Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-Mar-2024 i Amateur Gardening

As we emerge slowly but surely into spring, and hopefully kinder, warmer days after the seemingly relentless wetness of this winter past, it’s time to blossom and grow. Time to enjoy the benefit of longer daylight hours and enhanced energy levels (hopefully, if the rain stops) to aid us in our excited planning and planting for the year ahead. I love this time of year and the promise of the season to come. The anticipation, the time spent outdoors, the greater opportunities for connection and enjoyment of the space that we call ours to garden in - there is so much hope to be found therein. There is also much enjoyment to find in reaching out to others. Gardening is always more fun when it’s not just a completely solitary…

Small gardens can often suffer from problems with shade, particularly if they’re in an urban area. Overhanging trees, fences, outbuildings and neighbouring houses can all bring shelter and shadow. But as an organic gardener, my mantra is to work with what you’ve got! Many plants tolerate shade, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results. Shady gardens have many benefits, providing cover for wildlife, retaining moisture, offering privacy and, due to the limited colour palette, a sense of calm. My first tip is to visit woodland gardens in your area so you can see what grows well, then try to work out what kind of shade you’re working with. Partial or dappled shade with diffused light lets you choose from a wide selection of plants but even with deep…

Penstemons first came onto my radar about 25 years ago. Previously I had never been very interested, and considered them rather mundane plants. But then I was given a Penstemon ‘Osprey’. Not realising its potential, I popped it in a gap in the border and more or less forgot about it. That summer, when it was in full flower - white with beautiful pink lobes - it was the talk of the family. I pointed it out to anyone even vaguely interested in gardening! “Oh yes,” I’d say dismissively, “it’s a penstemon. I’ve always grown them you know!” That might not have been true, but I’ve certainly grown them ever since! These flamboyant, large-flowered plants have been favoured by cottage gardeners for more than a century. They were deemed to…

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How to get free plants from sprouting perennials As plants start to grow again we can begin to take new growth as cuttings to make more no-cost plants. It is a more reliable way of plant propagation than collecting seeds, for the plants that grow from the cuttings will be identical to their parent, whereas some plant seed will cross and create something new and different. Though having said that, there is something fun in, for example, sowing aquilegia seeds you have harvested and being amazed at the colours that emerge. Shoots of delphiniums, asters, phlox and lupins emerge from the base of their crown and some of this new growth can be removed and potted up. They are known as ‘basal’ cuttings and are not to be confused with…

The rose has been named the UK’s favourite plant. The unsurprising news was revealed after plant nursery Ashridge Trees used Google Keyword Planner to analyse the number of monthly searches over the past year for 20 of our most common and popular garden flowers. The rose was identified as gardeners’ favourite flower, attracting 126,909 monthly searches on average. The sunflower came second, with 112,567 searches, beating poppies into third place they received 111,677 searches. The keywords searched included gardening terms such as ‘grow roses’, ‘plant geraniums’, ‘how to grow orchids’ and ‘when to plant poppy seeds’. The results are revealed at the busiest time for garden centres and plant suppliers, as everyone is busy planning their plot for the year ahead. Julian de Bosdari, CEO of Ashridge Trees, said: ”The…

The organisation representing the UK’s horticultural and environmental industries has warned the Government of the dangers of their post-Brexit border policies. On April 30, high-risk plant checks will be transferred to Border Control Posts (BCPs) and the Horticultural Trades Association fears this could have a disastrous impact on plant growers and UK gardeners. HTA Chairman James Barnes has written to Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, stating that the ability of BCPs to adequately assess the health of plants and trees is ‘drastically deficient’. There are also concerns that without a proper pricing structure in place for the checks, any tariffs incurred may cause the prices of plants to rise to such an extent they are out of the reach of many gardeners. Mr Barnes said: “The consequences…

Nectar is the insect equivalent of Lucozade and I have a soft spot for that fizzy glucose drink. My dear old dad, long gone now, used to buy me a bottle if I was off colour. It arrived wrapped in sunshine-yellow cellophane and when you unwrapped it, there was a gold foil cap. This was jewel-like and I perfected a way of making a lion (of sorts) from the wrapping and cap. It was worth trying to pretend that you were approaching a major health crisis, just to get your hands on one of those fabulous bottles. Of course, I probably wasn’t ill at all for I was a robust child who was hardly ever (genuinely) out-of-sorts. Imagine, if when you unwrapped your fizzy orange drink, you found a variable…

Ulting Wick, Maldon, Essex Open to visit 28 April Listed black barns provide the backdrop for vibrant and exuberant planting over eight acres. Snowdrops, narcissus, tulips, flowing innovative spring planting, herbaceous borders, pond, mature weeping willows, a kitchen garden, dramatic late summer beds with zingy, tender, exotic plant combinations. Drought-tolerant perennial and mini annual wildflower meadows. Woodland. Many plants propagated in-house. Plus, they offer many unusual plants for sale. 51 The Chase, Clapham Common, London Open to visit 28 and 30 April Charles, past Chairman of The Society of Garden Designers, and Rupert, Chairman of NGS, have created this garden over 40 years. Spectacular in spring when 2,500 tulips bloom among camellias, irises and tree peonies. Rupert’s geodetic dome shelters seedlings, succulents and the subtropical. Roses, brugmansia, hibiscus and dahlias…

All for lawn! From now on, gardeners will be feeding, raking, spiking and weeding their lawns up and down the land. But are lawns as popular as they once were? ■ In a 2016 landscaping trends survey carried out by Houzz (design and professional tradesman directory), it was revealed that garden lawns were declining in popularity. Of those gardeners surveyed, 12% said that they were intending to get rid of their lawn altogether. Meanwhile, 22% admitted to reducing the size of their lawns, and of these, more than half said that they were replacing their lawn with garden beds, favouring flowers and shrubs. ■ Some estimates suggest that 8 million square metres of fake grass are sold each year in the UK. ■ In Britain, according to research carried out…

One of my all-time favourite gardening programmes is the Victorian Kitchen Garden, which warms my cockles every time I watch it. I have no idea what my cockles are, but the late Harry and Peter Thoday always get to them. Now, I don’t want to garden like Harry because I don’t have access to a walled garden, but I love the idea of one. A long time ago when I was working in North Yorkshire, I stayed at a stately home and while there I was offered the chance of a walled garden of my own. I found it during an evening walk that meandered past gravestones of long-departed dogs – that’s what the owner said, and I didn’t want to dig deeper - past an old gate house and…

How to stay safe from tetanus Q Many of your readers, I am sure, are also devotees of the show, Call the Midwife. A recent episode was particularly harrowing as it brought home the dangers of tetanus. This potentially fatal condition can arise from an infected scratch, a common occurrence for gardeners. I had no idea that disease spores are usually found in the soil. Can you tell me about this problem and how to guard against it? Carol Casan, Devon A Though most gardens are home to this bacillus (Clostridium tetani) discovered by a Japanese doctor in 1881, it occurs more frequently in fertile, manure-enriched soils. Also known as lockjaw because tissues stiffen around the wound, it also causes toxins to spread along nerve fibres to enter the spinal…

This week, we are talking about some amazing plants and I’m even bold enough to say that these plants are arguably more intelligent than some humans! Carnivorous plants have evolved to feed themselves by catching prey from the world around them, and they often do this without even moving. As you read the descriptions of how they capture their meal, I warn you, it’s not for the fainthearted though! It may surprise you that quite a few carnivorous plants can be grown outdoors, so it might be time to experiment a little with your planting schemes. Carnivorous plant expert, Matt Soper, runs Hampshire Carnivorous Plants Ltd, which was set up in 1995 and already has an impressive 21 consecutive Chelsea gold medals. Matt helped me to narrow down their fantastic…

Obviously I’m biased, but I think our team are amazing. They work so hard and take great pride in their work; some would say they are perfectionists. Sometimes, though, being a perfectionist is of no use if you are unable to take a step back to see the bigger picture. There’s no point, for example, spending hours crafting an ornate fire guard out of chocolate just for it to inevitably fail. The same can go for gardens. We can get caught up in endeavours to create a certain look which can’t come to fruition because the conditions are not suited. For example, we often get asked about how to create a gravel-style garden like Beth’s, but on clay soil this fundamentally can’t be done. Beth’s Gravel Garden works, not because…

Westland have launched their latest peat-free compost, claiming that its open, free-flowing structure will give plants all they need for the best health and flowering. Boost All Purpose Compost comes in 46litre bags and is widely available from this month. It is specifically designed to help keep plants hydrated and is best used with Boost All Purpose Liquid Plant Food, which is already proven to give gardeners four times more blooms than usual. Peat-free composts have had something of a bad press because they behave very differently to those containing peat. In the past, AG readers have complained about the risk of overwatering, because while peat-free can look dry on the surface, it can be sodden further down so plant crowns and roots rot and die. However, Westland states that…

This past winter felt like a horrendously long slog, seemingly endless days of dreary grey accessorised by gusting winds and a mizzly dampness that seemed to soak right through to the bones. But now we’re almost at the end of March, a quarter of the year is done, and Easter is here. Whether you celebrate or not, the bank holiday always feels like the ‘proper’ start of the gardening year to me, the portal to longer days and increasing warmth helping our gardens to turn into the verdant paradises we work so hard to create. One of the jobs I’ll be doing this weekend is finishing planting up a couple of patio containers, maybe a hanging basket too, of late spring flowers. Good weather still isn’t guaranteed but even on…

Sow peas – lots of peas! Have you discovered the wondrous pure joy of scoffing shelled peas straight from the plants? Or is your preference to crunch your way through a bowl brimming with homegrown mange-tout pods? And what about tossing a stir fry of freshly picked sugar snaps into your favourite dish? As you can tell, the world of peas is a diverse one, so I’m here to ensure you embrace it fully. You may well have made some indoor sowings of peas, but what if you have no under cover space? For outdoor sowings, peas benefit by being started off once the soil is no longer cold, but before conditions get overly hot and dry. Consequently, now is ideal. For shelling peas, my absolute go-to is ‘Hurst Green…

April is the month for amphibians. If you have a pond in your garden or allotment, you might have already observed frogs and toads visiting, but have you seen a newt? They conceal their eggs and can be a little trickier to spot. Smooth newts In the UK we have three native newt species, and the most common one you may encounter in a garden pond is the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) which typically reach 4in (10cm) in length and have smooth, velvety brown skin. Males and females have orange-coloured bellies with black spots that extend onto their throats. However, during the breeding season, males develop a striking wavy crest along their back. They spend winter on land where they seek shelter in damp spaces or the muddy banks of…

During the early and middle stone age, before the advent of farming, humankind were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Groups of people would move from place to place hunting, fishing, picking leaves, nuts and fruits and digging roots. This lifestyle persisted for several thousand years and in Britain, available food would have changed gradually as ice ages came and went. When prising leeks, parsnips and celeriac from cold wet soil in the midst of winter I like to think about these distant ancestors. Their knowledge of what they could eat and where to find it must have been astounding. By contrast, and even though foraging is growing in popularity, many modern humans have lost confidence in identifying, picking and using the edible plants that surround them. The garden is a good place to…

Your lovely letters, emails and social media posts continue to flow in beautifully. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying receiving them. Every message, poem, idea and comment matters. Please keep them coming. We will send out a thank you gift for every item published in the magazine so do please send your address and contact details when you get in touch. Isn’t nature clever! Dear Kim I am really enjoying the new-look magazine. One of my grandsons wondered what would happen if he pushed a daffodil bulb into a crevice in our white poplar. This is the result! Penny Black Suffolk Kim says; thank you for sending this in. What a joy to see and very uplifting how nature can find a way and delight us all in…

One thing that has always intrigued me about growing in a small space is just how we can make the most out of every possible surface. As modern gardens get smaller and smaller and we try to cram more plants into them, all of that ground comes at such a premium, with every plant vying to earn its place. So why not also look up at those otherwise free spaces such as fences and walls? I’m been looking into ways in which we can all make use of these vertical spaces and I’ve got to say that most of the solutions on offer don’t particularly inspire me or my creative brain. So I put pencil to paper, and after a quick rummage in the shed, (where I found some scraps…

They always say plant your spuds at Easter. Some imagine this has some connection with lunar or astrological gardening as Easter falls just after a full moon. However it seems more probably just because by this time the soil has warmed up sufficiently for success, and even more importantly, over the bank holiday we actually have time to get planting. Do not panic if you have other Easter plans There’s no great rush, potatoes can be planted over the next couple of months with as much hope for success. You see we now grow faster-maturing varieties that crop much more rapidly than many of the old favourites. In the past, folk mostly grew what we now call lates or maincrop varieties, these take many months to produce a full and…