Streamside News…Summer ‘20
How life has changed in the last three months as the effects of the Coronavirus impacts on us all. There has never been a time when our gardens, allotments or any outside space has been so important in providing a haven in which to escape the challenges that this pandemic brings.
For now the trading hut remains closed, but as soon as we are confident that we can adopt appropriate safety precautions to ensure the safety of our volunteers and members, we will reopen – and advise you accordingly.
Please see the newsletter for summer 2020.
A NEW WEBSITE FOR STREAMSIDE...
We are in the process of creating a website for the association. This will include details of the products to be sold, dates of various plants sales, outings and the newsletter will be uploaded and available to view. If you have any thoughts on other items that you would like to see included then please do let us know - please email peter_harwood@btnternet.com.
The website can be found https://www.streamside.store/
MEMBERS’ HORTICULTURAL SECRETS...
In the meantime, members might like to be in touch by sharing their ‘Horticultural Secrets’. Do you have any plants, shrubs, trees which are unusual or a favourite which flourish in your garden? This might be a plant which survives against ‘all the odds’ or loves the shade or is a difficult yet rewarding specimen.
For example, our Membership Secretary Brenda Harwood has two perennials for shade which both have interesting foliage:Ligularia Desdemona, fully hardy and has deep yellow flowerheads and dark green leaves with purple undersides.
LigulariaPrzewalskii also loves shade, fully hardy, with fringeshaped foliage and yellow flowers.
You can look up both online, try the RHS website or any good flower book.
A list of members’ choices/recommendation could be circulated and the Association could build up its own special catalogue of plants. No one’s details would need to be disclosed. Please send your ideas to Brenda.harwood@gmail.com.
THRIFTY CORNER....
Recycle Spray Bottles
There’s no need to buy a plastic spray bottle for your garden needs. Simply recycle your empty domestic cleaning sprayers and re-use. It is safer to use environmentally-friendly sprays rather than chemical ones. Make sure you wash them out extremely well, so no residue is left over before using the sprayer on your plants. When you have cleaned the spray bottle (including the nozzle), fill it with clean water and pump the sprayer around 20-30 times so clear water sprays out.
Sprayers are very useful in the garden. Fill with water and use to mist delicate seeds and seedlings to keep them moist or clean indoor pot plant leaves.
Re-label the outside of the spray bottle with a permanent marker and then add your favourite liquid fertiliser such as seaweed or kelp. Full of minerals and nutrients, this is an ideal fertiliser and ‘Pick-Me-Up Tonic’ for your plants. Add the desired amount of concentrate according to instructions, dilute with water and you can now foliar spray the leaves of your plants (the fastest way to feed them).
Another use for these sprayers is to fill with your own homemade pest sprays.
SEASONAL RECIPES….
Asparagus Soup – Serves 4
Ingredients
25g butter
little vegetable oil
350g asparagus spear, stalks chopped, woody ends discarded, tips reserved
3 shallots, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large handfuls spinach
700ml vegetable stock (fresh if possible)
olive oil, for drizzling (optional)
rustic bread (preferably sourdough), to serve (optional)
Method
· Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan until foaming. Fry the asparagus tips for a few mins to soften. Remove and set aside. · Add the shallots, asparagus stalks and garlic, and cook for 5-10 mins until softened but still bright. Stir through the spinach, pour over the stock, bring to the boil, then blitz with a hand blender. · Season generously and add hot water to loosen if needed. Ladle into bowls and scatter the asparagus tips over each. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with sourdough bread, if you like.
Summer Allotment Salad with English mustard dressing – serves 8 – 10
Ingredients
· 400g new-season potatoes, scrubbed
· 2 bunches of French Breakfast radishes, leaves washed
· 1 red onion, peeled and sliced
· 1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and sliced into half moons
· small handful dill fronds, chopped
For the dressing
· 100ml rapeseed oil
· 20g English mustard
· 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
· pinch of white caster sugar
· 1 tbsp mustard seeds, toasted in a dry frying
Method
· Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, simmer the potatoes for about 10 mins until tender, then leave to steam-dry until warm. · Meanwhile, whisk together all the dressing ingredients, then halve the warm potatoes and toss through the dressing. Take the potatoes and other ingredients to the picnic separately, then toss everything together to serve.
ARE YOUR BOX (BUXUS) PLANTS SUFFERING FROM BOX TREE CATERPILLARS?...
If you look around the area sadly you will see a number of box plants (including some very established specimens) looking very unhealthy and in varying degrees of dieback. This could be box blight of course, but increasingly it is more likely that the damage which can become fatal, is caused by the box tree caterpillar.
Although first spotted in the UK in 2007, it is becoming more prevalent particularly in London and the south east.
Gardeners are likely to become aware of the box tree caterpillar when they find webbing and caterpillars on their box plants. The pale yellow flattish eggs are laid sheet-like, overlapping each other on the underside of box leaves. Newly hatched caterpillars are greenish-yellow with black heads. Older caterpillars reach up to 4cm in length and have greenish/yellow body with thick black and white stripes along the body. The pupae are cocooned in white webbing spun amongst leaves and twigs. The adult moth usually has white wings with a faint brown border.
The caterpillars eat box leaves and produce webbing over their feeding area as well as areas of die back.
Where possible remove caterpillars by hand and encourage blue tits into your garden to feed on them. There is also a suggestion that planting thyme plants close by helps.
Pesticides to try include Bug Clear Ultra and Resolva Pest Killer which can assist in controlling mild attacks – the spraying needs to be forceful to penetrate the silk webbing.
But for tougher cases there is a German product that is available online called Xen Tari which was recommended by neighbours on the Next Door Pinner group who have used it and report that with repeated applications on an annual basis this can remedy the situation.
But if all else fails you may need to consider alternative plants to replace the box such as Ilex Crenata.
The RHS are keen to monitor this pest and how widespread it is becoming, and ask anyone who has box plants suffering from an attack of the box caterpillar to complete the survey on their website –
SOME TASKS TO DO IN YOUR GARDEN THIS SEASON
June
Fruit and Veg
Train any new shoots of blackberries, tayberries and boysenberries.
Sow celeriac, celery, okra and French beans under glass,
Sow Florence fennel, runner beans, outdoor cucumbers and salad onions direct in beds.
Tie in wall trained fruit trees and remove shoots that are sticking out.
Deadhead herbs.
Keep rows of onions well watered when the weather is dry.
Earth up soil around potato stems to get a bigger crop.
Thin gooseberries and cook the pickings.
Feed tomatoes weekly with a high potassium liquid fertiliser.
Harvest asparagus for the last time.
Water fruit bushes growing in containers regularly.
Cover brassicas with nets to protect against pigeons.
Plant out sweetcorn in blocks to ensure a good crop of cobs.
Flowers
Plant out ornamental bananas now that the risk of frost has passed.
Cut back rudbeckias and heleniums to stimulate extra later flowers.
Hand pull weeds growing between plants before they grow large.
Rub off any greenfly you see growing on plant stems – they will increase rapidly if not removed.
Look out for leaf rolling on roses, indicating sawfly, and pick off any affected leaves.
Stake flopping plants.
Keep some fleece handy to throw over tender plants if frost is forecast.
Take cuttings from pinks, pulling off the tips, removing lower leaves and planting round the edge of a pot of multi-purpose compost.
Make use of your water butt whenever you can as it is better for established plants.
Water newly planted perennials during dry spells.
Sow biennial wallflowers in nursery beds for autumn.
Cut back flowering currants once flowers are over.
Plant potted dahlias to fill gaps in borders.
Protect young plants against slug and snail attack.
Prune spring flowering shrubs such as deutzia and spirea.
Keep an eye out for scarlet adult lily beetles and destroy.
Life and divide clumps of spring flowering perennials,
Prune evergreen clematis armandii.
Water sweet peas well in dry weather and tie in early sown plants..
Sow delphiniums and lupins outside.
Tie in stems of sweet peas as they develop loosely to supports with string.
Lawns
Keep lawn edges trim, it will make a huge difference to your garden.
Feed lawns and treat any moss and weeds.
In times of hot weather leave the lawn to grow longer so that it stays greener without watering – even if it turns brown, it will recover after rain.
July
Fruit and Veg
Prune sideshoots on figs back to four leaves to encourage fruiting.
Sow leafy slad such as rocket or mizuna direct in the soil.
Fold the leaves over cauliflower curds to stop them scorching.
Earth up main crop potatoes to prevent light spoiling the forming tubers.
Water runner beans well in dry weather to help the pods set
Give squashes and aubergines liquid high-potash feed each week.
Clip bay to shorten sideshoots and control the shape.
Pick blackcurrants when they turn an even purple-black and have some give in them when squeezed.
Protect raspberries from birds and squirrels by putting netting over the plants as soon as the fruits start to colour up.
Sow oriental vegetables directly outside.
Remove diseased strawberries from the plant immediately to stop the problem spreading to other fruits nearby
Stop picking rhubarb then feed and water to help plants recover.
Spray potatoes and outdoor tomatoes against blight.
Flowers
Tie in new growth on roses to support the large flowers.
Pick all sweet peas every 10 days or so to encourage more blooms.
Snip the conical spent flowers off dahlias.
Get any remaining autumn flowering bulbs into the ground.
Save seed from spring flowering plants such as alpines. Clean the chaff off and keep in a cool dark place.
Cut back spring-flowering perennial clumps.
Sprinkle general purpose fertiliser in between herbaceous perennials and water it in well.
Mow wildflower meadows once seeds have ripened.
Layer clematis shoots to root in the soil and form new stems.
Deadhead annuals, perennials and roses as the flowers fade.
Take cuttings of carnations, lavatera and penstemons.
Divide and replant any congested clumps of bearded iris that flowered poorly.
Cut down faded delphinium and lupin flower spikes.
Cut back whippy wisteria side shoots.
Remove rose suckers by tearing away from their point of origin on the root.
Check solomon’s seal for signs of sawfly larvae, and pick off or spray with insecticide.
Keep lavender compact by trimming after flowering.
Prune overgrown clematis Montana.
Feed plants in hanging baskets and patio pots.
Mulch perennials with compost to keep soil damp.
Lawns
Use a long blade or weeding tool to lever out deep-rooted weeds such as plantains and dandelion.
Continue feeling lawns to encourage strong growth.
Trim edges with hand clippers or long-handled shear for a sharp finish.
August
Fruit and veg
Cut off or burn blighted leaves on potatoes
Sow oriental and winter salad leaves, spring cabbage and turnips.
Pick herbs regularly to help branch out and stay productive.
Summer prune fruit trees, including trained apples and pears, plums and peaches after fruiting.
Sow spinach in 2cm deep drills and keep watering once germinated to stop plants bolting.
Create more strawberry plants by planting runners.
Pinch out flower buds on rocket to encourage more leaves to form.
Pick gooseberries when the fruits are no longer hard.
Sow green manure in bare areas of soil.
Harvest shallots on a sunny,dry day.
Water potatoes well in dry spells to prevent tubers splitting.
Take out sideshoots on tomato plants grown as cordons.
Harvest late-summer fruiting raspberries.
Thin out crowded rows of salad leaf seedlings.
Pull up annual herbs that have run to seed.
Check aubergine fruits regularly so you can pick them the moment they are ripe.
Pinch out tips of climbing beans at the top of supports.
Divide large clumps of chives.
Cut out the tops from outdoor tomatoes a few leaves above the highest flowers.
Remove straw from strawberry beds.
Pick over sugar snap peas and mangetouts every few days, to catch pods while still young, tender and sweet.
Cover carrots with fleece to keep carrot flies away.
Harvest onions, shallots and garlic once foliage has died back fully.
Flowers
Feed potted flowering bulbs like amaryllis and eucomis with tomato fertiliser.
Take cuttings from tender perennials.
Don’t let pots and baskets dry out, water regularly.
Prune rambling roses as soon as they have finished flowering.
Plant Madonna lilies for next summer.
Look out for earwigs which nibble flowers like dahlias, trap them in straw-filled upturned flowerpots.
Make plant feed from comfrey by filling a bucket with leaves and the stems and top up with water. Leave for around 3 weeks, strain off foliage and store. Use at a ratio of 30:1 with water weekly.
Take semi ripe cuttings of lavender and ceanothus.
Prune wisteria by shortening sideshoots to six leaves.
Pick flowers for indoor arrangements.
Keep camellias well watered during spells of dry weather.
Collect and sow foxglove seed.
Remove spent flower stalks from hostas to improve the display for the rest of the summer.
Start some hardy annuals from seed now for early flowers.
Trim back hebes lightly after they have finished flowering to encourage bushy,compact growth.
Take cuttings of non flowering pelargonium shoots.
Water cyclamen to start the corms into growth.
Give evergreen hedges their final trim.
Cut back old flower stems on lady’s mantle to prevent it self-seeding.
Pick bulbils off lily stems and pot up to get new plants.
Regularly pick off faded flowers from summer bedding to keep plants looking neat and keep them flowering.
Trim leafy shoots from pyracantha to reveal the ripening berries.
Lawns
Keep an eye on weeds and remove by hand or apply appropriate weed killer.
Maintain weekly mowing regime.
The Autumn newsletter will be available end of August/beginning of September.