Category Archives: Garden lore

Wisdom and hints

Garden lore

“Lady Cantal says that flowers can feel no pain. I asked if hers did, and she said yes, so I pointed to a hideous stone gnome overlooking a bed of very nice Stocks and told her the reason.”

H.L.V. Fletcher Purest Pleasure (1949)

022
Sowing seed

Most beginners think you can just scatter seed around the garden and it will grow but it does not take long to realise that the results can be very disappointing, non-existent even. It is worth learning how to grow seed. Some can be sown direct into the garden. There will be instructions on the back of commercial seed packs telling you how deeply to plant the seed. However, it is often more successful to sow into a seed tray or individual pots, germinating the seed in more controlled conditions.

Generally you need about 10cm of depth so egg cartons are only going to work for quick turnaround crops like peas or lettuces. It is best to buy a bag of seed raising mix which is sterile (so when a green shoot emerges you know it is your seed and not a weed) and also lower in fertiliser than a potting mix. Tamp the mix down to get rid of air bubbles. Individually sow large seeds or sprinkle fine seed carefully and then spread a thin layer of mix on top of the seeds. The smaller the seed, the lighter the covering but almost all seeds need a complete cover. Water carefully. A misting bottle (the well washed window or shower cleaner bottle with a pump spray) is ideal for fine seed. Don’t flood the seeds.

Until seeds germinate, place the pots or tray out of direct sun but in good light. It is usually wise to elevate the seed trays away from slugs and snails or cats who think it is a litter box.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden lore

The honeybee kills more people around the world each year than all the poisonous snakes combined, but the creature responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the mosquito, by a considerable margin.”

Niall Edworthy, “The Curious Gardener’s Almanac” (2006)

003 (5) - Copy Garden Lore: bee food

We were interested to read an article last week reporting that Britons are being urged to plant bee-friendly flowers rather than to try home beekeeping. Amateur beekeeping is not for the ignorant but well-meaning enthusiast. It needs to be done properly or not at all and in London there is simply not enough food to feed the existing bees without adding more.

The plight of bees is a global problem. Without getting too carried away on this matter, the bees need as much help as they can get. What every gardener can do is to plant some food for the bees. Basically, bees need flowering plants with visible stamens. The simplest and one of the most effective ways is simply to sow some seed of flowering annuals along with your vegetables. Let one or two plants go to seed and then weed out those surplus to requirements in future years. Bees are needed in the vegetable garden and orchard in order for some plants to crop so make the environment more inviting for them. Besides, what is not to like about cosmos and poppies between your cabbages? Browse the seed stand or catalogue and pick flowers with plenty of golden stamens visible and a healthy track record. Hollyhocks can be vulnerable to rust and mildew and nobody needs more of these problems in the vegetable patch but most daisies, single poppies and calendula are fine and there are many other options.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden lore

“When Lord Teviot had despatched his letters, he found her in her garden,,, [it was] a first-rate gardener’s garden, every plant forming part of a group, and not to be picked or touched on any account; all of them forced into bloom at the wrong time of the year; and each bearing a name that it was difficult to pronounce, and impossible to remember.”

Emily Eden The Semi-Attached Couple (1830)

Dealing to wandering jew

Of all the pesky, invasive and difficult weeds to eradicate, wandering jew – also known as wandering willie or tradescantia – is right up there with the worst. It is usually impossible to eliminate in one hit and every single bit you miss or drop will grow again. Turn your back, and you will have a carpet of smothering foliage returning. It takes great persistence – either the removal of every single piece for alternative destruction or repeated chemical nuking.

Whether you are spraying or hand pulling, rake the top layers off first and remove. I hesitate to say send to landfill because I do not think that is what landfill is for. Piling it into black rubbish sacks, sealing them and then laying them on concrete under hot sun will kill it. Then you can compost the remains. If you are confident that you make a hot compost, you can put it straight into the heap but a cold compost mix won’t kill it. If you are not going to spray, then you just have to keep repeating this process.

If you are willing to spray, the bad news is that glyphosate is largely ineffective. You need a spray with the active ingredients of either triclopyr or amitrol. Grazon is probably the best known triclopyr brand but your garden centre will have other commercial sprays with these active ingredients. It will take at least two or three applications over several months to get rid of the regrowth.

Apparently this weed can cause terrible skin irritation to dogs and cats which is another good reason for eradicating it. Just don’t ever do it by chucking the bits over the fence. They will grow and return to your place to reinvade as well.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden lore

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden.

Abraham Cowley The Garden (1666)

“There is a psychological distinction between cutting back and pruning. Pruning is supposed to be for the welfare of the tree or shrub; cutting back is for the satisfaction of the cutter.”
Christopher Lloyd The Well-Tempered Garden (1973)
018 (3) Garden lore – spring pruning

With spring now officially here – unofficially it arrived some weeks ago for many of us – it is the last call for hard pruning and clipping. The birds will be starting to nest and if you leave it any later, you will be carrying out the ornithological equivalent of mass infanticide. In addition to that, the sap will be starting to rise and it is generally better to prune when the plant is in a dormant or near dormant state. Grapevines in particular must be pruned right now. They weep for ages after pruning if you do it too late.

My definition of pruning and shaping is anything that requires a saw (be it a hand saw or chainsaw), loppers and secateurs. Hedge clippers, line trimmers and snips see you in the territory of clipping and shaping. If you are using a line trimmer on hedges or bushes in spring, do a check for nests first. Those mechanised tools are unforgiving and indiscriminate once they are going.

Raspberries and apples should also be pruned without delay.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden lore

You buy some flowers for your table; You tend them tenderly as you’re able; You fetch them water from hither and thither – What do you get for it all? They wither.

Samuel Hoffenstein (1890-1947)

020 (4)
Garden lore- dividing polyanthus

Polyanthus are cheerful little souls flowering away at this time of the year but often treated as disposable plants with a short life span. Yet they clump up quickly and are easily divided to spread wider to get a carpet or patch that obligingly flowers when few other perennials do. I planted white polyanthus last year, all single crowns with just one rosette of leaves. This week, even though they are in flower, I have been digging and splitting the ones that have already multiplied well – the clump in the photo yielded five good sized plants. When perennials are in full growth, they can recover quickly from being divided.

Lift the clump and look at the base of the leaves. It should be clear where the different rosettes of leaves have formed. Sometimes you can gently pull them apart at the base. Sometimes you need to cut through the nubbly root formation just below the top. Each clump needs as many roots as possible. Trim off the outer leaves and replant into well cultivated soil, enriched with compost if you have it. You only need to water them in if conditions are dry. The replants should romp away with fresh growth and reward you with extended flowering well into spring. If you put the plants at maybe 30cm spacings, they have room to grow and you can inter-plant with something else entirely that will flower through summer.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.