April in the Vegetable Patch

April is here and it is certainly living up to it’s reputation with beautiful sun shine one minute and showers the next. After all the dry weather over the past couple of months the rain is well needed, even a day or so of rain has made my veg patch go crazy. Every morning I get excited by something new starting to poke it’s head out of the soil.

April showers encouraging seedlings to emerge

It’s all going off in the veggie patch this month with plenty of seed sowing to be done. When sowing seeds a good tactic to have is to sow little and often, this will give you a constant supply of produce and hopefully avoid getting a glut reaching maturity at once. Sow things like lettuce, beetroot, broad beans, salad onions, turnips and salad leaves at intervals of seven to ten days to achieve a succession crop.

Sow seeds now for these unusual and tasty Romenesco cauliflower

Winter brassicas – Although it may feel that we have only just left winter we should already be thinking about broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts for next. So outside now in a prepared seed bed. Those sow last month may be ready for transplanting, they should be moved to a permanent bed before the plants get too large. The ideal time for transplanting is when they have two to three true leaves, don’t forget to water in.

Watering – Although we are having April showers now if we do have a dry patch don’t forget to water plants well. All young vegetable plants need water to develop well. It is far better to water lots occasionally then water a little frequently.

Thin seedlings so they are not over crowded

Thinning out – If seedlings are not thinned out the plants will become straggly and not crop well. Thinning out means removing seedlings to allow the plants left to reach full maturity and size potential. The thinnings of most vegetables, except root vegetables such as carrots, beetroots and turnips, can be transplanted. Water seedlings before and after thinning in dry weather.

Pineapple mint

Herbs – Garden centres and market stalls are now bursting at the seams with plants so it’s an ideal time to stock up on herbs. I love buying unusual varieties and there are some fantastic ones out there. This weekend I brought some amazing smelling mints such as grapefruit and black beauty, also some gorgeous thymes and sages. You can never have too many herbs; they look great, smell amazing and are pretty tasty too!

Why not make a runner bean tunnel

Runner beans – Having grown mine on the window sill now is the time to plant them out. Runner beans need a strong and tall structure to scramble on such as an obelisk, arch or up a wall. From past experience I have found that is much easier to have your support ready and in place before the beans start growing too much! An obelisk is easy to make and can be made out of anything such as bamboo, willow, cornus, hazel or any old poles or curtain rails you have lying around the garden or house. If you haven’t already grown some runner bean seedling then it’s not too late to plant a couple of seeds at the bottom of each pole.

April is a great month in the veggie patch as we are beginning to see the fruits of our labour, not quite harvesting them yet, but it won’t be long now!

April in the Garden

Magnolia stellata looking stunning this month

We are now well and truly into spring, perhaps the most exciting month of them all, as the garden suddenly begins to look green and vibrant, and the warmer days delight the heart and put a spring in everyone’s step.

Gardens should now be awash with the bright display of spring flowers. All plants seem to start growing really fast this month thanks to the warmer soils. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for April showers as it is so dry everywhere we really are desperate for it.

Although April is a month of warm days, unusually warm and lovely in the last week or so, the nights can be cold. Seedlings will be happy outside during the day but bring them in in the night to protect from the cold.

Watering – It’s been so dry this year that is essential that you continue to water any newly planted or transplanted trees or shrubs.

Rose with black spot

Spray roses – Prevention is the best cure for pest and diseases so start spraying roses for black spot regularly. Black spot does exactly what is says, leaves black spots, or blotches, on the leaves of the rose. It is very hard to control and the only way to do it is to spray with a suitable fungicide at regular intervals. Follow manufactures instructions for dosages and application rates. There are many roses grown now that are resistant to black spot such as ‘Graham Thomas’ or ‘Franҫois Juranville’.

Train climbing roses as horizontal as possible

Climbing and Rambling Roses – As the new stems appear they should be tied in as near to horizontal as possible. This causes more side shoots along the length of the main stem, and therefore more flowers are produced. If left to grow vertically, all flowers are produced at the tips of the stem resulting in less flowers and ones that are not that easy to see. If you are growing roses around a post or obelisk then tie the stems in in a spiral.

Winter Flowering Heathers – Having finished flowering, winter flowering heathers will be looking a bit tatty now so it’s time to trim them back. Cut back the flowering wood to the new growth.

Tie in new clematis shoots

Clematis – They should be starting to grow fast now so tie in the new shots. Once they get hold they will tie themselves in.

Staking – If you have any tall growing herbaceous perennials then April is the ideal month to put some supports up for them. Any later, once the plants get too tall, tying to wrestle them to be supported will be a nightmare! By doing it now the plants will also grow up into or around the support so you hopefully won’t really be able to see it in the summer.

Weeding – Keep borders and beds under control by starting to regularly weed and tidy border and beds. If you do it often then it will be a quick and easy job but if you leave long periods between weeding then it will become a long and laborious task. Try and pull out weeds before they have chance to seed and therefore they won’t spread so vigorously. Lightly fork over the soil so it’s not too compact and can absorb water.

Daffodils – Carry on deadheading this month but don’t be tempted to cut back or mow up the foliage just yet.

Plant out annuals grown from seed

Annuals – If you have been raising any annuals by seed now is the time to plant them out into their flowering position. Prepare the ground well by removing all weeds and lightly forking it over and give them a good water once planted.

April’s great for gardening, when it not April showers the days can be warm and sunny but not too hot and sweaty, so ideal for working in. If you don’t stay on top of things now you may struggle all summer to tame them, little and often makes jobs like weeding seem far more manageable. When the sun does shine make the most of it in the garden.

If you are struggling to keep on top of your garden then why not get in touch with Eve Worrall Gardening.

Falmouth Spring Festival 17th-25th March

This Saturday is the start of the week-long Falmouth Spring Festival. The festival intends to celebrate the diversity and beauty of Falmouth’s gardens, open spaces and coastline through music, dance, art and flowers! There’s going to be a wide variety of events from garden walks and talks, gardeners question time, markets, live music and the largest open air Zumba event ever held in Cornwall! Click here to find out more.

Size Dosen’t Matter it’s How You Use it That Counts

No space is too small

No space is too small to have an edible garden be it a windowsill, balcony, roof top, courtyard, alleyway or steps. An edible container garden brightens up any space, provides you with a tasty treat and is a welcome refuge for wildlife in an urban environment.

My very first gardening adventure was a small pot of herbs rammed into a tiny spot of sunlight in the alley of a flat in Oxford. It wasn’t a great success, a couple of house parties later you couldn’t seed the herbs from cigarette butts and wine wasn’t a good subsitute for water, however it fired up my passion for gardening and lead me on to bigger and better things. You’ve got to start somewhere!

A new use for those pretty tins

The container is a good place to start and it can be anything from a pot, window box, urn, grow bag, hanging basket and any other improvised container. Absolutely anything can be used to grow in, the only necessary requirements are that it has drainage holes, which can easily be made with a drill, and that it is sturdy enough to be filled with potting compost. When growing veg the pot should be at least 30cm (12in) deep.

Making your own planters for growing in is a great way to recycle and reuse everyday items. When I first moved to Cornwall I had a roof terrace where I used all recycled materials for my planters such as old car tyres, shopping basket, wooded crates, shoes, buckets and coal scuttles. Here at Garden Cornwall HQ we have been jazzing up our courtyard and we now have raised beds made out of car bumpers, sweet peas growing in a sink, we’ve just planted peas to grow up a cd rack and I intend to plant strawberries in some redundant metal bathroom shelves.  Once you start you use your imagination you will soon realise that anything can be used to grow plants in.

The only limit is your imagination when creating a container garden

As I mentioned earlier it is essential that your container has good drainage holes, this will prevent the soil from becoming water logged. Fill your container with a good quality, soil based potting compost.  Your edible garden will need sun to grow so make sure that your planters are not in a too shadier spot.

When space is limited the choice of what to grow is important, here are some points to consider…..

High yielding – A container planted with one courgette plant will supply you with up to 15 fruits, however the same sized container planted with spinach may only give you enough for a single serving. Try to choose a crop that will give you maximum return for space they require. Veg that are high yielding in a small space are climbing beans, courgette and lettuce.

Something a bit oooh – Why grow veg that is easily and cheaply found in supermarkets. Grow something unusual or that’s difficult or expensive to buy.

Attractiveness – An edible container garden doesn’t only have to have one purpose, to be eaten, it can be pretty too so choose the more colourful and different shaped varieties.

Grow something tasty for your lunch box

What to grow…..

Lettuce – Cut and come again varieties provided a steady supply of leaves.

Beans (runner)  –Climbing ones produce attractive scarlet flowers in the summer. Make sure you provide a support for them to grow up, such as some railings or a homemade wigwam. A dwarf variety would also be ideal to be grown in a hanging basket.

Tomatoes – Trailing types look great in hanging baskets.

Courgette – Golden fruited types such as ‘gold rush’ provide a bright splash of colour.

Baby beetroot – Easy and fast growing, they are great in small spaces and there green leaves with red veins look great.

Carrots – Short rooted ones are ideal for containers.

Radishes – High in vitamin C, radishes are fast growers and are ideal to be grown between crops as they take up such little space.

Herbs – There are so many beautiful herbs, why not try some purple leaf or variegated age, purple basil, golden thyme or golden marjoram. Fennel has a delicate ferny foliage and the bronze variety is particularly striking. Golden thyme and rosemary are super for hanging baskets.

Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' is a must for any container garden

Swiss chard – The fantastically bright multi-coloured stems of ‘bright lights’ will lively up any space.

Lettuce – ‘Lollo Rossa’ and ‘Lollo Bionda’ have pretty crimped, frilly leaves, or got for a deep red varety like ‘Flamenco’ or ‘Delicata’

Summer squash –  So many different pretty gourds, check out The Real Seed Catalogue for some inspiration.

Edible flowers – Nasturtium is a great trailing plant with pretty edible orange flowers

Once you have planted your edible garden it will require watering frequently.  Plants in containers also need feeding as they develop as there is a limited nutrient supply in the compost. Apply a liquid feed every 7-14 days or use granular, power or slow-release fertilisers.

Now is the ideal time to prepare you edible container garden so it’s in full flourish for the summer.

March in the Veg Patch

Spring is most definitely in the air and I’ve just come in from a couple of hours work on my veg patch, finishing the last of February’s jobs and thinking about  what should be happening in March. Last month was all about preparing the beds so from now in it is really important to try and keep off the soil as much as possible to avoid compaction. If you can’t reach a certain spot from the edge of the bed then put down a stepping stone or an old plank.

Here’s what should be going down this month….

Seedlings ready for hardening off

Hardening Off – If you sowed any veggie seeds inside in January or February then March is the time to harden them off. Hardening off means putting them in a cooler environment to acclimatize them before planting out. I’ve moved my seeds from the windowsill to my courtyard which gives them a bit of shelter from the wind. If you have moved your seeds outside and there is a risk of frost then remember to bring them in in the evenings. A week or ten days should be enough to make them feel at home in the slightly chillier conditioner of outside and ready to plant in the ground.

Plant out young vegetables – When you have finished hardening off your seedlings you can then plant them out. If you don’t want to faff around sowing seeds then now is the time to buy young vegetable plants. Markets are a great place for these as they are normally good quality plants and at a fairly good price. Falmouth Farmers Market on a Tuesday is an especially good place as they have a wide variety of veg and are really healthy looking plants.

Having finished preparing the beds last month (to be honest I only just finished mine today!), rake the soil so it is nice and even and plant the plants at the recommended spacing. Don’t forget to water in well after planting.

So many seeds, where to begin?!

Seeds – Get those seeds into the ground! If you start planting regularly, say every week to 10 days then you will have a successional crop of veggies. Things like lettuce, beetroot, peas, broad beans, spring onions and spinach are ideal to sow successionaly.

Once you have opened your seed packets the best place to store them is in the fridge, this will keep them cool and dry which will mean the seeds remain viable (capable of germinating) for longer.

The stubbon parsnip can be hard to germinate

Parsnips – This cheeky root vegetable is notoriously erratic at germinating, because of this I use a special parsnip seed sowing technique!  Like sowing most other seeds, prepare a shallow drill (See February in the Veg Patch for a further explaintion on drills), however instead of sowing seeds thinly along the drill I sow parsnip seeds in cluster of three or four seeds at 15cm (6in) intervals. This give you a 1 in 4 chance that a seed will germinate and therefore should prevent any gaps in the row. Put a marker on this row so as not to forget your parsnips are there as germination can not only be erratic but also slow. Lucky they are so tasty to make them worth it!

Potatoes – Early potatoes can now be planted out now.

Personally I’m a big fan of the Dutch Hoe

Here we Hoe – Get that hoe going to keep the weeds down. Weeds take valuable moisture and nutrients from the soil and they can also act as host plants form pests and diseases. If you spend a few minutes at least once a week hoeing the beds then you should keep on top of them and it won’t feel like too painful a job. If you let them get away from you then the bigger job it will feel like when you do get round to weeding. Not sure of the correct way to use a hoe? Click here.

Cut your supermarket herbs in half before planting

Herbs – Sow your herbs seeds this month in exactly the same way as your veg. I am sowing some herbs seeds but I got to admit I’ve also cheated. This morning I brought a couple of herb plants form the supermarket to plant out in the garden. Before planting out, cut off half the foliage, this will help them establish better. Once planted water well.

Enjoy getting out in the sunshine this month, and if you are anything like me I am sure you will be getting excited every time a new seedling pops his head out of the ground!

March in the Garden

Clematis armandii looking stunning this month

Hurray March is here! The first month of spring and we can put the lid back on winter for another year. The garden should be twitching and coming back to life with an array of pretty spring flowers along with those cheeky weeds who are starting to pop their heads back up again. The weather in March can be hard to tame with mild, sunny days followed by hard frosts or wintry showers the next, so make the most of the good weather when you can. Right so what are we getting up to this month….

How to mulch around trees

Mulch – Soil in borders left bare will lose water quickly in dry spells so it is a good idea to get a mulch down. It is especially important to mulch around newly planted trees, shrubs or perennials as it will help them to stay moist and suppress weeds that may overpower them. Mulch with either wood chips or organic matter such as well rotted manure or garden compost. For us Cornish dwellers Cornish Compost do a great soil conditioner which provides the soil with nutrients and instantly makes beds look neat and tidy.

Prune hard to a stubby framework

Prune dogwoods and shrubby willows – The best stem colour from Cornus and Salix is produced by one-year-old shoots. Now, just as the stems are beginning to fade, is the best time for pruning. The type of pruning used for Cornus and Salix is called stooling. This means that the stems are cut back hard to leave a stubby framework. This may seem drastic but have no fear they will grow back strong and colourful for next year. The cut stems of the Salix when stuck back into the ground will start growing so why not make a living willow structure.

Plant new climbers – If you are thinking of getting some new climbers such as Clematis or Passiflora caerulea (passion flower),  now is the time to do it. Before planting make sure your supports such as wires or trellis are in place. Climbers should be planted with the surface of the root ball level with the soil surface, with the exception of clematis. Plant clematis so that the top of the root ball is up to 15cm (6in) below soil level, this will help to prevent clematis wilt.

Pinch off head

Deadhead Daffodils – Daffodils are just coming into their full glory now so its seems a bit sad to talk about deadheading them, however towards the end of the month when they begin to fade it will be time to remove their flowers. If the flowers are left on them the plant will put its energy into the production of seed rather than build up its reserves to create a new flower bulb to flower next spring. Pinch off the head just behind the bulbous part, but leave the stem intact. Don’t be tempted to mow or strim the foliage, it needs to be left for another 6 weeks. Without the foliage the plant will not have enough energy to form a flowering bulb for next year.

My sweet peas eager to be planted out

Sweet peas – Now is the time to sow your sweet peas outdoors, but it’s not too late to sow them indoors. I planted some indoors a few weeks ago and even in my freezing cold house they have shot up and are now ready for planting out. It is said that germination will be improved if the seeds are left to soak overnight, I was too impatient and only left mine to soak for a few hours. My germination rate was about 85%, suppose it may have been 100% if I’d left them overnight!

Before sowing or transplanting outside make sure you have your support in place. It’s pretty easy to make a wigwam, I’m growing mine against a wall on a homemade trellis that Mr T made out of lengths of hazel. When planting seeds outside plant two seeds in each hole at 30cm (1ft) intervals and 1cm (1/2in) deep. Don’t forget to water.

The young plants my need to be tied to supports at first but after that their tendrils should do the job themselves.

Finish pruning hydrangea – If you haven’t already then March is the last opportunity to prune hydrangea. See my last article for more advice.

Start weeding now and try and keep on top of them as this will make the summer months easier.

There we go, plenty to do in the garden and if the weather stays as beautiful as it is today it will be an absolute treat to be there.

If you garden’s out of control or you just need a helping hand then get in touch with Eve Worrall Gardening.

Plant Profile – Hydrangea macrophylla

Here’s an article by Michael Carthew of Cuckoo Vine on Eve Worrall Gardening and the importance of businesses with values. Thanks Mike.

Cuckoo Vine

Back in Victorian times gardening used to be a wonderfully simple affair: you either had the wherewithal to pay your burly groundsman to tend to your estate, or you didn’t own a garden. The division was clear, wonderfully so in fact. There was no Hyacinth Bucket peering over the fence with disdain at your withering daffs. Nor was there the overwhelming selection of trowels and kneeling pads leering at you from the shelves in Asda as you shuffle towards the aisle where the bacon lives.  No, they were simpler days, when botanists were considered eccentric explorers and the rest of us ordinary folk were left alone to uproot spuds in happy ignorance.

In contrast, we now live in a world where Titchmarsh and Monty actually inspire us to don our gardening gloves and stick in a few perennials after we’ve mown the lawn. Dare I say it, gardening is surprisingly…

View original post 1,166 more words

Take off those Rose Tinted Glasses for Valentine’s Day

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name smell so sweet."

Valentine’s Day is traditionally the day when your knight in shinning armour comes crashing through your door on his gleaming white stallion with a rose between his teeth, a pack of Milk Tray in his lap and a fist full of Love Hearts to declare his undying love for you. Well something like that anyway.

The rose (as well as Milk Tray and Love Hearts) has become synonymous with love and Valentine ’s Day thanks to the Roman goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love and Beauty as well as the Goddess of Flowers and was mainly associated with the rose. Flowers are considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful sexual organs so it makes sense that they are so closely connected with love and beauty.

It is estimated that in the UK 1 billion roses are sold for Valentine’s Day, but where do all these roses come from?  Well the majority of them come from Kenya but they also from Columbia and Holland. Not only do these roses have some serious air miles on them but also many of them are not grown in an environmentally sustainable way.

Lake Naivasha where water levels are dropping drastically

A large proportion of the roses grown in Kenya are grown on the banks of Lake Naivasha. In some ways this is good as it’s a very profitable export business that has brought jobs to the area and wealth to Kenya, however, in other ways it’s a disaster. Farms rely on the lake for irrigation, pipes feed the greenhouses straight from the lake. Water’s being drawn out faster than it’s replenished and water levels have dropped considerably. Not only has the drop in water levels become a disaster for declining hippo and bird populations but also for farmers and the Kenyan economy. If it carries on at the rate it is currently dropping, in time there just won’t be any water left to drain out.  With the export of roses from Kenya on the up its also means an increase on the export of water, Kenya’s scares natural resource.

So what flowers can we give our loved ones this Valentine’s Day which have slightly better green credentials than the rose?

Bobs says it with Camellia sinensis

Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, camellias and narcissus are all flowering and looking beautiful at the moment. Luckily here in Cornwall (well the Isle of Scilly is almost Cornwall isn’t it?) we’ve got Scilly Flowers and the Eden Project who both provide beautiful British grown bouquets delivered straight to your door. However if you just can’t say I Love You without a red rose look out for roses with a Fairtrade status and why not mix in some native foliage like ivy (Hedera helix), dogwood (Cornus alba) or corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’).

February in the Veg Patch

Last week I wrote about jobs to do in the garden, now its time to address the veg patch. A couple of weeks ago here at Garden Cornwall HQ,  Mr T and I dug up the front lawn and we now have a bare patch of soil that will become the mighty veg patch! However you don’t have a patch of ground to grow vegetables. Any kind of container, as long as it has drainage holes can be used for growing.

Right so what should you be getting up to this month?

Mr T flex’s his muscles

Finish preparing beds – If you’ve been thinking about making a veg patch for awhile then get on it! Dig out a bed ready for the beginning of the growing season. If you haven’t already done  it then apply farm yard manure or compost to the beds, I’m going to get some well rotted horse manure from a local farmer and I also going to add whats at the bottom of my compost heap. Personally I’m a big fan or the no dig approach (See Charles Dowdings fantastic book Organic Gardening, The Natural No-Dig Way). Just spread it on top of the beds and let the worms do the hardwork for you. No only does this save your back but is much better for the soil in the long run.

Sowing indoors – Plan ahead and start sowing indoors so they can be ready to plant out in the spring. If you haven’t got a propagator then pots or old plastic food trays in a sunny windowsill will do. So things like peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, salad onions and broad beans.

Use your imagination for growing veg in containers

Preparing containers – Veg grown in containers, unlike veg grown in the ground, only has a small area to draw its nutrients from so it’s imperative that you add manure or compost to your containers to give the veg the good stuff in needs to grow. Clear out any old or dead plants and weeds from the pots and mix in plenty of compost or manure.

Sowing seeds

Sowing seeds – Right so we’ve prepared our beds and containers nicely now all we need to do is get sowing! Its best to wait until the end of the month to do this, this will allow the soil to warm up and hopefully by then the worst of the cold weather will be over. This month we can start to sow things like lettuce, radish, salad onions, peas, broad beans, beetroot, summer cabbage and spinach. To do this rake the soil over nicely, have a look at the packet for planting distances, make shallow drills using a cane or your hand fork as the given distances and water the drills. The reason for watering before sowing the seeds is so that the seeds don’t get washed way. When that’s done sow the seeds as thinly as possible and then gently firm the soil back over the drills using your hand, and there we go, jobs a good ‘un.

Great for keeping away the vampires

Garlic – February is the last chance to plant garlic. Don’t separate the cloves from the bulbs until just before planting. Discard any damaged, diseased or tiny cloves as big cloves produce big bulbs!  Push the cloves into the soil to a depth of 2.5cm (about half a finger) and water in. I’m going for Elephant Garlic this year, can’t wait for some monster cloves. As well as garlic now is also time to get your shallot sets in.