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The Houseplants In Choosing Containers
May 21st
A container is to a plant what a shoe is to a human — it must be able to slip into it comfortably, have extra room for growth, and be of the right style, naturally.
There is such a wealth of variety in containers nowadays I that it is easy to link them with the style of the interior. Choose carefully — the shape and size should be in direct proportion to the fully grown plant.
MATERIALS
• Cutting-edge concrete pots may need a hole drilling in the bottom to allow for good drainage. Being unglazed, they are not waterproof. They look good for a while but need looking after.
• Terracotta pots, now available in a wide range of styles and sizes (from tiny to enormous), are porous, and plants potted in them will need regular watering. Soak terracotta pots in water overnight before using,
• Plastic pots retain water and plants will not need watering so frequently. They are often moulded to imitate natural matenals such as terracotta, stone, or lead, and are generally considerably cheaper than the genuine article.
• Tin and metal pots can rust, so check that they have a protective finish when you buy them. When using old iron and metal containers, put the plant in a plain plastic pot and slip that inside.
• Bamboo containers are chic but not that practical, since they tend to split after a while. Slip a plastic pot inside, if necessary, to protect the material against water damage.
• Consider a wooden outer container if you live in a modern space with wooden floors.
• Glass containers look sleek and sophisticated and allow you to monitor plant roots Careful potting can produce a two-tone effect of compost and drainage material.
DRAINAGE
This is ultimately the step that will determine whether you will kill a plant quickly or set it on the road to a healthy life. To enable a plant to drain effectively, line the bottom of your container with small pieces of clay from a broken garden pot, or stones, pebbles, or even polystyrene pieces; this provides a base for the potting medium and the plant’s roots Make sure that this layer is about 5cm deep. Put tie potting mixture on top and then add the plant, pushing down the potting mix as you go. The drainage Layer lets the water seep through more quickly than if there were just compost on the bottom of the container, which tends to retain moisture. Adding grit to the compost further improves drainage. If using a see-through container, be artistic with the drainage layer; turn the container around every now and then to check that the material is even. Empty the container out and repot, if necessary. It a pot does not have a hole in the bottom, use a deeper layer of drainage material and add charcoal to the compost to keep it sweet.
The Garden Design With Grow Plants
May 7th
When honey fungus has attacked a plant, death may appear to be quite rapid or occasionally a plant may take several years to die. It is ironic that quite often, just before it dies, a tree or shrub will produce a particularly fabulous display of flowers, or a heavy crop of fruit, in its last-ditch effort to reproduce itself before dying. When conifers are attacked, resin droplets are sometimes produced around the base of the trunk. If you do find plants infected with this in your garden, you should remove them as promptly as possible, ensuring that you dig out the entire root system or at least as much of it as you can possibly manage. Whatever you do, do not feel tempted to fell a tree and leave the stump in the ground, as this simply leaves the problem behind and the disease is likely to spread to many other plants in your garden.
Although most woody plants are susceptible, in particular many of the common hedging conifers, privet, currants, forsythia, hydrangeas, lilac, birches, cedars, wisteria, apples, rhododendrons, roses, Prunus trees and willows are vulnerable; there are also some woody plants that show a good degree of resistance, including yew, beech, box, cercis, catalpa, chaenomeles, clematis, cotinus, elaeagnus, pieris, kerria, photinia, pitosporum, rhus, sarcococca and tamarisk. Wherever possible you should avoid growing plants that you know to be particularly susceptible and instead concentrate on those that I have described as being fairly resistant, or those which you notice in your garden and which do not seem to succumb. Once you know you have honey fungus, it can be really depressing and you may feel as if your garden has no future; but please don’t give up, and bear in mind that this disease is extremely common and, although it can do a lot of damage and can be depressing, there really is no need for you to concrete your garden.
You can regularly rake up and bin or burn the toadstools, as this will help to reduce the number of spores they produce and so minimize the risk of them spreading to other areas on your lawn, or you could dig out the affected grass and the topsoil. For this to be successful you need to dig down to a depth of at least and ensure that no soil or turf is allowed to contaminate the currently healthy areas of the lawn. You will also need to dig out the area so that it extends to beyond the edges of the ring. In most cases, this means that you will be dealing with an extremely large volume of soil and it can be back-breaking and very time-consuming work. Once you have removed all the soil and turf, you can then refill the hole you have created with fresh soil, firm it down well and returf or resow the area.Your other option is to employ a contractor who is able to purchase and apply some of the professional products that do have an effect on fairy rings. If none of these options seems acceptable, then the only other thing you can do is simply wait until the ring grows so large that it reaches the edge of your lawn.
The Pests And Diseases In Garden
May 6th
The circumference of the pots of patio plants – the copper contains a minute electrical charge and this deters the slug or snail and prevents it crossing the barrier. You can also create barriers on the soil surface using a wide range of materials, including soot, crushed egg shells, sharp grit, pine needles or the mulch based on cocoa shells. I find that pine needles and cocoa shells work particularly well, but do remember that they have to be replaced at regular intervals as they may be blown around by the wind or scuffed up by birds. A scientific researcher who specializes in slugs once suggested something to me that is definitely only for those with a strong stomach. If, like me, you are a keen vegetable gardener, you are also likely to be particularly infuriated by small keeled slugs, which tunnel into your carrots, potatoes and other root crops. I find that by concentrating my potato growing on the earlier-cropping varieties, it means that they are lifted before the slug population becomes too great and, as a result, I get less damage. However, you may not wish to only grow earlies and it is worth considering growing less susceptible varieties, such as ‘Kestrel’,
Whether slugs are a problem in the vegetable patch or in your flower garden, I would also strongly advise you to consider the biological control, which consists of millions of microscopic nematodes that are mixed up into a solution and then used as a drench on the soil around slug-susceptible plants. This needs to be applied when the soil is moist and at a temperature. The most effective time for using it is in the spring and autumn when plants are particularly susceptible. The nematodes penetrate the slug’s body and release bacteria that kill the slugs. It should have a notable effect on the slug population for a period of at least six weeks and is especially useful on root crops such as potatoes, as it acts so efficiently underground.
Although some people dispute the effectiveness of slug pubs, I have found them extremely efficient, with some provisos. First, one pub is not enough – they need to be no more than 1-2m I i-2yd) apart. Second, they do not work very well with alcohol-free lager, pasteurized or tinned beer. Slugs are attracted to the yeasty smell and the best attractant is real beer mixed with some fruit juice. Third, ground beetles also drown in the pubs and need some sticks to climb out, as these beetles eat slug and snail eggs, so we want them to survive. Ground beetles can also be encouraged by creating areas of long grass not too far away. Sacrificial crops can also give the main crop time to get big enough to withstand attacks. For example, I find that sowing buffalo onions with the others saves the others, as buffalo seems to get eaten first.
The Moth Orchid Grow In Garden
May 3rd
Cacti and succulents enjoy a regular watering regime between spring and autumn, but a good soaking will last three weeks or so at a time. My personal favourites are the golden-ball cactus (Echinocactus grusonii), which is endangered in the wild. It grows into a magnificent barrel cactus with golden spines. The powder-puff cactus (Mammillaria bocasana var. rubriflora) makes a colony of individual plants covered by silky, hair-like spines and freely produces lots of pink flowers in early summer. The old-man cactus (Cephalocereus senilis) is hilarious, being a tall columnar sort covered in long, wavy white hairs.
Among succulents, the partridge-breasted aloe (Aloe variegata) is handsome. Give this plant plenty of room in a large pot for the best results. But the ultimate in easy-care plants are the pebble plants (Lithops). These mimic the pebbles to be found in their native Namibian desert regions and should not be watered at all between late autumn and early spring. You could go away for the entire winter and not be missed.
Plant (Haemanthus albiflos) makes a cluster of bulbs and responds to plenty of light by sending up lots of flower heads, which resemble white brushes dipped into yellow paint. Venus fly traps like the sun, too, and their traps often turn bright red in response. The velvet plant will only retain its purple colour and grow strongly if kept in good sunlight. Grown for its foliage, the whole plant is covered by soft, purple hairs Two more foliage plants, coleus (Solenostemon) and bloodleaf (Iresine) thrive on sunny windowsills. Plants need regular pinching out of their growing tips to maintain a bushy shape. Both can be propagated by cuttings when they become too large. I used to recommend the moth orchid (Phalaonopsis), which is certainly beautiful and lasts for months in bloom. Now, having tried a few, I consider orchids from what is known as the odontoglossum alliance as being the easiest to bring back into bloom every year. These are intergeneric hybrids resulting from species originally collected from the Andes, then hybridized extensively over the last zoo years. The results are the likes of Odontoglossum, Odontioda, Odontocidium, Wilsonara .
Vuylstekeara.
I keep my plants in a north-facing position by the main door of the house, where they receive good but not harsh light, coolness in summer, plenty of fresh air (the door is open a lot during summer) and a minimum temperature of in winter. Water them using rainwater when the pot becomes light in weight and add a half-strength liquid fertilizer every other watering. Only pot on when necessary, preferably during spring or autumn at times when there are no flowers but the plants are growing. Use orchid compost based on bark chip- pings .The choice of flower size, colour and pattern is fantastic and it is tempting to buy more plants than you have room for.
The Old Garden Tree House
May 2nd
An alternative central feature such as a sandpit, or a small weeping tree with a bench around its trunk and an archway at the beginning, could be added to increase its interest.Our To-year-old son is desperate for a treehouse. We have a large old Bramley apple tree, but its canopy is not spreading enough to house a platform. Is there any way round this’
If you look closely, you will notice that very few treehouses are entirely supported by the tree. Old apple trees do make good homes for treehouses, as they are tolerant of having their branches pruned or removed to accommodate the structure (as is often necessary). Also, their growth rate is slow, so new growth is unlikely to distort the house over the next few years. If the tree is old, you must check that it is safe, and that it is unlikely to blow down or shed any limbs. It is worth removing all dead wood as well.
In the diagram you can see various different ways in which the building can be supported. By far the most usual methods are to provide extra or total support. If the latter system is used, the treehouse is free-standing but tucked into the canopy. I have designed several houses in this way, using four to six vertical posts. This means that it is not putting any load on the tree; but you must take into account that, if you rest the structure on a limb, this limb will grow and put a pressure on the house. It may be better to leave room for growth and totally support the building
To make the posts less visible, they can be covered with ivy (Hedera), old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba) or other rampant, shade-tolerant climbers. On one occasion, when I designed a treehouse for the Chelsea Flower Show,
We want to make a growing willow house to go at the bottom of the garden. How do we do this, and how easy is it to maintain?
Willow houses are fun to make, and a basic one such as that shown in the diagram is fairly easy. To start with you need some willow cuttings, preferably about 3m (93/4ft) long. Many types will work, but the basket-making willow (Salix viminalis) is ideal, as is the almond-leafed willow (Sahx triandra). A couple to avoid are goat willow (Salix caprea), as it does not sprout so well, and crack willow (Salix fragilis), which does just that – cracks when you try and bend it. Some suppliers now sell long cuttings in bundles, and they are very reasonably priced (see Suppliers Index).
The best time to make the house is in the dormant season. First, mark out the footprint of the ‘building’ – the one in the diagram is about 3.2m (rolAft) wide by however deep you want to make it. Make sure that the soil on the outline, where you are going to push in the cuttings, is not compacted and is clean, so that it is not too difficult to push the cuttings in and they will not suffer from weed competition. Then push in the cuttings (thickest end into the ground) all around the perimeter at about 2ocm (8in) centres, leaving a gap for the doorway.
