London Road Station Partnership Blog

Though today was cold and rainy, and our gardening session had to be changed into tea-and-talk in the conservatory, things are finally growing. Gardening is starting to feel like gardening again. As we watch the plants bursting into leaf after the winter, it’s time for questions:

Are our leeks ready?

We seem to have leeks at two ends of the growing spectrum: lots of seedlings on the one hand and overwintered plants which look like they may be going to seed on the other. What do we do?

Our large leeks have been in the ground since the seedlings were planted in August last year after our onion crop had been harvested. My books say: ‘leeks can remain in the ground until they are required for use’ and ‘most leeks are harvested mid-winter to spring’. Our leeks were spindly until fairly recently when they have started to thicken. They certainly weren’t ready to harvest mid-winter.

I think the only thing to do is to harvest them and try them: leek and potato soup (the weather is still cold) or leek omelette are recipes that spring to mind.

Our small leeks have been grown from seed sown on April 14^th. We need to pot them on ready for planting out when we find some space. The books say: ‘transplant to final positions in late May and June’ so we’re more or less in synch with the normal cycle. Our seedlings need to be ‘pencil-thick’ and ‘6-8 inches high’, so they have a bit of growing to do.

• Lift some of the leeks and try out in recipes. If OK, lift the rest.
• Work in good amount of mulch into the old ‘leek’ bed, soon to be the bean bed.
• Thin out and pot up leek seedlings in 12cm pots of compost, to wait for final planting
• Harden off seedlings outside for at least 2 weeks before planting

What about our strawberries?

We’ve only just got flowers on our strawberry plants so it looks like we’re well behind the normal schedule; surely, strawberries should be fruiting by now? One thing we have learned is to cut off the leaves immediately after plants have fruited. This last summer, we didn’t really do this, and were uncertain whether to do it in September/October when we were clearing the plot. It should be done around August.

Ripening black currants, red currants

‘Heavy manuring and high summer moisture’: our black currant and red currant bushes in pots are looking very lush with lots of berries. I’m wondering whether we should be thinning the leaves to reveal the currants to the sun, or whether this will just have the effect of encouraging the birds to take them.

• We do need to mulch, ideally with manure.
• We should probably try to protect from our increasingly friendly blackbird couple
• A feed of sulphate of ammonia is also advised, if we are going to use inorganic fertilisers.

It still delights me and makes me smile … the ‘community’ in ‘community garden’ really does exist. We’re finally getting into the swing of our Tuesday afternoon gardening sessions after  the long drawn-out winter. The weather has been warm, the seeds are germinating, the plants are growing back. Among the shoots we weren’t initially able to identify, but now growing strongly, is the beautiful plant I have named ‘The Todmorden Lovage’. Mary from Incredible Edible Todmorden gave it to the garden last year when we visited their inspirational town. It’s a connection to a fantastic project and an amazing group of people.

And so far this year, locally, we’ve had even more people dropping in, passing by, getting involved while we’re in the garden. On Tuesday, we were five pottering around watering, potting on seedlings and checking planting in the shady garden. We were joined by Eve, by various neighbours who dropped by to see the fruit trees, by Marlene who – as always – brought things for us to plant and by a little girl, keen to water and dig, who had been waiting on the platform with her Dad.

Our guiding principle – that we build the gardens with whatever resources and people come our way – seems to work, and it’s lovely now to look at the planting in the shady garden and think: ‘that came from Sally’, ‘that came from my mum in Wales’, ‘Diane brought that over from Preston Park’, ‘that came from the neighbour in Shaftesbury Road’. A week or so ago, a neighbour left a hemerocallis for us, and this week we were planting a tough old clematis – I think it’s Clematis ‘Victoria’ with large purple flowers – which has been in a pot on my patio for years. And next to our Big Dig banner, Marlene’s clever hanging flowerpot and single daffodil serve to announce our community garden.

More connections on Saturday, when I was showing the garden to Juliette from Holland, another neighbour dropped by. He had developed his raised beds at the same time as we had, and he was keen to see how ours were doing.

In the conversation, we discussed local apple varieties and he mentioned that he had grown some seedlings from the old apple trees in the orchard at the back of the houses in Shaftesbury Road before this odd patch of land was sold on.

As he wasn’t sure he would be staying in the area, he asked if we would like the seedlings. We picked them up later Saturday morning and visited his amazing raised beds (see photo), full of a rich array of edible leaves and clever arrangements for watering with roof water.

The  seedlings – two apples, two pears – are now sitting next to their older established cousins in ‘our’ mini-orchard. It would be wonderful to be growing our very very local Shaftesbury Road varieties, but I think we might need the horticultural expertise of Brighton Permaculture Trust to grow them on.

From little things  great things grow.

We had help with pruning our apple and pear trees back in the winter. Spring is now here – finally in May – and the trees are starting to bud and flower.

But what about our plum tree in a dustbin? It started tall, but seems to be doing well with buds and leaves coming through. Pruning for plums takes place in spring and early-mid summer to avoid infection by silver leaf disease.

I was discussing this with Nick at London Road Station, and thought I would chase up the full advice on pruning plums. Below is the summary from the RHS site. We will be following the advice for Pyramid plums for our plum tree as it is St Julien root stock. My neighbour and I have also planted Pyramid plums in our front gardens and my two have grown extensive leader shoots.

Time to find out more … there’s also good, simple information from BBC Gardener’s World and Tree Maintenance Ltd

Avoid pruning plums in winter, as it increases the risk of infection by silver leaf disease to which plums and other Prunus species are prone. The best time for pruning is usually spring for young trees and mid-summer for established ones.

There are three commonly used methods of pruning plums: bush, pyramid and fan.

Bush

The bush is perhaps the most popular method of training and pruning and creates an open-centred tree with a clear stem of 75cm (2½ft). Its ultimate size will depend on the rootstock it is grown on. Trees grafted onto ‘Pixy’ rootstocks will reach 3m (10ft), ‘St. Julien A’ 3.6-4.5m (13-15ft) and the ‘Brompton’ and
‘Myrobalan B’ 6m (20ft).

The overall aim of pruning is to create an open-centred tree. This begins with the same formative pruning as apples and pears but, importantly, carried out in early spring.

On established trees, rub out any buds developing on the lower trunk and carefully pull off suckers arising from the rootstock. Pruning is mostly limited to removing crossing, weak, vertical and diseased material. If the plum tree is still crowded then further thinning can be done in July.

Pyramid plums

A pyramid plum tree is considerably smaller than a pruned a bush, and this makes it practical to net against birds. Plums on ‘St. Julien A’ rootstocks are kept to 2.4m (8ft) and on ‘Pixy’ rootstocks to 1.8m (6ft).

The pruning of a newly planted tree is the same as for apples and pears. Remember: carried out in April not winter to avoid silver leaf disease.

Afterwards the initial pruning, follow these steps:

• During the first summer, prune in the third week of July when the young shoots have finished growing. Shorten new branches to 20cm (8in), cutting above a downward or outward-pointing bud. Also cut side branches back to a bud at 15cm (6in). Train and tie in the central leader to the stake
• In subsequent years during April, shorten the central leader by two-thirds. Repeat annually until the tree has reached 2.4m (8ft) on a ‘St. Julien A’ rootstock, or 1.8m (6ft) for ‘Pixy’, after which, shorten the central leader to 2.5cm (1in) or less each May, to keep the tree at the same height
• Vertical shoots at the top competing with the central leader should be removed in late June

Fan training

A fan-shaped tree is created by training against a wall or fence with horizontal wires fixed 15cm (6in) (or two brick courses) apart. Trees can be bought as maidens, or partly trained. Expect the height and spread of trees on ‘Pixy’ rootstock to be 3m (10ft) high by 2m (6½ft) spread and trees on ‘St. Julian A’ to be 3.6m (12ft) by 2.4m (8ft).

Renovating an old, neglected plum tree should be staged over several years. Aim for a well-balanced tree, keeping the centre of the crown free from shoots to allow good light penetration. Trees respond to larger pruning cuts by sending up a mass of new shoots. Where this happens the shoots will need to be thinned in the summer to leave just one or two.

Controlling vigour

The tying down of young, flexible branches to the horizontal can reduce excess vigour in large, unruly trees. This technique is known as festooning and is best done in the summer and can help prevent trees becoming overgrown.

Ties are left in place until the branch stays naturally at the new position, usually the following spring. Attach one end of the tie to the branch tip and the other end to a stake or the trunk.

Plums can be heavy croppers, leading to branches breaking under the weight of fruit, so thinning is important to prevent damage. Branches already broken should be pruned back into undamaged wood, ideally cutting back to a natural fork to avoid leaving stubs.

The other main problems are silver leaf disease, honey fungus, bacterial canker,pocket plum, plum aphids and plum moth.

We like a bit of bling on our blog and who better to provide it than Brighton & Hove’s Mayor, Bill Randall, who has visited our garden in full bling on several occasions.

On Monday 22nd April, we met up with him again at the launch of City in Bloom. Now independent of the Council, Brighton & Hove City in Bloom will be preparing to participate in the RHS ‘In Bloom’ competition in 2014 and for 2013, is launching a number of local competitions and encouraging local groups to get involved in the RHS’ ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ scheme.

At Monday’s launch, the lovely new logo, designed by a visiting Colombian student, was unveiled. The Evening Argus was on hand to capture the moment, with Bill and his bling slightly upstaged by the blooms.

There are some great ideas for blooming up neighbourhoods on the City in Bloom website: planting around trees (yeah!) and planting up some colourful planters to enliven areas. Our Preston Circus planters project is warming up now and we hope to be out there at the weekend, realising the colourful planting schemes we planned back in cold, grey March.

We’ve finally installed our public herb planters at the front of London Road Station, supported by a small grant from Harvest … took a bit of doing to sort out the flat packs.

Once the plants get established,  the herbs are available for you – anyone – to pick and use. The idea has been mentioned by several visitors to the garden, and it’s our first real step in the spirit of Incredible Edible Todmorden: growing things that passers-by can sample freely.

Rich and moist planter

Mediterranean herb planter

The two planters accommodate slightly different planting conditions. The left side has the herbs that prefer richer and moist soil: flat leaf and curly parsely and chives. We’ve also got  French tarragon and hope to add basil and coriander that we’re growing from seed. We might also add some mint, restricted in a pot. These herbs like rich soil, so we’ll probably need to feed them throughout the growing season. Quite a few of them will tolerate a bit of shade.

On the right side are the Mediterranean herbs that like poorer, grittier soil and full sun. We’ve added horticultural sand and grit to try to recreate their preferred conditions. There’s thyme, sage, rosemary and oregano. Just noticed on one of our photos, though, that the tree in front casts shadow – something to check later, when the tree’s in leaf.

Herbs can grow fast and furious, and, as I’ve just discovered from my own herb pots, can soon become root bound in containers. But if they get used regularly, they should be kept in check. We’ll be checking regularly to see how they are growing and will probably replace/divide plants annually.

Herbs are easy to propagate: we’ve got thyme, sage, basil, dill, fennel and parsley seeds coming up already, oregano and thyme are easy to divide and rosemary can be propagated from cuttings.

We’ve already had several people looking and commenting on the planters. Give the plants a month or so to settle in, and then the herbs should be ready for cutting: inspiration at the end of the working day for cooking your evening meal.

It’s our Seed-Sowing Sunday on 14th April, thanks to the RHS 2013 Britain in Bloom ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ scheme whose theme this year is ‘Edible Britain’.

To mark the beginning of National Gardening Week, we’ll be sowing the fifteen free packs of seeds for easy edible plants – herbs, radishes, beetroot, carrots – which we’ve received from the RHS. There will also be seeds – and probably seedlings – to give away. Please come along and join us at the edible growing garden, London Road Station (south side by bridge)! 

We’ll be showing how to sow seeds in different receptacles, from the classic oblong seed tray to plastic cups, toilet rolls, window boxes and guttering. And we’ll also be demonstrating potting on the seedlings when they’ve grown a bit, again using a range of ‘pots’, from the traditional 9cm plastic pots to pots made from newspaper. There’ll be lots to do and hopefully, lots to see! We just need the weather to collaborate.

AND … we hope to inaugurate our public herb planters on Sunday 14th too …

These are two stylish wooden planters which we plan to plant up with popular herbs so that you can pick up your herbs for a tasty supper on your way back from work! Hope to see you on Sunday 14th!