Peas are incredibly easy to grow, so good to try your hand at if you are new to growing your own, as you can usually see them beginning to grow within a week of planting them.
All photos by Toni Abram.
I have grown peas for a good few years now. Previously I have grown them up a wigwam type structure (if you have been watching Grow Your Own at Home this year, this is the way David Domony grew his) but this year I decided to live dangerously and instead planted my peas in a row, in a trough. I was a bit concerned about the size of the trough and that my plants wouldn’t get enough sunlight where the trough is situated in the garden but I need not have worried, they grew just fine.
I started my peas off in small pots in the kitchen and when they got to a good size, I planted them outside, each time planting some more in the house.
I tied some garden canes together to make a framework for my peas to grow up and it made it easy to see which plants were doing well and which were struggling.
The plan had been to do successional planting (sowing little and often so I didn’t get a glut or a shortage), meaning that I would have peas for best part of the summer but something got a taste for them and many times I found myself replacing once healthy plants that got eaten overnight.
Towards the end of June, flowers appeared and soon afterwards my plants became heavy with pea pods. It is always very tempting to want to eat the peas as soon as the pods appear but if you can stop yourself from eating them, you will get bigger and fatter peas.
Home grown peas taste amazing, I happily eat mine straight from the pods and would definitely encourage anyone with an interest in growing their own produce, to have a go at growing their own too.
Strawberries
This year I decided to grow strawberries for the first time. I love strawberries so was really excited to have a go at growing my own.
All photos by Toni Abram.
I purchased a variety of bare root plant called ‘Strawberry Florence‘. Bare root plants are dormant perennial plants that are stored without any soil around their roots and because of this, they weigh less and are easier for the seller to ship.
I didn’t decide until June that I wanted to grow strawberries, so I chose the variety because they have a late season harvest. Producing fruit from June/July, the variety is said to be a prolific cropper with exceptional pest and disease resistance. Also it is well suited to growing in containers which because I only have a small garden, is perfect.
And within a couple of weeks I had a pot full of healthy strawberry plants.
And in early August I saw my first strawberry, which was accompanied by a few days of hot weather, in which it seemed the strawberries turned red before my eyes.
This summer I have been trying to encourage birds to my garden and I really wasn’t sure strawberries and birds were compatible but at the time of writing this, I seem to have got away with it. The verdict … very quick and easy to grow, can be grown in small spaces and the excitement of seeing the little red fruits appear is really quite special.
Further information
For further information about growing strawberries, visit the RHS website below.
Primula Vialli
Originating from China, Primula Vialli (also known as Vial’s primrose, the orchid primrose and the red hot poker primrose) is an unusual shaped flower with red tipped and lilac flowers, which typically blooms in June and July.
All photos by Toni Abram.
Primulas belong to a huge family of plants. Probably the most recognisable of these are the primroses and polyanthus seen in gardens in early spring but primulas come in many sizes, shapes and colours, as can be seen on the Gardenia website below.
Believed to have been discovered in the Yunnan mountains by Pierre John Marie Delavey (1834 – 1895), a french missionary, botanist and collector of plants, the flowers Latin name, honours another Yunnan missionary, Paul Vial (1855 – 1917).
Primula vialli flowers are short lived but mass plantings create a spectacular effect and its nectar/pollen rich flowers will attract bees and butterflies to your garden. The rocket shaped flowers which grow to approximately 40 cm high and 1 cm wide, remind me of rocket ice lollies from when I was young,
The plant is perennial and dies back to below ground level each year (so make a note of where you plant it before it disappears), before fresh new growth appears in the spring. It grows best in partial shade but will tolerate sun.
A recipient of the Award of Garden Merit from the RHS, a less dramatic variety of this plant, called Alison Holland, was was discovered by an 85 year old amateur gardener called John Holland in his Northumberland garden and was a finalist in the RHS chelsea flower show plant of the year competition in 2016.are short lived but mass plantings create a spectacular effect and its nectar/pollen rich flowers will attract bees and butterflies to your garden. The rocket shaped flowers which grow to approximately 40cm high and 1cm wide, remind me of rocket lollies from when I was young,
The plant is perennial and dies back to below ground level each year (so make a note of where you plant it before it disappears), before fresh new growth appears in the spring, it grows best in partial shade but will tolerate sun.
A recipient of the Award of Garden Merit from the RHS, a less dramatic variety of this plant, called Alison Holland, was was discovered by an 85 year old amateur gardener called John Holland in his garden in Northern England.
Oriental poppies
In my garden I have grown oriental poppies for many years. When they bloom, they look like giant brightly coloured saucers and the bees think all their birthdays have come at once.
All photos by Toni Abram.
My poppies were purchased from a garden centre as good sized plants, however you can buy poppy seeds.
I have orange and red poppies planted in my garden borders. Poppies can also be gown in pots, which will contain them and stop them from taking over the garden but they provide good ground cover and I have come to love the sight of poppies on mass.
Oriental poppies bloom from early May onwards, they have delicate petals that up close look like tissue paper and prior to flowering they develop big fat flower buds that remind me of horse chestnuts. They don’t flower for that long and being tall they are vulnerable to wet and windy weather but if you cut them right down to the ground after flowering, they will grow back almost immediately and you can often have a second flowering later in the year. At this stage you can also dig sections of the plant up for planting elsewhere or give them away as small plants.
Cutting poppies back does mean you will have an empty space in your borders for a while but they tend to look quite untidy after flowering, so it neatens things up. Plant your poppies at the back of your border, with other plants in front and it will disguise the hole and any messiness.
Passion Flower
I have grown a passion flower in my garden for a number of years now, which I purchased as a small plant from a garden centre. Passion flowers can be grown from cuttings and from seed too, however growing from seed is not easy and the plants can take over a decade to flower.
All photos by Toni Abram.
Passion flowers are evergreen climbers with dark green leaves, which will quickly cover a wall or fence or in my case an obelisk – the plant is able to climb with tendrils, the same as peas, sweet peas and runner beans.
They have exotic looking flowers but are easy to grow, flowering from July to October, with egg shaped fruits following the flowers. It is possible to grow passion flowers in the ground or in pots. Those grown in pots will need to be fed and watered more often and they won’t grow quite as vigorously as those growing in the ground, however growing them in a pot does mean they can be moved to a frost free place for winter, if necessary.
My plant is Passiflora Caerulea but other varieties are available. Images of some of these can be seen below.
Passion flowers are hardy in most regions of the British Isles despite being native to the tropics of South America. They can handle drought conditions but can be lost to frost and some passion flowers are suitable only for growing in a conservatory or greenhouse, so check before you buy.
Taking cuttings
Passion flowers cuttings can be taken in early spring/summer. To do this remove new growth from below a leaf node – about 6cm in length is long enough. Remove the bottom leaves and tendrils and place the cutting in a pot of cutting compost. Cuttings should root successfully when placed in a propagator with bottom heat of around 20°C. However, last year I took cuttings of mine for the first time, stuck them in general/multipurpose compost, did without a propagator and this year have three new good sized plants.
Common problems
Passion flower won’t bloom
Plants can get a lot of leaves and not many flowers. The most common cause of lack of flowers is too much nitrogen (which will promote leaf growth at the expense of flowers) and too little potassium. A weekly feed of liquid seaweed or bone meal in May, June and July should sort this out.
Age
Passion flowers don’t always bloom right away. Many species need several years to establish a solid root system before they begin to set blooms.
Light
Fruiting plants need as much sun as they can get. Even if you never intend to harvest the fruit, your passion flower will try to turn the flowers into fruit and this means being able to create lots of food with the help of the sun. A passion flower needs at least eight hours of direct sunlight, otherwise, it may never bloom or bloom only sparsely. If your flower isn’t getting eight hours of direct sunlight a day, you should consider moving it.
Morning Glory
Morning glory is a climbing plant native to the rain forests of South America. I have grown purple and pink varieties of this flower. The flowers of the purple variety look as if they have been dipped in purple ink which gives them a very decadent appearance. Both varieties have trumpet shaped flowers, white throats, twining stems and large heart shaped leaves.
Whenever I have grown morning glory, I have grown it from seed, sowing these around March/April time and it really is as simple as putting some seeds in a pot and waiting for them to begin growing.
I grow mine in pots and use plant supports so the plant has something to climb up. I create these cheaply using garden canes to form a wigwam structure and cane grips which you can buy at garden centres, on eBay or Amazon. Morning glory could also be grown up a trellis or grown through shrubs and trees.
The plant grows best in full sun or dappled shade, however individual flowers are short lived. They open wide in the early morning sun but do not last the day. Remove the dead flowers when you see them and the plant will flower reliably throughout the summer.
