July Gardening News
Well, we slipped through June without a scratch, the gardens were all planted up early as is still the norm in years of Royal celebration and the weather was ok. There was a curious undulation in temperatures almost on an hourly cycle, we would see changes that had temperatures rising and then crashing. The wind stayed keen and the rain, erratic, but things grew. The roses have put on a splendid early show, with Irises and peonies reaffirming themselves as my early summer favourites. I continue to marvel at the way nature can just sling together the most unlikely colour mixes and conjure something so joyous. Thus far pests and diseases have not caused too much havoc, although the snails did show up to maul our hostas and the pigeons have been about, though their attempts at raiding our greens thus far have been thwarted by netting. The first early potatoes are being lifted and are looking pretty good. The released space will allow a line of winter cabbage I think or perhaps some leeks. You will still be alright to continue salad sowing too. Small quantities of lettuce, radish, spring onions and beetroot will all still perform. If you are still looking for colour there seems to be plenty of bedding still about, with some larger plants bringing immediate life into dull spots. To get the best of what is already there, keep up with the tidying, dead heading and harvesting, occasionally rewarding plants with a spot of feed. Liquid tomato feed is a cheap and easy to apply all-purpose fertiliser, offering most of what the plant is looking for. Flowers love it. This month you can also be taking on a bit of pruning, blackcurrants can be repaired after fruiting and wisteria will be glad of a tidy up. Many early perennials can also be cut back and some like lupins will be encouraged to deliver a second display. The main issue is to discourage the production of seed, which is very draining on the plant. I slipped up though, with my rhubarb which decided to bolt, throwing a terrific plume of flower in a very short time. The seed of rhubarb is very viable and whilst the stem wants removing the seed will often grow like cress. And finally, there are still things that can be sown and this month I will sow spinach, which is a great extra winter vegetable and easy to grow. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
September Gardening News
A whole season swallowed up by COVID and time to think about the what to do next in the garden. The Spring in the main was pretty good and the interest in gardening lifted hugely as people, locked down sought occupation. There were many new to the task and most I suspect will be pleased with their endeavours. The blackfly has been testing and the caterpillars fairly voracious, but with regular watering things have grown and flourished. Anyone who has planted French beans will be particularly pleased. Demand for colour has gone on and on, with big demand for late bedding. As the summer runs towards the autumn we wrestle with the start of the next bit. Autumn onion sets are arriving in garden centres and gaps are appearing on the vegetable plot in readiness. Spring Cabbage plants and Spinach (together with Chard) are all available. There is still time to sow a few seeds too, leaf lettuce, radish, rocket and spring onions will all still deliver. Winter Lettuce (like Arctic King or Density) as well as perpetual spinach will also come through. Keep on top of September harvesting, many vegetables will perform with encouragement and the worst thing is to leave things to get too big. So keep on top of beans, courgettes and tomatoes. I have been sowing one or two less common salad supplements and now have Claytonia, Celtuce and Corn salad on the go. The celtuce is particularly interesting, offering a salad leaf and a crunchy stem which can be steamed, stir fried or grated for salad. The stem is exposed as the leaves are plucked for use. I will keep you posted. As the month rolls on, we will consider flower borders, the pansies and violas are back, together with all the old favourites. So you can be planting Wallflowers, Sweet William, bellis daises and other biennial items and then there are the bulbs. Centres are full of them and the range continues to extend, as more new varieties reach the shelf. As usual I am hooked once more on tulips. If you have had enough of it all, or you just fancy a bit more lawn, then September is a great month for grass seed sowing. The days are shorter and the ground remains warm, so seed germinates quickly. And finally, Keep tidying up too, commitment wanes once the weather turns. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
July Gardening News
Mmmmmmm…so we waited for the rain and then it came, the perfect fillip for new plantings. The beans romped and everything puffed up and grew masses of leaves. The turn around was amazing, at the start of June, the message was that rainfall was at an all time low and then within days the news is announcing three months rain in a day. It has resulted in a huge demand for canes and stakes and I just about managed to save our delphiniums. Anything not supported has taken quite a thumping. The days ahead will be full of restoration and maintenance. Baskets and containers will need to be clipped and tidied and then fed to rejuvenate them. So much water is very leeching, so much of the original nutrient is on your patio. Keep on top of dead heading too, diverting plants from devoting time and energy to seed production, which will encourage new flower bud. Many things are advanced and so it is equally important to keep ahead of the harvesting. Don’t allow things to get tough, everything will be made more prolific by your attentions. Courgettes do not have to be marrows ! Do feel able to continue with your sowing. Salad crops in particular will come through quickly, so lettuce, radish and spring onions, even beetroot will come up with the goods from seed and none of them need masses of space. Whilst you are in the mood for seed sowing, why not pop in some chard or perpetual spinach. They are amazingly resilient and sown now will offer quality edible leaf right through until Easter next year. I f you have space in the vegetable plot then be on the look out for some Spring Cabbage, which a really useful early season green. Then of course there is the lawn, it too has taken a bashing and whilst the temptation is to drop the blade and rip it off, be gentle. Skim it, leave it a couple of days and do it again. I understand the frustration at seeing the emergence of a million daisies, but hold back. And finally, as you pull up your first early potatoes, give a thought to Christmas. Just for fun select a few tubers, pop them on the window sill for a week or so to ripen and then replant them in a pot. With a bit of luck they may just deliver a taste of new spuds for Christmas. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
August Gardening News
Wow, that was a hot one! The dry spell was punishing, indeed quite debilitating for a day or so and just for a moment gardeners stopped. We sold a lot of ice cream. Every splash of rain raised the humidity too, which has been great for the pests and diseases. Crops have continued to grow, but in such conditions you have really had to be on the case with harvesting, with many things going past their best in a hurry. There were early beans that within days were going tough and courgettes that became marrows over night. So, the message is keep harvesting, even removing substandard material to encourage further production. The same rule applies to flowers, don’t allow them to waste energy on going to seed, just pick once a petal drops. Vegetative growth has remained luxuriant, but everything will quickly look autumnal if we don’t get some steady rain; your watering input is essential if plants are to see September out. Do try to feed too, plants are stressed and your encouragement will pay off. If you are up for some fun of course you can play with a bit of late seed and root crops in tubs are very manageable and results very achievable. Try carrots, beetroot, radish and spring onions. Close to the house and with gentle maintenance they will crop. With the carrots try Early Nantes. Normally grown (as you will have guessed) for early production they are very quick to mature. The other vegetable varieties are not so important, they will just do it. If you have room and enthusiasm then spring cabbage and spinach can still be planted. I really value these two items, which will reliably offer up strong greens for over winter use. You will have noticed that garden centres are showing bulbs, it is early, but if you want choice and quality buy them and cool store them until next month. Unless you are wanting to try once more to get Hyacinths for Christmas in which case you need to plant in the middle of this month. It’s crazy to be talking Christmas, but there you are, the winter pansies are on sale so why not. And finally, keep an eye out for blight and keep picking off those black spotted rose leaves. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
May Gardening News
April bounced along, in fact it flew once Easter had arrived. The late Easter was the starting pistol and we had the benefit of a few weeks of light evenings ahead of it to prepare. So many people use it as the start time for gardening, so there were many lined up for the charge and since that weekend trading has been lively. I say late Easter but in fact not as late as it can be, The date is determined by the first Full moon of the spring and in 1943 it didn’t happen until April the 25th in 1943. Anyway, it is all systems go now. The last of the spuds can go in, we can run successions of vegetables, keeping pinches of lettuce, radish, spring onion and beetroot going, pushing in summer cabbage and would you believe even planting sprouts. The real joy these days for me is that the supermarkets have introduced so many new vegetables. Well, not perhaps new but better publicised. Celeriac, Kohl Rabi and Flower Sprouts to name just a few. Celeriac is a long winded grow, but Kohl Rabi is a doddle and quick. As the month advances tomatoes, beans, marrows, courgettes and cucumber can all be put out. In the case of Tomatoes and Cucumbers watch out for late frost and be prepared to cover them with something overnight and if your garden is naturally cold then leave them in until the last week of the month. Beans and Peas in fact can be sown straight to the ground if you haven’t got plants (they germinate very quickly at this time). Try to give all plants space if you can, aphids and white fly are already busy and they are disturbed by the breeze. Of course all the bedding is about too and as with the veg, most things can be planted out. Here too there is a cautionary note, so do watch the night temperatures. Dahlias, Busy Lizzies and Marigolds don’t like frost much. I remember loosing every Marigold I had to a very late frost in the first week of June. And finally, look out for Chillis and heritage tomatoes. There are Chillis everywhere and even if you are not a fan,they are very decorative. The heritage tomatoes take you back to the ‘olden days’ when tomatoes really tasted and they certainly worth a space. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
August Gardening News
So we arrive at the end of the month still puzzling over what exactly is going on. It has been a strange season (yes, another one) and how many permutations we see, with high humidity, torrential storms and heat enough to lift the tarmac, it’s been quite tropical. With high humidity has come disease unfortunately and the blight swept into July and has caused havoc in both potato and tomato crops. There has been plenty of mildew and black spot too. Once these things arrive it is really difficult to manage them, so don’t just throw money at them. Heavily infected material must be destroyed or the spores will just hang around and carrying on creating havoc. In the case of Black Spot and Mildew this means removing badly infected leaves. If it’s blight however, try to get the debris out with the bin in green waste. If your plants are clean then you can flash across with a fungicide to offer a preventative barrier, undoubtedly keeping good order until something decides to eat it. As we move into the month bulbs will start to appear in the garden centres. They create colourful displays, but there is no rush to buy unless you want Hyacinths for Christmas. If they take your fancy, make sure the label says they are ‘prepared’ and try to plant them by the middle of the month. Any other purchasing will be to do with making sure you get the varieties you want and there are as one would expected plenty of new things. Once bought pack them away somewhere cool and dark for a couple of weeks. Planted early they may decide to produce too much foliage too early. Before we know it,we will be onto winter pansies. Keep an eye open for the Wave series which are wonderful in overwintering baskets. They have a good trailing habit and will give a spectacular show if you get them planted at the turn of the month. On the vegetable front,you can still play with pinches of salad, all of the salad roots will come and given the early disasters with Radishes and the wet, I will promise late success. And finally carrots. It has been almost impossible to get a decent row of carrots this spring. So, try again. Take out a shallow drill, water it and then sow in some Burpee short or Parisienne globes. The seed is cheap,the varieites are fast and you may just pull a fast onewhilst nature looks away. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org
April Gardening News
So, the bleakness rolled on with an occasional punctuation of teasing sunshine that suggested momentarily that Spring was coming. The races passed almost unscarred with rain at the last, but there was spite in the wind and today it has moved once more to the east. The clocks have changed though and we have more light space. There is much to do and we must proceed with optimism. The seed potatoes can all go in now, no worth in staggering the planting, they will set their own pace (chatted or not). All of the hardy vegetables can be set out (though still not Runner Beans or Marrows, nor any other cucurbit). Salad stuff will also stand out and successions of salad roots can be sown. Sprinkle Radish, beetroot and spring onion between rows of heavier veg, they are not demanding and will all harvest ahead of their bigger neighbours. Tomatoes can be played with. They will be best undercover, but if you are feeling brave try something tough and old fashioned against a fence or wall. We used to put out a variety called ‘First in the Field’ which grew like a weed everywhere and which we always started early. Red Alert is also worth a try (it is always a gamble, but not high risk). Whilst you don’t want to be putting Runner Beans out, you can get the seed started and you can prepare the site for planting. Taking a trench out and back filling with well rotted manure or garden compost is worth the trouble, especially if as last year the season is dry. Organic matter retains moisture and will reduce the early dropping of flowers. On the preparation front, consider the protection of leeks and carrots either by getting organised with a mesh cover or by planting like the salad bits between taller veg. Both of these plants have suffered maggot attack in recent years so diverting or discouraging the fly will help. It’s also coming up to flower time too. I have just finished planting some new roses and have set out a few hardy bedding plants in the border. Things like Antirrhinums are very hardy and will benefit from an extended growing season. And finally. The first bedding heralds the changing season and prompts me to pull out my hanging basket for replanting. This is a job that can be tackled early even without constant protection. You just need to watch night temperatures and keep the frost off. If there is a sudden dip bring the thing into the kitchen overnight. Happy Gardening. Chris Evans www.dundrynurseries.co.uk www.thebutterflygarden.org