February Gardening News
And so to business! The distraction of COVID had disguised the advance of another month and there is a gentle easement on daylight. Nature teases and whispers of better days ahead. There is evidence of buds filling and bulb shoots are spearing out of the ground. In just two months we will be tweaking the clocks all over again. I think spurred by the successes and the distraction of last year’s garden, the populus are already looking to get gardening. It’s there to do and there’s plenty of variety. I am pruning and redefining a tired hedge at the moment, cutting away rubbish and slipping in bits of bare root hedging to fill gaps. My plan is to move on this month to finish pruning. I have some fruit to tidy up and towards the end of the month will cut back a couple of roses. I have a rambler that has gone mad. Whilst any regular roses can be cut back hard, I will be more modest with the rambler. With the sap on the rise, I don’t want the plant producing masses of new vegetation, so will just restore some order. I am going to get some onion sets and shallots out, indeed most bulbous vegetables are available this month including Garlic and Artichokes. Asparagus and rhubarb can also be considered. Rhubarb is a great plant to have around. It’s easy, prolific, edible and it looks good even in a border. Don’t rush to harvest it in the first season and with care you can have a crop that harvests for years. This month I will be seed sowing. Make a start on a few bits and pieces, it’s so uplifting. Vegetable seed sowing should be modest and regular, creating a succession of cropping. Everybody gets carried away, just sow a pinch at the time, nobody wants 100 lettuce in one go. Try running rows of different items across a seed tray on a window sill. Just fill a tray with some good compost and then create five or six lines across the width, depressing the line with your finger tips to create a shallow channel. Then spill a few different seeds along each line, lightly sweeping the compost back and firming over the seed. The method is great for lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and spinach. Lightly watered, you’ll see new growth within a fortnight. The journey has begun. And finally, remember, it’s just a game, sometimes we may lose, but when we win, what joy. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
April Gardening News
April and the extended day makes the prospect of gardening more appealing. It has been a long and soggy journey and the ground is still wet, but somehow the extra light and the arrival of leaf lifts us and there is a desire to get on. The sudden lime green flash in hedgerows, almost overnight was like the flicking of a switch. Those with gardening in their veins have prepared and behind the scenes nurseries have plants ready to go. We need to get going and there is plenty to do. I will finish setting out potatoes in the coming days and know that onion sets and shallots will catch up quickly. There are Brassica plants about, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Summer sprouting can all be put out. As indeed can lettuce. If you can find a bit of light ground, then salad roots and carrots can all be run in from seed. If there isn’t a drier space anywhere than try growing your roots in deep pots. Radish, spring onion, beetroot and carrots can all perform well in pots and with a bit of planning you can create succession by sowing more in a fortnight. You can bring your vegetables right up to the back door. If the mood takes you can be sowing annuals now and some straight into the ground. Old fashioned cottage garden annuals like Candytuft, Nigella and cornflowers are a doddle. Scratch the ground with a rake and sprinkle the seed. Then just press the soil back. I am going to try broadcasting Cosmos in the same way. It is also time to be thinking of summer bulbs and tubers. I have a space prepared for Dahlias and the tubers can go into the ground towards the middle of the month. They are easy and prolific, though they will need some slug protection through the early weeks. Once you have them up they are a joy, delivering a bunch of cheer every day throughout the summer, up to the first frost. Every year I try to pop in one of the less used summer bulbs, last year setting out Tigridia (which were stunning), this year it’s the turn of Sparaxis. Known as the Harlequin flower, it shoots up quickly and delivers a palette of strong colours. Best of all it seems to cope with the wet. And finally, the green jungle that is your lawn, bays for your attention. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
April Gardening News
Another interesting month passes through, with days of extremes, biting wind, torrential rain, blistering sunshine and hail that lay like snow. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence and the gardeners twitched, hesitated and then did what they do and battled on, it being after all the start of another season. Certainly, you have had to have your wits about you and then the clocks changed. New light just makes so much difference and the extended day allows us to play. As always there is plenty of squaring up to do and the lawns need to be pulled back to order. I have just set out a bit of grass seed too. It will get going fairly quickly at this time of the year. I have only run in a bit of hardwearing seed, it’s cheap and it goes a long way, I always think that grass illustrates the magic of growing really well, with a bright green sheen sweeping out within a few to transform space. I do sometimes use turf (and that too will take easily now), but the magic is different. I am trying to liven up a few pots at the moment and garden centre seem to have plentiful supplies of good hardy plants around, especially those that are perennial or biennial (and so will do more than one season). This year in particular Anemones seem to be in plentiful supply and for all the implied tenderness of the foliage, this is a wonderfully robust family, offering a mix of very jolly, strong colours. I have made the space. In all of the excitement of that colour, I need to remind you, that the garden gate is open and there is much to do. You can be sowing seeds for all sorts and often in the open, just check the packets for confirmation and there are plenty of plants around too. A good range of leaf vegetable plants, so cabbage, cauli and lettuce are all safe as are broad beans and peas. If you haven’t already done it, then your potatoes can go in any day and there is still time to catch up with onions. Before we know it there will be bedding plants everywhere. And finally, please don’t buy Marrow or Runner Bean plants, it is far too early unless you are going to grow them on for a month in a greenhouse, which I will not be. Astonishingly I have already seen some on sale. May is early enough. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
October Gardening News
The tide has turned and how very quickly, Autumn rushed in, the brutal heat of summer bringing the early surrender from an exhausted landscape. The trees tell of a desire to shed their leaves and rest. All across the garden there is a sense of shutdown. The harvest has been mixed, the runner beans cropping strongly but over quite a short season, the tomatoes outdoors have been amazing but are being messed up by the arrival of the wet, which is making fruit split. The cabbage, cauli and sproutings have also been tested as word of their availability passed to caterpillars, pigeons and aphids. I suspect these pests took in turns to hold up the net, for even when covered they were ripped and gnawed. But, we’re on to the next bit and we can be clearing away and clearing the way for over wintering crops. Salvage the last of your tomatoes to stand on a window sill to ripen and gather in leftover marrows, squashes and courgettes (cool and frost free they will store for some weeks).In the retrieved space Peas, Broad beans, Onions and Garlic can be set out and there are still some late greens and spinach to be found. Of course, if you have some shelter then you will still get away with a bit of sowing and certainly lettuce and salad leaves are worth a go. We need to be on frost watch now, so consider all tender subjects that you might wish to preserve. Frost is callous and treacherous, coming from nowhere and wreaking havoc. Geraniums and Begonias need shifting and may even be potted to continue showing off on the kitchen shelf, in fact many subjects can be transferred to give an extended show. As space is freed up bulbs and autumn and winter plants can be introduced, with pansies, violas, sweet William, forget me nots and many others being available in quantity. Take time to stop by a stand of bulbs and soak it up, then treat yourself to something. I just marvel at natures pallet and the carnival that heralds spring as the bulbs pop up. And finally get that compost heap topped up and if you haven’t got one, make one. It is hugely rewarding. Nature rips through the piled debris and turns into compost like nothing that you ever buy. Don’t make the job too sophisticated or complicated or you put yourself off…………just pile it all on. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
March Gardening News
The days really have run away haven’t they? I am accepting of the fact that February is a day or two shorter than the regular months, but it was gone in a blink. Perhaps it was that block of five dreary wet days that congealed as a lump around the 10th. The ground is just so wet and nature is all over the place. I have sympathy for those who have organised Spring Flower shows in April, nearly all of my daffs are out now. But enough reflecting, we should be getting on, marching into March with much to do. We need to catch up on the early planting, so that’s onion sets, shallots, garlic, asparagus and rhubarb. Peas and Beans can be set out and new seed started to serve as a fail safe and to give succession. Summer Cabbage and Cauliflower plants can be planted out and if the plants aren’t available then get in some seed, they will come through quickly. Summer Cabbage can achieve maturity inside of three months. It’s salad time too and with the exception of Tomato plants which will need heat all other subjects can be started. March is also a great month for shifting plants and for introducing new ones. Roses, shrubs trees, hedging will all cope with the move. The sap will begin to rise any day now and new introductions will settle very quickly. There is also time for last minute pruning, sorting unruly growth and putting new shape into tired tangles. Pruning should be clean, modest and to a bud. If you haven’t done much before and want to reshape, look at the direction in which buds point before chopping. You want buds to point away from the centre of your plant and the lead bud is going where it points. On the flower front you can consider topping up pots and borders with a few hardy subjects. There are Polyanthus and primroses still around and some good clumps of aubretia, together with old favourites like delphiniums, foxgloves and Sweet William. There will also be new season violas and pansies, but if you have some over wintered plants give them the benefit of the doubt for a day or two. They regularly put on a great recovery towards Easter and can be impressive. And finally, all the books tell you to consider the lawn and it is fair to note that is has hardly stopped growing this winter. Just tread lightly and if you find the ground firm enough to get cutting, get those blades high for the first couple of cuts. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
February Gardening News
Well, some slightly more seasonal weather around, with some spiteful wind pulling temperatures down. The water doesn’t want to go away though does it, everything is so wet. It is a very strange start to the year and you do wonder what will happen to all of the tender plants if we have snow, everything is soft and out of step. Everyone has been reporting the early showing of daffodils and snowdrops, but we have cowslips flowering and bluebells in full leaf. Anyway theoretically we have turned a corner and the spring is not far away. Easter is as early as it can be so let’s hope that it offers a springboard for a good season. We do need to start tackling something. Last months work will have rolled over in most households, so as space permits, Broad beans, Peas, Rhubarb, Garlic, Onions, shallots and Asparagus can all be planted out. Vegetables seed can be started, they will need some basic protection, a cold frame, greenhouse or even window sill. Hardy vegetables will not need heat, so you can consider Cabbage, lettuce, some late spinach or even a bit of Calabrese or Cauliflower. If you want a bit of fun try a few beetroot or onions in egg boxes. Put a pinch into each compartment and then drop the cells into the ground in four or five weeks. The trays will degrade and you will have some early salad. The potato season is in full swing and whilst it is still too early to set them in open ground, covered or raised in pots though they are worth a go. If you have a bit of protection or a window sill space, then you can also start off a few hardy annuals, Calendula, Carnations, Sweet Williams and Pansies can all be started now. They want very light covering with compost to encourage germination and a bit of polythene across trays will accelerate the process, though you must maintain a daily watch. The seedlings move quickly from sprouting to romping and they are a pain to transplant once they become leggy. If you fancy Antirrhinums then they too can be sown,but don’t cover the seed with compost instead lightly pat them to have them adhering to the compost lightly water and again pop over a bit of polythene. And finally if all of this weather is frustrating you, grab a packet of Nigella, a packet of cornflower, some Californian poppies and Larkspur, mix them all up together and sprinkle them into a border that is not going to be fussed over this spring. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org