Amateur Gardening 10-Mar-2018

A TYPICAL British winter is generally not a good time for rockeries. Although alpines are resilient plants well suited to harsh, nutrient-poor terrain, they thrive in cold, dry conditions with good light levels and our damp, dull English winters do them no favours. Although they are robust, alpines are low-growing and easily smothered by weeds and garden debris, and are at risk from rots and fungal problems if their foliage comes into contact with damp soil. The panel below shows you how to help alpines recover from a gruelling winter. Spring is also a good time to plant alpines as they will have time to get established before next winter. This week I have spent time starting to sort out our ‘rock garden’, which is a neglected, weedy slope with a few scattered…

1 Start by building a framework of reclaimed bricks in a corner of the garden, aiming to create a natural sloping effect. 2 In-fill between the bricks with soil and cover them with up-turned turves so you develop natural-looking rounded mounds. 3 Place rocks on top of the turves to form the ‘skeleton’ of the rockery. If possible, use stone from your local area. 4 Pour a thick layer of gravel around the stones and on top of the turves. This will make sure the rockery drains well. 5 Add some topsoil and smaller-grade grit or gravel to create an attractive look. Brush it in between the rocks to help anchor them. 6 Decide your planting scheme by placing alpines around the rockery, still in their pots, until you get the right arrangement. 7 When you…

OUR six-year-old peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), bought as a house-warming present, has obviously been very happy in its position and has outgrown its pot. Its flowering has fallen off and some leaves have turned pale or yellow – a sign of a nutrient-poor, unhappy plant. Luckily, peace lilies are easy-going and forgiving plants that are usually fairly simple to resurrect. They like a light, warm place with damp, but not soggy, compost. For a healthy plant, only water when the surface of the compost feels dry to the touch. A plant that looks sad may do so because its compost is too wet. If this is the case, simply remove it from its container and re-pot it into fresh, dry compost and only water slightly. My peace lily was cramped and its leaf rosettes didn’t…

1 A peace lily that has outgrown its pot will soon fail to thrive. Its leaves won’t have room to grow properly and flowering may reduce. 2 Carefully remove the plant from its pot and either divide its roots using your thumbs or by cutting through them with a sharp knife. 3 Set each division in a pot slightly larger than its original one and infill around it with houseplant compost. 4 Cut away any dead or damaged foliage and water the plant well. Don’t water again until the compost is almost dry.…

MY parents had a large and extremely robust pink dahlia in their garden that they never lifted in winter. Their garden was on the south coast, but even so I was always surprised to see the plant regenerate each spring. It was in a relatively sheltered area of the garden and the crown was covered with a thick layer of mulch each winter, so maybe that did the trick. However, I’m not so laissez-faire about my dahlias and always lift them after the first frost of winter, storing them under the greenhouse staging in trays of sandy compost. I won’t plant them back out until early May or when the frosts have finished, but am potting them up now to give them plenty of time to shoot back into growth. Before you pot…

MY greenhouse is starting to bulge at the seams with tender plants still overwintering and new seedlings and cuttings coming through. I’m thrilled that the plants are thriving, but am keeping an eagle eye on everything to make sure mishaps are avoided. A full greenhouse that isn’t properly ventilated is an accident waiting to happen. A warm, damp atmosphere creates a build up of condensation, which is the perfect breeding ground for pests and also allows fungal problems to get a foothold. Make sure you check the greenhouse daily, opening the door and windows on milder days and closing them at dusk. Also, move plants so their leaves aren’t touching. The more room there is for air to flow around plants, the healthier they will be. Look out for pests too. Snails that…