Adam's Garden

It is an anxious time of the year for gardeners because the plants reared in the greenhouse are now going outside to make room for tomatoes and other summer glasshouse crops. The two risks at this stage are of late frosts and scorch. My practice is to transfer the plants to cold frames for a week, providing supplementary shade with horticultural fleece for the hottest part of the day should there be excessive sunshine. This works fine up to a point, but when there are simply too many plants to fit in the frames, any available shady sites are sought. However, without the advantage of night cover, it is necessary to keep one eye out for the weather forecast, and at the slightest risk of frost action is required to bring in exposed plants. Now, I am glad to say, we have reached the point where the risk of a late frost is extremely remote (famous last words!) and scorch is the greater danger. Fortunately we have had several warm overcast days, which are ideal for allowing the plants to adjust from the slightly restricted light conditions of the bubble-wrapped greenhouse to the great outdoors. It is always pleasing to see the pale, tender leaves of hothouse plants gradually turn a darker, more natural hue.

The only plants scorched so far this year have been my climbing French beans. I usually sow the seed directly into the soil in May, but the last two years they suffered at the hands, or rather slimy mouth parts, of slugs and snails. Also a number of seeds were disrupted by a moles and rodents, the latter probably eating them, and the germination rates abysmal, so this year they went into three inch pots inside; two varieties, Kentucky Blue and Blue Lake. Their position on the floor, with a fairly low light level, induced large tender leaves which were shrivelled when exposed to the sun on their first day in the cold frame. Fortunately only a couple of plants were lost completely and newly emerging shoots were unaffected. The majority of plants were knocked back by a week or two, but are now happily growing away in their final position along the base of the old monkey cage used as a trellis.

It is surprising how fast young plants will adapt from low light levels to a fierce sun if given a couple of days' protection first. The change can be quite dramatic. This week I planted out some Lollo rossa lettuce and within three days the pale green leaves had turned a healthy rosy rust colour. They went into a new small bed into which I have sown a row of Florence Fennel, some Rocket, some Hamburg Parsley and a row of Lambs lettuce. As well as providing delicious aniseed flavoured bulbs in autumn Fennel leaves can be used to garnish food, and the seeds have an intense, concentrated liquorice flavour. It is one of those plants that attracts hundreds of insects during the summer so I would recommend it for country gardens, where it looks at home in borders with it's statuesque form, pleasing foliage and handsome seed heads. It also gives off a nice aroma when brushed. I have not grown Hamburg Parsley before - this is just an experiment. It is grown for the root, which is similar to a Parsnip, but the leaves, which are so far growing a bit like carrot leaves, look, smell and taste exactly like cut-leaved parsley so I expect these can be used in the conventional manner if picked off in small quantities so as not to restrict the vigour of the tap root. Rocket is a very fast growing salad vegetable, grown for the rich flavoured leaves. The flavour grows on you, and not many leaves are required in a mixed salad. It is ready to harvest four weeks after sowing, so regular re-sowing is required for a continuous crop, especially since it runs to seed remarkably quickly. Like the Lolla rossa the leaves are picked from the plant as required. Lambs lettuce, or corn salad as it is sometimes known, is in a similar category and complements Rocket well.

I grow a number of hardy annuals in individual three inch pots rather than sowing direct in the ground because management is much easier, particularly when it comes to weeding. The downside of this is the speed of development at this time of year - they rapidly outgrow the pots, and it is imperative to get them out into the final position before they have gone too far. This means that once the risk of late frosts has passed it is 'all hands to the pumps' and a lot of gardening is required at one of the busiest times of the year. When I refer to it being one of the busiest times of the year this is because the weeds are growing so fast that these need attention before the plants can go in. Later in the year the bare soil is covered with plants and weeds have less space to take hold. Also the grass is growing at a mile a minute, and I dread to think how many hours a week I spend mowing and strimming. Fortunately there is a powerful ride-on mower for the larger flat stretches of grass. Hardy perennials form the bones of the garden and the annuals provide a means of adding variety from year to year. Nevertheless the temptation is to buy ever more perennials and the area forming the garden is gradually getting larger and larger. Last week I purchased a Painted Japanese Fern (Athyrium niponicum), a relative of the Lady Fern, which has superb pale grey markings and the bonus of preferring a shady position. It has settled in nicely below a small alder tree.

Returning to the theme of moving plants outside, it is interesting to notice how well, or not, different specimens transfer out. This year I put half of my Kelsae onions in individual pots and the remainder in a large box. They went out into the ground about a month ago and the difference at this stage is very marked; those from pots are about fifty per cent bigger than those from the box. Whether there is any difference by the time the onions are harvested remains to be seen but I was surprised at the discrepancy between the two groups.

The most troublesome plant I have dealt with when transplanting is the Alstroemeria, or Princess Lily. A couple of years ago I sowed some Ligtu hybrid seed in a tray. They germinated quite well and when they were several inches high, with surprisingly well developed roots, I moved them on into individual pots. After some weeks they gradually started to decline and eventually, after another month had passed, had all expired. One of my gardening books points out that Alstroemeria plants should be handled with care when potting on but the seed packet makes no mention of this. Luckily I had kept the original seed tray just in case more germinated. Sure enough half a dozen more plants had appeared. This time, with great care and trepidation, they were moved on into pots. I felt rather foolish handling them as if they were made of some sort of rare delicate antique lace but wanted to make sure that this time they would survive. Even with all that care only three of them have survived! They have just been moved out of the greenhouse and once adjusted will go - very carefully - into the garden. Any comments on this matter would be of interest to me.

The most problematic part of the gardening calendar is over, now that the greenhouse has been converted to it's summer use, and the emphasis has now shifted to cultivation outside. Whether you are concentrating on kitchen gardening or simply ornamentals, or even just watching others do the work - good luck and keep on gardening!

You can find more articles in the archive under Soiled Hands.

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