Solis

Mac’s garden centre
Whilst some of us have had a long break from any form of gardening duties, there are some dedicated horticulturalists that work through all weathers. There doesn’t have to be blooms in the borders for landscapers like John McDermott from Mac’s Garden Centre in Ballymagan to be out working. John and his team have spent the last few months undertaking a large landscaping project at the Solis Lough Eske Hotel, the only 5 star hotel in Donegal. The hotel boasts a 43-acre garden only 5 kms from Donegal Town. Creating a new garden around the Elizabethan style hotel wasn’t all that John has been doing. John started selling plants last year and because the demand is so great he has had to expand. The multispan polythene tunnel is full of summer promise and the display areas are bulging with new stock ready to adorn the gardens of Inishowen. John is also taking orders for hanging baskets and window boxes, for lots of colour this summer.

Architectural planting schemes
John is a firm fan of architectural planting schemes, especially grasses. Phormiums grow well in Inishowen. Planting smaller grasses around these add all year interest as they catch the low sunshine and wave in the wind. John has a fine selection of ornamental grasses, such as Acorus, with their compact habit. Astielia westland red and the spiky Fascicularia bicolour. This plant is actually a bromeliad and rewards us with a fantastic blue flower and white bracts, so not all architectural plants are flowerless. Planted close together to form a dense mat, these plants will give years of pleasure for very little work. Placing them into an area that has been covered with weed block material and given a surface dressing of stone or woodchip will make the job all the more maintenance free, allowing you to get on with planting those early vegetables.

Planting the vegetables
April is a good time to be planting vegetable seeds and in the garden. Asparagus, beetroot, broad beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, courgette and spinach are just a few of the seeds that can be planted out now. If you are limited for space to grow your own seedlings under protection, then small plants might suit you better. Local shops are now stocking packets that can be planted straight outside. Salad crops can be planted from seed now. Basil, chives, lettuce, radish, parsley and spring onions can all be placed out into warm prepared beds or containers.

Clean up your pots for the summer
If you are thinking about using plant pots and containers from last year, these could do with being cleaned too, before anything is planted into them. All sorts of pests and diseases can lurk in the crevices. It isn’t uncommon to find a nest of woodlice or loads of baby slugs living in the gaps in between each pot. (Sorry if you are eating your breakfast!) These could go undetected until they have eaten all of the young plants that you placed in them. Don’t let the dirt build up on your favourite garden ornaments either (unless of course you want that old style look) Get the brush and soapy water out and start scrubbing.

Early flowering plants
John has some fantastic early flowering plants in at the moment. Camellias are just about out and there are two types to choose from, Japonica, supreme red, and Williamsii donation ‘pink’. The rhododendrons and azaleas are looking good at the moment too. I always think it makes sense to take regular trips to the garden centres at all times of the year to buy plants that are looking good in season. This way you will be guaranteed something of interest all year round. Just because we don’t like to go outside when it’s cold and wet, doesn’t mean that plants don’t thrive on it!

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.