This Month - June

Editorial

    Some months I sit down to write this column and spend far too long spinning back and forth on my chair, tilting backwards, looking out of the window and then remember something obscure I was going to look up on Google. But the spring and summer months aren't like that at all, I write lists of stuff to mention that isn't fully addressed and so spills over to next month - no bad thing as far as I'm concerned. I try to keep it reasonably brief so as not to bore you too much, so here we go.

    Baskets and containers first of all, if you haven't already planted them up, then do so as soon as you can. If you need to buy plants to do this, then buy big ones, it's too late for small plugs in summer bedding, they'll be fine come September, but you'll miss the main body of the summer which defeats the object. Plants should at least be in a 9cm/3" pot.

If you've put any hanging baskets up, then please tie them in at two points at the sides so they don't swing around in the wind. I learnt this trick some years ago when we lived in a house where the very small front garden was part of a windy corridor. I'd put baskets up which would do fine until the first windy day which would spin them back and forth breaking the growth and setting them back a couple of months, tie them in at a couple of points about 120˚ apart and the wind can blow, but the basket doesn't spin (there have to be two points, one just doesn't work properly). Even if you're in a calm situation as I am now, it makes a big difference - don't wait for a windy day for proof, do it now as a priority.

Containers should be watered and dead-headed every day by preference to keep them looking good. The better it looks, the more plants there are in a small amount of compost and so the more water and food they get through. Water at the end of the day by preference and feed with a liquid feed once a week unless you've pushed some fertiliser pellets into the compost to do the job for you.

    New projects in the garden - not mine, but my son's. He's 13 now and since he was about 6 every year or so has asked for a bit of the garden to have as his own, we've potted up bulbs and seeds, but thinking that I need to give him a separate square or raised beds with lovely soft soil in it or similar I've never got around to it, replacing the activity with vague feelings of guilt instead. A couple of months ago he asked again and I explained my reasoning, so he said could he just have a semi-circle cut out of an existing narrow bed into the lawn. We marked it out and I cut the edge using an edging tool and showed him how to lift the turf, he kept at it for a full 10 minutes and went in to watch TV. Lifting turf is a horribly heavy job over a large area. A few days later I went out and stripped the turf from the area for him, he came out just as I was finishing so I started him on digging it over (it's about 2 square metres).

He dug about half and was going to end when I said, just do a bit more, so he did, then I said "well you might as well finish it now" so he did, suitably tired went he in to tell Mum and enjoy the satisfaction of his first bit of real gardening. There then followed a trip to the garden centre to buy some plants, he likes dark colours and leaves or the opposite really bright yellow/greens. Back we came and I showed him how to plant them with him taking photos of my doing the first one for a page I've meant to do since I started this site. He then did the rest while I pottered around pretending not to be watching, the plants were duly watered in.

I sort of expected this to be the end of it, but he kept going back and looking at his plants getting very excited when I pointed out the emerging flower spike on the "red hot poker". There were a few gaps still so when we were in Woolworths a couple of weeks ago he picked up a packet of bright red gladioli corms (I bit my tongue diplomatically) which we bought. Opening the packet he found a free packet of seeds for assorted yellow flowered annuals. He planted the gladioli and then asked if he could cut out another bit for the seeds. The next day he was out in the garden when I came home from work and eventually when he came in announced "I've been gardening for 2 and a half hours, I felt like a change to skating (boarding) today. Sure enough there was a a new 1/2 square metre extension cut out of the turf sown with the seeds which are now emerging.

I'm not in when he gets home from school, but I'm reliably informed by mum that the first thing he does most days is to go straight out and see how his plants are doing. We sat together last week and watched the programmes from the Chelsea Flower Show with lots of wows! coming from his direction. He's even got one of his skateboarding mates interested now too.

Stuff I've learnt from all this about gardening with children (sample size 2 - son + friend):

A couple of other ideas if you're gardening with children:

It sounds like I'm making this up, but as I've been typing this I've had a request - "Can I get something out of that plant catalogue today?".

    Scent through windows. How often are scented plants put too far away from the house to be properly appreciated? By one side of our living room window I planted a Euphorbia mellifera a couple of years ago. This is a bed where you can't easily to get to the plant from the driveway, but open the window and it's right outside. So this last month I've been regularly congratulating myself when I open the window on warmer days and a gentle scent of honey comes into the room - this plant is unique in this respect and there's nothing else that is scented quite like it, far better than spraying some chemical air freshener around.

The Zephirine Drouhin rose that grows around the front door has reached a new level of abundance this year too, about the third year since I planted it. It's covered in lovely mid-pink flowers with the most wonderful fragrance that you get on coming into or leaving the house, much admired by all visitors particularly for the way it intermingles with the large purple flowered Clematis coming over the top from the other side of the door.. An alternative would be Compassion another wonderfully scented rose that I have in the back garden growing over a wooden arbour, this is about a month later than Zephirine Drouhin in starting flowering, it's in bud at the moment.

    Pole pole (pronounced poly-poly). A Swahili phrase that means literally slowly-slowly, not the call to idleness that it may seem, more like an African version of the phrase "eating the elephant". Take things slowly slowly a bit at a time and you'll get there, you just need to keep at it and do a little on a regular basis. This is the way we really garden and not the ever decreasing time-scales of the TV make-over programmes. My latest addition I've been planning forever is to buy two rather splendid faux lead containers for the front of the house, one either side of the door just in front of the patch where the rose and clematis are planted in the soil. I've known I wanted two large identical containers since we came here three and a half years ago now, but wasn't sure what, then I found these and they're great. Always buy the largest containers you can, containers are effort, easy to plant compared to in the soil, but they need regular watering and feeding and if they're small the plants will need potting on or splitting before too long.

I had some time on my hands, so:

You Know You're a Proper Gardener When:

Jobs / Tips

    You should be mowing the lawn regularly by now, little and often is best, don't leave it more than a week at most. If you have a cylinder mower, then twice a week is better. I know it's a chore, but as the summer progresses and gets warmer, so the grass growth slows down and it becomes easier.

    Trim quicker growing hedges such as laurel, privet and Lonicera nitida. If you've a hedge that you want to extend in any way, now is a good time to take cuttings for more plants, see below.

    Stake tall growing perennials such as Delphiniums and Lupins if you've not done so already before they flop. They will flop as the flower heads open, even if the wind doesn't get them, when it rains the water will weigh down the petals and over the flowering spike will go.

    A good time to start taking softwood cuttings of shrubs. There are very many that can be propagated this way and as it's so easy, you can try with almost anything. Take a shoot 4-5 inches long and make a cut just below a leaf joint, remove most of the leaves, and also remove any flower buds. I place about 6 cuttings in a 50:50 compost:sand mix around a small pot 3-4 inches in diameter which should then be placed somewhere fairly humid and bright, but with no direct sunlight. A cold frame is ideal as is under the staging in a greenhouse. Keep moist and check for roots coming out of the bottom in a month or so, pot up the small plants individually to grow them on.

    Start watering containers regularly. If you don't need to water them daily, they should be checked daily as a hot day, particularly if there's a drying wind, can suck all of the water out of a container. If you're planting up any containers, then go for the largest you can afford. Containers are very popular particularly at this time of the year when filled with the bright flowers of bedding plants, but it is work to keep them looking good, watering, feeding and dead-heading regularly for the best show.

    Feed container plants regularly too. Get a soluble plant food and use it according to the instructions, little and often is best, so have one day a week as your feeding day where you do the rounds. Many container plants are very greedy feeders, that's how they manage to produce so many wonderful flowers for so long.

    Dead-head perennials and shrubs such as roses. This keeps them producing more flowers rather than putting their energies into seed and fruit production. A daily round of the garden in the evening is ideal if you can manage it, or as often as possible otherwise if not.

    Water autumn and spring planted trees and shrubs during hot dry spells. If you "baby" trees and shrubs through their first summer, them they're usually fine from then on. Give them an occasional thorough soaking though rather than a daily drizzle as little and often teaches them to grow shallow superficial roots rather than encouraging long deep roots that help them fend for themselves.

    Look for and remove "suckers" on roses or grafted trees. These are shoots of the wild-type rootstock that the ornamental foliage is grafted onto and will emerge below the graft union which should be fairly obvious as a knobbly irregular region at the bottom of the stem or trunk. If left, then the rootstock being more vigorous (hence its use as rootstock) will take over the ornamental part of the plant.

    Look out for and remove plain green branches on variegated shrubs and trees. I've seen a lot about recently. Like suckers, they are more vigorous and will take over the variegated part of the plant if left.

    Keep pruning spring flowering shrubs as they fade, they can be pruned back to get a good display next year. Forsythia, Ribes (flowering currants),  Kerria japonica, Chaenomeles (Japanese quince) and early flowering Spireas should all be pruned regularly to keep them vigorous and flowering well. Ideally each year you should cut out one in three or one in four of the oldest braches down to ground level. In this way, the plant always has plenty of growth left and no branch is allowed to get old.

If you have a neglected plant, then they can withstand being cut pretty much right down to the ground, drastic renovation is best carried out over at least two years. Leaving some of the more upright and further back shoots intact so as to keep the plant going rather than being totally dependent on reserves in the roots when recovering.

    Keep watching out for aphids and other pests. If you can spot them early, then life gets an awful lot easier later on in the year. Check their favourite plants, particularly roses and perennials, ornamental trees that are now in full growth are often susceptible too.

    If you've an apple tree, then expect the "June drop" this is where the tree rids itself of the excessive fruits that have set. Fruit set depends on the weather and pollinators at flowering time and so is somewhat variable, the tree therefore produces far too much and then thins it out itself as appropriate. These fallen fruits make great ammunition for catapults, if you've a brick wall handy, then chalk a target and fire away - my son and I have passed many a happy hour in this way. Alternatively a baseball bat and dog are another good way to use the fallen fruit, use bat to hit fruit - dog chases fruit - much fun had by all (any substantial stick will also suffice).