Bulb Planting 2018

As growth slows down in the garden we can stand back and admire our achievements this year.

Shrub forms maturing, luscious bedding plant displays brightening up dull corners after being watered daily, the perfectly maintained veggie patch and the beautifully manicured lawn. 

OK, I’ll stop dreaming now.  At the beginning of the growing year that’s how we mostly expect the season to progress, keeping on top of things. 

If you are anything like me this only lasts a couple of weeks early on.  Next time I look at the garden its gone wild. Pea and bean supports have collapsed, I have courgettes the size of small Zeppelins and as tough as leather, the pots and containers now only support weeds as the bedding plants in pots have died from neglect and toppled over. The lawn edges are so long air traffic control should be notified.

It’s all good though and I’ll probably just leave everything until spring before I tidy as long as nothing flops onto the paths. There’s debate every year whether to clear up or leave dead plant growth and old seed heads. I tend to leave everything as I think it’s lovely to look at, holds the soil together and is a bit of a haven for overwintering insects and wildlife. It also means nature does most of the work, which is fine by me.

One job that can be done this time of year is to plant a few bulbs for next spring. Forward planning is probably one of the most challenging things I do in the garden as I’m generally a “live for today” sort of person who generally doesn’t plan much further than his next meal.

If you are organized then let’s take a look at what bulbs we can put in the ground now for a splash of spring colour. 

Plant Bulbs in Autumn for Spring Colour

Spring flowers popping up signals the rebirth of the garden and the start of a new growing season. Nothing lifts the spirits after a long, dark winter more than the sight of the first daffodils opening up.

Autumn is perfect for planting bulbs as the soil is still warm. This will allow them to develop their root system, which in turn allows them to flower in spring rather than summer.

September is the time for buying bulbs as a lot of them will be reduced because the garden centres need to clear them out fir winter stock.  October is the optimum time for daffodils; November for tulips. So this year we are well ahead of the game.

Top Tips

• When buying bulbs, reject any that are soft or showing signs of mould. Small bulbs may not flower in their first year.
• Bulbs should be planted in holes three to four times as deep as the bulb itself. So, for example, a 1in crocus bulb needs to be planted in a hole 3-4in deep.
• If you are not sure which way up a bulb should go, plant it on its side: its stem will find its own way up.
• Plant pots and window boxes with no more than two layers of bulbs to prevent the unsightly spectacle of later-flowering plants appearing through the dying foliage of earlier ones.

Once you’ve chosen a variety of bulbs that you like, plant them haphazardly in amongst your borders for a beautifully undone look come spring, or organise them neatly into a layered display for a more dazzling effect or put them in pots to plant out into the garden as they flower.

In Pots

Fill large plastic pots with your favourite bulbs and, just before they are about to flower, use them to plug holes in the border. Plastic pots can also be slipped inside more elegant terracotta ones and whipped out when the bulbs are over. I generally store the pots behind the shed to allow the foliage to die down.  This can be done year after year with a bit of top dressing and weed control.

Bulbs in Hedges

The dry conditions at the base of hedges make ideal growing conditions for many bulbs. Tulips will be very happy on the south-facing side of a hedge, and can be left undisturbed for years.  On the shady side of the hedge, encourage carpets of Anemone blanda  for a trouble free ground cover.

On their Own

Eighteenth-century gardeners planted tulips individually, the better to appreciate their beauty. Bulbs planted singly in small terracotta pots and placed in an ordered manner around the garden bring instant elegance and formality. Lily-flowered tulips, Fritillaria persica or large-flowered alliums give a simple minimalist display.

Veggies to Plant in Autumn

 Deadheading pelargoniums

The garden is very quiet.  We stopped feeding the birds a few weeks ago and they don’t hang around begging, they just fly to new pastures. The mice that accompanied the birds and picked up the leftover seed crumbs seem to have packed up and gone too, I haven’t seen one for ages. The same can’t be said for the neighbours though, I have heard a few complain they seem to be infested with the little fur balls. Fly my beauties, fly.

Deadheading annuals

Try as I might I never seem to get around to deadheading the annuals in containers. I’m sure if I did the display would last until the end of October. There’s just something a bit yukky about nipping the soggy petunia flowers from their stems and trying to flick them from your fingers. Geraniums are OK, I don’t mind pulling their old flower heads off and the plants certainly produce more flowers so they do get looked after a bit. The rest are left to their own devices for the year until the frost gets them.

Late Vegetable Planting

There is still time to plant late vegetables as the soil is still warm. Up until the end of October there is a good range that can be sown to supplement the leeks, parsnips and Brussels that will be maturing nicely.

Broad beans

Autumn-sown broad beans help to slow down nutrients leaching through otherwise fallow soil, which allows its structure to deteriorate. They are ready a good month earlier than those sown in April, and they don't get black fly. 

Asparagus

Asparagus varieties are now available for autumn planting, which helps them establish that bit quicker. You do wait for two years before you can cut them - or four in my case because I keep forgetting they are there (and the dog sits on the young shoots).

Peas and pea shoots

For a late spring crop, it's worth trying sowing seeds now. If you sow direct into the ground, plant them one inch deep and relatively closely at about one inch apart, to make up for a higher loss rate. I enjoy the pea shoots too and these grow well in a tunnel all winter.

Garlic

This is the easiest crop to grow. Plant the cloves individually to a depth of 2.5in deep on light soils and a lot less deep on heavy soils one inch below the surface. They will do well in planters too.

Onions, spring onions and shallots

There are quite a few varieties of onions from sets that can go in now. This is the easiest way to grow onions, and they can be harvested earlier on in the year.

Winter lettuce and Lambs lettuce

It is useful in that it does not need high light levels and tolerates low temperatures, and so can be sown up until the end of October outside; it can be picked until December or into the new year with some fleece or milder weather.

Spinach

I pick it younger and just wilt the leaves rather than ruin it with overcooking. The young leaves are great in salads, too. 

Spring cabbage

You can thin early plants for spring greens and leave the rest to heart up. Watch out for pigeons.

Don’t forget the Perennials

You might see some late perennials in gardens at this time of year. They have been waiting patiently to flourish giving us a last burst of colour.

Japanese anemones are always a favourite. Tall and bold, their simple flowers in shades from pink to white really celebrate the season.

Commonly called Ice Plants, the thick fleshy foliage of sedum varieties add interest throughout the year, from the moment it develops in spring. Their flowers come in eye-catching colours from pure white to pink and red, proving as attractive to us as they are bees and butterflies.

As well as flowering plants, don’t forget that many perennials form attractive seed heads too, and these can be enjoyed right through autumn and into winter.

Favourites include cone flowers (Echinacea and Rudbeckia), globe thistle (Echinops), sea holly (Eryngium), agapanthus, ornamental grasses, and bulbs like the Pineapple Lily (Eucomis).

Asters , Michaelmas Daisies  and Verbena  are also favourites.

Net Bags may Not be the Answer

Packaging is big business. 

The tide is turning though for the type of packaging we are familiar with, especially in supermarkets.  It’s now becoming apparent that you don’t need to package anything that has its own packaging, swedes (turnips), bananas coconuts, onions for example will cope quite well on their own without a layer of polythene holding them together.

I thought I’d do my bit highlighting the issue of excess packaging, not by painting a banner and scaring customers in supermarket doorways, but by taking the items to the checkout without a bag.  It was a bit messy I must confess and I did spend quite a while rummaging under shelving looking for onions that rolled from the conveyor belts.

I needed to be proactive so I have been tracking down alternative plastic free packaging for the veggies. You won’t be surprised to learn most vegetables were transported at one time by locally made hessian bags (you can still get some now if you look hard enough) but I wanted to find some pull string organic cotton bags large enough to hold a few pounds of oranges. I sourced a few items, 3 30x40 cm pull bags and a nifty string bag with long handles.

The first issue I have with this type of packaging is that you can’t buy the material or finished item locally. I bought them within a 200 mile radius but the material it was made from came from India, which is a whopping carbon footprint. 

That was the first stumbling block. The second issue I realised is that each bag weighs in at 40g. That’s 40g worth of bag that you are paying for at the checkout above and beyond the cost of the fruit and vegetables every time you shop. I was thinking of making some up to sell (along with the wax wrap cling film replacement) but I think these two flaws in my idea are enough to stop the innovation going mainstream.  I’m currently using the net bags to house my oversized courgettes (1 to a bag) so at least I’m getting my use out of them. I took my eye off the courgettes for just  a week and they grew to marrows.

Less Packaging

The only real answer is for supermarkets and suppliers to do away with packaging and if they must use a wrap, use a biodegradable one than can be thrown on the compost heap instead of needing to be sent away to a recycling centre. Remember “cellophane”?  Originally that was made from hemp, wood or cotton. That’s hopefully making a comeback so I don’t need to take my net bags to the checkout.

I also bought some bamboo and wheat fibre toothbrushes as a way of cutting out a bit more plastic in the house (only manufactured in China at present though – I’m sure we can find an irish alternative such as willow bark)). Along with plastic straws it won’t be long until plastic toothbrushes are a thing of the past.  Unlike the straws though, I doubt they will make toothbrushes out of stainless steel. Whose idea was that to make a straw from a rigid tube of steel?  Paper and wax were ideal and certainly less potential for an accident if you have children.

Red Pepper

I’ve harvested our first red pepper this week. There are a few green ones still on the plant to ripen but this one was glowing so brightly I actually though it was the label poking through the leaves. It went straight into a stir fry with the runner beans which are still producing well. It’s amazed me how sturdy the pepper, chilli and aubergine plants are as the dog has done her best to flatten everything. She fills her time either sitting on plants or digging around the stems so the plants fall over. I’ve found her in the montbretia so many times that she has managed to kill of a large area in the middle of the clump. I’d make a fortune if I could bottle whatever it is that kills them as they are a bit of a pest. I’ll have to make her bed in the nasturtiums to see if that keeps those down too. As we speak she is now sunbathing in the middle of the new perennial border. I had put bamboo sticks in the ground as a deterrent but she ate those first before making her nest.

Securing Soil in Pots and Soil in Ireland Book

Do you think there’s ever a time you need to turn a houseplant in a pot upside down? For some unexplained reason, I think there is and have come up with a solution to the problem you never knew you had.  

Just imagine you need to send a potted plant through the post or if one day when you are dusting (whatever that is) you knock the plant over. Hey presto – no soil on the newly polished woodwork.

It’s quite simple really; all you need is a few small decorative pebbles and a heap of PVA wood glue.  I’ve been experimenting with a few different types of materials and these seem the easiest, cheapest and least harmful ingredients for the plants. Resin doesn’t allow for water to pass through so that’s OK for imitation plants and circular pieces or fabric and card either get too sloppy or curl up at the edges when they dry. 

I tested the mixture out on two small pots which have succulents in them. The larger plant is the cute Senecio Peregrinus which has the leaves shaped like diving dolphins and has a central stem so I kept the small decorative stones away from that in the same way I would keep mulch off a tree trunk. This will give the plant room to grown and keep moisture from sitting on it. I mixed the stones in wood glue prior to laying it out.  After a few hours it’s dry and the pot can be watered in the regular manner. The glue does go a bit tacky for a few minutes but soon dries again. 

There is a reason for this test though as I am thinking of shipping small plants through the post and thought this would keep everything tidy. If the customer doesn’t like the idea the stones can easily be lifted out after watering. I’m going to try upping the sizes of the pots until I reach the maximum size the glue will hold. I’m guessing about a 1 litre will be the largest which is good as I can’t see myself sending out anything larger through the post. In the mean time I’ll have fun having upside down plants on the worktops.

What goes into the plant pots to hold the roots is a very topical issue. There’s a new book on the market called ‘The Soils of Ireland’ which you might be interested in if soil is your thing.  I personally haven’t read a book since ‘Stig of the Dump’ at Primary school but this one does have 178 illustrations which will keep my interest.  

Soils of Ireland

The Environmental Protection Agency and Teagasc support a range of national activities that serve to increase knowledge on our natural environment and our natural resources, and together have launched the Soils of Ireland book which incorporates the latest national science and provides a powerful resource to inform science and policy in relation to the resilience of this critical raw material, our soil.

This publication, which has been supported by the EPA and Teagasc, and prepared by thirty-nine national experts in their respective fields, provides a richly illustrated and comprehensive overview of Irish soils, and includes important discussions and applications of the study of soils and soil management in Ireland.

Editor of The Soils of Ireland, Lilian O’Sullivan, described the utility of the book saying: “This book has been developed as a robust source of current knowledge of Irish soils and represents an important resource for students, educators, advisors, researchers and more, integrating existing knowledge together in one volume.”

The twenty one chapters address the diversity of functional roles of Irish soils in agriculture, nutrient management, water quality, ecosystems, and engineering, as well as addressing the cultural and geographical aspects of soils in our landscape and archaeology.

Our soil is a critical national resource that underpins national agricultural, environmental, ecological and cultural dimensions of our economy and society. Soil is a highly variable and yet fragile skin to our landscape, and in the context of emerging pressures from climate change, urban expansion, and intensification of use, it is essential that we have access to knowledge on soil formation, its properties and its functions in order to provide for its sustainable management into the future.

The book can be bought online and retails at around €100. There’s probably no mention of gluing soil into plant pots though.