POEM

My Garden

by Anne Glackin, Bree, Malin Head

With thistles, nettles, my backache all gone,
The best kind of tonic is the walk around the lawn.
To stand in the garden is such a delight,
See all the nice blossom, red, blue, pink and white.

There’s the evergreen, without even a hitch,
Has grown and spread, covering up the old ditch.
I talk to the rose bush, it never answers at all,
I thank it for hiding that crack in the wall.
I look at the gnome, once thought I would sack,
But I’m glad I didn’t, he wards off the stray cat.
Thank God for the ability to plant all that I grow,
Blank out any thought of winter and snow

Horticultural.

APRIL JOBS TO DO

Water any new plants that you buy from the garden centres. They are usually quite dry when you get them home. Water them again well when it is time to put them into pots or the garden.

Even if it has rained, water newly planted fruit trees, roses and shrubs regularly to help their root systems establish.

Now that the growing season has started the weeds will try and win the race to take over their environment. Hoe borders once a week to prevent weed seedlings establishing. Any plants with tap roots such as dandelions should be totally dug out or they will come back to haunt you in summer

Horticultural.

EARTHING UP AND HARDENING OFF

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Earthing up. This is the drawing up of soil around plants, usually with a draw hoe or fork. It is carried out on potato crops to prevent tubers turning green and infection from blight; on brassicas to prevent wind-rock; on leeks and celery to blanch stems; and in layering and stooling fruit-tree rootstocks to encourage the formation of rooted shoots.


Hardening off. This is the process of acclimatising plants to harsher growing conditions. It is achieved by gradually increasing exposure to lower temperatures and air movement, often by transferring pots or trays of tender plants from the greenhouse to unheated frames. This method is typically used for half-hardy bedding plants for a few weeks before they are planted out to reduce transplant shock.

Horticultural.

VINE WEEVIL

Photo: Vine weevil are very fond of cyclamen in pots.

Talking of things waking up, you might be finding a few vine weevils in the pots as you tidy up the soil. These pests need to be dealt with straight away as they can devour the roots of any plant that you put near it. If you can’t just get rid of the soil, which is the best bet, then try biological control. These are nematodes that will kill the grubs. Mixed into a solution and watered around susceptible plants, the nematode travels through soil moisture on its search for weevil grubs. The nematode is not active when temperatures are below 12˚C (55˚F), so apply when conditions are warm. There are chemicals on the market that will kill them that contain Imidacloprid if you want to go down that road.

Identify: To identify the grub look for a white body and pinky red head, I think they look quite juicy and so do the birds so if you find them you could put them on the patio and wait for them to get snatched up by our flying friends. Or just tread on them!

Plants affected: The grubs will attack the roots of almost any young plant in a container. They are especially fond of primulas and cyclamen. Plants in soil are less at risk.

Symptoms: Plants quickly turn yellow and wilt. Unfortunately, at this stage it’s usually too late to save them. For an advance warning that vine weevils are about, look for notches bitten out of the sides of leaves by adult beetles.

Prevention: At night-time, take a torch into the garden and sprinkle a thick layer of grit around those plants at risk to deter egg-laying adults, and any grubs or adults that you see. (You can see them on the leaves with a torch!)

Horticultural.

SPRING COLOUR WITH SENETTIA

Photo: The Senetti will be one of the first flowers on the patio this year.

Its that time of year when the public wake up to the fact that they might need the services of a gardener or landscape gardener. All winter these poor souls have been huddled over a stove in a freezing shed waiting for the weather to warm up so they would be noticed. Spare a thought for them, as everyone suddenly wants them at the same time. If they tell you that they will be with you in a couple of weeks as they are busy please do not be too hard on them, there’s a lot to do and not everything has to be done yesterday!

PLANT OF THE WEEK
I was over in England last week and saw an interesting hybrid of the Cineraria. The variety is called Senetti. This is an exciting new introduction to the bedding plant range. The plant has the great advantage that it will flower early, providing a splash of colour before any of the bedding or container plants are ready. Senetti is grown cool and can be stood outside from April onwards to give early colour (Although Senetti will tolerate a mild frost it is not fully frost hardy, so some protection may be required in extreme weather!). I have been told that they will take from cuttings so you can buy one and increase your stock for the following months in summer.

Horticultural.

SPRING PLANTS FOR THE ROCKERY

Photo: Aubretia 'kitte

Iberis sempervirens.

Always reliable, the Iberis put on a great show at this time of year. It grows well in full sun and has an attractive array of flower colours.

Aubrieta 'kitte'.

Aubreitas grow well in a rockery and will also look brilliant coming out of a natural stone wall. Kitte is a variation of the traditional colour and is slightly lighter in tone. Again it likes a dry sunny spot.

Horticultural.

SPRING FLOWERS

Photo: Daphne Mezereum “rubra”

Photo: Pieris Japonica ‘katsura’

There is just so much colour around at the moment. Here are a few plants to look out for this month.

Daphne Mezereum “rubra”

This plant has a very long season of interest. It has an exotic fragrance when the pinky purple cottage garden flowers come out in February to April. Fleshy red fruit follows as the leaves start to emerge. It is best planted near a building so you can get the scent. Not recommended if you have young children though as the berries are poisonous.

Pieris Japonica ‘katsura’

This is a stunning new introduction with long chains of pink flowers in February to April followed by glossy dark red new foliage. It also produces several flushes of red growth throughout the summer on a compact plant. Grow in ericaceous compost in a position that doesn't get early morning sun. Ideal to grow with rhododendrons - brilliant in a container on the patio

Horticultural.

APRIL TIDY UP

Our garden is finally being tidied up a bit. We have quite a lot of unwanted weeds that have germinated from the topsoil combined with the horse muck that we used on the new beds last spring. Most of them are easily removed though as the soil is loose because we don’t tread on it. This is one of the benefits of raised beds. Other benefits are that fact that the plants weren’t underwater in the winter and they tend to warm up quicker when the sun shines on them. This means that we can plant out our first seeds earlier. Our carrots did very badly last season; there was very little growth. The same went for the beetroot. This year I think we will concentrate on food that grows above ground such as spinach and broccoli. Both of these did brilliantly and we are still harvesting them. We have decided not to choose anything with the word dwarf in it. We don’t like the idea of harvesting anything that doesn’t grow higher than the nettles.

Because I don’t have the tunnel anymore I will be patient and wait until May to plant out a lot of the seeds. Not being able to start them off in heat doesn’t really matter with vegetables I’ve found as nature has a habit of catching up. A few people have been commenting about the slug population in Inishowen seems to be on the increase. I don’t think it is, there are always millions of them around. If you are planting seeds and small plants then its time to start the preventative steps to keeping the pests at bay. Tidy all of the areas around the seedlings where the slugs hide and get our the repellent of your choice. The battle commences!

Horticultural.

APRIL LAWNS

Photo: Organic wildflower meadow.

As the weather warms up this month, the organic matter in the lawn resumes its natural decomposition. This releases natural fertilisers. There are a lot of factors that take nutrients away from the grass. The winter rain depletes this natural source of food and so does collecting the grass clippings every time the lawn is cut. Some of us who like a green, weed free lawn like the man on the donkey, will now be ready to add a lawn fertiliser or a mix of fertiliser and weedkiller. This is fine if you enjoy getting the mower out twice a week to cut the heavy growth, although it is a bit of a fallacy thinking that if you do not feed the grass it won’t need cutting so often. We would be left with tufts of irregular growth that would look just as untidy if the grass was not fed. Wild flower areas on the other hand need not be fed. The idea of these is to make them nutrient poor. This condition favours wild flowers in their struggle to fight off the grasses. Lawn weedkillers should not be used on wildflower lawns, as this will kill all of the wild flowers that would grow in the lawn.

RECYCLING IN THE GARDEN

Recycling is a bit of a sore point around the peninsula. Buncrana Council have moved their waste recycling depot to the farthest reaches of the pier and in doing so have seen fit to get rid of the paper and cardboard recycling facility. The suggestion is that we pay through the nose to put it in a bag for a waste company to collect it. We have no need for this service though, because as gardeners we are in a brilliant position to do something about it ourselves. We can do away with the high price of recycling a biodegradable product by incorporating it into the compost bin. If the card and paper are shredded it will rot down in no time. If you have a lot then put it on the soil and cover it with mulch. Books are not a problem either. Stacked up like bricks they make a very good material for making a raised bed. If you have poultry then it makes an ideal bedding material.

Update: The recycling bins are now by the side of the Tourist Information Centre on the way into Buncrana. It's a great welcome for tourists!

Environmental,horticultural.

TOP TIPS

Again, I have not tried these so be wary!

SAY CHEESE

If you have a lump of cheese that has gone all dry and crusty then fear not. Simply sprinkle sugar on it overnight and in the morning it will be all moist again.

ROSEMARY DRIVE TIME

Putting a sprig of rosemary on your dashboard helps to keep you alert when you are driving at night. (Note: Do not drive if you are tired!)

Household.

APRIL SPRING CLEAN

Dear Clean and Green,

Spring Clean month of April has passed and there are still Inishowen beautyspots with lots of litter. If people don't volunteer to clean up what happens?

I feel that there should be a more regular clean up - broken glass and doggy doo hinder my walks with my young family, and plastics amongst sand dunes is so abundant, it's too much for me to pick up on my beach walks.

Recently €40,000 euro was made available to the tourism industry in Inishowen. I think that some of this money would be wisely spent by tourism providers toensure regular clean ups of our environment - a main attraction for visitors.Also it would help us all be more proud of the lovely natural places Inishowen,not embarrassed and ashamed.

Thank you.
Name and address supplied

Reply

I couldn’t agree more. I know I keep talking about targeting the manufacturers of packaging but as long as advertisers keep convincing us to buy packaged products they are not going to go away any time soon. There are some positive aspects to the litter problem. There does seem to be more awareness, more and more people seem to be picking rubbish up from outside their houses, schools are getting involved in clean ups and in some areas I have noticed (e.g. the Porthaw area of Buncrana) you don’t see a pick of rubbish on the ground. This must be because the community feels that it is just not acceptable to drop litter.. If Julie’s mother sees people dropping litter she will pick it up and give it back to them. I wouldn’t dare for fear of getting thumped, but if it is done in a gentle manner then it could be effective. Spot fines of €200 euro would deter some people and youngsters could do a spot of community service around town on a Saturday morning should they get caught dropping rubbish, especially during the school lunch breaks.


At present if a dog owner wants to pick the stuff up they have to think before hand and bring a bag. They then have to carry the pongy bag with the poo in it until they find a bin. There are not many dog owners that are prepared to do that! Some counties provide pooper scoopers and purpose built bins with heavy lids on the walking routes, this helps no end, but again you need the education about the hazards of leaving the mess around. What is to be done about the dogs that are left to roam the streets and chase cars I don’t know, maybe we can issue nappies!

I realise that Inishowen still has a long way to go to become litter free, but steps are being made, and as more and more individuals take pride in their communities and take action in their own areas we can and do make a difference. Hopefully, in time, you can enjoy playing with your family in a rubbish free area!

Environmental.