'Garden Column - June 2009'

 

 

Time to save the wet stuff!

 

Keeping an eye on plants throughout these summer months can be a daunting task. With plenty of jobs at hand the day just doesn’t seem long enough.

Watering will soon be the most major and time consuming job throughout the garden and anything which will help ease some of this burden is a God’s send.

In amongst shrubs and herbaceous areas a good mulch of Levington Water Saving Bark, Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Pine Bark or Wessex Cocoa Shell will not only help lock some of the moisture into the soil but will also help make your life a lot easier on the weeding side.

On patios, a Gardena Self Watering System with an automatic timer can help all that time spent with watering can and hose in hand a thing of the past. By connecting all your tubs and basket up to system like this it will give you more time in the evening spent doing other gardening jobs which always get put on to the back burner.

Water butts can also be an ideal way of reducing the water bill through the summer months giving you a natural source of moisture which plants can benefit from more than straight from the tap. Connect a water butt up to every down pipe where it is physically possible via a rain saver device.

One thing to do is to keep this water from stagnating remember to use some Biotal Refresh Rainwater Treatment which will stop the still water from smelling, eliminates slime and helps prevent algae growth.

 

Thin fruitlets out for a decent crop of fruit!

 

Thin out top fruit like apples, pears and plums.

With the fruit now set - these bunches of fruit will need to be reduced in numbers to encourage large “supermarket” size fruit. If this isn’t done you will end up with fruit which is so small that it will vanish with just one bite.

The question often asked is how many do I take out and how many do I leave?

The answer to this is very simple.

Look at the sets of fruit hanging.

First count how many of the fruitlets you have, once this is done then take the smallest and remove with a pair of snips or secateurs i.e. on a bunch which contains 5 or more fruitlets thin this cluster down to 2-3 fruit. On bunches of 3 then leave just the strongest fruitlet.

On young trees ensure that there are no more than 2-3 bunches of fruit per stem; a young tree which is allowed to over fruit in its first years of cropping can easily become weak causing unnecessary strain on the branches weakening and eventually causing the branches to snap of in spells of high wind through the summer months.

 

Give attention to Spuds, Onions and Asparagus.

 

Earth-up around potatoes this month as and when they require it. Draw the soil well-up into a steeply pointed ridge. This has a tendency to run away from the tubers. Also spray with a fungicide like either Vitax Bordeaux Mixture or Bayer Dithane to help combat any blight spores that may attempt to infect your crop through the coming months.

Onions need a weekly feed from now and until they are lifted. One of the best liquid feeds to use is Vitax Vitafeed Soluble Fertiliser for hanging baskets, tubs and bedding plants.

This feed is low in nitrogen but high in potash which allows plants like onions and leeks to bulk up and increase yield and promote ripening. The other good thing about this feed is that it can also be used around the garden feeding all your summer bedding plants.

Another vegetable which needs attention this month is Asparagus.

Finish cropping from your stock by the end of this month.

If you continue into the summer the plant will exhaust itself and will probably fail to have sufficient growth and strength to see itself through to next year.

Fasten strings to canes or stakes to help supply support for the stems as they grow up.   

 

Remove suckers.

 

The jobs to do will be endless what with watering, dead-heading and weeding.

It will seem there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

One job to put on the priority list is the removal of suckers.

Suckers are young shoots which shoot up from the base of many deciduous and some evergreen trees and shrubs.

These shoots can be from a stronger growing root stock. If not removed they will eventually sap the strength from the cultivar which you originally bought and nurtured.

To remove these is easier than it seems. Dig down carefully to where the sucker has sprout out from. Then remove the growth using your secateurs. With the wounds you have made, apply a pruning compound like Bayer Arbrex or Vitax Medo.

These compounds will seal the wound stopping any disease entering through it.

Once applied, allow to dry before replacing the soil.

Any buds which are starting to form from the rootstock area can be rubbed off using thumb and fore-finger.

This job will be continuous right through the growing season so add it to your list if you haven’t already.