Garden Cuttings
Summer Planting
AS Lammas Day approached last week( on August 1) our thoughts traditionally turned to harvesting, but there is still time for quick returns from summer plantings, especially with autumn being late and long in recent years and looking onwards, preparing for the new season.
Quick Returns
Repeated sowing or plantings of salad crops, called successional, especially with the‘ cut-an-comeagain’ types is useful for filling any gaps on your plot before the main autumn / winter crops are planted out. Interplanting is one technique to try to get the maximum return for the space. This is where a short term crop is planted between a longer term one. A successful combination is carrots, Daucus carota, and brussels sprout, Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group, where room is available between the sprout plants as they are planted on the square 60cm( 2ft) apart. One timing tip with all of the larger Brassicas, members of the cabbage family( Brassicaceae), is to plant out when you have five true leaves formed.
A lasting taste of Wimbledon
August is the best month to select new Strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, plants usually available as runners, which have been rooted and then cold stored, to give them a quick start. The types of strawberry now available have become much wider, with the main difference being how they fruit: a few at a time but over a long period( ever-bearing or perpetual) or all together over a shorter season. Containers and Hanging Baskets can be used where space is limited. Two cultivar names to watch out for are:‘ Mara des Bois’ a perpetual type with excellent colour and flavour and‘ Christine’ with large bright fruit, masses of flavour and early to flower. Both are resistant to diseases and require 40cm( 16 inches) apart. Do not plant too deep and best on a slight mound 5cm( 2 inches) high to assist good drainage.
Autumn Opportunities
Have a thought of including salad crops that can also be used for stir frying and happily continue growing through the autumn and over the winter, if covered by horticultural fleece or old net curtains to keep the damage by early frosts at bay. Typical examples would include: Mizuna, Brassica rapa var. nipposinica, and Pak Choi or Su Choi, Brassica rapa var. chinensis. These leafy members of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae, carry on to Christmas and maybe beyond if mild weather persists. Treat as a Lettuce, Lactuca sativa, for spacing and depth.
Silver win at Chelsea
STAFF and students at Sparsholt College, along with partner Plant Heritage, celebrated a Silver medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016.
The People’ s Plants, designed and built by a team of 15 Horticulture students, highlighted the important work of the charity Plant Heritage and how people across the UK can become actively involved in conservation of cultivated plants from their own back garden, greenhouse, allotment or windowsill.
Sparsholt College has a long history of Chelsea medal success, achieving six Gold, three Silver-gilt, five Silver( including this year’ s) and three Bronze since 1998.
LEFT:( from l to r) Student Charlie Buckland, expert lecturer Chris Bird, student Chris Naish
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