Garden Centre

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bonsai pruning and styling

If you think that sounds like something a hairstylist might say to you, you’re not far wrong. All bonsai trees must be pruned during their growth cycle if they are not to lose their shape. The simplest way to develop a good bonsai is to start with a tree that has an excellent shape (also called its style) and simply (ha!) maintain that. If you’ve been given a tree, of course, it may not be particularly well-shaped, in which case you’re going to have to get in there and be ruthless.

A tree needs to be strong and healthy before you begin pruning, working on a weak tree can actually harm it, and a tree that is dormant won’t respond to the pruning until it comes back to growth, so you won’t be able to see whether it’s growing the way you want. Look for new stems that are getting longer, leaves that are slightly lighter than the old growth and some evidence of new buds developing.

Select the front of the tree, in other words, the viewing angle which shows the trunk to best effect. This is the angle you’ll show it from, so although you prune all the way round, you should constantly come back to this view to check how the tree looks.

Prune to leave at least two buds on each branch at the top of the tree and 4-6 buds on the lower branches. Your aim is to control growth and maintain style.

So what is style?

The basic rule is that style removes unattractive growth. This means branches are selected so that they grow out from all sides of the trunk without being overshadowed by a higher branch. Branches should also be appropriate in length to the height of the tree and elegant when bearing blossom or berries (so downward drooping branches should not be so low they let the berries touch the soil, for example.

Labels: bonsai, christmas gifts

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:48 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, December 28, 2007

Bonsai bonanza ...

A friend of mine got a bonsai for Christmas. She rang and asked my advice.

Should I have told the truth and said that unless she wishes to devote her life to a new horticultural hobby that will steal her hours and money, she should simply leave the poor thing outside and let it take its chances?

It’s not that I don’t like bonsai. I do. I think they are gorgeous. But they do require a lot of work.

Bonsai means literally to plant in a shallow container – the art of bonsai is to reduce a tree in size by pruning, directing the growth and limiting fertiliser and root expansion while preserving the natural form of the tree by developing its attributes to the maximum. In other words, you should end up with the illusion of a fully grown, aged and well groomed tree – but tiny!

Assuming your tree is from a hardy species, it should generally be grown outside in the fresh air. You should not move them from one extreme of temperature to another without giving them a chance to acclimatise in between. Liquid fertiliser should be given at fortnightly intervals from May to September or bonemeal can be added in the spring.

The tree must have sufficient water, which means watering the soil daily in summer, in winter daily watering will not be necessary but you should never let the tree dry out. Ordinary tap water is usually fine but if your water contains lime, you should use rainwater on any lime hating plants such as Azalea, Rhododendron etc.

And that's before we get onto pruning and shaping ... more next time!

Labels: bonsai, christmas gifts

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:08 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, December 24, 2007

Yule log with a difference!

Here it is; the ‘log’ is a piece cut from the apple tree this spring, decorated (with two little exceptions) only with garden products – and isn’t it gorgeous? I can say that because I didn’t create it – this particular floral decoration was put together by 'himself' who has an amazing knack for this kind of thing (he takes a lot of the photos that grace this blog too, but don't tell him I think he's good at it, or he'll become insufferable).

Let’s start with the exceptions – we didn’t grow the citrus fruit rings (although we just about could have done) or the pomegranate (which is definitely out of our league!).

Everything else you can see came from the garden:

Ivy leaves
Holly leaves and berries
Purple hebe flowers
Yellow winter jasmine flowers
Sedges from the pond
Olearia leaves
The seedhead of a garlic chive
Laurel leaves
Dried lavender heads

And the final ingredient … plain flour from my kitchen cupboard!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers. I hope your garden’s have been as exciting in 2007 as mine has, and that you’ll join me again in 2008, when I’ll be making New Year’s Resolutions.

Labels: flower arranging, garden flowers, winter colour, winter jasmine

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:05 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

A door wreath from the garden (almost)

You need one wire ring, one bag of sphagnum moss (moss from the lawn usually works just as well, but any florist has sphagnum at this time of year), lots of holly or conifers, cut into four to six inch sections, florists wire, secateurs, and a bow to decorate. Optional extras are citrus fruit, garden flowers and berries. This picture was taken in Bedford Square and the wreath probably cost around fifty quid, but you can do just the same at home for less than a quarter of the price, or - if you strip back last year's wreath and re-use the ring and wire - no cost!


1. Tease out moss and lay a handful on top of the wreath ring, now begin by fixing one end of the wire to the ring and start to wrap the wire around the moss in a series of circles, keeping the wire taut. Continue spiralling the wire round the ring, adding more moss - until the ring is completely covered.
2. Lay the prepared greenery on the top of the moss, adding one piece at a time and securing each with a single wrap of wire. Overlap so that no moss is visible. Work round the ring until covered again.
3. Now begin fix in your decorations: if you want to have oranges, simply buy cheap supermarket ones, slice them thickly and either put them in the airing cupboard a fortnight before Christmas, or give them several hours in a low oven to dry out. For added pizzazz, you can spray the rind with gold or silver before cutting into slices. Cinnamon sticks can be tied in with ribbon, or you can use flowers from the garden – early Hellebores look very sexy, while winter jasmine’s clear yellow is vibrant. I like to use dried hydrangea heads as winter decoration and again they can be brushed with a bit of glitter or sprayed lightly with cold paint. There are berries from holly, pyrancantha or viburnum that can be included too.
4. Tie off the reel wire with a few extra wraps around the wreath, then draw a longer piece of wire up to form a loop to hang the wreath.
5. Finish off with a bow at the top.
6. Hang outside somewhere not too hot and not too cold, and keep the moss moist to ensure it will last for several weeks.

Labels: christmas decorations, christmas wreath, flower arranging, winter colour

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:47 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Winter colour, and flavour

I love this plant – I grew it from seed, from seeds, actually given to me by another gardener who snipped a bit of her berberis, complete with berries, for me to carry home and plant the berries ‘in the green’ which I did. It is, in truth, almost impossible NOT to grow berberis (traditional name barberry) from seed, but the variability of the plant is very great and you need to see the parent plant to get some idea what yours might end up as: some are green and some are purple, some berry very heavily and others, like this one, go in for fiery winter colour before the leaves drop. They are all incredibly spiny.

I wanted this one because of its autumn colour, which is just like a bonfire on these very cold December evenings, and it hasn’t disappointed me. In three years from seed, it’s made a substantially spiky bush and the birds have discovered it as a good source of winter food. There are two reasons for this:

1 – they enjoy the tangy fruits which are a good source of winter vitamins. One can, it is claimed, harvest them, although one would have to be the most committed masochist ever, I believe!
2 – because even the most determined cat or fox will think twice about tackling berberis, I use my bayberry shrubs as holders for fat balls that the birds can peck from in complete confidence that no predator is going to get them out of that lethal thicket of needle-sharp spines.

Labels: berberis, bird food, winter colour

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:13 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Busy December

It never stops, does it?

This month I’m cutting down my tall-growing bush roses by about a half to help prevent wind-rock loosening and damaging their roots and shortening all the branches on standard roses. I have around three bare-rooted rose bushes to go into the ground this month, but I want to give it another week before planting them out.

Then there’s my soft fruit – The bible (RHS Guide to Pruning) says ‘Sideshoots that were shortened to five leaves in early summer should be pruned back a further 5cm to 7.5cm (2in to 3in). With blackcurrants, leave all the buds intact, but with white and redcurrants remove all but the top four buds.’ I don’t know about you, but I have to prune with the book in my hand to make sense out of all this – although, to be fair, currants are very forgiving and seem to keep fruiting whatever I do to them.

I’ve had to dig up my sweet gooseberry, not because it was a bad plant, it wasn’t, it was wonderful but THAT DOG (aka Falco) , not only ate just about every berry before we could get to pick them but he also:
A – got colic several times as a result
B – got a bad gooseberry scratch near his eye that got infected
C – trod on the gooseberry thorns so often as he trampled the bush to get to the ripe fruit that I was forever bandaging his feet (then he ate the bandages, given half the chance).

So, given that we’re not going to get rid of the dog, and he’s eaten his way through two fruit cages in as many years (literally eaten the netting, not just chewed holes in it) the temptation of the dessert gooseberry was too much for him (and it) to survive. It’s gone to the allotment where I can hope it will thrive and so will Falco.

Labels: rose growing, soft fruit, winter pruning

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:09 PM 1 Comments

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Capital Pleasures

I went to London today, which is something that I try not to do if at all possible, and never near Christmas when the city becomes completely insane with tense shoppers and inebriated work parties in silly hats throwing up in doorways. But there are a few (very few) compensations for visiting the capital at this time of year.

The picture shows one of them – the really stylish way that certain London squares celebrate the festive season. Forget the lights of Oxford Street - the entire contents of this particular window box probably didn’t cost more than a tenner, but somebody has made a real effort to keep the contents in good condition, feeding and watering the cyclamen (which can thrive even when dry, as long as it’s not too windy) and the feeding ivy (which copes with anything but makes the best lush growth with a little slow release granular feed and a not too windy corner because wind strips the tender bottom leaves from the stems and makes the aerial roots very pronounced).

The colours are great, not gaudy but bright and somehow seasonal, and the combination of height and structure provided by the conifers is balanced almost perfectly by the descending column shapes made by the creeping ivy – in fact it’s a miniature masterpiece, on an office windowsill, in a quiet corner of academic Bloomsbury - and it makes me rather proud to be British.

Labels: cyclamen, ivy, window box, winter colour, winter interest

The All Seasons Gardener at 11:33 AM 0 Comments

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Saturday, December 8, 2007

Feed the birds for Christmas

All you need is

Lard or suet
Wild Bird seed, or your own gathered garden seeds and berries, or millet
Oats or breadcrumbs or cake or biscuit crumbs
Old hard cheese, grated
Yoghurt pots
Saucepan
Spoon
String or twine

Begin by making holes in the bottom of your yoghurt pots and thread length of twine or string through it – I use a hot skewer to make holes but this does smell a bit of hot plastic so I tend to do it in the shed!

The best ratio for this recipe is one part fat to two parts dry mixture, whatever that may be, but play around a bit, as different ingredients have very different ‘stickability’ and anyway, the birds never complain if it’s a bit tough to peck at or a bit crumbly.

Simply mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and then gently melt some lard or suet in a saucepan or microwave and pour it into the mixture, stirring madly until the fat is absorbed and the mixture sticks together.

Fill the pots with your warm fat mixture, compressing it down well and set the pot in the fridge overnight to really get hard – then either slide off or cut open and peel away the pot. Tie a big knot at one end of the twine to secure the cake and hang it in a tree or shrub (reasonably protected from rain and sun or it will either be washed away or melt) and wait for the birds to realise dinner’s ready!

Kitchen scraps can be added – but never anything too salty which dehydrates birds and can kill them so don’t add salted peanuts – in fact I prefer not to use anything that isn’t native, so I will put in chopped walnuts or hazelnuts, but not weird exotic things or raisins. I do put in lots of seeds like sunflowers, especially ones from the plants like poppies that I see the birds visiting in my garden – each autumn I just take some seedheads and shake the seeds into a jar, and then pour that into the bird cake when I make it – if I’ve seen them feeding on the seeds then it’s a good bet they’ll be thrilled to find them in their cake

Labels: bird food, birds, winter interest

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:41 AM 0 Comments

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

When the weather is this bad, what do you do?

Assuming you have the same gale force winds and driving rain that I do, of course!

I get out the seed catalogues and starting planning my next year’s garden. It’s a bit silly really, because I probably have more seeds than I could plant out in a couple of acres of well-tilled land, but there you are, it’s always something you don’t have that takes your fancy. I grew this rock rose from seed three years ago, for example.

So I do seed swaps with a number of other gardeners who live nearby, which means I have a greater range of plants to grow, but no fewer in number of course because for every half-packet I give away, another one arrives in the post! I’ve also taken to planting several containers up for people who live in sheltered housing, so that they get a new little flowerbed outside their front door or window every spring – a bit of watering and snipping off old flower-heads is all that such tubs require – but the pleasure they bring to somebody who may not be very mobile, or used to gardening, is immense.

Seeds will keep for at least a year in a well sealed plastic container in the fridge. Make sure you label them carefully, especially if you’ve harvested them yourself, and put good notes about their growing requirements eg if they need to be soaked in water, stratified in the cold, roughed up with sandpaper or whatever.

And if you fancy doing seed swaps, I’ve always found a card in a local shop window or a notice in the local allotment newsletter will bring you as many ardent swappers as you could wish for.

Labels: container plants, growing plants from seed, seed swaps

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:01 AM 0 Comments

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Sunday, December 2, 2007

What not to buy me for Christmas

That makes me sound like Trinny and Susannah, doesn't it? Mind you, there's no other grounds for comparison, as I explain below ...

Please, no more trowels. There is a limit to how many trowels one woman can use, even if they do have daisies on them, or a paisley print. And anyway, most of them snap or bend after a month or so. And no more kneelers, I beg you! They’re very pretty and probably useful to the right person, but if you’ve ever seen what I wear when gardening, you’ll know that getting my knees dirty is the least of my worries. I never remember to use a kneeling mat, and if I do, I forget where I’ve been kneeling, so it gets left in the garden for the slugs to crawl over and the rain to get into.

I would like a new trug. A couple of years ago we had an open garden day, for charity, and some lovely soul walked off with my trug. The thing is, a good well-made trug is an expensive item, and I never feel quite justified in buying one for myself, but they are also wonderful garden tools – as anybody who’s ever owned one will confirm – and I would really like somebody to take the hint and buy me one!

I’d also really enjoy having a proper Dutch hoe. I have a draw hoe with a good blade that can be sharpened, but my Dutch hoe is not quite so ready to take an edge. The secret of comfortable gardening is excellent quality, well-sharpened hoes, as they mean you can do 80% of your weeding without bending. So if Father Christmas reads my blog, how about? ho ho hoe

Thank you.

Wrapping images by decor8, used under a creative commons attribution licence

Labels: christmas gifts, hoes, kneelers, trowels, trugs

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:51 AM 0 Comments

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