librarian2003 (librarian2003) wrote in weagardening, @ 2013-02-06 19:12:00 |
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Current mood: | creative |
Week 3
And the wintry weather continues - it will be so nice when the soil dries out and we can get back into the garden again.
There were no takers for Plant of the Week this week, so on Tuesday, I stole Shirley's images for her forthcoming plant of the week for Friday's group, and on Friday, I followed up Judy's Tuesday presentation of Veltheimia.
The Astrantia images will follow later, when Shirley has done her presentation - I don't want to steal all her thunder...
Our Sites of the Week handout is here:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
Spring Term 2012/13
Sites of the week : Week 3
1 For an excellent selection of Astrantia – and other perennials
West Country Lupins
http://tinyurl.com/ako8e5q
2 Another excellent selection of Astrantia – and other perennials
Larch Cottage Nursery
http://tinyurl.com/b68m4g8
3 An excellent selection of Astrantias, and many other perennials from this small nursery. Click on the link for the online catalogue.
Avondale Nursery
http://www.avondalenursery.co.uk/
4 Advice from Which? Gardening on mail order plants, and your rights.
Which? Gardening
http://www.which.co.uk/plantsbypost
5 Information on this year’s opening, from Saturday 2 February 2013 to Sunday 3 March 2013
Hodsock Priory
http://www.hodsockpriory.com/snowdr
Jo Hanslip
January 2013
Our main topic was The Garden in February, and here's the handout:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
THE GARDEN IN FEBRUARY
February can be a difficult month for working outside – it really does more harm than good to work on soaking wet soil. If the soil is very wet and there are things you absolutely must do, work off boards. Winter flowering plants are still at their peak this month, and the first flowers of spring are starting to appear, together with a few early bees and other insects.
If the weather conditions permit, a good mulch can be laid now, 2-3 inches thick and will smother new weed seedlings. Be careful not to cover small spring bulbs such as winter aconites.
Before plants really get into growth, use the opportunity to remove debris from the garden, and to take down or repair fences and trellises.
1 Hedges
Prune overgrown deciduous hedges as early in the month as possible, before the birds start nesting. Save some of the prunings if you need twiggy peasticks.
Weeds will be germinating in the shelter of the hedge bottom, and should be controlled before they get out of hand.
2 Kitchen Garden
If digging conditions are difficult, cover the area with polythene – this will keep rain off and keep the ground a little dryer and warmer. Just roll the polythene back when you want to dig, and cover it over again when you have finished.
Prepare trenches for runner beans (and sweet peas) which need a moisture retentive soil to crop well. Choose a sunny site and dig out a trench two spades deep. Half fill it with material that holds moisture well, like newspaper and kitchen waste, then refill with soil. Mark the position, so you won’t forget where it is when planting later in the spring.
Autumn fruiting raspberries should be pruned now – cut the old canes right back to ground level.
Feed established fruit trees and soft fruit – pelleted chicken manure is good, or rose fertiliser – the high potash content will give fruiting a boost. A good mulch will also be beneficial.
Protect peaches, nectarines and almonds against peach leaf curl. The fungal spores are spread by splashing rain, so small wall-trained trees can be protected by covering with a sheet of plastic from now until late spring. Chemical control is not so effective, but the best is a copper fungicide, sprayed twice, two weeks apart.
Rhubarb can be forced for an early crop. Cover with a large bucket or small dustbin containing loose straw for added warmth. The first sticks should be ready in 6-8 weeks. Do not force the same clump next year.
Strawberries can be forced for an earlier crop. Cover with cloches towards the end of the month. Make sure there is ventilation at each end, and when the plants are in flower, remove the cloches during the day to let pollinating insects in. Alternatively, pot up some plants and move them into the greenhouse. Feed with a high potash fertiliser and water well.
Order potatoes and asparagus if you have not already done so. Early potatoes should be ‘chitted’ before planting next month. For an early crop of potatoes in May, plant some early potatoes in containers in the greenhouse. Half fill a 15 litre pot with compost and put a seed tuber in. As the plant grows, top up with more compost until full. After harvest, refresh the compost with fertilizer and re-use, for example, for summer containers. Old compost bags can also be used with 3 or 4 tubers.
Feed overwintered vegetables, including asparagus beds.
Plant out Jerusalem artichokes and shallots.
Garlic should be planted before the end of February. The soft-necked variety ‘Solent White’ produces lots of small cloves that store well. Hard-neck varieties, such as ‘Lautrec Wight’ or ‘Purple Moldovan’, produce large cloves. Plant cloves 6 inches apart and bury so that the tip is just below the surface of the soil.
Prepare seed beds by covering the ground with clear polythene – this will raise the temperature a little – and apply a general fertiliser 2 weeks before sowing.
Sow vegetables under cloches, including beetroot, carrots, lettuce, spinach, turnips, cauliflowers, radish and salad onions. Broad beans and peas can be sown in the open ground, but protect from mice. Alternatively, sow broad beans in pots indoors, ready for planting out in late March and harvesting in June and July.
Deep beds can be created for growing vegetable on heavy soils. Drainage and fertility are improved and there is no problem with soil compaction.
Check soil alkalinity and top dress with lime if necessary.
If you want a new herb garden prepare the site now. Lighten heavy soil by incorporating well-rotted compost at the rate of two buckets per square yard. Herbs grow best in warm, still air so do well between hedges of sage, lavender or rosemary. Planting annual sunflowers can make a good temporary shelter. Sunflowers, tall cosmos or cleome also give temporary camouflage to compost heaps.
If the weather is dry and not too cold, a first sowing of parsley can be made in the open towards the end of the month. Parsley prefers a damp, shady site.
Complete the pruning of apple and pear trees.
Prune outdoor grapevines to encourage new growth.
Shorten sideshoots on trained gooseberries back to two or three buds
If you put grease bands on your fruit trees, inspect them now to see if they need reapplying.
Hazel (cobnuts and filberts) will be flowering, with bunches of catkins. If you only have room for one shrub, make sure that it is a self-fertile variety. Hazel can be coppiced every few years to make sticks and poles – some stands of hazel coppice are a thousand years old.
3 Beds and borders
Weeding and maintaining the border should be completed now, before easily damaged new shoots develop on shrubs and perennials.
Winter flowering pansies and primulas should be dead-headed regularly to encourage flowering
Sweet peas can be sown outside towards the end of the month (see above for making a trench). To give protection, cover seed with cloches made from the top half of a plastic bottle. If you want to sow plants on the cordon system, erect the supporting framework of posts and wires before sowing.
Cut back the dead stems of last year’s perennials, before new growth gets in the way. If you have epimediums, helleborus orientalis or ornamental grasses, now is a good time for cutting back any tatty foliage, before new growth really starts. If the weather is severe, and there is no sign of new growth, wait until the end of the month to do this – the dead foliage will provide a little protection.
Unless the border is newly planted, it will need a dressing of fertiliser in spring. Normal advice is for a fertiliser fairly high in phosphate and low in nitrogen, but after such wet weather last year, a little extra nitrogen will help.
If you have a south-facing border, particularly next to a wall, consider making an exotic border. Improve drainage by digging in coarse grit – sharp sand can make drainage worse. Many tender perennial plants have a chance of surviving here, and at least, it will make a superb border of exotic annuals.
Water tubs and wall trained plants if necessary.
4 Bulbs
Begonias and gloxinias can be bought now as tubers and half buried (no deeper or they may rot) in trays or pots of compost at about 13°C. Plant begonia tubers hollow side uppermost. When the shoots are about one inch high, transfer them into 5-inch pots and grow on in plenty of light. Water as needed by standing the pot in a saucer of water – surface water on the tuber can cause it to rot. Feed weekly with a liquid fertiliser.
Lilies will be available now. Choose ones that are firm and fat, rather than withered and soft. They like the same sort of moisture-retentive soil as sweet peas, so dig in plenty of well-rotted compost. If necessary, add grit to improve drainage. Plant so that the bulbs are covered by 4-8 inches of soil, or in large pots. Many of the commonly available lilies are stem-rooting (they form roots from the lower parts of the stem as well as from the bulb). Particularly when planting in pots, make sure that the bulb is deep enough to accommodate these. The exception on planting depth is the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum), which is planted with the top just below the soil surface.
Bring in any remaining pots of bulbs that have been forced.
Snowdrops and winter aconites establish best if planted ‘in the green’ (immediately after flowering). These can be bought from specialist nurseries. Overcrowded clumps of snowdrops can be split now, after flowering, and replanted immediately at the same depth. Latest thinking, however, suggests that May is a better time to do this, as the bulbs start into dormancy – the critical thing is to not allow the bulbs to dry out, and to replant immediately.
Gladioli will flower earlier if sprouted in the greenhouse. Place single layers of corms in trays in a temperature of 10C in full light. Watch for signs of aphids on the sprouts. Plant out in March. Discard any diseased corms.
Although they can be difficult, now is the time to try potting up some tubers of Anemone coronaria – usually either the single-flowered De Caen Group, or the double flowered St Bridgid Group. Soak overnight before potting.
5 Trees and shrubs
Small flowered clematis that flower in late summer – Clematis orientalis, C. texensis, C. tangutica and C. viticella species and varieties, for example – should be hard pruned towards the end of the month. Prune each stem back to about 12 inches, cutting to a pair of strong healthy buds. These clematis are ideal for growing through climbing roses, as both plants can be pruned at the same time.
Large flowered clematis that flower in mid to late summer should be pruned at the same time. Remove all thin weak stems and prune the remaining ones back by around a third to a strong pair of buds. Prune some stems more heavily to promote growth from the base.
Summer and winter jasmines (Jasminum officinale and J. nudiflorum) can be pruned now. Weak, dead and damaged shoots should be removed. For winter jasmine, immediately after flowering, shorten all side shoots and long straggly growth to within 2 inches of the main stem to encourage a bushy habit and plenty of flowering shoots next winter. Thin overgrown plants of summer jasmine by removing some of the older branches completely, either at ground level or where they join the main stems. Don’t just shorten the stems or you will encourage lots of thin bushy shoots.
Side shoots on wisteria can be shortened to about an inch, unless you still want the plant to cover more space.
Top-dress pot-grown shrubs with new compost – you can mix in a slow release fertiliser if you wish.
For the hardier evergreens, such as laurel, pruning can be done now. Thin out overgrown evergreens by removing entire branches where they join the stem or at ground level. More tender plants, such as choisya, are best pruned in summer.
Cut back flowered mahonias to encourage new growth.
Cornus, grown for their coloured stems, can be cut back now.
Firm in recently planted shrubs and trees if loosened by weather.
6 Propagation
Root cuttings can be taken of certain perennials, including Acanthus, Anchusa, Brunnera, Catananche (Cupid’s Dart), Dicentra (bleeding heart), Limonium (sea lavender), Papaver orientale (oriental poppy) and Romneya (tree poppy). Put the pots in a cold frame or stand in a sheltered place outside and cover with a cloche. When growth starts, pot up the cuttings individually and grow them on to get them well established before planting out, usually next year.
Take basal cuttings of hardy perennials that are quick off the mark to start growing – anthemis for example.
Divide and pot up single rooted pieces of clump-forming perennials such as Michaelmas daisies. These can be grown on and planted out in April.
Low branches of shrubs such as rhododendrons can be layered.
7 Lawns
Aerate a lawn suffering from poor drainage.
Cut an established lawn for the first time during mild weather, if growth has started. Set the mower blades higher than usual for the first two or three cuts of the year. If you have worm casts, brush out with a stiff brush or besom to avoid little flattened patches of soil where weeds can get a hold.
Where lawns are not thriving, rake out the thatch to allow light, air and water through to the roots.
Remove lawn weeds – dig them out with a narrow trowel or old knife, or a daisy grubber. For lawn weedkillers, only use if the weather is mild and dry; otherwise wait until next month.
8 Greenhouse and windowsill
Hardy annuals can be grown from seed and planted out later in spring. They can be sown a few seeds to a module, and then planted out without thinning. Alternatively, wait until next month and sow directly into the ground.
Dahlias and chrysanthemums stored over winter should be brought into growth now if you want to take cuttings from the new shoots. Put the potted tubers/stools in full light and water well. Newly bought stools can be treated in the same way.
Tender perennials that have been overwintered can now be brought into growth, including fuchsias and marguerites. Repot into fresh compost, prune back and water well.
Tomato plants can be sown either in a heated greenhouse or on a warm windowsill from the middle of the month. Tomato seed needs light to germinate, so cover thinly with sieved compost or with vermiculite.
Start sowing half-hardy annuals and half-hardy perennials, which need a longer growing season before flowering. Best sown in heat in February, for example, are Antirrhinum, Begonia, Lobelia, Nicotiana and Petunia. Pelargoniums should already be germinating, but can be sown early this month for later flowering. Make the first sowings in a heated propagator since most require a germination temperature of 21C(70F).
Tender annuals and perennials to sow now are Browallia, Coleus, Exacum, Gerbera, winter cherry (Solanum capsicastrum) Cape primrose (Streptocarpus) and Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata). Clarkia, Salpiglossis and Schizanthus are annuals that can be sown now and grown as pot plants. Sow at a temperature of 16°C, prick out into small pots and finally pot up 3 to a 5-inch pot. For really cheap and cheerful pot plants, do the same with annual bedding, like petunia, busy lizzies and antirrhinums.
Ventilate the greenhouse as often as necessary. Watch for the first signs of fungal disease.
Tidy up potted ferns, potting on into larger pots if necessary. Plants can be divided at this time. Use the vigorous crowns from the outside of the old plants.
Examine houseplants to see whether they are in need of renovation after winter, or are best discarded and replaced.
Cacti and succulents are still in their resting phase. Don’t allow them to become dust dry – a tiny amount of water will keep the roots functional – but keep in good light.
Grape vines can be pruned while they are dormant. Don’t leave it long enough for the sap to start rising or they will bleed badly. Cut back side shoots to leave one or two buds. Main stems that are getting too long can be cut back.
Watch out for the first signs of greenhouse pests such as whitefly and greenfly.
Hippeastrums should be in full flower – feed weekly, and do not allow to go short of water.
Water indoor azaleas with rain water, keeping the compost constantly moist.
If you don’t have a cold frame, consider whether one would be useful. Not only are they useful in spring for hardening off young plants, but also in winter, they provide a little extra protection for borderline hardy plants. Choose a sheltered site in full light but out of the prevailing wind. In a pinch, you can make your own from large cardboard boxes and bubble wrap.
9 Sheds and tools
Check that all machinery and tools are in good working order.
• Remove rust from tools with emery paper or a wire brush
• Wipe blades with an oily cloth or spray with WD40 or similar
• Wipe wooden tool handles with raw linseed oil or teak oil
• Use white spirit to remove dried sap from knife blades and secateurs
• Oil the hinges of penknives
• Sharpen knives regularly
• Hang tools on the shed wall, so they are easy to find
Finish cleaning pots and seed trays ready for sowing.
Stock up on pots, labels, twine and other sundries.
10 Wildlife
The earliest flowers – spring bulbs, hellebores, etc – will provide nectar for bees and early butterflies – check that you have some nectar bearing plants in the garden for these early visitors.
Put out regular supplies of food and water for the birds – some resident bird species may be already nesting during this month if the weather is mild.
Moles will be active, so look for signs.
11 Ponds
Ponds will be coming alive with mating frogs and toads, giving gallons of spawn that will hatch into tadpoles by mid-March.
Plan early for tackling blanketweed in your pond. Which? Gardening recommend Greenways Lavender Pond Pads, Hozelock Blanketweed Treatment, Viresco Aqua, Interpet Blanket Weed Buster, or an aquatic dye as used at Wisley.
11 Places to Go
Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb
Friday 22 February – Sunday 24 February 2013. Information here: http://www.experiencewakefield.co.uk/ev
Hodsock Priory
Saturday 2 February 2013 to Sunday 3 March 2013
http://www.hodsockpriory.com/snowdr
Jo Hanslip
Revised January 2013
Does anyone want to comment, or ask questions?
Jo