Summer’s Fall

After the long wait of winter and the trials of spring, worrying about when to sow seeds or put out that delicate ornamental around the fickle weather, summer is hopefully a relatively peaceful time in the garden. With a bit of luck, the planning over winter and busy spring preparation has led to abundantly blooming flowers and vegetables growing vigorously ready for autumn harvest.

A spot of weeding, fertilising and watering to help plants, indoor or outdoor, through any summer heat generally keeps things ticking over as you can enjoy the fruits of your labour, sometimes quite literally! Some summer pruning is also advisable; cutting back fresh summer growth can mean for bigger yields from fruit trees and bushes, mean for better displays from ornamentals and keep them from taking over the whole garden.

All good must things must unfortunately come to an end though and whilst autumn can be a beautiful time of year, with deciduous trees turning gold and orange and lots of tasty crops such as potatoes being ready for harvest, there is some more work required to put the garden back to bed for winter. As well as some further pruning to keep plants in check, it’s a good time to add a layer of mulch, dead organic matter, as a top dressing to the soil. This can be applied generally as a feed to soil and specifically around plants that will be spending the winter outside such as kale, in addition to trees and shrubs.

For those who like to live dangerously, you can take a gamble and try sowing some veggies such as broad beans to over winter and grow on in the spring. It is prudent to cover any such seedlings or other tender plants with fleece to protect against frost, and for any very tender plants, to bring them safely indoors by October.

Not all gardeners have gardens of course and for those of us with houseplants much less maintenance is required as the seasons change but a light pruning back of any vigorous houseplants and moving any sun loving plants into a south facing window to make the most of the shorter days definitely helps many plants along.

There are also fun gifts from nature that we can all enjoy in the autumn wherever we live, as many plants offer their bounty in the form of autumn fruit. Brambles abound with juicy blackberries that make for a delicious crumble and rowan berries can make for an excellent tart addition to many a meal.

In the next post we will look at what to do in the garden as autumn turns to winter, we harvest the last of the tasty morsels and put the garden to bed for the season. Until then, as always, happy gardening!

Mayday mayday

As we clear the fickle weather of early spring and enter the more consistent, if damp, weather of May gardening can pick up a gear. Whilst the risk of frost is fading into the rear-view mirror as May is often a rather soggy month fresh perils await!

 

Slugs love the cool, damp conditions and the temperatures can still drop to the relatively chilly side so it’s best to still keep any delicate, or delicious, plants well protected.lugs love the cool, damp conditions and the temperatures can still drop to the relatively chilly side so it’s best to still keep any delicate, or delicious, plants well protected. 

 

The more robust ornamental plants such as daffodils will have already braved the cold in April and put on a beautiful display. As these plants go to seed it is the perfect time to dead-head them and tidy up outdoor beds. Weeds are quick off the mark and will be growing vigorously at this time of year so a sunny day in May is the ideal time to keep them in check.

If you are growing vegetables, hardier crops such as brassicas and beetroot will be fine if they have already been seed sown and if not, its not too late to do so in May. Just make sure to keep the weeds under control and protect the seedlings with some fleece or mesh if possible to keep pigeons at bay. Root vegetables like potatoes can also be planted and if already in the ground and sprouting, earth up around the leaves to keep the tubers safely out of harms way of cooler temperatures. May is also the time to start off more delicate vegetable crops indoors such as runner or French beans and summer or winter squash. Once these have grown to 15cm or so in height it is best to ‘harden them off’, leaving them outside during the day for a couple of days, whilst still bringing them in at night, to get them acclimatised to outside conditions before planting them out permanently outside. If this is too much faff, fear not, waiting until June to plant them outside should substantially reduce any risk of cold shock for these plants.

For those living in apartments though there is of course less worry about plants getting too chilly, this can be the perfect time to be moving your sun loving house plants such as aloe vera moved to spots that get the most light as the days get longer, or tucking away any delicate shade loving ones such as ferns. You can also grow some tasty edibles such as herbs or chillis, or for the adventurous, why not try a bush variety of French beans. As this species is self-fertile and does not need pollinators they will merrily fruit away in your window whether or not you happen to have a handy house bee on hand.​​​​​​​

In the next post we will look at what to do in the garden in the height of summer and we start to reward the fruits of our labours, in the form of tasty crops sown in spring and enjoying ornamental plants in full summer splendour. Until then, as always, happy gardening!

Mind the (Hungry) Gap

(March-April)

The rustlings of spring are on the horizon and as the days get longer the temptation to get planting is growing. At the same time, we must be cautious for there are two gaps to navigate.

On the one hand we can have a gap in wintery conditions with a ‘false spring’, where it warms up nicely, the crocuses come out and it looks as if spring is right around the corner, then it snows and kills your seedlings!

With the UK’s temperate, oceanic climate and high latitude, this feature of warmer, longer days, punctuated by surprise frosts and snows also leads to the Hungry Gap; a period in spring where there is little or no fresh produce available. Whilst potentially inconvenient in the modern day if shops run short of supplies, this was of course a much more serious problem in the past. Whilst the risk of starvation is thankfully now not something we need worry about too much in the UK there are still some handy tricks and tips to ensure we can still get some tasty fresh spring veggies and to make sure our lovely ornamental plants survive:

• Sowing seed for any frost sensitive ornamental plants or garden vegetable crops such as beetroot safely indoors is advised before mid-April. Once all risk of frost is passed you will be rewarded with healthy young plants that will have a head start on those sown outside whilst avoiding the loss of plants from over eager outside early planting.

• Sprouted seedlings of seeds, often described as ‘microgreens’, can be a fun, affordable way of producing some tasty greens for the kitchen. A range of plants can be used for this such as alfalfa or chickpeas. One tried and tested plant that is often overlooked are peas – dried peas purchased from the shop can be soaked overnight and then lain on damp kitchen roll in a tray or sown in a shallow tray of compost. Within a couple of weeks they will have produced a small forest of bean shoots which can then be harvested with a pair of scissors for fresh spring veggies.

• For the adventurous spring has also traditionally been a time for foraging for wild greens, most commonly nettles, wild garlic and dandelions. Relevant precautions should of course be taken to ensure you are certain of a plant’s species before consumption and harvesting any away from where any animals may be using plants for the bathroom. With that in mind, a fun failsafe plant to try harvesting in the spring is the humble stinging nettle. Whilst this may sound an odd choice, given that it has the word ‘stinging’ in its name it is a surprisingly delicious, and incredibly nutritious food. The key with nettles is to harvest the top 20cm or so of nettles in the spring when they have safely outgrown the height where any canines may make use of them. Wearing gloves is of course recommended, but with a pair of gloves, a bag and a pair of scissors you can harvest a feast! Once you get them home, if you dice them and cook them up you can make a delicious soup or even nettle pesto!
  

In the next post we’ll be looking at ideas for getting your beds and pots prepared for the coming growing season and other handy hints for verdant flower beds and bumper crops, in the meantime, happy gardening!

A Snow Garden?

(Jan-Feb) 

As we are still in the depths of winter the land is sleeping and spring feels a long way off, but it’s always nice to plan on what we might get growing in the months ahead. With gardening it's always best to think before you sow, making the middle of winter the ideal time to think what gardening project you might like to embark upon for the year. Whether you are a seasoned allotmenteer or a newbie apartment dweller with a free windowsill who just wants to try growing a cactus there is a plant for everyone.

As we wait for the long nights of winter to shorten there are some good principles to bear in mind with planning your project:

• Something that is not designed to be sustainable is almost certain to be unsustainable. It’s always tempting to want to go from nought to sixty and create a mini-farm or house jungle (I have done this enough times). Start small and build your way up, that way it stays manageable and most importantly, fun!

• If you are planning to grow food crops, it’s best to aim for some combination of the below:
  
  

1. Grow things you know you like and in quantities you know you can use; a large cabbage patch may look fantastic but if you aren’t a sauerkraut fan you may end up with more than you can manage. 
   
   
2. If you are looking to save money growing crops, those that are most expensive in the shops will help maximise your returns. If you have a small space this could be a nice windowsill herb garden or if you have a balcony or garden some salad crops and soft fruit. If you have a slightly larger space and you want to really cut down on the shopping bills you can also go for some staple crops that have high yields which in itself can save money by quantity. Homegrown tomatoes, for example, are hard to beat and if you can grow a few vines you can save a fortune!​
   
   

• If you are growing ornamentals, try not to be too optimistic with the Scottish climate:

 

1. Some remarkably exotic plants can be grown on a sunny window indoors but there are limits on what can live on the diffuse sunlight at our high latitude, even with our long summer days. A plant such as Aloe Vera will grow splendidly but many plants from equatorial regions may struggle.
   
   
2. Outdoor growing of course merits even greater caution for growing ornamentals. Some plants can be put out for the summer and overwintered indoors and others are hardy year-round, but always have a wee chat with the folks at your local garden centre when buying plants to double-check.

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In the next post we’ll be looking at ideas for getting your seedlings started and other fun tips for the spring and I hope you have fun with horticultural scheming in the meantime!