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Feeding for fruit an flowers
With the first fruits setting on my greenhouse beefsteak tomatoes I’m starting to feed my plants weekly with Westland Nutri Tomato Feed. I used it for the first time last season and had some cracking crops as a result.
But it isn’t just the tomatoes that will benefit from this concentrated tomato feed – all of my greenhouse crops will be given the solution, diluted as described for tomatoes on the back of the bottle. The high potassium content (as well as its added seaweed, magnesium and iron) will help to produce good crops from my peppers, chillies and aubergines too. As with the tomatoes, feeding will start once the first flowers have set fruit- this weekend in the case of my peppers.
I bought three bottles of the stuff as a multi-buy deal at my local garden centre. Rather than spend out on more feeds for my flowering plants in the cut flower patch I will also be using Nutri Tomato Feed out in the garden on ornamental plants as well as other fruiting crops such as my container-grown strawberries and red currants.
If you want a more balanced feed for general garden use there is also Nutri All Purpose Feed. This has a slightly different NPK balance for more general growth. Garden soil will need less feeding than grow bag compost. So while greenhouse crops will be fed weekly, garden plants will be given a fortnightly feed.
Fungus control
The first strong sunlight in a long time really warmed up my east-facing conservatory this morning. I could feel the humidity as I walked though it to get to the garden this morning.
Out in the greenhouse I can provide plenty of ventilation thanks to a roof vent, a louvre window on each long side, and of course, I have the option of leaving the door open all day if needs be.
For security reasons I can’t do this with the conservatory, but the humid conditions are leading to moulds and mildews developing on a few of the plants in there.
Many of my young plants still have a way to go before I can plant them outside, so before leaving for work this morning I removed any leaves with signs of mildew and quickly applied a preventative spray of Plant Rescue Fungus Control across all my seedlings and young plants. This should provide two weeks of protection, before that time is up I’ll hopefully be able to start moving plants outside, failing that I’ll repeat the application to keep my plants fungus free.
With the weather less than desirable, like mine, your indoor growing spaces are probably bursting at the seems. Check over your plants for signs of pest and disease this weekend and apply the appropriate controls found within the Westland Plant Rescue range.
Bank Holiday blitz
OK, if I wasn’t typing right now I’d have my fingers crossed for some good weather this weekend. Toes will have to do!
We all know how good the rain is for our gardens, but my to-do list is growing by the day, and it’s starting to get frustrating. If you’ve been held off the garden for the past few weeks Here are some key jobs to tackle over the Bank Holiday weekend:
- If dry enough, cut the lawn – mine is out of control thanks to all this rain.
- Feed beds and borders. Apply a balanced feed such as Growmore or fish, blood and bone now and let the rain wash it down to plant roots
- Apply Eraza slug pellets. Slugs and snails are in their element thanks to all the rain. My emerging hostas have already been targeted. Scatter pellets around all susceptible plants on flower borders and veg patches.
- Get some colour on the patio by starting to fill containers and baskets with summer bedding such as vibrant petunias, fuchsias, lobelia, begonias and pelargoniums
- Lots of rain means lush plant growth – tie in climbers and wall trained plants to keep them in good shape
- Weeds are romping away. Hoe off young seedlings, for tougher perennial weeds dig or pull by hand. If you are confident rain will hold off for at least six hours, make light work of the job by spraying with Resolva weed killer.
- Sow tender veg such as French beans, sweetcorn, squashes and courgette on windowsills or in the greenhouse, ready for planting out in early June. (Don’t forget to set flat seeds such as the pictured squash on their edge before covering with compost or vermiculite. This will prevent water sitting on them which can lead to them rotting before they can germinate).
- Order your Chelsea Flower Show Tickets now. I can’t wait to see Diarmuid Gavin’s towering take on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with The Westland Magical Garden
Sunflowers on a rainy day
Last week’s satisfied smile has long since faded as I face the frustrations of heavy rain and cold nights. I haven’t been able to get out in the garden or on to the allotment for what seems far too long. My lawn has gone beserk, but is too wet to cut, and soils are just too wet to work with at the moment.
What better way to put a smile back on the face and turn thoughts towards summer sunshine, that getting in the dry warmth of the greenhouse and sowing some sunflowers. Just looking at the seed packet is enough to lift the spirits, but thinking forward to their presence in the garden this summer is even better.
With summer bedding plants still a way from being planted out, space is limited. Therefore I’m using square pots to save space and using quality seeds to ensure every pot counts.
“Sow two or three seeds per pot”, is common advice with sunflowers, but that waste of seed is not needed when it come to the Gro-sure seed range. Unwins guarantees the results of these seeds, so I can get away with sowing just one Sunflower ‘Solar Flash’ seed per pot of multipurpose compost.
Either place seeds and cover with 1cm of compost, or fill pots and push seed 1cm down before watering in. Keep on a warm windowsill or in the greenhouse (ideally 15-20C).
Once the weather picks up, the young plants can gradually be hardened off over two weeks before being planted outside.
This short variety is great for patio displays, but I’ll be adding most of my plants to my cut flower area, using the blooms for indoor vase displays. If you want to grow a giant, look out for the likes of ‘Russian Giant’ and ‘American Giant’.
Making the most of the weather
Keeping an eye on long term weather forecasts pays off. Being proactive rather than reactive gets you prepared for what our changeable weather can throw at us.
Despite all the rain we’re getting at the moment (and plenty more to come) halting various jobs that need doing, I’ve got a satisfied smile on my face having set up my allotment water butt ahead of the worst of the weather.
My plot is a fair trot from the allotment taps so the more water I can store close to hand, the better. I’ve attached 6feet of guttering along one side of my small shed (in heavy rain it’s surprising just how much water will run off just half of a 6×4 allotment shed). This runs at a very gentle angle to a down pipe connected to a 210 litre waterbutt.
On an allotment, where looks are less important, this installation can be as rough and ready as you like, though I like to think I’ve done a tidy job.
There are some considerations to think about during set up however:
First create a firm level surface where you want to site your water butt.
Secondly it needs to be raised high enough to allow your watering can to fit under the tap. Either use bricks, wooden off-cuts, or a purpose made waterbutt stand (these often come with a complete waterbutt kit).
Thirdly, If you plan to connect irrigation piping to your water butt to irrigate veg beds, ideally site it on the highest point of the plot to aide water flow.
However you choose to setup a water butt (in the garden or on the allotment), get it done sooner or later to combat hose pipe bans and make the most of expected rain through the end of April and into May.
Greenhouse extremes
I can’t keep up with the weather we are experiencing at the moment. I’ve avoided the snow that has been experienced up North in the past couple of weeks. But down here on the south coast, quick changes between high day temperatures and cold night temperatures, plus sporadic heavy rain and hail are making it difficult to control greenhouse temperatures at the moment.
By day I’m getting temperatures highs of up to 42C and night-time lows of 1.3C. This, despite a heater at night, and shade netting and automatic window openers (pictured) employed during the day.
Fortunately my young bedding plants, tomatoes, chillies, peppers and aubergines don’t seem too affected, though the cold nights have slowed their growth rate.
If you are having trouble evening out temperature extremes in your greenhouse, try the following tips this weekend:
Install shade netting on the ‘sunniest’ side of the greenhouse to avoid leaf scorch
- Open vents each morning, even if it’s a cold start to the day. But remember to close them again by early evening
- Add automatic vent openers that can be set to open windows once a certain temperature is reached
- Think about adding extra opening windows – switch a low pane of glass for a louvre window (pictured) to draw cooler air inside
- Wet all surfaces – floors, glass, staging etc – by mid morning to even out afternoon temperatures and raise humidity
- Covering paved floors with gravel will keep wetted floors damp for longer.
- Set capillary matting underneath all pots and trays to keep compost moist in extreme heat
- Check pots every morning for signs of drying out and water as necessary
- Set up a heater for night time use. Try to keep things at around 10C over night. Failing that, use a frost garden setting to prevent temps below 0C
Potting up plug plants
My Unwins plug plant order arrived by mail this week, so much of my Easter weekend will be spent in the greenhouse getting them potted up.
If you have grand plans for summer bedding displays that will use a large quantity of plants, buying young plug plants is an economic way of achieving the results you are after. 80 medium sized plugs of Begonia ‘Non Stop Mixed’ cost just £19.90. Imagine the cost of buying in mature plants at the garden centre later in the season!
If you have space in a warm greenhouse or a few roomy windowsills, growing on small plug plants to maturity is a simple job.
On arrival of your plants give them a good watering. Rather than wet the foliage, add the water to the trays they come supplied in. After 30 mins or so, pour away any excess water.
Ideally pot up your plants as soon as you can, but the design of the micropropagation trays they come in, means you can hold off for a day or two.
The medium-sized plugs I’m working with can be potted on into individual 3inch pots, or like I’m doing, set into modular cell trays filled with multipurpose compost with a little slow release fertiliser added to the mix.
First fill your pots or cell trays with compost, firm down and then create individual planting holes in each cell/pot.
Use a pencil or similar to push the plug rootballs from their cells, pick them up by the rootball to avoid damaging delicate young stems and insert into the planting holes, firming gently around them.
Once trays are full give them a good water and set out on the windowsill or in the greenhouse. Keep protected until mid May and then harden off before planting out.
Time to plant sweet peas
I’m really pleased with the performance of my January-sown sweet peas. Having pinched them out after their third leaves developed I’m now faced with trays of healthy young plants with multiple stems, just raring to be planted out. I’ve hardened them off over the past week or so (see last blog) to ensure they will cope with any cold nights we experience in coming weeks.
I’ve installed a 1mx1m raised bed and a 1.8m high obelisk on my patio especially for me sweet pea display.
To give them the best start I filled the raised bed with three 60litre bags of Westland multi-purpose compost with added John Innes and one 60 litre bag of Westland farmyard manure. To keep them going through the season I also added a good amount of Westland Feed All slow release plant food.
I’ve planted ‘April in Paris’ (Gro-sure) against the obelisk. Once these have settled in and put on a few more inches of growth I’ll tie the stems to the frame to set them on their way. After this they should romp away on their own.
Around the outside of the obelisk I’ve planted ‘Cupid Mix’ (Gro-sure), a dwarf variety that will bush out at the base of the display rather than climb up along side April in Paris. I’ve also filled a hanging basket with the left over Cupid Mix plants.
To cover a bare wall on the patio I’ve stapled a length of pea and bean netting in place and set two troughs below it, filled with a varieties from the Unwins Finest Collection including ‘Romeo’, ‘Champagne Bubbles’ and ‘Oxford Blue’.
In these smaller troughs I added some water retaining crystals to help the plants through the hottest days while I’m out at work.
I can’t wait for the patio to be filled with their heady scent!
The sun is out but don’t rush into planting
The clocks have changed, the sun is out, and the greenhouse is full of young plants just shouting out to be planted. But don’t let this good weather lull you into a false sense of security. While it may be scorching already by day, night temperatures could still reach freezing point right up until June.
So before those greenhouse (or windowsill) seedlings can go outside permanently they need toughening up with a spot of hardening off. This is a simple process of moving plants outside during the day and placing them back under cover before nightfall to ensure they can’t be caught by an unexpected frost.
Ideally this should be done over a period of two weeks, but if you really are raring to get plants in the ground, a week may be long enough. If you do opt for a shorter turn around time it’s worth having some fleece or other frost barrier to hand, so you can quickly cover the plants without having to shift them back into the greenhouse. This is also a good option if you have trays and trays of seedlings and it is impractical to be moving them twice a day.
The hardening off process is actually working in my favour, as it is giving me time to get ground prepared on the allotment before planting. This weekend I lifted three existing raised beds that were randomly placed around the plot and grouped them together in one corner. I’ll prepare these this weekend and plant them up on Bank Holiday Monday. I’ll then have three productive beds while I concentrate on clearing the sprayed grass and weeds from the rest of the plot.
Sowing in the gutter!
There is still plenty of ground work to do before I can begin planting out on the allotment plot. Having sprayed the site with Resolva Total Clear last week, weeds and grasses are still dying down, and I won’t be breaking soil until at least next weekend.
This doesn’t mean I can’t start sowing seed. I’m planning to successional sow this season to avoid big gluts of produce, this means adopting a ‘little and often’ approach to sowing. For example, I have plenty of room to sow rows and rows of peas on the plot, but I’ve started by sowing just two rows in the greenhouse.
These will be ready to plant once ground prep is finished. I could have sown the peas in cell trays and planted out individual plants. Instead I’ve sown double rows in lengths of guttering, cut to the width of my intended bed. Once the bed is ready, drills can quickly be dug out and the rows of young pea seedlings simply slid into place.
Having filled the guttering with compost (first blocking the ends with heavy duty tape to prevent it washing out), I simply laid out two staggered (zig-zagged) rows per length, setting the peas 2-3cm apart, then pushed them 2cm down into the compost, covered and watered them in.
For this first sowing I’ve chosen Pea ‘Ruthless’ (Unwins Gro-sure), a short variety, growing little more than 60cm high. What it lacks in size, this heavy cropper makes up for in yield, and by sowing a couple of rows every two weeks or so I should have a constant supply through the picking season.