A Conversation for Seasonal Gardening Timetable

Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 1

Mina

Ok, ok, so I’m Linda now, but it’s a hard habit to break.

Here in the uk we don’t have climate, we have weather. But it is (loosely) separated into 4 seasons. For the gardener each season becomes early, middle and late. For instance, Early Spring is February to March, mid Spring is March to April, and so on through the year.

As I’ve only been interested in gardening enough to do more than mow the lawn for a couple of years, I can only pass on knowledge of plants that I’ve got. So excuse any gaps I’ve left.

Early Spring – Pruning:
Lemon Verbena, but only bring it out of the greenhouse when all threat of frost is gone, as it’s not hardy.
Dogwood, grown for it’s bright stems, cut it back to about 3 to 4 inches off the ground, as the youngest stems are the brightest. The discarded stems can be cut to 10 inches and planted into the ground or into pots. They should root for new plants in the autumn. The red varieties look good next to ponds.
Prune summer flowering plants that flower on young wood. Cut to with 1-2 inch of the old wood to encourage new shoots. Also cut down last years growth of herbaceous plants.
Snowdrops that have finished flowering can be dug up, divided, and replanted. As daffodils begin to show their shoots, dig them up, divide the bulbs, and replant immediately.

Mid Spring – Any hardly plants that have been grown over the winter in greenhouses and on windowsills can be planted out now, as long as the soil is workable.
Any seeds that need an early start can be sown now. Keep the seedlings in a frost free, light place, but shelter from strong sunlight.


Late Spring – remove blanket weed from ponds, and fill gaps with new plants.
Tie in climbing plants to supports with soft twine. Leave plenty of room for growth, so tie loosely! Feed with high potash fertiliser to encourage flowering.

Early Summer - Plant out any non hardly seedlings that have survived.
If you have Sweet Peas keep deadheading as it encourages more flowers.

Mid Summer – In the wildlife garden, cut back nettles for new growth. Butterflies don’t like to lay their eggs on old plants.

Early Autumn – My favourite time!
Propagation – Any plants you have that you want more of, now is the time to gain more stock for free! There are many different ways to do it, and most plants have a choice of two or more. Layering, dividing, collecting seeds, taking cuttings…
Prune any emerging aquatic plants on ponds. Never take more than a third of each plant. Leave surface plants as they are as they prevent algae.
Put non hardy plants into the greenhouse to overwinter.

Late Autumn – Divide large rhubarb crowns, especially those that flowered freely. Lift the crowns and split with a spade into fist sized pieces. Replant 1metre apart. Strong crowns can be potted up for forcing. This means putting them in the dark, cover with straw and a bucket and let them grow. The forced stems grow a pale pink, and can be eaten as normal when they are ready. Special pots can be bought for this, to put over the plant in the soil.



Late winter – Dogwoods can be layered (a form of propagation which involves laying a part of the plant on the ground ,or burying a portion it, which can be cut off the main plant when it has rooted). Twist the stem a little to damage it, or remove a ring of bark, and then peg it into the soil.


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 2

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

One aspect of gardens which I think gets sadly neglected is the winter colour (I'm not saying you do this as you grow dogwood). Coloured stems certainly add some colour during winter, but there are some plants which flower late autumn -> early spring. I'm thinking of Abelias (which have an incredible fragrance and a local bush was flowering right through November), Witch Hazels (Hamamelis: again, good for fragrance) and of course Helleborus niger. Then, there's always bulbs, notably snowdrops (can't remember the latin name). If you don't feel like winter flowers, go for berries. Apart from the obvious (holly, for example) there are hundreds of garden plants which give a splendid show of berries in the winter.

The old roses which have the multi-flowering gene in them make lovely winter garden plants. In the last house we had a white rambling rose in the back garden. This was still in flower at Christmas, amazingly, and the white blooms looked beautiful against the snow.


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 3

Mina

I'm trying not to miss out winter colour. I've got winter jasmine in the front and back garden, but as I planted them late last autumn they've only just flowered. The back has more flowers than the front, as it faces south. I also thought I'd planted snowdrop bulbs last autumn, but when they grew they looked much more like crocuses. smiley - blue
Note to self: don't buy bulbs from buckets in markets. And they are not doing very well anyway.

I've also got a witch hazel on order, I can only grow one as my soil is alkaline. The mail order nursery that I found that sells them says I have to wait until the end of summer to take delivery.

If you get holly bushes though, remember you have to have a male and a female plant, otherwise no berries.

PS have you planted any teasal yet? Mine is doing quite well, and should be ready to plant out soon. smiley - biggrin


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 4

Primord

in my attempt to get Goldfinches to visit my garden, i am interested in growing Teazle- does anyone know where I could get the seeds for this plant? apart from straight from the teazle of course....smiley - silly


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 5

Mina

If you are anywhere near London, I bought mine from the Chelsea Physic Garden. http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/smiley - ok

Goldfinches also like sunflowers, although I didn't attract any last year. smiley - blue


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 6

Primord

awww! thats a shame- they are so beautiful- last year I had 6 in my garden at the one time- right at the end of summer, and id love to have them visit again- thanks for the tip about the sunflowers- il try that out smiley - rose


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 7

Mina

If you are lucky, maybe they self seeded. If not, you could see if you can find an online supplier who will deliver them to you.


Mina's Gardening Calender

Post 8

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

I haven't planted anything out yet as I'm still indulging in some landscaping. But I shall: thanks for the reminder.

One other seasonal thing to remind everyone of: when autumn comes, sweep up all the leaves into a large black plastic bag (I have eight at the last count), tie off and leave. the follwing year you'll have lots of crumbly leaf mould to work into clay soil.


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