Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i BBC Gardeners' World

Celebrate… how to transform your home for the festive season with our new Creative Christmas 132-page guide. On sale in selected stores for £7.99 or at magsdirect.co.uk/creativexmas Tune in… Find our new podcast series, Tea-break Tutorials, on Apple Podcasts – bite-sized, practical guides from Alan Titchmarsh. See more at gardeners world.com/podcast Learn… Love orchids but kill more than you like to admit? Join us on 7 October for Orchid Essentials, an online 30-minute course for just £8: bit.ly/GW-Essentials-Orchid Discover… your year-round gardening companion! Take out a subscription this month and we’ll give you a copy of our new hardback Gardeners’ World Almanac, worth £16.99, which includes a foreword by Monty. Keep up to date with us at FACEBOOK @GWmagazine INSTAGRAM @gardenersworldmag TWITTER @GWmag PINTEREST @GWmag Looking to get in touch?…

‘Café au Lait’ Very large flowers in blushed apricot tones – beautiful with just one in a vase. Giant decorative. H x S 1.2m x 60cm ‘David Howard’ Bronze foliage is the perfect backdrop to its prolific orange flowers. Miniature decorative. H x S 100cm x 75cm ‘Labyrinth’ A superb dahlia with a wild swirl of peachy and rose-pink petals. Giant decorative. H x S 90cm x 70cm ‘Crème de Cassis’ Stunning two-tone blooms with pale-pink topsides and blackcurrant backs. Small decorative. H x S 110cm x 45cm Decorative dahlias ‘Karma Choc’ Flowers open as a dark chocolate and mature to a bright red. Small decorative. Height x Spread 90cm x 45cm I know, the word ‘decorative’ describes just about every dahlia there is – if they weren’t decorative, we…

Grow it or buy it? I was interested in Monty’s trips to Europe and our attitude to growing our own food (Full Monty, September issue). I have an allotment that is 30m x 10m and grow the food that I like to eat, and I buy very little from the supermarket. Potatoes being the exception, which I buy and eat infrequently in any event. On my allotment I grow a huge variety of veg including beans, kohlrabi, beetroot, leeks and winter veg such as kale. Some is pickled, frozen or made into jam, and the rest eaten fresh. Harvesting the food less than a mile from my home means it couldn’t be fresher. With gardens getting smaller and the waiting list for allotments getting longer, there is a need and…

View the full range at farmergracy.co.uk/autumnplanting Packed by hand in paper bags Crown of leaves on bell-shaped flowers H x S 75-90cm x 20-25cm F Mar-May 3 bulbs £11.85 Gold and burgundy bells H x S 20-25cm x 5-10cm F Mar-Apr 10 bulbs £4.50 Scented, deep-magenta blooms H x S 20-25cm x 10cm F Mar-Apr 10 bulbs £7.90 Multi-headed, double blooms H x S 8-12cm x 5-10cm F Apr-May 5 bulbs £4.45 Silvery-purple heads, perfect for pots H x S 100cm-1.2m x 15-20cm F May-Jun 3 bulbs £7.50 Strong fragrance, ideal to force H x S 40-45cm x 10-15cm F Dec-Mar 5 bulbs £3.75 Flame-coloured, lily-like petals H x S 35-40cm x 10-15cm F Apr-May 5 bulbs £5.90 Large copper-coloured blooms H x S 35-40cm x 10-15cm F Apr-May 5…

Is there a right and wrong way to design a garden? The slightly ambiguous answer is: yes, and also no. While there are guidelines for making spaces look bigger or more private, exciting or quiet, ultimately, how your garden feels should be down to how you want it to look and how you want to use it. That said, most designs that don’t quite hit the mark generally fail on space-they are either too open or too cluttered. Try writing a wish list of everything you’d like in your garden and then draw a plan to scale to see if it all fits. If it doesn’t, work with what will fit and apply some of my design rules to help you get what you want. Your garden will be all…

A profusion of cheery bulbs heralding the spring is a joy to see and now is the time to get planting. Whether you’re just adding a few to brighten up borders or planning a carpet of colour across a lawn, a bulb planter is a useful bit of kit. Available as handheld or long handled to save kneeling down, a bulb planter has a tapered hollow cone that easily removes a core of soil to create a hole for your bulb. Once it’s planted, this core is then placed back over the bulb, with just the squeeze of a button or when you plant the next bulb, depending on the design of the planter. A bulb planter saves you disturbing any more soil than you need to, so they’re great…

The first veg I ever grew were three broad bean plants. Just the three: I had no idea how many beans a plant would produce, so my entire harvest for that year amounted to just one scant meal’s worth. It didn’t matter. Those beans were by far the best I’d ever tasted. I was hooked. During lockdown, three million new gardeners signed up to feel the buzz of harvesting their first crops, and about three-quarters of us now grow at least some food at home. Nowadays it really matters too, as we’re all increasingly aware of the environmental impact of food imports and plastic packaging. So whether you’ve got the keys to an allotment, have a mini veg plot in a pot or just a windowbox, the important thing is…

STEP BY STEP How to collect and stratify euonymus seeds Collect the seeds of Euonymus europaeus so you can propagate a native hedge. The seeds will remain dormant until they've been stratified (exposed) to winter’s cold temperatures, so sow them straight outside – protected from vermin – or recreate the temperatures needed to break their dormancy by popping them in the fridge. Be sure to wash your hands after handling the seeds as they are toxic. Don’t forget Remove dead plants or leaves to prevent them harbouring pests and diseases Keep glass panels clean to improve light levels as daylight decreases Check windows and doors for drafts and seal any gaps with old material Install a water butt to catch rainfall Check for pests on any plants brought inside to…

Collect canes Remove and collect bamboo canes that are no longer in use. Not only will it help tidy the garden, but you can use them again next year. Brush off any dirt, saw off rotten ends and store the canes outside so the frost can kill off any pests that may be lurking inside the hollow centres. Transplant shrubs to a new position Dig up young shrubs to move into a new position. They may need more space, different light levels or just look better elsewhere. Choose a mild day with little wind to prevent the plant from drying out. Unless the shrub is very compact, trim back any wispy shoots and tie up the rest into the centre with a long piece of soft cloth to avoid damaging…

Wildlife is vulnerable in autumn. Many species, including ladybirds and other insects, hibernate in old seedheads, plant stems and beneath foliage as it breaks down. Birds eat seeds and rosehips in winter, and larger species, such as hedgehogs, hibernate in piles of twigs and foliage. There’s a lot we can do (and not do!) in our gardens this autumn to help species hibernate safely, while a few autumn tasks can improve the garden as a whole or provide food and shelter come spring. You don’t need a large garden to help wildlife, and there’s always something fun to do to help your kids develop their love of the natural world. Plant bulbs This is a good project to do with the kids. Plant bulbs now to flower in spring for…

Bob Flowerdew Bob is an organic gardener and has designed his garden to produce lots of veg, fruit and cut flowers. Matt Biggs Matt trained at Kew and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years. Pippa Greenwood Pippa is one of the foremost experts on pests and diseases. She gardens using organic methods. Q Which shrubs and climbers can I grow on my roof terrace? Gabrielle Donnelly, by email A BOB SAYS First, and most crucially, triple check the weight allowance for the terrace, taking into account all the planters, compost, plants and people. Also ensure all supports and plants are firmly fixed to stop them blowing over and be 100 per cent sure nothing can be blown off the roof. As your terrace is on the ninth…

Editor of the Year: Gardens & Country The everyday miracles of nature are part of what, to me, make gardening so enriching. The dry husk of a seed that unfurls into a towering plant within months; fruit that springs from pruned bare wood; veg scraps and clippings transformed into nourishing compost… all miracles that you as the gardener are a part of, encouraging the alchemy with good timing and skill. There’s always something new to learn as a gardener, whether you’re just starting out or you have years under your belt. That’s why we’ve devoted much of this issue to highlighting 20 core skills to help make you a better gardener – just look for this stamp throughout the magazine. As we venture into autumn (such an exciting gardening season),…

No longer business as usual for climate-changed gardens Gardeners are already facing unprecedented and irreversible climate change, as greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet to record-breaking levels, a major report from the United Nations has confirmed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) review is the first since 2013 and says that extreme heatwaves, heavy rainfall and rising sea levels are already with us, as a direct result of the world getting warmer by more than 1°C in the past century. “Seemingly small changes in global temperature have a very big impact,” says former BBC weatherman and chair of Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, Peter Gibbs. “Weather that would have seemed exceptional 50 or 60 years ago is now not unusual at all.” He says the growing season is now…

Experience more as a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Club member with: 1 FREE delivery directly to your door 2 Secret Garden access, a special Subscriber-only area of gardenersworld.com 3 Rewards pages and Your Extras section, sharing extra content in every copy 4 Exclusive money-saving offers, competitions and discounts 5 Subscriber events and opportunities to meet the magazine’s experts WORTH £16.99! The Gardeners’ World Alamanac is the month-by-month guide to your garden year, from planning and planting to troubleshooting tips and gardening discovery – with a special introduction by Monty Don. Offer ends 21 October 2021 3 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE Call 03330 162123* and quote code GWNP1021 Visit buysubscriptions.com/GWNP1021 Post Complete the order form and send it to the Freepost address on the coupon…

Early varieties must be eaten more or less as they ripen, but any ripening from late September can be easily stored in a cool, dark place. Never be tempted to store even slightly damaged fruit, so pick them very carefully, holding the apple in the palm of your hand and twisting gently so that it comes free from the branch. If it does not come away easily then leave it – whatever it looks like. We now store ours in large metal drawers with perforated bottoms (originally used for keeping day-old chicks in a battery farm), which is ideal as the metal stays cold and retains humidity but is well ventilated. But this was serendipity and for years we stored them on wooden racks which are much easier to source…

ONLY £ 4 PACK Choose from our range of popular bulb packs K Tulipa ‘Pink Giant’ Vibrant-pink blooms. Ideal as cut flowers. Height x Spread 50cm x 15cm Flowers Apr-May K Tulipa ‘Magic Lavender’ and ‘Mango Charm’ Collection For a colour-coordinated display. H x S 45cm x 15cm F Apr-May ■ Narcissus ‘Hawera’ Delicate blooms with reflexed petals. H x S 20cm x10cm F Apr-May ■ Muscari armeniacum Plant in a woodland setting, borders or pots. H x S 20cm x10cm F Mar-May ■ Anemone blanda Daisy-like flowers form a carpet of colour. H x S 10cm x 15cm F Mar-Apr ■ Hyacinthus ‘Berries and Cream Mixture’ A harmonious blend of rose, violet, pink and pale lavender. H x S 25cm x 10cm F Mar-Apr ■ Narcissus ‘Sweet Aroma Mixed’…

For us gardeners, the prize for weathering another winter comes in spring, as our gardens become increasingly awash with flowers in every shade and hue. And now is the time to act to guarantee even greater colour next spring, as bulb planting season is in full swing once more. Obligingly, spring-flowering bulbs are the easiest of plants to grow, especially in containers where you don’t need to plant hundreds to make a big splash. Once planted, you can forget about them all winter, just turning your attention back to them in the weeks leading up to flowering, to ensure they don’t go thirsty. We’ve created four simple yet spectacular container displays to inspire you, with step-by-step planting details. They’re based around a selection of choice tulips that will be in…

SAVE £15 ■ Apple ‘Golden Delicious’ With its sweet flavour, you can eat this straight from the tree or use it for cooking. No pollinator partner is necessary, but it is more productive with another variety nearby. Height x Spread 5m x 5m Harvest October 1 established 1.5m tree in 24cm pot £24.99 SAVE £15 (300241) ■ Apple ‘Rubinstar’ Big and juicy fruits with a sweet flavour. It needs other trees nearby (in your own or a neighbour’s garden) for pollination. H x S 4m x 2.5m H October 1 established 1.5m tree in 24cm pot £24.99 SAVE £15 (300245) MORE OFFERS ■ Raspberry ‘Summer Lovers Patio Gold’ H x S 80cm x 50cm H Jul-Sep 1 plant in 9cm pot £9.99 2 plants in 9cm pots £14.98 SAVE £5 (330054) ■ Cherry…

Rose grape Bring glamour to your house plant collection with a rose grape plant (Medinilla magnifica). Provide the right conditions and you’ll be rewarded with lush foliage and buds that will break into clusters of bold bright-pink flowers hanging from the stems in summer. This exotic plant was greatly admired by the noble and wealthy of Belgium in the 1900s, grown in royal conservatories and even printed on the country’s banknotes. This plant is best grown up high, or on a stand where the flowers can hang freely as they bloom. High humidity is important, so keep the plant standing above a tray of water, in the bathroom or add a humidifier to the room. For dedicated enthusiasts, this luxurious house plant is worth the effort for an extra-special display.…

Save 10% on plants throughout the year! Subscribe today for only £5 for 3 issues. See p152 As a subscriber to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, you can save 10%* throughout the year with our specially selected partners – saving you £££s. Subscribers – find your discount codes in the exclusive Subscriber Extras section of this issue, or login to gardenersworld.com/secret-garden. Not yet a subscriber? Sign up – see our offer on p152 – and start saving today! Discover more at gardenersworld.com/offers and sign up to our offers newsletter *Offers exclude delivery & some products; not valid with any other offer…

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers”L.M.Montgomery STARS OF THE MONTH Pumpkin ‘Jack o’ Lantern’ These fine specimens from the veg plot are ready for carving now but, in all the Halloween excitement, please don’t forget to eat the flesh you have spent so much time scooping out to make lanterns. Harvest pumpkins when they are fully coloured – the skins harden well in sun. It is a magnificent vegetable (I am including its close cousin the squash in this) which stores for ages (you can eat pumpkin well into the new Year). Pumpkins are for dinner, not just for Halloween. Pumpkins need lots of space to grow. Sow seeds under glass and plant out into rich soil once frosts have passed. Height x Spread…

Does anyone get called a ‘Jeremiah’ nowadays? It was never a compliment. Doommonger, naysayer, pessimist, gloomy bugger – poor Jeremiah’s tone does not chime with the modern sensibility of upbeat optimism. Not a man for jokes or folderol. But I like a bit of gloom myself, a bit of downbeatery, to leaven things a bit. I remember reading the biblical quote from the Book of Jeremiah, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved”, on a wild October day some 50 years ago and thinking, ‘yup, that’s the way of things’. The moment has passed and left you well and truly behind. Failed again – only this time, failed worse. This is not so much a question of depression and mental health, as a thoroughly British…

Best known as a member of the boy band JLS, JB Gill has more recently been seen presenting for BBC programmes including the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Countryfile and Down on the Farm. He lives with his family in Kent, where they have their own farm. Describe your garden to us It’s a family space and because we live on a farm, we have quite a few extra acres including orchards. We have a more formal garden around the house, which would look like a Chelsea show garden if completely up to my wife – we’re not quite there yet, but as we get nearer retirement age, we’ll be spending more time on it. How did you first get into gardening? I moved here when I was at the start…

Try layering your bulbs in pots to create a dense look that will be packed with flowers come spring. Start with the largest and latest-flowering bulbs at the bottom and finish with smaller earlier types at the top. Here’s how: Top layer For the upper layer, use small bulbs that will flower first, such as crocuses, dwarf irises, snowdrops and grape hyacinths. Add plenty, as the larger bulbs below will easily find their way up between them. Cover this layer of bulbs – and all the other layers – with 5cm of compost. Then either leave the surface bare, cover it with a layer of grit or plant a cover of pansies, violas or similar, so it looks good straight away. Middle layer Medium-sized bulbs that will flower in March…

Rekha Mistry is a keen veg grower who loves to try exotic varieties and experiment with them in the kitchen. She appeared in the 2015 BBC Two series, The Big Allotment Challenge Harvest now It’s a shame we can’t have summer all year round, but there are upsides to autumn. It’s time to gather the leaves of my favourite winter vegetable, cavolo nero. And, while I’ve got the brassica cage open, I’ll pick the last of the kohlrabi too. Since last month, parsley and coriander have come into their own, as well as red-veined sorrel and Swiss chard. I’ll add all these to some pickings of winter gem lettuce, cut-and-come-again salads and, for a touch of colour, a few breakfast radishes straight from the greenhouse. In October, the sun rises…

SAVE £12 when you buy 6 Offer closes 31 October 2021. Blueberries supplied as 9cm pots, delivery in 7 days. All orders will receive an order acknowledgement with approximate delivery date. Limited stocks, all items are subject to availability. Offer available to UK addresses only. Reader Offers cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotions or discounts. VISIT gardenersworld.com/what-to-do-now for more advice on the best crops to sow and plant this month, and how to do it.…

10 MINUTES TO SPARE Move any outdoor pots containing alpine plants under shelter to protect them from rain – heavy downpours won’t drain fast enough from containers. While the plants should cope fine with the colder temperatures that autumn and winter bring, they will struggle to survive sitting in cold, wet soil. Collect seeds Snip the ripe seedheads from climbing plants before you start maintenance pruning and store the seed to sow next spring. Choose a dry day and put the heads straight into paper bags. Purple clematis (Clematis viticella) and annuals such as Chilean glory flower all set seed now. Leave them in an open bag so they can air for a day, then remove the seed husks. Decant the seeds into a labelled envelope and store in a…

10 MINUTES TO SPARE Cut back the ferny shoots of asparagus when they have turned yellow. Once they are no longer green they will stop photosynthesizing and creating sugars that will benefit your plant and harvest next year. Cut the shoots back to ground level and add the chopped up material to your compost bin. Collect seed from lettuce Lettuce heads that have gone to seed can now be collected for next year’s sowings. The seeds are ready to collect when the closed seedhead opens to reveal a mass of pale, fluffy hairs attached to the seed. Put a paper bag over the plant before snipping the seedheads to reduce the number lost. Let the heads drop into the bag. Once dry, the seed will separate easily from the hairs.…

Only £1.67 an issue! Offer ends 21 October 2021 2 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE Call 03330 162123* and quote code GWSP1021 Visit buysubscriptions.com/GWSP1021 Your friend can experience more as a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Club member with: 1 FREE delivery direct to their door 2 Secret Garden access – a special Subscriber-only area of gardenersworld.com 3 Rewards pages and Extras section, sharing extra content in every copy 4 Exclusive money-saving offers, competitions, discounts 5 Subscriber events and opportunities to meet the magazine’s experts †This offer is only open to new UK Direct Debit customers subscribing to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. You will pay £5 for your first 3 issues; your subscription will then continue at the rate of £27.60 every 6 issues thereafter – still saving 20% on the…