Our village show just gets better year on year!  The Horticultural Society is expecting a record number of exhibits in the Grand Marquee.  Have you thought what you might enter yet?  It is all about participation – dozens of different classes including flowers, fruit, vegetables, home baking, photography, handicrafts and so much more, designed to appeal to you all, regardless of age and aptitude.

Outside you will find the superb fete featuring traditional and contemporary craft and produce stalls, delicious afternoon teas, the Copthorne Silver Band, hog roast, pizza stand, Mexican food, beer tent and loads of stuff to keep the children happy including donkeys, owls and other animals.  Dog lovers will not want to miss the Fun Dog Show, sponsored by Cobbydogs, (is it possible to insert link to p20 of Show Schedule) which starts at 2 p.m.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Classic Car Show will this year be featuring a record number of vehicles.  An amazing mixture of cars from the glamorous to the every day.

All this for an entry fee of just £5 per adult whilst children 15 and under are free.  Tickets can be purchased online at capelboxoffice.co.uk

Pick up a schedule today from Capel News or Carters, check Capel Horticultural Society Facebook page or download here.

Come along and support this local community event.  We look forward to seeing you there, and, who knows, you might even win a prize!

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This coming Sunday, June 18th from 1 – 5pm there is a unique opportunity to visit nine lovely and varied gardens in Weare Street and Woodlands Drive (RH5 5JA).  The gardens are being opened in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK, the country’s leading charity for research into the causes, treatments and prevention of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Tickets cost just £5 with under 13s going free.  There will be parking at Stylehurst Farm and tea, coffee and cake at Newlands.  You can buy your tickets on the gate of any of the open  gardens or in advance from Carters or Capel Newsagents.  Please do come and support this good cause whilst enjoying some hidden horticultural gems.

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Photos from our Plant Sale are now available to view in the Gallery

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Garden work for May

Flowers

Unless there is prolonged rain (which can happen!) water all newly planted trees and shrubs with a bucket of water every 4 days for a 2m tree.

Clip evergreen hedges but make sure you will not disturb birds

Once the danger of frost has passed, plant out cannas and dahlias.

Finish planting summer bulbs like gladioli.

Divide congested groups of daffodils when not flowering and leaf growth is finished.

Spiraea should be pruned by up to one-third to allow light and air in.

Cut back mildewed pulmonaria leaves to ensure health new growth.

Acclimatise tender plants by covering with horticultural fleece at night for about a week so that they can get used to outside conditions.

Divide waterlilies if they are not flowering well.

Vegetables

Provided your asparagus is established you can start cutting now.

Runner beans and zucchini should be sown early on.  Because our garden is a veritable slug and snail city (even though we have a lovely lot of thrushes who help keep the snails under control) we generally start our runner beans in the greenhouse and plant them out at the end of the month.  To give runners the best chance, sow them individually in the divided plastic trays (24 to a seed tray).  Try to get the beans out before they start shooting too much and become tangled up with each other.

Remember to earth up your spuds by about 10cm when the shoots are well above ground.

Early on in May complete sowing cucumbers, courgettes and squashes in pots for planting out at the end of May/beginning of June.

Make sure you have a succession of lettuce and other salad crops by sowing a small amount every 10 days or so.

To control codling moth in apple trees hang up pheromone traps.

Make sure radish and brassica do not dry out to ensure good growth.

For heavy strawberry crops give them a tomato (high potash) liquid feed every week or two.

Support broad beans with a strong string and post structure.

At the end of the month, plant out sweet corn.  Make sure that they are squares, rather than rows to ensure pollination.

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Our annual Plant Sale takes place on the morning of Saturday 13 May in the Village Hall. Home-grown vegetables, perennials, shrubs, geraniums and bedding plants will all be available.

As you tidy up your garden this spring, rather than discard unwanted plants, why not pot them up to bring along and donate for the Society to sell to others.

This is a very popular event – last year we had sold out by 11.30am – so get there early for the best selection. Tea and biscuits will also be available.

Further details: Sally Griffin. Email: sallygriffin321@gmail.com Tel: 01306 712870

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Using green manure

I have taken on one-third of an allotment located at the Recreation Ground.  A full sized allotment is just too much for me, although someone else has just done that and made a marvellous job of reclaiming it from years of disuse.  I started nearly two years ago and grew potatoes on it for the first year.  The first early and second early crops were relatively successful.  The same could not be said for the main crop, on which I had started out with high hopes.  Quite what went wrong, I am not sure, but I suspect lack of fertility played a part, so I decided to manure the plot using the traditional method of green manure.  It was, and still is, an experiment.

I started sowing my crop of Phacelia tanacetifolia, ( sorry, there is no common name that I know of), at the start of October last year and completing it by the end of October.  Here is a photo I took of the crop in mid-April this year:

The fork is there to show the height of the mature crop, nearly a metre.  It was just about to flower and by all accounts once the flowers go to seed it becomes highly invasive, so I was glad that I have been digging it in over time.

The idea behind green manure has been used for a long time by farmers when they used to sow nitrogenous crops lie red clover, as well as field beans and even radish to plough into the soil.  Not only does this incorporate nutrients but also the organic plant material is useful in building up the worm population.  I have noticed that this is already happening on the areas where I have dug some weeks ago.  Before incorporation I only saw a worm on rare occasions, now they keep cropping up.

I hope to report in more detail later in the year when my onions and flowers have been raised.

Chris Coke

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Vegetables

Plant second early potatoes in the first half of April, with main crop in the second half of the month.  Example varieties of second earlies are Anya, Catriona and Charlotte.  Main crop varieties include Cara, Desiree, King Edward and Majestic.  There are loads of others.

Pot on tomato seedlings into individual pots when they have their first set of true leaves.

Protect pests of brassicas and carrots by covering the crop with horticultural fleece.  Make sure to secure all the edges.  Stronger protection is needed if wild birds are a problem.

Now is the time to sow beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip spring onions, peas and perpetual spinach.

Sow late maturing brassicas such as Brussels sprouts for transplanting in June or July.

Complete planting of shallot, onion sets and seed-grown onions.

Other jobs

For garden wildlife now is the time to sow direct annual flowering plants like marigolds, nigella and cornflower for insects and seed heads later.  Oregano and thyme are loved by bees too.

Your lawn would benefit from a spring lawn feed.  Products that include moss killer as well as fertiliser are useful.  Once the moss killer has worked it will need raking out and removed.  I have found that it takes ages to breakdown in a compost heap and is almost impossible to burn,, so the only way to get rid of it is to bag it and take it to the recycling centre (always assuming the MVDC allows us to do this in view of their policy to close these centres for one or two days a week).

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Garden work for March.

Flower garden

Our heavy clay soil is great for retaining moisture, but it is easily compacted, especially in wet weather.  So try to use short boards of about i.5 metres (5’) length to stand on when digging the soil in preparation for all the growing that will come.

March is the time to start laying the basis for a good lawn through the season.  First lightly rake the grass to get rid of all the debris.  Do a first cut when it has dried out a bit, but remember to set the mower blades high.  Cut the edges with a half-moon cutter, or use edging shears.

It is a good time in March to increase your stock of perennials like delphiniums, pulmonarias, dahlias and chrysanthemums.  The way to do it is to look for shoots of about 5cm long, take them as cuttings using a sharp knife to remove the shoot at root level.  Pot them up individually in small pots using a mixture of 7 parts compost and 3 parts vermiculite.  Put them in a cold frame, or an unheated greenhouse and they should root in about 10 days.  Once they are rooted, repot in larger pots of compost (perhaps John Innes No.2).

Half-hardy annuals like marigold, sweet alyssum, annual phlox, ten-week stocks, asters and zinnias should be sown in seed trays and kept under cover towards the end of the month.  They will benefit from a bit of gentle heat (around 10ºC) to start them off.

Ornamental grasses that have been left to show their form over the winter should be cut back in March to encourage new growth.  Hybrid tea roses should be pruned in March.  Cut them back to 30 cm above ground.  Remove all disease or damaged stems.  Side shoots of floribunda rose should be pruned to about 15 cm.

Protect the new shoots from established plants (like hosta, delphinium and clematis) from slugs and snails with an appropriate treatment.

Vegetables

An old rhyme to think of when sowing your peas is as follows:  “One for the mouse, One for the crow, One to rot, And one to grow.”

Start leeks under glass for pricking out and transplanting at the end of the month.  Salad crops such as lettuce can be started for transplanting once they have established themselves.  Put them into the soil that you have warmed up under cloches or fleece.

In order to give the best germination of any seeds that you want to start, make sure that the soil, or seed compost, you use is as warm as possible.  So put out cloches over the area in the garden where you intend to start early crops.  Do this at least a week or so before sowing in order to warm the ground.  Equally, if you are using a seed compost, bring it in to a shed or greenhouse before making up the pots or seed trays so that it has been thoroughly warmed through.  Most seeds need a soil temperature of at least 10ºC (50ºF), and do better if it is about 15ºC.  This is a very general rule of thumb*, and there are many differences for different species, but it is true for a lot of the plants we grow.

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Garden work for February.

Flower garden

Towards the end of the month dogwoods that have the lovely wood stems in brilliant reds and yellows should be coppiced, to encourage new growth for the next winter show.  Usually I am cautious and only cut about one-third to one half, but if you are brave, have a go and do the whole bush.

If you sow sweet peas in mid-February (in a greenhouse) they will produce plants to flower later in the summer.

Purple Buddleia davidii should be pruned towards the end of the month.  You will be well rewarded provided you prune quite severely, but always leave at least 3 or 4 buds for the fresh growth, in case there are late frosts.

Keep an eye out for slug and snail damage on emerging plants, as this will cause severe damage.  Use appropriate control measures.  Delphiniums are especially prone to attack.

It is important to practice good hygiene, crop rotation and ensure that a minor infestation does not become a plague by taking early action.  One action that can be taken by rose growers is to make sure that all dead leaves from the previous year are taken off and removed to be burnt.  Do not put them on the compost heap as this will only continue the cycle of black spot.

Consider starting some annual flowering plants such as larkspur, cornflower, godetia, clarkia and calendula under cloches.  With care, they could be in bloom early and provide those lovely cut flowers in June.

Trim back winter flowering heathers as the blooms fade, with shears to prevent them from getting overgrown and straggly.

Vegetables

As the buds on the gooseberry bushes begin to swell, they will become ever more attractive to bullfinches and other birds, so give them some protection.  Ideally, they should be protected by a fruit cage.  Alternatively use the old trick of straining black cotton thread from branch to branch over the bushes.

Any seedbeds that have been protected under cloches or garden fleece can be started to be sown with hardy vegetables such as parsnips.  You can also start to consider sowing some early cabbage and brussel sprouts.  Divide and replant chives towards the end of the month.

In sheltered areas, crops such as onions, peas, lettuce and radish can be sown with suitable protection – either under cloches or heavyweight fleece.

Rhubarb clumps should be lifted and divided in February.  Tomato seed should be sown in greenhouses with appropriate heat to get them germinated.

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Garden work for January.

Flower garden

Lord Carrington once advised all gardeners ‘Never go into your garden without your secateurs’ – so if you do, have a safe place to keep them as they are expensive to replace.  After all the feasting, it is a good idea to get out into the garden and clear the head by having a look around and seeing how it will all develop in the coming season.

This is the time of year when houseplants are most appreciated.  Azaleas, cineraria and cyclamen will all help to cheer things up.  Do not over water, and most of these plants like cool conditions.

Have a good look at the structure of your garden and decide where to put the plants that give height and substance to the overall shape of the garden.

Make sure that your bulbs that are in pots do not get waterlogged, and keep an eye out for any predators that may be about, such as squirrels, slugs and snails.

Towards the middle of the month start is a good time to make preparations for taking chrysanthemum cuttings.  If you have a cold frame make sure it is ready and make up the necessary soil.  A good mixture is two parts loam, one part peat, and one part sand to ensure good drainage.  Any pots or boxes should be cleaned and the chrysanthemum stools brought in to start them growing sturdy cuttings.

Towards the end of January prune fuchsias.  Cut back all side growth hard, to about 2 mm from the stem.

Vegetables

Rhubarb can be forced using an upturned bucket or tub.  This should be covered with garden fleece to keep off any frost.

When seed potatoes arrive, keep them in a frost-free place and stand the tubers, eye-end uppermost, in shallow boxes.  If you can get large egg trays these are ideal for keeping the tubers upright and just separated to prevent any infection spreading.

To get the best onions start the first sowings this month, and you should give a good dressing of wood ash on the site of the bed that you will use, since onions really do well with a good level of potash.

Why not try some different culinary herbs, for example Basil Lime (Ocimum americanum) which adds a twist of lime flavour to any dish.  It can be grown on the window sill.  Then there is Dill (Antheum gravolens), Oregano (Origanum vulgare) as well as Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) which is an evergreen and Myrrh (Myrrhis odorate).  All can be grown relatively easily from seed.

Clear away the stems and roots of savoy and other green crops that have finished and push on with the winter cultivation whenever this is possible.

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