2016 Diary Episode 10
Saturday 28th May
If you cast your mind back to last year’s diary I mentioned how I
was going to use rain water to water my plants because –
·
Rain water does not seem to cause
stem rot on plants in the garden yet when you use tap water on
plants in the greenhouse stem rot can occur. Whether this is down to
splashing water on the stem due to careless watering or down to the
use of “artificial” chemicals used in tap water.
·
Rain water is one of the purest
sources of water.
·
Normal rainwater acidity can be
very beneficial for plants.
·
Most plant roots like acid water as
it makes the minerals more available at the resulting Ph.
·
Contains more beneficial nutrients
than tap water.
Safeguards -
1.
Now I am also going to try to keep “foreign objects” from going into
the water butt by converting an empty plastic container into a
funnel. Then I am going to put the funnel into the water butt and
stretch a piece of fine mesh over the top of the funnel. The down
pipe from the greenhouse will feed water into the top of the funnel
where once again the fine mesh netting will act as a fine filter and
stop any debris going into the water butt.
2.
The other secret weapon I have up my sleeve is courtesy of Basil
Billinger and that is a lump of coal… this will stop the water going
“off” before I use it. This is because coal can help purify water as
coal grains carry a slight electrical charge on their surface, so
they act
like tiny magnets attracting other charging contaminants that adhere
themselves to the surface of the coal.
3.
And finally I was going to get x2 100 Litre water butts so I
can turn the rainwater over quickly.
Well on Friday on the way home from work I picked up x2 100 litres
slim line water butts.
Then for a couple of hours I refitted my rainwater system so it will
be able to collect debris free rainwater as you can see by the
picture to the right.
Additional – remember when I mentioned
I had painted Coolglass on the inside of my greenhouse roof this
year, well one of the main reasons for this is that it never got
washed off into the waterbutts.
Sunday 29th May – Terry Taskers
Scottish Road Trip
Now I am going to start this by saying that I
would find out later in the day that I felt like I was actually a
chauffeur & guide to a pair of Victorian plant hunters exploring in
another country.
Anyway, back to the day itself -
The day started off as normal for a trip North by leaving
home at 06:30am to meet Terry Tasker and “Dodgy” Dave Weatherby for
7am. The journey North was full of banter between the three of us but as
we approached Abington Service Station Dave Weatherby asked if he
could have a “comfort break”, so we pulled off the M74 and dropped
into the service station. This is where the fun started, I got out
of the car in my own unique way and walked round the car at
the same time asTerry and Dave. All I can say is those two
made me look the normal one when the three of us hobbled into the
services. Since Dave wanted to stop we nominated him to buy the
Starbuck cappuccinos, Terry got his drink and said he was going to
stretch his legs so Dave and myself sat down, a minute later Dave
unexpectedly threw his drink on himself!!!! Terry walked up and I
explained what had happened and he casually said that’s why I went
for a walk as he always does that…. we then just cracked up laughing
at what happened.
Mr. Nelsons -
We got to Robert Nelsons for mid-morning and unusually found him dressed down
and not ready to go to the meeting. Today he was in his work clothes and in a strange sort of way it did
not seem right.
After a quick tour the plant hunters had their lists out and plants
where “flying” out of Robert’s greenhouses and stockpiled in their
own little areas ready for loading in the boot later.
At this point I must mention that Terry Tasker did seem to spend
most of his time taking pictures of Robert's and Margaret’s 3 cats
and a 4th one that was “lodging” with them and sending
the pictures back to his better half Shirley in England.
The boot of the car was nearly full of plants before we set of for
John's home.
Mr. Hamilton’s -
We arrived at John's to find him weeding, and our arrival gave him
the excuse to stop. It must have been one off the best day’s weather
wise I have ever experienced at John,s so we hit the patio furniture
and sat down. There was myself Dave W, Terry T, John H and his wife Mhari and it got even better for them when John offered them a beer
- So there the 5 of us sat, with them enjoying a cold beer and me
with a pot of tea. After a while John took us down to his
greenhouses, all his plants where now in their final pots and
starting to move. Oh, remember the robin chicks I mentioned in my
last article well I asked John and he said that they all flew the
nest.
We went back to sit in the sun and John served up the beers,
then a tense wait to see whose nerve broke first between Terry Tasker and Dave Weatherby. Both of them where holding their “lists”
sorry cards close to their chest. The sun beat down and beads of
sweat were starting to form on their brows then Terry’s nerve broke
first and out came his plant shopping list and passed it to John as
this was happening Dave Weatherby also unrolled his shopping list.. John had well and truly been blindsided by
the pair of them and it was not long before the three of them
disappeared back to the greenhouses. That left Mhari and myself
chatting until they returned.
It was fast approaching 16:30hrs and we still had to get to Phil
Champion's so Terry and Dave loaded their ill-gotten gains into the
back of the car that resembled a miniature rainforest before we said
our goodbyes and left.
As we left Dave Weatherby was the last member of the party
to go through John's side gate and he literally pulled it off it's hinges, myself and Terry were now in stitches when John
appeared, Dave tried to say that there was only one screw holding
the entire gate on. It was an act of sheer wanton vandalism, at this
rate we will never get an invite back.
We left as quick as possible to avoid any more embarrassment with
John still holding the gate for Dodgy Dave “the gate wrecker”
Weatherby.
The journey to Mr. Champions -
We left Coalburn towards the M74 and headed south and
back to Gretna Green, at this point Terry tried to put Phil Champions
post code in the cars modern satnav system (p.s. the satnav won) as
we watched the hilarious battle that raged on between the Satnav and Terry I flew past the junction I was looking for, that
meant we had to cross the border back into England for a couple of
miles before we could come off and head back into Scotland and come
off at the Gretna junction and follow the signs for the Dumfries
bypass. We followed that road until we hit the A711 and then the
A710 that led us down to the Solway Coast road and Phil Champions
abode.
Mr. Champions – (see the picture the left, Phil
is flanked by Terry to the right and “Dodgy” Dave to the left)
We did not know what to expect to find at Phil’s since he quit the
rat race and moved from Reading in the South of
England to the Solway Coast in Scotland in February. It’s a bit drastic to
immigrate to another country to grow a better flower but you have to
admire his dedication to improve his growing.On arrival the views to the front and back of Phil’s cottage where
spectacular and to the right I have took a picture to the
right of his neighbors….My jaw hit the floor when I saw the side of his greenhouse (picture
to the left) let alone the sight that met us when we went
inside. Most of his staging was up and his plants where well away,
so much so he is still planning on showing at Shrewsbury and Ayr
flower shows this year as you can see by the picture to the
right.
Running the full length across the back of his greenhouse was the
mother of all hotboxes, but Phil’s version did not have sand or
heating cables but an electric blanket as you can see by the picture to the
right.
Terry asked at this point where were the wings and fuselage that
went with the propeller that he was using as a fan as you can see by
the picture to the left. Phil then warned us that when he
fires up the fan the whole greenhouse shakes!!! So we all held onto
something and he switched it on, bloody
hell the whole greenhouse
did not half rattle so he switched it off.
One of Phil’s tricks that caught our eye was the use of laminated
black A4 sheets of paper that were pegged to the
back of his pots
where he was trying to get the plant stem to grow forward on itself
and not wooden boards painted black (you can see what I mean by the
picture to the right).
The journey home -
We left Phil’s at approx. 20:30 and hit the accelerator home, we got
to car park where Dave and Terry had left their car at just after
22:00hrs and then the task of unloading all their ill-gotten gains
began. Once they were happy they had sorted out whose plants were
whose we parted company.
I walked through my front door at 2300hrs – A trip of 505 miles –
and straight to my bed. I must admit I wasn’t the sharpest tool at
work the following day.
Ps I did find out during a conversation with Ian Donaldson a
week or so later that if we had come off the M74 at Moffet we could
have saved up to 50 miles on the journey – but the fight between the
Satnav and Terry well made up for the additional travelling time.
Friday 3rd June – Dedicated to some crazy Scottish men
I would just like to bring to everyone’s attention the following
crazy growers who each try and put on a display at this time of year
at Gardening Scotland - Bob Robertson and Robert Nelson.
They do not have commercial greenhouses like Blackmore & Langdon's, who display at the early shows like Chelsea that were just a
week or so earlier – they are just growers like you and me with
greenhouses in their “back gardens” – and all this to try and
recruit new members.
Tuesday 7th June –
I
never thought I would say this but yippee it rained – yep its 8 days
since it has rained, that in itself is some sort of record around
here anyway. So my rainwater butts were beginning to fill with water to use
for my plants.
Wednesday 8th June –
Today I went through all my plants in the main greenhouse and
pinched out any buds that I could see as well as rubbing out any
side shoots that had started to appear.
One thing I will say is they are without doubt the “shortest” plants
I have ever grown, so much so that I have not had to stake any yet.
The
last time I saw plants that looked like this was at Willy Muir’s
home when he held the Scottish Begonia Society Open Day in 2007 as
you can see by the picture to the left, and myself and late
great friend and traveling partner Les Smith made the trip up (as
you can see by the picture to the right someone caught the
pair of us mooching room Willy’s coldframes). I would be more than
happy to be able to put a flower on top like he did as well.
Thursday 9th June –
I filled my water tubs in the greenhouses with rainwater as you can
see by the picture to the left so from now on all my plants
will be watered using “clean” rainwater.
Then I went through the rest of my plants in my middle greenhouse
pinching out any buds that I could see as well as rubbing out any
side shoots starting to appear in the quest of
filling some boards at Southport Flower Show.
Mid-June weather update – At the end of May the BBC weather
report said we were in for a heat wave in June but on 11th
June they are stating that this June could be one of the wettest on
record up here – I think I will be better by using a pine cone and a
lump of seaweed to forecast the weather, I certainly cannot do any
worse than what’s on the television.
Thursday 17th June -
Went through all my plants aimed for the National and checked the
stage of growth of the buds – and considering the following;
·
9 days away until its 50 days to the National.
Paying close attention to varieties like Tequila Sunrise, Tom
Brownlee and Colin Hamilton.
·
15 days away until it's 44 days to the National,
All other buds were taken off, that should ensure my bud size is
near as damn it 28mm across.
Wednesday 22nd June -
Today my order of Amblyseius Cucumeris arrived from Ladybird Plant
Care, these predators are a precautionary measure that I use against
as the dreaded scourge that is Tarsonemid Mite, as the saying goes –
better safe than sorry.
So that night after tea I went in to my greenhouses and hung a
number of sachets on the leaves of my plants.
Back by popular demand -
Contentious Corner
The rights to claim compensation - (Lighthearted thought)
What!!!! I hear you all splutter once again into your brew….
Have you ever “taken delivery” of a cutting, tuber or plant and
kept, cared and nurtured it for months only to find it’s a different
colour, type and variety then expected!!!!
Well here are two ways to settle this issue –
·
Keep the unexpected variety you have got as a
settlement payment then gratefully except the right variety from the
guilty party.
·
Go to guilty party’s greenhouse and pick a plant.
Before you all try and stick my head on top of a pike this is only a
bit of fun and a lot of tongue in cheek humour.
Me…. I have a notice saying that any plants taken from these
premises are done so at the takers own risk….
Unitl next time….
