As we move slowly towards the warmer spring days, there are more tasks to consider in order to keep your garden, allotment or any outside space looking good. We are pleased to forward your newsletter for the next few months.
Streamside Products in Store…
We will be selling a wide variety of bulbs and plants for spring planting, so come along and check out our range to ensure that your garden has something of interest to look at and enjoy all year round...
And if “growing your own” is of interest to you then we will have onion sets, shallots and seed potatoes available all at extremely competitive prices.
Our aim at Streamside is to offer you something a bit different as well as some well-known favourites all at very competitive prices.
Notice of Streamside AGM…
This year’s AGM will take place at the Trading Hut on Monday 22nd April at 7.30pm. This will be your chance to hear about our plans for Streamside for the coming year, and also to contribute any ideas or suggestions you may have to develop the Association. Please bring your own chair as seating in the hut is limited. We will be serving wine and nibbles so please come along.
Thrifty Corner…
Bicarbonate of Soda Pesticide:
You can make a safe and effective pesticide out of bicarbonate of soda! All you have to do is mix a tablespoon of bicarb, and a couple of drops of liquid soap in a gallon of water. Put it in a spray container and gently apply to your garden every 3 days – it will definitely keep the bugs away!
Use Old Tea Leaves to Help Create Fertiliser:
When tea leaves are placed in the soil, they are consumed by earthworms, resulting in nutrient-rich fertiliser output.
Aphid Control:
Keep aphids from destroying your tomato plants by placing a yellow cup over a stake or post (they are attracted to yellow). Coat the outside of the cup with Vaseline, they won’t be able to escape the sticky coating and will be attracted to the cup, rather than your plants.
Streamside Days Out in 2024…
We have organised the following outings for the coming year; all bookings should be made in person at the Hut during normal trading hours (Sunday 0945hrs – 1215hrs). Members only please (we are delighted to welcome new members who may book an outing when they have joined Streamside) and places will be limited so early booking is recommended.
The dates for your diary are: -
Wednesday 22nd May
Beth Chatto Gardens and RHS Hyde Hall, Essex
Beth Chatto OBE was an award-winning plantswoman, author and lecturer. She took an overgrown wasteland of brambles, parched gravel and boggy ditches, transforming it using plants adapted by nature to thrive in different conditions: right plant, right place! An inspirational, informal garden has developed.
Hyde Hall became a RHS Garden in 1993. Since its inception, this vast garden has established from a handful of trees to a jewel in the landscape.
Leave 8:15am - £35 per person
Tuesday 16th May
Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire
A living, working estate guided by the seasons with and impressive mansion, parkland, gardens and rare-breed farm.
If you have a National Trust card then please bring it to the hut when you purchase your ticket, to enjoy a reduced entry fee.
Leave 9:00am - £38 per person (£20 for National Trust members)
Friday 6th September
RHS Wisley Flower Show
RHS Wisley is one of the world's great gardens, packed with horticultural inspiration. The Flower Show will have plenty of plants to buy and take home.
Please bring your RHS card when buying your ticket (and also on the day of the outing), and if bringing a guest, please buy both tickets the same day. This will make it much easier when we arrive at Wisley.
Leave 9:00am - £36 per person (£20 for RHS members plus one guest)
Seasonal recipies…
Herby Spring Chicken Pot Pie – Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra for brushing over the pastry
bunch spring onions, sliced into 3cm pieces
250g frozen spinach
6 ready-cooked chicken thighs (or see tip, below)
350ml hot chicken stock
½ tbsp wholegrain mustard
200g frozen peas
200ml half-fat crème fraîche
½ small bunch tarragon, leaves finely chopped
small bunch parsley, finely chopped
270g pack filo pastry
Method
STEP 1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Heat the oil in a large, shallow casserole dish on a medium heat. Add the spring onions and fry for 3 mins, then stir through the frozen spinach and cook for 2 mins or until it’s starting to wilt. Remove the skin from the chicken and discard. Shred the chicken off the bone and into the pan, and discard the bones. Stir through the stock and mustard. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 5-10 mins.
STEP 2 Stir in the peas, crème fraîche and herbs, then remove from the heat. Scrunch the filo pastry sheets over the mixture, brush with a little oil and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown.
Rhubarb and Gingernut Cheesecake – Serve 8 - 10
Ingredients
500g forced rhubarb, chopped into 4cm lengths
150g caster sugar
1 blood orange, zested and juiced
100g butter, melted, plus extra for the tin
200g gingernut biscuits
500g mascarpone or soft cheese
100g quark or thick natural yogurt
1 tbsp pistachios, chopped
Method
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
Some Things to do in your Garden This Season…
February
Fruit and Veg
Continue planting bare-root fruit bushes in dry weather.
Prune old autumn raspberry canes down to ground level.
Finish winter pruning apple and pear trees.
Tidy up your strawberry bed in preparation for this year’s crop – remove dead leaves, remove any vigorous runners and sprinkle a granular fertiliser around the plants to support new growth.
Find a large, sunny patch of approximately one square metre and plant rhubarb for a permanent crop.
Harvest any final Brussels sprouts by snapping them off the stems,
Snip some tips of rosemary to use in the kitchen, which will help keep the plant in the best condition.
Flowers
Cut off hellebore leaves affected by fungal leaf spot.
Cut back hazel to encourage bright new stems.
Look for plain green shoots growing on evergreen variegated plants and prune them out,
Cut back overgrown ivy to avoid it invading other plants.
Trim away dead leaves and old growth on alpine plants, and mulch with grit
Deadhead pansies and primulas to encourage more blooms.
Remove soggy stems and yellow leaves from perennials.
Miscellaneous
Keep turning your compost heap so that the material at the top gets mixed into the centre, to speed up the process.
Dry out bags of wet compost indoors to get it ready for seed sowing,
Provide food for birds in freezing conditions.
March
Fruit and Veg
Plant out broad bean seedlings when they have plenty of roots.
Sow dill, chervil and parsley seeds direct if the weather is mild.
Give blueberries a health boost and encourage cropping by scattering some slow-release fertiliser granules around the plant’s root area.
Plant new raspberry canes in sun or semi-shade.
Sow parsnips directly now to get harvests as early as September.
Keep gooseberry plants open and healthy by pruning out young shoots growing in the centre.
Force an early strawberry crop by protecting some plants with a cloche to hold in heat while letting in light.
Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers 15cm deep and 30cm apart in soil enriched with plenty of garden compost.
Carefully pull-out weeds on asparagus beds, to keep the ground clear for the first harvest later in spring.
Feed brassicas, such as cabbages, with a high nitrogen fertiliser to encourage a bigger crop.
Sow carrots direct in free-draining soil in full sun.
Prepare beds for sowing by thoroughly weeding beforehand.
Apply organic mulch such as well-rotted compost around young fruit trees and bushes.
Plant onion sets straight into prepared ground now.
Start sowing tender veg such as aubergines, sweet peppers and courgettes.
Dig up and use the last of this year’s leeks before they flower.
Flowers
Feed and water amaryllis plants after flowering.
Pinch put leggy sweet pea seedlings.
Continue sowing summer flowers.
Allow your hellebores to self-seed,they are known to hybridise readily so you could get some exciting new plants
Prune roses now so flowering isn’t delayed.
Hard prune group 3 clematis to the lowest healthy bud.
Pot up over-wintered cannas and water them to encourage new growth.
Water flowering amaryllis (hippeastrum) and start regular feeding with tomato fertiliser.
Deadhead daffodils to that they don’t waste energy producing seeds.
Divide large clumps of snowdrops and winter aconites to reduce overcrowding and spread them over a wider area.
Cut down the stems of hardy fuschias.
Prune back thick stems of overgrown ivy plants.
Add annual weeds to your compost heap.
Cut back the stems of winter jasmine once the blooms have faded.
Snip all last year’s flowerheads off mophead hydrangeas.
Pot up plug plants and bare-root perennials as soon as you receive them.
Miscellaneous
Service your lawnmower before the new mowing season begins.
Remove weeds from paving and gravel.
Open greenhouse vents for a couple of hours when the weather is warmer.
April
Fruit and veg
Plant out potatoes by the middle of the month.
Sow carrot, lettuce, radish, rocket and spinach seeds.
Look out for and pick off sawfly grubs on gooseberry bushes.
Sow beetroot seed direct.
Plant asparagus crowns to start a perennial crop – choose a well-drained bed in full sun.
Plant potted fruit bushes when it’s dry enough underfoot.
Chit second early potatoes such as Charlotte and Vivaldi.
Prepare plant supports for when your peas are planted out.
Plant out broad bean seedlings in a free-draining sunny spot.
Keep picking purple sprouting broccoli while the flowers are in tight bud to keep more side shoots developing and your harvest going.
Sprinkle some slow-release fertiliser around the base of raspberry, blackberry and hybrid berries, to help ensure as good crop as possible this year.
Sow sweetcorn in pots for planting out next month.
Sow cucumber seeds now in an unheated greenhouse.
Pinch out the ends of grapevines, two buds beyond each flower truss, and remove any sideshoots.
Feed spring cabbages outside with a high-nitrogen fertiliser.
Cut back the young shoots of the hardiest herbs to keep them from early flowering and to produce plenty of fresh foliage for the season ahead.
Flowers
Check on newly planted sweet peas and water if compost or soil is dry.
Sow annuals into empty patched of bare soil.
Check rose shoots for aphids, gently rubbing them off by hand as you see them.
Repot plants that have outgrown their containers.
Sow French marigolds for summer colour and to deter whitefly.
Take cuttings from tender perennials such as fuchsias and pelargoniums.
Lift and divide native primroses to keep new plants vigorous and spread them around the garden.
Cut back long, old stems on hydrangeas to give a better shaped shrub.
Cut back old penstemon shoots to just above ground-level.
Thin daylilies by pinching out the weakest shoots which will not be strong enough to support flowering stems.
Sow wallflowers in the greenhouse for lots of flowers next spring.
Be on alert for red lily beetles that will attack new shoots of lilies and crown imperials.
Place supports over or around tall growing or floppy plants.
Mulch spring bulbs with homemade compost.
Miscellaneous
Spike well trodden areas of lawn with a border fork.
Cover with fleece to protect from birds.
Install bird boxes to attract birds that nest later in the season.
May
Fruit and veg
Plant out chillies.
Sow radishes regularly into any sunny gaps in the vegetable patch.
Keep earthing up potatoes where needed.
Water young fruit growing in pots – keep a full watering can near the pot to ensure the water temperature is the same as the roots.
Plant potato maincrop tubers.
Thin out rows of direct-sown beetroot, spinach, and turnip.
Pinch out the soft growth on broad beans to help prevent blackfly which are attracted to these soft shoots.
Use pea sticks, or string netting tied to canes to support young pea plants.
Place straw underneath strawberry plants to keep fruits off the ground.
Pull thick young stems of rhubarb at the base to harvest your crop.
Pull weeds out along onion rows by hand.
Sow runner beans outdoors in the latter part of this month.
Keep potting on and transplanting tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers.
Tie in shoots of wall-trained peaches and plums with sturdy ties.
Flowers
Press support stakes firmly in around your peonies before they burst into flower.
Use soft garden twine to tie in the young sweet peas shoots that are beginning to reach out from their supports.
Trim fresh growth in topiary to keep plants in good shape.
Sow hardy annuals such as nasturtiums directly in a sunny spot.
Plant our bedding plants that have been hardened off, ready for life outside.
Plant out gladioli corms in sunny free-draining locations.
Repot and prune and containerised clematis that have outgrown their current pots.
Water dahlias regularly while hardening them off.
Plant up hanging baskets then protect from wind and frost until June.
Trim evergreen hedges.
Keep on top of perennial weeds by removing them as soon as you notice them.
Add exotic plants to your garden.
Feed roses for better quality flowers.
Remove suckers from roses.
Divide clumps of spring-flowering perennials.
Sow biennial seeds such as wallflowers and sweet Williams.
Improve a shady area of your garden by planting some ferns.
Miscellaneous
Install any required posts, frames and supports in veg beds before planting out.
Give your compost a turn to accelerate the decomposing process.
