2024 June Newsletter
Our Society > Newsletters hints and tips
WESTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
June 2024
Dear Members
May and early June have brought us some warm spells of weather which have greatly accelerated the growth of the flora and fauna in our gardens. Temperatures in the greenhouse can reach over 30C, and we must be careful to ventilate greenhouses and apply shading to prevent overheating and scorching of plants.
I have been very busy in the garden clearing Spring flowers ( bluebells and forget me nots ) and preparing the beds for summer bedding plants and dahlias. I prefer to dig up dahlias in late Autumn and store them in frost-free containers, and then plant out in May. The attached photo shows the support mesh I fit around my dahlias to prevent the wind and rain flattening them.
I have noted that several of my perennials and a gooseberry appears to have died off during the Winter. I can only assume the very wet winter has killed them off. I would be interested to know if this has happened to other members.
Hanging baskets, pots and grow bags are being planted up. These have limited nutrients in the compost which will need replenishing throughout the growing season. There are specialist feeds for individual plants that can be quite expensive if you have a large variety of plants. We may invite an expert to speak to us on the subject in the future.
Briefly there are three nutrients that are required by plants:
Nitrogen (N). Nitrogen helps development of leaves. Very good for vegetables. Chicken manure pellets is an example of a high Nitrogen feed.
Phosphorus (P). Phosphorus helps development of shoots and roots. Blood Fish and Bone is an example of a high Phosphorus feed.
Potassium (K). Potassium helps development of flowers and fruits i.e. tomatoes. All tomato feeds and Miracle-Gro are examples of a high Potassium feed
Plant food feeds usually have on the back of the packet a figure that shows the proportions of the nutrients they contain. This is known as the N-P-K ratio.
Chicken Manure Pellets. N-P-K ratio 4.5-3.5-2.5, a larger proportion of Nitrogen
Miracle-Gro. N-P-K ratio 24-8-16, large proportion of Nitrogen and Potassium
Growmore. N-P-K ratio 7-7-7, equal proportions of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium
Clearly the numbering system can cause confusion. My own preference would be adding Growmore to all baskets, tubs and growbags at the start of planting as a general feed. After a period of four weeks commence with a liquid feed of either tomato feed or Miracle-Gro every two weeks.
Liquid feeds should be applied to damp compost, and only the recommended doses should be used, as over-strength doses can burn the roots of the plant
Our May meeting had Matthew Symonds talking about ‘Gardening in Small Places’. The meeting was very well attended. Matthew was very inventive in his use of space, particularly with the use of shrubs and trees in his small garden.
Our speaker for the next meeting on Thursday 13th June is Lesley Pattenden, and her talk is titled ‘Bee Keeping and a Taste of Honey’
Entrance for the meeting is £2 per member and £3 per non-member.
St Peter’s Church Hall, Baytree Road. Meeting starts at 7.30pm.
I can be contacted on my email if more information is required.
Kind regards,
John Chapman,
Chairman