You ask for trouble if you use garden soil for indoor planting. It’s likely to be loaded with pathogens. Use sterile, commercial potting mix, or make your own:

• two parts soil
• one part compost or leaf mold
• one part sand, perlite, or vermiculite
• one tablespoon bone meal per quart

Sterilize it in a 150° oven for one-half hour (which may drive everyone out of the house holding his nose). To stay in your family’s good graces, use a microwave oven for speedy sterilization. Put the soil in a plastic bag in which you’ve punched a few holes. Bake it in the microwave for four or five minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

Always harden off transplants for eight to ten days before you set them out in the garden. Expose them to short, then gradually longer periods outdoors. (If you purchase transplants, find out if they’ve been hardened off. If not, make sure you do it.)

If seedlings are in flats, slice the roots into squares with a knife about a week before transplanting. Repeat the process before removing from flat.

Feed transplants with fish emulsion the day before setting them out. If possible, transplant on a cloudy or drizzly day. Or set out seedlings in the late afternoon or early evening. It’s more comfortable for you, and the plants will thrive without requiring shade or constant watering. Read the rest of this entry »

Building your rows up to form raised beds can help you grow better root crops. Sometimes in heavy clay or shallow soils it’s a hassle getting long, straight carrots or parsnips, or large, well- shaped beets. The answer is to create a raised bed and heap extra topsoil onto the row from the walkways. It sounds like a lot of work but it’s not.

No matter what kind of soil you plant root crops in, get the seedbed smooth and as free of clods and rocks as possible. In rocky, clumpy ground, all the seeds won’t poke through the soil at the same time. This is a problem when you rake-thin and weed the first time.

Coaxing carrots with 0-20-0

To coax the best root crops possible from your soil, add a little phosphorus fertilizer to the seedbeds before planting. Broadcast a common commercial fertilizer such as 5-10-10. Use about 1 quart for each 100 square feet and mix it in the top 2 or 3 inches of soil. Read the rest of this entry »

Raising your own plants is much cheaper than buying from a nursery or garden centre. Although a greenhouse is helpful if you want to raise tender plants, a cold frame also has plenty of possibilities for propagating plants.

Six propagating aids

Apart from a greenhouse and cold frame, there are various other tools and materials which you will find useful for the successful propagation of plants.

• Cutting compost Used for rooting cuttings. Made at home by mixing equal parts by bulk of moist sphagnum moss peat and coarse horticultural sand. Alternatively use equal parts peat or coco fibre and perlite. Read the rest of this entry »

Most herbs are easy to grow. The following selection provides a variety of flavours to complement home-grown vegetables and enhance everyday food. Site the herb patch in a sunny well-drained spot near the kitchen. Some of these herbs will also grow well in containers.

• Angelica (Angelica archangelica) Aromatic leaves have various uses; stems are candied and used in cake decoration. Biennial grown from seed. 180cm/6ft tall. Sown outdoors in late summer, under a cloche in cold areas. Transplant to 30cm/12in apart the following spring. Remove flower heads. Read the rest of this entry »

Most flowering plants are not much at risk as long as they are well cultivated. Among the principal sufferers are bulbs, and plants grown under glass, where pests and diseases particularly flourish.

Five troubles affecting roots

A number of insect pests live in the soil and feed on the roots of plants. Usually you do not know they’re there until leaves and shoots begin to wilt.

• Chafer grub Long fat creamy-white grubs with brown heads which feed on the roots of many flowers. If suspected, water the soil with pirimiphos-methyl or dust with gamma-BHC.
• Cutworm Soil-dwelling caterpillars about 4cm/I 1/2in long, creamy brown, which feed on roots and the surface of stems at soil level. Many border plants liable to attack. Symptom: wilting. Dust soil with gamma-BHC insecticide. Read the rest of this entry »