Gardening

Gardeners Diary for the week of

September 4th 2009

• Clip hedges, including box, laurel and beech
  
• Prune shrubs cutting out dead, diseased, dying or crossing branches
  
• Check the readiness of fruit and vegetables. Apples and Pears should be gently lifted with the hand, if the stalk remains on the fruit but parts easily from the tree, it is ready to be picked.
  
• Tidy and cut back perennials.
  
• Take cuttings of tender perennials and shrubs: salvias, penstemon, lavender and rosemary.
  
• Sweetcorn should be ripe enough to harvest. Pick when they are a pale creamy colour. However corn on the cob deteriorates quickly, so it should be used as soon as possible after picking.
  
• Make sure that ponds are topped up, if you need to top up your pond check the PH and nitrogen levels of the water afterwards.
  
• If your tomato plants have been affected by blight, clear the plants and burn them, adding them to the compost heap will not kill the spores.
  
• Lift marrows, pumpkins and squashes off the ground in order to keep them clean and reduce slug damage.
  
• Continue to collect and store seeds from plants, for sowing next year. Store any collected seed in paper envelopes or bags, then put them in an air-tight container.
  
• Grass will need less frequent mowing in prolonged dry weather. If very dry, remove the grass collecting box and let the cuttings stay on the ground to conserve soil moisture.
  
• Feed tomato plants fornightly with a liquid fertiliser (this must be diluted in water to prevent burning the plants)
  
• Pond fish will eat more in the summer, feed them little and often, once or twice a day. If the food has not been eaten within 15 minutes, remove and dispose of the excess.
  

Ooo dont get me started on growing fruit and veg, you will never shut me up
For the first year ever since growing tomatoes I have not had blight, woo hoo!!
I got some great sweet corn this year, marrows, onions, beets, carrots, main crop & earlies, courgettes, beans, peas, lettuce, garlic, radish, raspberries, strawberries, apples, gooseberries......see I told you I dont shut up.

I have parnsips left to over winter, along with sprouts and some marrows which my hens love to eat. I have main crop carrots that I need to lift and onions drying in the garage.
I have so much work to do in the smallholding on Sunday!

Sounds lovely, Karen

My grandad grew some tomatoes this year, but never put them in a hanging baskets, next year he will On the other hand, we have some runner beans.. and must admit, they kept falling over throughout the windy weather had, must have been too heavy for the pot