Time to crack on

By Jim McColl

Published:

DARE I suggest that it is now time to crack on with seasonal gardening jobs? We are now into the fifth month and I’m looking forward to divesting myself of the semmit in another few weeks.

The edible border

Two or three years ago, we had a shot at creating such a border at Beechgrove but, for one reason or another, it did not finish the course. First, the rabbits got in and devoured all the lovely lettuces; a re-sow wasn’t really on, and then the Dwarf Sweet Corn died off (maybe put out a little too early and they got a touch of frost). There was definitely a conspiracy – a coming together of poor weather, beasties and foosht which sank the idea without trace.

A pity really because there is such a wide variety of foliage shape and colour in the modern vegetable range to which can be added edible flower subjects such as Nasturtium which, as children, we referred to as “nippy biscuits”.

Not everyone would have the space to dedicate to such a border, but if we turn the thing round, we could be adding some vegetables to the flower garden to add much needed foliage colour variation or flowers.

The most striking examples are to be found in the range of lettuces available today. I can think straightaway of “Salad Bowl” with its lovely crinkly or frilly leaves which can be picked regularly in a cut-and-come-again style.

The light green foliage would fit very nicely and produce a wonderful contrast when inter-planted with a dark-leaved begonia or, indeed, the wonderful dark purple of Heliotrope. Reverse the colours and under-plant a lemon yellow Osteospermum with the wine-red foliage of lettuce “Lollo Rossa” or the new one from Dobies called “Nymans”. It is a cos-type lettuce with shining ruby-red leaves.

If you want to be really adventurous, you might even grow the cauliflower with a purple curd called “Purple Graffiti” or the equally bizarre “Sunset” with an orange curd. On second thoughts, maybe not; by the time the colour appears, you will want to harvest it – if you like that sort of thing.

A bit of height at the back of the border can be achieved by making wigwams with bamboo canes to support a crop of runner beans. The wonderful scarlet flowers deserve a place in any decorative border, and if you are prepared to accept a lighter crop of beans, you might choose to grow “Painted Lady”, a variety with lovely pink and white flowers.

Recent introductions

Following on from last week’s comments about hardening off plants, may I remind you of some of the great successes we’ve had at Beechgrove in the last couple of years.

Regular viewers will know that, each season, we fill our “trial” plots with a selection of new varieties. Because we have quite small areas devoted to this, we tend to pick just a couple of genera each time. From quite a wide range, I have chosen three crackers (well, I think they are anyway).

The first is Nemesia “KLM”. Actually, there were several good ones, including “Shooting Stars”, with yellow and cream flowers, but the top for me was “KLM”, a good compact variety and, when in full flower, you can hardly see the foliage.

I know some people are not very fond of Nemesia because they find them difficult to grow, but really, in good soil and in an open situation, they should be fine. I will admit that, in a cold, wet summer, they can be a disappointment, but that applies to a whole range of half-hardy plants.

My next choice is Rudbeckia “Prairie Sun”. This is one of the best half-hardy annuals I’ve seen in many a long year. My photo doesn’t quite do it justice. The deep, almost mustard-yellow flowers with green centres are about 10cm across (that’s four inches in old money). The plants are sturdy and grow to 70cm high (more than two feet) but don’t need staking.

What I liked about this plant was the fact that it flowered well on into October and seemed to glow, even in the duller days, as if demanding to be noticed. Once again, this plant will thrive in an open, well-drained spot.

Lastly, I go back to one of my all-time favourites – Nigella (and don’t ask me why). Love-in-a-Mist is a great favourite of many gardeners. It is a hardy annual; in other words, it can be sown directly into the soil in the next few weeks and will flower happily in situ as long as you remember to thin out the seedlings when they emerge, spacing about 15cm apart (six inches).

The original is Miss Jekyll, which has a lovely sky-blue flower. I’m not so fond of “Persian Jewel”, a mixture of pinks, whites, dark and light blues, but that is a personal thing. I’m not too keen on “mixtures” in general.

The new one is “Choc Ice” and that does appeal to me. The large flowers have creamy white petals and a dark brown, almost black “boss” in the centre. It’s cool man – cool!

Sowing hardy annuals

Picking up on that last topic, ideally you would choose a sunny location and not attempt to enrich the soil too much – in other words, you want lots of flower and as little foliage as is necessary. Simply rake the ground to a reasonably fine tilth and broadcast the hardy annual seeds over the surface, gently rake in and firm by treading over. The perfectionist would then rake over very lightly to take out the footmarks.

Ah, say many new gardeners, but when the flower seedlings come up, I can’t distinguish them from weed seedlings that appear at the same time.

Absolutely correct, and that is why I suggest that, instead of broadcast sowing, you sow hardy annual flower seeds in mini-drills.

The usual procedure, after the final soil preparation, is to mark out patches in quite random shapes with some sand. Taking one patch at a time, draw parallel drills across the patch. For low-growing types, the drills might be no more than 15cm (six inches) apart.

In each patch, you draw the drills at a different angle. In this way, as the seeds emerge, you will deduce that the seedlings which appear to grow in straight lines will be the ones you want to keep because, as the ancient sage said, “plants in nature do not grow in straight lines”. When the plants begin to mature and grow into each other, the straight-line effect disappears.

You will notice that there is an interrelation between planting and thinning distances and the eventual height and girth of the mature plants. This applies whether you are growing annuals or trees. Judgment of how that relates to your particular site and soil comes with experience.