Watering in the dry season is important
In England there’s an old saying: ‘When the March winds do blow, we shall have snow.’ In sequence it is followed by the countryman’s forecast, ‘When April showers come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.’ Shades of Al Jolson. Fortunately there are no falls of snow here in Guyana, although when [...]
Sowing techniques
I wish you all a very good morning and would like to introduce you to a few concepts regarding sowing and growing. Successional sowing: This is a technique of sowing small quantities of one crop such as lettuce at intervals so that your harvest is spread over a longer period. The idea is not to [...]
Bats are garden friendly
Since early childhood when I lived in the Lake District of England in an old farmhouse, I have been afraid of bats. Well not exactly afraid, but they are a species of mammal whose company I can happily do without. In Britain bats are now a protected species. If anyone in Britain harms them it can [...]
Sow seeds in containers in the rainy season
You really have to enjoy gardening to embrace it as a hobby, and those of us that do become part of what you might call ‘the magic circle,’ a very superior kind of old boys/old girls’ association, in which honours are earned more by the number of blisters on your hands than anything else. Preparing [...]
Bush roses require pruning
The South American continent has played a vitally important part in the culinary improvements of peoples throughout the world, not to mention (yet) of the ornamental delights the world enjoys. It is the original home of the potato, yam, tomato, sweet and hot peppers. Ornamentally, and with one solitary exception in the bromeliad, it is the [...]
Enjoy the beauty of flowers
I know that most of you are sitting having breakfast in the warmth of a Guyana morning. In the garden your eyes could well be assailed by the knockout colours of the bougainvillea and the enchanting display of all the other gorgeous
African violets can be raised by leaf cuttings
When you go to a nursery to purchase shrubs in containers you will, of course, have to establish that they are not newly potted before you plant them into the garden. If they have just been potted up by the nursery then you will have to wait until they have produced a young root system [...]
What is a succulent?
Many people are often confused about cacti and succulents, all types of which have developed the ability to store large quantities of water in their tissue as a guard against drought. What is the difference? Well, it’s not too difficult to understand. We should start of by saying cacti and other succulents for all cacti are [...]
Of roots and canopies
Many of you will have heard of Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI of France. While the story is thought to be untrue, tradition has her saying of the starving peasants asking for bread, “Let them eat cake.” Lost her head in the end. Anyway, she had a favourite tree in the Palace of Versailles [...]
Layering and air layering
Continuing with the theme of propagation I would like to say a few words about two other ways to increase your stock of plants. Up to now I have been dealing with cuttings, which involve separating a piece from the parent plant and trying to get it to form roots. Today I want to tell you [...]
Cuttings are of three kinds
Unless trees are looked after properly, with attention paid to the treatment of wounds which have been made by nature or by man, they may become infected with one of a few dozen fungus diseases and become a risk to life and limb. This is especially true in a tropical climate such as Guyana’s. It [...]
Rain forest plants need shade shelters
Shade shelters are an important structure where rain forest plants are gathered together. They mimic the shade cast by the foliage of the tall trees, and the humidity that builds up because the moisture cannot escape easily through the forest canopy, or in this case through the fabric used nowadays for the roof. In the [...]
The wise gardener uses ‘old crocks’
I have always held the view that amongst the greatest marks of an advanced civilization is the use of plants and wines to enhance the taste of the daily intake. Offering rum without ginger, gin without tonic, pork without apple sauce, rice pudding without grated nutmeg or lamb chops without mint sauce are early signs
Plants become sickly if given the wrong food
A great deal of emphasis nowadays is placed on the importance of healthy living: eating the right foods, drinking the right (unpolluted) liquids, taking in as much good clean air as possible at all times, and exercising until the muscles begin to creak. Nutritionists have written millions of words about junk foods, about the critical [...]
Crackerjack
A very happy new year to all. Sowing seeds is not so much of a problem as it was say, thirty years or so ago, due to the gradual adoption by gardeners of the technique called space sowing, and the introduction of the cellular seed tray which enables gardeners to hold seedlings under shelter until [...]