Amateur Gardening 12-Oct-2019

1 Good ventilation is vital when plants are overwintering to help reduce the risk of mould and rot developing on leaves and stems. Open doors, windows and vents on mild days, closing them before dusk when the temperature plummets. 2 Greenhouses are snug winter pest hideouts. Remove the pests by hand or close all the doors and windows and burn a garlic candle to kill residual pests, eggs and larvae. Plants can stay inside while you do this. 3 Remove unripened fruits and place them in a drawer to ripen. Add a ripe banana to speed up the process or hang tomato plants by their roots, upside down, to get their fruits ready to eat. 4 Clean your coldframe and sweep it out ready for its winter guests. Scatter a layer of gravel…

WHEN you select potatoes for the table, do you simply grab the first bag of ‘whites’ to hand or do you pause and consider the varieties available and their differing qualities? More to the point, how many varieties can you name? We are all familiar with ‘King Edwards’, ‘Maris Piper’ and ‘Jersey Royals’, but what about ‘Red Duke of York’, ‘International Kidney’, the delicious salad potato ‘Roseval’ or fabulous, finger-shaped ‘Ratte’? These tubers are integral to the UK’s heritage, and potato shows held during the Victorian era would showcase a staggering 5,000-6,000 varieties. There are still more than 1,5000 varieties in the official potato collection, and one man making sure they stay relevant in today’s world of pasta and rice is Hampshire potato expert and author Alan Wilson, who grows and sells the…

READERS of AG have helped one of the UK’s spectacular butterflies have its most prolific year in a decade. The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) was the star of this year’s Big Butterfly Count, with more than 420,000 spotted after a mass migration from as far away as North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. The orange, black and white insect has greatly benefited this year from the trend towards more insect-friendly gardening, as practised by Amateur Gardening’s many readers. Other butterflies to have a good summer are the peacock, red admiral and the small tortoiseshell, which had been in decline. Dr Zoe Randall of the Butterfly Conservation Trust, which hosted the Big Butterfly Count, said: “The clouds of painted ladies that were seen this summer were fantastic.” She added that butterflies also help other…

SUSTAINABILITY, peat reduction, organic and vegan gardening were all key themes at this year’s Glee, the gardening industry’s annual showcase at the Birmingham NEC. Many companies and brands unveiling next year’s major product launches are following popular trends and moving in a green direction, bowing to the public’s growing demand for organic and chemical-free alternatives. New products include Fito Slug Stoppa granules that stick to the undercarriage of invading slugs and snails, literally making them reverse from plants; box moth pheromone traps from Vitax that are safe to use around pets, birds and children; and new organic ranges from some of the largest gardening brands. Bottles of 100% recycled plastic Anne-Marie O’Rearden, the marketing manager of horticultural brand Evergreen, said that the company was dedicated to moving towards a more sustainable way of gardening…

Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse By Isabel Lloyd & Phil Clarke (Head of Zeus, £14.99) DON’T be deterred by its cover – there really is a lot more to this fabulous book than you might think. Designed for the generation who “would rather eat compost than watch Gardeners’ World”, it is an accessible and comprehensive guide to all aspects of gardening. If you don’t have a garden, don’t worry, as there is information on growing in small areas and even in a dustbin if that’s all you have to hand. There are sections on preserving food, animal husbandry and the use of manure, vitamin content of fruit and veg, feeding plants, seed collecting, crop rotation and how to water correctly. There are also useful tips on how to spot alternative apocalypses to the zombie one…

THE area of garden we have set aside for growing edible crops isn’t huge, but it has done us proud this year. Thanks to a largely kind summer we have had a glut of tomatoes, peas and beans, as well as a continuous supply of soft fruits. A young greengage and a ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ have also provided us with generous amounts of fruit, while a three-year-old ‘Brown Turkey’ fig once again came up with the goods. With their Mediterranean heritage, figs will grow well in sheltered southern areas of the UK. Spring is the best time to plant and, for the best results, grow them in a large container or border pit lined with paving slabs in a sheltered bed. Keeping their roots restricted means they will plough energy into fruiting…