Gardening

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Following the success of the Nature Notes and Recipes threads, I wondered if anyone would like one about our various gardening projects, progress and problems. We live in so many different areas and climates, each with its own challenges and advantages. Rather like poultry keeping, actually - the type of gardening we choose is the result of space available, time, energy, and what we hope to get out of it. The scale varies from a window box or pot plant, to an allotment, a wildlife area, or a whole croft, in HenGen's case.

My garden is in the South of England, at the top of a hill on chalky soil, so drains fast and suffers drought in summer. Three huge, beautiful birches have spread their roots and tend to get whatever is going under the surface. 48 years of adding compost to the borders has produced decent soil, but plants here have to like alkaline conditions and be resistant to long dry spells. There's a largish pond, topped up by a hose that takes nearly all the water from the house roof. The main aim is wildlife conservation, with mature trees and shrubs and as much trouble-free ground cover as possible.

New Year's Day here has been Springlike, a calm and sunny 11C, and I've been digging out old raspberries, ready to top up with fresh soil and composted manure before planting new autumn-fruiting raspberries. I'm also going to instal a length of perforated hose under the surface, which I could connect to a water butt to give them rainwater when available, or to the tap when the butt is empty. Last summer, we had hardly any fruit on the old canes, mostly my fault for not watering them sufficiently in the heat, but also because the canes were too old and had become strangled by bindweed, impossible to dig out over the years. Primocane raspberries are the easiest and most trouble-free of fruit bushes, and I'm always amazed at the price of them in the shops, when at home they just go on giving for months on end!
 
Soft fruit doesn't like tap water Marigold- the Chlorine kills the taste in the fruit. Best to do as us, fill the water butt and leave it 4 days for the Chlorine to come out before using it. in practice this means two water butts that can be connected to your watering system.

Here the ground holds moisture well but dries out in Summer leaving big cracks in the ground. Growing vegetables requires a mulch over the top to suppress weeds and hold in the moisture- we use shredded leaves. Last year we didn't have enough so we've doubled the amount stored. Our 'potager' (veggie plot) is 225m2 of which half is beds and the rest grass walkways just wide enough to mow. Our rain water butts hold 1000L each and the contents is pumped to a 300L tank in the potager from which we fill watering cans. Ideally each crop is grown over a trench filled with compost and watering each trench is done using water bottles buried- the bottoms are cut off which acts as a funnel. This prevents the surface being watered which would encourage weeds.

It's a very untidy affair really, but to keep it looking like an English garden is far too much work. Winter crops are used here a lot, basically to avoid all the watering necessary in Summer. We did Spring sowing last year which was a mistake, so this year only tomatoes, beans and squashes will go in- basically those that are not frost resistant.

Need to add that an enclosure is essential to stop Roe Deer and Badgers eating the produce. Unfortunately if Wild Boar take a fancy to it no enclosure will keep them out, they are just too powerful.

And something else I forgot to mention is hailstorms. Hail can be the size of golf balls as our car demonstrates. Best if the more delicate plants, like tomatoes, are grown within a framework that allows debris netting to cover them over. Can't cover French beans here though as, unlike the dwarf varieties in England, these grow like runner beans up a 2 metre high framework. We used wire cages over the young squash fruits but the whole plants are too big to cover.
 
Some folk in these parts garden but not on the higher, exposed ground where I am. I’m fully open to the SE and E winds which are the killers.
However behind a 6ft wall on one side and a 5ft fence on the other, both of which I had built when I moved here, I have a copse. Does this count as gardening? There are about 200 trees of mixed species which have now reached their maximum height of about 12ft. They are very branched and underplanted with nectar rich shrubs. Last year I got round to planting snowdrops and two years ago some comfrey appeared. Don’t know where this came from as there’s none around.
Anyway on warm days I can go in and sit with a mug of tea and listen to the bees and hover flies which is blissful. Unfortunately no butterflies here but there are a range of nocturnal moths and the odd immigrant. Saw an elephant hawk moth last summer. There are hedgehogs around but never seen one in my copse. Rabbits and snipe seem to like skulking in it though.
This years project is to beg, borrow or steal some honeysuckle and let it run riot thickening up the lower levels to create undergrowth.
As you can see I’m very interested in wildlife gardening and particularly enjoy the migration seasons when all sorts of odd things stop over for some R and R. Unfortunately this also brings twitchers. Although I enjoy bird watchers twitchers are avian stamp collectors who care little for the birds well being and will drive them out of my copse so they can all see them. So when I see them they get short shrift from me!
So apart from the copse my only concession to gardening is doing what I can to encourage floral diversity on my bits of grassland. This means no fertiliser and no cutting until the flowers have set seed. And, at the behest of a neighbour who is a passionate ornithologist, leaving some docks because the seeds are a favoured food of twite.
A few cacti sum up my horticultural ambitions. I’ve had them for 20years and most visitors admire their size but they obdurately refuse to flower despite being on south facing window sills.
Future projects include buying a bunch of different fern species, which I love, but which I abandoned down south when I moved. This is one of those things I deeply regret. I mean what kind of saddo joins the British Pteridological Society? (Almost as sad as visiting poultry forums). I think the only other members are leading cast members of Black Books and Young Sheldon! ?
 
That sounds like the perfect garden, HenGen - good to relax in, and self-maintaining. Ours has a council-owned field at the back, which one day will probably have 200 houses planted on it, but meanwhile it's just rewilding gently. I'm gradually planting native tree seedlings along outside of our boundary, which I hope will make a screen by the time that happens.
 
You could always shoot the twitchers Hen-Gen, you would be a public service, so says OH who is a keen birdwatcher, but doesn't feel the need to go haring after some poor little waif and stray and get ever closer with a great big photographic lens.
Our soil is thick heavy clay which floods in winter and dries out into huge cracks in summer. We have built raised beds to plant veg in, the gooseberry bushes seem to like the clay soil, as does the pyracantha which doesn't seem to mind being submerged every so often. Some of the traditional cottage garden plants don't seem to mind the variable conditions either.
One advantage to it getting very wet and swamp like in the winter is having Woodcock in the garden at dusk and dawn. We have had Snipe but they seem to prefer the farm fields, Little Egrets like it also.
 
The allotment owner I follow on instagram is going no dig this year. Seems all you thought you knew about gardening is wrong. Digging damages the earth and what lives in it. I thought you dug, so you can introduce compost and improve the soil.
My mate collects my chicken poo and my nieces rabbit bedding, says it's fantastic for breaking down the compost.
Also I'm a big acer lover.
 
bigyetiman said:
One advantage to it getting very wet and swamp like in the winter is having Woodcock in the garden at dusk and dawn.
Oh dear! Woodcocks are my favourite bird but with game chips and red currant jelly.
We only get them coming through on the autumn migration.

The bird I really enjoy, not gastronomically, is the water rail some of which winter here and one in my little plantation but which comes out to a large, muddy puddle on my drive.
But back to gardening. If I win the lottery, which is rather unlikely because I don’t do it, then I’d have a greenhouse full of camellias. I bet some of you have them in your gardens.
PS
You’ve spurred me on. Just been on Amazon and bought 500g of wild flower seeds!
 
I am going to join in this thread when I am feeling better, got a horrible 48 hour cold thing. We have camellias, they love Portugal, I think its all the winter wet plus warm spring temps; this gives them enough to survive the scalding summers. I also grew them in England as we had a very good camellia nursery close by, plus the requisite acid soil. On my New Year's Eve table I picked a whole load of white ones and put them in a white vase and felt much better about things because I had managed to get a home grown flower into the house!

Great idea Marigold, its been a fascinating read already!
 
My father in law bought M in law a camellia as she loved them. She tended it lovingly but never a flower. Then the year he died it flowered like there was no tomorrow, and has done ever since.
As you have eaten them Hen-Gen have you seen a Woodcock close up feathered as they have the most amazing colours, every shade of brown. We have Water Rail pop into the garden every so often. OH was at a farm up the lane yesterday looking at his owl boxes and whilst looking in his ditches surprised a Jack Snipe which was bobbing along which she was quite pleased about.
Another plant that seems to like our clay soil is Jerusalem sage
 
I pruned our two apple trees this morning. One of those jobs that only happen once a year, and I try to do it early in January as it always seems to be a marker to help me look forward to Spring. There was a seed catalogue in the post over Christmas, and I enjoyed browsing through it for my new raspberry plants. I read all through the lovely selection of vegetable seeds and potato tubers, remembering how much I used to enjoy making planting plans and ordering seed when I had my allotment. The apple trees and the raspberries are more or less all the edibles I can fit in here, and I have to resist the lure of growing things in pots. It's lovely when they start coming up, but I know that in the heat of summer I shan't want to be bothered to keep on watering them.
 
That's what I should start doing, Marigold. Pruning the apple trees, of which there are too many. About 14 I think. I've no idea how to prune properly, so I'll just chop away. It's mild today, so I might actually do something outside. I'm definitely NOT a natural gardener. Just seems to be so overwhelming, this place. My husband used to spend entire days pottering about out there, keeping his many small flower beds going. I have neither the time nor, frankly, the will to do that. Keeping the grass cut and hedges trimmed is about the most I get to keep up with! Which reminds me, that's another job not done yet! The huge circular hedge at the back needs trimming. Hm. Maybe I better get off my behind today. At least I gave that a good cut last year, so trimming is all it needs this year! I'm also thinking of planting the hazel trimmings along the side hedge, to make eventually a "living fence" on the side that gets most wind. And then, ultimately, taking down the huge trees on that side, that are giving no shelter anymore, and becoming dangerous in storms. I've already had one enormous branch come down last Winter, missing the chicken house by inches! I've got very persistent brambles coming up everywhere. They seem to be travelling a long way under the lawn. I've been trying for years to get rid of them, and can't.
 
First morning of frozen drinkers here.
Its not really possible to prune full standard apple trees in any major way LadyA. Of course, its possible to train apple trees from young into a form you can prune and keep easy to harvest i.e. fanned out low on wires, but once they develop into 'standards' they take to any meaningful reduction with tall fresh growth that spoils the form and the point of doing it in the first place.
So its a case of taking out dead, dying and crossing branches and maybe just tweaking the general shape a bit. A pole saw and loppers are handy.

Of course, there's all sorts of pruning tricks you can do to a tree that is trained for it from the outset but for a specimen standard there is general light maintenance and bravely taking off a good portion of the set fruit before it develops so the remainder grow bigger. That's about it.

Oh, and unlike most other trees, best not to prune them in the winter/wet months as you run the risk of a silverleaf infection.
 
It helps to buy half-standard trees on a semi-vigorous rootstock in the first place, and then to prune them into an open cup shape each year, so they're easy to reach for picking and pruning. My 4-year-old Worcester Permain is quite a delicate-looking little tree, with slender shoots that are easy to prune with secateurs, but the 6-year-old Bramley grows thick, sturdy shoots that require loppers to keep in shape, though I can still reach the top with the help of a small pair of steps. It would be huge by now without its annual haircut. Last year in the drought there was very little fruit, especially as the Bramley was having one of its 'resting' years, but it seems to have put on a remarkable amount of upwards growth in the absence both of fruit and of water. Am hoping for a few more apples this year, though the main purpose of these trees is blossom, and screening for the summer house.
Rick, I think the risk of silver leaf infection applies to plum and cherry trees, which should only be pruned in the warmer months. Most of the advice on pruning apples says do it when they're dormant, in winter. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=90
 
Have you got as far as a raspberry choice yet Marigold? I used to grow Polka (autumn fruit) which was vigorous and prolific but the flavour wasn't fabulous and I wouldn't grow it again. The one I like best in the shops is Tullameen (not Tullamore as I initially wrote, that is a whisky apparently!)

I did the apple pruning in Portugal before Christmas, with the added benefit that the unwanted branches became the Xmas tree, sprayed gold and drenched in tinsel and lights. One of the nicest sights in the world is pale pink and white apple blossom waving in the breeze against a blue sky with the sound of bees and the scent of the blossom if you dare stick your nose in!

In the UK our apples were planted in the teeth of an easterly wind, which in hindsight was a big mistake. They struggled although they did fruit. Next door sensibly planted their's behind a hedge and had a dozen very prolific trees, with a few rarities, the only one I can remember was St Edmunds Russet (or similar). The one which did best for me was called Kidds Orange Red, which is a cross between a cox and something from NZ I think. Great flavour too. My other neighbour had a very prolific and huge Bramley. They had it topped about 5 years ago and it sulked a bit, but now its grown very large again and strangely the fruit is much redder than it used to be. However, many of our combined efforts were in vain because the deer would wait for the fruit to ripen, jump the fence and proceed to feast! Bramley neighbour has since had a much higher fence erected, and the hedges have matured making it harder for the deer to process from one garden to the next, but I'm sure they will find a way in!
 
Marigold said:
Rick, I think the risk of silver leaf infection applies to plum and cherry trees, which should only be pruned in the warmer months. Most of the advice on pruning apples says do it when they're dormant, in winter. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=90

That's fair enough Marigold. The risk is very, very low.
Flowers - yes! Fantastic!
 
MrsBiscuit said:
Have you got as far as a raspberry choice yet Marigold? I used to grow Polka (autumn fruit) which was vigorous and prolific but the flavour wasn't fabulous and I wouldn't grow it again. The one I like best in the shops is Tullameen (not Tullamore as I initially wrote, that is a whisky apparently!)

I'm going to get Joan J. autumn raspberries. I've grown them for some years, they have lovely big flavourful berries and the leaves are not rough on your hands like some varieties are.
 
Only one of the apple trees is a full size. It wasn't meant to be! The rest are all either dwarf or half-standard. Several are growing at mad angles, because William didn't stake them properly (or at all!). I'm planning to put in a couple of extra Jonagolds, because they're a favourite of dau's family and myself, and will store well for Winter. I've only one Jonagold tree, and it's not doing well.

I did a bit outside today, so am proud of myself! I managed to dig out some Solomon's Seal from a flower bed - the same Solomon's Seal which broke a garden fork and wrenched my back so badly in the Autumn that I was out of action for a couple of weeks! The ground is so soft now, that I managed easily to break the rhizomes and get quite a bit out. I've dumped it in "no-man's-land", my wilderness down at the back, where it can spread to its heart's content! I also spent time weeding a heather bed free of cleavers and raking loads of cleavers from the "lawn" (hahaha!) around that area. I've a huge problem with cleavers. They are everywhere! I spend Spring & Summer raking them out, but they come back the minute I turn my back! The weather's been so mild, that they are starting to run rampant already! I've snowdrops in bloom and daffodils in fat bud. My sister in law, who lives in town, has daffodils in bloom!
 
By cleavers, do you mean the tall thin green weed that drapes itself over the hedges and sticks to your gloves when you pull it out? I've heard it called stickyweed and lover's touch, but also goosegrass, and chickens love it. At the moment I'm collecting a bagful of lovely tender shoots on the dog walk each day, to tie up on a string for the hens as their free daily greens. They get really excited when I appear with it, and it's soon gone.
Interesting article here about its many names and various uses, including a tea which cleanses the lymphatic system, and stuffing for mattresses! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine
 
Marigold said:
By cleavers, do you mean the tall thin green weed that drapes itself over the hedges and sticks to your gloves when you pull it out? I've heard it called stickyweed and lover's touch, but also goosegrass, and chickens love it. At the moment I'm collecting a bagful of lovely tender shoots on the dog walk each day, to tie up on a string for the hens as their free daily greens. They get really excited when I appear with it, and it's soon gone.
Interesting article here about its many names and various uses, including a tea which cleanses the lymphatic system, and stuffing for mattresses! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

That's the stuff. I believe that during the war, when medicines couldn't be got, the Govt. in the UK paid by the lb for it, along with several other "weeds". Here, my ground can be very wet, and I get a lot of moss growing under trees and spreading out. I love the moss, and the birds love it. Unfortunately, the cleavers also love it! Blooming stuff runs rampant here under the hedges and trees, and spreads from there.
 
LadyA said:
That's the stuff. I believe that during the war, when medicines couldn't be got, the Govt. in the UK paid by the lb for it, along with several other "weeds". Here, my ground can be very wet, and I get a lot of moss growing under trees and spreading out. I love the moss, and the birds love it. Unfortunately, the cleavers also love it! Blooming stuff runs rampant here under the hedges and trees, and spreads from there.

The;s good to know. We might need it after Brexit!
 

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