Category: Uncategorized

The title of our November meeting was ‘Illegal immigrants – plants from abroad’ which was an interesting take on the fact that most of the wonderful plants that we populate our gardens with are, in fact not native. Most of them were, in truth not illegal immigrants but initially brought here by waves of invaders and settlers in an attempt to expand the choice of food to eat. Later arrivals came as a result of the great plant expeditions searching for ‘exotic’ plants for the great and good.

Our guide through a selection of the vast numbers of ‘non-native’ plants we often find was the very knowledgeable Francis Burroughs.

We discovered that the potato was first brought to England in 1586 and Sir Walter Raleigh planted them on his estate near Cork. Originally it was believed that the leaves could be added to salads and as a consequence Queen Elizabeth I became very ill. John Gerard, the famous herbalist writing in 1597 mentions growing the potato as a decorative plant. It took a while for it to become a staple food across the country as many farmers distrusted it, preferring the turnip. By the early 1800s it had become a staple food crop for the poorer farmers of Ireland but it took another 50 years for potatoes to become popular as street food with vendors selling hot potatoes across London. It wasn’t until around WW1 that the general public started to grow them in their gardens.

Many of our other favourite vegetables have a much older history and we have the Romans to thank for improving the taste of our food! They introduced herbs such as aniseed, fennel, lavender, origano, sage, coriander and thyme as well as basil and purslane from India, shallots from Palestine and cucumbers from Egypt. Pliny explains how to grow cucumbers in a cold climate using a basic cold frame! The Romans were also responsible for bringing us broccoli, asparagus, globe artichoke, radish and garlic.

Of course, there were some vegetables which are non-native but were in the country before the Roman’s arrived. The fava or field bean is originally from Egypt and was introduced to Britain by Neolithic farmers about 5000 years ago. There is evidence of the cultivation of beets from Southern Europe in the 4th century BC but originally as cattle fodder. Peas were an important crop from Asia that became a staple foodstuff from prehistoric times right up until the late Medieval period because peas can be dried and ground to make flour to add substance to pottage and to make pease pudding which went well with cured ham. 

Some of the vegetables we grow in our gardens came later. Brussels sprouts have been imported from Europe since 1213, on the stalk as it was thought they were too tender to be grown in this country! They eventually took off in the 17th century. Parsley didn’t arrive until 1548 from Sardinia and rhubarb a bit later, in 1573 from Siberia. It was originally used for medicinal purposes and edible garden rhubarb was re-introduced into England from Italy around 1620. It wasn’t until the 1780’s that the chopped stalks began to be used as a substitute for gooseberries in pies.

Although the aubergine arrived in Northern Europe in the 16th century, it didn’t really become recognized as a plant that could be grown in this country until 1925.

The UK is world famous for its gardens, but they are full of plants from around the world. Roses were thought to have been brought by the Romans for their perfume, cooking and medicinal qualities. It was the French who began a breeding programme for the rose in the 18th and 19th century and we eagerly embraced many of these, e.g., Fantin de Latour, Felicité et Perpetue, Mme Alfred Carriére and Charles de Mills. 

The Camellia arrived from East Asia in 1739, introduced to Thorndon Hall in Essex and it flowered the following year. To begin with camellias were kept as hot house plants because they looked so exotic. It was only when the heated glasshouses fell into disrepair during WW1 that they were discovered to be quite hardy. The 18th century brought us Fuchsias, Begonias, Dahlias and Wisteria amongst others. Botanists were amongst the crew included on the voyages of Captain Cook, to collect plants and seeds which might have any commercial value. 

The Victorians were great plant collectors. Many of the flowers from South Africa now grace our gardens, such as Tagetes, Salvias, Agapanthus, Pelargoniums and Kniphofias. They also brought back other hugely decorative plants such as Japanese knotweed. We aren’t quite so enamored of that one! Apparently, it cost £70 million to deal with it before the Olympic village could be built in East Stratford.

In March 2023 £213.58 million of live trees and plants were imported into the UK. This was an all-time high (the average monthly amount from 2000 until 2023 was £85.38 million). Obviously with each imported plant comes the potential risk of introducing invasive pests and diseases. We import many bedding plants and perennials from the Netherlands which are grown hydroponically in huge greenhouses. It is a similar story for vegetables. England is self-sufficient in cabbages and root vegetables but almost everything else comes in from abroad, especially if it needs heat and copious water. Of all the vegetables eaten in the UK in 2022, 47% were imported. 

It seems to me that the message should be to try and grow as much as we can ourselves, and if we have to buy in plants, buy UK homegrown plants, from reputable nurseries where possible.

There will be no Yarty Gardening Club meeting in January. So a Happy New Year to all gardeners.

Our new season begins at 7.30pm on Thursday February 15th 2024 at Buckland St Mary Village Hall.                                                                                                                      

Pauline Bartlett

The first meeting of the new gardening year was held in February. It was great to see such a good turnout on a filthy night especially as my husband and I were talking about our own gardening journey; “Developing our Garden in the Blackdowns, the story so far….”

Our previous garden was only 0.25 acre, in a frost pocket, on very thin chalky soil near Salisbury and so our new plot in the Blackdown Hills couldn’t be more different. On the top of the plateau at 230m, the 2.5 acre site is very wet and exposed to the full force of the SW wind; the soil is clay overlying flinty cherts and with a pH ranging from 6 to 7 across the plot. Needless to say, many of the plants we’d carefully brought with us didn’t survive the first growing season!

We discovered that rabbits and deer were frequent visitors to the garden and so we had to protect anything we planted from the start. We planted a beech hedge early on to protect our vegetable growing area from the NE wind and frost coming off Castle Neroche, and we fenced off an area to protect our crops from the rabbits. I spent most of my time that first spring and summer, creating beds, and growing a wider selection of vegetables than I had previously been able to. In this fenced area we also made our first stock beds with the plants we brought with us that had made it through that first very wet winter of 2015. We were astounded to see how much the perennials grew (much more than on the chalky soil) and how quickly the shrub roses settled down, as they got their roots into the fertile soil.

We grew soft fruit in pots in our previous garden and so having brought them with us, we wanted to get the fruit into the ground as soon as we could. The first summer, my husband made a temporary fruit cage to protect the berries from the large population of bullfinches but now we have a 48 x 24 foot fruit cage – complete with raised beds which grow a much more successful crop of blueberries, currants and gooseberries as well as an espalier cherry. Another visit to Rosemoor gave us the idea that we could grow cranberries under the blueberry bushes, and we have had a very successful harvest over the past two years (one advantage of living in an area of high rainfall)

As well as growing soft fruit and vegetables, I wanted to grow cut flowers for the house in our new garden. Our first flowers came from the stock beds, but I particularly wanted to grow tulips and as our soil is too wet, my husband made me a raised bed backfilled with gritty compost. Having, done my research, we’d sourced a large variety of tulips to give colour for several months in a succession of colours that would ripple along this bed. Sadly, despite my excitement, it rained a lot for the next few months and the tulip bed looked more like a swimming pool, so drainage ditches needed to be dug to take the water away. After the rain came an early heatwave and so, despite the planning, all the tulips bloomed at the same time! At least we had a house filled with wonderful blooms for a few glorious weeks – just not for the 2 months I’d imagined. It just goes to show that the weather in the Blackdowns is not predictable!

We eventually gave up on this tulip bed and planted asparagus instead. We hope to taste our first spears this year! A couple of years ago I had some new raised beds made for me around the house so that I could try growing tulips again. This time we have had more success; tulips are followed by other annuals which I can cut for the house. I tried growing dahlias in the garden beds, but the tubers rotted off and so now we grow dahlias in large containers on the patio and take them into the cold greenhouse over winter, covered in spent compost and fleece.

We knew we wanted to plant an orchard as soon as possible and so spent a lot of time researching fruit varieties and visiting apple days and local nurseries. Quite early on we were told that our site was too exposed to grow fruit trees successfully and so we realized that to achieve our dream, we would need to plant a windbreak. The following February we planted 5 rows of bare rooted Birch trees with some Alder, Rowan, Hawthorns & Wayfairing trees mixed in. We also replaced a hedgerow that was shown an old OS map, to delineate our new orchard, planting a mixed native hedge to support wildlife. 

We planted a hedgerow of hawthorn the other side of the area and a third hedge we established over time using prunings pushed straight into the ground which worked very well. It was another 3 years before we were able to plant our first fruit trees and the orchard also had to be fenced against the deer.

Seven years on the thickening wildlife hedge of Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Dog Rose, Hazel, Wild Privet, Elder and Guelder Rose is full of insect life, although it has yet to host nesting birds. The windbreak copse and hedgerow shelter the area successfully and we have planted 29 trees: apples, pears, quinces, cherries, plums, damsons, and greengages. Most of these trees have started to fruit well and we are looking forward to enjoying good harvests for years to come.

We had agreed that when we moved to a larger plot, we wanted to create a meadow. We were delighted to discover the first summer, that by leaving the sloping field unmowed (apart from access paths) there was a huge variety of grasses and wildflowers already there. We have inherited a native wet meadow which my husband successfully manages with a scything and mowing regime.

Of course, living on a damp site is not without its problems. One of the biggest being horsetail. We have field horsetail throughout the lower parts of the plot which we try and control by pulling and mowing. The finer meadow horsetail is in other parts of the garden, and I dig out the roots when I find it. In reality, we will need to learn to live with this plant. 

We also have annual battles with other plants. We try and keep on top of our brambles by cutting and pulling up the tipping stems to stop them spreading. Any roots older than a year are dug out and we have a large bonfire to clear the huge piles gathered. We have left a very large patch for a wildlife area which whitethroats and dunnocks love, as well as lots of butterflies, moths and other insects. We also leave patches of nettles and willow herb for the butterflies and moths. Bracken is in the boundary hedges, and we don’t want it spreading into the garden and so we pull the fronds and leave them to compost down as they make a good ericaceous mulch.

We tolerate moles as they help make drainage tunnels and I can collect the soil from the molehills for potting up. Squirrels are more of a nuisance as they can damage saplings and they dig up my bulbs! We have also had a lot of deer fraying damage on key trees in our copses so we have had to use more tree guards to protect their trunks.

Our slug population is enormous, so we use nematodes, applied throughout the growing season. This certainly helps but I also do regular evening trips out with a head torch and container. I’m still trying to sort out which are the friendly slugs because I feel my slug collections are a bit indiscriminate at the moment. 

The weather, particularly the heavy rain and gusty wind, is an ongoing battle but it’s a case of keeping off wet ground and improving the soil with as much organic matter as possible each year as well as planting windbreaks in key locations. Researching the right plant for the right place also helps me to purchase wisely so that plants have a much greater chance of survival.

The development of our garden has been much slower than I had anticipated when we moved in. This is partly because of the size of the plot which is so much bigger than our previous garden. I also hadn’t realized how much infrastructure we needed to get in place before we could start gardening. Areas that needed to be fenced first, trees and hedgerows that needed to be planted so they could get on with growing while we did other things. There is also an underlying rhythm to the annual tasks that must be carried out before anything new can be undertaken. The end of winter is taken up with tree work and hedge cutting as well as cutting back brambles. Then the borders need to be tidied up and mulched for the new season. As the season moves on, we get into major seed sowing and plant raising associated with growing vegetables, planting up containers, weeding, bringing on plants in the greenhouse and hardening off. As the year proceeds there is the shredding to do and hundreds of pots and seed trays to wash. Summer and autumn bring the harvests and the processing or storing of fruit and vegetables which is really satisfying but also time consuming.

What gives me the most pleasure is the planning and creation of new garden areas and the first of these is the ‘Woodland Garden’. There are three very large black poplar trees in the garden which mark the corner of the parish boundary. Previous owners planted a Rowan tree and maple below them and so this seemed a good place to develop a woodland garden. We started planting the first trees in March 2018; 3 Katsuras (for their candy floss scent in autumn), 3 different Acers for autumn colour and 3 birches (seedlings raised from trees I had planted in my late Father’s garden). The following year I removed the first area of turf and started planting. The soil here is very thin, poor and full of tree roots – so every year we mulch with a thick layer of composted bark and leaf mould which we are making in large cages. I’m gradually adding shrubs such as Oak leaved Hydrangea and hydrangea paniculata, Viburnum Xanthocarpum as well as bulbs and ground cover and shade loving woodland perennials e.g. Brunnera, Epimediums, Aquilegia, Tiarella, vinca, Pulmonaria, and Astrantia.

The soil is gradually improving and now full of life although I will have to hold off growing special woodland beauties for many more years. As Spring moves into Summer, the shade in this area gradually increases, from dappled shade to full shade which makes it an interesting area to plant. Of course, this area has had to be fenced off from the rabbits, but I still have to chase deer out on occasion and the voles love to sit under the shrubs and shred little piles of leaves. 

Eventually the whole of the garden section will be fenced off leaving the Dell, the copses and meadow wilder. We love to share our plot with the wildlife and are delighted that the work we have done so far has encouraged a greater variety of species from owls and kestrels, stoats and weasels to ground beetles and glow worms.

We have many exciting plans for the future development of our garden and have only just scratched the surface of the variety of wildlife that share the space with us.

The meeting in March was about breeding and growing Dahlias with a talk by Christina Angelucci who has only been growing these beautiful blooms for about 10 years.

She began by giving us a bit of background to the dahlia. Dahlias are indigenous to the mountainous regions of Mexico and Central America and were first documented by the Spanish as acoctili (their Mexican name) in 1525. The Aztecs farmed the tree Dahlia (which can grow 10m in a single season) and used their hollow stems as water pipes. Forty-two different species are found in the wild and many of these were cultivated as a source of food. The Aztecs also believed that Dahlias were a cure for epilepsy.

The first plants from Mexico arrived in 1787 to the Madrid Botanical Gardens and were named Dahlias in honour of Andreas Dahl, a Swedish botanist. In 1804, Lady Holland (an English hostess and wife of a politician) was given either seeds or more likely a slip of tuber which she sent back to England where they were grown on into flowering plants by her gardener. 

These first dahlias grown outside of Madrid were single & multi-ray open centre flowers, but the horticulturalists at the time soon discovered that the Dahlia was a natural hybrid and when grown from seed, it would readily change its form and colour. They were highly prized and in the 1820s one tuber could cost as much as #100

Today we have a large range of Dahlia flower types: waterlily, peony, orchid, chrysanthemum, and anemone, which come in a variety of forms like the decorative (flat, broad petals), the cactus and semi-cactus types (rolled, pointed petals) and the ball forms (globular flowers) that have as their smallest relative the popular Pompon Dahlias. Almost every colour can be grown except for blue.

Christina’s Dahlia journey began when she purchased a couple of dozen tubers to see how she got on with them and then by 2019 she was growing about 800 different dahlias. She certainly has a passion for dahlias! She shared pictures of many of these lovely blooms and she picked out a few favourites: 

Totally Tangerine, an anemone type which can flower as early as June,

Honka Pink, a star orchid type with an open centre, preferred by pollinators,

Classic Rosamunde, a peony type with bright pink flowers set off by very dark foliage,

Lady Darlene, a large decorative dahlia with golden yellow petals having a vivid magenta edge, 

Not content with just growing dahlias, Christina thought it would be fun to start to hybridize her own. Apparently, dahlias are ‘octoploides’ which means that they have 8 sets of genes, therefore flowers can have a huge variety of colour and form and be produced from the hybridising of just 2 plants. She began by growing the wild form of Dahlia coccinea so that she could get a seed pod. (This is how the first hybridisers began to breed dahlias).

She sowed the seed from the first pod the following year and managed to produce 23 plants the year after which had been open pollinated her other dahlias. Once she had proved the concept, Christina began to hybridize her own dahlias using flowers grown from a packet of Dahlia ‘Bishop’s Children’.

We were shown how she crosses the dahlias using paintbrushes to collect the pollen on a warm day and transferring it from one flower to the next. Muslin bags over the pollinated flower then prevent any cross contamination from visiting bees. Christina’s aim is to produce open centered varieties of flowers to provide food for our rapidly declining pollinators. She is also interested in producing delicate dark foliage to set off the colours.

Obviously, with such a lot of Hybridisation, many hundreds of seeds are sown each year and so Christina showed us how she germinates her seeds using a stack of pieces of damp kitchen paper folded in half. She can accommodate 3 packets of seeds in 8 pieces of paper. Viable seed will germinate within 10 days and once sprouted are transferred to a cell tray. 

The questions at the end produced some useful information:

• Dahlias thrive in sunny conditions.
• Christina always digs up her tubers to store over winter in crates of wood shavings. 
• Any piece of tuber with an eye will grow on successfully. 
• Tubers can get stale eventually and so it is better to take cuttings as they come into growth to reinvigorate the plant.
• Dahlias prefer to be grown in a loamy soil and to be fed regularly – Christina uses seaweed feed.
• Watch out for slugs using whichever is your preferred method.
• All dahlia flowers are edible, scatter their petals on salads for flavour, texture and colour.

                                                                                                                        Pauline Bartlett

Adam Wallis from the Gold Club revisited us in April to give us a talk called “Grower to Garden Centre”. This was an interesting insight from a third-generation nurseryman on the journey of a plant from seed or cutting to the sales bench in the garden centre.

Adam was keen to point out that unlike the large wholesale nurseries in Europe which produce 80% of the plants grown in the UK, most small independent nurseries are not mechanized with potting machines filling pots or conveyor belts moving plants around huge glasshouses.

If stock is grown from seed there may be problems with cross pollination and so most of the stock of plants grown by Adam’s family nursery are grown vegetatively; either as soft, semi-ripe, or hardwood cuttings (from mother plants kept specifically for this purpose) or from budding or grafting plants.  

Adam demonstrated the steps needed to produce healthy cuttings to grow on. It is extremely important to use a very sharp propagation knife, sharpened regularly to avoid tearing the stem, and to keep everything clean using Citrox or alcohol gel. Cuttings are taken from disease and pest free plants in the very early morning while there is some malleability in the stems. On a plant like lavender, only a small amount of foliage is needed and so most of the stem is cleared of leaves, the top pinched out and a cut made below a node. 

Adam said that to make the whole process of taking cuttings on a large scale quicker, individual tasks were also done on a large scale; so, all labeling is done at the same time. Modular trays need to be labeled with the date, the variety, the exact compost mix and even the particular polytunnel that the plants are grown in. All of this is needed for the plant passport that has to accompany the plant on its journey to the customer. Once labeled, the clean modular trays are then filled with the growing medium; a mainly peat free sowing compost with added mycorrhizae, (although of course in the future there will be no peat at all) mixed in a cement mixer! The trays are levelled off but not compressed and watered with a fine rose from the top. Next the cuttings are put into the side of the modules where they will root better than the middle. In this way two or three cuttings can be made in each modular compartment of a seed tray. (This is a useful tip for us home gardeners).

The trays of cuttings go onto large aluminium staging tables inside the double walled propagation polytunnel. A layer of polystyrene covered with landscape fabric keeps the tray away from the colder aluminium. Clear polythene is placed over the tables in winter and a white fabric, to reduce scorching, in the summertime.

Once the cuttings have rooted, they can be planted into liners and moved to the hardening off polytunnel which has fleece on the sides and over the top to afford some protection. Doors are opened during the day to allow for good air circulation but shut up at night to retain some heat. All watering is done in the morning to avoid plants sitting in the damp overnight.

By feeding plants with Maxicrop seaweed tonic, plants can be held in liners for 12 months and if they become leggy, they can be cut back. To grow the plants on, they are then potted into a 2L pot in shrub mix and cut back two or three times to promote a bushy shrub. Most shrubs except Daphne, Viburnum and Cotinus will respond to this treatment. The pots are moved again into a finishing polytunnel with increased light levels via sky lights and with ventilation at both ends so that they are used to outdoor conditions and can will be able to go straight out into the garden.

The finished plant then needs to be tidied up for sale. Any yellowing leaves are removed, any weeds removed, and the pot wiped clean and labelled clearly. Plants are then stacked onto special trolleys and wrapped for transport to the garden centre by lorry. Finally, they are placed onto the staging benches ready for the customers to buy and take home.

Adam admitted that his nursery’s decision each year as to what might sell well is always a bit of a lottery. Selecting what type of plants or what colour will be trending sometimes two years ahead can be a gamble. There are certain stalwarts such as lavender, viburnum, pittosporum or philadelphus which will always sell but any stock left over is generally composted so that pots can be re-used. This generated debate amongst club members but, as Adam pointed out, a nursery is a business and costs of everything have rocketed over the past few years. The cost of compost, energy, polytunnel skins (need replacing every 2 to 3 years), plant feed and labels have all increased. If a plant is potted up to sell the following year, it must be looked after over the winter and will take up the space that could be used by several smaller liners. 

At Adam’s nursery the year is a short one. Plants are growing from January but the main business period when plants are sold to garden centres is only mid-April to June. Each plant will only be kept on the shop floor for about 6 weeks and then swapped out for something new. This means that plants need to be looking great to catch the customer’s eye.

So, when you are next in the garden centre – spare a thought for all the work and heartache that goes into producing these plants for our gardens. Nurserymen are not making a fortune, but you can’t put a price on their passion and commitment.

                                                                                                                        Pauline Bartlett

 

Yarty Gardening Club – May 2021

This month sees our first garden visit as a club. We will be visiting Forde Abbey Gardens on Thursday 20th May, meeting there at 2pm. This is a self-drive visit and will be subsidised for members.

I am really looking forward to seeing fellow gardeners again on this, the first of several visits this summer. By now, most members will have had at least one Covid vaccination and so I hope that you will feel confident enough to venture out. We will be following the social distancing rules and please bring your masks. It is particularly important to remember to wear them if you are sharing a lift with anyone outside of your ‘bubble’.

May is a busy month in the garden. The days get ever longer, and the plants respond with exuberance, promising a summer of colour, fragrance and bounty. However, the weather can be fickle at this time of year. Temperatures can soar but it can be shockingly cold too, sometimes on consecutive days. So keep an eye on the forecast and some fleece handy, ready to protect your precious plants; but enjoy the increasing warmth and spend more time outside enjoying the garden.

Watch out for vine weevils; the ‘Pest of the Month’. At this time of year adult vine weevils are looking for host plants to lay their eggs. As vine weevil beetles don’t fly, they can often be spotted crawling up the sides of a greenhouse and are easy to recognize with their dark grey/black body and long nose. A tell-tale sign you have vine weevils is notches eaten around the edge of leaves, but it’s the cream coloured grubs that do most damage by eating the roots off many plants, especially those grown in pots. Their favourite plants seem to be cyclamen, heucheras, primulas, sedums, sempervivum and strawberries. Keep an eye open for beetles over the next few months and if found, the best way to deal with them is to squash them!

Most gardeners enjoy sharing their gardens with wildlife. This month is the beginning of moth-flight season for many native species. Plant night scented flowers now such as Nicotiana (tobacco plant) and Oenothera (evening primrose) to attract moths in the summer months. Jasmine and honeysuckle will fill the evening garden with fragrance too, attracting moths which in turn will encourage bats at the start of their breeding season.

Adding wildflower plug plants to areas of existing lawn is one way to create a mini meadow, but why not try ‘No Mow May’ this year.

Research undertaken by citizen scientists across the UK, who have taken part in the largest-ever survey of the humble lawn, reveal that incredibly simple changes in mowing can result in enough nectar for ten times more bees and other pollinators.

• The highest production of flowers and nectar sugar for pollinators was on lawns cut once every four weeks. This gives ‘short-grass’ plants like daisies, selfheal and white clover a chance to flower in profusion, boosting nectar production tenfold.
• Areas of longer unmown grass were, however, more diverse in their range of flowers, with other nectar-rich plants like oxeye daisy, field scabious and knapweed increasing the range of nectar sources for different pollinators and extending nectar availability into late summer.

Why not become a citizen scientist and take part in Plantlife’s ‘Every Flower Counts’ survey this month?

1. Simply leave your mower in the shed for No Mow May and let the flowers grow.
2. From 23rd May to 31st May take part in ‘Every Flower Counts’ at https://www.plantlife.org.uk/everyflowercounts/ by counting the number of flowers in a random square metre of your lawn.
3. Enter your counts on the website and instantly receive your very own Personal Nectar Score, showing how much nectar is being produced by the flowers on your lawn and how many bees it can support.

A few other things to do this month:

• Pull out rampant pond weeds before they clog up the water. Blanket weed is particularly invasive. Make sure that floating leaved plants cover no more than 2/3 of the water surface.
• Plant up aquatic baskets with water lilies and other pond plants.
• Sow or turf new lawns before the weather gets hot and dry.
• Repot pot-bound and top-heavy houseplants.
• Lift and divide spring flowers such as primulas before it gets too hot.
• Put up supports for herbaceous perennials & biennials before they grow too tall & flop over.
• Prune frost damage from evergreens cutting back to healthy growth.
• Prune trained pyracantha – keep them close to the wall and shorten side shoots.
• Divide hostas as they are coming into growth.
• Plant Clematis – up walls, through large shrubs or up obelisks/hazel wigwams. Sprinkle blood, fish & bone in the planting hole and place broken tiles over soil to prevent earth drying out too rapidly. Give plants a good soak & ensure there is a support system for the plant.
• Feed roses and shrubs.
• Plant out tender annuals, such as Zinnia & Tithonia from mid-month. Also, dahlia tubers and cannas once frosts have passed.
• Give clumps of spring-flowering bulbs a generous drench of liquid feed before the foliage dies down. This will help improve flowering displays next year.
• Begin feeding containers with a weekly liquid feed.
• Plant out gladioli corms at 2 to 3 week intervals to extend flowering season over the summer.

                                                                                                                                    Pauline Bartlett

 

 

Yarty Gardening Club – April 2021

 

Well it’s here; the moment we have all been waiting for.

Members of the Yarty Gardening Club will at last be able to meet up on the 15th of April.

We will not be meeting in either of the halls, but instead have booked Brimsmore Garden Centre for an ‘after hours’ exclusive shopping experience. Sadly, we will not be able to have a talk this time, but from 6pm until 8pm we will be able to meet up with our gardening friends again, while we browse the lovely spring plants at the Garden Centre. There will be a 25% discount on anything you buy on the evening (that isn’t already discounted) so it is a good opportunity to look for those seeds, plants or sundries you would like for the new season.

By now most of us will have had at least one Covid vaccination and so I hope that members will feel confident enough to venture out, following social distancing rules and wearing a mask.

If you feel unable to join us yet, there are still lots of things to be getting on with in the garden and greenhouse:

• Lots of vegetables can be sown now such as French and runner beans, parsnips, carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach beet, beetroot, summer cabbages, sweet corn (from mid month), kale, calabrese, sprouting broccoli & cauliflower to eat in winter/early spring.
• Sow annual herbs too:- basil, dill, parsley and coriander inside. Grow them on in pots.
• Sow pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers & tomatoes to be grown outdoors in warmer weather.
• Squash early infestations of aphids.
• Earth up early potatoes and plant main crop potatoes before mid month.
• Check fruit trees for woolly aphid and blast off with water.
• Cut off new colonies of sawfly grubs from gooseberries and currants.
• Protect strawberry fruit blossom from frost damage by covering with fleece.
• Remove any flower spikes that develop on rhubarb.
• Plant out autumn-sown sweet peas, tying in the shoots to netting & sow more sweet peas, direct into flowering position for flowers in late summer.
• Keep sowing hardy annuals for colorful summer displays.
• Plant summer-flowering bulbs: alliums, gladioli, oriental lilies, irises & freesias. Add layer of grit to deter slugs. Plant the gladioli in succession over a few weeks for continuous summer flowers.
• Deadhead daffodils and early flowering tulips which have gone over & feed clumps of tulips.
• Prune spring-flowering clematis after flowering.
• Lift and divide late season flowering perennials and grasses.
• Go on night slug hunts in/after damp weather.
• Keep on top of weeds in the garden! A little every day is better than one major battle.
• Buy young plug plants to save money on later bigger pots. Pot on immediately and plant into containers or hanging baskets in May.
• Keep an eye out for frost and protect plants with fleece or cloches.

 

A bit of advanced notice about the club competition for the Buckland Flower Show this year; Members can enter one geranium plant in a food container (the show will be supporting The Taunton Food Bank). Victoria will be selling the geranium plug plants, (50p each, maximum of 5 plants per person) and will email us when they are available.

                                                                                                                                    Pauline Bartlett

Yarty Gardening Club – March 2021

 

It’s amazing what you see in the garden when you just stop and look. Normally if I sit down outside with a cuppa, I only manage a few minutes of relaxation before I start to notice a number of jobs that ‘need’ to be done, and then I’m up and on them. Lock down has given us all enforced time at home, but I am discovering the unforeseen advantages of this latest lockdown in a particularly cold spell. It is too cold to venture out to do any meaningful gardening. The greenhouse and veg beds are looking after themselves and I have been spending more time looking at the garden from the house.

 

Feeding the birds is something we have done every day (even during major building works) and we enjoy watching the antics of an increasing variety of species. Even the juvenile sparrowhawk who has learned how to hunt in the garden! The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of January gave me the motivation to watch the garden more closely than usual. Having settled down for one hour of observation, the count started very slowly and so I took to scanning the branches of the trees with the binoculars. Much to my surprise, I discovered a lesser redpoll along with a number of siskins. They were accompanied by a mixed flock of goldfinches, coal, marsh and long tailed tits which all came to make use of the bird feeders. Scanning along the shrubs, I found four bullfinches and then, looking beyond the hedges into the far side of the garden, a patch of blue. I had to do a double take, as to see a kingfisher in the garden is unusual. Admittedly it was sitting on a willow branch above our pond – but there are no fish in it, and we are surrounded by pastureland. I would normally have missed this delightful visitor if I hadn’t been taking the time look. So since then I have made the time to look more carefully at my surroundings. I have seen my first butterfly of the year, a pair of Jays and even came across a snipe feeding on a grassy path.

 

When we moved to this area, we brought with us five big pots of snowdrops from our previous garden. These I duly split into small groups of bulbs and planted them ‘in the green’ as the gardening books advise. Over the past five years those original bulbs have bulked up and been divided each year so that we now have a swathe of snowdrops interspersed with pink Cyclamen coum. The combination really lifts my spirits even on a dull day. It is definitely worth planting snowdrops or increasing your stock and now is the time to lift and divide them.

It is also a good time to plant out into the garden any forced hyacinths or daffodils which were inside for Christmas.

Other jobs to do in March include:

• Sow annuals for cut flowers this summer: gypsophila, poppies, nigella, larkspur, cornflowers, calendulas, cosmos, verbena, nicotiana.
• Sow some sweet peas to give a mid-season crop of flowers.
• Plant spring-flowering bedding plants (pansies, primulas) to fill gaps in borders, avoiding slow emerging perennials!
• Deadhead early bulbs and look out for blind bulbs. Water them well and add a high potassium feed until the foliage dies down or lift and divide them.
• Plant out new strawberry runners (30cm apart).
• Weed strawberry beds and mulch well. Trim off any old or dead leaves and remove any moss from crowns. Give the crop a top dressing of blood, fish & bone.
• Plant rhubarb crowns.

 

• Start sowing summer cabbage & calabrese for an early summer harvest.
• Sow tomatoes, aubergines, lettuces, broad beans, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsley, peas, rocket, beetroot, cucumbers, spring onions
• Plant early potatoes in containers for an extra early harvest.
• Repot herbs growing in containers and divide invasive herbs such as mint and marjoram. Replant and pot some up to give away or overwinter.
• Sow nasturtium, limnanthus and tagetes seeds to help combat pests and attract pollinators.

 

• Finish cutting back any remaining dead stems from clumps of perennials.
• Lift and divide clumping perennials, particularly Hemerocalis & Kniphofias
• Deadhead hydrangeas, cutting back to just above a healthy bud.
• Last time to move shrubs before they are fully in growth. Keep them well watered.
• In the first half the month, finish pruning hybrid tea bush roses to ensure a good shape.
• Prune hardy shrubs that flower on new wood in summer, such as Buddleia Davidii, Caryopteris, Fuchsia, Catalpa, Sambucus and Perovskia.
• Prune dogwoods and willows for winter colour next year. For ‘Midwinter Fire’ cut 1/3 to half of the oldest stems down to the base.

 

• Cut back any overgrown ivy. Old leaves on wall-trained plants can be sheared away.
• Top dress plants in permanent containers, removing top 5cm of old compost and replacing with new. For trees and shrubs in pots, mix in some controlled release fertiliser granules.
• Weed and then feed herbaceous borders with blood, fish and bone before the spring growth really gets going.
• Edge the lawns.
• Tidy up ponds for spring – removing netting and scooping out any old plant debris. Lift and divide any perennial pond plants. Pot them back into netted baskets in John Innes 2, dressing the surface with large grit/pebbles. Remove any buildup of sludge in the bottom.

 

 

                                                                                                                                    Pauline Bartlett

 

Yarty Gardening Club – February 2021

 

February can be a difficult month for the gardener as the weather can be quite unpredictable from one year to the next. In 2018, the ‘Beast from the East’ brought severe winter weather during the last week of February, in what was the coldest period for a number of years. However, in 2019, February was the hottest on record for the UK, with daily maximum temperatures the highest since records began in 1910. February 2020 was the wettest February on record; so, what will this year bring? As I write this, the garden is emerging from a sustained period of cold weather, with hard frosts in the morning which lingered throughout the day in some frost pockets. Gardeners’ spend lots of time and energy during autumn months preparing their plot against the ravages of winter weather, but as I wandered around, taking pictures of the familiar trees and borders made beautiful by the coating of hoar frost, it started me thinking about the benefits of winter weather to our gardens.

 

Snow and hard frost are naturally characteristic of the winter months.  Typically, in the UK, there may be between 7 and 10 nights per winter month where the temperatures are below freezing. Frost can actually benefit some plants.

Parsnips should never be dug before a decent frost, because the cold turns the starch in them into sugar. And the sugar makes them much more delicious. This is one reason why parsnips used to be fed to working horses in winter. Turnips and swedes are two more root vegetables that are best left in the ground until they have been exposed to frost – after which they will taste even better in your warming winter stews.

Most winter brassicas such as, Kale and Cabbage, are not afraid of the cold; although extremely hard weather will do some mechanical damage to their outer leaves. Brussels Sprouts will taste sweeter after exposed to some frost. Leeks can look very sorry for themselves on a cold morning, but they are pretty tough. Just wait for the frost to melt before harvesting them.

 

Frosts can also disrupt pest and disease cycles and improve soil structure – when moisture within soil freezes, it expands, and splits open soil particles. This makes the soil easier to work in the spring.

 

Deciduous fruit trees benefit from winter chilling. If an apple tree doesn’t get enough ‘chill hours’ (between 0 and 6C) the flower buds may not open at all or they may open late in the spring. Blossoms may also bloom at irregular intervals and, although this might seem beneficial, the longer the bloom time, the increased likelihood that the tree will be exposed to disease. A very mild winter will therefore affect fruit production.  Blackcurrants, blueberries, plums and cherries also need this period of chilling before they start to grow in spring. A cold winter ensures that buds burst rapidly in the spring and flower together, when pollinators are abundant.

 

Snow helps preserve moisture in the soil during winter and provides water to the soil as it melts in the spring. Because of the ‘fluffy’ structure of snowflakes a lot of air is trapped, and this acts as a very effective insulator. This insulation effect also helps protect perennials, bulbs, ground covers, and strawberry plantings from alternating freezing and thawing cycles. If the snow keeps the soil from freezing, roots will continue to grow and earthworms and bacteria in the soil continue to turn garden debris into beneficial compost. If we do get snow this year remember to:

• Shake excess snow from the branches of small trees, shrubs and hedges, to prevent them from becoming disfigured by the weight.
• Use string to support conifer branches and stop them being pulled out of shape. Branches that move away from the main plant won’t spring back into place when the snow melts.
• Remove heavy deposits of snow from the roofs of greenhouses to prevent the structures from bending under the weight and to allow maximum light to the plants growing inside.
• Try to avoid walking on snow-covered grass as it will damage the turf beneath and leave marks on the lawn.
• Don’t forget to put out fresh water for birds each day during frosty weather.

 

There are still a few jobs that you can be getting on with if the weather is not so cold:

• Pot up some lily bulbs for early flowers indoors.
• Clean out bird boxes ready for the season ahead. Do this in the middle of the day so that birds, like wrens, can use the boxes for overnight roosting.
• Prune overwintering pelargoniums to stop them becoming leggy. Make cuttings from suitable prunings.
• Check plants in the greenhouse for early greenfly & wipe off with damp tissue or fingers.
• Make new sowings of broad beans if not done last month and sow some winter salad leaves (mizuna, winter lettuce, rocket) and carrots in tubs.
• Prune winter flowering deciduous shrubs like viburnum, mahonia & jasmine as flowers go over.
• Cut back any remaining dead stems on perennials. Cut off any tatty leaves left on evergreen perennials before the new season’s growth starts. Tread carefully if the borders are full of emerging spring bulbs. The tidy up will attract birds who will eat pest larvae & slug eggs that have overwintered in the soil.
• Late winter is a good time to prune most roses. Cut back all stems of shrub roses by a third. Established shrub roses will fare best if a few of the oldest stems are thinned out to improve light & airflow. Snip off any old leaves and pick up any fallen ones to reduce risk of blackspot.
• Check for slugs and snails – under stones, pots, sheet mulches on empty beds or any piles of debris in the garden. Remove the adults and dispose of any eggs on the bird table.

 

If you are a club member, don’t forget to take advantage of the golden club voucher to get composts and mulches at a discounted rate with free delivery from Brimsmore in February. We are always happy to welcome new members; see our website yartygardeningclub.co.uk for details.

 

 Yarty Gardening Club – January 2021

 

A Very Happy New Year to all Yarty Gardeners.

 

Whether you are already in our club, or perhaps just thinking about joining a gardening club to give you some gardening inspiration this year, we are hoping to start meeting together again from April. From May to August we are planning some garden visits, but of course we will need to be following whatever rules the Government issues in the springtime.

 

Although we have been spending a lot more time inside over the Christmas holidays, January is a lovely time to walk outside into the garden again as it begins to come alive. Snowdrops, aconites, the first hellebores, and catkins are all coming into flower, promising a wonderful new year of gardening.

 

Hellebores are one of the most robust and beautiful flowers of early spring but, in order to appreciate the elegant flowers, it is a good idea to remove last year’s foliage which can be blotched or yellowing. Snip off any leaves that have fallen below the horizontal to reveal the flower buds and to enjoy the beautiful flowers.

 

It’s a good idea to spread an organic mulch over borders and vegetable beds (if you haven’t already done so). Spread it at least 5cm deep, evenly over the bare soil and let the worms mix it in. If you are a club member, take advantage of the golden club voucher to get composts and mulches at a discounted rate with free delivery from Brimsmore this month. We are always happy to welcome new members; see our website yartygardeningclub.co.uk for details.

 

Sweet peas sown now make robust plants that flower earlier than those sown in March. Choose a deep pot for good root growth and, once germinated, keep the plants cool so that roots develop before the shoots really take off.

 

Winter is the best time to cut large branches from apple and pear trees, as they will be fully dormant, and the cut will have plenty of time to heal over before the sap rises in the spring. Avoid pruning cherry or plum trees at this time of year.

 

Cover one or two crowns of rhubarb to exclude light and provide shelter to the buds. This will mean that you can be eating forced, sweet, pink rhubarb stalks much earlier than the rest of the crowns. It is also a good time to plant new rhubarb crowns or divide old ones which have started to give fewer stalks.

 

Don’t forget to:

• Recycle or shred your Christmas tree. The shreddings make a good acidic mulch for ericaceous plants.
• Pot up some lily bulbs for early flowers indoors.
• Prune autumn fruiting raspberries, cutting them down to the ground.
• Order seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots.
• Make new sowings of broad beans as soon as the soil temperature is above 6C. Cover with fleece or a cloche. If your soil is very wet, sow them in pots in a cold frame or cold greenhouse.
• Take petrol mowers to be serviced.
• Plant out bare-root trees, shrubs and rose bushes if the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.
• Water planted containers positioned under eaves or against walls. These can dry out quickly.
• If you dug up dahlia tubers to store, check them now and throw away whole mouldy tubers or cut of any mouldy parts you find straight away.
• Bring some potted strawberry plants under cover for earlier fruit.
• Don’t forget to put out fresh water for birds each day during frosty weather and clean out bird boxes ready for the season ahead. Do this in the middle of the day so that birds, like wrens, can use the boxes for overnight roosting.

 

Is there a boring bit of your garden that could be livened up with some flowers this summer? Draw a ground plan of this area and decide which plants you could order. If you browse some seed company and nursery websites you will easily find a dazzling variety of seeds, bulbs and plug plants that you can grow. It’s easy to get carried away and so some careful research to check that these plants are suitable for your site and soil will save a lot of heartache later in the year. Seed sowing will save a lot of money if you have a large area to fill, buying now will ensure the long growing season that some smaller seeds (begonias, impatiens, petunias, antirrhinums and salvias) need.                    

 

January is one of the least productive months in the greenhouse when it comes to harvesting crops and so it is a good time get it ready for the busy year ahead. The aim is to remove overwintering pests and causes of disease such as red spider mite and moulds. Choose a warm, sunny day and if you have to move plants outside while you clean, cover them with some fleece to protect them. Once you have swept away all of the debris, wash the windows, floor and benches with an environmentally friendly cleaning product. Mop up any pools of water to minimise the chance of regrow the of mound, algae and moss. Then open the door and any ventilation to let water evaporate as quickly as possible. Bring your plants back into your clean, tidy greenhouse and you’re all set for spring.

                                                                                                                                    Pauline Bartlett

Clay soil has its advantages – it’s very fertile, and it keeps plants well supplied with moisture. However, it can be claggy in winter, and baked solid in summer, and only certain plants can survive these conditions.

Any clay soil will benefit from efforts to improve its texture. Mulch generously in spring with well-rotted organic matter, coarse grit or bark – around a barrowload per square metre. In the meantime, you can make a great garden with plants that thrive on heavier soils – here are some of the best plants for clay soil.

Roses

• Roses thrive on clay soil, and there are different types to choose from, including rambling roses, climbing roses and shrub and species roses.

Daylily

• Mostly yellows and tawny oranges, the lily-like flowers of hemerocallis (daylilies) open in succession all summer. Avoid expensive or weak-looking hybrids, as they tend to be too fussy.

Foxglove

• Both our native foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, and cultivated forms grow and self seed on heavy soil, in sun or light shade.

Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii

• Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii is a bushy perennial that has blue-green foliage all year. It’s topped in spring by lime-green flower heads, adding zing to sun or light shade.

Elder

• The pale pink flowers and dark purple foliage of Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’ are a winning combination. The berries are edible, and are loved by birds, too.

Hydrangea macrophylla

• This hydrangea has dome-shaped clusters of flowers in blue or pink that smother this blowsy shrub in July and August. Protect from cold, drying winds.

Lychnis coronaria

• Choose a sunny spot for the grey-leaved campion, Lychnis coronaria, with its scarlet cross-shaped flowers held on upright stems in summer

Thalictrum

• The delicate, frothy flowers of Thalictrum dance all summer long on the tall stems of this perennial, which likes semi-shade

Persicaria

• The flower spikes of persicaria, in shades of pink or terracotta, appear all summer. It’s a great plant for ground cover in sun or semi-shade, and the leaves also provide autumn colour.

Chinese lantern

• Grown for its autumn display of papery orange lanterns, which can be dried for indoor displays, Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii is a vigorous perennial that likes sun or partial shade.

Clay soil is often seen as problematic, but it can be turned to your advantage with a bit of work and a prudent choice of plants.

Plants that will thrive in clay soil include roses, hydrangeas, viburnums, dogwoods, as well as perennials like Japanese anemones, brunnera and pulmonarias.

These plants  will combine well to create a soft and luxuriant display and are not expensive or hard to get hold of plus you can plant them in spring, to enjoy in summer.