Climate Change and our Gardens
Click on this link to follow up on Lucy Hartley's talk in October 2023.The link to design a flower bed for pollinators is highlighted in green.
Reg Moule’s Gardening
Q&A session
Lawn care routine
Sept Oct best for aerating lawns hollow tine harder but
better
Potted Hydrangea not flowering this year?
As you repotted it, it has probably focussed on growing
roots not flowers. Watering between July and Oct really important as plants are
(also camellias and other early flowerers) when making buds. Pots more likely
to dry out more quickly than in ground as leaves shadow from rain. Prune hydrangeas
once buds swell, to first fat pair of
buds. Take out thin/dead crossing growth, then look at shape and tidy. Feed
between pruning and early April. Vitax hydrangea feed
When to replant heeled-in shrubs
Best to move shrubs in autumn but evergreens move Sept or April. Use
microrrhizal fungi to help when replanting and always dig the receiving hole first before you dig up the plant.
Whitefly in greenhouses
Sprays and smokes don’t work. Pests breed too fast and are
resistant. Try Soft soap/rape seed oil westland product and look for “natural
fatty acids”. Spray both sides every 3
days don’t stop,so you catch hatching eggs. Agrilan whitefly killer also good. Yellow traps (shake plants). Clean house down
with Citrox from Agrilan. Try growing french
marigolds, coleus canina (scaredy cat). Also try parasitic wasps, Encarsia Formosa but you have to time it right before infestation too huge.
Vine weevil
Yellowing Box
The sample showed plant had feeding problems, yellowing
leaves. Feed with Vitax box food in spring, which is very effective. If leaves are bronzy plant is too wet. If blight you can see fungus on stems.
Moving 5 year old wisteria
You can move, but dig the new hole first and prepare it well. Use microrrizal fungi to help it re-establish well. You will need to cut it back quite hard.
Composting spent potato plants
OK to put them in unless you had blight in which case send
to landfill.
Making a sensory Garden
Here are Christine Vick's suggested plants and ideas for a garden to delight all the senses.
Sense
|
Suggestions
|
Plants
to consider
|
Sight
|
Colour
Texture Shape and
Structure
All year interest
Wildlife to watch
Water feature to watch
|
Potentillas, cardoons,
acanthus, sedum, Cistus, Broom,
Mallow
Sages (golden, purple
and tricolour), topiary and clipped box, bay rosemary, ferns
|
Smell
|
Herby and perfumed
scents
Cut grass
Conifers in sun
Tomatoes on hot day
Soil and leaves on wet
day
|
Rosemary, lavenders,
thymes, oregano, honeysuckle, jasmine, Clematis
armandii, Viburnum Farreri and Bodnantense Dawn, sweet rocket, Nicotiana
|
Touch
|
Soft and woolly, spiky
or smooth leaves, wood, stone, water, pebbles, grass, moss
|
Stachys lanata,
mullein, Genista, cordyline, photinia, Iris, Stipa and other grasses
|
Sound
|
Trees, grasses,
bamboos in wind
Surfaces underfoot,
gravel crunching,
Gate latch, wind
chimes
Surroundings – horses passing,
children playing
Birdsong
|
Bamboo
Miscanthus
Poplar
Pine
|
Taste
|
Herbs, fruit, vegetables, salads, edible flowers
|
Mint, lemon balm,
fennel, chives, sage, wild strawberry, fig, blackberry, rocket, Dianthus, Nasturtiums, violas
|
Activity/Movement/
Stillness
|
Places to sit, to
play, to walk around. Somewhere to feel the contrast between hot sun and cool
shade
|
Hedges, shade trees,
pergolas, seats, sculptural toys
|
Click on the link to download the PDF document.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
ROSE CARE AND CULTIVATION
Ann Bird gave a talk on roses and sent us this helpful list of tips on getting the best from your roses. A downloadable pdf of this handout is also available.
- PLANTING
Choose
strong, healthy-looking plants, preferably with 3 good main stems.
Bare
root roses best planted between October and March.
Potted
roses best planted between April and September.
Prepare
new sites with well rotted manure or compost dug into soil.
Replacing roses in
existing beds – ideally new soil, but if not possible then a soil steriliser
applied 6 to 8 weeks before planting recommended.
Watering
new plants well in essential to establish good growth.
Helpful
to visit rose nurseries to see quality of Autumn blooms.
- PRUNING
Cut
back mature plants in Spring to around 18 ins high, near an “eye”.
Cut
out thin twiggy growth to ground, and avoid crossing stems in centre.
Modern bush roses best
pruned in Spring.
Old
garden roses (bush) best pruned soon after flowering – in late summer.
Repeat-flowering
climbers can be pruned and tied in during winter.
Once-flowering
summer ramblers best pruned in Autumn.
Severe
pruning of climbers and ramblers not beneficial unless diseased.
Dead-heading
of blooms to be done throughout the summer.
- FEEDING
In
addition, fish, blood and bone an excellent organic supplement.
In
July, a handful of sulphate of potash per plant helps ripen the stems.
- MULCHING
most beneficial. Bagged
farmyard manure is a good substitute.
On
light sandy soils spread in Autumn - on heavy clay spread in Spring.
Mulching
also helps to suppress weeds.
- SPRAYING
- WATERING
Plentiful
watering advisable whatever the weather.
- OTHER WINTER PREPARATION
Cut back existing bush
roses by approx. one third in November to avoid
wind-rock, and a handful
of bonemeal thrown around each plant.