For your perennial vegetables and fruits, pick a spot separate from or on the edge of (second best) the main vegetable garden. The easiest way to get a bed started is to stake it out the season before you plant. Cover existing sod with a thick layer of newspapers, magazines, or cardboard. A friend of mine declares that covering sod is the best use she’s found for cast-off issues of the Congressional Record. “They’re so thick nothing will grow through them,” she says. So they don’t blow away, pile something on top —hay, wood chips, sawdust, branches, whatever. By spring, the sod will have decomposed and added green manure to the soil without a struggle. Read the rest of this entry »

Composting is one of the most important things we gardeners can do. A good compost pile recycles vegetable scraps and other wastes from the garden and yard. We can “harvest” some free fertilizer for the garden, save money, and lessen our need for outside fertilizers. Composting also helps the community because it reduces the amount of garbage other people have to deal with. One of my dreams is to see every household in a town with a compost pile. Read the rest of this entry »

A good potato crop starts with good seed potatoes. Get the best ones you can because you don’t have many chances at planting time. A garden store will have certified seed potatoes that are free of disease. These are the best. Don’t rely on old potatoes from your root cellar because they could be carrying disease organisms without showing it.

When you buy seed potatoes, you’ll get some small ones. Plant these whole. Cut the bigger ones into two or three blocky pieces, being sure to cut them so that each piece has two or three buds, or “eyes.” I cut up seed potatoes a day or two before planting and leave them in a warm place. This gives the cut surfaces time to heal over and dry out a little.

I also douse seed potatoes with sulfur immediately after cutting them up. Sulfur powder is a cheap, natural protectant available at most drug stores. Two ounces will protect 10 pounds of seed potatoes. Put the cut and whole potatoes in a paper bag. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sulfur and shake the bag. The powder sticks to the potatoes and helps keep out rot organisms. This sulfur also will lower the soil pH around the potatoes a bit. That’s good because potatoes like an acid soil. Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually all shrubs can be propagated in this way. The following respond particularly well.

• Azalea Peg down shoots into a peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking about 12 months.
• Camellia Best rooted in peaty soil. Takes about 12 months.
• Lilac (Syringa) Roots in about 6 months in sandy soil.
• Magnolia Takes 12 months to root. Peg into peaty soil and keep moist.
• Rhododendron Best rooted in peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking at least 12 months. Read the rest of this entry »

Success with this method depends upon providing the right conditions. Warmth and humidity are essential for good results in every case.

• Alpines Take small cuttings as soon as ready in spring. Best rooted in greenhouse.
• Chrysanthemum Outdoor and greenhouse kinds. Remove 5cm/2in-long cuttings from as close as possible to crown of plant. Root in greenhouse.
• Dahlia Start tubers into growth in heated greenhouse early in year. Take 8cm/3in-long cuttings from the tubers and root in warmth and humidity.
• Delphinium Remove 8cm/3in-long shoots from as close as possible to crown of plant in spring. Root in greenhouse. Read the rest of this entry »

Annuals and Biennials

Annuals and biennials flower once before dying. They are easily raised from seeds and are thus a comparatively inexpensive — but time-consuming — way to provide a wealth of colour in spring or summer, whether for container gardening, for bedding schemes, as aplentiful source of cut flowers, or as colourful fillers in a border or rock garden. Most plants in both categories perform best when situated in plenty of sun and planted in well-drained soil.

Hardy annuals are sown outdoors in early to mid- spring in the place where they are to flower. Half- hardy annuals (also known as summer bedding plants) are frost-tender and need to be raised in a greenhouse in early or mid-spring and planted out when the danger of frost is over. Some hardy annuals propagate themselves by self-sowing. Read the rest of this entry »

These plants are suitable for growing around the base of winter- or spring-flowering shrubs, for bright splashes of colour in the border..

• Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) Pink and white heart- shaped flowers in spring above attractive foliage. 45-60cm/ 1¹/2-2ft. A pure white form is becoming popular. Moist peaty soil and dappled shade.

• Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) Evergreen hand-shaped leaves and white single-rdse-like flowers in winter. 30cm/12in. Fertile moist soil and partial shade.

• Elephant’s ears (Bergenia species/varieties) Large, shiny, leathery evergreen foliage and dense heads of pink, red or white flowers in spring. 30cm/12in. Foliage often turns reddish in winter. Moist soil. Sun or partial shade. Read the rest of this entry »

Arepertoire for reliable and easy shrubs to grow for their flowers or coloured foliage. Some of these should be in every shrub or mixed border.

• Abelia (Abelia x grandiflora) Bushy semi-evergreen which produces its tubular pink and white flowers from mid-summer to mid-autumn. 1.5-1.8m/5-6ft, soon attained. Needs a warm, sunny sheltered spot and well-drained soil.

• Barberry(Berberis x ottawensis Purpurea’) Vigorous shrub grown for its large oval, rich red-purple foliage. Quickly attains 2.4-3.6m/8-12ft. Grows on any soil, particularly good on chalk, and best in full sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Vegetables grown at home and used immediately after gathering have a much better flavour than those bought in the shops. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to have a large garden. Various small vegetables do well in containers on a patio, or in patches in a flowerbed or border. There are several vegetables, too, for the greenhouse, and even for growing in partial shade. It is possible to have an all- round supply: many people especially appreciate fresh produce in the depths of winter.

As an alternative to the traditional method of arranging vegetables in rows, the “deep-bed” system allows you to grow more crops in the space available, because the plants are closer together. The crops are grown in blocks or bands across the I.2m/4ft wide beds, which are separated by 30-45cm/12-18in wide paths, from which you work at all times, except when digging. Initially you should prepare the beds by double-digging (see p36) and adding plenty of manure or garden compost. Repeat the double-digging every3-4 years: in the intervening years, use normal single digging. Rotate crops to get the best from the soil. Read the rest of this entry »

Climbing roses will grow in tubs. Choose climbers rather than ramblers, as climbers grow more circumspectly and are less prone to mildew and other problems. The list is endless, but I would not like to be without ‘Zephyrine Drouhin’, despite her tendency to mildew, ‘Handel’, which is cream with rosy pink edges and has handsome bronze foliage, or ‘Maigold’, which is double yellow and beautifully scented. Some roses will flourish only on south walls while others are happy in a west or east aspect and others will even tolerate a north wall. Then there are those that are scented and those that are not, those that have one magnificent flowering and then call it a day and others that flower less prolifically but throughout the summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Because of their slow rate of growth compared with most other types of house plants, orchids are seldom potted more than once a year, and are very often left for two years before it is necessary to disturb them. However, certainly after two years the compost will have broken down and need replacing as the food value becomes exhausted, the plant will have outgrown the pot, and its roots will have become potbound.

There are several indications that a plant is in need of repotting. The compost may be decomposed and this can be determined by pushing a finger into it. If this can be done easily the compost needs replacing and the plant should be repotted. If the leading bulb has reached the rim of the pot or is protruding over the edge leaving no room for future growth inside the pot, or if the plant has pushed itself up above the pot rim, it has outgrown its pot. The foliage may have turned a yellow green which indicates starvation, the food in the compost having been used up. Bulb- less orchids such as Paphiopedilums or Phalaenopsis, which do not progress across the pot in the same way as those with a horizontal rhizome, are best repotted when their roots have filled the pot, or are showing above the rim. Read the rest of this entry »

I love looking out of thekitchen window at the rich, golden-green plants sitting in the window boxes, just beyond the pane of glass. It is a spot that never catches the sun, but it is quite bright and the plants always look happy. Nearly everyone can have a window box or two, even if they live high above the ground with no garden at the front or back. Of course, window boxes need not be used only in window recesses. They can look most effective resting on the ground against a wall or a fence, or edging a balcony so that trailing plants can cascade down the side of the building.

Close Fit

Window boxes on sills look best if they almost fit the window recess. Boxes are manufactured in a range of sizes, so that it is usually possible to find one that is a suitable size for your sill. They are also made in a great range of materials: plastic, fibreglass, composition wood, and terracotta. Some of the plastic ones are not very strong. Read the rest of this entry »

A window box, being long and narrow, is not the easiest shape to plant effectively. Some people make the mistake of planting a single subject and setting the plants in a row. Try to avoid this: it will look too regimented and unimaginative. Aim for more shape in the design by using a mixture of plants of varying sizes and habits.

How much a window box is covered by plants should be determined by the box itself. If it is highly attractive, then it will be a pleasing feature in its own right and should not be covered by plant growth. However, a plain box is best covered with trailing plants.

There are various ways of arranging plants in window boxes. You could go for the pyramidal design: the tallest plants are set in the middle, with shorter and shorter plants grading down to each end. The ends and the front could be planted with trailers if desired. Read the rest of this entry »