Gardening: Week by week
Your guide on what to do in the garden this week, brought to you by Earlston Horticultural Society
Flowers
BEGONIAS: If you are looking to increase your begonia collection, wait until the tubers start to shoot, they can then be split but ensure each part has an ‘eye’ or bud. Don’t split into too small a piece as the smaller the piece of tuber the weaker the resulting plant will be. Let the cut areas dry for a day to seal, then give them a dusting of fungicide (yellow sulphur) before planting
CACTUS: It is now time to bring cactus back into growth gently after a long dormancy. Many roots will have contracted with little or no water over winter and we don’t want them to start rotting. On a warm day, give the plants a little water but just enough to encourage them back into growth, watering from underneath gives the best results. After the second watering, you can start to give them a light feed with half strength solution. This is also a good time to give them a clean-up using tweezers and a small soft brush
HANGING BASKETS: You can start planting these up now and hang them in the greenhouse so that they are established by the end of May ready to hang outside. Use a good multipurpose compost that has feeding added (a John Innes No2 will be better for long term plants), you can mix a slow-release fertiliser and water-retaining capsules as well if you wish, your baskets will produce a lot of flowers and have a long growing season so they need lots of nutrition. Don’t plant too tightly together as they need room to grow, firm in and water well
Vegetables
ONION SETS: It is now time to get your onion sets planted outside. You may have started them off earlier in pots to get off to a good start, if so then their green shoots will be 7½-10cm (3-4in) long by now. Plant them about 22½cm (9in) apart both ways. If you have just acquired your sets then plant 5cm (2in) deep into loose earth or compost but make sure the set tips are showing, cover with netting to deter birds and squirrels
BRASSICAS: This is a good time to start to sow some winter brassicas. The mainstay vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, curly kale, purple sprouting broccoli and savoy’s need to get started now to get fully developed plants by early autumn so that they will over winter. The best way is to sow in cell trays, fill trays level with multipurpose compost and gently firm, make a small hole 1cm deep in each cell and sow a single seed in it, level compost over each cell and label. Keep compost moist and grow in light cool conditions. Using a 40 or 50 cell tray in a large seed tray will give you 10 plants of 4 or 5 varieties.