What I'm Learning From BBC TV

When Erin over at The Impatient Gardener made a YouTube channel with all kinds of gardening shows linked, I decided to just take a look.

I'm addicted already and it's only been a week!

What I like most about it is the practical tips. Like most gardeners, I'm learning by trial and error as I go, and I've read all kinds of books. Sometimes, though, just having a person show me how to do a task while explaining why sinks in and makes so much more sense.

 

So without further ado, what I've learned so far from Monty Don and others on the Gardener's World 2014 series:

 

1. Pruning Roses

 

Winter pruning stimulates growth, therefore prune back the weakest shoots the hardest.  My 'Yellow Topaz' rose in back (pictured) is very vigorous, but an odd shape. I'm looking forward to March for a good pruning!

My 'Watercolors' rose and my burgundy iceberg rose will also get pruned based on this advice.

 

Summer pruning inhibits growth. 

 

2. Growing potatoes

 

potatoes planted last year with the square foot gardening method

 

I've been doing the square foot gardening method where you dig a hole, then fill it in as the plant grows up.  Also, I have cut up the seed potatoes and put 4 or 5 pieces in each hole.

I'm going to try Monty's method this year: chit the potatoes first (put it in a sunny place for the eyes to grow), then plant whole potatoes, small end down, 6 inches deep. One potato per hill. Done.

The closer together, the smaller the potatoes you'll get. I didn't know that.

So I'll plant them 12-18 inches apart.

It sound so much easier than the method I've been doing.

Also, harvest them with a fork rather than a shovel!

So many of them last year were sliced in half with the shovel inadvertently.

 

3. For fruit trees, strength and vigor of the tree make it want to grow upwards, but more fruit forms on the horizontal branches. It makes a lot of sense.  Apparently roses are this way as well.

So, for anything you want fruit/lots of blooms from, or that you're training to a trellis, fan the branches out horizontally or at a 45 degree angle for maximum fruit or flowers.

I just bought a climbing rose for the back flowerbed, so I will definitely keep that in mind.

 

Apple tree behind the shed, the first summer after planting.

It has not blossomed since and now doesn't even get that much sun with the completion of the shed.

 

4. This is more of just a mindset, but if it's not working, take it out or move it.

This is inspiring me to move my lilac bush off the slope. It has maybe grown 6 inches in the last 4 years. Obviously, it is not getting what it needs on the slope. It has never flowered, either.

If the roots look fine, I'll transplant it over to our East side terrace.

Also, the apple tree behind the shed needs to move.

Looking at it with what I know now, almost every branch is vertical, no doubt reaching for the light.

It just gets too much shade back there. No wonder it hasn't blossomed since the first year.

So that will be moved as well, probably to the East side terraces, although I'm toying with the idea of trying espalier on the west side of the house.

 

I would love to add a Japanese maple back there, if there is one that would cope with the clay soil.

 

 

Similarly, the blueberry bushes that have struggled for so long need to go. I either need to move the strawberries away from them, refresh the bed's soil and plant new ones, or just take out the acidic soil, replace it with regular stuff, and make it part of the garden.

 

5. With trees, don't add compost to the hole. Make it wide and fairly shallow. The tree's roots need to spread out into the surrounding soil as quickly as possible, so if it's a lot different than what you've put in the hole, the roots won't want to leave and the tree will be weaker. 

 

6. Repetition is what turns a random collection of plants into a garden.

I've been thinking about my front, top terrace.

 

The top terrace.

Daphne at the bottom front of the picture, with hardy hydrangea, boxwood, snowball bush, and elderberry as you move around towards the top.

 

The other 2 terraces have all kinds of lovely repetition going on.

That one I just plunked down 5 different shrubs and it has always bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Now I know. So I'm going to move the tiny little daphne on the end and plant another boxwood there, to add a little more repetition and continuity.

I'm debating moving the snowball bush as well, but haven't decided on that yet.

 

7. Plants I want to add after watching:

buddleia (butterfly bush): my front flowerbeds are supposed to attract bees/butterflies and I have quite a few plants that do that, but I need a buddleia. I don't have room for one unless something comes out, or I can put some in on the east side terraces.

 

ornamental grasses: I had this thought as I was watching last night--if weedy grass does really well on my back slope, there must be some ornamental grasses that would do well, right? I'm going to do a little research and see what I can find out.

Also, research "clay slope wildflower mix" and see what I can come up with.

The mix I tried a few years ago did absolutely nothing, but then, it had all that weedy grass to compete with.

 

dahlias: I've always avoided these, beautiful as they are, because I didn't want the bother of digging them up every fall, storing them, and replanting in the spring. So the brilliant (ha! see, the lingo is sinking in as well) thing to do is to plant them in pots. Then the whole pot can be put in, or at the very least, they will be easy to dig back up and take care of, as you will be emptying the pot in the fall anyway.

 

 

I was going to start taking notes then I thought--oh yeah, that's why I have a blog. Cracking!

This year I'll be filling in the rest of the east-side terrace, so I'm busy thinking about what I want over there. I also just bought some roses to plant down in front on the west side of the driveway, to begin changing that blank landscape into something worth looking at.

I'm excited to get started on some of these changes!

Only 2 more months to go!