I must admit to being the most terrible Orchid killer. I’ve been given several over the last few years and all have died except the last, a Cimbidium. Perhaps this was due to ‘not paying due care and attention’ to them or simply leaving it too the point of drooping leaves and dried out crackling compost before emergency care measures kick in.
Care labels never really give you enough info, it’s all a bit bland and perfect. I don;t live in a green house, or indeed an orchid friendly house it would seem. But a final attempt seems to be going ok, not brilliantly but as I patiently obsess over whether the flourishing leafy Cimbidium will in fact flower or simply continue to grow new leaves I am please at least that it hasn’t died!!
I recall Sarah Raven on GW a few years back advising that even moving an orchid (a Phalenopsis I think) from shop to car and car to house around the time of UK Mother’s day (early March) might be enough to kill it off if there’s a stiff breeze and wintry blasts. So no cold then. Another tidbit sunk in from somewhere (!) on the use of rainwater ONLY and the odd drizzle of water draining through when it’s dry not drowning it weekly. It lives in trees so watering would happen in the wild when water runs down a tree trunk or off a leaf branch. The last week on GW Monty was at RHS Wisely where they have a glorious exhibition of their Orchidacae collection and the news from this piece was that not only do they not like cold blasts, soggy roots or tap water but they don’t like dry radiator heat either. **GROAN** So my Cimbidium sitting on the dining room table basking in the sun for the first part of the day and wallowing over the, up to 20 degrees, radiator is not it’s preferred option either. I’ve since added some gravel and a little water beneath to make it at least more humid.
Following a client presentation just off J11 on the M25 on Saturday I skidded up to Wisley and the big Orchid laden glass house as the clock moved on towards 16:30. Driving rain, horizontal winds and scudding clouds were not enough to put me off, though I barely made it round as the glass house closed at 17:10. What surprised me is that my Cimbidium and indeed the Phalenopsis were in the cooler part of the glass house, not the steamy humid, glasses wiping part, though there may have been some varieties in there, I was moving to fast to take notes! So in fact my dining room is the perfect temp for them, just a little extra moisture and some new compost with a drizzle of orchid friendly food in the rain water and maybe just maybe this year I might get a flower spike.
It’s about that time of year when people who love their gardens and the process of growing start getting a bit antsy about the weather. Not being able to get outside due to inclement weather is one of the things that drives me nuts at this time of year although being a pro now I do go out in far more inclement weather than I would if I didn’t have to. At heart I am a fair weather gardener to which my neighbours will happily attest!
Nevertheless even at this time of the year when it’s snowing or freezing temps or yet more rain (we’re Brits, I know we should be used to this by now…) the plethora of juicy seed catalogues start plopping onto the door mat as if too entice us towards the sultry months ahead (ok sultry in my dreams, more likely to be damp and cool followed by more damp and more cool, if we’re lucky there will be a spate of simply scorching days to which we will hark for years to come).
I usually start planning the veg plot in October November time, partly as I feel I’ll miss it somehow unless I plan well in advance and then there is obtaining the rare seed that I like to attempt each year and the paranoia that it will all go if I don’t order early. Suffice to say with leftover seeds from last year(s!) and this irrational collecting behaviour I am usually vegetable seeded up by Christmas. But not so of the flowery seeds.
Inevitably the media tempters will start showing gardening programmes around February that display last years bounty. This year travels of Monty here and the abundance in Glebe cottage there and to boot an A-Z of gardening which brings all the old programmes back to haunt us through the ‘down time’ in the gardening year. For research purposes I HAVE to watch all the programmes (No, I do!) and am consequently tempted beyond comprehension with all the possible flowering things there are to grow in the coming summer.
From experience I now know some of these little blighters need a VERY early start and to miss this = fail before you even get it in the ground. Last year I had stunning Nicotiana mutabilis that produced fat globular rosettes of leaves, juicy and lush and not one of the blooming things flowered, not ONE! Mainly I suspect because combined with my late start, (May as I recall) the weather was vile and we barely had sun for more than an hour about three times (slight exaggeration but you get my point. Late start + bad weather = no flowers. This year? HaHa they are already in the seed tray in the heated propagator, which will undoubtedly lead to leggy little monsters that flop at the first sign of a draft.
So back to seed catalogues. There are so many but personal favourites this year are:
Sarah Raven - slightly pricey but wonderful and unusual varieties.
Real Seed Catalogue – if you haven’t tried them do, they have a great ethic and some wonderfully rare seeds on offer, plus the advice is excellent and works.
Suttons - for James Wong‘s Homegrown Revolution seeds, inevitably success with these will be hit and miss for most of us!
I’m looking forward to the Bishop’s Children Dhalia’s and some black skinned, lime flavoured Tomatillo the most and not pinning too many hopes on a second round of Nicotiana mutabilis…. What are you looking forward to growing this year?
I am feeling slightly flat today having missed posting yesterday. ‘One a month’ was the original mantra, I missed Jan 2013 by a whisker of activity. Ho Hum, not going to give myself a hard time about it but ho hum!
So Hippeastrum…You’re probably wondering why on earth I would be writing about this rather kitsch plant that seems to pop up over the winter months (Oct to Jan blooming time) looking all blousey in your mother-in-laws kitchen/conservatory/dining room.
Well let me say that I inherited one from a family member. It was given to them as a gift about 4 Christmas’ ago and had been lurking in it’s increasingly tatty box in the garage unplanted and un-loved. I noticed it trying to poke it’s foliage into the light during the annual debris clear out in the garage 3 years ago. Being a bit of a collector, I can never resist an ambitious plant, and being thrifty (read mean) I can’t bear to throw potential away without trying. So I took it home and potted it up in the pot provided. It sat on the cold window sill and went onto produce not one but two spectacular stems with enormous stripey pink and cream flowers. Not so fleeting – a good 3 or 4 weeks in flower and in return I buried the whole pot in the partially shaded border for the spring and summer months, leaving leafage and feeding along with other shrubs and bulb-ery in that part of the garden. Low and behold more leaves appeared and the bulb grew, ish. At the end of Autumn I duly took it inside not wanting it to turn to mush in the sub-zeros we had last year and molly coddled it hoping for a spectacular show as the year before.
Not a bit of it, oh it thrived, leafed up and sucked up water, leafed up some more but no flower spike I will admit to feeding it at the sight of each new leaf (they look like flower spikes in the first few days) but not a single flower spike emerged. Having a remarkably short attention span for plants that don’t ‘do’ what they’re supposed to it was consigned to an east facing windowsill for the rest of the winter and then plonked in the ‘do something with’ shady border, under a rampant clematis for the rest of last year.
During this years autumn clear up I discovered it was quite happily lurking with 3 or 4 leaves tattered and bent from slug attention and neglect. This time I’d read up on the old hippeastrum and swiftly cut back the leaves potted it on to a 2ltr pot with fresh compost mix and brought it inside, “one last chance” I told it, “if you don’t flower this year you’re compost!”
Now I’m not a big conversationalist when it comes to dialogue with my plants but on occasion I have been known to threaten such things and even tell them how beautiful they are, with not much small talk in between. I’ll be honest I have never noticed one jot of difference in a plants behavior following such chats but, well some of you might. Christmas came and went, New Year came and went, nothing. Lush juicy leafage but no sign of a flower stalk. Then after a particularly cold weekend away I returned home to the makings of a flower stalk. The stem seems to lurch in growth, not so much steady increments but 6 inches one week and nothing the next. I am a sporadic water-er and feeder so no doubt this will have everything to do with it but maybe not, maybe this Hippeastrum is just contrary and likes doing it it’s own way. About ten days later the first flower unfurled. HUGE. Honestly it is the size of my hand span (size 7 glove) a softer reddy pinky creamy than I recall and flowery. Then flower number two emerged fattening up and up until one dark night the whole thing keeled over into the money plant, tipping soil all over the place. Staking was required. I pinched the green stick from the Orchid I am also attempting to coax into re-flowering and tied three lots of string around at even intervals up the chunky stem, it seems to be holding nicely. Bloom two was no less magnificent, no less blousey, ok possibly a tad more gaudy. Finally bloom three popped out pushing towards the opposite direction and balancing the whole perfectly. Flower one is still perfect, flower three is emerging (takes about a day) and I am wondering how long it will all last.
not THE one but jolly similar
Of course because it’s so in your face flouncy I am thinking of purchasing another to complement it, and take up more window space and frustrate me in the coming years. Though this time having done my homework and discovered they need 6-8 weeks of cold (10 degrees C) and a spot of drying out, simulating a dormant period in the growing phase. Once dormancy is done and leaves begin to poke up, it’s into faking spring/summer mode for the plant, upping the temp to a healthy 15-18 (i.e move it to a lived in room) and begin the feeding and careful watering. Careful watering is so as not to rot the bulb and of course as a horticulturalist I should say I do this, I don’t I am slack, the hippeastrum is forgiving, one thing I do make sure of is that it doesn’t sit in or on water, I park it in half a sink of water for 20 mins then drain it for an hour on the drainer, sit it back on it’s dish until I remember again it needs watering.
At the time of posting the third flower is still out some 3 weeks later. Well worth the effort.
It’s been a roller coaster of a year 2012 though on the whole as many ups as downs. It started brilliantly well and sort of coasted in a bit from there.
6 weeks between posts is long even by our standards but December has been busy, mostly thwarted by rain and wind and then of course the freezing frosts entwined with sub-zero temperatures. Plans have been planned and re-planned, cancelled, re-booked and some even met on time!
Frosticled River Salix
The herbaceous garden held on in sterling show well into December and it took some ruthless moments to cut back and tidy up while plants still flowered and flounced about. In the end a worthwhile sacrifice.
For photographers the thought is ‘what’s not to love about dead umbel seed heads and grassy fronds frosticled up and glistening?’ as a gardener by midday the soggy brown mess of after frost is ugly and not to be admired. Sometimes it’s a toss up, this year with the rain and wind it was not. Down it all came ready to be chopped up and composted.
The compost heap suffered this year too, too dry, too wet, too many ants, too much brown, too much green, too little of anything…and on it goes. We’re am fast coming to the conclusion that ‘hot composting‘ is the best route, although next year we’ll be trialing a method passed on from another National Collection holder who likes the idea of the ‘low-to-no work’ gardening. That will be green manure grown, trampled and covered with a layer of weed control fabric pinned down, leaving the mulch to rot and then planting. Moving towards the no dig movement is a definitely gaol for 2013.
The media was peppered with Mistletoe stories, learning about it’s history and uses from social to medicinal enlightened one and all. One of our clients is growing some from seed embedded deliberately in a wonderful old Bramley. It’s thriving but surprisingly slow to start. Growing a plant is a favourite way to get to know it.
New Years Eve and New Years Day are a favourite time to retreat from the world and write todo lists, goals, resolutions, mind-map, doodle, cogitate, re-write and re-write again letting the imagination flow and take form (write it down, write it down, write it down!). This years cogitating will include Monty Don’s ritual (GWM Jan) of laying out seed packets on the dining room table, bed by bed and then make up the lists of when to plant and how much (space is at an optimum).
Here is to 2013 regain some equilibrium lost in 2012 with snowdrops just poking up their leaves it is possible to ignore the flowering Hammamelis and the blooming Lonicera Winter Beauty (both a month early).
Exciting times ahead and we’re looking forward to the new projects of 2013
Wishing one and all a Happy and Prosperous 2013.
Flower press Wisely style
Last Friday I was lucky enough to enter to rarified world of the RHS’s Wisely herbarium. A group organised by the British Iris Society we gathered for a talk by the Head of the Herbarium, Chris .
The Herbarium is a rather recent affair, not what one expects to hear from the RHS which to my mind has been in existence forever (actually only 144 years!). The original herbarium was auctioned off, along with parts of the Library, (true) in 1856 to help settle debts. in 1917 the gathering of specimens resumed with plants from the garden at Wisely. There have been large donations from other herbarium along the way but in 1960 Christopher Brickell started a co-ordinated effort to collect and expand the Herbarium. In the late 80′s more storage space allowed for a rapid increase in size. There are in excess of 64,000 specimens, 34,000+ photographs and 3,300+ paintings, which seems like a huge number until you discover that the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew holds more than 7 million specimens.
State of the art scanner for herbarium samples
The contents are dried and pressed plant specimens mostly post 1917 but one as early as 1731 (now THAT is old). Their focus is on ornamental plants in the UK as opposed to those that collect mainly native and wild plants. Specimens can contain leaves, flowers, sepals, tepals, calyx, stems, shoots and sometimes whole roots! They are actively building the collection and are most grateful for contributions especially from breeders (the best source of all) followed by National Collection holders, reliable nurseries, botanic gardens, museums and other reputable plant material sources. I say reputable because they need to know that what is being supplied is what it says it is!
The breeder submissions are called standards and have a special coloured strip on their folder to denote their status. It is assumed that the breeder knows what she/he is sending! After hearing some stories of the condition (chaos) some samples may arrive in it is easy to see why things can get confused.
I recall as a child having a small flower press and was slightly surprised to find that nothing has changed much in that presses consist of blotting paper, corrugated cardboard, foam and block of wood, though these are pressed together with slim luggage straps rather than looooong screws with butterfly nuts.
Layer of pressed flowers
There is a project underway, worldwide to digitally record these herbarium samples. About 200 herbarium are taking part, including Kew and Wisely. Once a specimen is scanned and entered the participating herbarium can access the information imagery, manipulating it into extraordinarily enlarged sizes to enable identification using the tiniest of details, even to the point of being able to measure, exactly, the dimensions of parts of the sample.
Interesting to note is what is being scanned in. Alongside the Standard specimens are ferns. Ferns because the fern society have funded this part of the project. Money talks.
We also saw some wonderful illustrations and paintings, including several by Elise Katherine Dykes, wife William Dykes of, Dykes Medal re-known. These days it is rare for Irises to be painted although we were all interested to hear that the Orchid societies top medal winners are painted every year……
Beautiful drawings of plant specimens
What is clear is that if a genus has a wealthy patron, or society behind it that it gets more attention. Understandable but slightly surprising it is a good reminder that this is a charity not a public body.
A wonderful snapshot into the world of the herbarium botanist and the dedicated team the the RHS who are maintaining and developing the resource, not to mention being a source of encouragement for this Collection Holder to get on with supplying some of the specimens they are lacking from my specialty!
Really?, Already? May?
Time flies at this time of gardening year it all seems to come at once. I have been busy gardening for myself and for clients and I love it. All the rain we have had in the droughty South East of the county!, has made everything grow grow grow though a little sunshine would not go amiss to get something flowering as well as putting on leafage. Enough complaining frmo me I am delighted with the rain though a bit tired of explaining to friends with house-bound kids that it’s great for us all that we’re getting out of the drought. It will no doubt stop soon as we’ll be having some summer sun in the coming months.
At the end of April I visited Prague for the first time, a stunning city with so much to see, 4 days was not enough. What stuck me was how out of kilter their flowering seemed to be, Lilacs in full glorious bloom but apple trees barely opening their buds. Having come from the UK where our lilacs were firmly furled and apple blossom all but blown away it seemed bit back to front. That said the weather had just turned warm, well hot to be fair 30-33 degrees for 4 days and sun sun sun, more gloriousness and heavenly to be out of the constant downpours for all the sight seeing we did.
After trips away is always exciting to come home mostly to see what has survived in my abscence or thrived in the garden. There had been much greening, the lawn is emulating the day of the triffids and the Irises (in pots) had put on a great deal of growth.
Seasonal veg is still sulking and reluctant to come out in the cold (unheated green house and cold frames) but the salad H-Edge has started to sprout and not yet been slug munched. The Pak Choi is putting on some leaf and the stems thickening up and shooting up which is good because they’re in front of a rampaging Centaurea montana Alba which is ALSO shooting up in all directions and putting on it’s late spring growth.
The big task in the next weeks is staking potentially floppy, taller perennials – Delphinium (larkspur), Anthemis (marguerite), Centaurea (cornflower), Peonies, Papaver (poppy) Getting stakes in early makes it simpler to contain them later on. I’ve used some lovely 3/4 circular metal frames bought last year at Chelsea (3 for £9 was a bit of a bargain) and when those ran out I resorted to 1m lengths of bean pole secured with rounds of garden string and when they ran out I used the still bendy branch clippings from the Forsythia to stick into the soil and weave together to make a kind of fence around the Lychnis coronaria.
Anthemis tinctoria Sauce Hollandaise
This year I have left the Hemerocalis (Day Lily) and the Achillea (yarrow) as they were transplanted last autumn and aren’t looking like they’ll grow on much this year. I may have to revisit that though.
PRUNE:
If your Clematis montana has done it’s flowering stint for the year NOW is the time to give a good haircut, be firm with older plants as they are very very vigorous vines in the right position and happily take over if not kept in check. I am currently growing one up a rather unsightly Holly that cannot be got rid of in the vain hope that the montana with smother (and kill) the Holly in years to come!
FRUIT, VEGGIES AND CUT FLOWERS:
Keep planting successional carrots, beetroot and salad leaves on a weekly basis to give you a regular crop at the other end of the cycle. I have two large IKEA bins hosting Carrot seedlings and Parsnip seeds. The parsnips have yet to surface, the carrots are romping away.
Plant Basil the Alys Fowler way. Ann Marie Powell Tweeted that she had had speedy success (less than 48 hrs) with this method so I followed suit (remarks of Lemming will not be received kindly!) Some black basil seed was hastily, if lightly sprinkled over a 9cm pot of damp seed compost, pressed into contact with the soil but not covered with same, covered with a spot of cling film and placed in a window near a heat source. In my case it was in the south east facing window of my office near the radiator. They took 4 days to emerge and are now putting on steady growth in readiness for repotting and more heat and sun in the coming months (optimistic I know). Looking forward to lots of fresh basil this summer.
Plant Squash seeds. After so much joy with the Alys Fowler method for Basil I tried it on my other seeds and low and behold up came the Courgette, the Boston Squash, Perilla and some Calendular. The pumpkin and courgette are already potted on into their own 9cm pots the rest are waiting for the clement weather to arrive first.
The seedlings of Phlox, Stocks and Cosmos are romping away and already in module mode. I have given away lots and lots of these as I over seeded in the February rush. Mark Diacono said in a River Cottage Bites episode “grow a little of a lot…” which struck a chord here and I have cut back seriously on my usual excesses of seedlings. My lovely neighbours and friends will not benefit from the annual veg seedling glut but I will be able to try more varieties this year and there will be room in the greenhouse (well, maybe…..)
Earth up your spuds as their green tops emerge, unless of course you’re trying the cover them in straw and pray method (or no dig!) in which case do not forage about in the straw and compost looking for growth it doesn’t help them grow any faster or bigger.
Put in your bean canes in readiness for planting in a couple of weeks. either in arch formation with stabilising side, cross struts and a cross bar on the top or teepee shapes strung together at the very top. I have enough canes for 3 large teepee shapes and enough space this year too. So I am growing green and purple climbing French beans and some runner beans. I am also trialing mixing my sweet peas in with the climbing beans, mainly for space reasons but also to see if it helps with pollination.
Pea netting can go in too with some study stakes at either end to support the inevitable burgeoning crop that will come. I didn’t stake sturdily last year and the whole netting collapsed under the weight of peas. It is much more difficult to re-errect the pea’ vegetation network once it has collapsed!
It’s not quite time to put out Dahlia and semi tender plants, watch the weather forecast for more balmy conditions and the end of frosts. I am anticipating the last week of May/first week of June for planting them out along with hanging out my hanging baskets.
Centaurea montana Alba
VISIT:
The Malvern Show 10-13th May Malvern, Worcs
Chelsea Flower show 22-26 May at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.
Chelsea Fringe 19th May – 10th June. In it’s very first year, don’t miss out
Sissinghurst early June would be my favourite time to visit
Yorkshire Sculpture Park I am longing to make this trip this spring it is Joan Miro, Jem FIner and Sophie Ernst
Most of all enjoy your natural spaces be it your garden, a public garden, your allotment, an NGS garden, a walk in the country and remember there is no bad weather, just poor equipment!
Assailed by a never ending list of things todo I keep a master list for garden tasks in the kitchen, mostly scribbled on my latest Gardener’s World calendar but some months it stretches to include post it notes stuck one on top of another. With the arrival of each new magazine ( I get 4 or is it 5 mags a month?!) or garden program (GQT, Beechgrove Garden and of course Friday nights with Monty and GW) I add to it, which to be honest makes it frightful and frightening at some stages of the year!
That might seem terribly disorganised and I will admit to having it electronically as well – spreadsheet by plant by month – so it can be sorted and juggled and pondered over if there is time, which is rarely!
Mostly I have it down to what MUST be done that month as a priority and what should be done but could wait a bit, follows that. It helps to not miss vital pruning or planting stages and that way there is no arguing with myself about the necessity of completing certain tasks.
So April’s MUST do’s – not an exhaustive list by any means and anyone wishing to add to task or ask a question please feel free to comment!
MULCH MULCH MULCH
What can I say, there is so much about our current drought that I probably don’t need to say this but just in case you missed …….Apply a 10-15cm layer of mulch (soaking wet news paper or cardboard under bark chip or homemade compost is good) to reduce evaporation and lock in as much moisture as you can.
Alternatively hoe the top 5cm of soil to a fine dusty tilth. It acts like a mulch though if your site is exposed and windy it’s probably best to stick with adding a mulch!
PRUNE:
Formative prunes after flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Viburnum bodnantense etc, Lonicera purpursii, Forsythia, Chaenomeles
Formative prunes before flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Buddleija
Grasses – cut back deciduous varieties to 10-15cm above ground level – already a bit late for this if they are off to a green and glorious start.
FRUIT, VEGGIES AND CUT FLOWERS:
Plant those spuds! I’ll be trialing a new (to me) method of planting on top of the ground and mulching over them this year. NO DIG rocks!!!
Dig out trenches for beans and peas and apply a well rotted compost. Beans are GREEDY feeders. Plants will go in in 4-6 weeks
Dig in green manures, a bit late for this too but not too late quite yet. Cut the leafage down and chop up with a spade/rotavator and then dig the sod over and into the soil. In theory it needs 4-6 weeks to break down, though mine did it’s stuff in 3, good wormage levels I think. I am planting sweetcorn, pumpkin and and courgettes (2 of the 3 Sisters) into mine in mid May.
Chop back old wood of Autumn fruiting raspberries to 10cm above ground if not done in winter.
Get any Dhalia tubers into slightly damp compost, only half cover the tuber, in a frost free area to give them an early start before planting out.
Keep liquid feeding your bulbs as they grow, preparing them for bulking up before next year.
Planting annual flower seeds into modules or seed trays and keep them in an unheated greenhouse until the frosts pass (Mid May/June). This year I’m doing Ammi, Sunflowers, Phlox and Stocks and Cosmos. They’ll sit alongside Tomato, Pak Choi, Cavalo Nero, Peas and French and Runner Bean seedlings.
VISIT:
For seasonal inspiration and ideas on extending your own gardens seasons visit at least one amazing Spring Garden. Try Great Dixter, Beth Chatto’s, RHS Hyde Hall or for something more local to you have a rummage through this Telegraph list, an oldie but still a goodie!
Probably not the most glamorous of tasks completed each year but one worth investing some time and elbow grease in is cleaning stuff. That’s cleaning your tools , soaping down your green house and/or cold frame, repairing wheelbarrows and equipment and emptying out “The Readies” from the compost heap. Winter is a good time for this of course as there is plenty more time (ha ha ha) in our calendars with the planting, pruning, propagating, admiring end of things on the quiet side. I usually have great plans at the beginning of winter, this year December, and often end up scooting towards Spring trying to fit it all into one weekend. Not this year! My tools are cleaned, sharpened and ready for action and last weekend it was the turn of the cold frame and free standing mini greenhouses. I had help from my nosey puppy who ended up getting wetter than the cold frame and muddier too. Perhaps not something for her to participate in next year. The recent upturn in temperature and the burgeoning feeling of spring arriving made the task more vital to complete.
All this cleaning has obvious benefits in terms of disease prevention and reducing the transportation of muck about the place and of course with the green house / cold frame in terms of maximising light and warmth to the plants on the inside.
Over the winter many plants have gathered into the cold frame, mostly to protect them from greedy fat grey squirrels hunting a mid morning snack.
With the top mostly down for 3 months and nothing much in the way of consistent freezing temperatures rather nasty slimy algae has taken up residence on the inside of the panes and some considerable leaf litter has wafted down curtesy of a rather beautiful but very leafy nearby Beech tree. All in all it’s looking in need of attention.
Poppy 'helping'
This year we didn’t have the cold really so the bubble wrap hadn’t come out to insulate the plants inside. If you’ve insulated your cold frame (or greenhouse) then take this down before attempting to clean. I hose mine down and dry it on the washing line before folding it away for next year, yes I am frugal. Empty the cold frame being careful not to damage delicate plants, we did this on a warmer day so they weren’t shocked into dormancy again by the outside temperatures. Poppy (the puppy) felt it important to help with this task, sticking her nose in to smell each pot as it came out, not really helpful, but amusing.
Leaf litter raked off the gravel base
I’ve covered the base with 10mm pea shingle over some black horticultural fabric to help drainage and suppress weeds but it also acts as a bit on bottom insulation too. Once empty we raked up the leaves and debris, gathering them into a large bucket ready to go onto the leaf litter heap.
Leaf litter and debris heading for the compost heaps
We also found one or two snails lurking in the bowels of the frame so they were duly popped onto the bird table, providing lunch for the local hungry blackbird. A good clean also helps clear out overwintering pests such as red spider mite, aphids, mealy bugs and of course disease such as botrytis and mildew. Cleaning out the gutters between lid and base eases the lifting and closing. For a green house, sweep down benches, rake over gravel and soil and sweep out debris collecting it into suitable rubbish containers.
Use the spongey side of cloths as you don't want to scratch the transparent surface.
Then the messy bit starts. I used warm soapy water and an old kitchen cloth, being careful not to scratch the surfaces and so reduce light entering the frame. The detergent was an ecological brand with no harmful chemicals to leave a residue, no brands mentioned but you know who I mean!. Make sure you wash the metal bits down too and the outside as well as the inside.
My surfaces were not big enough to require a squeegee scrape but if you have large panes then a window cleaners scrapers is great for getting all the drips off and windows sparkling in the sunshine!. I have used vinegar before (1 vinegar :8 water) to clean the windows but the smell is ghastly even though it evaporates quite fast, it is an option though and works really well on glass.
All sloshed down and cleaned out
After all the green gunge had been removed, cold water was used to sluice it down, washing entire frame inside and out. Poppy decided leaping in the chilly back-wash was the most fun she had had that day, clearing her muddy paw marks from the kitchen floor afterwards was not mine. With a cleaned up, de-cluttered cold frame ready for use I found some worthy inhabitants in the form of autumn planted sweetpeas and some fresh seed trays of tomato, brussel sprout and beetroot. Now it just needs to warm up some more and the growing season will be upon us!
Next task? cleaning and sorting pots of all shapes and sizes and de-rusting the rotavator blades…*sighs*
Other writing on this subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/sandg_greenhouses1.shtml
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=731
http://www.greenhousegrowing.co.uk/greenhousemaintenance.html
The RHS process a diverse range of seeds from plants cultivated in their gardens. The list is extensive, i.e pages and pages and pages long and has all manner of things from simple Bidens to magnificent Betula (yes of the tree variety!)
A couple of years ago I bought about 20 packets completely forgot about them, on the whole and on finding them this spring grew the host that had not dried up beyond recognition. Forgetting what you have ordered is part of the fun so there were some rewarding surprises, Coreopsis grandiflora being one of the and Water iris another, the peony has yet to produce anything but I am patient. The Rosa chinesis went in and out of the airing cupboard and fridge so many times I lost count and it probably forgot how to germinate, I have abandoned that one.
The 2012 list was published on 1st November and of course you have to be a member to be able to benefit from the stash of fabulous seed matter.
Well worth a look through.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Seed-list/pdf/Seed_Collected_for_members_2012
I had spoken to Michael a few months ago about Snow Fiddler an MTB we are searching down for the collection and had been impressed with the monthly (?) emails about plants they have in season, offers and so on. On a trip to Beth Chatto‘s gardens in Colchester [...]
I had spoken to Michael a few months ago about Snow Fiddler an MTB we are searching down for the collection and had been impressed with the monthly (?) emails about plants they have in season, offers and so on. On a trip to Beth Chatto‘s gardens in Colchester we decided to take a detour to Wenhaston – just west of Southwold on the Suffolk coast – to have a better look at the nursery.
Show Gardens behind the nursery at Wenhaston
It doesn’t look so big when you pull in following the small brown tourist route sign but in fact it is quite large, we guesstimated about 1-1.25 acres and it is PACKED with exciting plants. The iris were pretty thin on the ground but I gather he has a field of about 15,000 readying for next season. the hermerocalis benches were bulging with goodies and of course as they’re in flower how is it possible to resist such jewel-like blooms. I bought China Bride with a delicate pink petal and pale yellow throat. The backside of the nursery, mostly sunlovers – all sun lovers – was more of the same, bursting with all sorts of unnusual plants and varieties. I couldn’t resist a pale yellow Nepeta goviana a lemony smell with tall elegant stems wafting in the sunshine, then a Monada Fireball with is deep pinky red firework-like blossoms, Echinacea Vintage Wine apparently a favoruite of Piet Oudolf, a furry grey leaved Ballota pseudodictamunus looking for all it’s life like a miniature Phlomis russeliana. These were quickly followed with Paeonia Buck Eye Belle and Alstromeria Adonis. Heaven.
On paying all my plants were added to my email account – handy for when I lose the label – which is all but guaranteed – and then the receipt included a nice little info sheet on all the plants (genus level) I had bought. Very handy indeed.
The Haul - inc two more Hemerocalis and an Actaea
I have no idea where these are all going to go as he garden is already chokker but the allotment is looking like a possible place….for the plants that come out of the garden to make room for these new candies.
