Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i BBC Gardeners' World

Discover… how to maximise a tiny plot with our 132-page guide to Small Space Gardening. Buy yours in selected stores until 21 July (from £7.99) or at gardenersworld.com/ gw-special-editions Join us… Treat yourself to a 12-night cruise around the British Isles, with an optional exclusive garden tour package led by GW Associate Editor, David Hurrion. See p113 Learn… Join one of our popular online Masterclasses to help you become a better gardener – whatever your level or experience, and whatever size the plot. gardenersworld.com/ masterclass Save… as you visit gardens this year with our 2021 2 for 1 Entry Card and Guide – order yours for £6.99 by going to bit.ly/GWMay-gw-MG Save even more... Subscribe today and enjoy two years for the price of one, saving 50% – plus extra…

Peat-free problems As an ardent conservationist, I applaud the move to peat-free composts. However, if compost producers continue to offer the current range of poor substitutes, then some gardeners will drift back to peat where they can find it. I recently bought 500l of compost that was very unsatisfactory, being packed full of shredded wood that was not composted much, if at all. I put this peat-free alternative through a coarse sieve and was disappointed by how much, or how little, material actually passed through for use as a seed compost. My point is that if there is not a viable alternative to peat, then there will remain a demand for peat. I call on enterprising farmers and landowners to turn their nuisance bracken growth into locally distributed compost. If…

1 HOBBIES REVIVAL Traditional hobbies are making a comeback for Gen Zs, with one in six 16-29 year olds taking up hobbies such as birdwatching, flower arranging and GYO, according to a survey by online retailer Create & Craft. 2 ORGANIC LEARNING Garden Organic is to open a new organic demonstration and learning garden on 9 July at Ryton Coventry. bit.ly/RytonOrganic 3 PLANTS NEED HELP Plant Heritage is looking for help to save Oriental poppies and mother-in-law’s tongue as part of its annual Missing Genera campaign. Ten plants are on the list of those needing conservation bit.ly/missing-genera 4 GYO CONTINUES The surge in people growing fruit and veg at home looks set to carry on post-pandemic as more than 10 million people plan to keep growing their own food, according…

“Growing from a cutting has a satisfaction that is greater than any other form of propagation” One of the effects of Covid 19 on gardens has been a huge increase in demand in plants and a matching shortage caused by the difficulties the trade has had in raising and distributing them during the pandemic. But every problem is an opportunity and if you cannot always buy your plants then it is time to start making them. Propagation is one of those slightly intimidating terms that seems designed to measure your horticultural chops – it is as though there is a lurking exam paper that comes in tow. It can become a minefield that stops the joy in simply growing things. But there is no need to be daunted by any…

1 Euphorbia myrsinites Distinct from other spurges, its glaucous, succulent leaves are arranged in fascinating spirals around the sprawling, prostrate stems. Coming from dry, barren hillsides in Turkey and South Eastern Europe, it needs a sunny, free-draining position. F May-June H x S 15cm x 30cm 2 Papaver (Oriental Group) ‘Beauty of Livermere’ Who doesn’t love a big red poppy? Originally a plant of Turkish hillsides (the orientale of its title goes back to when Turkey was as far east as was known). Varieties have a short but spectacular season. Cut back when the leaves begin to look scruffy – they may flower again. F May-July HxS 1.2m x 60cm 3 Cistus argenteus ‘Silver Pink’ All cistus thrive in poor, thin soils and sunny sites. Natives of Mediterranean coastal regions,…

Mildew and black spot are the two commonest rose diseases. Mildew is white and powdery, black spot is just that – large black spots that eventually coalesce and cause leaf drop. Solution Plant roses with thick, leathery leaves that are naturally resistant to these diseases. Grow plants in rich, moisture-retentive soil (both diseases are most prevalent in poor, dry earth.) In autumn, collect and burn leaves infected with blackspot. “Plant life is interdependent on a complex array of organisms that contribute to their wellbeing” Viruses cause the twisting and disfigurement of leaves and shoots, as well as unwanted variegation – yellowing and streaking. Solution Alas, there is no solution to plant viruses. Dig up and burn affected plants. Encourage birds and predatory insects that control the aphids that spread virus…

Enjoy your final rhubarb harvest Make this month’s harvest the last time you pick your rhubarb, to give plants a chance to renew their energy over the summer. Pick the best eating stems from the base and trim the leaves off at the top. Next, prepare the clump by clearing away any weak, yellowing leaves or older split stems from the crown. If there are any flowers, cut these out. Remove any weeds, then soak with water and mulch around the plant with a thick layer of rotted manure. VISIT gardenersworld. com/rhubarb for more advice on how to grow this crop Sow peas Sow your last batch of peas for a harvest this autumn. Make a 3cm deep, flat-bottomed drill the width of a hoe. Sow the seed, then…

The gardeners I most admire are those who grow what they love without giving a thought to the sensibilities of others Taste is a funny thing. After all, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Or, to put it another way, one man’s fish is another man’s poisson. Try as we might, we all have our little prejudices when it comes to horticulture. I recall several years ago endeavouring to explain to Germaine Greer that there really is no legitimate reason to believe that French marigolds are beyond the pale. She simply could not believe that anyone with an ounce of good taste would have any truck with them. “They’re common,” she insisted. I countered that the French marigold was a bright little flower, easy to grow and flowering from…

Government calls time on peat “We’ve given the voluntary approach a chance” The UK Government has said it wants an outright ban on peat in bagged potting compost by 2024. In an exclusive interview with GW, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said time has run out for the horticultural industry, which last year missed a voluntary deadline to stop including peat in bags of compost. “We don’t have a natural inclination to ban things, but we’ve given the voluntary approach a good chance and it hasn’t worked,” she said. The Government’s England Peat Action Plan proposes a public consultation this summer. As well as a ban, options include a point-of-sale charge for peat-based products, including plants. Any measures taken would not apply in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Sales of peat-free…

Get inspired to create your own heavenly scented garden by visiting a 50-acre estate and gardens dedicated to plants for perfume. Keyneston Mill, situated alongside the River Stour, features over 1,500 varieties of fragrant and aromatic plants, many to trial for the use in fragrances. “We cultivate unusual varieties for their perfume. Visiting here is a very different experience from that of other gardens ” “We cultivate unusual varieties specifically for their perfume,” says Senior Gardener, Jess Usher. “Visiting here is a very different experience from that of other gardens.” In July, Keyneston Mill is filled with roses, scented pelargoniums, jasmine, tuberose, and numerous varieties of lavender and herbs, creating visual, olfactory and tactile experiences in the garden. Arranged by categories of scent, visitors are encouraged to rub leaves and…

Are you hankering for something stylish, contemporary and out of the ordinary in your garden this year? Tender exotic perennials and house plants make wonderfully dramatic displays, with long flowering periods and the added bonus of being able to be propagated or reused for years. A number of these house plants are happy in a shaded position in the garden, so colour and impact are not necessarily reserved for sun-baked spots. If you’re short of space or your soil leaves much to be desired, then growing plants in pots is a perfect way to enjoy the many benefits of gardening. Tasks such as watering, feeding and deadheading are much easier in a container as you get to enjoy bringing different plants together. All the plants I’ve used are not hardy…

“We might as well start getting used to being better gardeners without chemicals, by growing plants in conditions that suit them and result in naturally healthy growth” There was a time, not so long ago, when gardeners were encouraged to have something called a ‘spray programme’ – a personal timetable that indicated which chemicals should be used at certain times of year to combat all manner of pests and diseases. Roses and fruit trees were particular recipients of this sort of treatment, and all manner of noxious fluids and dusts would be committed to the atmosphere with the aim of having the perfect garden, unsullied by pest and disease attack. Thankfully, most gardeners worthy of the name have realised that such wanton bandying about of assorted chemicals does more long-term…

If you want to keep the party going after sunset or fancy cosying up to toast marshmallows on a crackling fire, then a fire pit is a great way to extend your enjoyment of the garden. Offering all the ambience of a campfire without the mess, fire pits have become hugely popular over the last few years and although burning wood releases carbon into the atmosphere, they’re a much greener and more economical alternative to a patio heater, which will either burn fossil fuel and give off carbon dioxide or consume electricity. Source your wood and firelighters carefully too and this will also help to minimise the impact your fire pit has on the environment. A fire pit can become a focal point in your patio or seating area, make…

I was born in July, so it has always been a pivotal month for me – the end of one age and the start of another – the beginning of the long holidays, which, as one sent away to boarding school at the age of seven, also meant returning home from a landscape I hated to one that I loved. But it also meant that the days were starting to draw in, with the sense that gradually there was less of everything and that winter days stood limbering up just over the horizon, which all made the hot July days doubly precious. One of my adult July rituals is eating the first of our potatoes on my birthday, but the maincrop potatoes will not be ready for a while. And…

This month 138 Gardeners’ Question Time The BBC Radio 4 experts answer this month’s pick of readers’ queries, including: ■ What edibles to grow on a balcony ■ How to make comfrey feed ■ Keeping vine weevils off dahlias Fuchsia gall mite For a long time it seemed as though fuchsias were trouble-free plants. Some could be left outside all winter but many were tender, so needed to be bought afresh at the start of summer, unless we had space to overwinter plants or cuttings we’d taken. They were guaranteed to put on a colourful show, from midsummer into autumn, with ballerina-like dangling blooms. That was until the start of this century, when in the south of England gardeners first noticed shoot tips becoming reddened and blobby, preventing flowers…

“ The summer night is like a perfection of thought ”Wallace Stevens STARS OF THE MONTH Instead of one star plant, we’ve chosen a slice of border to show the variety that this month can offer. July is about strong colours – gingery oranges and fizzing yellows – and look at the shapes that give texture: spires, buds, daisies and bowing blades of grass. A border in full sail. Helenium ‘Red Army’ Divide in spring. Good seedheads. H x S 100cm x 50cm Perovskia ‘Filigran’ Good for pollinators. Aromatic foliage. H x S 1.2m x 60cm Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ Excellent grass and robust. H x S 1.8m x 60cm Achillea ‘Terracotta’ Avoid wet soils. Short-lived perennial.…

Trevor Nelson MBE is a DJ who was a pioneer in the UK urban music scene. He currently presents BBC Radio 2’s Trevor Nelson’s Rhythm Nation. Having moved out of central London a few years ago, he has since developed his interest in gardening at his home in High Barnet. Does gardening benefit your wellbeing? Insecurity is huge in the entertainment industry – being liked, then social media on top of that… The garden gives you peace, it’s the complete opposite to show business. I’m a typical city boy who grew up never understanding the love for the countryside, but now when I go into my garden, the crazy world we live in ceases to exist. I’ve had a tough year, lost a few people and had family issues. One…

“No one can predict what the weather will do, but gardeners can choose plants that cope with drought” We’re told that, due to climate change, our summers will probably get drier, though in the same breath we’re advised that summer flooding may be a problem and our gardens may be subject to downpours. As the climate warms up, more moisture is held in the atmosphere. Under specific conditions, governed by the jet stream, huge concentrations of this moisture may fall as rain over short periods of time with prolonged droughts in-between. Nobody can predict what the weather will do, but what we gardeners can do is choose plants that are able to cope with drought. If our soil is thin, poor and free-draining and the site is a sunny one,…

“People are frightened by the idea of sharing space with neighbours. But we’ve only gained from it, we have more space and more pleasure”Lizzy McBain Front gardens play an important role, particularly in our towns and cities. Yet they are often seen as an afterthought or simply as a place to park the car and store the bins. And when their practical use is prioritised we sometimes forget that they can breathe life into grey streets, provide wildlife habitats and help reduce pollution. These homeowners are fighting the paved garden trend with inspiring ways to create a greener front plot. From Bea and Lizzy’s shared garden (pictured), to a seaside haven in Orkney and clever tips for hiding bins and adding colour. It’s time to rethink your front garden. Sharing…

“For six years I conducted trials to identify which plants attracted the most bees per square metre” For 25 years I worked in financial services in London, but I dreamed about growing plants for a living and spent every spare moment in my little greenhouse sowing seeds. My husband and I had been honey beekeepers for a few years and it seemed like a natural progression to want to understand which plants bees needed to provide them with food. When I started looking into this, I found plenty of lists of recommended plants, but most of them were conflicting or lacking in detail or science. So I bought lots of plants and started trying to count how many bees visited them. Luckily for me, in 2013 I found out that…

Keep sweet peas blooming Pick your sweet pea flowers every few days to keep them producing new shoots. Sweet peas are reliably continuous performers as long as they are regularly picked – if you don’t pick them, pods will form and flower production will slow down. Snip the whole flower stem back to the base and take out any stems that have already formed pods – they mature from flowers to pods within just a day or two. Keep the plants well-watered and give them a weekly liquid feed to keep them healthy and productive throughout the summer. VISIT gardenersworld. com/sweet-peas for more advice on growing sweet peas Don’t forget ■ Divide mature clumps of bearded irises and replant them ■ Save seeds from perennials and store them in…