Gardening

Notes from a Small Garden

Many of you will have attended the Friends of Holy Trinity Garden Open Gardens day at the beginning of September. It was such a beautiful day after all that cold weather in August and the visitors seemed very happy and relaxed. I know that the Friends are very grateful to all the owners who generously opened up their gardens, as well as the volunteers manning the stalls in the garden at the Court. The plant stall was magnificent, all the items having been collected over the last year, beautifully potted up and labelled. One man spied some purple sprouting broccoli plants with glee and promptly bought six; his plants having been destroyed by caterpillars. The hardy geraniums were snapped up quickly and I came home with several treasures including a miniature tulbaghia violacea which is now sitting near the taller variety round our little fountain. This species resembles the agapanthus, is pinky violet, and belongs to the Amaryllis famiily. They seem to thrive in a pot; they have flowered all summer and are still going strong. Lately members of the Veg Club have been exchanging emails about their tomatoes with some, including me, bewailing the loss of all our outdoor tomatoes to the dreaded blight. It’s so disappointing to see a plant suddenly look sickly and then succumb, with the leaves and stems turning brown. Fruit won’t ripen and you know that there’s nothing you can do to stop the plant dying. The disease is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans and is the same fungus as causes potato blight and usually occurs in warm wet weather. It’s uncommon to get blight on tomatoes grown in a greenhouse or a polytunnel. The key to prevention is keeping the leaves dry, providing enough ventilation and water only at the base of the plant. Don’t plant outdoor tomatoes near potatoes. Our Veg Club members recommend Crimson Crush, Cherry Crush, Magic Mountain and Sungold which were all grown outside this summer without blight. The two plants which I lost were Shimmer and Costoluto Florantino. It’s useful information when ordering seeds for next year.

Now on to October and I have read that we are promised wonderful autumn colouring this year.

Some jobs for the month:

 Rake up leaves and start making leaf mould  Cut down and divide herbaceous perennials  Plant or move shrubs and small trees If you are worried about losing dahlia tubers to the frost, towards the end of the month, dig up the tubers, wash and dry them, wrap them up in brown paper, label them and store where mice can’t get them! Good gardening.

Julie Draper juliedraper@dumbflea.co.uk

Moorlands Court

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