What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a classic bouquet of freshly bloomed roses? Not only are they the most sought-after flower for gift-giving (especially when it comes to romance), they’re practically synonymous with the holiday.
24.01.2024 - 11:03 / gardenersworld.com
Raspberries are easy and cheap to grow, providing you with sweet and delicious fruit that tastes so much better when picked fresh on a warm summer’s day. Raspberries are categorised into ‘summer-fruiting’ and ‘autumn-fruiting’ types. Summer-fruiting raspberries fruit on the previous year’s growth and are typically tall plants that require staking. Autumn-fruiting raspberries are shorter and usually less vigorous, and fruit on the current season’s growth. Growing a variety of the two types means you could be successionally harvesting your own delicious raspberries from late June through to October.
Grown on ‘canes’ (upright woody stems), raspberries are a great investment, often fruiting for 10 years or more. They require annual pruning and taller, summer-fruiting varieties need staking, so they are not as low-maintenance as some other soft fruit. However, they are usually considered worth the effort, and will taste even sweeter when you think about how much you’d pay for a punnet in the supermarket.
How to grow raspberriesPlant raspberry canes 45cm apart with 1.8m between rows, in moist but free-draining, fertile soil. An open, sunny site is best. Firm in and water well. Tie in summer-fruiting canes to supports as they grow, cutting back weak stems (autumn-fruiting varieties don’t need support). In spring, feed with a general fertiliser and mulch around plants to keep their roots slightly moist and to suppress weeds. Keep the plants well watered during dry spells. Harvest raspberries as and when they ripen. Cut autumn-fruiting canes back to the ground after fruiting and cut back the old canes of summer-fruiting varieties, leaving the new canes for next year’s crop.
Where to grow raspberriesGrow raspberries in moist but
What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a classic bouquet of freshly bloomed roses? Not only are they the most sought-after flower for gift-giving (especially when it comes to romance), they’re practically synonymous with the holiday.
Casey Bryce, University of Bristol
How to Grow Asparagus Curious about how to grow asparagus? We'll break it down for you here! Growing asparagus
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Sow celery thinly in pots or boxes in heat in March for early varieties, or in a cold house in mid-April for the main crop. Prick off into deep seed boxes as soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, at 5cm (2in) intervals. After hardening off, plant out from mid May to the end of June, in prepared trenches. This is not only helpful in earthing but enables watering to be carried out by flooding the trench.
Said to be an old Greek name for a similar plant (Compositae). Hardy perennials with white wooly foliage and flowers which can be cut before maturity and dried for use as `everlastings’, sometimes being dyed.
The flower form resembles an eagle’s claw, hence the probable origin of this name from aquila the Latin for eagle (Ranunculaceae). Columbine. Hardy herbaceous perennials for the herbaceous border and rock garden. The flowers and leaves are very dainty. Unfortunately, they are inclined to be short lived in heavy wet soils, but they are easily increased by seed. The flowers appear in May and June in a wide range of colors from yellows and creams to blues and reds and purples. The garden hybrids have been raised from various species, e.g. the long-spurred hybrids from Aquilegia longissima. ‘Mrs. Scott Elliott’s’ is a well-known strain, and more recently, there are the McKana Giant hybrids, with larger flowers and long spurs.
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From the time of the Greeks and Romans, various fungi have been eaten as a delicacy and the expert can find many varieties growing wild which are equal, if not superior, in flavor to the mushroom (Psalliotta campestris). But there are also a number of poisonous fungi, some deadly. The field mushrooms which appear in profusion in meadows in the moist autumn days are perfectly safe, but the inexperienced townsman would be well advised to make sure first that he is actually picking field mushrooms, because some poisonous fungi are very similar. Cultivated mushrooms are absolutely reliable and a valuable food as well as a delicacy.