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Progress

We were waiting in for a man to service the boiler this morning, which always sets me on edge, so I left hubby inside (he’s happiest indoors) and went outside for some horticultural therapy instead. It’s a reasonably nice day and I’ve been outside for three hours and have made considerable progress on the mountain of work that needs doing in the garden.

First up I emptied the rather stagnant ex-rice paddies onto the compost. Well, I emptied three of them onto the compost. They’re rather heavy and I dropped one and emptied it mostly on myself, but I didn’t let that deter me (and I’ve now had a wash!).

Then I cleared two small raised beds and sowed crimson flowered broad beans, complete with Bean Booster to help them fix nitrogen. I’ve covered them over as best I can to try and keep out mice and the cats that have been digging over the garden all winter and leaving me smelly presents.

And I repotted the mint that had been in a terracotta pot until it completely shattered in the cold weather, and mulched the garlic bed and mulched half of the onion bed and then cleared out the front windowboxes and replanted those with broad beans – The Sutton, this time.

That meant potting up 4 little box bushes and finding them a new home, and then I did the two elephant garlic, so that they have more root space. Then it was all about clearing up after myself and coming back inside for lunch before I collapsed in a heap. It does look as though I’ve had the best of the weather outside today – it’s overcast now.

Book review: Kids in the Garden

Last year I contributed to Black Dog Publishing’s rather ground-breaking book project – Growing Stuff, which pulled together a selection of bloggers to write most of the content.

This year its editor, Elizabeth McCorquodale, has produced her own book with Black Dog – Kids in the Garden – and they’ve very kindly sent me a copy to review.

The book is divided into three sections. The ‘Introduction’ section has a lot of information about gardening techniques and science – everything from composting and plant propagation through to photosynthesis and the carbon cycle.

The ‘Projects’ section is where you get into growing the plants, mainly in containers. There’s the usual suspects thought suitable for kids to grow (including broad beans, with their nice big seeds and sunflowers to see who can grow the tallest one), but there’s more, too. There’s even some fruits, with gooseberries and raspberries making an appearance. Perhaps the only real disappointment here is that herbs get relegated to two pages, all lumped in together.

The final section is ‘Recipes’, and there’s plenty here to ignite a passion for food, although I can’t be the only person who would be wary of kids deep-frying courgette (called zucchini throughout the book) fritters.

Right at the back you’ve got a glossary and the answers to the quiz questions posed throughout the book, which is also filled with lots of colour photos, cartoons and silly jokes.

The blurb says that this is a book “for kids of all ages”, but I think it has too much in it to be good for young children and is really aimed at school-age kids. For a child with an interest in gardening I can see this becoming a firm favourite and much-thumbed as they grow up and need less supervision.

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As I don’t have kids and I’m currently in the midst of a manic decluttering session, I am now giving away my copy of Kids in the Garden! If you’re in the UK and you’d like to be in with a chance of winning then just leave me a comment before the end of the month. I’ll be in touch with the winner to ask for address details.

Frolicking among the fuchsias

Modern gardens, especially the ‘low maintenance’ kind with the gravel, decking and blue fencing, are really sterile. Not only to they discourage the wild rampantness that occurs when plants grow with reckless abandon, but they get rid of all the nooks and crannies that the local wildlife would use for nookie.

With everything laid bare and open to the surrounding neighbours, there’s not much fun to be had for the human occupants either. A spot of nude sunbathing could win you an ASBO and anything more erotic had better wait for a moonless night.

But gardens weren’t always this way – in times past they were hotbeds of steaming passions, providing secret locations for assignations as well as plenty of eye candy to get you in the mood.

It’s obviously not something that gets mentioned in polite conversation much these days, despite the fact that you can see much worse on billboards, but garden writer and historian Jane Owen caressed the subject briefly a couple of years ago in an article in The Times called Frolicking among the fuchsias.

Jane is obviously a foxy lady as she also regularly gives a talk entitled ‘The Erotic Garden’ – and if you’re up for it she’s giving it in Oxford on Friday 19th March, in a school of all places. Tickets cost £15, but that’s a small price to pay for an evening’s pleasure and it’s all for charity anyway. Check the school website for more details.

A rose by any other name...

One of my gardening articles is being published in issue 4 of Filament, “a quarterly women’s magazine inspired by the rocket science that women have brains and eyes”. Much of the content is overtly sexual (you can view an online preview, but it’s not safe for work).

Although my article is strictly about Indoor Edibles and I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive so that I can see it ‘in the flesh’, a comment by a friend has been sending my mind off in unusual directions.

One of those is towards erotic and suggestive plant names. I have seeds for an ornamental plant called Hairy Balls, which I bought simply because they would make Pete laugh. I haven’t had any luck germinating them yet, though! I must try again.

There’s also an episode of Dawson’s Creek in which two of the teenage characters, flirting in a greenhouse, discuss the sordid names given to some of the orchids.

A quick Google pulls up some stonkers – including Rubus cockburnianus, and a plant with a name that caused Gardeners’ Question Time some trouble. Someone has even written a book on the subject, which I must have.

But what’s your favourite suggestive plant name? Whether it’s a common name or the proper latin one, leave it in the comments please!

March Gardening Offers

This is my round-up of the interesting gardening offers and discounts for March. If the long winter is getting to you and you’re not in the mood for getting your hands dirty yet then I recommend some armchair gardening instead – read the diary of a Natural History Museum scientist who’s trying to track down aubergine (eggplant) species in China.

With Mothering Sunday (14th March) on its way, there are a couple of good offers on the table from Wiggly Wigglers*. If you order your mum’s bouquet before 5th March, you can claim a Free Divine Chocolate Giftpack (includes a 100g bar each of Milk, Dark and White chocolate) for your Mum by entering code S1031 into the search box whilst ordering or using this link. And if you’d like your mum’s flowers delivered on Saturday 13th March then you can select a Saturday delivery for the special price of just £7.50 (it’s normally £14.50) if you use the Wiggly voucher code MDS133 as you checkout. It’s only valid for that date.

If you’re going to one of Jekka’s herb farm open days in March, print out your voucher for a free packet of seeds before you go.

For 10% off fruit and vegetable cages from Harrod Horticultural quote code ECODE281 at the checkout.

Get advance tickets for UKAware 2010 for just £6 via this link* (advance tickets are normally £10; tickets on the door are £15).

And the current crop of special offers from Suttons* includes £10 bay trees, blueberries, seed potatoes and lots more grow you own goodies, so have a click through for the whole list.

This blog post will be updated through the month as I come across good offers, so remember to check back, and you can add your own in the comments as well!

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*That’s an affiliate link, and if you click through and make an order then I will receive a few pennies. If you don’t want to help support the site, don’t use that link!

Totally Tropical

The sun is shining this morning, and it feels like spring might – at last – be on the way. But last week the weather was vile and we had cabin fever, so Pete and I paid another visit to The Living Rainforest near Newbury. (Our last visit was in 2007.

It was a cold day, and it was overcast and raining. We discovered that there are no lights in the Living Rainforest, so it wasn’t a good day for photography. But we also discovered that the price of an entry ticket gives you an annual pass – so we can go back for free on a better day (or several!), which is really cool. During the warmer months there are butterflies flitting about, which are absent in the winter, so that’s another reason to return.

The highlights for me this visit included:

A Marquesa palm (Pelagodoxa henryana, one of the world’s rarest palms) that was reaching for the skies. Originally from the South Pacific, it bears large edible fruits that apparently taste a bit like avocado.

A beautiful Dumb Cane specimen (Dieffenbachia), which is anything but edible as it is one of the most poisonous plants in the place, despite being a popular house plant. I’ve developed an interest in all things poisonous since reading Wicked Plants.

The Magic Bean (Mucuna spp.) is far more useful. Farmers in its native Central America use it to fix nitrogen in their soil to add fertility. It also has medicinal and edible uses.

Banana flowers before the fruits appear and after they’ve been harvested.

And some mystery beans, enjoying the balmy climate. I’m hoping I can get someone from the Rainforest to identify them for me, via Twitter.

And they don’t just have plants at The Living Rainforest, there are birds and animals as well. Check out Pete’s photo of Spider Monkeys grooming.

Tall plant pots wanted

My raised beds are made with concrete blocks. Each block has two holes in it, which are roughly 14 × 11 cm (I measured them this morning). The idea is that they give me extra planting space around the edge of the raised bed, and they do, but I’ve talked before about the issues – namely plants that are too vigorous, sinking perennials and species which create too much of a barrier.

I have a square plastic plant pot (iirc it arrived holding Jenny, my kiwi) which is 12 cm square and 20 cm deep (volume 2 litres). It fits well in the planting holes, and I reckon if I planted all my edge plants in one of those it would solve all of the problems. If a plant got in the way or needed repotting, it would be a breeze to pull it out and replace it.

There’s only one problem – I had this idea last year and I haven’t been able to find a source for the pots. I tried again this morning and found the perfect ones at Floralive, but their website is unfinished, dated 2004 and PayPal says they’re not accepting money – which doesn’t inspire confidence. I’ve used their contact form, but I’m not expecting a response.

I’m not sure how many I need; quite a few, but less than 100. I will count at some point – but in the meantime, does anyone know where I can get my hands on some of these pots? Preferably at a price that won’t break the bank.

Thanks :)

February Gardening Offers

Witch hazel flowers add colour and scent to winter gardens

This is my round-up of the interesting gardening offers and discounts for February. If you’re not in the market for new goodies then try reading what the professional gardeners at Doddington Place in Kent get up to during the winter instead.

If you’re planning on going down to Bristol for one of Jekka’s herb farm open days in March, then don’t forget to download and print out your voucher for a free packet of seeds before you go.

This month’s offer from Harrod Horticultural is 10% off fruit and vegetable cages – quote code ECODE281 at the checkout to claim your discount.

Rocket Gardens have a special offer running at the moment – order one of their Spring gardens before the end of February and they’ll include a free mini starter garden that contains a selection of 24 vegetable and salad plants for you to keep for yourself or pass onto a friend.

You’re running out of time to get your free copy of ‘Through the Eye of a Needle’ from The Green Shopping Catalogue. The free book offer is valid while stocks last, or until 28 February 2010, for customers who spend over £30.

And the current crop of special offers from Suttons* includes £10 bay trees, blueberries, seed potatoes and lots more grow you own goodies, so have a click through for the whole list.

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*That’s an affiliate link, and if you click through and make an order then I will receive a few pennies. If you don’t want to help support the site, don’t use that link!

Kew Bridge Eco Village

An interesting piece from the BBC (on Inside Out) about the Kew Bridge Eco Village, a group of people trying to live a sustainable life in harmony with their local community on an unused lot. Unfortunately the developer now has planning permission to develop the lot, so the future of the Eco Village is uncertain. They have a Facebook group if you want to keep up with their progress.

Future Fruit

Grape vine cuttings, wildlife twig bundle and kindling

The weather so far this year has been pretty awful (and it’s snowing again as I type this), but Saturday was sunny and I spent a couple of hours outside pruning in an attempt to ensure bountiful fruit crops in the summer. I wrapped up warm, but it wasn’t cold unless the sun went behind clouds. The chickens, who have been shut in their run for much of the winter, enjoyed a short walk around the garden and the chance to have a good dust bath inside the Grow Dome.

I had a To Do list, arranged partly in terms of urgency and partly in terms of difficulty. I started off nice and easy, pruning back my autumn-fruiting raspberries (MTP reminded me) and giving them a good mulch with partly rotted bunny litter.

While I was there I did a little bit of light pruning of the blueberries, simply to remove dead wood and relieve any congestion.

Then I was off into the chicken run to prune two of my minarette fruit trees. Winter is the time to take the tops out of the apple and pear (the instructions say to prune the ‘leader’, but mine have several branches reaching for the sky), which encourages the growth of the sideshoots that bear the fruiting spurs. Later in the year I have to prune the fruiting spurs….

The third job on the list was the trickiest – pruning the grapevine. I used to have two, but one died. The remaining one was rampant last year and escaped onto my neighbour’s side of the fence. Whilst very leafy, it was not fruitful. I am attempting to tame it by training it in the Guyot style, and have cut off all the stems bar one. It should grow two or three stems this year, which I will bend down to the horizontal next year. Or something like that. One step at a time, and step one was getting it under control. Step two is fitting the training wires. But even if my vine doesn’t fruit, it has other uses.

As I took so much wood off the grapevine, I thought I would try growing some more from hardwood cuttings. I trimmed down sections of stem, stuck them in potting compost and have left them out in the Grow Dome. If they grow I will try growing a grape in a container, which looks like fun. I can’t remember whether this is the Cabernet sauvignon or the Sauvignon blanc, so I will have to check at some point.

I also bundled up lengths of stem for a wildlife habitat, and put them down by the fence. Any dinky bits of wood I saved to fuel my Kelly Kettle.

National Science and Engineering Week: What on Earth

12–21 March 2010 is National Science and Engineering Week, and this year the theme is ‘Earth’, to tie in with the International Year of Biodiversity.

They’ll be lots of science events going on around the country during that week, but one of special interest is the ‘What on Earth’ campaign, which is raising awareness of UK plants and animals facing habitat destruction and homelessness.

Free wildflower seeds are on offer at www.whatonearth.org.uk for people who want to take part in a little bit of nature spotting. It couldn’t be simpler or more fun. All you need to do is upload a snap of something you don’t recognise that you spot in your garden, and you will receive native varieties of wildflower that encourage greater biodiversity in your back garden or flower box. You can also download a free Biodiversity Activity Pack with lots of things for kids to do out in the garden and beyond.

The aim of ‘what on earth’ is to spot, collect and identify as many species as possible over the course of the week, painting a fascinating picture of UK wildlife for us all to observe and enjoy. Organised in partnership with The Open University’s iSpot website, NSEW’s specialists from all fields of natural science will examine, identify and catalogue as many finds as they can over the course of the week and beyond.

And that’s not all – a green roof will be awarded to a school in the area which has shown most support for National Science & Engineering Week’s ‘What on Earth’ campaign and uploaded the most pictures. So whether you are an avid nature watcher or you just happen to find something unusual crawling around in your garden take a picture and submit it to www.whatonearth.org.uk.

FarmVille: Mandarin, Bamboo and Lotus

For the last six months or so I have been playing FarmVille on Facebook. For some of those hours I could have been in the garden, but it’s been a long cold winter and I’m not really in the mood to get out there and get stuck in just yet. Hopefully spring is just around the corner, but the weather forecast for this week is very variable.

Initially I had fun laying my virtual farm out along permaculture principles, with a forest garden, homes for wildlife and a focus on renewable energy and transport. Then the farm got bigger, the goals of the game changed to focus on sowing and harvesting crops and I was in danger of getting RSI, so I succumbed and bought some machinery. My little virtual world is no longer carbon neutral :(

But the range of trees and crops has expanded beyond belief and I’m fascinated by them – which would it be possible to grow in the real world? FarmVille has a special climate, where even the snow (and yes, there was snow) doesn’t damage your crops or slow down their maturity. Greenhouses are for decoration only.

Many of the crops are permanent residents, and you can choose to plant according to your whims. But to keep things interesting the FarmVille wizards add limited edition themes, and one of the current ones is for Chinese New Year. It comes complete with a special Mandarin tree and two new crops – bamboo and lotus. If you buy a tree it’s with you until you sell it, but the new crops will disappear in 4 days time.

Mandarin

I actually already have some Mandarins here in the Real World. They’re my mandarin seedlings, some of which were polyembryonic and likely to mature in plants with tasty fruits. It’s going to take a few years, though. In the meantime the seedlings are sitting on the windowsill and soaking up what winter sunshine there is. Whether I will be able to keep them all to maturity is another questions – there are quite a few and I couldn’t keep track of which ones were polyembryonic (my report card would say “must try harder”).

It’s interesting that the Mandarin only gets an edibility rating of 2 from PFAF. Possibly it’s because only the fruit is edible, so much of the year the tree is not contributing to the larder, but the flowers are also pretty and scented so it does have more than one use. Like most citrus, the Mandarin orange is a tender plant that has to be kept away from frost, so in the UK it is a conservatory plant in the winter.

East of Eden has a nice guide to keeping citrus plants healthy, and if you want to buy a Mandarin orange (aka satsuma or clementine) plant rather than raise seedlings they are available (the Citrus Centre certainly has some). Apparently citrus plants can be turned into bonsai specimens, which might be an interesting project if you grow your own seedlings.

Lotus

You’ll need a pond (probably a big one) to grow Lotus, but it has a long and interesting history and learning more about it is on my To Do list. Apparently it has been cultivated widely in Asia for centuries; here in the UK it became a popular ornamental plant during the gardening craze about 100 years ago when plant hunters made fortunes introducing new plants.

PFAF gives the Lotus an edibility rating of 4 (out of 5) and it has its own page on the beautiful Plant Cultures site. FarmVille relegates it to an ornamental Flower crop.

According to PFAF, most forms are not hardy in the UK and would have to be lifted and stored in frost-free place during the autumn (something that might be tricky since they resent root disturbance). Their beauty and fragrance, plus their potential food value, might make the effort worthwhile. In warmer climates they can become invasive.

Bamboo

Back when I had my nutbag idea about a container hedge, I considered trying bamboos in containers. I still might – I have a copy of Hardy Bamboos: Taming the Dragon that I must finish reading to see which bamboo varieties would be most suitable for the location and climate.

Here in the UK bamboo has two principle uses – you can eat the shoots and grow your own plant supports (in fact, there was a lovely article in a recent issue of the Eden Project magazine about a farmer who made a living during WW2 (iirc) by growing bamboo in Cornwall for Dig for Victory gardeners to use as plant supports, as imports were curtailed).

The PFAF database contains a lot of bamboo species, some of which even get an edibility rating of 5/5.

Of course, a more traditional plant to grow for supports would be willow; Victoriana Nursery Gardens offers Salix viminalis, which makes a good wind break and is suitable for coppicing and for basketwork.

It has taken a few years but I think I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that there are far too many wonderful plants in the world for me to be able to grow them all (even if I moved to a warmer climate!), let alone for me to fit in the garden in one growing season. FarmVille farmers might have problems transferring their new-found love of plants into the Real World because it glosses over all of the technical problems (climate, seasonality, pests, weeds and diseases) that can make gardening hard work. But if FarmVille can inspire a fascination with plants in even a small percentage of it’s millions of users, then it’s not entirely a waste of time ;)

If you’re on Facebook and would like to come and say hello, or become a Farmville neigbor then this is me.

Lob author comes to town

If you read my review of Lob by Linda Newbery then you may be interested to know that Linda will be in Mostly Books in Abingdon on Thursday 25th February.

For the whole of half-term week, Mostly Books will also be running ‘Lob’ activities in the shop. Try to find the green man in their ‘find Lob’ competition – and you can even draw your own Cat to enter their Cat Tales competition to win prizes. More details in the shop.

Finally, on Thursday, February 25th at 4pm, you can come to the shop to meet Linda herself, who will be signing copies of all her books. If you can’t make it to the shop, copies can be reserved by emailing books@mostly-books.co.uk.

Sweet Scensations

In Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden last week, Pete and I kept walking past shrubs that were in flower and kicking out a tremendous scent. I don’t normally ‘do’ ornamental shrubs, but I dug deep in my memory for winter-flowering species and came up with Witch Hazel (Hamamelis sp.). I couldn’t find a specimen with a label, but on the way out of the garden there was a blackboard showing the current highlights – and Hamamelis was listed. I was going to buy one there and then, but they didn’t seem to have any in the shop.

Yesterday turned out to be one of those days that would be much improved by the aquisition of new plants, so I made a quick stop in a local garden centre and discovered Hamish:

Hamish is a Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Jelena’. He’s not looking his best right now because his flowering season is coming to an end – but he was on the half price plants stand, so he was a real bargain because he looks like a nice strong specimen.

Even though Hamish is nearly done flowering, he’s still producing a heady scent. It reminded me of something when we were in Abbotsbury, and in the car on the way home with Hamish I worked out what – some old-fashioned sweets I’d had when I was a kid. Orange hard-boiled sweets, with a spiral pattern, that weren’t actually that nice. A little bit of online research has come up with the answer – Hamish smells just like cough candies!

Hamish the Hamamelis will have a quiet spring and summer, settling into his new home. All being well he will then put on a show in the autumn, with foliage turning gorgeous colours, before being one of the few plants flowering and scenting the winter garden.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens

Pete and I are gradually exploring the West Country with a view to finding the perfect location in which to create the second Alternative Kitchen Garden. There are lots of factors to take into account, and we’re nowhere near ready to move, but yesterday we moved on from exploring Somerset to Dorset – and it promptly moved to the top of the list because of the stunning views.

The view above is of Chesil Beach, and is taken from the viewing point at the top of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. Weather-wise it was an odd day, with brilliant sunshine and very cold breezes that kept bringin snow showers west:

It was clear that we weren’t seeing Abbotsbury at its best, but it’s a beautiful garden with many mature specimens that would be stunning on a warmer day (we weren’t the only visitors yesterday afternoon, but it was a close thing).

As well as bamboo, tree ferns, bananas (wrapped up against the cold) and lots of other plants that thrive in the subtropical microclimate, Abbotsbury is home to fish and pheasants, including the beautiful Golden Pheasant. Most of the pheasants we saw were either running away from us or ignoring us, but this one – we called him Spike – took an interest in Pete and tried to eat his coat, before hopping onto his arm and pecking his nose. Pete took it very well.

(They’re are some more photos on Flickr.

March 9th 2010
8:01 PM GMT

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