​Tomatoes are a favourite for home gardeners, although when visiting friends, I am often surprised at their poor results. It is important to know the variety you are growing is it ‘indeterminate’ or ’cordon’? Both names refer to a plant that likes to grow on a single stem. When it has grown up a string or stake it will produce shoots at leaf axils, these need to be broken off rather than cut out. Breaking will stop any other shoots growing; cutting often results in shoots forming again. Most plants will support 6 or 7 trusses. I always tell people to buy the biggest growbag they can get. If growing in pots, get one as big as a bucket. 
The other type of tomato is the ‘determinate’ or ‘bush’ variety. These start as a single stem that breaks into many shoots that all have flower trusses. This makes a plant that can be grown in a big hanging basket, a planter, or a big pot. Some varieties make huge plants, mostly bearing small fruits. Once the first flowers show and small tomatoes have formed, add some tomato fertiliser to every can of water; you are sure to be repaid by loads of fruit and healthy foliage. 
Watering is vital. Don’t let the plants dry out when they have fruit, or you risk a condition called ‘blossom end rot’ which results in a black or brown patch at the bottom of the fruit. However, try not to get water on the foliage. If you are worried about pollination, just tap the plant gently. 

​Many books say that you can’t grow cucumber in the same greenhouse as tomatoes. Yes you can! They enjoy warmth, so plant them further away from the door and not until the end of May. Always make sure you buy or grow F1 hybrids. The variety ‘Carmen’ is a standard size or ’Passandra’ which is half the size but very prolific. 
Our next event is our Annual Spring Show – Saturday March 31st – entries and staging is between 9 and 11am - we’d love to see your daffodils, tulips and pansies, amongst other things.
It truly is beautiful to fill the Villages Hall with spring flowers.
If you’re not up to entering, please come along and enjoy a free feast for your eyes between 2 and 4pm. Entry forms and details can be found on our website www.bishamptongardeningclub.org.uk or email [email protected] 

​Sunday, April 22nd trip to John Massey’s Garden at Kingswinford. Entry £5, cash only please on the door for the National Gardens Scheme. To see and read about the many treats in store, see their website: https://www.ashwoodnurseries.com 

See you soon!
​Cheers, Pete Chamberlain, Chairman, Bishampton Gardening Club. 

What a summer so far!  I know you think I might be deranged but it is time to order bulbs for the winter and spring – get your order to a known bulb supplier and order by September and you will have every chance of getting what you want, whether it ‘s scented daffs for Christmas or smelly hyacinths. I never seem to time it right and have nice blooms in January!  My real favourites are amaryllis, they are foolproof and so spectacular.  Perfect presents!
 
Dead heading is a priority in this hot weather be it roses or dahlias. They will repay you with more blooms if you’re attentive.  My sweet peas have reacted to the hot weather by shortening their stems – instead of nine inches, they’re struggling to make 3”!
 
This year’s village Summer Flower and Produce Show will soon be with us.  All over the country shows are closing some due to lack of support, others due to lack of a committee to do all the hard work.  We are lucky that the Gardening Club does a fantastic job running a Spring and Summer Shows.
 
Please support the Show on Saturday, 19th August – it is open to everyone.  The 74 (yes 74!) classes cover vegetables, flowers, pot plants, home produce, flower arranging, and artistic subjects – as well as a special children’s section – so if you have visiting grandchildren for example – encourage them to have a go!  Pots and containers are judged in situ a week before, so please let me know if you’re entering yours!
 
If you are new to showing, come and talk to one of the committee members, they will welcome you with open arms!
You can get a copy of the schedule with the entry form from Bob Teasedale who lives at Glebe House, Main Street, email [email protected] or download one from our website at www.bishamptongardeningclub.org.uk/events.
 
With this dry weather, if you water the garden it’s better to do it less often and give it a heavy soaking, preferably in the evening as there’s less evaporation.  My plum trees have such heavy crops I pick a lot off as I walk the dogs around the orchard.  I try to space them about two inches apart but it never works out as the dogs get bored and I have to move on to another tree – besides a lot are too high to reach!
I might cut the branches down to pick them as some trees are so tall I would need a cherry picker to reach them.  At least it would be the right time to prune as all stoned fruit should be pruned when growing to avoid disease getting into the cut branches.
 
So DON’T FORGET THE SHOW – Saturday 19th August  – entries Thursday 18th 6-8 pm Villages Hall, or by post to me Four Acres, Hill Furze, WR10 2NB.  Staging of exhibits 9-11 on the day and the Show is 2-4pm with the obligatory cake and tea to whet your whistle, prize giving and auction at the end.
 
Pete Chamberlain
www.bishamptongardeningclub
01386 861438

Being a creature of habit I start sowing seeds on Valentine’s Day.  Any earlier and my mean streak hits in and I don’t want to heat the greenhouse unnecessarily.  Peppers and tomatoes all go on the hot bed.  I have already put mousetraps baited with peanut butter and poison down to reduce the chance of feeding the little blighters.
 
If you are growing the tomatoes outside later on, don’t sow until the beginning of April – they would be too big to plant.  Pepper I put in 3.5” or 9 cm pots as soon as they have three leaves, and the same with tomatoes.  I still use peat-based compost as I haven’t found a decent substitute. 
 
I use clover multi-purpose for seeds with the addition of 25% vermiculite.  This opens the compost up and makes the transplanting of the seedlings easier as the compost is so open and falls away with breaking any roots.
 
For any geraniums that have overwintered I shake off a lot of the old compost and repot into the same size pot with fresh compost containing a good amount of slow release fertiliser.
 
In the garden it’s not too late to cut off the leaves of hellebores.   The reason for doing this is that they suffer from leaf spot and you don’t want it on fresh leaves and flower stems.
 
Any dogwood or willows that are grown for coloured stems can be cut down to ground level.  Buddleia can also be cut down to ground level if they have become straggly or to about two foot if you prefer to have some height.
 
Ornamental grasses can be cut down now.  A hedge trimmer makes light work if you have a few and while you’re at it you can also give the same treatment to Michaelmas daisies, Japanese anemones or other tall-stemmed perennials that haven’t already been trimmed.
 
A friend of mine who grows a lot of rose, prunes his with his hedge cutter and he’s a good showman so it can’t be that bad!
 
It will soon be grass cutting time, so it’s worth dragging the mower out of the shed and making sure it works.  If it is a rotary with a grass box, you can chew up all the ornamental grass pruning and old herbaceous stems, having chucked them on the lawn.  The bits will take up less room on the compost heap. Of course if it doesn’t start, then at least you have an opportunity to get it fixed in good time.
 
We have a busy schedule for 2017, starting with a talk on Wednesday 1st February on Design and Landscape Principles in your Garden by Rupert Keys and Ruth Gwynn of Keyscape Design who have won a number of RHS medals.  Our March event will see Neil Cook, Head Gardener at Hanbury Hall telling us how he created a garden from a blank canvas (we’ll have the opportunity to see it in the flesh on 23rd April with a club trip). 
 
Our Spring Show will be on a Sunday this year as a first – the 9th April; and highlights will include our Open Gardens on 18th June and Bob Flowerdew on Wednesday 5th April.  So look on our website, or get a programme from me or one of the committee members so that you can get those dates down in your diaries.
 
Pete Chamberlain
01386 861438
www.bishamptongardeningclub.org.uk

Leaves still keep falling – if on the lawn why not use the mower to collect them as it will chop them up small and you can still bag them up for leaf mould – a bit of grass won’t hurt.

You can make a ‘bin’ out of wire mesh to keep the leaves in as long as it’s in a sheltered spot or if you’re limited for space, just use plastic bin liners with holes punched through to let the air in.  Sprinkle with water and tie the tops, giving them a good shake before stacking them out of sight and leaving them be for a couple of years.  If you’re using a leaf bin remember to dampen the leaves occasionally.  Once the leaves reach a crumbly texture you can use them as mulch on your borders.

Time to sit in the warm and read the seed catalogues but beware descriptions don’t always ring true e.g.

A ravishing colour – it’s pink and it’s your wallet that’s ravished!
Pale delicate colour – It’s grey
Flowers could be higher – it’s short
Wonderful substance – tough as old boots
This met with a favourable response – we had no complaints
Interesting colour – floral art judge will heave
Makes wonderful bulbs – these sell well
An improved variety – a more profitable variety

Just read between the lines.  If they have the letters AGM after the name, you know it has been trialled by the RHS and is good.

Pruning is a winter job.  Don’t prune stone fruit – the time to do them is when they are growing vigorously.  Apples, pears, and blackcurrants want pruning as long as there is no frost about.  Always take out dead, crossing, lopsided branches first to give an open centre to let the air in.  If it’s old and neglected, never prune more than a third of the tree.

Blackcurrants fruit on new wood so try and remove old black branches. Gooseberries can have shoots shortened by a third and any dragging on the ground removed altogether.  Redcurrants fruit on old wood so unless they are too big, leave them alone.  Cultivated blackberries want old branches cut out and new ones tied in to give them plenty of room as they shoot in spring and fill up space.  Raspberries fall into two categories.  Autumn fruiting – cut to the ground in early spring; and standard varieties (June/July fruiting) – cut all the old and weak canes out.

A generous mulch of muck or harden compost will benefit all fruit trees and bushes and will literally repay you in spades!

Wishing you all the very best for the New Year and don’t forget to check what’s on our new programme at www.bishamptongardeningclub.org.uk

Pete Chamberlain

October is the month for planting bulbs if you haven’t already done so. When planting daffodils remember that foliage should remain on until the end of May so don’t put them in the front of a border or formal lawn.  They will still show up at the back of the border because when they flower most herbaceous plants will be cut down or at least not be in leaf.
 
Tulips can be planted as late as November but most tulips will perish after flowering in the ground if left in.  The exception to this rule seems to be yellow ones as they appear to be tougher.  I like to plant tulips in containers as they seem to thrive there and can be moved into different positions, and once they have flowered, they can be put out of sight and something else put in their place. By buying different types of tulips you can have flowering pots from March to the end of May!  They can be combined with pansies, violas, and wallflowers for a stunning display, and for late tulips, forget-me-nots always look good.
 
Now is the time to put muck or compost on vegetable beds, and you don’t even have to bother to dig it in as worms and birds will all help incorporate it into the ground.  If you have enough, treat roses to a mulch of animal manure as they love it and respond well.  When you go around gardens run by the National Trust or RHS you will see all the rose beds are mulched with muck or compost.
 
Any vegetable gardeners should be ready to put broad bean seeds in.  My favourite panting time is the last week in October, but a week either side is okay.  If it isn’t a really cold winter, beans will be ready to harvest in May.  My winter greens on the allotment are all looking good.  Any yellowing leaves on the sprouts I will pull out to leave air around the lower buttons.
 
I have got my cannas and arum lilies in the greenhouse before the frosts get them.  I will stop watering now and leave them in the dry pots until next spring when I will get them out and repot in fresh material.  The old compost will go on my vegetable garden to build up humus.  Apart from checking my gladioli corms and dahlia tubers in store, I shall retire to my chair and browse the seed catalogues and decide what I am going to grow next year.
 
Our next two talks should prove interesting. First of all we have Dr. Ian Keith Ferguson talking about North American plants in British Gardens.  Dr. Ferguson is a widely travelled botanist and author, retired Deputy Keeper of the Herbartum at Kew Gardens and former Head of the Pollen Unit.  Our November meeting will see the return of lively speaker, Leila Jackson who came to our village two years ago – Leila will be talking to us about salvias - one of her specialities -  and other perennials.  Both events not to be missed and then we’re on countdown to our Christmas Dinner on December 7th – three dates for the diary then!
 
Pete Chamberlain
www.bishamptongardeningclub.org.u