The Gardening Calendar

By Richard Shepherd

A complete gardening calendar with help for every week of the year. Find out what you should be doing in your garden as each season progresses. A guide to the year's work in the garden, shown week by week.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Shepherd
• Release date: May 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311484543

Book preview

The Gardening Calendar

Published by Cyber Solutions Ltd at Smashwords

Copyright Cyber Solutions Ltd 2014 All rights reserved

Chapter 1. January

Week 1

Drain off surplus moisture after watering bulbs in bowls. Test need for water by tapping bowl. A hollow ring denotes dryness; a dull sound a moist compost. Cover with small pots any not making headway. Brush with an insecticide plants which may be affected by greenfly. If stunted blooms develop on hyacinths water twice at a week’s interval with a quarter teaspoonful of sulphate of potash in a pint of water and pack damp moss round them. Remove any water settling in centres of hyacinth stems with tissue. When daffodil buds die before blooms open the cause is probably lack of water. Over watering turns leaf tips yellow, while too much moisture in tulips causes stems to rot and blooms to droop. Stir the surface fibre with a fork occasionally.

Regular inspection of vegetables in store is a rule all gardeners should observe. You will discover disease early and be able to deal with it before it assumes serious proportions. Dry rot is one such trouble that attacks potatoes in store. Any tuber found with patches should be removed and burnt. Damp and poor ventilation are the most likely causes of this trouble. Another disease of this kind which attacks root crops in store is Heart Rot. Here again affected roots should be removed and burnt. Seed boxes or other containers emptied of affected roots should be treated with copper sulphate solution to prevent a recurrence of infection when next used.

Apart from the pleasure of watching their antics, well fed birds are less likely to cause damage in the garden, so a bird table and a nut dispenser is an advantage.

Week 2

You may obtain blooms of Perpetual Carnations nearly all the year by taking cuttings at intervals of about 5 weeks from now until May. Choose shoots 4 inches long near the centre of centre of plants and remove with a thin ‘heel’ of stem. Remove the lower leaves. Insert round edges of pots filled with sand and loam. Water in and place in a propagating case in a greenhouse with low heat if possible. When rooted pot separately into small pots and later into larger pots in which they will flower in late summer. Potting compost is of sandy loam 4 parts, decayed manure, leaf mould and sand 1 part each, made firm. Pinch off points of shoots several times and cease ‘stopping’ after mid June. Stand pots out of doors for the whole of the summer months.

Seeds of Sweet Peas sown under glass now should produce better plants than those sown later on ground where they are to flower. Pierce seed coating without damaging germ, then soak before sowing singly in small pots. Do not use fresh manure. Make compost firm and leave space at top for watering. Keep pots dark until germination takes place, then admit light and air. When the first pair of leaves form, allow soil to dry, knock out ball of soil, separate plants and pot singly. When 3 pairs of leaves have formed pinch out top to make seedling branch.

Week 3

If your fruit trees were not pruned in November they may be done now. On Apple and Pear trees, laterals, except natural fruit spurs, on most varieties are cut back to 3 or 4 buds of their base. Cut just above a bud pointing in the direction you wish to grow. Leaders are shortened by one third, or if weak by one half. With maiden trees branches are induced to form a well shaped head by cutting just above a bud, leaving a stem of 2.5 feet. Make a nick below this bud. The next bud will then make the top shoot, while nicks cut just above buds lower down will cause them to develop strong shoots. A fruit bud can be formed by making a nick just below a bud in the desired position.

By planting different kinds of heath plants it is possible to have bloom all year. They vary in height from a few inches to many feet. They need no fertilisers and are not attacked by pests. An exposed bed suits some, others like a place in a rock garden, while many are suitable for planting among flowering shrubs or dwarf conifers. Most kinds do not like soil with much lime. Dig ground deeply incorporating leaf mould, lawn clippings, etc with the lower soil. Make firm before planting. Heath plants will remain in their position for years. Keep free of weeds and give a top dressing of peat or decayed leaf soil annually. Cut back immediately after flowering. All varieties can be increased by cuttings in August. Low growing kinds can be lifted and divided.

Shake compost from winter rested Gloxina corms. Put in a box of light soil and leaf mould but do not cover. Place box in greenhouse in temperature of 60 degrees. When shoots are 1 inch high pot separately in small pots in compost, tips of corms just below pot rims. Bulbs of Amaryllis are started into growth in temperatures of 50 degrees. Moisten soil. Remove loose skin and use an insecticide to kill pests. Half bury bulbs in fibrous loam, 3 parts, and decayed manure and leaf mould, 1 part each, with silver sand and a little bone meal. Make firm with a stick. By this means you should obtain much earlier blooms from the bulbs.

Week 4

Winter prune grape vines before growth restarts. Each side shoot which grew during the previous summer is cut back to within two plump buds of its base. When these start to develop select the stronger of the two and rub the weaker one out. Remove loose bark. To propagate the vine cut off pieces from the prunings, 2 inches long, each bearing a plump bud. Trim the cuttings and make a V shaped cut on the opposite side of the bud. Insert in pots of compost with tips of buds exposed. Place pots under glass with low heat. By summer buds can be moved to larger pots or planted in greenhouse.

In excessive damp or severe frost young Broad Bean plants sown outdoors in autumn are liable to fail. A good crop is more certain if seeds are sown now in boxes placed in a cool greenhouse or cold frame. Fill boxes to within 2 or 3 inches of the top. Set seeds 2 inches apart, cover with 2 inches of soil, moisten with tepid water and harden seedlings off gradually before planting out. To obtain an early crop of dwarf beans prepare pots with crocks for drainage and fill with sterilised compost. Set 3 beans near the edge of each pot, pushing them in 1 inch below firmed soil. Do not water until seedlings show first true leaves. Support plants with sticks. Water and feed plants to help flowers set.

Providing you have a warm, draught free place in your greenhouse you may easily raise your bedding plants from seed. You need clean boxes with drainage holes which are well covered. The seed compost