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.
COMMON GARDENING MISTAKES TO AVOID...
Even the most experience gardener can sometimes be guilty of making a mistake, here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid.
Not organising your shed…
A tidy, well-organised shed means you know where everything is when you need it. Having tools stored correctly means you're more likely to look after them, and you're also less likely suffer injuries from any that have been badly placed. If your shed is untidy, you're less likely to get on with the jobs that need doing if you had easy access to the tools required. So keep your tools in order and you'll have no excuse not to get those jobs done.
Not taking care when lifting heavy items…
Lifting heavy items, such as large plant pots, can lead to painful back problems. However, lifting the items carefully can prevent injury, while moving the pot while it's empty can save a lot of hard work compared to moving it when full. If moving pots and other large garden items then make sure you bend your knees and keep your back straight, and ask for help when you need it.
Not cleaning your tools…
Cleaning and sharpening garden tools helps them to work better and last longer. Simple tasks such as wiping mud off your spade after using it helps keep the blade sharp and prevents rust developing, while cleaning and oiling secateurs ensures sharp, clean cuts that enable plant wounds to heal quickly and therefore reduce the likelihood of disease setting in. What's more, disinfecting tools after pruning certain plants can reduce the transference of diseases from one plant to another.
GARDENING WORDS OF WISDOM – or not!
“The gardening season officially begins January 1st and ends on December 31st”.
Marie Huston
“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get”.
Mark Twain
“God made rainy days so gardeners could get housework done”.
Anonymous
“If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant”.
Anne Bradstreet
“Bulb: potential flower buried in autumn never to be seen again”
Henry Beard
CAN YOU SPARE A FEW HOURS TO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION…?
Streamside is a local association run by a team of volunteers, and are looking for some new recruits to join us, and reduce the work-load for the existing Streamside team. We need members to help out on Fridays for preparing the products for sale in the Store, and also for helping during trading hours on Sunday mornings (which is run on a rota basis and generally involves a duty every 5/6 weeks). If you have a few hours to spare, please do contact us, we would be delighted to expand our team to include you.
Benefits include 10% of all purchases at the hut, plus working, meeting and socialising with a great bunch of like-minded people!
Either call into the Store on Sunday or use the “contact us” option on the website.
STREAMSIDE DAYS OUT IN 2023…
We have organised the following outings for the coming year and will start selling tickets on 11th February, 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 -:
Pashley Manor & Gardens:
Discover 11 acres of beautiful vistas - the culmination of a lifetime of passion for gardening. Sweeping herbaceous borders, historic walled garden, the Grade 1 listed house as a backdrop.
Leave 8.30am / Tuesday 16 May / £44
Hever Castle & Gardens:
Dating back to the 14th century, Hever Castle was once the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, with award-winning gardens set in 125 acres of glorious grounds.
Leave 8.30am / Thursday 6 July / £43
Wisley with 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.
Leave 9.30am / Friday 8 September / £37 or £24 (RHS members) When members of RHS buy their tickets, and are taking a guest, can they please buy both tickets the same day. This will make it much easier when we arrive at Wisley.
SEASONAL RECIPES...
One-pan salmon with roast asparagus – serves 2
Ingredients
400g new potato halved if large
2 tbsp olive oil.
8 asparagus spears, trimmed and halved
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 salmon fillets about 140g/5oz each
handful basil leaves
Method
Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the potatoes and 1 tbsp of olive oil into an ovenproof dish, then roast the potatoes for 20 mins until starting to brown. Toss the asparagus in with the potatoes, then return to the oven for 15 mins.
Throw in the cherry tomatoes and vinegar and nestle the salmon amongst the vegetables. Drizzle with the remaining oil and return to the oven for a final 10-15 mins until the salmon is cooked. Scatter over the basil leaves and serve everything scooped straight from the dish.
Rhubarb Bakewell Tart – serves 8
Ingredients
500g rhubarb, cut into short lengths
225g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp extra for sprinkling
1 small orange, zested and 2 tbsp juice
1 x 375g pack sweet shortcrust pastry
150g softened butter
100g ground almonds
2 large eggs
¼ tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
50g plain flour
handful flaked almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, 160°C fan. Toss the rhubarb with 75g of the sugar then spread over a baking tray. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp orange juice, roast for 20 mins, then cool.
Roll out the pastry to line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Leave excess hanging over and prick the base with a fork. Chill for 20 mins until firm. Line with non-stick baking paper and baking beans and bake for 15 mins. Remove the beans and paper, then bake for a further 10 mins. Trim the edges when cool.
Remove the rhubarb from the syrup. Mash half and spread over the pastry. Beat together the remaining sugar, butter, almonds, eggs, almond extract, baking powder, salt and flour until creamy. Spoon the mixture over the rhubarb purée, then scatter with the remaining rhubarb, flaked almonds and 1 tbsp sugar.
Bake for 45 mins, or until golden and risen. Cool in the tin until warm. Slice the tart and serve with a drizzle of the rhubarb syrup/ Serve with custard.
SOME THINGS TO DO IN YOUR GARDEN THIS SEASON...
The following lists are just some of the seasonal tasks that you may like to consider to ensure that your garden or allotment continues to look good, and produce a good level of crops :-
March
Fruit and Veg
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.
Plant onion sets into well-prepared weed-free ground on a sunny site.
Cover a row of strawberry plants with a tunnel cloche to encourage an early crop.
Prepare beds for sowing by thoroughly weeding beforehand.
Plant out hardened-off broad bean plants.
Tidy up established strawberry beds, cutting off dead leaves.
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.
Move planted-op potato bags or potatoes planted in pots into the greenhouse for an earlier crop.
Dig up and use the last of this year’s leeks before they flower.
Sow lettuces into small pots or modules for planting out in a few weeks’ time.
Sow summer cauliflowers in trays every few weeks to ensure a succession of crops.
Flowers
Prune back buddleias hard to encourage strong new shoots.
Hard prune group 3 clematis to the lowest healthy bud.
Sprinkle a granular rose fertiliser around the base of rose bushes to encourage healthy growth and lots of good quality blooms.
Feed camellias and rhododendrons with ericaceous plant food.
Cut off the highest rosette of leaves on mahonias to make them bushier.
Sow hardy annuals such as clarkia and nigella into well-prepared soil.
Plant faded forced hyacinth bulbs in a sunny place in the garden.
Pt 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.
Sow sweet peas in small deep pots for summer scent.
Divide large clumps of snowdrops and winter aconites to reduce overcrowding and spread them over a wider area.
Cut down the stems of hardy fuchsias.
Prune back thick stems of overgrown ivy plants.
Add annual weeds to your compost heap.
Pot up roots of ginger lilies for fragrant, tropical-looking late-summer flowers.
Miscellaneous
Take down insulation towards the end of the month as temperatures and light levels rise
Top up stocks of composts and fertilisers.
Cover any patches of bare earth with twigs to discourage cats from using it as a litter tray.
April
Fruit and Veg
Harden off new vegetable plants by placing them outside during the day in a sheltered spot.
Turn your compost heap over regularly to speed up the process.
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.
Check for gooseberry sawfly damage and pick off any larvae which can soon strip a plant of its leaves.
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 blackberries, blackcurrants and hybrid fruit with a high nitrogen fertiliser.
Plant main crop potatoes now.
Feed spring cabbages outside with a high-nitrogen fertiliser.
Flowers
Sow a new patch of sweet peas outside to take over from autumn-sown plants.
Lift and divide native primroses to keep new plants vigorous and spread them around the garden.
Keep deadheading winter pansies that are still flowering.
Prune lavender plants now to tidy them up and stimulate new growth to prepare for flowering this summer.
Cut back long, old stems on hydrangeas to give a better shaped shrub.
Tie in any climbing roses that have come loose.
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.
Check cuttings taken earlier this year and if they need repotting.
Increase watering on houseplants.
Remove the winter wrappings from tree ferns.
Deadhead spent early flowering tulips.
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.
Miscellaneous
Repair and reseed lawn edges that are looking scruffy. Cover with fleece to protect from birds.
Treat fences and wooden structures with preservative.
May
Fruit and Veg
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.
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.
Harvest asparagus when shoots are 15cm tall.
Place layers of fleece over rows of carrots to protect from carrot fly.
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
Lift and divide pond plants and add new ones.
Cut back flowering quince (ChaenomeLes) when all the blooms have faded.
Plant eucomis bulbs in containers for an exotic-looking summer display.
Sow hard annuals such as nasturtiums direct into the soil in sunny spots.
Plant out bedding plants that have been hardened off, ready for life outside.
Divide clumps of spring-flowering perennials.
Plant out gladioli corms in sunny, free-draining locations.
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.
Repot and root prune any containerised clematis that have outgrown their current pots.
Water dahlias regularly while hardening them off.
Trim evergreen hedges and topiary to give them neat, straight edges.
Sow biennial seeds such as wallflowers and sweet Williams.
Remove suckers from roses.
Improve a shady area of your garden by planting some ferns.
Miscellaneous
Protect your eyes by putting toppers on canes and supports that are below eye level and could be potentially dangerous as you bend over to weed.
Set up a drip irrigation system for easy, efficient watering of patio pots.
Give your compost a turn to accelerate the decomposing process.
The Summer newsletter will be available at the end of May/ beginning of June 2022.