As we move slowly towards the warmer spring days, there are more tasks to consider in order to keep your garden, allotment or any outside space looking good. We are pleased to forward your newsletter for the next few months.
Can You Spare a Few Hours to Support Your Local Horticultural Association…
Streamside is a local association run by a team of volunteers, but due to a variety of reasons we have “lost” some helpers over the last 12 months, and are looking for some new recruits to join us, and reduce the work-load for the existing Streamside team. We need members to help out on Fridays for preparing the products for sale in the Store, and also for helping during trading hours on Sunday mornings (which is run on a rota basis and generally involves a duty every 5/6 weeks). If you have a few hours to spare, please do contact us, we would be delighted to expand our team to include you.
Benefits include 10% of all purchases at the hut, plus working, meeting and socialising with a great bunch of like-minded people!
Please call into the Store on Sunday to register your interest.
Thrifty Corner…
Scrunch up a few squares of white kitchen paper towel & place around the broccoli/cabbage. The white cabbage moth thinks the territory is already owned by another moth and won't lay eggs. You can also use white eggshell halves instead of the kitchen paper.
Seasonal recipies…
Very messy Eton Mess – Serves 4
Ingredients
300g raspberries
Unrefined icing sugar, to taste
250ml whipping cream
8 shop-bought meringue nests
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Method
Start by roughly chopping the raspberries. Sprinkle with icing sugar - about ½ tablespoon should be enough, but test for sweetness).
Whip the cream in a metal bowl until thickened but still floppy enough to pour.
Break up the meringue nests or halves and crumble these over the raspberries. Add the lime zest and juice and mix it all together. Then dollop in the cream and stir roughly; you don’t want this too well combined or it won’t be a mess!
Divide between four bowls or glasses and serve immediately.
Chicken with creamy pesto and Broad Beans
Ingredients
2 packs mini chicken breast fillets
3 tablespoons green pesto
200g tub half-fat crème fraîche
200g fresh or frozen (and thawed) broad beans
Handful finely chopped parsley (optional)
Method
Take chicken breasts and cut each fillet in half diagonally. Pan-fry the chicken with a splash of olive oil over a high heat for 6-8 minutes until tender.
Stir in pesto and cook for 1 minute. Add crème fraîche and bring to a simmer. Mix in broad beans and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the beans are tender and the sauce has thickened. Divide between plates, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, if you like, and serve with boiled new potatoes.
Some Things to do in your Garden This Season…
June
Fruit and Veg
Keep rows of onions well-watered when the weather is dry.
Remove flowering stems from parsley.
Earth up soil around potato stems to get a bigger crop.
Thin gooseberries and cook the pickings.
Feed tomatoes weekly with a high potassium liquid fertiliser.
Harvest asparagus for the last time.
Tie in new raspberry canes into support wires using twine.
Water fruit bushes growing in containers regularly.
Cover brassicas with nets to protect against pigeons.
Plant out sweetcorn in blocks to ensure a good crop of cobs.
Thin congested nectarine and peach fruits.
Flowers
Remove diseased leaves from roses and bin or burn them.
Water newly planted perennials during dry spells.
Sow biennial wallflowers in nursery beds for autumn.
Cut back flowering currants once flowers are over.
Plant potted dahlias to fill gaps in borders.
Protect young plants against slug and snail attack.
Support and tie in tall plants using stakes or canes.
Prune spring flowering shrubs such as deutzia and spirea.
Keep an eye out for scarlet adult lily beetles and destroy.
Life and divide clumps of spring flowering perennials,
Prune evergreen clematis armandii.
Water sweet peas well in dry weather and tie in early sown plants..
Sow delphiniums and lupins outside.
Tie in stems of sweet peas as they develop loosely to supports with string.
Lawns
Keep lawn edges trim, it will make a huge difference to your garden.
Feed lawns and treat any moss and weeds.
In times of hot weather leave the lawn to grow longer so that it stays greener without watering – even if it turns brown, it will recover after rain.
July
Fruit and Veg
Prune sideshoots on figs back to four leaves to encourage fruiting.
Sow leafy salad such as rocket or mizuna direct in the soil.
Fold the leaves over cauliflower curds to stop them scorching.
Earth up main crop potatoes to prevent light spoiling the forming tubers.
Water runner beans well in dry weather to help the pods set
Give squashes and aubergines liquid high-potash feed each week.
Clip bay to shorten sideshoots and control the shape.
Pick blackcurrants when they turn an even purple-black and have some give in them when squeezed.
Protect raspberries from birds and squirrels by putting netting over the plants as soon as the fruits start to colour up.
Sow oriental vegetables directly outside.
Remove diseased strawberries from the plant immediately to stop the problem spreading to other fruits nearby
Stop picking rhubarb then feed and water to help plants recover.
Spray potatoes and outdoor tomatoes against blight.
Flowers
Spray roses with fungicide to help prevent disease.
Feed flowering plants in pots and baskets weekly with potash.
Mow wildflower meadows once seeds have ripened.
Layer clematis shoots to root in the soil and form new stems.
Deadhead annuals, perennials and roses as the flowers fade.
Take cuttings of carnations, lavatera and penstemons.
Divide and replant any congested clumps of bearded iris that flowered poorly.
Cut down faded delphinium and lupin flower spikes.
Cut back whippy wisteria side shoots.
Remove rose suckers by tearing away from their point of origin on the root.
Check solomon’s seal for signs of sawfly larvae, and pick off or spray with insecticide.
Keep lavender compact by trimming after flowering.
Prune overgrown clematis Montana.
Feed plants in hanging baskets and patio pots.
Mulch perennials with compost to keep soil damp.
Pick sweet peas regularly to keep them flowering.
Lawns
Use a long blade or weeding tool to lever out deep-rooted weeds such as plantains and dandelion.
Continue feeling lawns to encourage strong growth.
Trim edges with hand clippers or long-handled shear for a sharp finish.
August
Fruit and veg
Pinch out flower buds on rocket to encourage more leaves to form.
Pick gooseberries when the fruits are no longer hard.
Sow green manure in bare areas of soil.
Harvest shallots on a sunny, dry day.
Water potatoes well in dry spells to prevent tubers splitting.
Take out sideshoots on tomato plants grown as cordons.
Harvest late-summer fruiting raspberries.
Thin out crowded rows of salad leaf seedlings.
Pull up annual herbs that have run to seed.
Cut back peach and nectarine trees to promote new growth.
Check aubergine fruits regularly so you can pick them the moment they are ripe.
Pinch out tips of climbing beans at the top of supports.
Divide large clumps of chives.
Cut out the tops from outdoor tomatoes a few leaves above the highest flowers.
Remove straw from strawberry beds.
Pick over sugar snap peas and mangetouts every few days, to catch pods while still young, tender and sweet.
Cover carrots with fleece to keep carrot flies away.
Thin out over crowded pear fruits to ensure a good crop.
Harvest onions, shallots and garlic once foliage has died back fully.
Flowers
Take semi ripe cuttings of lavender and ceanothus.
Propagate alpines by softwood cuttings.
Cut back any overgrown perennials.
Prune wisteria by shortening sideshoots to six leaves.
Pick flowers for indoor arrangements.
Keep camellias well-watered during spells of dry weather.
Collect and sow foxglove seed.
Remove spent flower stalks from hostas to improve the display for the rest of the summer.
Start some hardy annuals from seed now for early flowers.
Trim back hebes lightly after they have finished flowering to encourage bushy, compact growth.
Order prepared hyacinth bulbs for Christmas flowers.
Take cuttings of non-flowering pelargonium shoots.
Water cyclamen to start the corms into growth.
Give evergreen hedges their final trim.
Pick diseased leaves from roses.
Cut back old flower stems on lady’s mantle to prevent it self-seeding.
Pick bulbils off lily stems and pot up to get new plants.
Regularly pick off faded flowers from summer bedding to keep plants looking neat and keep them flowering.
Trim leafy shoots from pyracantha to reveal the ripening berries.
Take cuttings from hybrid tea, floribunda and shrub roses.
Lawns
Keep an eye on weeds and remove by hand or apply appropriate weed killer.
Maintain weekly mowing regime.
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