Hippeastrums for Christmas
Sow cape gooseberries – yum! They are very easy to grow, with fruit ready to eat in about three months or so from sowing. Children love them, not least for the fun of picking them from the bushes where they hang in papery husks, like little Chinese lanterns.
Finally! In most parts of the country the weather is warm and settled enough to plant out the likes of tomatoes, basil, courgettes, eggplants, melons, pumpkins, peppers and corn.
If you fear your garden is not warm enough for peppers and chillies, which love heat, grow them in containers so they can be kept in a suntrap and out of cool winds – wherever that may be.
Water in all seedlings well when planting – and try to never let them dry out. Tomatoes are particularly vulnerable to drought, and lack of water will compromise the number of fruit. Sow leeks and parsnips for winter. Prudent gardeners sow small and often, that is sowings of lettuces, carrots, radishes, rocket, spring onions, beetroot are best made regularly in small quantities to ensure continuity of supply and avoid the feast and famine scenario. All these can be sown now.
Meanwhile, adventurous gardeners and cooks may be sowing burdock, celeriac and salsify (all grown for their roots) and purple carrots – carrots haven’t always been orange and some say they taste different as well, a bit spicier. Try also celeriac; caigua (its gherkin-like fruit can be eaten raw or pickled, and grow on a vine); kohlrabi; multi-coloured corn; celtuce… there’s a whole globe of interesting vegetables and fruit out there.
After petal fall, treat stone fruit for leaf curl (with copper) and aphids, and apples and pears for coddling moth and powdery mildew. Because copper is toxic to bees, it is vital you do not spray until after the petals have fallen.
Ornamentals
Sow wallflowers now and you will be inhaling their exquisite fragrance next year.
Cut back clumps of spring-flowering perennials to encourage a fresh flush of foliage. Likewise, when spreading and trailing plants become tatty, give them a quick trim after their first flush of flowers. Trimming them back after
Bulbs should take six to eight weeks to flower after planting. Bulbs planted now make spectacular presents. For flowers this season, buy the largest bulbs as the small, rooted side bulbs from established plants take up to three years to flower. Plant bulbs with their neck and shoulders above the surface in coarse, bark-based potting mix with a handful of sheep pellets and a sprinkle of Nitrophoska Blue. Don’t use too large a pot as they flower best when root bound. Boost with a low-nitrogen plant food in the runup to flowering. They do best in pots outside in a warm spot, sheltered from wind.
Once flowering has ended, remove flower spikes, leaving about 10cm. Keep the pot in a sunny position as the leaves continue to feed next season’s flowers forming inside the bulbs. Keep watered through summer and, when the leaves start dying back, put the pot on its side in the shade to prevent waterlogging. Watch for the first sign of the leaves in spring and turn upright again and move back to a sunny position. This is also the time to fertilise. Scrape out surplus soil and clean the bulbs, then sprinkle with a small amount of Nitrophoska and some sheep pellets, then top back up with fresh soil. Start watering again when the leaves begin to appear.