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!
