THAT'S SHALLOT

Caroline McGonigle from Dumfries has been with the Swilly Gardening Club from the beginning and is always pleased to offer advice at the monthly meetings. Here are some of her tips about what to do in the garden this month. “Now is a good time to plant shallots into prepared soil,” she advises. “You might find that some shallots you have bought in the past have a habit of bolting, (that is going to seed too early). I have found that you need to buy quality seed that has been heat treated, the smaller the better, making sure they are firm” Caroline also likes to have salad onions growing. “I find that the Snowball variety give good results, they are, as you would imagine by the name, a white variety.”

Fleeced

Caroline also advocates the use of a light white fleece to keep pests off the growing vegetables. “White fleece is a very reliable source of protection against carrot fly and other pests in the garden. It is lightweight and doesn’t flatten the young plants. One important job in the garden is to make sure that the soil is well fed.”

“We are very lucky to be able to get seaweed to put on the garden,” Caroline continues. “If you can get some cow muck as well, all the better. This would add to the quality of the crops you grow. I dilute the muck in water and use it as a tonic.” Before Caroline finished her talk she gave us one more piece of advice. “Warm up a small area of the vegetable bed with black polythene or old carpet to start early salad vegetables, if you have a greenhouse, you can start sowing the seeds now.”

Caroline isn’t the only person giving advice this week. Gareth Austin from the Lifestyle Garden Centre has just taken over the Gardening Show on the Mark Patterson show on BBC Radio Foyle (Wednesdays from 3:55pm). He will be taking over the live event, replacing Brendan Little, who was in the hot seat for ten years. Gareth starts by letting us know that you can start to plant most seedlings now. “ The range of vegetable and flower seeds increases every year,” he says. “You will always find something to suit your taste.”

Gareth’s tips for the week

If you haven’t already given the lawn it’s first cut of the season, remember to use the blade at the highest setting and then reduce the cut gradually.

Start to plant early York cabbage, sprouts and cauliflower. For small gardens grow 3 in a grow bag for some fun. Nice and simple!

Continue to plant early seed potatoes, look out for Rocket, Arraon Pilot and Duke of York for very early spuds. Again try growing some in a compost bag.

Start to sow the super scented sweet peas in pots ready for planting outside when the threat of frost has passed.

Pot up some small Lobelia plants into bigger pots for great show this summer.

Now is the time to start to plant summer flowering bulbs such as Dahlias, Cannas, Lilies and Begonias. These dislike frost so watch out for cold snaps.

Freshen borders with a light hoe to nip the heads of freshly appearing chickweed and young annual weeds.

Refresh the borders with a new light covering of bark chippings.



Spring bulbs on lawns

The sight of spring bulbs on the lawn is very cheerful at the beginning of the growing season. The leaves do stay around a while afterwards though and sometimes makes the grass look untidy. Steps can be taken to keep grass and bulbs healthy. Gareth advises when spring bulbs have finished flowering, to feed the ground with a good quality tomato fertiliser, which will help to make the flowers bigger next year. Leave them to die off naturally if possible, but if space is limited feed the bulbs as above and then cut the foliage about a fortnight later before the grass gets untidy. The fertiliser will replace the nutrients lost when you cut the foliage!

DENNIS DOHERTY

Swilly Gardening Club

There was a great turn out at the Swilly Gardening Club last week. Members old and new turned up at the angling centre in Buncrana to hear Dennis Doherty talk about the spring lawn. Dennis has plenty of experience of working in the great outdoors, as he was the green keeper at Ballyliffen golf club for over 30 years and his expertise shows. He gave some top tips for looking after lawns.

Looking After Lawns
“Grass will need some fertiliser at this time of the year,” Dennis begins. “ I use 2 oz per square yard of a 5.5.10 ratio. For lawns with moss growing in it, apply sulphate of iron mixed with sand. Sulphate of iron tones the lawn and turns the moss black which can then be raked up, leaving room for the grass to develop,” he carries on. “Sulphate of iron also helps to control red thread disease, but be careful as it can stain driveways,” he warns. “Mowing the lawn is something that we will need to be doing now and if you want a perfect example you will have to cut it up to three times a week!” Dennis knows that this would be highly impractical for most people and accepts that one cut a week is more realistic. “Change the direction of the cut often to stop ridges forming in the soil. If you see patches of ground that look unhealthy fork the area to aerate the ground then add sharp sand into the holes to improve drainage.”

Vine weevil
One of the biggest problems for plants in containers at this time of year is vine weevil. Dennis recommends using fresh soil or compost in the containers every year. “ The vine weevil beetles love to lay into soft compost and containers make an ideal breeding ground. The small white grubs can totally destroy your plants as they eat any roots they come into contact with.” He cautions “Use fresh compost and for larger specimens, that you cannot empty, you could use a chemical to kill them. For those of you like to be organic, try a nettle spray. Put the cut nettles into a container and steep for a week or so. Spray this onto the soil and let is drain in. This has been known to kill the pests.”




Make your own mini propagator
This idea came from Colm Grant at the gardening club in Buncrana. The protected environment is the perfect answer for people who want to grow a few plants from seed or cuttings, but are limited for space. This is a great way to re-use plastic containers and will hopefully keep them out of the landfills. The mini propagator is small enough to fit on any windowsill and can even be left in the greenhouse without watering for a long time, as the condensation that builds up runs down the sides back into the soil. It comes with it’s own control switch too. If the temperature needs to be reduced or air circulation increased, it’s just a simple job of unscrewing the lid!

Step 1
When you have finished with your plastic milk container (you can substitute this for any drinks bottle) give it a good wash inside and out. Cut the bottle in two leaving more room on the top section for air circulation.

Step 2
Cut two tags either side of the top section to a depth of about 1 inch (2.5 cm). This helps to keep the lid in place.

Step 3
Fill the bottom section with good quality potting compost or sterilised soil. Tamp this down so there is a 1inch gap between the soil and the top of the container.

Step 4
Sow your seeds or place cuttings into the soil.

Step 5
Carefully place the lid over the base, (putting the top part inside the base to allow condensation to run back down to the soil) and let the tags hold the lid firmly in place.

See here for photo's

Check the mini propagator often to make sure your seeds are growing well. When they have germinated or the cuttings have rooted, take off the lid to harden them off before transplanting out into larger pots or outdoors.

FAIRY TREES

Ben Simon (centre rear) with local councillors, a local environmentalist and George, the town gardener.

Ben Simon from Belfast was at the library in Buncrana last week giving a talk on trees in Ireland. Ben is a Forest Officer in Belfast and is involved in Urban Forestry Projects and also works closely with Belfast Council to maintain woodlands and planted urban areas.

Fairy trees

Ben is very interested in Fairy Trees. In Ireland, fairy trees are usually, oak, hawthorn and ash and they were considered sacred and connected with the little people. Their branches might have been used to make wands but it could also have been considered extremely unlucky to cut down a fairy tree or even remove a branch. It can often be hard to find out information about this special part of our heritage. Ben explains, “Most fairy trees are not talked about. Sometimes the folklore stories connected with the trees are linked to tragedies and families are reluctant to talk about them. Those that we do know about are really interesting. Their stories should be documented and protection needs to be put on the trees so developers can’t just go in and destroy them, which is what can happen.” One apocryphal story that Ben related was of a man driving home in his horse and cart when they passed an ash tree. The horse was reluctant to move on so the driver started to whip him. At this the horse bolted, tipping the cart sideways, trapping and killing the driver against the tree. He died with his whip still in his hand and that tree became known as the whip it tree. Ben was shocked to know that in Inishowen there isn’t one tree that has a protection order on it. One piece of advice that Ben gave was to see if you can gather seeds from fairy trees (ask locals’ permission) and grow them on, replanting them in hedgerows or graveyards. Trees don’t live forever and it is good to keep our heritage.

Tree Ties

Ben is very keen on planting trees for natural woodland and feels it is a vital part of any landscape. Trees improve the environment around towns, houses, and unsightly buildings, as well as giving a shelterbelt. This is particularly true for our windswept peninsula. Ben actively encourages tree planting but feels that unnecessary damage is being done because of tree tie neglect. “If you plant a small bare rooted whip, say three feet tall, it will not need a tie to keep it stable,” he explains. “It is only when you buy larger trees that the problems occur.” He carries on. “Sometimes you need to put in bigger specimens, say for a main street or if you need an instant garden. Here the ties will be necessary to stop the tree being damaged. Once the tree is established, normally within three years, it will not need a tie as the roots will give enough anchorage” he advises. Check the tree by loosening off the tie and bending it gently forwards and backwards at chest height. If the soil doesn’t lift around the tree it no longer needs a support.”

Make this a job to do this week. Take a look at your own tree ties and also any other ones that you see. If the ties are not loosened and eventually removed, they will strangle the tree, disfiguring it and in worst cases even kill it. .

Gardening.ie website is up and running

My Inishindie blogsite is a year old this week. I have enjoyed working on it but it is so full now that it is very hard to navigate through the mountain of pages. For this reason I have been hard at work developing a new gardening website called gardening.ie. I am hoping it will grow (eventually) into a comprehensive information site, not only for Inishowen, but the whole country. It will be an ongoing project and probably never be finished, but it’s the journey that matters…. The site is interactive and you are more than welcome to join in the discussions and add your own words of wisdom.

QUESTION TIME

TAKING HARDWOOD CUTTINGS

Q. How do I take hardwood cuttings?

Hardwood cuttings, I can say from experience really want to survive and can withstand an awful lot of neglect. They can tolerate anything except drought (and being planted in the ground upside down!)

When the leaves have fallen from deciduous shrubs, this will be the time to take hardwood cuttings. Easy plants to try include willow (Salix), buddleia and dogwood (Cornus);

Cut pencil thick lengths (15-20cm) of woody, new growth. Make the cut above a bud at the top and below a bud at the bottom of the cutting

Choose a sheltered spot in the garden, out of direct sunlight but not in heavy shade.

Push the cuttings into a slit made in the soil with a spade. Fill in with soil, leaving a couple of buds exposed.

If you have heavy soil, line the slit with sand for drainage.

Label (you will be surprised by how quickly you forget what you have planted!)

Water in dry weather

Leave the cuttings until the following autumn when they will have rooted and be ready to move them, either into pots or to their planting position.

If you have fish boxes or even large plant pots, than fill them with soil and push the cuttings into those.


Do not let them dry out.



OVERGROWN PRIVET

Q. I have a 20ft high privet hedge around the front garden. Is there any way that I can maybe prune or cut it back, or will I have to remove them and start again?

A. You can more or less cut privet down to the ground and it will come back very well. You will have to remove the very thick branches but they will be replaced by new growth. When you finish chopping give it a good feed and watering.



RASPBERRY CANES

Q. When is the best time to plant raspberry canes? How do I plant them?


March is a good time for planting raspberry canes. You might have to water the plants well in dry spells through the next few months. Don’t allow summer fruiting varieties to produce fruit this year. Cut the canes down to about 30cm (12in) on planting and remove any flowers that appear.

Most soils are suitable for raspberries, but a little preparation will pay rewards, especially because they will remain in the same position for 10 to 12 years. Dig a row 30cm (1ft) deep by 1m (3ft) wide, working in as much well rotted compost as possible. Where more than one row is being planted, allow 1.7m (5ft) between rows in order to let the roots spread freely and give room for you to harvest the crop in summer.

SPIDER PLANTS

Q. How do I take cuttings from my spider plant?

A. Spider plants send out offshoots with little babies on them. You could leave the babies attached to the offshoots and secure them onto a pot of soil with a clip. Cut them off when rooted. You can also detach the babies straight away, as they grow roots very quickly, you can see how quickly by placing the end of one of the plants in a glass of water. Spider plants throw out more offshoots when they are pot bound. If you decide not to replant them in spring, make sure they are watered and fed well and you will be repaid with a lovely display.

COMPOSTING CLOTHES

Q. I have a lot of clothes that I don’t wear anymore but they are too worn for the charity shops. I made a scarecrow out of a few items to keep the birds off the vegetable patch (complete with football head!) Can I put the rest on the compost heap?


A. You can add any natural fibre like cotton, silk, wool and linen to the compost heap. Don’t put synthetic fibres like rayon, nylon on as you will still be digging them up in a hundred years time. Take off plastic zips as well. If you have lots of clothes that you cannot put in the mix then you could try this. Open a bin bag and make layers of the clothes inside it. Tie off the end and put it in to the compost bin where it will act as insulation to keep the heat in. If you haven’t got a garden then Inishowen have plenty of clothes banks you can use, they do not have to be on good condition!

FLOWERS FROM SEED

Have you ever though of growing summer flowers from seed? There are thousands of fabulous varieties to choose from and most are really easy to grow. Garden centres have new seed stock in so there is no excuse not to give it a try! There are so many plants that will germinate easily in a tray on the windowsill for summer colour in the garden.

• Alyssum with their tufted growing habit,



• Begonias do really well in the beds and in baskets.



• Geraniums are always a real treat and



• Marigolds are so easy to grow and reward you with fantastic summer colours.

Don’t just stop at the flowers either.

Try your hand at vegetables. Even if you don’t have a vegetable plot, you can incorporate edible plants into the beds and borders.

Salads are easy to grow and can be planted anywhere. They can also be planted early in seed trays.

Trees, of course, take a bit longer to grow though and if you are looking plant some new additions into the garden now is a great time to start planting as the soil is warming up. Placing the trees in the ground now will also give them time for roots to establish before the leaves come out. But what is the best way to plant the tree? Jacqueline from Willowhill nursery takes the mystery out of the procedure.

PLANTING TREES

Jacqueline Doherty from Willowhill Nursery is with us again this week with ideas for us to get the best out of our new trees. Jacqueline knows a thing or two about trees as well, the garden centre is currently stocking over 50 types of deciduous trees, fruit trees and confers. “Planting is all important when putting a new tree into your garden,” Jacqueline explains, “Especially in our climate, the roots have to be firmly in the ground,” she stressed. “Small bare rooted whips can just be planted straight into the soil and their roots will develop in no time so there is no need for staking. Most of us will buy larger trees though, and then some form of securing is probably necessary” she added.

Jacqueline’s tips for good tree planting

To give the tree a good start, dig a hole twice the size of the rootball or container.

Place the tree roots into the centre of the hole, keeping the tree at the same depth it was in the container. Backfill the hole with good compost and include a suitable organic fertilizer, such as chicken pellets.

Ensure the rootball is well watered before it is planted into the ground.

If the tree is especially large you might need a crossover stake for extra support” she concluded.

Jacqueline realises that a more comprehensive run down of tree planting might be necessary so if you would like more information she will be pleased to give you advice.

Jacqueline Doherty from Willowhill Nursery is happy to answer your tree planting questions.


CHECK MACHINERY

Most of the garden tools and machinery will have spent the winter crammed into a shed or garage. Now that the growing season has begun, give them the once over. Mowers can be a bit of a challenge to get going after the winter break. If you have left the old petrol in the tank, the engine may not want to start and no amount of pulling on the cord will get it going. Replace the petrol and check the spark plug is in good condition and everything else is tightened up. Check the plugs and belts, and replace those if they are worn. Brian Timmins from Inishowen Garden Equipment in Shandrum thinks that preventative maintenance is the key to a happy gardening season. “Get the mower services at the beginning of the growing season to give you a head start with the grass cutting” he advises “There is nothing more frustrating for a gardener who wants to cut the grass to realise the mower isn’t working!”

Photo: Brian Timmins knows that preventative maintenance is the key to a stress free year in the garden

HAND TOOLS
Some hand tools do very badly over the damp winters. I had a rake with a plastic coated metal handle one year and when I tried to use it, I realised the handle had totally rotted. It was just the plastic coating that held it together and the whole thing crumbled into fragments in front of me. Get all of the tools out and give them a check, replacing any broken or dangerous tools with new ones. Lubricate ones with moving parts, like shears, with some old oil to get them moving again.