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Monthly Gardening Reminders
from: Brian CookAs you work on perfecting your homemade wine, it is important to
spend a little time each month tending to your garden. Here I
have broken down by month some of the things that you will want
to do to ensure a bountiful harvest that you can use when making
your own wine at home.
January
Little
can be done this month, and much will depend on how much has
been done in previous months. If the weather is mild the
planting of fruit trees and bushes may be undertaken, but do
this only if the weather appears likely to stay mild for a few
days at least.
Look to blackcurrant bushes and remove
any swollen buds and burn them.
Get in supplies of
insecticides and fertilizers.
February
Make sure all trained fruits are tied
to their supports securely, and give each a mulch of manure if
there is plenty available. If only limited amounts of manure or
compost are available keep these till later on. Loganberries and
raspberries not already cut down should be attended to and the
new canes tied in.
If the weather is mild a light
forking of the top soil round fruit bushes and along rows of
canes, followed by a dusting of lime, will do a lot of good.
This will also unearth a few pests for the attention of birds.
All fruit trees and bushes should have been planted by
now; if they have not, get them in before the end of the month.
March
Gooseberries and currants should be
sprayed this month with paraffin emulsion to safeguard them
against brown scale and red spider.
Watch blackcurrants
for "big bud" and pinch off any suspects and burn them. Care
must be taken now because the buds may be at the point of
opening.
Fork round bushes and canes as for February if
this was not done last month.
April
Spray blackcurrants with a lime and sulphur wash where "big bud"
is suspected. Repeat if necessary.
The main activity in
the garden now will be spreading compost or manure and keeping
down weeds before they get a hold.
Any weak growths on
fruit bushes may be cut out so as to leave the stronger growths
to bear the fruit. This will also help the growth of new wood on
which next year's fruit will be borne.
May
To keep strawberries clean put clean straw round the
plants. Before doing this dress the bed with two ounces of super
phosphate per square yard and hoe this in lightly.
Give
all fruit a mulch of manure or compost, or dead leaves. Begin
weekly feeding with liquid manure.
Watch all fruit for
signs of pests and diseases and spray with proprietary brands of
insecticide.
June
Gooseberries often
need thinning at this time of the year. Do this so that the
smaller fruits are left to develop fully.
Make wine
with the thinning.
If the weather is very dry, mulch
fruit bushes with manure, compost, leaves, straw, lawn mowing or
whatever is available. Mulching conserves moisture in the soil
and helps the fruit to swell. This can increase the annual yield
by as much as a third.
If green-fly appears spray with
a proprietary brand of insecticide.
July
Fruit bushes and trees make rapid growth at this time
of the year. If there is any suggestion of overcrowding, cut out
some of this new growth, leaving the strongest to grow on.
Look to the vines; if there is an abundance of long
straggling growths, cut some of them out, leaving those you will
want for cutting back in the autumn.
Runners from
strawberry plants may be pegged down to make new plants. Peg
down the strongest young crown on the runners that come from the
plants bearing the heaviest crop. Pinch off the runner an inch
beyond the crown to be pegged down. If this is not done the
runner will continue to run and develop new crowns; this will
weaken the parent plant and will also produce an abundance of
new weakling plants.
If tree-fruit crops are heavy,
thin to two or three fruits to each cluster. Far better to have
three good fruits to each bunch than five or six under-sized
ones.
August
Keep down weeds with the
hoe. Gather apples and pears if ready and look to later
varieties: thin these as necessary.
September
Loganberries and raspberries that have borne fruit may
be cut down now and the new canes tied in.
Clean up
round trees and bushes and burn all leaves if pests and diseases
have been prevalent. The ash, if there is enough of it, should
be stored for hoeing in round fruit bushes in the spring. Hoeing
now will help to prevent weeds growing from seeds dropped
earlier.
Pegged-down strawberry runners may be lifted
now, severed from the parent plant and planted out. Strawberry
beds need replacing every three years; it is a good plan then to
replace a third of the bed each year with these new plants.
October
Clean up and burn all rubbish
round fruit bushes and canes. If loganberries and raspberries
have not yet been cut down and the new canes tied in, do this
now.
Prune currants and gooseberry bushes.
Plant fruit bushes and early varieties of tree fruits.
November
All those jobs that you should have
done during August, September and October must be done now.
December
Look to blackcurrants for "big
bud"; pinch off infected buds and burn them.
Plant and
prune vines, fruit trees, bushes and canes.
Make sure
that you are getting a good supply of compost ready for next
year.
About the author:
Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on home wine
making have appeared in print and on many websites. You can find
more of these at:
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