The days are now becoming longer and warmer, so it is the time to start giving your garden or allotment attention to ensure your outside space maximises its potential. We are pleased to forward your Spring newsletter from Streamside Horticultural Association which we hope will give you help and advice for the season ahead.
Streamside Days Out in 2025…
Once again, we have organised three great “garden themed” days out which members of Streamside are invited to attend. All trips will depart from the “Streamside Store” in the morning by coach, returning in the evening.
This year’s outings and dates for your diary are –:
Myddelton House Enfield & Kathy Brown’s private garden Stevington Beds.
Thursday 22nd May, departing 9am £42
We will spend 2 hours at Myddelton House Gardens which was once home to Edward Augustus Bowles, one of Britain’s most famous self-taught gardeners, artists and expert botanists. Nestled in the heart of Enfield, the eight-acre grounds play host to a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers as well as an extensive heritage kitchen garden and cut flower beds.
We will then move onto Kathy Brown’s Garden in Bedfordshire. The garden is 4.5acres of horticultural delight with many beautiful areas to enjoy. Included is a TOUR OF THE GARDEN lasting about 45-60 minutes, showing you the highlights, explaining the background to the ideas etc.
Also included refreshments on the lawn (or inside if weather is inclement). With a choice of tea, coffee or apple juice plus Kathy's homemade cakes. (including gluten free)
Please note this is restricted to a maximum of 40 people, once full, a waiting list will be established.
Sissinghurst Castle Garden Kent
Tuesday 15th July, departing 8.30am, £20 for NT members, £38 for non-members.
Sissinghurst is famous as the epitome of the English garden with its series of garden rooms, each filled with different planting schemes and unique designs, including the famous white garden, which should be at its glorious best at this time of year. The garden is a result of the creative tension between Harold Nicolson's formal design and the exuberant planting of Vita Sackville-West.
BBC Gardeners World Autumn Fair (at Audley End House and Garden, Saffron Walden, Essex).
Friday 29 August 2025, departing 8.30am, £40
Plants to buy + Great shopping + Showcase Gardens + Planting inspiration in the Beautiful Borders + Plant expert tours + BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Stage + Good Food Market and including Access to Audley End House and Gardens.
Please note There may be a reduced price for English heritage members please contact Chris for further details. chris.plastow@hotmail.co.uk, 07887 407507
ALL PRICES INCLUDE DRIVERS TIP.
All bookings to be made in person at the Streamside Store during normal trading hours – 9.45 – 12.15 on Sundays, and tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis.
REMEMBERING 2024 OUTINGS…
Did you go on any (or all!) of our outings last year? If you did and have some photos of the gardens/plants we would love to share them with our wider members on the website. Please email Cora on cmsevents@btinternet.com with any photos you have. Thank you.
Products in Store this Season…
February – Seed potatoes, Onion Sets, Shallots, Vegetable and Flower seeds.
March – Summer bulbs, corms and tubers (especially dahlias) as well as Roses, Bush Shrubs, Climbers and Herbaceous Plants.
Mid-May (until early June) Summer bedding and vegetable plants.
Have you seen the prices of our bird food? – Check out our range and the prices below! You won’t find them cheaper – our prices are cheaper than even the garden centre sales!
Fat Balls, Box of 6 =£1.10
Black Sunflower Seeds, 1 kg = £2.00
Peanuts, 1 kg = £2.00
Niger Seeds, 1 kg = £2.00
Sunflower Hearts Seeds, 1kg =£2.50
Wild Bird Mixed Seed, 1 kg = £1.00
And of course, throughout the year there will be a great selection of seeds, composts, fertilisers, weed and pest control, and other gardening sundries available to assist you with all your gardening tasks.
Notification of the AGM
We will be holding the Annual General Meeting for Streamside on Monday April 28th at the Streamside Store from 7.30 pm. This will be your chance to hear about our plans for Streamside for the coming year, and also to contribute any ideas or suggestions you may have to develop the Association. Please bring a chair with you.
Seasonal Recipies…
Springtime Minestrone – serves 4
Ingredients
200g mixed green vegetable (eg asparagus, broad beans and spring onions)
700ml hot vegetable tock
140g cooked pasta chopped into small pieces
215g can butter beans rinsed and drained
3 tbsp green pesto
Method
Place the green vegetables in a medium-size saucepan, then pour over the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are cooked through, about 3 mins. Stir in the cooked pasta, beans and 1 tbsp of pesto. Warm through, then ladle into bowls and top each with another drizzle of pesto.
Rhubarb and Ricotta Breat & Butter Pudding – serves 8
Ingredients
400g rhubarb
150g golden caster sugar
300ml whole milk
300ml double cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
About 250g bread
35g butter
200g ricotta
25g icing sugar plus extra for dusting
1 lemon zested
1 orange zested
cream, crème fraiche or Greek yoghurt to serve
Method
Trim the rhubarb and cut it into 3cm pieces. Heat 100ml water in a pan with 50g of the sugar. Bring to the boil and add the rhubarb. Simmer for 11/2 mins, then carefully lift the rhubarb out with a slotted spoon. Arrange it on a plate or tray so that it can lie in a single layer (if you keep the pieces too close to each other, they’ll continue to cook and soften – you want them to stay intact).
Put the milk and cream in a heavy-bottomed pan, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil, then add the vanilla. Beat the eggs, extra yolk and the rest of the sugar together in a bowl. Pour the warm milk and cream onto this, stirring all the time. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
Butter the bread. Drain the ricotta (if there is any liquid on top), then add the icing sugar to it. Spread the buttered bread thickly with ricotta. Sprinkle the citrus zest on top, then layer these slices with the rhubarb in a 20 x 30cm ovenproof dish. Pour the egg and cream mixture through a sieve and leave to sit for 30 mins (this makes the pudding lighter).
Put the dish in a roasting tin. Add enough boiling water to the tin to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake for 40-45 minus or until puffy and set on the top, and golden in colour. Leave to cool for about 10 mins (the pudding will continue to cook and to set during this time). Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraiche, cream or Greek yoghurt.
Thrifty Corner…
Supermarket herbs such as basil and chives don’t last long because they are actually lots of seedlings stuffed into one pot, remove from pot tease apart gently into two to three clumps them replant into individual pots, and you will have herbs for months not weeks.
Use milk instead of beer to lure slugs, they love it, especially sweetened with a few teaspoons of sugar.
Give old rusty tools a new lease of life by rubbing down with wire wool. Sharpen, then spray with general purpose oil.
Some Things to do in your Garden This Season…
The following lists are just some of the seasonal tasks that you may like to consider to ensure that your garden or allotment continues to look good, and produce a good level of crops :-
February
Fruit and Veg
Plant fruit bushes and trees during dry spells.
Sow peas and lettuces under cloches in warm, sunny areas.
Finish planning your crop rotation and order seeds for spring sowing.
Harvest Brussels sprouts, leeks and winter cabbages,
Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers.
Start a new herb patch or pot combination.
Plant bare root raspberry canes
Force rhubarb plant by covering crowns with either a terracotta forcer or a black trug for earlier cropping.
Keep parsley plants going by giving them some cloche protection.
Start chitting seed potatoes.
Flowers
Prepare alpines for their spring show
Plant bare-root hedging roses and deciduous trees when it is dry underfoot.
Cut back the tatty old stems of ferns before next season’s fresh whorl of fronds unfurl.
Trim winter flowering heathers as they finish flowering.
Cut stems of scented winter shrubs for a fragranced display.
Deadhead old blooms off pansies.
Bring potted hyacinths into a slightly warmer spot to aid flowering once buds are showing.
Divide overcrowded winter aconites.
Tidy up the border by cutting back old stems on perennials.
Prune hibiscus lightly now.
Miscellaneous
Open greenhouse vents on warm, sunny days but close them in the afternoon.
Get bug boxes in place for garden insects.
Keep bird feeders topped up.
March
Fruit and Veg
Sow seeds of aubergines, chillies and tomatoes.
Protect early fruit blossom from frost with fleece, raising it on warmer days for pollinators.
Sow seeds of alpine strawberries.
Direct sow hardy veg such as carrots, parsnips, spinach, radish, lettuces, broad beans and peas.
Plant onion sets.
Clear and if disease free, compost winter brassica beds.
Sow veg indoors such as kohl rabi, beetroot, salad leaves, leeks.
Divide perennial herbs such as hyssop, chives, lemon balm, mint and parsley.
Sow in a seedbed brassicas such as kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.
Flowers
Order mail-order plug plants of bedding and veg plants ready to go out end of spring.
Plant faded forced bulbs out into the garden for blooms next year.
Clear away old, tatty winter bedding plants.
Prune winter flowering jasmine for flowers next year.
Cut back mophead hydrangeas to the first large pair of buds.
Plant new hardy perennials such as euphorbias, verbena, and geraniums.
Prune dead wood out of roses making a clean cut at the base of the stem.
Plant gladioli corms for July bouquets.
Take shoots from chrysanthemums to use as cuttings.
Sow seeds for summer bedding.
Prune back thick stems of overgrown ivy plants.
Add annual weeds to your compost heap.
Water pots of spring bedding in spells of dry weather.
Deadhead pansies and primroses.
Rake debris from under hedges.
Miscellaneous
Remove pond netting and any leaves caught up in it.
Place copper tape and rings around pots and vulnerable plants to deter slugs and snails.
Clean out and top up bird feeders.
Repair holes in fruit-cage netting ahead of the cropping season.
Top up stocks of composts and fertilisers.
April
Fruit and veg
Look out for woolly aphid on stems and branches of fruit trees and blast it off with water.
Last chance to plant out asparagus crowns this month.
Sow a selection of winter veg, such as brassicas, celery and celeriac for planting out in May.
Sow cucumbers, melons and peppers if you haven’ already done so.
Plant out pot-sown broad beans.
Net brassicas against pigeons.
Plant out Jerusalem artichokes.
Remove suckers from fig trees, pulling them off by hand.
Pot up containerised strawberry plants.
Chit second early and maincrop varieties of potato.
Plant pot grown fruit trees and bushes.
Support the stems of peas with twigs.
Chit early seed potatoes on a sunny windowsill indoors.
Place cloches over empty beds to warm soil.
Sow spinach under cloches.
Lift the last of winter leeks and parsnips.
Prune apples and pears to remove congested branches before growth starts.
Flowers
Prune forsythia as soon as its flowering ends.
Cut back the old growth on ferns to make room for new shoots.
Put in plant supports so plants can hide them as they grow.
Divide and plant dahlia tubers.
Direct sow hardy annuals such as cornflowers, nigella and nasturtiums.
Deadhead primroses and pick off diseased and yellow leaves.
Plant pot grown tulips into patio containers and borders for instant colour.
Deadhead camellias, picking off he spent flowers once their petals turn brown.
Take basal stem cuttings from your favourite herbaceous border plants.
Plant water lilies and aquatic plants in ponds.
Prune early-flowering shrubs such as flowering currants and some viburnum varieties.
Harden off tender young plants.
Repot exotic plants into clean pots of oil-based compost.
Reduce the amount of water to cyclamen so plants go dormant.
Be on alert for red lily beetles that will attack new shoots of lilies and crown imperials.
Pull away dead outer leaves from phorniums.
Lift and move badly sited shrubs to new homes.
Miscellaneous
Open vents and doors on greenhouses on warm days.
Pressure wash moss and algae from paths an patios.
Add decorative gravel mulches to pots.
Add lawn clippings to the compost heap in thin layers.
Treat fences and wooden structures with preservative.
May
Fruit and veg
Earth up potatoes to protect them from blight and prevent greening.
Sow swede, maincrop carrots, beetroot, autumn or winter cauliflowers and peas.
Transplant brassicas grown in seedbeds to their final positions.
Thin early sowings of carrots, lettuce, radish and turnips.
Feed aubergines, tomatoes and peppers weekly with high-potash fertiliser.
Sow sweetcorn seeds indoors now for harvesting August/September.
Harvest spring onions.
Hoe between rows of crops on days when dry and sunny.
Harvest rhubarb and pour liquid feed on the soil around plants.
Start sowing squash in pots pushing them approximately 2 cm deep.
Pot up chillies for the patio
Plant a large pot or container with herbs to suit your culinary tastes.
Plant tagetes and other companion plants among vegetables to attract hoverflies.
Prepare the site for climbing beans by digging in bucket loads of garden compost and put up support framework over the site.
Flowers
Mow grass pathways through wildflower areas so you can walk through them.
Clip back new conifer growth to keep them compact.
Repot rootbound exotics such as cannas and gingers.
Plant out dahlias in borders and pots.
Watch out for scarlet lily beetles and destroy them.
Sow seeds of perennials plants that will flower next year.
Continue to prick out and pot on seedlings.
Avoid fungal problems by removing spent flowers and old leaves.
Prune wall-trained pyracantha to encourage flowers.
Water and mulch newly planted shrubs.
Dig up and dry off tulip bulbs after they have flowered.
Plant gladioli in a sunny patch of well-drained soil.
Clear spring bedding composting plants that are disease free.
Pile compost around the stems of lilies in pots to encourage roots to form on the buried stems.
Train sweet peas to supports.
Thin out hardy annuals.
Move self-sown plants to more suitable locations.
Miscellaneous
Clip back new growth on conifers to keep them compact.
Give your compost a turn to accelerate the decomposing process.
Clean houseplant foliage with a damp cloth and watch out for pests such as scale insect.
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