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 »

I have not put an ounce of commercial fertilizer or manure on these test gardens in 10 years.

For the past 10 years I’ve been conducting a home garden experiment on eight 24 by 24-foot gardens. I started after a discussion with a soil scientist and agricultural researcher at our state university. Part of his job was to analyze trends in the food and dairy industries and to predict what was coming next. What he forecast scared me. Read the rest of this entry »

The leaves fall to form a deep carpet beneath the trees, adding to the dead twigs, flowers and unripe fruit remnants already there. Every year trees shed more than 3,000 kg of waste products in every hectare of woodland and all this breaks down, together with the herbs of the forest floor to form a deep layer of litter. As this litter breaks down so the minerals and other organic substances which were stored in the leaves are released once more, and the resulting layer of humus acts as a natural fertilizer. Read the rest of this entry »

How long does a plant live? Can environmental conditions such as soil and climate have any influence and how much can individual plants deviate from the normal pattern? All these are questions which are often asked. The first is the most difficult to answer, and to do so with any sense it is necessary to look at the three broad groups into which higher plants are divided. These are annuals, biennials and perennials. Read the rest of this entry »

Garlic: Break into doves to plant

I can’t imagine spaghetti sauce without garlic, and I can’t imagine my garden without it either. There’s nothing better than fresh garlic from the garden—it’s a must for our pickles.

Buy a few garlic bulbs from a garden store or supermarket and break each one into individual cloves.

Plant each clove 3 or 4 inches from the next one in a wide row. Push them in to their full depth, pointed end up. Plant them as early as you can, like onion sets, and give them two or three side- dressings during the season. Keep the soil loose around them, and don’t let them get dry. Read the rest of this entry »

The best way to grow an asparagus bed is to plant 2-year-old roots which you can order from a seed catalog or pick up at a garden store. One-year-old roots may be cheaper, but the savings are not worth waiting an extra year for your first harvest. I think the 2-year-old roots are more reliable in transplanting.

If you live in the North, set out asparagus roots in the early spring. In the South, set them out in the fall because it can be so dry and hot in the summer that the plants may not make it through.

Asparagus will grow in most types of soil, but since it must have dry feet, it does best in soil that drains well. Place the plants about 2 feet apart with 5 feet between rows. Twenty-five to 30 crowns will produce enough asparagus for a family of four once the bed is established, which takes three seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Keep your berries weed-free. Mulching is the best way to beat weeds in a strawberry patch. Build up a 4- to 6-inch layer of a weed-free mulch such as wheat straw, chopped cornstalks, or a late cut of hay.

Place a little mulch around the young plants early in the season and add more as it packs down. A 2-inch layer of composted mulch should do the job of keeping the weeds down and still allow daughter plants to root.

In early summer, shallow cultivation between rows will get rid of small weeds. If you spot large weeds next to the plants, pull them carefully so that the berry roots are not disturbed. Read the rest of this entry »

Vegetative propagation involves raising plants from cuttings and by methods like layering and division.

• Division Used mainly for hardy perennials (herbaceous plants) but also for other clump-forming plants (for example, many alpines). The method is to split a complete clump into a number of smaller pieces, complete with roots and top growth or buds. Do this while plants are dormant, in autumn or early spring. Usually the centre portion of a clump is discarded, as it’s the oldest part and declining in vigour. The young vigorous outer parts are retained for replanting. With most herbaceous plants, division for replanting should be of a size which fits into the palm of your hand. Before dividing a clump shake off most of the soil from around the roots. You can split large tough clumps with an axe. The two divisions can be split further in the same way. Read the rest of this entry »

A shroud of confusion which few gardening books and journals succeed in penetrating. As a result, many gardeners prune incorrectly or indiscriminately. It is wrong to think that all shrubs need a “good haircut” every year. The truth is, most shrubs do not need any pruning; all you need to do is look over them occasionally and if necessary cut out any dead or dying shoots or branches. Conifers need pruning only when grown as ornamental hedges; ornamental trees do not need pruning at all; most climbers are happier if left alone, and so are most roses — although some, such as bush roses, need severe pruning every year. Read the rest of this entry »

Even more of us are besotted about strawberries and here the process is a good deal simpler. Barrels provided with planting holes, or terracotta planting pots with similarly distributed holes, make a most attractive sight when filled with merrily flowering and then ripening fruit. The plastic planters sold for the purpose are less pleasing to look at in themselves but equally good for growing good clean fruit, while growing bags and boxes can be used for alpine strawberries. These are rather more of a myth than a meal, since they tend to produce too little fruit at one time to satisfy anything but the most elfin appetite. But they are undeniably a treat. Read the rest of this entry »

These are the well known and popular ‘lady’s slipper’ orchids, so named because the lip has developed into a large pouch resembling a slipper. They were among the first orchids to be cultivated as house plants and were a common sight in the Wardian Cases of Victorian drawing rooms. In older books you will find them referred to as Cypripediums. This large group of orchids was later divided, and the Cypripediums of the modern classification are quite unsuitable as house plants, as well as being difficult to obtain; many are extremely rare plants indeed.

Paphiopedilum species are widely distributed throughout the Far East, stretching from China and the Himalayas in the far north to the islands of the Philippines, all the way down to Malaya and south to New Guinea. The species are usually terrestrial in habit, growing in the ground among other shady vegetation. Occasionally some may be found growing as epiphytes on the lower branches of trees. Unlike most orchids, the plants do not have pseudo bulbs but produce growths, each consisting of five or six leaves. Read the rest of this entry »

Coelogynes are a large genus of orchids, of which only a very few species are obtainable and desirable for indoor culture. The main colour to be found among these plants is white, but there is such a variety in size of flowers and lip markings that the following recommended varieties could all be grown without duplicating the same features.

Coelogynes are widely distributed in the wild, with the majority of the cultivated species coming from India. The plants grow as epiphytes and thrive in massive clumps, some several feet across, consisting of up to a hundred bulbs. The plants vary in size depending upon the species, but all produce handsome plants, with highly polished pseudo bulbs topped by a pair of dark green leaves. Some varieties produce an abundance of roots while others seem to make do with just a few spindly roots, just sufficient to hold their anchorage on a tree. Read the rest of this entry »

As with patio containers, spring and summer bedding plants, spring bulbs and other temporary specimens can make very colourful window boxes. Also as with other containers, a few permanent plants can be arranged in window boxes with bedding plants or bulbs planted around them. This gives variation, particularly in shape and texture.

The choice of bedding plants and bulbs for window boxes is the same as for patio containers, with a few additions and deletions. Obviously one would not use very tall plants like Indian shot and castor oil plants in window boxes.

With window boxes it is important to consider designs for both sunny and shady positions, for some parts of the house will be bathed in sunshine all day long and other parts will receive little or none. Sun-loving plants will grow poorly and produce few flowers in shady positions. However, all of these recommended here for shade will also grow in sunny locations. Read the rest of this entry »

The satisfaction of growing your own fruit and vegetables comes in being able to pick and eat them at exactly the right moment. Citrus fruits make very handsome tub plants and if you live in a frost free climate they can be left outside all year round; otherwise give them glass protection over the winter. Some varieties of citrus have variegated foliage.

Containers can give small gardens the extra space they need for growing fruits and vegetables. If edible plants are chosen carefully for their size, cultural needs and appearance, they can bring both decoration and harvest to the patio. Many fruit trees are quite ornamental, especially when in blossom and when they are bearing their fruits. And the more attractive- looking vegetables certainly do not seem out of place on a patio. Most herbs are compact, pretty plants that look quite at home in containers.

Patio Fruits

Many fruit trees can be grown in containers. Wherever possible choose dwarf trees. Varieties are budded or grafted by nurserymen on to special dwarfing rootstocks that keep the trees small and compact. Make sure you check which rootstocks the trees have been grafted on to when buying — ask for ones suitable for container growing. Read the rest of this entry »

SWEET BAY (Laurus nobilis), HOLLY (Ilex) AND BOX (Buxus sempervirens)

If these plants are grown as clipped specimens they should be trimmed as necessary during the summer to keep them neat.

Box can be trimmed with a pair of sharp garden shears, but the large-leaved sweet bay and hollies are better trimmed with hand pruners to avoid cutting the leaves in half. Cut leaf edges turn brown, creating an unsightly appearance. It can be rather slow and tedious cutting each shoot with hand pruners, but it is well worth the trouble in the long run.

WINTER JASMINE (Jasminum nudiflorum)

This climber should have some of its oldest and weakest wood cut out completely.

Then prune back old flowered shoots to leave only about 8cm (3in) of their base. Prune winter jasmine immediately after flowering. Read the rest of this entry »

The foregoing paving plants do not restrict themselves to the spaces left for them but make big mats covering great surfaces of stone. Other carpeters creep along between the stones, filling all the cracks with greenery but hardly intruding above ground. My favourite is Mentha Requienii, the tiny creeping mint, with bright green leaves and the tiniest pale mauve flowers. The scent is strong when you press a finger on it, but the time I am most grateful for its fragrance is in the winter, when I brush snow from the paving and the heady scent comes up in waves. I used to think the creeping pennyroyal, Mentha Pulegium, was as neat and self-effacing as Mentha Requienii, but on closer acquaintance I find it likes to spread itself in rather untidy loops and flusters. But its scent is pleasantly pungent and I wouldn’t be without it. The acaenas offer new foliage colour, A. Buchananii is silvery grey with yellow burrs, while A. microphylla (or A. inermis) has bronze fern-like foliage and crimson spiny flowers. Arenaria balearica will cover everything in sight when it once gets going. It likes to work in damp shady places and then it gets as busy as helxine. But no one minds, so fine and bright is the foliage and so star-like are the tiny white flowers with which it smothers itself in April and May. The cotulas are not very exciting but they make tiny lawns of bright green between the stones. Dresden china daisies are still among the best plants for growing in paving. They enjoy the cool root run and increase rapidly, and they never wander beyond their ascribed domain. Their little bright pink flowers are always welcome, and there is a white version called The Pearl, which looks entrancing in a dark corner. The bigger crimson daisy, Rob Roy, I prefer to use in a flower bed, close up against a paved path. It seems a little too fleshy to grow in paving, but in a bed, where it can spread itself, it makes a delightful crimson accent. Read the rest of this entry »

Then there is the elephant saxifrage, which used to be called megasea and is now known as bergenia. The common pink variety sometimes begins to flower in October and November, but is at its best. in February. I always look forward to these chubby pink flowers, so closely packed and enchantingly beautiful with their green pistils. The darker flowered form B. purpurea, flowers a little later, and the rich rose red flowers are carried on two-foot red stems. I have a smaller form of bergenia with leaves about two inches across, but it is very loth to flower. Bergenia is a most satisfactory plant, as its foliage is lovely all the year round and particularly beautiful when it turns colour in the autumn. There is nothing more attractive than a large clump of this handsome plant among smaller, less definite plants, and it is ideal for merging a path with an awkward bed. Some people use it most effectively as a border between flower beds. It is very easily controlled by the removal of large fleshy chunks from time to time. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has their own ideas of what they want to grow in a garden. When I started my idea was to make as long a season as possible but I received no encouragement from my husband. Walter was a fair-weather gardener and was not interested in what happened in the winter. He wanted his brave show when the sun was shining and he could enjoy the garden, and during his lifetime I wasn’t allowed to plant many out of season plants.

But in the last few years I have found many exciting things to bloom very early in the year, and they can usually be planted so that they are not noticeable among the other flowers in their off season. Read the rest of this entry »

My borders combine all aspects of gardening — shrubs, bulbs, foliage plants, even little patches of annuals to fill any bare spaces. Quite unorthodox, perhaps, but being a greedy woman I want something of everything, and in this way there is always something in bloom. My husband deplored this habit of mine, and could not understand the real excitement of finding something unexpectedcoming into flower when everything else has gone to sleep.

I am lucky in having little walls that not only hold up the flower beds but give me more places in which to plant enchanting little rock creatures to sprawl or foam or cascade over the stones according to their nature. Then there are crevices and odd chinks between the bottom of the walls and the stone paths for coloured primroses and little daisies, even something a little bigger now and again, such as Teucrium Chamaedrys, Geranium Endressii or even nepeta. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first started planting my borders my husband’s insistence on well-grown plants and my own love of flowers all the year round made me look for two qualities in the plants I chose. I knew I could not stake as much and as individually as Walter thought was necessary so I tried to find as many plants as I could that did not need a great deal of support. And as I planted an all-the-year-round garden I looked for things with as long a season of blooming as possible.

Of course, there are exceptions to these essentials. Delphiniums and lupins are seasonal and brittle, but one can’t do without them. A garden couldn’t be contemplated without paeonies, which last only a few short weeks and need strong supports, nor would we exchange the short-lived fragrance of lilies for the longevity of less voluptuous plants. Read the rest of this entry »