Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2008 | Page 81

GARDENING

Hot passion
Celebrating particular types of food
has long been customary
in Britain and with the
Island’s annual Garlic
Festival coming up
(16-17th August), I’ve
been inspired to
hold my very own
chilli festival in
my back garden.
As well as a good
excuse for a party,
it’s a great way
for us gardeners
to experiment with
growing different
types of our favourite
edible.
Chilli plants are really easy
to grow with a little know-how,
and I’ve been growing over 12
different varieties in the greenhouse.
Your local garden centre should sell
at least two or three different types,
or try using the leftover seeds from
supermarket chillies. Sow in a small
pot of soil-based seed sowing compost
early in the year (Feb-Apr), making
sure you label carefully if growing
many different varieties. Place the pot
on a sunny windowsill and once the
seeds have germinated (10-14 days),
prick out and grow on, then pot on
geraniums. Water in the newly split plant
well, adding a bit of compost to the hole.
Staking and tying in plants is another
instant way to perk up the garden. Use
bamboo or hazel to prop up unruly tall

into final containers when about five
pairs of leaves appear. You can grow
on a windowsill if you don’t have a
greenhouse, and your pots can be placed
outside in a sheltered spot providing the
summer weather is good.
There are many delicious dishes
you can make with chillies. I love
to cook potato wedges in olive oil
and smoked paprika, then serve
simply with sour cream and freshly
chopped jalapenos. The hotness of
chillies is measured by the ‘Scoville
scale’. This detects the amount of
capsaicin present, the chemical
in chillies, which can have the
most macho of men breaking
out into beads of sweat. For
example, the common sweet
pepper has a zero rating,
Tabasco sauce comes
in at 2,500-5,000, and
habaneros can be up
to 325,000. The naga chilli is reportedly
the hottest chilli in the world with a
900,000 Scoville rating. This chilli is
treated with respect in its native home
of India, and allegedly people just touch
their food with the killer chilli, rather
than actually cook with it. If I live to
tell the tale after this hot affair, I will let
you know next issue how it all went.

perennials and lilies. To give your patio
an instant makeover, plant late summer
annuals such as Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Sonata
Mix’ in large containers.

life

Sally's gardening
tips for August
and September
Tidy up and clean
the greenhouse
ready for use in the
autumn. Mildews
often appear about
now – aim water at
the compost rather
than the leaves, in the
greenhouse.
Keep lawns cut to
3cm (about an inch)
– they will survive the
dry weather better. When the rain does come,
brown patches recover.
Get down to your local garden centre and
stock up on spring-flowering bulbs such as
daffodils, tulips, crocuses and grape hyacinths,
ready for planting in Oct/Nov.
Keep ponds topped up and net in September
before leaf fall gets underway.
Tie in any new shoots of your Wisteria that
are needed to extend the existing framework
or fill in gaps. Then shorten the current
seasons growth to about 30cm.
Prune summer raspberries (fruit on second
year’s growth) by cutting back just the fruited
canes to ground level. Cut down all autumn
raspberry canes down after picking.
Take semi-ripe cuttings from woody shrubs
and climbers. Remove a sideshoot from the
current season’s growth and trim to 10-15cm
in length, cutting to just below a node.
Remove the lowest leaves and soft tip. Insert
in containers of free-draining compost, and
keep under glass, or cover with a plastic bag
and keep on a windowsill. Keep compost
moist until cuttings are well rooted, then
plant out in the spring after hardening off.
For something a little different in your
garden this autumn, plant the beautiful
Colchium, also known as Naked Ladies or
Autumn Crocus.
Rocket salad, when sown this time of year,
is more likely to avoid the pesky flea beetle.
Harvest onions, shallots and garlic. Sow
parsley seeds outside to maintain supplies.

Next issue: A guide to easy composting and
Great for late summer colour: Aster amellus ‘Rudolph Goethe’

www.wightfrog.com/islandlife

creative ways with pumpkins, as well as jobs for
October and November.

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