Gardening by Patricia Jordan
My under-gardener calls me a weather freak as I am always watching weather forecasts, but I suspect that most serious gardeners do the same! After a balmy November, which I missed because we were away on family visits to the USA and UK, December came in as the coldest month I can ever remember! Bitingly cold winds and wind chill bringing the normal reasonable December temperatures plummeting in a downward spiral to near freezing in our area. What is wind chill? I had always thought that it was very cold winds bringing what the forecasters reckoned would be the seasonal temperatures down by 5 or 6 degrees. But, if you care to look it up on the web, it is far more complicated than that – all to do with the wind on your bare skin. Well, if you go out and expose your bare skin to biting winds then you deserve to be chilled!
According to reports put out by the Meteorological Office here, Limassol is the warmest place in Cyprus during the winter – lucky Limassolians! Even here in cold Mosfiloti, our midday temperatures in winter are usually around 16C, but they were nowhere near that heady height and the winds have been gusty and severe. No wonder everywhere in the world, people are yelling ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Global Warming’ but this was almost an ‘Ice Age’ in our neck of the woods.
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather conditions – please not more fierce summer temperatures! Where is the rain that we so badly need? Dribs and drabs of rain are not enough to soak right through the earth down to the roots of all the lovely tress that are grown here. In the UK they have had far more than their fair share recently with terrible floods and ruined houses. By this time of year, Cyprus should be receiving 60 per cent of the total rainfall for the island, which is 500mm. It is a known fact that our rainfall has been decreasing over the last 30 years. Most recent studies of rainfall figures show that in the 20 years 1991-2011 recorded rainfall has dropped from 637mm to 465mm, with 2011 being the driest at 272mm. By the year 2030 precipitation will decrease by 10 to 15 per cent while temperatures will increase by 1-1.5C, which is quite worrying.
So what can we do to help matters? Plant more trees for one thing and keep the goats and sheep wandering about on the hillsides away from them. Garden features like hedges and walls can affect temperatures within your plots. Close packed hedges and high walls create what are known as frost pockets in winter, where cold temperatures are trapped inside and can in some areas drop to freezing levels. This can also occur if you live on the side of a valley when the cold air rolls down the hillside to the valley bottom. I know, I have had two gardens like that, including my current one. In summer these gardens can become sun traps, where no cooling breezes can penetrate the solid walls and hedges. If you must have a wall or fence around your garden, it is better to build a more open fence where there are gaps between the horizontal panels, and spaces between the bushes surrounding the plot. Every little helps, as the TV slogan says!
New EU Rules for Garden Pesticides and Fungicides
Every so often, those who make the rules in the EC decide that some garden chemicals should be banned from use by amateur gardeners as they contain harmful substances and/or need licensed experts to handle them!
Cyprus is now catching up! Since November, some fungicides and insecticides can only be bought by those who have a licence. You may have noticed recently that chemicals in garden centres such as Solomou in Nisou, have been divided up into those requiring a licence and those deemed safe! To obtain a licence requires filling out a form, submitting it to the Ministry of Agriculture and waiting to be called to attend a three-hour seminar in large towns and cities, on the use of these chemicals in gardens. When this is successfully completed, a licence will be issued which will have a passport-sized photograph on it for ID at any garden centre. Without this ID, you will not be able to buy these ‘harmful’ products. This is currently a very fluid situation and will take time to settle in.
Some of the chemicals I have recommended now require a licence. They are Mospilan 20 Sp; Perfecthion; Cuproxat; Citrole and Pyrinex and Roundup. I am trying to discover safe alternatives to these products and will inform gardeners about them when I do.
WHAT TO DO IN YOUR GARDEN IN JANUARY
Lots of shrubs will need some attention this month as growth continues. Although many rosemary bushes may be in flower, they could probably do with a tidy up. Lift up the branches and you will probably find lots of dead wood underneath. Lavender can grow quite woody if left, so keep it short so that you encourage lots of new growth. Our lavender par terre is cut this month right down to the wood, and this takes a good two weeks to get it back into shape. Before long, fresh new green growth will appear and as the temperatures eventually rise, the leaves become full of tiny silver hairs to protect them from the sun later on. Pyracantha shrubs are tricky – you have to decide whether you want to lose the flowers next time round or the bright berries, which follow afterwards – the choice is yours!
Jasminum mesnyi, the winter jasmine, is putting out its bright yellow welcoming flowers, just as you are about the cut the stems of summer flowering, Jasminum grandiflorum, right back to the wood. The latter jasmine flowers on new growth, so if you want those heavenly scented flowers later on, then this a job that should be done now. Another plant to flower on new growth is the popular Plumbago capensis, much loved by gardeners all over the island for its pretty blue flowers that appear twice a year, if given a summer haircut.
Our almond tree would grow too tall to collect the nuts and the growth would be impossible to control if it was not pruned every late autumn. Now we await the pretty flowers appearing on the branches as soon as we get some warm sunshine again. Our almond is the last to flower in our area as it grows in quite the coldest part of the garden, which gets little or no winter sunshine, but when it does it really takes your breath away.
Although citrus trees let you know by the colours of their leaves when they need Zinc, the best time for fig and pecans is when they have dropped all their leaves. Spraying 2 dessertspoons of zinc chelate mixed in 10 litres of water around the area of the feeding roots should do the trick, and then feeding them in December, February and again in May, just as you would any other fruit and nut trees. While the tree is bare of leaves check over the structure to see if all is well. Very little pruning is needed for figs. If you are planting new fig trees remember that they like a sunny position in a well drained spot. Although they do not like to stand in water, they do need irrigation on a regular basis in the fruiting season in order to produce luscious fruits.
Pecan trees like to grow in the sun, which is fortunate here in Cyprus. Their nuts have such good nutritional value and may help with lowering high cholesterol. However, if you are tempted to plant a tree remember that their natural habitat is flood plains and river estuaries in North America, where they can reach heights of 20-30 metres, so any fruits would be out of reach of picking and the crows would have them all. Here we keep our trees pruned low and wide for ease of management and picking, and the right time to prune the branches is after leaf drop. They have a deep tap root, so make sure that your planting hole is also deep – if they are planted in too shallow a hole then they will not bear fruit. You will find that nothing grows under pecan trees, as their frondy leaves have a high tannic acid prohibiting growth under the leaf cover.
Plant of the Month January Lycianthes rantonnetii
Lycianthes rantonnetii is better known to us as the Blue Potato Bush and grows exceedingly well in Cyprus. It is also known also as the Blue Solanum bush or Paraguay Nightshade and tolerates dry conditions and extreme heat, so will come through our summers with very little extra help, although the roots may need some deep watering from time to time. It prefers to grow in full sun in well-drained soil, although it can grow just as easily in part shade and indeed may be in flower all year round. Here you might find it for sale as a topiary plant but it is just as attractive as a large bush. In order to make a more rounded bush pinch out the ends of the stems to control horizontal growth and cut back any long stems which may appear from around the lower trunk area. A light prune after flowering will help control growth.
The plant produces many deep mauve lightly scented flowers with distinctive yellow centres during the summer and autumn. They in turn become bright red poisonous berries.
Originally found growing in tropical South America, lychianthes is best grown in gardens at not more than 300-400 metres. In higher elevations grow the plants in pots, and bring them in away from low temperatures during colder periods. Plants of lychianthes can be propagated by cuttings or seeds and are not normally bothered by insects although aphids may be a problem, but can be dealt with easily by being sprayed with a soapy spray.
