Sweetpea

Anyone that likes fragrant cut flowers in abundance cannot but like Sweetpea.They produce an abundance of flowers from June to September / October when planted in a sunny aspect of your garden. For those that prefer vegetable growing, Sweet pea provides a valuable attraction to bees and other insects that will aid pollination of all your plants.

Seed can be planted indoors from Jan-Mar, or outdoors from Mar-April depending on our weather. Either plant into seed trays or individually into plug trays. Sow about 4cm (1.5”) apart and 1cm (1/2”) deep. Water well and keep at 15-20 C (60-70F). Germination can be slow so don’t panic if they take several weeks to show. Keep the compost moist during this time and allow plenty of air circulation. Pinch out the top of the seedlings when they have produced three or four leaves, this entices them to produce new strong basal shoots. From late April you can plant out your young plants after gradually Harding them off. If planting in a row plant about 23cm (9”) apart or about 18cm (6”) apart of in a circle. They grow about 1.8m high (6’) at least so they will need support from either bamboo canes /twiggy sticks/trellis or you can plant them through something that already has support like clematis. Keep the flowers removed until the plant is at least 3’ high. Water well in dry spells.

As well as planting seed , I bought some sweet pea plants from the local garden centre just in case some of you don’t want the pleasure of waiting weeks so see if your seed will grow ! (But of course it will... be patient.) I’m also going to plant these in 40cm pots, supported by canes, so I can place them where I want in the garden. They  are great if a “hole” suddenly appears in the flower bed or to give a little height to the rear of a flower bed, but I will say most will probably end up around the patio where we can not only enjoy the colours but also their amazing scent.                       I’ve placed five canes around the pot and placed bunches of three plants in three locations in the pot. I know I’ve been more than generous but the plants split easily that way so …

As they grow I’ll train them up the canes and they will give a great show all summer. Most of what we plant in the garden will also grow on pots and containers so don’t be afraid to experiment – seed/plant companies rarely say this though on their planting instructions.

No matter where you intend planting them, please do so and as always happy gardening.  

Tomatoes, Strawberries & Herbs in Hanging-Basket

Well, we planted up our Summer Hanging-Baskets last time and this time round I thought I'd give you a few other ways to enjoy your hanging baskets - and be able to produce your own grown fruit & veg at the same time.

Tomatoes: the best tomatoes suitable for hanging baskets are the tumbler varieties such as "Tumbling Tom”. I couldn’t find any tumbling variety in young plant form to demonstrate basket making so I resorted to seed and we'll come back to the basket preparation later.

I decided also to try planting the tomatoes into fibre pots. These can then be planted directly into the hanging basket when big enough - pot and plant. This gives the plant a further head start because you’re not disturbing the roots as you transplant - and you do, no matter how careful you are, in the traditional pot method.
The roots grow through the fibre pots and they disintegrate eventually in the basket.

 I filled and laid out 22 pots in a seed tray (anything that will keep them upright), and gave them a good watering.
My packet of Sutton’s seeds gave me a generous 22 seeds per pack - and they suggest one plant per 12" basket .That’s a lot of tomatoes & baskets for your few euro! I'm going to use 14" baskets when they are ready so I thing I'll put two young plants in. The seed is small but easy enough to handle, and place one seed per pot and sieve about 6mm (1/4 in) of fine compost on top. Keep pots moist and keep at 18-21C (65-70F) on the windowsill or glasshouse. They will take about 7-12 days to germinate and we can transplant then when they are nice & strong, directly into the baskets. This way saves pricking out seedlings after they germinate into pots of around 3”.

Strawberry Baskets: I had a little more luck in finding strawberry plants. I picked up three different variety’s to try out - Honeoye (early - midseason) Elsanta (midseason) and an alpine variety (small, but easy to grow and said to have the best taste. We'll plant the lot and see what produces the best results - both quantity & taste.

Fill the 14" hanging baskets the same way as usual - multipurpose compost and slow release feed and water well, I'm putting three plants of the same variety into each - again I think they look better if the grow at the same rate, but if you’re not bothered or don’t want three baskets you could chose an early, mid and late variety and put them together to really prolong your cropping season.

I'm going to speed things up by leaving them in my glasshouse, but any sunny spot should produce results. Birds do like the fruit though so protect with netting if this becomes a problem. As with any hanging basket, don’t let them dry out - water daily in warm weather but do check daily anyway.





Herb baskets: Another handy way of using your baskets is to plant them with your favourite herbs. As well as looking good all year round - if you pick the perennial herbs, you can hang them beside your kitchen door for easy access to your own herb garden.
Herbs I’ve found to do well are Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Parcel (a herb that looks like parsley but tastes like celery!) Chives. Can’t really thing of one that won’t , but mint would be better in its own pot as it is inclined to need more room and takes over - either garden or pot.
Put in what you like to use, it’s always the best method, no point growing what you won’t use.



Hope you like what I've been trying out, have very positive comments on some herb baskets I've given out on trial - let’s hope I get the same positivity from the Strawberries & Tomatoes!

 As always happy gardening.

Summer Hanging Baskets

First of all I’m sorry for the absence of my blogs over the past few weeks, Flowers & Foliage had been planning a move to new glasshouses in Dublin from our facilities in Co Kilkenny but we had planned it to happen over the quieter winter months – not just before thousands of plants arrived and needed planting – but we’re well on track now if not totally sorted.

One of the planting tasks I’ve been busy with is the Summer Hanging Baskets. If you have a greenhouse/glasshouse/polytunnel you can plant your baskets now using small bedding type plants for a magnificent summer colour show. Lots of the Garden Centres are selling small summer bedding at present but it’s far too early to consider buying unless you can offer protection against frost. You’d be better off waiting a little while longer and getting slightly larger plants – you’ll lose very little that way in growing terms but stand not to lose the whole lot to frost.

I’m showing how to plant baskets using very small plants (plugs), into 14” wicker baskets. Fill the basket with compost mixed with a little slow release fertiliser; leave enough room at the top of the basket to be able to water without the water immediately flowing out. Start you planting by putting in a centre plant – any of those listed below that you like. Make sure you firm in the plant up to the level it was previously planted at.

Then I place about 6 plants – 2 of each type chosen, from the second list of Side Plants, opposite each other. I think you get better results if you place same plants opposite each other – different plants can have different growing habits and can lead to a “one sided” looking basket .

When picking your plants try to include Trailing Petunia (Surfinia, Whispers, Sanguna - there’s a few different types but they do give a great display) and Trailing Fuchsia as they both spread well and fill the basket to give maximum effect.

DON’T LET YOUR BASKETS DRY OUT – They need watering every day in the summer when mature.

CENTRE PLANTS

·       Pelargonium Zonale Geranium

·       Fuchsia

·       Pelargonium peltatum Geranium (trailing – as vigorous as possible!)

·       Plectranthus

·       Bidens

SIDE PLANTS

·       Surfinia Petunia

·       Trailing Verbena

·       Trailing Fuchsia

·       Lysimachia

·       Lobelia

·       Bacopa

·       Trailing Begonia – either Illumination or Tenella

ANYONE INTERESTED IN A FREE HANGING BASKET KIT?

First 10 people to email me at address given below will recieve a kit containing all required to produce a hanging basket as described above.

Kit contains :

•  14" Wicker Basket
• Compost mixed with 3-4month slow release feed
• All plants required

EMAIL: info@flowersandfoliage.ie

BECAUSE OF THE BULKY NATURE OF THE KIT AND LIVE PLANTS INVOLVED , I CAN ONLY SUPPLY/DELIVER TO DUBLIN AND SURROUNDING AREA - SORRY ABOUT THAT.

Untill next time happy gardening

No Glasshouse – No Problem!

There are a number of ways we can beat the weather when gardening. Weather normally dictates when we sow, what we sow and when we harvest our crops – but we can take measures that will at least give us a helping hand.

1.       GROWING UNDER GLASS: again this usually means growing our crops under the protection of a glasshouse or polytunnel, either heated or unheated, to create a warmer environment so we can plant& harvest earlier or grow plants our climate wouldn’t naturally let us do. But don’t panic if you neither have the space or money to erect either, because by using steps laid out in No’s 2, 3, & 4 (below) we can still get ahead off the posse.

2.       WARMING THE SOIL: With the use of cloches or a layer of plastic sheeting, we can warm the soil enough to give our seed/seedlings a good head start. A week or two prior to planting should be enough. You could leave the sheeting in place and plant by cutting holes/slits at the required intervals, if you don’t mind seeing plastic over your drills. This method would vastly improve soil temperatures while growing and give the benefit of both suppressing  weeds and keeping fruit/vegetables cleaner

3.       HEATED WINDOW-SILL: by starting your seeds inside on a warm window-sill that gives light but not direct sunlight, you can plant your seeds earlier - weeks earlier in most cases and that means an earlier harvest. By transplanting them into the heated soil later when they become too big for your window sill, you will have given them a great jump start – rather than planting seed directly into unheated soil. One thing to remember though, plants will grow toward the light so you will need to turn them daily if you want nice straight stems for planting later.

Geraniums left unprotected outside our Dublin home.

 Geraniums over wintered inside .

     

      Dont under estitmate the value of your heated home to produde early plants or protect plants over winter - see both unprotected and protected Geraniums

4.       CLOCH PROTECTION AFTER PLANTING: After we transplant our seedlings into our heated soil, they would still benefit from some protection against the elements. If you have purpose built cloches great, but again there are cheaper ways around this. By cutting the ends off clear plastic bottles (but leave the top on), fitting them over the plant and pushing it into the soil you have created a mini-glasshouse for your plant.

mini cloch  - botton off & leave top on.

You can use the methods stated above for a whole host of plants: Beans, peas, lettuce, leeks, turnip, tomatoes, peppers, etc. and over the next few weeks we will mention how to plant these to get the best out of each individual plant. Another benefit from this type of growing is you will only transplant strong healthy plants and at required spacing (so no more thinning plants - saving time & money).

Until next time - Happy Gardening

Planting Onion Sets

Onion sets can be planted now, and up to April, into well manure /well raked ground that is also well drained. If your soil is on the heavy/clay side you can lighten it with course sand/grit mixed with organic matter.

Plant the onion sets into the well raked but firmed ground about 4” apart and with rows about 12” apart. (That’s about 10cm and 30cm in new money!)  Plant the sets about 1” deep but just have the very top of the set showing above the ground. If the “tail” of the set is too long snip it off with a scissors, because if you leave them too long birds will pull them out. Weeding is really the only aftercare required as you don’t need to thin out onion sets like you would need to if we had planted seedlings. As onion leaves sprout upwards they don’t really suppress weeds naturally. You can use companion planting not only to ward off pests but to suppress weeds as well. Onion-fly can be deterred by planting Parsley and/or Radishes (a little later!) between the drills of onions. Avoid crushing the leaves of the onions while weeding or if you find the need to thin out your plants – the smell of sap will increase the risk of onion-fly attacks.  Onions shouldn’t   be planted beside peas or beans as the plants won’t do well beside one another. We can hope to harvest this crop around August depending on weather and when planted. The leaves will topple over and start to yellow when ready, I then like to loosen them in the ground with a garden fork and they will start to ripen. The leaves will totally wither/yellow within a week to ten days and can then be lifted and placed on a wire rack to dry out. One local neighbour always placed them on a low lying corrugated iron shed roof – with great results may I say.

While not mad expensive to buy in the shops there’s nothing like growing your own and I think they are always stronger too. I bought the variety STRUTTGARTER RIESEN to try this year from my local supermarket (J C Savage of Swords) for €2.99. Great value! Don’t know how may sets I got but it looks like I’ll be planting all week.

                                                       

              Stuttgarter Riesen                                                                               Lots of Planting ahead!

Don’t be put off planting a little patch of vegetables this year – you don’t need a huge plot .If you don’t have a dedicated vegetable garden , incorporate them into the flower beds, or use containers on the patio or balcony .You’ll be surprised how well they'll do .

Happy Gardening and let me know how you’re getting on.

BlackSpot on Roses

Blackspot on roses is caused by a similar fungus to potato blight and thrives in similar conditions – warm, moist & stagnant air. You might well ask how so many roses are affected by it so! , but effected they will be unless you treat it by spraying regularly - every week. The fungus (Diplocarpon Rosae for those that must know!) will not kill your roses but will cause them to weaken by loss of their leaves and to flower poorly as a result.

There are several chemical sprays available but I prefer to use the homemade greener sprays listed below as an alternative. If you alternate your spray each week or two I think it always works better. When spraying chose a dry day and make sure you also spray underneath the leaves as well. If there is any blackspot on the leaves, remove these leaves plus any fallen leaves and burn them, rather than composing them.

You could start spraying now as the leaves are starting to show and get in ahead of the fungus, and continue every two to three weeks until the weather warms up and then increase to every week.

Baking Soda Fungicide:

1 tablespoon of baking soda/potassium bicarbonate

1 tablespoon of either horticultural oil/molasses/citrus oil

1 gallon/4.5 litres water

Vinegar Fungicide:

3 tablespoons of cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of either horticultural oil/molasses/citrus oil

1 gallon/4.5 litres water

As always happy gardening!

Preparing Potatoes and Planting Currant Bushes

Currant Bushes

These fruit bushes really do provide a great crop when established and now is a great time to plant. Red and white currants are best suited to a light free draining soil, while black currants like heavier moisture holding clay type soil. You can adjust the type of soil you have, to accommodate both, by adding a combination of course sand/organic matter (manure, compost, straw etc.) to heavy soil to lighten it,  or leaf mould/manure to light soil to help retain moisture.

Plant the bushes in a sunny or semi shaded area about 4ft apart, and have the roots covered by about 3” of soil (as in diagram 1). Make sure they are well firmed in and secure. Prune the bush immediately, by cutting back each branch to about 6” long (as in diagram 2).  The idea is to encourage the bush to produce new growth; growth produced this summer will produce fruit next summer. Cut out all branches that have fruited each year (after picking!) to encourage the new growth again. Once established these plants will fruit for up to 20 years.

With red and white currents it’s slightly different, in winter cut back leading upright shoots by about half their length and all side shoots to 1”. In summer side shoots can be reduced to about 6 leaves, but don’t touch upright leading shoots

Potatoes.

If you have moved into a new house or haven’t been gardening, planting potatoes is a great way of improving the soil in your garden. The soil will be greatly improved even after one season, being more friable, as the potato is a great soil cultivator.  Potatoes do best in a rich, sandy loam that is moisture retentive but free draining. We’ll be getting into more detail when we come to plant in late march early April.

 Now we need to think about ordering the seed potatoes you require, and chitting them (getting them to sprout a little before planting). Calculate how much seed you’ll need first, ( you’ll get about 15 seed potatoes  per kg – and you’ll be planting 15” apart  , in  rows about the same distance apart)

Place your seed potatoes in egg boxes “rose end up” in a light, frost free airy location. If too warm or dark potatoes will sprout too aggressively.

     "Rose end" -top                       Stalk end - bottom                too dark or warm -
                                                                                                 aggressive growth.




Happy gardening.