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Don't forget to prune your fruit bushes!

25/11/2013

A lot of this growth needs to go

It's very easy, when the winter seems endless, to think there is plenty of time to prune your currants or your gooseberries. Then suddenly spring is upon us and it's a case of getting it done in a tearing hurry. It's a good idea to mark this job on the calendar as one to do over the Christmas break. It can be done when the ground is frozen and other jobs like digging are off the agenda.

Redcurrants and whitecurrants are pruned like gooseberries - blackcurrants need completely different treatment.
Click here for the RHS page on pruning redcurrants, whitecurrants and gooseberries.
Click here for a page and a nice clear video about planting and pruning blackcurrant bushes,

When you prune blackcurrant or gooseberry bushes, you will often have some young shoots which you have removed. If they are about 9" long or more, plant them! A partly shaded spot with well-drained soil is best. Keep them well-watered in the spring, and unless you are very unlucky, by next autumn you'll have a row of well-rooted young bushes ready for replanting in their final position, or giving away as swapsies. This page will give you more information and pictures on blackcurrants - the technique is pretty much the same for other currants and gooseberries.

These young gooseberry bushes were just last year's prunings, stuck in the ground in a raised bed. Look at them now!

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Cut down asparagus foliage

20/11/2013

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The asparagus foliage has been late turning yellow this year - usually we've been able to cut it down by now. It's worth waiting for it to turn yellow, as then the maximum goodness will have been stored in those fat white roots, ready to fuel next spring's crop. Once you have cut it down, carefully weed out any young weeds which have lain hidden by the foliage up till now.

Keeping perennial weeds out of asparagus beds is a legendary problem, but modern science has made it easier. If your asparagus bed is over-run with weed or couch grass, go over it with a glyphosate weedkiller like Roundup WHILE THE ASPARAGUS IS DORMANT. As long as the asparagus is completely underground and not beginning to shoot, the weedkiller won't harm it. Then give it a nice thick mulch with something nourishing - both well-rotted manure and spent mushroom compost are good.

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A good time to divide rhubarb

11/11/2013

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If you've got an established, large clump of rhubarb, now is the best time to divide and replant. Prepare the soil ready with a generous allowance of either well-rotted manure (NOT fresh - that'll kill your rhubarb for sure) or mushroom compost.

Take a big spade and work round the clump. Be ready to lift a lot of extra soil with the roots; you can clean this off later. Once you have got the clump out, divide it up so each new piece has at least one dormant bud. Even unpromising-looking sections will make new roots better than you'd expect.

Replant sections in your prepared soil, so that the buds are about level with the surface. If you've more chunks than you have need for, offer them to someone with a new allotment! Or, alternatively, you could force them in a shed or garage to get a delicate indoor forced rhubarb like they produce in Yorkshire.

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Start off sweet peas now, there's still time

5/11/2013

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Get the earliest sweet peas and the sturdiest plants by sowing now. October or early November is fine. The books say that you can sow them in pots outside, but after problems with the weather in the past, we reckon it's safer to use a propagator.

Though you can sow several seeds to a pot in the spring, doing that at this time of year runs the risk of the roots getting too entangled to safely separate at planting time., There's less pressure for space in the cold frame or greenhouse, so it's one per pot.

UNWINS made their fortune with sweet peas and they're still the best for quality and new varieties. Click here to go to their website. for sweet pea seeds.

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Sow winter salads for leaf salad all winter long

5/11/2013

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The last of the tomatoes and peppers are ripening in the window, and the soil they grew in is cleaned up and raked smooth. But it won't sit empty all winter.

The next job is to rake in a general fertiliser and sow short rows of winter salads.

Click on the pic to straight to go to Tucker's Seeds website

These will germinate very quickly and provide cut-and-come-again salads all through the winter and spring. By the time they are getting large and coarse, it is time to clean out the old soil and replace it ready for the new season's tomato plants.

Varieties of salads we've had the best results with are the Spicy Mix type, Claytonia (Winter Purslane or Miner's Lettuce), Japanese Mizuna and the frilly, cut-leafed mustards. After trying a number of seed companies, I've found Tuckers Seeds give a good choice of varieties for a modest price, with a high seed count and good germination. Plants of Distinction have some fascinating varieties but they are more expensive and the number of seeds in the packet sometimes disappointing. Varieties of lettuce for winter greenhouse production are sold, but I've never succeeded in avoiding downy mildew problems.

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Ripen your winter squash to make sure they keep as long as possible

1/11/2013

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Look at any American gardening forum and you'll see, at this time of year, gardeners proudly displaying a huge collection of winter squash ripening on shed roofs or benches.

These are just a couple of CROWN PRINCE and a new variety from Edwin Tucker, AUTUMN CROWN, ripening up. they will keep much better for being exposed like this before storing.

Choose the sunniest spot you can, and move the squash inside as soon as an air frost (temperatures below 1degC) is forecast. You can also ripen squash up in a greenhouse.

Edwin Tucker has a particularly good range of squash, both summer and winter types. Find them at www.tuckers-seeds.com (click the link below) or phone 01364 652233 for a proper old-fashioned paper and ink catalogue.

Go to Tuckers Seeds website

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The time for planting GARLIC is right now!

1/11/2013

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Garlic needs to start growing when the soil is still warm, then have a cold spell (we call it winter, folks) before the warming of conditions (that would be spring) triggers it to make a nice big bulb of juicy cloves for you to harvest in the summer.

You might be forgiven for thinking garlic is a subtropical plant - we associate it so with Mediterranean and Indian cooking. However, it is a native of parts of the world where the winters are colder than ours, so frost and snow won't harm it. What is doesn't like it water sitting round the roots, so if your allotment is inclined to be soggy in the winter, either raise the planting area slightly by making a ridge, or plant in a raised bed. Lime the soil well to deter fungus diseases, and put a bit of sand in the planting hole to help keep those roots healthy. Plant garlic deep - at least 3 inches (7.5cm) down - and some people say six inches (15cm)!

Do I need to buy special garlic for planting? Well, the jury is still out on that one. You'll probably get better results from one of the varieties bred for the British gardener, but it will cost you more at the start. If you save some of your garlic over to replant in autumn 2014, the price difference will be puny, however. The Seed Shed currently has garlic "Early Purple" for sale by the bulb at a price much better than you'll pay in the garden centre.

There are a couple of other garlic relatives that are worth trying, ELEPHANT GARLIC and ROCAMBOLE. Both do well in heavier soils and elephant garlic seems to simply relish the wet.

Click on "Read more" below to find out about them.

Bulbils of Rocambole

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Don't forget to prune your fruit bushes!

Cut down asparagus foliage

A good time to divide rhubarb

Start off sweet peas now, there's still time

Sow winter salads for leaf salad all winter long

Ripen your winter squash to make sure they keep as long as possible

The time for planting GARLIC is right now!

Kent's climate is drier, hotter and has a longer growing season than the average for the UK. Advice in gardening books may not fit Kent. This blog has local tips on what will grow and when to do garden jobs.

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