After weeks of winter weather that has included snow, frosts, ice, hard ground and very cold winds it has been a joy to be able to get back into the garden again if only for a couple of days.
In those couple of days I have been able to get on with some real gardening. What do I mean by real gardening? The answer may come as a surprise when I say starting to clear last year’s debris from the herbaceous borders, pulling up any weeds that have managed to survive the winter months, gathering leaves and cutting out and dead spotted on shrubs while weeding. I have heard so many people say that they enjoy planting up a border but hate the maintenance that follows. I can understand but gardening is not just about planting. Just like a room in the house the garden needs a bit of TLC to keep it looking good, how you plant will determine how much time you need to put into the regular tidying. I plant quite densely so most of my work is late winter / early spring clearing the borders before everything starts to put on a spurt and cover the soil.
Along the edge of one border I planted marjoram (oregano). The golden leafed form is a plant I would not be without; it is like a ray of sunshine in the garden and has the benefit of small but masses of beautiful flowers. Also along the border edge I have the larger varieties with much darker green leaves and these again have a mass of flower. The idea of the planting was to have them close to the kitchen and be handy when required for cooking, so much nicer than dried oregano. This has worked well but there is yet another advantage of growing marjoram. As part of my cleaning up the borders exercise I have been weeding around the marjoram plants and cutting off all the old flower stalks and the smell of marjoram that has surrounded me has made the job such a pleasure.
The garden birds strangely are eating more seed now than when the weather was really bad. I will have to buy a new sack of seed sooner than expected! It is not very often I spot the Blackcap but this pretty little bird has been visiting the fatball that I hang in the Magnolia close to the conservatory. He is quite nervous and as yet I have not managed to take a picture. However, one bird I have been able to picture is the Sparrowhawk. I heard a bang on the conservatory window and also heard our cockatiel going berserk. She must have thought her days were numbered and he that here was a colourful and easy meal. Anyway he sat very conveniently on a bowl not far from the window so although taken through glass I am quite pleased with the results. We humans are taught by our parents what is danger and what is safe. Our cockatiel will have been separated from its mother at a very tender age and yet she instinctively knows danger. We don’t have to look out of the window to know that a Sparrowhawk is flying by or a neighbourhood cat is passing through. Amazing when you think about it.
My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary - Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Gardening News - Online garden newspaper with garden and gardening news from around the world
How to vegetable garden in December with hints and tips about growing vegetables and herbs.
If November has not been very cold and affected crops and the ground we can be fairly sure that December will make up for it.
The calendar may say it is the end of the year but us for gardeners it is [...]
Do my garden birds know more than me and the weather forecasters? Sometimes it makes me wonder. This is the most severe winter we have had for years. Snow, freezing temperatures that have not even reached as high as the norm for this time of the year and yet as soon as the snow and ice have cleared the birds are singing like spring is just around the corner. Not only are the garden birds singing to claim their territories but the Jackdaws are trying to build a nest in my chimney. With the winds coming from the north temperatures are still below what they should be so what is it that instils so much encouragement in them? Maybe it is the lengthening days.
Food for our feathered friends must be in short supply; a Greater Spotted Woodpecker is visiting and feeding on the large fatball I hang in the tree near the seed feeder. I have had them visiting and taking peanuts from the feeder but this is the first time I have seem them take fat. The Blackbirds are still coming to me to beg for dried fruit but even they are now taking peanuts from the feeder.
The garden birds may be preparing for spring but I think it is going to be a while before I can do any gardening outside. The lawns are looking a bit sad after the snow and I have never seen so many shrubs, including hedging, with such burnt leaves for a long time. Mother Nature has a way of recovering from these setbacks but it would not surprise me to find the odd shrub and perennial plant not putting in an appearance this year.
Probably another week and I will be making a sowing of tomato seeds. As decided after last years growing season I will just be growing Harbinger. There are newer tomato varieties that will produce fruits all the same size. However that is not a consideration for me, my tomatoes can ripen at many different sizes and I can put up with that in exchange for the excellent flavour.
In spite of the very bad weather my early flowering Mohonia is still providing colour. I have met gardeners who do not like this group of shrubs but I am a fan. There were a couple in the garden when I moved here and I have added to the collection. Very accommodating, nice yellow flowers with a pleasing perfume that can fill a garden. They make great “full stop” plants in a border or can be used as architectural plants due to their shapely (and spiky!) dark green leaves.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
There is a new pecking order in the back garden. Most of the year it is the blackbirds who boss this part of the garden, chasing off the thrushes that are brave enough to attempt a quick meal. But temporarily this has changed with a thrush relative, the Fieldfare, now in charge. The Fieldfare is a long-tailed thrush with contrasting plumage pattern and defends its territory with great authority. With the ground so hard and the snow on the ground it seems unfair that one bird should claim the apple that we throw onto the lawn and so we cut a couple of apples into pieces and spread them around the back garden. That did not solve the problem; it just gave the Fieldfare more of an area to protect!
It is not all bad news for the blackbirds however as the Fieldfare does not seem interested in the dried fruit that I put into a bowl for them. Yet anyway!
The other bird that has arrived with the Fieldfare is another thrush relative, the Redwing. The Redwing is the smallest of our thrushes but still a pretty bird with distinctive markings. Two things make it easy to distinguish, the first being the cream eyebrow stripe and the second rusty red flanks. The Redwings fed with the Fieldfare when they first arrived but now seem just to patrol the front garden, polishing off what was left of the holly berries.
These two visitors, and that is what they are as they will stay for the winter and then disappear, are welcome but over the Christmas period a not so welcome guest made its mark in the garden. Topping up the bird seed I saw something out of the corner of my eye that did not look right. There had been heavy frosts and some snow so I had not really been taking much notice of the garden borders but it was not hard to see that something had been at work. Soil had been kicked or flicked over quite a distance and it then became clear where it had originated. A large hole had been burrowed and quite deep too. Roots of plants were hanging down inside the burrow but probing with a stick found nothing at home. My first thought was that it was a badger foraging as there is a family with a set in the field behind but the hole narrowed too quickly. It must be a rabbit trying to make a new home although I have not spotted any wild rabbits for quite some time. The hole is now filled in and thankfully no more holes have been dug.
As you might have guessed from the mention of snow and hard frosts not much gardening if any has been possible for a while. At least my seeds for the new season are on order and once the package appears on the mat I can dream of better weather and a new growing season.
I am sure fellow listeners to the BBC Gardeners Question Time radio programme will be as shocked and saddened as I am by the news of the death of John Cushnie. I will miss his sense of humour. Whenever he was on the panel you were guaranteed a laugh as well as sound gardening advice. But he never claimed to be the all knowing gardening expert. A member of the public would ask a question and the chairman would ask John to answer only to hear the words, “I have absolutely no idea”. How refreshing for “an expert” to admit that in front of millions of listeners. When you listen to a voice regularly on the radio you picture what that person looks like. Sometimes you are right but most of the time you are not. I have not heard anyone say that John Cushnie looked anything like what was imagined from his voice. Maybe it is something to do with that gentle Irish brogue. Farewell and thank you John Cushie, may you rest in peace.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
When you have rain, rain and more rain with the first good frost of the winter, what can you do in the garden in weather such as this? Not a lot outside is the answer.
The ground is waterlogged, there is no point in walking on it and causing compaction and the soil is just too wet to work. I have lifted the dahlias and they are under cover now and drying odd ready to start off in early spring so that I can take more cuttings. This year’s cuttings have been a great success so that gives me the incentive to get the parent plants through the winter.
The frost has finished off any remaining annuals but there is still colour in the garden. In spite of the frost there are still roses in bloom and the winter jasmine is opening up more flowers daily. Also one of my magnolias is also full of sweet smelling yellow blooms that are very welcome this time of year.
Before the rain and frost I did manage to clear up a small amount of leaves, many, many more still to go! Vacuuming leaves almost on autopilot from one of my flower borders I caught sight of movement out of the corner of my eye. I must have disturbed a large frog nestled in amongst the large soggy sycamore leaves. I could so easily have sucked him up with a load of leaves and dread to think what the consequence would have been. It just proves how careful we gardeners have to be as the weather turns colder, the frogs and hedgehogs are still about. It certainly feels too warm at the moment for the hedgehogs to hibernate. I do leave leaves piled up around some tree prunings so the hedgehogs can find refuge if they so want. Wet leaves are dangerous on garden paths and do the lawn no good but in other areas I make a point of not being too tidy. That’s my excuse anyway!
Take a look at this little fellow, definitely too small to hibernate:
Byte Size Biology » Byte Size Hedgehog – Byte Size Hedgehog. December 6th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments. I don’t know whether to categorize this guy under microbiology or zoology. He’s so small! Cute little fella. From pixdaus.com Click on pic to go to site. …
Not being able to get on with jobs outside in the garden has provided me with time to start getting the greenhouse ready for winter. The structure both inside and out has been scrubbed and power washed. Can anyone tell me why after all this treatment there are always areas of glass that don’t look like they have been touched? The next job is to put up the bubble insulation, a job I never look forward to. The sooner it is done the better so that it is out of the way but it is just one of those garden jobs that has to be done as a chore rather that a pleasurable pursuit.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Going through town I stopped for a chat at a market stall that is run by a local farming family. Needless to say they sell vegetables that they grow on their own farm and, if they do not have enough of a variety to crop and bring to the stall that week, they buy from their local farmer friends. The fruit that they sell is locally grown where possible, the exceptions being things like bananas. To attract custom my friend has a habit of shouting “home grown bananas”. Now if anyone believes that one! He had healthy looking Brussels Sprouts for sale that he has grown but he was telling me that he had been reading an article in a trade magazine about sprouts being grown in Scotland and then being transported to Poland for processing before, yes you guessed it, being shipped back to the UK for sale. Has the world gone mad?
He also had some great parsnips for sale so I decided to buy some for home. “You don’t mind buying the dirty one, do you?” was the question. No I don’t but apparently they have to hose some off because there are those who will not buy root crops that still have any sign of the soil on them. I am old enough to remember when all vegetables were sold that way.
We are so lucky to have a market stall to shop for vegetables where they have been grown locally and travelled just a few short miles to the table. Also here is a second generation that have kept up the farm started by their parents and have learnt skills by experience and know their land. With farms closing down every week it makes you wonder how long small farms such as these will be able to continue.
If you have any spare room in your garden or even landscaped try growing a few vegetables for yourself. It can be frustrating but more often than not it is very rewarding and very satisfying.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
November in the garden last year was a bit bleak to say the least. Early really cold weather finished off the annuals and the dahlias had to be put into storage. What a difference this year.
The weather did turn cold, the cold winds suggested a repeat of last year but instead the cold winds went away and unseasonal mild weather returned. The result is that the Dahlias are still looking good, the Cosmos are still stars in the border, Geraniums are still flowering en mass and Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) in sheltered spots are flowering their hearts out.
It is strange looking out of the window into the garden. There are trees that have completely lost their foliage due to the strong weekend wind, others with no foliage but have berries hanging like coloured baubles, Acers that are showing there beautiful autumn foliage, shrubs with autumn colour, roses still blooming and annual bedding still in flower. There can be no doubt however that we are well into autumn, the Sycamore leaves are thick on the ground with still more to come off this majestic tree. The leaves of most the trees in the garden are easy to gather using my Stihl Leaf Blower / Garden Vacuum but the shear bulk of wet Sycamore leaves make the job hard work.
I can report pleasing results from my summer containers this year apart from two bowls that sit either side of the steps down to my front lawn. Why I cannot say but they have just not looked good all summer and yet two other large pots a few feet away using the same compost and plants from the same sowing are still looking good. This weekend I removed them thinking that I may discover a problem at the roots but no, the compost was full of healthy root. I have replanted now with Winter Flowering Pansies that I sowed earlier this year so it will be interesting to see if they fare any better.
The one problem, if you can call it a problem, of summer bedding still doing well in containers is that I do not have the heart to uproot them as I know I should and the Winter Flowering Pansies really need to be planted out. Still, I am sure I will wake up one morning soon to see bedding that has collapsed and had enough!
The last of the cucumbers have been picked and eaten this week. What prolific croppers they have been. Just two plants have provided more than enough cucumbers for the family and there were plenty to give away. If you have not tried the smaller fruiting varieties that grow just big enough to provide one meal then I urge you to do so. Picked fresh, still crisp and used in a salad or put onto sandwiches, excellent.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Fall Colors In The Ozarks & Buffalo River Area – Fall is an absolute splendid time of year along the Buffalo River or pretty much anywhere in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. If you’ve …
It is not so long ago that I made an entry in my diary giving an opinion on the tomato varieties that I have grown this year. At the time I stated that I would grow more of the same next year, this being Harbinger and the plum variety Red Alert. I have changed my mind and will only be growing Harbinger next season.
So what has changed?
Harbinger has proved to be the best cropper by far and in my opinion Harbinger has the better flavour. In addition Harbinger tomato plants have proven to be much healthier.
The blackbirds have disappeared as they usually do at this time of the year to moult. I spotted one in one of my rhododendrons and he hardly had a feather left on his head.
The great news on the bird front is that we have more sparrows this year that we have had for a very long time. They are doing their best to eat me out of bird seed but I have no complaints. Flocks of them arrive on mass and disappear together. I hear them in the bushes near the feeder waiting for a refill. Their numbers suddenly declined dramatically one winter and it has taken years for them to make a comeback. The funny thing is, last winter was the harshest we have had for many years and yet it is this summer that we have had the biggest increase in numbers. Long may it continue.
For the first time ever I have had problems with caterpillars on my salad crops grown under cover. I recognised the caterpillar of the cabbage white but I must confess my ignorance when it comes to identifying the other thug. Whatever it was it had a voracious appetite!
This autumn I must give some thought to my vegetable garden layout. I have already made some alterations that will help next years crops which has entailed cutting back shrubs and trees that had put on more than expected growth due to good growing conditions.
My begonia hanging basket is looking good at last. For the first time this year I have grown tuberous begonias from seed that are recommended for baskets and containers, having only grown the fibrous rooted varieties from seed. They have taken a while to reach flowering size but the wait has been worth it. Hopefully I can over winter the tubers and have earlier flowers and a cheaper hanging basket next year.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Bird Ecology Study Group » The Eurasian Tree Sparrow in Urban … – Contributed by Jeffrey Low. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow ( Passer montanus ) we commonly see around is actually adapted to human habitation. It usually nests in any convenient holes in buildings.
Singing Song Sparrow | Sitka Nature – 03-15-07song_sparrow.mp3 (624kb). As I headed out of the building where my office is, I heard a Song Sparrow singing from the bushes near the entrance. Hearing the song, I stopped to listen for a short time. …
Normally I take pictures of beautiful flowers to show on my diary. This week is very different; this is a picture I never wanted to take.
I have been growing tomatoes for over thirty years with very few problems. This year I had a few extra tomato plants going spare so I asked my daughter whether she would like to try her hand at cultivating her own tomatoes. There was no room in the greenhouse and so I helped her to plant in containers outside.
She probably gave her tomatoes more TLC than me, she was doing a good job, listening to all the advice and had started to pick fruit. There is nothing better to encourage and enthuse people to gardening that enjoying the fruits of their labour.
However, one day she asked me to look at her tomatoes as she thought they were suddenly taking a turn for the worse. Although I have never experienced the problem it was clear what the problem was, tomato blight. Thankfully this is a tomato disease that does not affect tomatoes grown under glass very often but it can devastate tomatoes grown outside when the summer is warm but wet.
On a brighter note my large flowered dahlias are open and stunning again this year. The cuttings I took earlier in the year are looking healthy so I will hopefully increase my stock again next spring.
That sounds like I am already planning for next year in the garden and, yes, I am! I have identified one area of the garden that needs revision next year. Around the patio has perhaps been a bit neglected while developing another couple of new areas but you cannot do everything. I have not decided fully what changes I will make but I always like to mull several ideas over before taking action. Whatever I do I want it to be there for a few years so it is worth taking that extra time to think it over.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Tomato Casual » Reader Questions: Tomato Blight – Reader Questions: Tomato Blight. Tags: blight, Questions. late-blight By Vanessa Richins. This season, we have a lot of readers concerned about the late blight that has spread throughout the Northeastern United States. …
Tomato blight and me | Los Angeles Metblogs – The tomato crop has been crushed to a large extent this year nationwide, thanks to a fungus that started in nurseries in the US South where the plants were.
I say that my first garden was not very big and yet when I see the small gardens that are offered with new build homes I realise how luck I was.
That garden was my learning curve and was fine at first but gradually I became frustrated because I could not plant specimens, especially shrubs that appealed to me. In a small garden you have the choice of planting small shrubs or medium sized shrubs that need to be pruned back each year. The latter solution is a never ending battle as the shrub tries to regenerate by being even more vigorous. Shrubby Potentillas performed extremely well for me and I still retain affection for these “superb doers”.
Moving to my present garden, over 20 years ago, I found that it had been maintained but for me it was not a garden. As I sit in the back garden writing this it is not only the colour on show that pleases me but the structure of the garden. I have to say it is made more pleasurable by the delicious perfume of Rosa Rugosa Alba that I introduced into the garden this year. Yes I know ideally I should not let it flower in its first year but could you snip off all those buds and miss those beautiful flowers and the scent?
The main structure of the garden is formed by trees and shrubs. A lot of thought went into choosing the right trees to plant as they were expensive to buy and I knew they hopefully would be with me for many years.
When developing the planting plan for the borders my first thoughts went to the shrubs that I wanted to form the backbone and being a much larger garden than my previous one I had a lot more to choose from. Colour, size and form needed to be right as, if done correctly, this would enable me to mix and match colourful perennial herbaceous plants and annuals. One thing I remember about this process was that the pencil eraser was worked very hard!
Perhaps all these years on I take these shrubs for granted. They demand so little from me yet give so much.
The reason that I sat down to pen this article is that I have just been reading something by a well known garden designer championing the cause for the return to favour of shrubs. Apparently they have been out of fashion for a number of years and he feels that it is time that they regained their rightful place in our gardens.
I have to confess that I didn’t know that they had gone out of fashion but this only goes to strengthen the opinion that I have held for a long time. If you are going to create a garden then create one to please yourself. Fashions and fads come and go, look at new ideas and pick out things that you like but incorporate them into your own ideas. I can think of “new ideas in gardening” that caught my imagination in my early days of learning to garden but certainly did not deliver what was promised and disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary – Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Small Garden Design – Small patio garden designs and garden shrubs – The idea of creating illusion of big things, from small one greatly effect and attract all those people who have the shortage of space while creating their gardens. All those people who stay in flats might have little gardens, …
Outstanding Shrubs From Proven Winners – The 2006 tree and shrub growers wholesale catalogs are beginning to roll in and there are so many great plants in them my wish list is over the top. There was a time when gardeners talked about hot new plants, trees and shrubs rarely …
Easy Summer Flowering Shrubs (Part One)- Gardening Made Easy – There’s nothing quite like the joy of watching the summer flowering shrubs burst into bloom, providing colour and a sense of permanence to your garden. What would our gardens be without shrubs? They give an air of permanence.
Versatile Shrubs- Gardening Made Easy – Whether your garden is a tiny suburban plot or several thousand square metres in extent, you can have year round interest and beauty by growing shrubs. Shrubs are among the most versatile of garden plants. They serve as a rich background to other plants.
Do my garden birds know more than me and the weather forecasters? Sometimes it makes me wonder. This is the most severe winter we have had for years. Snow, freezing temperatures that have not even reached as high as the norm for this time of the year and yet as soon as the snow and ice have cleared the birds are singing like spring is just around the corner. Not only are the garden birds singing to claim their territories but the Jackdaws are trying to build a nest in my chimney. With the winds coming from the north temperatures are still below what they should be so what is it that instils so much encouragement in them? Maybe it is the lengthening days.
Food for our feathered friends must be in short supply; a Greater Spotted Woodpecker is visiting and feeding on the large fatball I hang in the tree near the seed feeder. I have had them visiting and taking peanuts from the feeder but this is the first time I have seem them take fat. The Blackbirds are still coming to me to beg for dried fruit but even they are now taking peanuts from the feeder.
The garden birds may be preparing for spring but I think it is going to be a while before I can do any gardening outside. The lawns are looking a bit sad after the snow and I have never seen so many shrubs, including hedging, with such burnt leaves for a long time. Mother Nature has a way of recovering from these setbacks but it would not surprise me to find the odd shrub and perennial plant not putting in an appearance this year.
Probably another week and I will be making a sowing of tomato seeds. As decided after last years growing season I will just be growing Harbinger. There are newer tomato varieties that will produce fruits all the same size. However that is not a consideration for me, my tomatoes can ripen at many different sizes and I can put up with that in exchange for the excellent flavour.
In spite of the very bad weather my early flowering Mohonia is still providing colour. I have met gardeners who do not like this group of shrubs but I am a fan. There were a couple in the garden when I moved here and I have added to the collection. Very accommodating, nice yellow flowers with a pleasing perfume that can fill a garden. They make great “full stop” plants in a border or can be used as architectural plants due to their shapely (and spiky!) dark green leaves.
My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary - Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Getting the doctor out when you have a problem or need inspiration in your garden may sound fanciful but it depends upon which doctor you call upon.
There is one garden expert who is a doctor and he goes by the name of DG Hessayon. Although you may not recognise the name it is highly possible that you would recognise his writings when seen on a bookshelf.
Dr DG Hessayon is the author of the “Expert” series of books that began in 1959 with the title Be Your Own Gardening Expert. This was a straightforward thirty two page guide that was filled with pictures and charts. Nothing new there you may think but this was 1959 when gardening advice books were more like textbooks and not easy reading for the masses. Dr Hessayon obviously hit upon the right idea as the twenty plus books written by him have followed the same format.
He is now aged 80 and is the best selling non-fiction writer in the world having sold over 50 million copies, a long way from his first self-published tome.
Need some help with garden plants, maybe that new lawn, perhaps you are a house plant enthusiast and need to know the best indoor plants for a situation or yours is a vegetable and herb garden, you will find a Hessayon expert book that will help.
The Fruit ExpertThe Garden D.I.Y. ExpertThe Garden Expert
The Garden Revival Expert
The Green Garden Expert
The Greenhouse Expert
The House Plant Expert
The House Plant Expert: Book Two
The Orchid Expert
The Rock and Water Garden Expert
The Tree and Shrub Expert
The Vegetable and Herb Expert
Vegetable and Herb Expert
So when you are next in the library or looking to purchase one of the Garden Expert range of books, say a little thank you to the man who made it fashionable to produce informative books for the everyday gardener but prefers to stay out of the limelight.
It seems that every time I watch a lawn care or landscaping show on HGTV, the homeowner decides to have an herb garden planted somewhere near the kitchen. It’s just “the cool thing to do.”
Hints and tips on growing plants has to include herb gardening as it is becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason. Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose, and with herb gardening you can actually consume your plants. When most people think of herb gardening they automatically think of cooking, but herbs are also grown for their pleasant aroma and their beauty.
One important part of herb gardening is drying the herbs for use during the winter months, especially if you plan on cooking with them. First the tops of leafy herbs have to be cut, washed, and hung up for the water to evaporate. Then, tie stems together and hang up in a paper bag to dry. After two to three weeks they must be removed; crumble the leaves, dry them out in the oven, and store in a glass jar.
One of the most common herbs gown in herb gardening is basil. “Dark Opal” and regular green basil are beautiful additions to any garden and often used as decoration. Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves. Basil isn’t just used for its looks; it is used for extra flavor in tomato juices and pastes.
Chives are very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass. They are much stronger than they look, however, and will grow well through a drought. Their toughness and sturdiness make Chives a perfect plant for herb gardening, especially if the gardener doesn’t want plants that require a lot of hassle. Chives are good used in salads, egg dishes, and many different sauces. Their onion-flavor makes a great addition to your baked potato or chips and salsa!
Mint is also very simple to grow and is good to use in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade, that wonderful Mohito recipe, and any other kind of fruity drink. Mint is also good in herb gardening for its unique minty smell. Two similar herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden are thyme and sage. Both of these herb gardening favorites are used for flavoring soups, chicken, turkey, pork, and other sausages. Sage is also grown sometimes for its beautiful blue spiked flowers.
Lavender is probably the best smelling herb in all of herb gardening and is often used in candles, as a perfume scent, and to improve the smell in linen chests. The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely. The only concern with lavender is its propensity to take over your garden. It does require quite a bit of trimming to keep it in check.
Other less common herbs often grown by homeowners include borage (used in salads), senna and ginger (used for colon cleansing and IBS relief) chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet marjoram (flavors lamb, fish, salad, and soup), sesame (flavors crackers, cookies, and bread), and dill (flavors meats and used in pickles).
Herb gardening allows gardeners to use items from their own back yard for cooking, looks, and scent. Herb gardening will produce much fresher herbs with more flavor than store-bought herbs, and are a lot cheaper. Plus, it just makes Mom that much more proud to say that she has added fresh herbs to the salad on the table!
Remember to keep up a good and regular watering regime which will help to reduce the chance of blossom end rot and split fruit. Remove split fruit as soon as you notice it, if left it will soon start to rot and introduce disease.
Any remaining outdoor tomatoes should be picked by the end of September and ripened indoors. The whole truss can be cut off to allow the fruits to ripen on the vine either on a windowsill or in a box with a ripe banana for company. Green fruits can be used in chutneys as can any red tomatoes surplus to requirements.
Potatoes
Potatoes should be lifted before slug damage becomes a problem. Leave the tubers to dry before storing in paper sacks or boxes. Take care to only store undamaged potatoes.
Keep a watch for potato blight, any blighted potato haulms can be cut off and burnt or disposed of with household rubbish. The good news is that the potatoes can still be harvested.
If there is a danger that inclement weather spreading the disease and you are happy using sprays try products such as Bordeaux Mixture, Dithane 945 and Murphy Traditional Copper Fungicide.
Wet weather at this time of the year, especially if you are gardening on clay soil, is when potato powdery scab makes an appearance and affected tubers should be disposed of. Crop rotation becomes very important to prevent the problem building up in the soil.
It is just not clay soils where problems can occur, common scab and other potato skin problems can be a problem in dry warm weather. An important regime here is watering and as alkaline soil worsens the problem use of acidic fertilisers may help).
Clear debris created when lifting potatoes and care should be taken not to damage the haulms. Potato debris left out in wet weather could cause the development of fungal diseases such as black leg or fluffy grey mould.
Reading the above might make you wonder whether it is worth growing your own potatoes but remember that with a good regime of watering and cleanliness most problems can be avoided.
The flower garden in August can be a wonderful place to sit and of course to work. Towards the end of the month many of our wonderful summer perennials and annuals are starting to look a little tired and we await the late flowering into autumn varieties.
Hardy Geraniums
What wonderful value hardy geraniums provide, not to be confused with the tender pelargoniums. They come in various sizes from neat ground hugging to large spreading mounds. Some have a short flowering period where others flower for weeks.
They can become a bit untidy with more out of control leaf than flowers. Cut back the leaves which will encourage a new flush of growth.
Deadheading
Continue with a good regime of deadheading which will help to prolong the flowering period. Early in the season the bright new flushes of flowers encourage us to remove spent flower heads but as the season progresses it is so easy to walk by when we have other things to do.
My walk around the garden each evening is the time when I stop to deadhead the dahlias. You see one, then another and as you turn away yet another! Well worth the trouble as it is with such things as roses, penstemon, pelargoniums and petunias.
Climbing and Rambling Roses
If you have climbing and rambling roses that do not repeat flower or produce good hips, once the flowers have finished prune them back ready for next years new flush of blooms.
Iris
Continue to propagate irises by dividing the rhizomes. Cut back some of the top growth to help to stop them rocking in the wind before they have their toes in. Remember they like the rhizome above ground if not done last month.
Dahlias
Earwigs can continue to be a problem chewing away at the petals of dahlias. The old and well tested method of an upturned plant pot on a cane filled with straw and paper is a good method of trapping. Shake out in the morning and dispose of them as you wish.
Pinks and Carnations
We increase our Pinks and Carnations by “pipes” pulled from the plants and brought on as cuttings but these favourite plants of many can also be propagated by layering.
Pelargoniums
Take cuttings of Pelargonium and bring them on in a cool greenhouse, conservatory or house windowsill. There is no need to use rooting hormone but as with all propagation by cuttings, take care with hygiene.
The weather did turn cold, the cold winds suggested a repeat of last year but instead the cold winds went away and unseasonal mild weather returned. The result is that the Dahlias are still looking good, the Cosmos are still stars in the border, Geraniums are still flowering en mass and Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) in sheltered spots are flowering their hearts out. 
It is not so long ago that I made an entry in my diary giving an opinion on the tomato varieties that I have grown this year. At the time I stated that I would grow more of the same next year, this being Harbinger and the plum variety Red Alert. I have changed my mind and will only be growing Harbinger next season. 
She probably gave her tomatoes more TLC than me, she was doing a good job, listening to all the advice and had started to pick fruit. There is nothing better to encourage and enthuse people to gardening that enjoying the fruits of their labour. 
Moving to my present garden, over 20 years ago, I found that it had been maintained but for me it was not a garden. As I sit in the back garden writing this it is not only the colour on show that pleases me but the structure of the garden. I have to say it is made more pleasurable by the delicious perfume of Rosa Rugosa Alba that I introduced into the garden this year. Yes I know ideally I should not let it flower in its first year but could you snip off all those buds and miss those beautiful flowers and the scent?