The title of this gardening article would imply that I am going to write about gardening techniques Beginning at A and going all the way through to Z, in actual fact I couldn't find any techniques beginning with the letter A or in fact any beginning with half of the alphabet. However the title looks better like that. So play along please, I am sure that there will be sufficient within to keep you interested.

Blanching:
A vegetable-growing technique which has used for hundreds of years. Light is excluded from some or all of the growing parts of certain types of vegetable, as a result the natural green colour does not develop. You will find several other possible effects - lower fibre content, improved flavour, reduced bitterness and enhanced looks. The role of blanching is to achieve one or more of these responses. The stems of Celery and Leak are covered with earth but the heads of Chicory and Seakale are blanched by covering it with a light-proof pot.

Cutting:
Cutting blooms and attractive foliage from flower and shrub borders for arranging indoors is, needless to say, a basic part of the gardening scene. In this way the fruits of your labours can be enjoyed at any time and in any weather, but there is pitfalls to keep away from. Obviously, the whole beauty of your flower bed or border is diminished, in the case of newly-planted perennials the loss of stems and green leaves can harm next years growth. For those who have the space and are keen flower arrangers it is a good idea to create a separate bed where plants for cutting will be grown.

In the shrub border this type of spring and summer pruning by and large does no harm, but take care during pruning the 1st year. A newly-planted shrub needs all the stems and green leaves it can get, so only cut a few flowers and try not to remove many leaves. Roses are perhaps the most widely used of all cut flowers - do not remove greater than one-third of the flowering stem and always cut just above an outward facing bud.

Dead- Heading:
The taking away of dead flowers has several rewards, it helps to keep the bed or border tidy, it prolongs the flowering season by preventing seed formation as well as in a few cases it induces another flush later on in the season.

Use garden shears, sharp knife or finger tips. Be careful not to get rid of too much stem. You must not dead-head flowers grown for there seed pods. It is quite impractical to remove the dead blooms from some annuals and perennials and from most trees and shrubs. There are a few large flowering woody plants, however, which must be dead-headed. The faded trusses of Hybrid Tea and Floribunda Roses should be removed and the dead flowers of Rhododendrums ought to be cautiously broken off with finger and thumb. Cut off flower-heads of Lilac once the blooms have faded, but the massive heads of Hydrangeas are an exception - remove these in March.