April Tips
APRIL 2011
NOW IS THE TIME TO………
get out and give your lawn a little TLC. Give it a good rake over with a long tine rake to remove any thatch and the few remaining leaves. Where there are bare patches sprinkle some good quality grass seed over them and if you have any a thin coating of multipurpose compost and topsoil mixture. Then a light watering unless your into providing a canteen for the local birds cover with fleece or netting.
Apply mulch to ornamental borders to a depth of 5-6cm. Use garden compost or leafmould. This will feed the soil, your plants, suppress weeds and help retain moisture levels right through the summer months to give you healthy, robust plants and beautiful flowers and colour.
Cut flower stalks back to the ground on daffodils, hyacinths, and other spring flowering bulbs as the flowers fade. Do not cut the foliage until it dies naturally. The leaves are necessary to produce strong bulbs capable of reflowering.
To extend the blooming period of gladiolus, plant early, middle and late season selections each week until the middle of June. Choose a sunny location and plant the corms four to six inches deep and six to eight inches apart.
Then it’s time to catch up with all the seed sowing and to plant out what you have sown in the greenhouse or kitchen window. Be sure to ‘harden off’ young plants by putting them outside during the day and bringing them in at night for a couple of weeks. Don’t worry if you haven’t yet started. Seeds will germinate better in a slightly warmer soil.
Old Wives Tales
A couple more from the Guardian Weekend who took it from Which.
Urine speeds up composting
The theory
Human and animal urine is a source of nitrogen, which speeds up decomposition by boosting the activity of composting organisms.
The evidence
Microorganisms are the workhorses of your compost heap and need nutrients, including nitrogen. This is found naturally in kitchen waste and green, sappy plant materials such as grass clippings. If you've got the right balance of nitrogen-rich and carbon-rich materials in your heap, there's little evidence that adding extra nutrients benefits microorganisms and speeds up composting. Which trialled compost activators in 2008 and found that nitrogen-rich fertiliser did not speed up composting. Too much nitrogen can, in fact, be detrimental, because it raises salt levels, which discourages worms and will turn your heap into a foul-smelling mess.
The verdict
False: urine may be beneficial in composting if there is not enough fresh, green material in your heap, but it will not speed up composting in a balanced heap.
Parsnips taste better after the first frost
The theory
Parsnips become sweeter when it turns cold because the starch in their roots is turned to sugar.
The evidence
"Cold sweetening" is a process used by the food industry to improve the flavour of parsnips harvested in late summer; early crops harvested at this time of year tend to taste bland. In research by Canadian scientists, a panel of sensory experts tasted parsnips before and after they had been stored in a cold room. They found that parsnips developed a sweet flavour after cold storage, and that there was a rapid increase in the sugar content of parsnips that had been stored at 0C compared with those that had been stored at 10C.
The verdict
True: parsnips really do taste sweeter after being exposed to the cold. To enhance their flavour, leave roots in the ground until you need them.
