‘Order your garlic and onion bulbs now’
Secrets of a Head Gardener
For insurance, start taking
semi-ripe cuttings of tender perennials, such as penstemons, salvias, fuchsias and pelargoniums, from now until early autumn. Take 1015cm (4-6in) long cuttings of healthy shoots and root them in pots filled with a mix of 50:50 free-draining compost and sharp sand or Perlite. They should root easily in the current, warm temperatures and can then be overwintered in a cool glasshouse ready for hardening off next May. Keep them fairly dry and in good light, around 7C (45F).
To guarantee the best choice
of home-grown garlicrlic and onions for next year,ar, order your bulbs andd sets now, ready for planting anting in September and October. ctober. Store them much likeke harvested garlic and onions nions – in a mesh bag in n a cool, dry place with good ood air circulation – until it’s t’s time to plant them. Check regularly for any signsigns of rot and remove affected bulbs.
Annuals including cerinthe,
calendula, ammi, consolida and nigella can be sown in summer and overwintered under cover. This will save you time in spring and results in stronger-growing plants that flower earlier in the year. Sow the seeds thinly into cell trays and thin to one seedling per cell. Keep them free of frost and just moist.
Take pictures of your
herbaceous borders now to refer to when you’re ready to start lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials in autumn. It’s easy to forget, a month or so on, how things looked and which plants need thinning or moving.
Keep harvesting cucumbers,
courgettes and runner beans to keep up the production of young fruits and pods. If you’re going away on holiday, ask a neighbour to help themselves – you’ll be rewarded with more crops later in the season. Feed with tomato food once every two weeks to help keep the plants productive.
About Quarry Bank: Valley gardens with glasshouses situated around a heritage cotton mill. The Worst Children’s Jobs in History event runs until September 10. Garden open daily (closed December 25 and January 9–20), from 10am. Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank.