Double entendre gardening with Ivor Longun

Ooo err missus it’s double-entendre gardening with Ivor Longun!

A root vegetable…..

Yes folks, you asked for it and now you’re going to get it. Ivor Longun here back to regale you with some more seasonal and green-fingered tips to help you keep your garden looking lovely and bushy.

Those lovely people at Monkeybroth Towers got on the blower to me last week begging me to reprise my much missed weekly column – Double Entendre Gardening with Ivor Longun. As you can imagine, I am a busy man so had to think long and hard about it. I’ve got a lot of other commitments on these days, but my missus, Eva Longoria off of Desperate Housewives, has been so supportive. She said to me; Ivor – you’ll regret it if you don’t go back. You’ve had your knockers in the past she reminded me, but I don’t want you tossing and turning at night worrying about it. She told me to give them a bell, end of story!

So you see I had to go back to doing the column readers, otherwise she would have given me a right mouthful.

Anyway, here we go for some lovely autumnal tasks to help keep your garden plants thriving as the weather gets a bit nippy. There’s nothing worse than a clogged up dry ditch crying for out for a splash of moisture so the first thing you have to do is to get out the watering can and give all your autumnal borders a good vigorous spraying of liquid.

You might want to think about adding some plant food to the can to give your plants a nice boost. Tomato Growth Serum is a good one – but it can take some effort to get the lid off! Once you’ve managed to strain some of the cloudy liquid out of the small hole in the end, you are good to go.

Empty it carefully into the watering can being careful not to spill your mess all over the patio. Then go around the garden and give all the big bloomers a proper squirting.

If you find that your plants are just lapping it all up greedily then you might need to get your hose out and start waving it around the garden. Getting everything really wet and dripping is where you want to be. Once done, wipe your hose on a bit of cloth and recoil it back to its starting position.

That’s a good start – now you’ll need to think about putting in some lovely autumnal flowering young shoots. Ideally you want to scatter your seed around wherever takes your fancy but it’s important that the seed bed is well prepared. To enlarge the hole for your seed to go into, first insert a couple of fingers and wiggle them around a bit. This should open up the cavity giving you enough room to pop your dibber in. You may find this takes several goes. Don’t be afraid to plunge it in and out for a couple of minutes – once you are ready it will be time to release the seeds.

Don’t worry if your missus is moaning and groaning at this stage. It’s an important job and the shopping trip will just have to wait!

It’s always important to clear away after working up a sweat with your tool. I’ve got a little garden chest which is very convenient. I just lift up the flaps and release all my clutter into it. Mind you I forgot the keys last week and was forced to smash the back doors in so I could get all my junk out the back of it.

That makes a lovely start to the autumnal season I am sure you will agree. If you do find you have a bit more time, then tool maintenance ready for the busy spring ahead is always a good use of time. Last week I smashed up a hoe so took some time to repair it. Gripping the shaft I had to twist the top until it came off in my hands.

Luckily, it was my number two – not my favourite number one hoe. It wasn’t as if I had to strain myself to clip off the end of the number two……..

Great, we are so pleased Ivor’s back. Next week double-entendre yachting with erm, oooo, erm, ooo not sure actually. Seaman stains is a bit obvious isn’t it?