A seasonal message from Wansteadium, thanks to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

Earlier this year, the Wansteadium Hedgehog Hunt asked readers to report any sightings in Wanstead of hedgehogs dead or alive. Our initial pessimism was somewhat dispelled by a number of sightings (full coverage here) and most memorably by this photo taken in a Nightingale Estate garden.

A detailed report into the state of Britain’s hedgehog population can be found here.

Wansteadium now undertakes not to mention hedgehogs again until springtime at the earliest.

Wansteadium’s gardening blogger, Ron, 90, who has cultivated his own little patch of E11 for more than 50 years, offers his thoughts on approaching another winter.

We’ve got – for the moment – bright blue skies and it’s dry under foot. It’s pretty chilly, yes, but nothing that a good gardening coat won’t solve. So these are ideal days to be giving your garden a good tidy up before we start to get the wintry weather.

First of all it’s a great time of year to give some attention to your lawn. Give it a good tidy up, even round the borders. You’ll probably see gardeners on TV telling you it’s a good time to aerate your lawn – which involves lancing it with a fork or even taking slim plugs of soil out of your lawn, and then filling the holes with sand.

To be honest, I think if you’ve looked after your lawn over the spring and summer, you shouldn’t need to be doing all this business. And this year I don’t think there will be too much moss in lawns because it hasn’t been so wet, so you shouldn’t be too troubled with having to rake it all out. (By “looking after” your lawn, I really mean regular mowing and occasional treatment with Evergreen, which I believe you can buy in the pet shop in Wanstead High Street. Too late this year to do it, but remember for next.)

It’s not too late either to be mowing your lawn – I gave mine a quick trim today – especially if you have a mower with a roller on it. This helps push down the wormcasts which come up after it’s rained; if you don’t push them down your lawn will gradually get very bumpy.

Incidentally, if you’ve got large dips in your lawn you can still sort these out by gradually spreading a mixture of sharp sand and loam on them – allowing the grass to come up. You’ll have to be patient (unless you want to be more adventurous in digging the grass up and filling the hole from underneath) but it will be worth it if you like a flat lawn.

Aside from the lawn there’s lots to be done in the way of cutting back and tidying up. I’ve dug up some border plants which have grown into a clump – it’s a good time to split them into two or more separate plants.

I’ve brought some fuchsias inside now – and if you have any delicate plants you might want to do the same. I lost some last Autumn.

And it’s not too early to be thinking about next year. My neighbour bought some geraniums from the pet shop which had a very pleasant red-orange flower and a crinkled variegated leaf. He said I was welcome to take cuttings, and I now have five new plants indoors which next spring will be going outside. I also planted some wallflower seeds – they are now about an inch high – and some sweet peas too (though they will cost about 10p a go). It’s really not too soon to be thinking about Spring, and somehow that reminds you that this gardening business isn’t just something that stops when the clocks go back. Nature goes on, 12 months a year, whether we’re looking or not.

Wansteadium’s new gardening blogger is Ron, who has been cultivating his Wanstead garden for more than 50 years.

I was pleased to receive this note from Wanstead resident Geoff Wilkinson.

Hi Ron

Great to know that there is someone to answer queries re gardening.  I have for the first time this year attempted growing tomatoes outside.  Have watered daily and fed them Tomorite weekly.  They have an abundance of trusses and are still flowering in anticipation of more fruit.  However, they continue to be hard, large and green (variety – Moneymakers).  When do they turn red?  I have taken the largest trusses off and placed the tomatoes on a tray and put them in the sun at every opportunity (could be a better summer).  Still not turning red – if anything they are erring on the side of yellow.  Desperate for help.  We need red tomatoes – no clue how to make chutney.

Regards
Geoff

To be honest, I’m not sure why Geoff’s tomatoes shouldn’t be going red – I’ve been growing Moneymakers for several years and always found them a good variety. I grow my own plants from seed; they’re easy to rear in the Spring, so long as you don’t let them get too tall or leggy.

The basic method is to grow them in the ground or a big pot, using an ordinary potting mix and putting a nice cane or stake in place at the time of planting out – though they should only go outside when there’s no risk of late frost. You should confine the plant to one main stem, and allow only five or six trusses (i.e. five or six bunches which grow together). With most varieties you nip out the side shoots (that’s those which sprout from the nick between the main stem and the established leaves). As Geoff has been doing, they need feeding once a week, after the first trusses start growing, and those in pots will need watering daily in dry weather. Tomatoes in the ground will not need so much watering.

One problem lots of people encounter is browning or yellowing of leaves. This could be BLIGHT. Cut off those affected bits and get rid of them – don’t put them in your compost.

Tomatoes do like sunny weather (as do I), and this should help them ripen. It might help to put the tray of tomatoes on a window sill indoors. Ripening might just be a matter of time, but when it comes it will be worth it. There’s nothing like the smell you get from the skin of home-grown tomatoes. I hope this helps you, Geoff. Do let me know if you have any luck.

• The sunny weather at the end of last week, felt like a bit of an apology for a pretty disappointing August. Here’s hoping that we have an Indian summer this September. I took advantage of last week’s sun to pick the first of this year’s almonds from my tree. The outer casing has already split on lots of them. I love the almond tree – it’s the first thing in the garden to blossom in the Spring and is an early indication of great things to come.

UPDATE: Geoff Wilkinson replies:

“Thank you very much for responding to my problem. You have mentioned a couple of things that may be the problem and I will bear these in mind for next year. However, not all is lost the window sill is proving efficient just a bit slow. Perhaps I should stick to photography !! Best wishes and once again thank you. Cheers Geoff”

You can send Ron your gardening questions at wansteadium@gmail.com

Wansteadium’s new gardening blogger is 90-year-old Ron, who has been cultivating his Wanstead garden for more than 50 years. His garden is abundant in fruit and veg, and shows of flowering colour spread across the months. In this regular feature, Ron will be giving tip-offs about the jobs that need to be done, and adding a few ideas along the way.

I’ve been collecting a lot of ripe tomatoes, and generally tidying up around the place. Lots of things have reached the end of their growing now. I’ve been trimming the yellowy fronds of the Kerria. It does grow so tall if you don’t cut it in the first year of its growth – mind you, that can be useful if you are trying to screen something like a wall or shed. There’s plenty of greenery even when it’s not flowering.

The early sewn petunias have finished now, but sometimes if you cut the top off you get a secondary bloom, if you’re lucky. That will depend on the weather, of course. If you’ve got a clematis, you’ll be wanting to trim it back by between a third and a half. It should grow again next year from the bottom. They can flower so well – but they like their feet to be cool, which means don’t plant them in a pot if you can put them in the soil. I’ve got the roots of mine beneath slabs which does the job.

I planted a damson tree this year which I bought as a sapling from a nursery. When it arrived, though, I noticed that lots of its roots had been chopped by whoever or whatever had dug it up. So I rang the nursery to tell them about it and let them know that if it died I’d be back on to them. Well, it’s still a twig, so I’ve got a phone call to make.

I’m just waiting now for the second sewing of my beetroots to come through. They’re doing much better than the first lot. If you remember, in the spring, we had a very dry spell for two months. That meant I only got about 25% germination of the first lot of beetroot. This second lot are doing much better. Remember to keep them weeded though – you really need to keep on top of the weeds at the moment. They just keep on growing and if you’re not careful they get on top of you. They never stop until the winter comes. The best thing then is to dig the ground over roughly to let the frost get at the roots of the weeds.

The fox I mentioned last time has been around quite a bit, leaving his little parcels around the place. You can always tell it’s the fox because it’s black – and much bigger than anything like a hedgehog would leave.

(Photo of Kerria japonica by TattyBones, via Flickr, used under Creative Commons)