Sub Urban Gardener

New blog for the allotment

2013-01-22T10:59:00.003+00:00

I've created a new blog for the allotment. http://twomenandaplot.wordpress.com/ This is likely to be my main project for this year what with me having moved house...

Snow, snow, snow...

2013-01-22T10:55:00.001+00:00

Not much happening in the garden at the moment as it's under 8 inches of snow...

I got an allotment!

2012-11-25T21:15:00.001+00:00

I've gone halves on half a plot on a local allotment. Should be fun. Not much in the way of clearance needed. Soil is beautiful, no mare tails, drainage not too bad.

Toolman Rules

2012-11-25T20:59:00.001+00:00

A good mate took me to Toolman for the first time today. Fantastic. They had Kerrang! on in the background, so gave this nod to Pink Floyd...

First frosts

2012-11-25T20:51:00.000+00:00

Here we go, first frosts of the year. Nothing too heavy yet, but the weather is definitely taking a turn for the worst. Several days of very heavy rain at the end of the month. No threat of a drought next year!

October Catch-up

2012-11-04T20:20:00.001+00:00

October...

September Catch-up

2012-11-04T20:18:00.001+00:00

September...

Late-August Catch-up

2012-11-04T20:15:00.001+00:00

Due to pressure of work I haven't been able to post since mid-August, but have still been snapping away. Thought it was about time to upload. Can't add much in the way of commentary. Just want a record for myself....

Raspberries reloaded

2012-08-11T11:39:00.003+01:00

The raspberries were coming to an end and I had started to thin out the old branches to make room for next year's canes. They had given a very good crop but had been very crowded and difficult to get around when in full leaf. There were also a couple of plants and a conifer bush struggling in the corner, and a cherry tree not quite in the right position. The support canes were also a few years old and needing a lot of lashing down in high winds. So, time for a change...

Cut out all of this year's canes, leaving next year's in place. In fact, one of them had decided to start fruiting a year early. I decided to keep this one to collect seed.May have an evolutionary development, but they can fruit on year one canes if they're happy enough.

Dug out all the canes and stored in buckets.

Also dug out all the surounding plants and bushes, and gave it all a good digging over to remove any stray roots.

Made some boards with the remaining scaffolding planks and staked them down.

Dug in two posts and added a good load of compost.

Finally, planted the canes back in. Only used half of them because they are really heavy croppers. Also planted, from left to right: Morello Cherry, Blackberry, Gooseberry, Blueberry. There's some room on the corners for some strawberries too.

Et voila! One soft fruit bed!!! Next phase is to level the ground behind the fruit bed for a BBQ. Watch this space...

Blooming baskets

2012-08-06T11:28:00.002+01:00

One thing that has enjoyed all the rain is the hanging baskets. This year I spent a little more on quality plants from a proper garden centre rather than the cheap stuff from Aldis. You can really tell the difference...

These two baskets at the front of the house do get dry very quickly because they are under the porch.

I finf the best way to water them is to hang them from a broom stick over the water butt to give them a really good soaking.

Tomato time approaches

2012-08-06T09:18:00.002+01:00

The weather forecast is better for the coming week. Should get some sunshine to ripen the tomatoes. The Super Marmandes have fruited well...

...as has Big Boy.

But the real winner is Bel Riccio. This is the grafted variety and you can really tell the difference in the vigour the plant has. I've had to cut out half the fruit so the trusses don't snap and after pinching off the side and top shoots the plant has started to throw out shoots from the centre of the leaves. It just wants to keep on growing!

Outdoors the Ailsa Craig has done very well. Good pollination of the fruit and no sign of blight despite the wet conditions, though there has been quite a lot of leaf curl on all of the tomatoes, which seems to be caused by the cool conditions.

The Tumbling Toms have done well too. Lovely fruit, quite fleshy for cherry tomatoes. Most varieties just seem to be full of juice and seeds, but these ones are great, especially when picked warm straight from the plant. Hardly any of them make it to the plate!

August chores

2012-08-06T09:09:00.002+01:00

I thought Margaret Roach summed up the August chores quite well on her blog awaytogarden.com recently. As well as 'spot cleaning' the emphasis has been on keeping things moving as early summer crops and plants finish and later ones take their places. Given the bad summer we've had so far (only one week of serious sun and heat.) I'm seriously banking on a hot autumn, which generally starts when the holidays finish and the kids go back to school! I prisked out some Dianthus to go in the front window box which is looking a little tired now.

In the greenhouse, the beetroot, dwarf green beans and lettuce have done their thing, and it's a little hot to start new seedlings. So, I put in a patio aubergines and cucumber 'Burpless Tasty Green' in a couple of old chimney pots I picked up from a car-boot sale either side of the butternut squash.

Also built a little raised bench for the pots in the cottage garden. Will come in handy for next year's strawberries.

Mildew mithers

2012-08-06T08:51:00.001+01:00

One of the consequences of a humid summer seems to be a greater prevalence of fungus problems on some of the plants. For several years now I've had terrible black-spot on a climbing rose 'Golden Showers', and this year mildew on Gooseberries, another rose Lady Veilchenblau, and scab on my Elstar apple (though the Bramley doesn't seem to be affected).

I've tried all of the usual preventative measures (good garden hygiene, good spacing and ventilation etc) which has helped to a certain extent. I guess choosing resistant varieties would have helped too, but it's too late now as I've got them all well established. So, I'm going to try some Bordeaux mixture in the winter to see if that works. It's a mixture of lime and copper sulphate which should be applied in dry weather. Just need to wait for the rain to stop now!

Mind the gap...

2012-07-26T16:30:00.004+01:00

Yes, all this harvesting can leave gaps in the plot if you're not careful to have quick growing late crops to infill with. So, time to sow more green beans...

And 7 days later...

Will leave them a few more days before planting out.

Late July - Harvest Time!

2012-07-26T16:17:00.001+01:00

Daughter helped me shell peas for Sunday dinner, and the dog had a taste for pea pods. Eugh...

There's an advert on TV that says nothing is better than freshly frozen peas. I beg to differ. They taste much better straight from the pods with fresh mint. Yum!

Made a cheesecake with strawberries and raspberries, with a slice of chocolate brownie and lashings of cream...

Couldn't resist looking at the first batch of spuds too. Not a great deal came out of the first bag, but 24 spuds from 3 seed potatoes is pretty good going!

The trouble with all this harvesting is that gaps start appearing in the plot. Time to mind the gap!

July round-up - Flowers

2012-07-26T16:01:00.002+01:00

There have been some changes in the Victorian garden. Unfortunately the Lupins were hammered by greenfly and I sprayed them with weedkiller, not bug spray. Doh!

So, I've whipped out the plants and put in some sweetcorn and French beans.

The wallflowers had the chelsea chop but didn't flower again, so took them out too and replaced with Sutherland Kale.

The hostas in the tilet-planter have escaped the slugs quite lightly. I've been getting the torch out and doing midnight slug hunts. Some get chucked over the fence while others get moved to the compost bin. Depends how malicious I'm feeling...

The pond has reached a good balance, not too much algae. Treated myself to three new English Koi, who've settled in well.

The bed at the back of the pond is developing well. The Crocosmia are just coming in to flower, as are the Rudbeckia.

The hanging baskets are doing well. Need regular watering at the moment.

At the back of the garden the bamboo has started to sprout.

The shade garden is great for sitting and relaxing at the end of a long day gardening...

July round-up - Fruit

2012-07-26T15:19:00.001+01:00

Raspberries were getting sick of the rain too - lots of botrytus on the first flush of fruit. Had to pick the wrotten ones off, but with the drier weather later in the month I've been picking them every day.

Made the first batch of Strawberry and Raspberry jam with plenty of Pectin this time to get it to set. The kids have requested no seeds in the next batch.

The single Cherry that was developing has vanished. Probably gone to the birds. Have pruned the branches so they are in well-spaced pairs ready for making a fan next year.

The strawberries have had a much longer season this year, have been picking them well past Wimbledon fortnight. I've found that the ones grown in containers have done much better than those grown flat in the ground. Next year will cut down on the number of plants and grow a wider variety in pots to get an even longer season. There are one or two 'ever-bearing' varieties in the shops that I might try too.

The grapes are developing very well, on both red and white vines on the pergola. Might need to dust off the demi-johns!

Nothing on the Bramley this year, guess it's just settling in.

Nothing on the Blackcurrants either. Again, just getting established.

I'm not sure that putting straw under the strawberries helped much either. Just gave the slugs somewhere moist and shady to hide during the day.

Picked up some lone vine-eyes for the espaliered Elstar as the branches were too close to the fence. There are signs of a bit of rust or fungus on the leaves. Don't want to spray them, so hope the better air circulation and warm dry air will clear things up.

No sign of fruit on the fig yet either. Maybe later in the year.

The first blueberries are ready now though...

Nice to have fresh strawberries and blueberries on my cereals at last!

Next, flowers.

July round-up - Veg

2012-07-26T15:02:00.003+01:00

It was the wettest June on record. I at the start of the month I thought "Great, the veg will love it", but by the end of the month I was worrying about everything wrotting, Potatoe blight, Botryitus... But mid-July is much sunnier and warmer. It's only now that I've had time to do an update. Here we go...

The month began by harvesting the first peas, beans, beetroot and brocolli...

Potatoes in the bulk-bag just keep growing and growing. Had to tie them up again...

Those in the smaller bags were doing well too.

Peas were doing well, but next year I'll remember not to plant a row on both sides of the netting. Difficult to get to them behind the potatoes!

The vertical garden hasn't gone, well, very vertical. Beans in the planters have been disappointing. Tried the variety 'Cobra' which is supposed to be very vigorous, but they haven't been holding on to their leaves at all well.

In the greenhouse the Chardonnay grapes failed to fruit. Only a second year old plant though. Hacked it all back to leave two main horizontal stems and let more light in.

Butternut squash 'Hunter F1' is doing well, alongside the beetroot and dwarf French beans.

Shallots were nearly ready. Unfortunately I made the classic mistake of mixing up the weedkiller spray bottle with the Garlic barrier spray, and proceeded to spray merrily away on the peppers, which promptly shrivelled up and died. Won't be making that mistake again!!!

Super Marmande tomatoes coming on well.

First courgettes coming through too!!!

Next, Fruit...

Vertical gardening

2012-06-30T10:59:00.000+01:00

During the week I picked up some hanging plant troughs from a local gardener to add to my vertical garden. The wall is south west facing and gets very hot in the sun, so I buried some pots into the troughs to get water to the bottom. Had some beans, pak choi and lettuce ready to go in, so in they went. Job done.

On the lower level I have pots with courgette, French beans, a Jostaberry and a Passion flower.

On the top level there are three small Tumbler tomatoes which are doing very well and starting to fruit already.

Mid-June roundup - Fruit

2012-06-21T21:29:00.000+01:00

I've not reported on the progress of some of the soft-fruit for a while. The fig is catching up. I thought it was a gonner after the bad winter, but it is in a sheltered sunny position against the fence. Enclosed in a case to restrict root growth in order to give better fruit.

There are four small apples on the Elstar and putting on lots of new growth. The wires are very close to the fence so in need to replace the short eyes with longer vine eyes to bring the wire further away.

Expecting a bumper harvest of strawberries this year, some of which are turning red already.

Finally, I don't want the birds beating me to the blueberries, so I protected the bush with some fleece.

Mid-June roundup - veg

2012-06-21T21:18:00.003+01:00

Things are growing so quickly now we've hit the summer solstice (and maybe all the wet weather!) that I thought I'd take some pictures of their progress.

Good crop of peas this year, swelling up nicely.

My beefsteak tomatoes in the greenhouse are racing away compared to those outside.

Here, Super Marmande...

...here Big Boy...

...and here Bel Riccio.

Aldis are doing some summer veg at the moment for £2.99. Picked up an aubergine. Now sure what variety, but label said it was compact and suitable for patios. I tried growing one last year but it failed to pollinate. This one has lots of flower buds on it already, so hopefully it will do better.

The Rocket potatoes in the bulk-planter are doing so well I've had to stake and string them up.

How to grow apricots

2012-06-21T21:05:00.002+01:00

Every week I take my granddad shopping, and every week I pick a different fruit and try to grow it. This week, apricots.

Initially I thought of just popping the seed in some compost, but thought I'd look it up on YouTube. Good job I did, because you have to get the seeds out of their shells first. Pliers didn't do the job, so into the vice they went.

Once out of the shells they looked like almonds.

My research had turned up two methods of getting them to germinate.One wrapped in a piece of tissue in a plastic bag...

...the other straight into compost.

We'll see which method works best...

First beetroot of the year

2012-06-21T20:58:00.000+01:00

I couldn't stand it any longer, watching the baby beetroot approaching golfball size. Had to pick some and boil for 20 minutes. Absolutely splendid...

And while some crops are being pulled, others are being pricked out and potted up ready for late summer and autumn. Here, Pak Choi. The first crop bolted because I kept them in pots for too long. Will try not to make the same mistake with these guys.

The dibber and widger I bought off ebay several months ago are very handy. I might do a post on 'tools of the trade' to show what goes on in the engine room behind the scenes.

Moseley in Bloom Open Gardens 2012 - Day 2

2012-06-21T20:46:00.001+01:00

On the second day the weather was much better and the family tagged along. Being on the southern side of Moseley the properties were not so grand, but the gardens were still of a very high standard.

This garden was designed by Joe Swift from Gardener's World about 8 years ago. While many of the other gardens had many of the same plants, you could tell that Joe wasn't a local, choosing many different varieties which made a refreshing change.

There were other pleasant suprises in the next garden. Here, a Jerusalem Sage, Phlomis Forticosa.

This garden was absolutely superb, the only one I went back to take a second look at. The owners actually had recently put their house up for sale and are relocating to Liverpool. After 8 years of hard work I'd be gutted to be leaving this behind.

In the next garden I liked how the steps incorporated little veg beds.

This was another garden that had been given a makeover, but only last year. Remarkable how quick plants settle in and make themselves at home.

Finally, the star of the show was this beautiful climbing rose, Paul's Himalayan Musk. Definately going on my Xmas list this year to grow up through the sycamore at the end of my garden.

So, exhausted and overdosed on tea and cakes we somehow made it back to the local for a pint and a bag of scratchings. What a fantastic Father's Day. Thanks to all the gardeners for making us so welcome and answering all our questions. I may be volunteering next year!

Moseley in Bloom Open Gardens 2012 - Day 1

2012-06-21T20:30:00.001+01:00

Last weekend was Moseley in Bloom's Open Garden Days in the south of Birmingham. I've always fancied going but never got round to it, but this year I played the "It's Father's Day and daddy gets to do whatever he wants" card and made it to both days along with a mate from work. Despite the bad weather on Saturday the whole weekend was truly inspirational with some jaw dropping gardens and very friendly dedicated gardeners. Well done to you all! I took so many photos I'll make two posts. Here we go ...

Saturday tended to cover the gardens in north Moseley, which tend to be grander, as you can see!

I thought this was a good idea, a large white-flowered clematis growing up through the deep purple of a black Elderberry, Sambucus nigra.

This was a nice twist on the '3 stage' type of edging which is very popular at the moment. The idea is to add an extra layer of transition between paving and beds, but it can still look harsh if the paving is straight. This zig-zag effect breaks the lines up even more.

The next garden had a dead cherry tree, but instead of cutting it down a local artist has carved shapes of animals into it. We counted at least 12!

One theme that came out was the interesting range of ferns people are using these days. This is a young Japanese Painted Fern, Athyrium niponica.

The third garden was created by a charming Italian lady keen on her philosophy. The lawn looked very different. There was very little grass in it, mainly moss and what the rest of us would call 'weeds'. I asked her about it and she said her philosophy on lawns had three aspects: if plants are happy and succeed then let them be; if it's low maintenance then it gives you time to do other things; and finally she's not a man so she doesn't care about having a perfect lawn!

Moseley Buddhist Centre's garden was very tranquil as you would expect, but with some interesting sculptures made out of scrap iron.

It's always impressive how much time and effort gardeners go to. This property is a converted coach house and was very well designed. Lots of sunken and raised areas that gave it more depth than the other expansive, flatter gardens.

Another interesting fern. Kind of like a Maiden Hair but with very curly fronds. Haven't been able to identify it in the books yet...

By now we were getting dizzy on cakes, tea and pollen, as were the bees...

Many of the older house had interesting outbuildings: old workshops, hot houses, stables, coach houses, servants quarters and even outside lavvies. Certainly gives them character...

Moseley has a private park and pool. The last time I was there I was 1, when mum used to take me round in the pushchair. Needless to say, I couldn't remember much about it, but there are some great specimen trees in there...

Some of the gardens had recently had the makeover treatment, but despite the new feel to much of the landscaping the planting looked suprisingly mature.

We finished the day in Moor Green Allotments where to our great joy there was a clubhouse with a bar and even a restuarant! Sorry folks, your secret is out! Time to get my name on the waiting list... Next, Day 2.