Planting in The Woodland Border

At the bottom of my garden is a raised border lined with trees and a few shrubs such as the winter flowering Viburnum 'bodnantense' and the spring flowering Choisya ternata 'sundance'. The soil tends to be rather dry here so I need to think carefully about what to plant. At the front of this miniature woodland border, trailing over the dry stone wall, I have planted aubrietia, arabis and saponaria which I wrote about in a previous post.

The border also has spring bulbs such as daffodils, bluebells and hyacinths together with spring flowering plants such as pulmonaria (lungwort) and primulas. There are also a few cyclamen hederifolium plants which were given to me by a former work colleague and are thriving under the trees.

Although cyclamen hederifolium originates in the Mediterranean region it is fully hardy in the temperate gardens of Britain. The leaves are a deep green with silvery markings and shaped rather like ivy leaves, hence the name 'hederifolium'. It is a low growing plant (approximately 4 inches in height) and bears shuttlecock shaped flowers in shades of pink. A white flowered form, 'album', is also available. The flowers appear from August to November, the leaves persisting longer throughout the winter and spring months. These plants do well in woodland conditions as they need shade from the hot sun and shelter from the winds. Another variety worth growing is the cyclamen coum which flowers in late winter/early spring. It is similar in appearance and flower colour but is smaller with more rounded leaves.

This autumn I have planted some anemone blanda rhizomes in the woodland border. This is another low growing plant from the Mediterranean region. It grows to about 6 inches high and produces pretty starry flowers in blue, white, pink and mauve. Flowering in spring just after the snowdrops have faded these plants are suitable for naturalising under trees. I just hope they are not as attractive to the squirrels as my crocuses were. I planted about 100 of these a couple of years ago and the squirrels thought Christmas had arrived early and promptly dug them all up! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these will survive to make a good show in spring. 

Unusually Warm Autumn Weather

The unusually warm weather we have experienced this autumn has extended the flowering season of my annual plants. The white daisy flowers of the Marguerites in pots on the patio are as abundant as they were in midsummer. The Pelargoniums are also still producing flowers. Many perennials have had a second flush of flowers, including my lovely climbing rose, and this has combined with the reds and golds of the autumn leaves to produce a rich tapestry of colour not normally seen in the garden this late in the year.
Primulas which are normally spring flowering have also come into flower and the Camellia shrub is in bud. This is very unusual and I'm not too sure if it will flower as normal in the spring. The weather is changing now and temperatures are dropping. Leaf fall is increasing and I am expecting the first frosts soon.
I am definitely not complaining though when I think of the extreme winter weather we have suffered for the last two years. Hopefully this year the weather will follow a more normal winter pattern. I'm looking forward to the first frost as this is when I will sample my curly kale - it always tastes better once it's been exposed to frost. The kale plants and the leeks are growing really well and will hopefully provide me with fresh grown vegetables throughout the winter months. 

Sweet Chestnuts - Food for Free

This is the season for sweet chestnuts - collect them now for an excellent wholesome free food which is high in fibre and full of vitamin C. The ripened nuts fall from the tree during October and November so get out in the woods and start collecting. Not to be confused with the inedible horse chestnut, the sweet chestnut husk has longer spines and contains two or three nuts. Stamp on the spiny green husks to split them and reveal the shiny brown nuts within.
You can eat them raw but be sure to remove the inner brown membrane as this can taste bitter. The shells and inner skins can be hard to remove but roasting them makes this job a lot easier and brings out the full flavour of the nuts.
When roasting chestnuts always slit the shells otherwise they will explode. The traditional way was to roast them in the hot ash of an open fire or close to the red coals, slitting the shells of all but one of them. When this one explodes you know the rest are ready. I wouldn't recommend this for an indoor fire as the explosion can be quite dramatic scattering shell shrapnel across the room. Perhaps this method is best left to outdoor fires.
If you don't have access to an open fire the chestnuts can be cooked in a conventional oven. First cut a slit in the shell on the flat side of each nut (very important to prevent exploding nuts!) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees C or Gas Mark 4 and place the nuts in a single layer in a baking dish. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. If you just want to heat them up to make them easier to peel rather than fully cook them, then just bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the shells and inner skins while still warm. If you leave them to cool they will be harder to peel.
Sweet chestnuts can be used in stuffing and to make puree. The nuts do not keep for long so if you want to store them for future use one method is to dry them in a very low oven until hard. Once dried store them in a dry jar in a cool dark cupboard. The dried chestnuts should keep for at least a year. To reconstitute the dried nuts put them into boiling water and cover. Leave them for an hour or so and then use them in your recipe. 

Plant Garlic - It's so Easy to Grow

I love using garlic in cooking and it is really easy to grow your own. Heads of garlic for planting can be obtained from garden centres and mail order catalogues. You can get garlic for free by planting supermarket bulbs but the crop won't be as good. Split the garlic heads into individual cloves and plant these about 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart. Plant a bit deeper in light soils but if your soil if heavy and poorly drained you will need to plant about 1 inch deep on a bed of coarse sand and potting compost. Once planted just leave it to grow, weeding when necessary and watering in dry spells in spring and summer. You can plant the cloves in stages between now and February (depending on soil and weather conditions) which will give a harvest between June and August.
Lift when the leaves start to turn yellow and bend at the stem. Dry outside for about 7-10 days if the weather is fine and dry, otherwise dry in a well ventilated greenhouse. Store in hanging bunches or plaits so that air can circulate the bulbs.
If you don't have room in the garden to grow garlic, grow it in pots as it is shallow rooting and well suited to container growing.

Revamped Front Garden

Just finished smartening up the front garden and I'm very pleased with the result. This area was difficult to keep weed free and never really looked tidy, which is important in the front garden, so I decided to put down some weed suppressant material and cover it with green slate.
This will keep the ground weed free while letting the rainwater soak through.
It was quite hard physical work but I enjoyed it. First I needed to prepare the area by removing all plant material. Also there were bulbs planted in this area which I managed to locate by referring to previous photographs. These have been replanted in pots and borders in the rear garden. The ground was then raked and firmed by treading it flat.
I was lucky enough to get a roll of weed suppressant material in a local DIY sale. There was enough to cover the area with a fair bit left over. The green slate was purchased in 25 kilogram bags and it took 10 bags in total to cover all the material. The roses which were planted in the border along the fence have been pruned back and moved to the rear garden. I've replaced them with five lavender bushes - these were grown from cuttings which I took earlier this year. They should make a lovely fragrant low growing hedge to border my new garden. There are still some herbaceous perennial geraniums and sedum spectabile at the top of the garden near the wall and primulas have been planted in a narrow border along the path. Long stone troughs have been planted with violas and a couple of other pots contain small shrubs and bulbs to add a bit of interest.
I am so glad to have finished this before the winter. It was a job I had planned to do next spring but the weather has been so nice and unseasonably warm that it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity.

Forcing Bulbs for Indoor Display

Now is the time of year to think about buying prepared bulbs for early flowering indoors. Specially treated bulbs are available in garden centres. These are best for winter forcing as they will have been well grown, lifted at the right time and thoroughly dried to prevent disease or premature rooting. They will also have been stored at a carefully controlled temperature to induce proper development of the flower buds inside the bulb for flowering at the desired time.
Plant your bulbs in a correctly balanced compost such as John Innes No.2 or use bulb fibre which is cleaner and easier to handle. Both these growing mediums can be used in glazed bowls with no drainage holes. Place a layer of damp compost or moistened fibre in the bowl. Set the bulbs as close as possible. Fill the spaces with compost or fibre. The noses of large bulbs such as hyacinth, daffodil or tulip can be left exposed but cover all other bulbs completely. The surface of the compost or fibre should be well below the rim of the bowl.
Put the bowl in a cool, dark place. Check every couple of weeks that the bowl has not dried out. Well dampened compost or fibre should not need more than an occasional watering, if any, during this stage. When the tips of the leaves are showing 1-2 inches high, move the bowl to a greenhouse, conservatory or windowsill of a cool room (about 10 degrees Celsius). When the leaves have grown to 4 inches high, the bowl can be moved to a warmer room (about 18 degrees Celsius).  Taller flowers such as hyacinth, daffodil or tulip may need support - place a cane in the pot and tie the stems with string.
My favourite bulb for growing indoors is the hyacinth which has a beautiful rich fragrance when it flowers. It is available in a range of colours but my favourite is the blue flowered variety. I always plant the bulbs out in the garden when they have finished flowering. Plant to a depth of about 6 inches. Bulbs grown in compost will usually flower again the following year, whereas those grown in fibre often take a year to recover.
Start growing your prepared hyacinth bulbs now and they should be flowering in the New Year.

Growing and Propagating Strawberries

I have grown strawberries in the vegetable patch in previous years but have always had a problem with slugs, so this year I decided to grow some in a hessian sack on the patio as well as some in the veg patch. The plants were set into the sack through slits cut in the sides. I put a bamboo cane into the compost to drape an old net curtain over. This is to protect the fruits from birds once they start to ripen. The plants in the veg patch were protected in a similar way. Both the veg patch plants and the ones in the hessian container produced a good crop of fruits, although the ones on the patio were much better protected from slug damage. I will grow some more like this next year.
I grow Cambridge Favourite which is a mid season variety producing a heavy crop with a decent flavour in mid summer.
The best fruits are produced from younger plants and strawberry plants will usually need replacing when they have fruited for 2-3 years. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is by propagating the runners which are produced from June onwards. I just peg them down into loose soil and when they are well rooted detach them from the parent plant and grow them on in pots overwintered in the cold frame or greenhouse. Strawberries grow best in soil rich in humus so add some well rotted compost to your strawberry patch to ensure a good crop.
Another type of strawberry which is just as easy to grow is the Alpine Strawberry. This type does not produce runners so must be grown from seed. I have grown a variety called Baron Solemacher in the past which is a vigorous heavy cropper carrying the fruits higher on the plants, meaning less chance of slug damage. The fruits are much smaller but very aromatic and sweet, lovely in a dish with some ice cream. The alpine strawberries can self seed and be a bit invasive but are easy to control by simply weeding out any unwanted plants.