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.

Bumper Harvest

It has been a great year for my veg. I have frozen bags and bags of runner beans and carrots, pickled jars and jars of beetroot, stored a large sack of potatoes and the winter leeks and curly kale are growing strongly in the veg patch. Provided we don't get a repeat of the severe cold weather we experienced last year, the winter veg look like producing a good crop. I'm going to be well fed and healthy this winter!
The weather conditions this year have resulted in a bumper fruit harvest as well and, even though I do not grow any fruit trees myself, I have been lucky enough to have been given a lot of fruit. The plums I received were eaten very quickly, and very nice they were too. The apples and pears have been sliced, tossed in demerera sugar, topped with a crumble mix and put into foil containers in the freezer - more lovely food for the colder months.
I am seriously considering growing my own apple and pear trees but I haven't got a lot space in the garden for more trees. I am therefore looking at the possibility of growing them on dwarfing rootstock in pots or fan training them against the fence.