Gardening Pleasures

Some years your rose gardening efforts can be severely hampered by extreme weather conditions, diseases, viruses and pests. The dreaded mosaic disease can affect 9 out of 10 rose gardens and black spot is as infectious to roses as the common cold is to humans. But don’t despair or give up.

There are several precautionary measures you can adopt to protect your precious roses.

Unusual weather conditions.  Unfortunately there is nothing you can actually do about the weather and short of erecting a greenhouse, you can’t protect your roses from extreme temperatures or weather events. You can keep an eye on the weather reports and if extreme weather is promised or approaching, take precautionary measures like covering your roses with a tarpaulin to prevent damage from wind and rain.  If extremely cold weather is predicted, wrap the roses in fleece or bubblewrap to reduce the effects of such very low temperatures.

Cleanliness. Keeping your rose beds free of dead leaves, particularly those infected with black spot will help to reduce re-infection.  Either burn or completely remove all infected leaves and other rose debris from your garden.  Do not put this vegetation onto your compost heap – black spot can lie dormant for some time and contaminated compost used around roses, will re-infect them.

Hygiene.  Make sure all clippings, stems and dead leaves are completely removed. Burn or dispose of them in the rubbish bin.

Regular Pruning. Pruning needs to take place on both the outside and inside of rose bushes.  The purpose of pruning is not only to make the bush look nice but also to allow air to circulate throughout the bush. Good air circulation can really help to reduce the spread of rose diseases such as powdery mildew.  When cutting roses for the house, think about your bush and use that opportunity to prune and shape rather than just cutting the flowers.

Seal the Cuts. When you prune, you expose the inner layers of the stems, opening them to air-borne infection and insects. Seal them up with a special plant sealant to reduce the incidence of disease and insects gaining entry to the rose’s delicate inner parts.

Roses are some of the most beautiful flowers in the garden and with regular attention, they will give you years of pleasure.

Building your own small greenhouse can be an enjoyable and economical especially if you are clever with tools. Select well-drained and level ground for your greenhouse. If you will be using it mainly in summer for plant propagation, it can be situated in partial shade to reduce heat buildup.

The north side of your garden, with some shade from a tree is an ideal location. If there is no partly or moderately shady area available, you can use white paint or shade cloth on the inside ceiling to regulate the amount of sunlight that comes into the interior of  your greenhouse.

If you will be using the greenhouse for young transplants or growing plants on to maturity and fruiting, your greenhouse should be put up in an area with the highest sun exposure available in your garden. Also, situate it where there is good air flow and reasonable water drainage. Do not construct your greenhouse in low lying areas surrounded by tall buildings or woods.  When deciding where to put the greenhouse be sure to consider how convenient the access to water and electricity is going to be.

Take into consideration the time you have for working in your greenhouse when choosing the kind of greenhouse you want and how big it is going to be. Although it’s not true that a greenhouse requires continuous attention, don’t be overly ambitious and buy something that will be more than you want to handle.  New owners of greenhouses often think they will spend far more time there than they actually can or that the greenhouse will not require as much maintenance as they do.

The greenhouse environment can be sustained often with minimal maintenance if using automated controls that operate the ventilation, heating, humidity, artificial lighting and watering. If, however, you don’t want (or can’t afford) to install an automated control system, begin with plants that don’t require specialist care.

There are many prefabricated greenhouses on the market or you can build one by using simple frames. For safety sake, make sure that a certified plumber and electrician installs any automated systems.

Greenhouse kits are widely available in various materials, styles and price ranges. Be sure to check with the local planning department if the greenhouse you choose requires planning consent.  Most won’t, but a really large one situated next to your neighbour’s kitchen window just might. Better safe than sorry.

If you are an avid DIY’er, your new greenhouse can be constructed for a relatively small outlay of cash.  A lean-to greenhouse can be built against a garage or a house, thereby taking advantage of the existing wall, but don’t forget to consider head room and sitting space.

There are some major advantages to purchasing a greenhouse kit. Details like humidity, ventilation and leakage have already been dealt with in the design. Whereas someone constructing the greenhouse from scratch must remember to consider all elements just to avoid problems in the future that could result in the greenhouse not functioning as it should.

Here are some tips to help you design and build your own small greenhouse:

1.  Begin with a design that uses materials that are readily available. Attractive greenhouses can be constructed using recycled materials such single glazed windows or reused lumber.

2.  Adapt the design to accommodate the climate in your area so you won’t have to make further adjustments later.

3. Use a design that makes use of standard-sized building materials. Specialist sizes always cost more.

4.  When planning the design of your greenhouse, take into account the type of gardening you enjoy and plan to do.  Growing rare specimen plants or hydroponic gardening is very different from growing the run of the mill vegetables and flowers for the garden.

5.  Considering the climate in your area, plan into the design any timers and thermostats needed to regulate the precise levels of heat or light you want for the plants you will be growing.

6.  Design and implement a back-up arrangement for operating heating or lighting equipment in case of power failures or extreme weather conditions.

7.  If you are building a wooden greenhouse, you can use cedar, redwood or cypress, but remember that you will have to regularly treat or paint the wood. For cost-effectiveness and economy, use pressure treated wood for the framing.

8.  Greenhouses often have glass panes installed, but polycarbonate plastic, fiberglass, plastic film or acrylic panes or sheets can also be used.

Greenhouses have come a long way over the past ten years both in terms of price and materials used.  A greenhouse is vital to a keen gardener for extending the growing season and the types of plants they can grow.

What would a green thumb do for you without having some of the right gardening tools to do the jobs you need to do in the garden?

Here are some of the basics that every gardener should have regardless of whether you are a novice or a professional gardener.

Gloves – You should have at least one good pair of waterproof gloves that fit well. Gloves with long cuffs are handy when pruning prickly plants or digging deep holes. There are now so many different types available that you should be able to find some that will protect your hands regardless of what you are doing, from digging, to turning compost, to pruning roses to pulling up nettles.

Sun hat – A hat with a wide brim that will provide adequate protection from the sun is a must. A drawstring cord will make sure your hat doesn’t go flying over the neighbour’s hedge when the winds blow.

Hand trowels – used for making planting holes and for lifting small plants from amongst other plants, especially in tight spaces such as rockeries.  Mine gets used for things like thinning plants, transplanting, mixing compost and filling pots with soil, etc., etc.

Hand cultivators – used for breaking up compacted soil in confined spaces such as a veg. plot, loosening soil from between close planting especially in places like rock gardens.  Also great for adding compost or sreading fertiliser in tightly packed areas.

Daisy grubbers – these are great for digging out weeds like dandelions and other long rooted weeds from a lawn without making enormous holes in the lawn.  Bulbs and other plants can be carefully removed from wherever they are with this hand tool.

Canvas apron – A short apron with pockets that will carry small hands tools as well as safely hold your phone is the one to buy.  Unless of course, like me, carrying a phone around while gardening is the last thing you want to do!

A trug or basket - rather than carry your tools in an apron, a trug or wide, shallow basket works well for carrying the hand tools, ties, labels, etc. you need to move from place to place while gardening.

Five-gallon bucket – This is another way to tote around your tools as you make your way around the flower beds. Or use it to toss weeds into as you go!

A plastic container with handles – for weeding.  These come in a variety of sizes and colours and are extemely useful.  I use a small one when ankle deep in a flower bed and when it’s full, it gets dumped into a much larger one that gets emptied onto the compost heap when full.

Spade – This is an extremely important tool to have.  These days spades come in several sizes, I have one called a lady’s spade (also called a border spade or rabbiting spade) which is square but smaller than many.  It is just the right size for digging up and dividing clumps of well established plants or getting into tight spaces where a bigger spade wouldn’t work.  And, yes, it is also good for cutting a nice straight edge along a path or drive.   A good idea I saw recently was to put brightly-colored sticky tape on the handle so, if put down in amongst tall grass, you can find it again.

Pruners – Two different sizes are required for the jobs in my garden – loppers for thick-ish branches and secateurs for cutting smaller stems, flower heads, etc.  A good sharpener is also necessary to ensure a clean cut that minimizes injury to plant tissue.

Hand rake, fork or claw – This is a handy tool for fluffing up mulch or turning over the top 6 inches (1.5 cm) of soil and general weeding as well as uprooting stubborn young weeds.  It also works to smooth small patches of freshly dug soil in preparation for planting, thinning out small plants and transplanting as well.

Kneeling pad - a plastic covered, padded kneeling pad is great for keeping knees dry when weeding or planting.  It’s also great for avoiding small stones or even paving slabs digging into your knees when you’re kneelling for a long time.

There are so many more really useful tools that a keen gardener needs but I’ve run out of time and space.  More from me later.

The requirements for plants are the same whether you are growing a garden traditionally  or with a hydroponics method.  In hydroponics, the nutrients the plant would get from the  soil are replaced by a growing medium that can be purchased at gardening supply stores.   The need for water and light is still just as important though.  Light can come from a  natural source, an artificial source or a combination of the two.  Depending on the type of  hydroponics system the method that your plant gets water will differ too.

In order to get the best results from your home-based hydroponics garden, find a south- facing window to give the plants the best natural light.  If this isn’t possible, you can  purchase special lights that are specifically designed for plants.  Instead of using a  fluorescent light, buy what is known as a discharge light.  This imitates the light the  plants would naturally get from the sun and will produce healthier and hardier plants.

The water that the root system is growing in needs to be healthy water full of nutrients  and this can be determined by checking the pH level (it should be a pH level of 6).  The  pH level should be checked on a regular basis to ensure it is not too acidic or alkaline.  If  the reading is too high, add small amounts of vinegar and keep re-testing until you can  the reading you want.  If the water reading has a pH level that is too low, use the same  procedure to raise the pH level except use baking soda instead of vinegar.

By growing your plants with hydroponics, you will see faster and more abundant growth.   The method that the plants get their nutrients is more efficient and results in robust and  prolific plants – whether they are houseplants, vegetable plants, or herbs.