Amateur Gardening 14-May-2022

“It’s interesting to consider how attitudes to gardening have changed in recent years. Not that long ago, the serious enthusiast aspired to create a manicured lawn of Wembley-like magnificence to be admired by all, but now many of us think very differently. A perfect lawn is a sight to behold but not cutting the grass in May to create a better habitat for wildlife is the new credo. I do a bit of both. Roughly a third of my lawn is left to grow wild while the rest is regularly trimmed — thus I enjoy the best of both worlds. Its what the charity Plantlife call ‘the Mohican’. I’m not convinced a punk haircut would suit me, but it works in the garden!” Contact us: Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 Editorial: 0330…

THERE is something joyous about filling your beds, borders and containers with brightly coloured one-season wonders guaranteed to jazz up the garden for the next few months. Buying summer bedding is exciting and intimidating in equal measure because there is so much choice, and it is increasing every year as new varieties come online. An added bonus this year is the return of pretty Impatiens, or busy Lizzies, which largely vanished a decade ago thanks to a variety-specific form of downy mildew. Breeders have managed to create two resistant varieties, ‘Imara’ and ‘Beacon’ and hopefully these will be widely available in garden centres this year. Alongside these welcome returners there will be the traditional bedding stalwarts: the larger tuberous begonias, petunias, antirrhinums and pelargoniums, which pack a punch when planted en masse. Cosmos in…

NOT only can many varieties of summer bedding plants be vulnerable to our unpredictable weather, they fall foul of pests and diseases too. Slugs and snails will target the soft, fleshy leaves of nicotianas and other foliage-rich varieties, and sap-sucking greenfly will go for just about anything. Molluscs can be deterred with barriers of wool pellets, Slug Stop, PlantGro slug and snail and any of the other barrier methods available. Slug pellets containing the toxin metaldehyde are now banned on safety grounds so if you need to use the green pellets, make sure they are the ones containing ferric phosphate. I use barriers against slugs, but if you use pellets, only use two or three at a time, placing them under a tile close to your plants. The slugs will seek shelter under the…

Summer bedding is also ideal for pots and baskets. Large containers can take tiers of tumbling petunias, lobelia and nemesia around a starring dahlia, for instance, while baskets are ideal for showcasing cascades of trailing fuchsias and pelargoniums. Use container compost when planting, with added water-retaining gel to maximise water use. Feed the plants fortnightly with liquid tomato fertiliser and deadhead regularly to keep them bushy and flowering prolifically. Watch out for vine weevils that eat the roots of plants. Water in a solution of Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer (available online and to order at garden centres) in the summer when the weather warms up.…

NOT so long ago, summer bedding was considered an annual treat because once the weather turned colder, the plants turned up their toes and were added to the compost heap. Now though, our milder winters – here in the south at least – mean that plants can survive from one year to the next, even in the soil. I left a clump of lateflowering antirrhinum in a border last autumn, fully expecting to be pulling them up and composting them by Christmas. But they survived right through, with healthy leaves and even some new growth during the warmer spells in the early spring. It feels wrong to dispose of them after so long so I have cut them back and fed them and look forward to their second blooming this summer. Other bedding plants were…

WE are half-way through May and how are your lawns looking? If they are pinneat as a bowling green, go to the back of the class. If they are starting to look a little bit straggly and unkempt, then have a gold star because it sounds like you are taking part in No Mow May. No Mow May is an initiative launched by the charity Plantlife to encourage gardeners to let their lawns grow wild for a month – or longer - to help native bees, butterflies and other insects. At the bank holiday at the end of the month, gardeners who have taken part can join the Every Flower Counts survey and tot up the wildflowers that have popped up among the growing grass. In previous years the report has found that…