Page 37 - Garden News

Pick up late windfall apples MEDWYN WILLIAMS
Growing for
Many apples can remain on trees
through autumn and winter, and
need to be removed from branches SHOWING
and the ground if they’re going
ro en to prevent disease spreading
Winner of 11 Chelsea golds and awarded an MBE!
and an unhealthy environment.
Any apples that haven’t ro ed
have probably either made a great
snack for birds and other wildlife Last year my steel
over the past few months or been containers got
waterlogged because of
used in your kitchen. The blocked drainage holes
remaining ones should be cleared
away now before they rot and get
Neil Hepworth in the way of new growth.

Protect cherry trees

All cherry trees
– fruiting and
flowering – need
protection now from
damage by foraging
birds such as Photos: Medwyn Williams
bullfinches. They
can strip branches
of their buds very
quickly and it’s not Neil Hepworth Preparing to grow!
until the spring when shoots fail to develop that you
may realise there’s a problem. The only sure way to protect buds
is to cover those within reach with netting or old net curtain There’s a lot of prep to do, getting beds
that’s been secured with string.
ready for planting out and sowing seed
Tidy up here are a number of things of heart rot if it reaches maturity
strawberries to do this week, both inside too early. However, if you do have
T and out, if the weather’s a show during early August and
Have a check to see how your kind. One thing I need to do you want to try the old favourite
strawberry patch is doing outdoors is prepare the raised steel ‘Ideal’, now would be an ideal time
Neil Hepworth and snip away any old, containers that I grow my shallots to sow it!
damaged foliage and make
in. I had a disaster with them last
We grow quite a large range of
sure the remaining leaves year through my own fault, by not chillis and these plants do need a
aren’t succumbing to soggy creating enough drainage holes in long growing season to achieve
winter weather. A dry straw the bottom of the containers. The their potential. I space the seed
mulch around established result was that the whole growing out on top of some F1S compost,
strawberry plants can help medium just below the surface cover over with superfine
relieve the foliage from soggy soil. turned into a mud bath and the Vermiculite and leave to soak up
Remove unwanted runners, tatty shallots died back. the water from below in a tray.
leaves and weeds that are hampering the That certainly won’t happen More importantly, they’ll need
patch. Start as you mean to go on and keep a tidy fruit plot! this year as I’ve increased the warmth to germinate so they’ll sit
drainage slots with a grinder disc on a heating blanket and they’ll
as well as drilling out larger holes. need some warmth around them
Sow beans and peas in the greenhouse I’ll cover the holes with a layer of to grow on.
While you can sow the broken roof tiles before filling the
hardier beans and peas container with the growing
outside, they’ll come up medium. I use top soil from the
against a whole host of field mixed with some well-rotted
weather problems and horse manure. Prior to planting
pests in their early them out, hopefully during early to
stages, which can be mid-March, I’ll give the bed 120g
avoided if you sow them (4oz) of Medwyns Complete Base
in modules in the Fertiliser, as well as 120g (4oz) of
greenhouse. Plus the Powdered Gold (Nutrimate) per
less hardy varieties can yard/metre run of bed.
get a nice head start too, Neil Hepworth Inside the glasshouse I need to
and you’ll be able to crop sooner sow a few vegetables such as early ‘Ideal’ celery
than if you left it all until March. It also gives you extra celery, chillis and peppers. I’ll ready to go to seed
so I can collect it
control, and you can choose where you want to site them leave my hybrid celery ‘Evening
when you plant them out in a couple of months. Star’ to later as there’s always a risk

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