Home//Amateur Gardening/6-Jul-2024/In This Issue
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024A warm welcomeI’ve always gardened organically, because that’s what always felt right to me. I grew up fascinated by the natural world and as an apparently moody teenager (as my mum likes to remind me) I was absolutely fascinated by wildlife. I remember being mesmerised by the tadpoles in my parents’ pond, watching them transform slowly but surely and emerge out of their aquatic nursery into the brave new world outside. I was always intrigued by the planet around me and how things worked on the ground, and that hasn’t changed at all up to this day. Call it a child-like enthusiasm, call it an over-inquisitive mind, call it what you will, for me a trip to the garage to get my car repaired means that I’ll walk away understanding about another…2 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Veteran AG columnist remembered with new plant awardA beautiful new hydrangea has been named Best New Plant at this year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live show, and won the prestigious Peter Seabrook Award. Hydrangea macrophylla First Editions ‘Eclipse’ has unusual dark foliage and contrasting cherry-rimmed blooms with lime-coloured centres. It is ideal for a centrepiece pot or as part of a border, and the foliage, which is such a deep purple it appears almost black, It will be available to buy from garden centres from next year. Peter Seabrook MBE was for decades one of AG’s most loved contributors, a giant in the field of horticulture. He died two years ago and was the only person in the UK to hold the top three RHS medals for services to horticulture - the Victoria Medal of Honour, the RHS…3 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Your GARDENING FORTNIGHTHow to water crops wisely, summer strawberries and making home-made organic fertiliser Lucy explains how to make the most of the next few weeks Be water-wise We’re highly aware these days of the weather. Frequent gluts and dearths of rainfall can have a huge impact on our plots, plants and yields, so how should we best deal with the corresponding uncertainty? I have a few ideas for you: 1. Mulching In times of drought a thick (4-5cm) layer of organic matter (be that garden compost, bark chips, leaf mould or well-rotted animal manure) helps lock soil moisture around crop roots. Ideally lay this in spring when earth is naturally damp. If you have to lay it now, thoroughly water dry soils beforehand. 2. Trenches Simply dig a 20-25cm deep gully…6 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-202431 ideas for sensational salads this summerAs news reports highlight concerns over the safety of some supermarket lettuces this summer, I felt it was a perfect excuse (if ever I needed one) to enthuse about the wide potential for garden, allotment or windowsill salad growing. To convey the sheer joy of picking your own fresh-as-you-like ingredients, straight from plant to plate, with not a plastic wrapper in sight. Home-grown lettuce is nice, but it’s by no means the full story, as there are many potential additions which can be easily nurtured from seed, foraged for, and which will guarantee the turning of a basic side salad into a full blown, colourful, flavoursome and vibrant dish to impress. As one who grew up associating thickly-cut and undressed ‘Iceberg’ lettuce as a ‘salad’, I promise you that a…6 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024How to have a delicious crop of leaves and berriesAt this time of year, our East Devon home attracts surprise visitors on their way back from Cornwall and other parts of the south west. These stopper-offers are always welcome, as they usually bring gifts of exciting foods and wines as inspiration for a good cook up. Now is the perfect time for gardeners to show off because we are gathering the fruits of our plotting, planning and hard work. There should be harvests of homegrown new potatoes, broad beans, peas, lettuce, herbs and enough soft fruits for a summer pudding or Eton mess, with meringues made from freshly laid eggs, for those who also keep chickens. I’ve been growing veg for so long now, the calendar for sowing our regular favourites is firmly lodged in my brain. As each…6 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024How to make your garden work for you and your familyAs children, my brother Murray and I were lucky enough to have gardening-obsessed parents, and to this day, I’m eternally grateful for their gentle introduction to all things horticultural. Our three, small to medium-sized family gardens over the years were crammed with roses, most notably the popular 70s rose ‘Superstar’, many perennials, stunning flowering shrubs and a variety of trees, all of which provided a veritable green playground for us both, and a biodiverse home to local wildlife. Very happy summer days were spent chasing butterflies, making daisy chains and playing hide and seek with friends and family, before sitting down on a summer’s evening to watch bats swooping over the garden as we feasted on barbecued burgers and fresh, home-picked salad leaves. As an adult, these wonderful memories have…5 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Crossword… just for fun!ACROSS 1 American friend, pertaining to newly formed leaves or flowers that have not yet unfolded! (5) 3 A luxury sports car, or exotic waterlily! (5) 7 Calcium ________ exists only in aqueous solution, making the water hard, and therefore leaving scale in pipes and white marks on clay pots (11) 8 The shrubby cinquefoil genus (10) 9 The lady’s mantle genus (10) 13Sedum ‘Medizi’, of average dimensions! (6-5) (anag) 14 This Latin American ballroom dance is also a popular cultivar of Agastache aurantiaca! (5) 15 Small, sharp knife used to strip the peel off fruits, or to remove shavings from wood (5) DOWN 1 This variety of Jonquil narcissus is an Americanism from the 1940s, probably derived from the nonsense syllables typical of scat music (5) 2 In botany,…1 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Ask JOHN NEGUSHow to pot on a magnificent magnolia Q This spring I bought a Magnolia‘Susan’ but it is still in its original pot. I’d like to move it to another container, but I’m not sure how to go about it. What should I do? Thomas Standforth (via email) A I am delighted that you have purchased a Magnolia ‘Susan’. A commanding cross between M. acuminata and M. stellata ‘Rosea’, its reddish-purple blooms are captivating in late spring. Assuming that you wish to plant it in a pot or some other container, I urge you to set it in loam-based ericaceous compost taking care not to damage the roots as this can impact its flowering. Initially, cover the drainage hole with crocks or pea shingle, then add a few inches of potting…6 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024What’s wrong with my compost?QWhy does my compost heap have lots of fruit flies? A This is a sign that it’s too wet and is starting to ferment. You need to add more dry brown materials such as cardboard and dried plant stems. Q There are lots of weeds germinating in my compost! A Home compost heaps frequently don’t get hot enough to kill off weed seeds or perennial weed roots. Avoid putting these into your compost directly - you can drown weed roots for a few weeks in a bucket of water first. Q Why doesn’t the compost I make look like the stuff I buy? A ‘Potting compost’ that you buy should really be called ‘growing medium’ – it’s a specially formulated combination of materials such as wood fibre, green waste and…1 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Experts raise awareness of Japanese knotweedGardeners are being asked to keep their eyes peeled for signs of Japanese knotweed growing in their plots and the surrounding areas. This comes shortly after it was revealed that certain species of bamboo, which were fashionable to grow in the 1990s, and the start of the Millennium, are starting to take over some gardens and even punch their way through paving and concrete, sometimes growing through people’s walls and floors. Japanese knotweed was listed by the World Conservation Union as one of the world’s worst invasive species because its roots and rapid growth can damage concrete foundations, buildings, roads and paving. Chris Bonnett of online plant company Gardening Express said: “Japanese knotweed can look fairly attractive with its creamy white flowers and heart-shaped leaves but it’s extremely destructive to…3 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Scheme saving Scotland’s ancient treesMore than two million tree seeds have been collected in Scotland as part of an initiative to restore the country’s native ancient woodlands and temperate rainforests. The three-year scheme, led by Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland, aims to forage for native tree seeds and grow them on as part of a reforestry campaign. More than 80 volunteers have collected 2.2 million seeds since last August, enabling 1.5 million trees to be grown for rewilding across Scotland. Many of the tree species have unique genetics, dating back to the end of the last Ice Age, which need preserving. With the trees often in remote locations, the new network of volunteer seed collectors is creating access to local woods and local knowledge. Roz Birch, the Tree Seed Collection Project’s volunteer…1 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Small space | Big ideasGolden rules for containers Chris Collins offers his top tips for gardening in pots this summer Flowers, food and wildlife can flourish in a container garden - especially if you stick to some of my golden rules. Unlike a conventional garden planted directly into the soil, container plants will rely on you for all their needs. The first job is to get the watering right, and I would argue it’s the most skilful job a gardener can do. Timing is important: the coolness of early morning or early evening will have the most beneficial impact as you’ll reduce the amount of water lost to transpiration. Drip trays at the base of your pots will catch water and aid supply. Most importantly, however, is the relationship you build with your container…2 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Easy rockeries - our step by step guideDid rock gardens ever really go out of fashion? I’m not sure, but visit homes across the UK this summer and it’s more than likely a fair few will showcase these eye-catching combinations of large stones and colourful planting. There is much to love about these gardens, not least the way they provide a wonderful, naturalistic focal point, creating the ideal growing conditions for many beautiful plants, and valuable habitats for a range of wildlife. The mountain-like environment and free-draining conditions created by rock gardens means they’ve long been synonymous with alpine plants, and to a point there are several of these hardy beauties that will thrive in this environment. But before setting off to the garden centre or nursery to stock up on rarities, remember that several alpines grow…9 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Easy ideas for summer-scentsPerfumed leaves are a real treat for the nose I think there is nothing nicer than a stroll through a garden, whether it’s my own or one I am visiting. Wherever I might be, you can guarantee the experience is made even better when there is fragrance floating in the air and I especially like plants that generously release their fragrance when brushed against as you walk past. Most of the plants on my recommended list are prolific growers and can outgrow their allotted space quite quickly. Where space is limited, grow them in pots and lift the pots off the ground on a regular basis, to ensure that the roots haven’t passed through the holes in the base of the pot to escape into your garden beds. I grow…6 min
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Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024The spiky delights of the Eryngium familyAs we drift into midsummer, the plants and our team are adjusting to a slightly slower pace, less frantic than late spring and early summer when keeping up with the garden’s rate of growth seemed almost impossible! There are many treasures still to look forward to, including the distinctive flowers of eryngium (sea holly); sculptural and dramatic among contrasting colours and textures, especially soft, tactile grasses such as Stipa tenuissima. Eryngium encompasses a diverse range of plants with more than 250 species throughout the world. Found growing throughout our garden, but always in a position offering full sun, the individual flowers are small but arranged in tight cone-like or rounded heads and often surrounded by spiny colourful bracts enhancing their beauty. The foliage, although at times spiny, can be deeply…3 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Top tool picksWhich products, or projects would you like Adam to cover and trial in his column? Please contact editor@amateurgardening.com with suggestions. The broad range of tools available to buy means that it can be tricky to know what you actually need and what you don’t. The choice can be a little overwhelming. Truth be told, you can get by with the simplest of tools to begin with, but once you are truly smitten with the gardening ‘bug’ it’s nice to be able to have a few more trusty tools to hand. Here are five of my all-time favourites to help you on your way. A trusty trowel You won’t get very far without a trowel – the absolute backbone of most of your planting out efforts. A hand trowel will serve…3 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Your LETTERS TO KIMYour lovely letters, emails and social media posts continue to flow in beautifully. Every message, poem, idea and comment matters. Please keep them coming. We will send out a thank you gift for every item published in the magazine so do please send your address and contact details when you get in touch. The Facebook account for Amateur Gardening magazine is now up and running again and we have also started a new Instagram account @amateurgardeningofficial. We hope to see you there. Ideas and a question Dear AG I’m emailing to make a couple of suggestions as to topics I would be interested in, but would like to start by saying how pleased I was to see AG saved and also to see articles by Toby Buckland returning. The two…5 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024What a lot of water knowledgeMy motto ‘never say never’ might make it difficult to tell people my motto (jokes!) but it does come in handy for planting in the height of summer. When the July sun (we hope) beats down, the red soil in my garden resembles the hard, dry surface of Mars and for unestablished plants it’s almost as inhospitable. But there is one place that’s even worse… ‘death row’ aka the step outside the greenhouse/kitchen door. Whether bought at a plant fair, gifted from a friend or the result of a daring rescue mission from the bargain supermarket trolley, you’re not alone if you keep new acquisitions waiting on the step while space is made in the garden. This is normal. It can take a lot of looking to find just the…5 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Worried about wasps?Wasps are a gardener’s ally early in the year and incredibly useful predators and pollinators feeding countless insects to their young, and helping our crops grow forth. But as colonies mature the need for fresh meat reduces and they want more sugary fuel. Thus wasps seldom bother our strawberries and early ripening fruits, but later in the season can make a beeline for our apples and plums. It’s a tricky conundrum as we need wasps next year, yet we also want to be able to harvest our lovely home-grown fruits as well. What is an organic gardener to do? Front line fruit protection Netting is the answer, physically keep them off with fine mesh net (re-purposed nylon net curtains are free). Ideally, this netting is sown into bags and slipped…3 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Your GARDENING FORTNIGHTEssential rose care tips for the summer Keep your roses in top condition for prolonged flowering, says Ruth Thanks to all the rain that fell in spring and early summer - which we may have not appreciated - it’s been a good year for the roses. Ours are putting on their best show for years and I have been busily going round feeding, deadheading and making sure they stay in good condition all summer. We had to take some urgent remedial action with our two climbing roses as their bases had become rather congested with weeds (I swear they sneaked in overnight when my back was turned), which the roses didn’t take kindly to. But once the unwanted plants were cleared away and the roses fed and watered with proprietary…7 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Better for beaversThe Met Office has ruined my year, with an announcement that this is going to be a very wet summer leading to fears of further flooding in the UK and dashing any hopes of a period of warmth. The Met Office apparently back-tracked the next day, refusing to be quite so specific, adding to my general confusion. Gardeners are at the sharp end of the weather and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show didn’t help to clear my mind. Tom Massey and Je Ahn were storing water in their Water Aid Garden, ready for hot, dry summers. Naomi Slade and Ed Barsley designed a Flood Resilient Garden, that managed water in various ways to prevent flooding. I’m reminded of Tiger Woods’ famous saying. “It is what it is.” We will have…4 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024My natural paradise gardenTo say our garden was overgrown, 25 years ago, would do an injustice to the jungle that greeted us when we first moved in. Large trees, crammed so close they were deformed, giant bindweed whose roots snaked through a sunken lawn and tree stumps (which I excavated by hand) were some of the big jobs we had to tackle. At first, we tidied it up and laid a new lawn for the children to play on. I planted a pyracantha that I had grown at home from a cutting that my grandfather had given to me - and I still think of him whenever I look at it. We grew sunflowers together at the borders near the house, a fun competition for us all. A small vegetable patch was dug…4 min
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Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Have your sayWe would love to know more about you and your gardening by completing our reader survey. It should take no more than 10 minutes. All respondents will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win gardening vouchers worth £250! Fill in the form here and send your completed survey to: Amateur Gardening, Freepost Kelsey Media (no stamp required). Alternatively, complete the questionnaire online. Visit smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AMGardening24 or scan the QR code. It’s quicker and easier! Thank you.…1 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Your GARDENING TEA BREAKThe wonders of Wimbledon! It’s Wimbledon fortnight (from 1-14 July), but did you realise that without gardeners, plant growers and greens-keepers, the event just wouldn’t be the same. Just think of the grass courts, the thousands of strawberries that are synonymous with this global tennis tournament, all the floral displays, and then there’s that amazing climbing creeper that covers the famous Centre Court! Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam event that has a day free-of-play right in the middle. It’s not just to have a day off, or to keep a Sunday free for religious reasons. It is simply to give the courts ‘a breather’. This is the only opportunity the groundsmen have to properly irrigate the courts in readiness for the second week. It’s all about the grass. Wow!…2 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Growing your own perennialsYou can call me thrifty, frugal or penny-pinching over the way I try and grow everything from seed, but the truth is also that I do not embrace spending a fortune on plants imported from abroad to create a ‘quick fix’ garden. I simply can’t ignore the impact such a form of gardening is having on climate change. Also I think raising, where you can, plants from seed provides more hands-on learning when it comes to the growing of vegetables, fruit and flowers, as well as a living, breathing eco-system on your back doorstep. There’s the real wow. My first ever ‘wow moment’ was the time I decided to grow rhubarb from seed. Though Carol, my wife, is not a fan of rhubarb, I love it as a dessert and…6 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Your MONEY SAVING TIPSIncrease your houseplant stocks for free Taking streptocarpus leaf cuttings is easy to do Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas? Possibly not if you’re considering giving plants as gifts. For the right person plants make great prezzies, whether they are for the house or garden, but as prices go through the roof, we have to start thinking outside the (beautifully wrapped) box. I love houseplants, especially those that often flower through the winter months, so this week I’ve been taking leaf cuttings from a pot-bound streptocarpus (which I also repotted). Summer is a great time for taking cuttings because the plants are growing well and if you use healthy new growths your cuttings should thrive. Streptocarpus and African violets are some of the easiest plants to propagate…5 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Six fascinating compost facts1. There are billions of creatures in your compost A compost bin is a world in microcosm. Your garden and kitchen waste provides shelter and food for a complex web of tens of billions of creatures. At its centre are microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, helped along by mites, springtails and earthworms, which chew, tear and suck your garden waste into tiny pieces. In turn, these are eaten by creatures such as beetles, slowworms, lizards, toads and birds. 2. Your compost heap doesn’t need to get hot Your heap doesn’t need to heat up to compost effectively – but you do need to be more patient with a cold composting system. A medium-sized compost heap can reach 55°C at its centre within a few days. The heat helps to…2 min
Amateur Gardening|6-Jul-2024Plants coming soonYour plant recommendations from expert plantsman, Michael. Each year in the middle of June, there is a week in the Netherlands and Germany when most of the large breeding houses open their glasshouses for visitors, and this is where you can find more plants than you could ever plant into your garden. It’s called the FlowerTrials, and it’s such a special week, full of new ideas, and rediscoveries. This issue I’m sharing some of my favourite findings with you from the 2024 trails. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to find any of these beauties in the garden centres yet, but keep your eyes peeled, they are likely on their way soon! New Anigozanthus series (kangaroo paw) This intriguing plant is one that we might be seeing more of, as it…2 min
