Page 47 - Garden News

My spring clean is

well under way! I recycled yoghurt pots
to pot the leeks up in

Derek I’ll be testing them all for pH to which I fix in its position. few more weeks to finish them.
Brooks see if any lime is needed. There are trays on the staging Before you read this I’ll
My main job at home has been in the summer that contain grit. probably have taken the first
Prize-winning
veg from the spring cleaning my propagating They help to create a moist chrysanthemum cuttings and
allotment and a greenhouse ready for the atmosphere. This, however, sown some seeds. The first will
smaller garden coming season. is the opposite of what be the exhibition onions and the
in greater Manchester with I transfer all the the plants want at first flower seeds will be lobelia,
impressive summer bedding. plants to the other this time of year, penstemons, petunias and
greenhouse, so I remove salvias. These all go in my
ork on the allotment brush the the grit. home-made propagator.
has been sporadic due staging and I then Some leeks I ordered have
W to the weather, but shelves and transfer some arrived and I’ve potted them into
we’ve still got some Brussels spray them with of the plants small yoghurt pots. The shallots
sprouts to harvest. They’ve done disinfectant. back from the have also been planted. I start
well but will soon come to an I also clean all the other greenhouse them off in 9cm (3½in) pots.
Sprouts are
end. There are still some windows, inside and standing firm and put some I’ve given the lawns their
cabbages, turnips and swedes out, and sweep the floor. of the boxes of annual treatment. I scarify them
to bring in as well. I’ve two warming benches chrysanthemum stools on one first, then spike them all over
I took some soil samples from consisting of warming cables of the warming benches. with a fork, leaving gaps of about
all the allotment beds and the between layers of sand. I replace I’ve also washed all my seed 15cm (6in). I then brush sand
front and back gardens at home, the sand each year. I’ve got trays and some of my plant pots. all over, which goes into the
including the chrysanth beds. a home-made propagator, I have hundreds, so it’ll take a holes to help the drainage.

Together with a general tidy
Promise Some new fruit their cold spell up, an enjoyable job for a milder
outside, are now on
trees to get excited
about this year the bench, which day is to prune the mature,
of spring forward by a few weeks. fence-grown, climbing rose.
should bring fruiting
It takes quite a time but is
Because of problems with very therapeutic!
blossom fuchsia rust over the last few should be the mint bed) still
The herb bed (really that
years I’ve discarded my old
plants and have decided on needs a complete overall so
Tony a fresh start – new plants there are plenty of opportunities
McCabe will be bought in spring. to continue working off any
The only survivors are the festive excesses.
A small garden
in Merseyside standards, which will One important job has been
packed with receive a routine, systemic done – the damson has been
a variety of fungicidal drench. I’ll start warned about its fruiting! Two
different features. growing new standards years ago a good response to my
in the spring, and if rust threats produced a reasonable
he twinkling Christmas still persists, I should be crop, last year I forgot, and the
lights are now well tucked well on the way with result was no crop. This year, let’s
T away for another year and good few hours tidying up replacements. wait and see!
I must admit the early darkness needed. Even so, snowdrop and
of winter days and the daffodil growth is quite evident, The winter form of
the espaliered ginkgo
changeable weather makes but my eye was caught by a
gardening a little frustrating. splash of orangey-red at the
A ‘me to me’ present of a duo, back of the pond, as Iris
bare-root plum tree (with a free foetidissima (the stinking iris)
duo apple for my daughter) gave displayed its berries. In the front
me a good gardening fix as, with garden, the Ginkgo biloba, grown
a little help from mycorrhizal espalier-style, is showing off its
fungi, they were potted into John winter silhouette.
Innes compost. The promise of In the greenhouse, pots
spring blossom is just enough of hyacinth and daffodil are
compensation for cold hands! responding to the extra
At the moment, the back protection inside and potted up
garden is at its scruffiest,with a strawberry runners, having had
New growth
is on the way
Subscribe and get 4 issues for just £1! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn January 27 2018 /Garden News47