Orchard Park Gardening Articles - March 2007
Gardening Month by Month - March
I JUST CAN'T WAIT!
We've bought packets of seed, bags of compost and are raring to go. Done pretty well all the pruning and cleared the debris from last year's pathetically poor vegetable patch. It had 4 rows of potatoes, a row of sickly looking peas, a dozen runner bean plants that didn't give a bean until September! 4 courgettes and a row of parsley. This year will be entirely different. There is nothing, well almost nothing, that beats the pleasure of taking produce from your own garden - either to eat or flowers to enjoy -rather than buy it at Tesco's. No offence to Tesco or any other supermarket who are very efficient and professional retailers but I do not want society to be dependant on such megaliths. For me the important thing is good quality, seasonal produce either from the garden or a local supplier, farm shop green grocer or whatever. I have never ever bought fresh dwarf French beans in January, and do not intend to start now. I like the occasional exotic - kiwi fruits and oranges especially so accept that they will be shipped in, but unnecessary stuff like the beans is wrong. That surely is the point of having seasons in the year! Change, progression, it makes life so much more interesting. To see, grow or eat the same thing each month is not what I want. The real trick to all this is good planning and making sure that you have time in your life to actually do the work that needs to be done. It's easy to make rash promises, so much harder to keep them - even to yourself!
Plant of the Month -
Shape Up!!
Forgive me if you know this already, but topiary, as shaped trees and hedging plants are generally known, is definitely the height of style (again). Back in Roman times owners of large houses included a topiarius on their staff whose function was the maintenance of ornamentally clipped bushes and trees, known as topia. Renaissance Italy saw a massive upsurge of interest in the form which has waxed and waned up to the present day. Topiary really is seen as an imaginative and creative way to bring evergreen structure, as well as wit and fun, to the garden. Box (Buxus), yew (Taxus) and laurel (Laurus) are the main species used in this country for ornamental clipping, but others can be used. These three have the advantage of being evergreen, which gives the effect year-round, as well as being readily available in shaped forms from garden centres and nurseries.
Of the three, yew is the toughest, tolerating acid or alkaline soil conditions, sun or shade, dry conditions and urban pollution. However, all parts of the plant are toxic if eaten. Box is happy as long as it doesn't have to cope with full sun and dry soil, in which case leaves become dull or scorched. Laurel is only happy down to -5oC and is best kept out of cold winds. In regions with harsher winter conditions, keep laurels in large containers and move them into a greenhouse over winter.
The main options for bringing topiary to your garden include: formal hedging (try cutting battlements along the top for a castle theme); geometric shapes or lifelike impressions crafted from the living plants. Container growing adds to the flexibility of this approach and makes it possible to adorn steps, patios or drives. You can choose between ready-grown specimens, or take the DIY route and teach yourself as you go. Either way, to maintain a topiary shape it is really worth while investing in a pair of traditional topiary clippers - but like sheep shears. Keep them clean and sharp and they'll last for ever.
Jobs for the month
If I wanted to spend serious money on my garden I would build another greenhouse. The one we have now is rather old and full of gaps. It's a small Dutch light green house [big 6ft x 2ft panes of glass in frames]. It makes such a difference if you can raise a few seedlings ahead of time, protected from the elements and from the hordes of nasties lurking in the garden desperate for a good tasty meal after a long boring winter. Young plants raised under protection until they are big enough to survive, will usually have an advantage. The opposing argument is that seeds sown where they are to grow will do better because of less root disturbance, and no transplant shock. So try both ways and see what works for you. Sowing direct - you should be able to do broad beans, lettuce, onion, radish, spinach, spring onions, early carrots and peas. Cover with fleece or better, a cloche if you have one.
Plant out shallots and onion sets, and chit [i.e. start off in a cool, but frost free and light place] early seed potatoes. Then weed and feed the asparagus bed; top it up with a mix of sifted soil, organic matter and grit-sand as the deeper the soil over the asparagus crown then the longer the tender succulent shoots will be.
Sweet peas should be sown by now - but if you haven't done it yet, delay no longer. Later plants will of course provide late summer flowers so all is not lost.
Pruning is also important. Take out the DDD [dead, diseased and dying]. Thin out old wood from any deciduous shrubs. Roses should be cut back by a at least half in most cases. Shrub roses need lighter pruning and thinning. Late summer flowering clematis can be cut back, and most summer flowering shrubs given the same treatment as these flower on the new seasons wood. Most plants will benefit from feeding and mulching. I tend to use rose fertiliser for all flowering shrubs, and well-rotted organic mulch [leaf mould, garden compost, farm yard manure, or composted bark]. In the perennial border look carefully at the plants now coming through. If the weeds are growing faster than the plants, you may have to give it the complete treatment. Lift split and clean old clumps and replant with a coarse grit and compost mix. Add some more rose fertilizer and watch them grow. It is the only way to deal with couch grass, buttercups or ground elder that is otherwise going to take over. After you've done all this, a good mulch for the whole border will leave it in the best condition for a spectacular summer display. Planting is still important. Bare rooted trees and shrubs can be planted up to the end of March in most years, but will need watering to get them established. Container grown plants can go in anytime. But in general increasing soil temperature speeds root growth. Just don't leave plants short of water in dry spells, as the roots won't have made that much growth. The magic word is mulch - a layer of organic matter, compost bark or whatever's to hand.
We've bought packets of seed, bags of compost and are raring to go. Done pretty well all the pruning and cleared the debris from last year's pathetically poor vegetable patch. It had 4 rows of potatoes, a row of sickly looking peas, a dozen runner bean plants that didn't give a bean until September! 4 courgettes and a row of parsley. This year will be entirely different. There is nothing, well almost nothing, that beats the pleasure of taking produce from your own garden - either to eat or flowers to enjoy -rather than buy it at Tesco's. No offence to Tesco or any other supermarket who are very efficient and professional retailers but I do not want society to be dependant on such megaliths. For me the important thing is good quality, seasonal produce either from the garden or a local supplier, farm shop green grocer or whatever. I have never ever bought fresh dwarf French beans in January, and do not intend to start now. I like the occasional exotic - kiwi fruits and oranges especially so accept that they will be shipped in, but unnecessary stuff like the beans is wrong. That surely is the point of having seasons in the year! Change, progression, it makes life so much more interesting. To see, grow or eat the same thing each month is not what I want. The real trick to all this is good planning and making sure that you have time in your life to actually do the work that needs to be done. It's easy to make rash promises, so much harder to keep them - even to yourself!
Plant of the Month -
Shape Up!!
Forgive me if you know this already, but topiary, as shaped trees and hedging plants are generally known, is definitely the height of style (again). Back in Roman times owners of large houses included a topiarius on their staff whose function was the maintenance of ornamentally clipped bushes and trees, known as topia. Renaissance Italy saw a massive upsurge of interest in the form which has waxed and waned up to the present day. Topiary really is seen as an imaginative and creative way to bring evergreen structure, as well as wit and fun, to the garden. Box (Buxus), yew (Taxus) and laurel (Laurus) are the main species used in this country for ornamental clipping, but others can be used. These three have the advantage of being evergreen, which gives the effect year-round, as well as being readily available in shaped forms from garden centres and nurseries.
Of the three, yew is the toughest, tolerating acid or alkaline soil conditions, sun or shade, dry conditions and urban pollution. However, all parts of the plant are toxic if eaten. Box is happy as long as it doesn't have to cope with full sun and dry soil, in which case leaves become dull or scorched. Laurel is only happy down to -5oC and is best kept out of cold winds. In regions with harsher winter conditions, keep laurels in large containers and move them into a greenhouse over winter.
The main options for bringing topiary to your garden include: formal hedging (try cutting battlements along the top for a castle theme); geometric shapes or lifelike impressions crafted from the living plants. Container growing adds to the flexibility of this approach and makes it possible to adorn steps, patios or drives. You can choose between ready-grown specimens, or take the DIY route and teach yourself as you go. Either way, to maintain a topiary shape it is really worth while investing in a pair of traditional topiary clippers - but like sheep shears. Keep them clean and sharp and they'll last for ever.
Jobs for the month
If I wanted to spend serious money on my garden I would build another greenhouse. The one we have now is rather old and full of gaps. It's a small Dutch light green house [big 6ft x 2ft panes of glass in frames]. It makes such a difference if you can raise a few seedlings ahead of time, protected from the elements and from the hordes of nasties lurking in the garden desperate for a good tasty meal after a long boring winter. Young plants raised under protection until they are big enough to survive, will usually have an advantage. The opposing argument is that seeds sown where they are to grow will do better because of less root disturbance, and no transplant shock. So try both ways and see what works for you. Sowing direct - you should be able to do broad beans, lettuce, onion, radish, spinach, spring onions, early carrots and peas. Cover with fleece or better, a cloche if you have one.
Plant out shallots and onion sets, and chit [i.e. start off in a cool, but frost free and light place] early seed potatoes. Then weed and feed the asparagus bed; top it up with a mix of sifted soil, organic matter and grit-sand as the deeper the soil over the asparagus crown then the longer the tender succulent shoots will be.
Sweet peas should be sown by now - but if you haven't done it yet, delay no longer. Later plants will of course provide late summer flowers so all is not lost.
Pruning is also important. Take out the DDD [dead, diseased and dying]. Thin out old wood from any deciduous shrubs. Roses should be cut back by a at least half in most cases. Shrub roses need lighter pruning and thinning. Late summer flowering clematis can be cut back, and most summer flowering shrubs given the same treatment as these flower on the new seasons wood. Most plants will benefit from feeding and mulching. I tend to use rose fertiliser for all flowering shrubs, and well-rotted organic mulch [leaf mould, garden compost, farm yard manure, or composted bark]. In the perennial border look carefully at the plants now coming through. If the weeds are growing faster than the plants, you may have to give it the complete treatment. Lift split and clean old clumps and replant with a coarse grit and compost mix. Add some more rose fertilizer and watch them grow. It is the only way to deal with couch grass, buttercups or ground elder that is otherwise going to take over. After you've done all this, a good mulch for the whole border will leave it in the best condition for a spectacular summer display. Planting is still important. Bare rooted trees and shrubs can be planted up to the end of March in most years, but will need watering to get them established. Container grown plants can go in anytime. But in general increasing soil temperature speeds root growth. Just don't leave plants short of water in dry spells, as the roots won't have made that much growth. The magic word is mulch - a layer of organic matter, compost bark or whatever's to hand.
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