Forest FM's Gardening Guru
Sue Watts-Cutler
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Let's Grow Potatoes!
Like all home grown produce, a potato from your own garden will taste far superior to your average supermarket version. What's more, with the advent of the potato planter tub and small packs of seed potatoes, they now need not take up a huge area of garden either.
February is the month to buy seed potatoes and to get them started.
Generally, potatoes can be regarded as falling into one of two groups: "earlies" and "maincrop". The difference is essentially one of the time it takes for the potatoes to be ready to harvest (from nine weeks in the case of a "first early" but 12 - 14 for a "maincrop").
Within these two groups, potato breeders have catered their varieties towards certain types of culinary preparation. "Home Guard", for instance is a floury type which makes a good chip or mash, whereas "Charlotte", "Anya" or "Pink Fir Apple" have a higher water content and a waxy texture, making them ideal new salad potatoes. Other varieties, such as "Kestrel" are pretty multi-pupose.
Before they can be planted outdoors, seed potatoes (particularly the "earlies") should be 'chitted' or allowed to form sprouting shoots indoors, Place them in an old egg carton with the end showing the most eyes (dormant buds) uppermost. They are ready to plant out when the shoots are about an inch (2.5cms) or so long.
Potatoes will thrive in a wide variety of soils (although some varieties have their preferences) as long as the soil has been dug over and contains a good quantity of organic matter (but not recent manuring - add something like fish, blood and bone fertilizer instead). Plant the seed potatoes in shallow trenches about 5" (18cms) deep with the potatoes about a foot (30cms) apart for earlies and slightly more for maincrop plants, which are bigger.
Potato foliage is not frost hardy, so cover the shoots with extra soil if they begin to show above the surface when frosts threaten. As the plant grows larger, mound up more soil around the stems so that there is no risk of the superficial potatoes catching the light and going green. Green potatoes are poisonous.
Keep the plants well watered in dry summer weather to swell the potatoes and harvest 'earlies' as soon as the flowers open (or the buds drop instead). To be on the safe side, carefully check that the tubers are the size of hen's eggs before digging up the whole plant.
"Maincrop' potatoes for storing into the following winter should be left until the leaves have died off, lifted, allowed to dry, then stored in a wooden box in a cool, dry, dark and frost-free place, where they will keep for months.
Remember to check the bed to make sure you have dug up every potato to avoid unwelcome seedlings the following year. Also ensure that if you wish to grow potatoes again the following season, that they are grown in a different area; do not grow them on the same piece of land again for at least two years. On the same principle, use new soil in your potato tubs each year if you are growing them in this way.
Here's to a tasty harvest!
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Choosing a real Christmas Tree
There is something unique about a real Christmas tree in your house at Christmas. Whilst artificial trees are often quicker, less messy and repay your investment in a few years, they can never quite duplicate the freshness and woodland scent of the real thing - even if they may improve in authentic appearance as new models become more lifelike. Real Christmas trees can be found in three main forms and, if you aspire to re-use the same tree in future years, it may affect your choice.
Firstly, you can buy 'container grown' Christmas trees. These have been potted and grown on on a nursery for a year or so and have a well developed root system. If you aim to plant the tree in the garden afterwards and use it again the following year, these trees are most likely to survive (given suitable care and water in the summer). The disadvantage is that they tend to be small in size for the price, even starting out as a table top version.
Another form is that of the Christmas trees with some roots. As these are dug out of a field fairly roughly shortly before Christmas, their chances of survival are quite a bit lower than the container grown trees. However, they can sometimes make it (with care) and present a decent sized specimen. The remains of their root system enables them to drink water perhaps slightly more efficiently than a cut tree.
The most widely available form of Christmas tree is the 'cut tree', whose trunk is simply sawn off just above ground level. Needless to say, this will not grow again but you can buy a good sized tree of this type. The cut Christmas tree is, in effect, a woody version of a cut flower and needs to be treated like one if it is to remain fresh-looking over the Christmas period. Here are a few tips to extend its indoor life:
1. Cut trees will last longer outside where it is cold than in a hot, indoor position. Therefore, it is advisable to leave it out in the garden (ideally having carried out step 2 below) until quite near Christmas and bring it in just before Christmas eve.
2. Just as the cut stem of a flower will dry out and prevent it taking up water any more, so will the trunk of your tree, which was probably cut many weeks before it appeared for sale. So, with a water filled container or Christmas tree stand at the ready, saw a slice off the bottom of the trunk, then place it into water to drink immediately. You will find that once indoors, the tree will prove to be surprisingly thirsty, so ensure that the water in the stand or container is constantly topped up as required.
3. Bearing in mind that cold will encourage your tree to last longer, position it in a cool room, well away from sources of heat such as radiators or the fire. Light from a close window is helpful but draughts are not.
The most popular types of Christmas tree in recent years have been those which tend to hold on to their needles as they dessicate. These so called 'needle hold' trees will shed a few needles but fewer than the old Norway Spruce types, so popular a while back. Their needles are also soft and flat so they tend not to feel like stepping on a pin if you encounter them in your socks or bare feet!
Two readily available types of 'needle hold' trees are the Nordman Fir, bushy and with shiny, dark green upper surfaces to its needles and blue-grey beneath. The other is the much bluer and stiffer Noble Fir. The latter has a particularly attractive lemony scent and spaces between the (initially) horizontal branches to accommodate presents.
Remember though - a cut Christmas tree is just for Christmas - not for life!
Happy Christmas,
Sue Watts-Cutler
Moving Woody Plants
Plants grow and expand so there often comes a time when a woody plant, such as a shrub, climber or young tree would be better moved into another position. This is particularly likely in the case of massed commercial landscape planting on new developments where the original planting was intentionally far too close in order to create a 'mature' effect more quickly. After a while, some of the surplus plants will need to be thinned out. Other scenarios can be that a plant outgrows its neighbours, looks 'wrong' in its present position, or would do far better in a position more suited to its needs elsewhere in the garden.
Not all plants can be successfully dug up and moved. The very operation of doing so causes both shock and significant root damage. If you wish to move an established plant, you can ascertain its chances of survival by considering the following factors:
1. Timing. From November to February is the best time to move deciduous woody plants. Evergreens can also be moved in October. This is because moving the plant in winter means that the damaged root system has a chance to regrow before leaves and flowers make heavy demands on it. Attempts at moving plants of any significant size in the spring or summer when they are in full growth is likely to end in their death.
2. Size. There gets a point when the plant is simply too large to move successfully. Apart from the physical impossibility of digging out and lifting a giant rootball of soil, a very large plant has probably been in its current position so long that to move it now would cause so much shock and root damage it would not survive. Consider the full grown dimensions of the plant. If the specimen you want to move has reached that stage or is near it, the chances are you are too late.
3. Type of plant. Some varieties of plant naturally have delicate or brittle root systems and the damage caused by trying to move them is too extensive. In this category would be Daphnes, Magnolias, Laburnums or Robinias. Attempting to move conifers of any significant size also tends to end in failure.
To move a plant, choose a day when the soil is not waterlogged or icy. Dig a ring ditch around it, some way out from the trunk or main stems. The idea is to lift it with a good sized rootball i.e. with a core of undamaged roots protected by soil.
Replant it to the same depth in the new position, having dug in a good amount of compost into the new area. This will help the new roots penetrate the soil as they grow. Firm in gently.
The transplanted item must be kept constantly moist through the following spring and summer. In effect, what you have done is to imbalance the ratio between the amount of top growth and the roots which support it, so the latter need all the help they can get. Other techniques to redress this imbalance involve reducing the amount of top growth to bring it more into line with what the roots can cope with, or shading and protecting the plant from wind to discourage evaporation of water from the foliage, which the roots then have to replace.
Give your plant regular doses of liquid fertilizer in the first spring and summer, watering it over the leaves as well as round the base. Liquid fertilizer can be absorbed through leaves when roots may not be functioning well.
Happy gardening!
Sue Watts-Cutler
Got a question ?
Email sue@forestfm.co.uk or call 01202 820003
Sue Watts-Cutler
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