These disgusting creatures burrow into the fruit and eat it from the inside out.

Often the only sign from the outside is a tiny round hole, but when you cut into the fruit, instead of juicy flesh you are greeted with an excrement-filled cavity. Vile!

Responsible for A tiny hole in the fruit, brown Self defence: Hang a pheromone trap from the messy cavity within. tree’s branches in early May. This attracts the Affects male moths, who then get stuck in the sticky Apples and pears (sometimes trap, making it less likely the females will walnuts and quinces) mate successfully.

Tem TV

“Tomatoes changed my life!”

Jim McColl, 80 B eechgrove Garden presenter Lives: Scotland Gardening type: Traditional

MY LIFE In Plants Above: tomatoes changed Jim’s life Below: snow white rowan berries The first plant I ever grew I do remember planting onion sets in my maternal grandfather’s allotment. He was a steam engine driver on the GlasgowCarlisle route.

The plant that shaped the gardener I am today Probably the rose. As a school boy I worked

Jim would love to grow more hydrangeas

on a rose production nursery called Samson’s Nursery (now covered in housing), in my home town of Kilmarnock. I tied in the buds with raffia, thousands of them!

And I learned to bud too. I also learned to lose money playing solo when it rained.

My favourite plant in the world I guess it has to be the Rowan tree, in all its forms.

The plant that changed my life Probably the tomato! After 20 years in horticulture – as a gardener, teacher (LEA) and adviser (ADAS and NOSCA) – I returned to commerce, with a waste energy project at Glengarioch Distillery in Aberdeenshire, in 1978. I designed and built 1.75 acres glass and plastic nursery heated by waste energy from distillery, eventually producing 200 tons of tomatoes a year and some other ancillary crops.

Iss it a bird? No, it’s Su Supermoth!

Summer migrant may be a garden visitor

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painted onto a post or tree trunk, a process known as sugaring.

The hawk moth migrates from southern Europe, with a few hundred spotted in the UK, mainly during late summer and early autumn. It is rarer than the more commonly seen smaller hummingbird hawk moth, with a black-and-white chequered body and orange hind-wings. ● Visit www.mothnight.info

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Convolvulus hawk moth is 12cm (5in) across

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ardeners are being asked to look out for a massive continental moth that may be found visiting the UK. The fist-sized convolvulus hawk moth, with a wing-span of 12cm (5in), is able to hover with pin-point precision to sip nectar using its 7.5cm (3in) long proboscis. It is especially fond of the tubular flowers of tobacco, but can also be lured by hanging out ropes soaked in alcohol, preferably wine, or a mixture of sugar, syrup and beer

The plant that’s made me work hardest The tomato!

The plant I’d love to grow more Hydrangeas of all kinds.

The plant I miss most while I’m travelling The trees in my garden: conifers, acers, rowans.

The plant I am in human form?

Cotoneaster – a tough old perennial!

September 26 2015 / Garden News 7

What to do this week

IN YOUR FLOWER GARDEN

Garden News RECOMMENDS Plants to divide now

Divide perennials T

spring, they wouldn’t have long enough between being hacked apart and when they’re supposed to flower to recover. The other

Geraniums

Dividing perennials in autumn

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Use the spade to split through the rootball, sectioning it into smaller pieces with roots and shoots.

Ma hew Roberts

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Lift the entire clump using a spade and making sure you bring all of its roots up with it.

re-established, they’ll make a full recovery.

Also take care that each divided portion has lots of roots and shoots, and that it’s not too small – tiny divisions will take longer to get going again and put on a show.

Tough or woody rootballs might need slicing with an old kitchen knife or a sharp spade.

You may be able to simply pull apart plants with fibrous roots, or tease them into pieces with back-to-back forks.

advantage of doing it now is that you can see what’s what in your borders. There’s no danger of trampling over just-emerging spring bulbs for example, and you can see where you’ve got gaps that need filling with some of your new plants.

The splitting itself can feel brutal, but as long as you make sure the divisions are replanted into good soil and kept moist while they get themselves

Ma hew Roberts

26 Garden News / September 26 2015

Ste p by ste p

Pulmonaria

Ma hew Roberts

his time of year is great for getting stuck into and sorting out borders.

Any perennials that are over three or four years old and are starting to look tired may be in need of dividing – and warm autumn soil with accompanying frequent rain makes for the perfect conditions to help new divisions recover.

If the middle of a clump looks old, with fresh young growth around the outer edge – a ‘doughnut’ effect – division will reinvigorate it. Plants that insist on splaying outwards from the middle will benefit too, as will anything that’s just got too big for its space. The result will be healthier perennials and lots of free plants, too.

Early-flowering perennials are particularly suitable for dividing in autumn – if you waited until

Doronicum

Ma hew Roberts

It’s the ideal time to revitalise clumps that are looking past their best, says Clare

Primula

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Replant the divisions in well-prepared soil, firming them in well and watering them in thoroughly.

TERRY WALTON

Tales from the

ALLOTMENT

Star of BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show and best-selling author. His allotment sits in the Rhondda Valley

Jo bs to do now

It’s T-shirt weather as I plan next year’s rotation

● Harvest the last of the autumn raspberries and then cut the fruited canes back to the ground . ● Clean out the old foliag e of the cucumbers in the greenh ouse as the crop finishes. ● Watch out for the last cabbage white bu erfly caterpillars on your brassicas.

Photos: Terry Walton

It’s the Midas touch!

Autumn fallen leaves are great for my soil

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ur little allotment hillside is basking in that hazy sunshine of early autumn. The nights are cool and the sun is rising later, but what a beautiful sight as it glistens in the early morning dew.

A million diamonds shimmer to herald another super day.

While cleaning up the last of summer’s debris at the bottom of the plot, my eye is caught by silently falling golden ‘raindrops’.

The trees are starting to shed their leaves

and, soon, brown, gold and yellow will cascade in torrents from the sky, carpeting the ground with autumn hues. To many this is an additional chore, but to the gardening faithful like me these leaves are manna from heaven! I gather them all up, and those of many of my neighbours, and corral them in a wire netting enclosure to stop them fluttering away in the whirling autumn winds. They’ll slowly decompose into a rich soil improver, delivering nutrients to next

Patience is a virtue Two exciting things have happened in the greenhouse. Firstly my one and only melon has ripened and can be harvested! Despite my bee impressions with a paint brush, I still only achieved the one fruit, so I hope it tastes good. Secondly, my peppers have finally gone red and can be harvested.

There are plenty of green ones still there, so I will use a few of these, but the red ones are much sweeter. When I started them on their way last March I knew I had to be patient, but this sunless summer has tested that to the full!

36 Garden News / September 26 2015

My plump, juicy red peppers are ready

year’s harvest. Be selective with the leaves you use, and stick to softer types, as larger, coarse leaves take an age to break down.

Before I forget what was grown where this year, it’s time to draw up next year’s crop rotation plan. I already have a proposed plan in the shed but, as is the way, things get changed as I try to cram everything into my plot. Most of it works fine but when I draw up next year’s plan I try to ensure that crop rotation is adhered to as much as possible.

The plan then enables me to mark out each crop’s area with canes and then, throughout autumn and winter, these areas can be prepared to meet the best possible growing conditions for various types of vegetables.

The gifts of onions I have been given have dried off nicely on the wire staging in my greenhouse. I can now string them up to complete their drying process and ensure they keep through winter. I take a metre of stout string and tie it in a double knot to make a loop. The biggest onion is tied with a knot and its dried top is woven around the string and pulled down firmly to secure it.

The rest of the onion tops are then woven around the string and pulled down against this bottom-tied onion. This makes a handy bunch to hang in a cool, dry shed, and it is easy to check on them and ensure none are going bad. Also, it’s easy to snip one off for use while the rest remain secure secure.

I’ve grown a lot more peas this year and they’ve given me great crops. I’ve removed two more rows this week and I have many more to squeeze in the freezer. There are still two more rows growing and I’m hoping this good weather will carry on so I get another good crop. The only problem when podding for the freezer is the ‘one for you, one for me’ principle.

One pod pops into my mouth and one goes in the colander!

g in h t ar a E k: oc e we the t x p Ne u