Potting Plants

A good plant for attracting wildlife is the Poached Egg plant Limnathes douglasii. (Poached Eggplant sounds like an Aubergine recipe).
A bad companion plant would be the Black Walnut that produces a chemical and heavy shade both of which can inhibit growth.

Creating Microclimates
Hedges, trees and shrubs can provide microclimates by stopping wind. They shelter for a distance up to 10 times their height.
Roots can change microclimates by creating space for air and water to percolate. They also draw different combinations of nutrients.
Weeds try to destroy microclimates by competing for water – get rid of them!
Ponds, bog gardens and streams help make microclimates.

Environmental Companion Tips
Plant a range of different plants including local endemic species
Some plants repel or attract insects and gardeners. Plant big open flowered plants and umbellifers for hoverflies.
Use green manures when the ground is not in use.
Use leguminous plants like peas, beans and clover to fix nitrogen in the soil.

In Praise of Clover
Clover helps to fix nitrogen into soil.
Clover attracts insects
Clover adds humus when dug back into the soil.

Three Sisters
This is a planting technique combining Corn Squash and Beans in the same area.
Corn supports the climbing beans.
The beans fix nitrogen fertilizer into the soil and the squash or courgettes ramble across the ground benefiting from and providing shade.

Read also Good Companions (None J B Priestley version) and Plant partnerships

Californian Poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are best sown directly into the soil in April / May. They can grow quickly once established, and do well in hot, dry conditions. They dislike being pricked out intensely.

There are a bewildering array of different seeds on the market. See: Tips on Growing Seeds for more advice. These are some of the different types of seed that you can use.

Saved Seeds.

A rewarding aspect of gardening is using saved seeds from your own garden. This is particularly useful for many types of vegetable seeds. If you want to win at a flower show, try getting hold of some seed from a prize specimen. Using saved seed works for many traditional cottage garden plants such as sunflowers, marigolds, nigella and foxgloves. However, it is not worth saving seeds from F1 bred bedding plants like Begonias.

F1 Seeds.

An F1 seed is one that has been carefully grown by selecting two particular pure bred parents. F1 often give great colour variations and offer great uniformity for display. They can be more expensive because of the care gone into growing them. Seeds from F1 types do not necessarily follow their parents.

F2 Seeds.

F2 are seeds from F1 plants. They tend to be a bit cheaper and not as uniform.

If you let foxgloves set seed, they will produce similar plants next year. However, if you get a special variety of foxgloves (e.g. alba varieties), you may want to sow direct from packet, as you cannot guarantee that a white foxglove will produce white children.
Coated Seeds. It is possible to buy seeds coated with fungicide to help protect against rot and aid germination. This is unnecessary if you maintain warmth, good hygiene and prevent waterlogged soil.

Open Pollinated Seed.

If it is not F1 or F2 seed then it is probably going to be open pollinated seed. This means that there was no specific crossing of seed, but, it comes from nature’s choice.

• Seed Selection at T&M

Related

• Sunflowers from Seed
• Seed Tips
• Early Seeds and Hotbeds
• Best seed companies

Is your soil so poor nothing will grow in it? No I didn’t think so because weeds will grow anywhere!

Improve Your Soil

• Rotted farmyard manure, dug in each year, will boost your soils fertility.
• The rotted farmyard manure breaks down to humus that opens up clay soils and holds moisture in sandy soils.
• You need to replace the nutrients taken out of the soil by this seasons crops and that is where an annual dose of farmyard manure comes in.
• Cover the veg-patch with black polythene over winter. This stops goodness leaching out, stops weeds and warms the soil in spring.
• I also trench the Runner Bean rows with an extra bottom covering of manure to hold extra moisture.
• Add lime for growing Brassicas but Potatoes love the slight acidity that often comes with farmyard manure.

As wallflowers pass their best they need to be turfed out to make room for new annuals or plants such as Dahlias.

Tips for Growing Wallflowers.

• I can’t wait for Wallflowers to self seed as they look very leggy and seldom do as well as newly sown plants.
• If some plants have grown in neglected spots you can leave them as they often survive several years.
• Sow Wallflowers for next year from July onwards – they are best grown as biennial plants.
• In Autumn pinch out the growing tips of seedlings to make bushy plants.
• Try growing Wallflowers in tubs or old pots. They can be moved into place for the scent and colour in spring, then the pots get replanted for summer.
• I think the red bedder varieties smell the best but scent is in the nose of the sniffer.

Thompson Morgan’s Wallflower collection is available by mail order from this list.

If you are doubtful about this summer’s British weather, and how can you be otherwise, then you may need some tips on watering your garden.

Xeriscaping is the creation of a garden that uses less water (however it could be a Wet Wet Wet summer for pop music fans).

Xeriscaping and Other Watering Tips

• Pull up weeds as soon as they start drinking your water.
• Plan and plant wind breaks to stop drying winds.
• Use plants that generally require less water. Grey and silver plants often need less water.
• Give one good weekly soaking not daily dribbles.
• Add humus to the soil to retain water and mulch the surface of the soil.
• Use larger containers rather than hanging baskets, they are easier to water.
• Use capillary matting in the greenhouse to aid watering

Water Saving Tips

• Save rain water in a water butt. It is good for young plants and saves water rates.
• Water the garden early in the morning or in the evening to reduce evaporation.
• Use a watering can not a sprinkler.
• Target each plant with enough water, do not water indiscriminately.
• Use domestic waste water that contains no bleach or disinfectant but soapy water is OK.

Dibleys continue to send me their Young Plant Catalogue with new varieties to tempt the windowsill or Cape Primrose grower.

Thompson Morgan are another supplier of these flowering houseplants that some find fascinating.

Read about growing Windowsill Orchids on Gardeners tips.

2010 New Varieties

• Myfanwy, another girls name to adorn a flower. In this case a white with purple face.
• Harriet, what is it about girls names, this is deep purple.
• Scarlett, as in O’Hara I don’t think so but it is blood red.
• Cappuccino isn’t coffee coloured but deep mauve with indigo.
• Harlequin Blue is half yellow, so go figure.

Growing from seed is one of the most rewarding aspects of gardening. We get to see the whole plant cycle from the tiniest of seeds to a full grown plant.

To Grow from Seed follow these Simple Steps

1. Good Compost. Choose a specific compost for growing seeds. Peat based composts are the most popular. There are also other materials like loam based (John Innes no.1) and coir based composts. Peat is liked for its free draining, yet water holding properties. See more on commercial compost

2. Containers. Plastic trays and pots offer the easiest solution to keep clean and free of disease. You can also buy degradeable pots which can be planted directly into the ground. This is great for seeds which dislike any disturbance to the roots. See using plugs for seedlings

3. Sow in Right Temperature. Most seeds need a gentle heat to germinate. 15 – 20 degrees is perhaps the most popular. If sowing early a windowsill or even better a heated compost tray, enable you to control temperature. This is more important for seeds like Cucumber which need more heat than usual.

4. Pre Treatment – most seeds don’t need pre-treatment. For example, many suggest ‘chipping’ sweet pea seeds, but, we’ve always found they germinate fine without chipping. Seed sowing is not complicated – just think of nature, there’s no one going round with a penknife…
5. Covering. Small fine seeds like, Begonia, Petunia, Lobelia don’t need covering but just scattered gently on the top. Bigger seeds need covering in usually twice the depth.

Keep the soil moist, but not waterlogged. (see: Damping off prevention) After sowing, you can cover to keep moisture and heat in. But, this not always necessary.

6. Pricking Out. After a couple of weeks, when seeds have started to grow, you can prick out and discard the week seedlings and pot on the strongest seedlings into individual pots for later planting. See: Guide to Pricking out Seedlings

It depends on the seeds, for a few plants, you could plant 2-3 seeds into 3 inch pots to save the pinching out process. For other seeds, you could prick out straight from seedtray into garden. – Just be ruthless in selecting a small number rather than trying to squeeze too many into a seed tray.

7. Growing on Seeds. If you are growing on a windowsill make sure you rotate the tray so that they don’t lopsided. The seeds will need good light, but shielding from the strongest direct sun. Water with a fine spray to avoid drowning the new seedlings.

8. Harden off. If grown indoors under heat, it is important to harden off and get seeds used to outdoors conditions.

• Seed Selection at T&M

Related

• Sunflowers from Seed
• Seed Tips
• Early Seeds and Hotbeds
• Best seed companies