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September 2012
Pocket Garden Scissors worth £6.99 for every reader
●The best apple pie recipe in the world!!!!
W ●Chris Beardshaw
IN
Click & Grow Smart Pot Worth £34.99
●Ann-Marie Powell
September Jobs ●Who said there is nothing to do in the garden in September?
Ann-Marie Powell Interview
Editor’s Blurb We start our children’s gardening club pilot this month. The pilot will be held at Alexandra Palace Gardening Centre. Young Gardeners Club will officially begin inspiring children from the ages of 4-10 on Saturday 15th September, we plan to have a full roll out this Autumn for the following garden centres: Morden Hall, Woods of Berkhamsted, Neal’s Nurseries.
Chris Beardshaw Interview
This month we interview TV personality Ann-Marie Powell, she has featured on numerous Gardening shows on the BBC,Channel 4 as well as the UKTV network. Famed for her role on Garden SOS, Ann-Marie is also a Chelsea Flower show gold medal winner. Her show garden for the British Heart Foundation was awe inspiring.
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IN
Another month another great give away. We have teamed up with Click & Grow to give away one of their smart self watering flower pots which will grow plants for you with minimal care. ● Insert 4 AA Batteries ● Add water ● Wait 1-2 weeks for the cute sprouts to appear ● Feel proud
Plants & Gardens Magazine is pushing to become best free gardening magazine, and in order to do that you have to provide the very best content from the best gardeners. Chris Beardshaw is an award winning gardener with 24 awards both nationally and internationally. He is a highly respected TV personality, who has appeared in shows such as Gardeners World, Great Garden Detectives, The Great Garden Challenge and many more.
We are giving away one of our most popular products, the Nortene Pocket Garden Scissors. To get your free garden scissors, simply print this page and cut out the coupon and bring it to your local Capital Gardens store to receive your item. Offer limited to one item per person.
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Contents In every issue Editors Notes Plant Focus
Seasonal 4 Keep on sowing
5 September Jobs 9 Sweet Pickings 13 Apples
15 Worlds best Apple pie recipe 19 How to make a book planter Plant focus 21 Rudebeckia
Q&A 7-8 Chris Beardshaw 11-12 Anne Mary Powell
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 3
Spring is no more, but that shouldn’t stop a determined gardener from sowing seeds, and reaping the rewards of early sowing.
Keep on sowing How to beat mother nature With your harvest well under way and in some cases over you may be wondering what you can grow over the colder months of the year ready for harvesting in the spring. Well, there are many types of vegetable that can be sown in the autumn that will over winter ready for a spring crop. Here are a few for you to think about. Sow in Oct/Nov and this bean will produce hardy young plants strong enough to withstand winter frosts and will grow away quickly as soon as the warmer spring days arrive. Sow in Sept/Oct and you will grow one of the best ball headed cabbage around. This variety can produce a head of around 2 lb and will be ready to harvest in April or May. Sow in October under cloches or cold frame and you will get the earliest crop in May. The benefit of this variety is that it is extra bolt resistant.
Tim Mcleod-Rice
Sow in October and Serac will crop from mid May. This variety produces very white heavy heads with an excellent flavour. Sow in Sept/Oct for early spring cropping. White Lisbon is the most popular overwintering spring onion. Pea Douce Provence. Sow in Oct/Nov for an April/May crop. Douce Provence is sweet and succulent and extremely versatile. Lettuce Arctic King. Sow in late September for an early spring crop. This is a fine lettuce known for its exceptional cold resistance and bred solely for autumn sowing. Onion sets, shallots, garlic and chard will all over winter and get going really quickly in spring. Away from the vegetable plot and for the flower lovers, autumn is the time for planting your spring flowering bulbs. Daffodils, tulips, crocus, lilies, iris and hyacinths to name but a few, so when you’re harvesting your spring vegetables you can look across to your beds and borders and see the first splashes of colour for the year ahead.
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 4
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 5
September is a great time for planting. Although temperatures are falling the ground is warm, encouraging plants to establish root growth before winter sets in. - masses of intense-blue flowers on easy-to-grow, low, shrubby plants with foliage that turns yellow in autumn. Loves the sun. - this hardy, reliable Japanese Anemone produces an abundant, long-lasting display of cool, white flowers over a long period on tall graceful stems. Will thrive and spread in sun or partial shade. this Japanese grass makes a superb mature specimen (and looks great in a pot) and by this point in the year has produced a tall fountain of narrow graceful stems, each with white leaf margins, giving the whole plant a silvery appearance. Particularly stunning if planted with the sun behind it. these robust hydrangeas hail from China and Japan and produce large, very long-lasting, coneshaped flower-heads. The flowers begin white and flush pink and are sometimes so large as to weigh the branches down. There are lots of different named varieties - all are good. - few plants are capable of producing flowers over as long a period as this scrambling, climbing Potato vine. Starting in the summer, the sprays of star-shaped, white flowers can still be seen along its branches at Christmas if the weather has been mild. - a spectacular South American salvia thriving there in damp ground (hence its common name - the Bog Sage).Produces tall stems of strikingly coloured, clearblue flowers over a long period from August to November. - a tough, tried and tested garden plant sometimes overlooked because of its familiarity. Arching branches will fan out in an attractive herringbone pattern across a wall or fence and will be covered in red berries at this time of the year. Its late-spring flowers are loved by bees. It makes a great support for late flowering Clematis too. - after laying dormant for the summer in a well-drained spot soaking up the sun the Nerine bulb now makes a fantastic autumn show. Narrow stems topped with numerous funnel-shaped flowers in a range of hues from white to improbable pink. 9. (Coneflower) from North America are invaluable perennials for the late season garden producing daisy-like flowers in a range of yellow, amber and russety shades. make ideal trees for smaller gardens and now is a perfect time to plant. In spring they are covered in blossom and at this time of year they are laden with striking displays of berries. There are lots to choose from: 'Joseph Rock' has orange-yellow berries; produces white ones and those of the Rowan ( ) are red.
John John Schofield Plants & Gardens Magazine / 6
Chris Beardshaw
Chris Beardshaw is an award-winning U.K. gardener, who is perhaps best known as a presenter of the BBC's long-running television series, Gardeners' World, alongside Monty Don and Rachel De Thame. Chris is formally trained, and holds an M.A. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Gloucestershire. He has won several prestigious gardening awards, including, in 1999, a Gold Medal for his "Dig For Victory" garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, and, in 2008, a Gold Medal at R.H.S. Tatton Park.
Gardeners World, The Flying Gardener, Great Garden Detectives, ,Country Lives, The Great Garden Challenge, Hidden Gardens, Weekend Gardener and Wild About Your Garden. Gardeners Question Time
Exclusive Q&A Garden Designer & TV presenter Chris Beardshaw talks to us about his Career, inspirations, and the creative process he goes through when designing bespoke gardens for clients. classics like Hidcote Manor Gardens which under careful guidance of the Head Gardener Glyn Jones is constantly being moved forwards and another garden I really enjoy is Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire. As you say it’s incredibly varied; I can be in the studio one day designing for a client and the next I will be in small town or village recording for Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time, and yet another I could be filming, writing or lecturing to Postgraduate degree students at Birmingham City University! And it is this variation that I really love - it keeps me stimulated and being able to meet new people, visit interesting gardens or landscapes or get behind the scenes access to somewhere is a real privilege and I really do appreciate every day for who and what it brings.
I was very young when I first became excited at what plants can do. For my fourth birthday I was given a watering can (a plastic elephant one!) and a packed of cress seeds. It was unbeknown to me at that time that cress germinates on practically anything damp but as a four year old I thought I was really green fingered and coming down in the morning to check my seeds and discover that all of them had popped up and was thriving was such a thrill that I then began growing anything and everything I could! I grew up in the Worcestershire countryside so was outside most of the time and worked on farms as a boy during holidays and then at eleven I began working at my local nursery the owner of which became a great mentor to me and encouraged my love of horticulture. So much so that I chose to study Horticulture at Pershore College, one of the top horticultural colleges at that time and then later was drawn to Landscape Architecture so I now combine my horticultural knowledge with the design work. I’ve never wanted to do anything other than work with plants and I still feel that way now.
My designs are all bespoke to suit the client, the needs and the location but I guess everyone does have a style and mine tend to be very plant rich and plant focused. I really enjoy responding to the very different situations clients have and seeing what design response emerges!
I have seen a great many over the years and it is always difficult to choose favourites because I like gardens for very different reasons – a bit like music I guess, it depends on what you fancy at that particular moment. But I do most admire gardens that have personality, that are really loved by their owners and have been put together with thought and vision. There are some
A good magnolia for a very small garden is Magnolia stellata or if you have a bit more room then Magnolia soulangeana is also a great option. I particularly like Prunus Serrula for its distinctive and touchable peeling bark and in the same family the flowering cherry tree Prunus autumnalis rosea is lovely.
You will always find a plant thriving whatever the condition so whilst this year may have been a wash out plants like Roses and Peonies where many of the buds have rotted off in general trees and herbaceous perennials have benefitted in terms of growth.
Bees can emerge early in the year if there is some warm sunshine to tempt them so it is good to think about a range of plants for all year round that will cater for this most valuable of garden pollinators. Starting early on include flowering plants such as Snowdrops, Aconites and Hellebore moving onto Primroses and Primula’s, Acacia, and Foxgloves to encourage and then aim to keep flowering plants through the summer and as far into autumn as possible. Roses, Pear and Apple trees, Lupins, Salvias and Penstemons are all popular but try to steer away from double or multi-petalled cultivars and hybrids as they do not contain an active nectary which renders it useless to a bee.
One plant that has stood out this year is the Tulbaghia. We came across some in a nursery just before Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and decided to use them in the Urban Oasis scheme but I’ve just seen them again in a beautiful display at the Shrewsbury Flower Show. They have pretty star like flowers, we had the pink form, on tall stems with strappy leaves around the base and look good clumped together in 3’s or 5’s. Plants & Gardens Magazine / 8
SWEET PICKINGS This year brambles seem to have taken on triffid-like growing qualities in gardens and hedgerows and I have been inspired to modified a friends advice, ‘If life gives you lemons, make lemonade’, to ‘if life gives you brambles, make blackberry jam’. I was fortunate enough to be brought up picking ‘food for free’ as a natural and organic part of my lifestyle, long before it was vogue . My Nan was an old fashioned Nan, cooking veg in season from my Granddad’s garden and foraging for fruit in hedgerows. She passed away over 20 years ago but the tradition of blackberry picking lives on. I remember our trips with fondness; the anticipation, the excitement, the eventual boredom but then the culinary rewards and pride in knowing that I had contributed to the much-enjoyed pie, tart, crumble or jam. Blackberry picking was often a spontaneous affair as there were always rich pickings on the common ground adjacent to Nan’s cottage and as kids, we could do this unsupervised which was always an added incentive. For more serious baking commitments like WI events, village fetes or poorly people, Nan would lead a two or three mile walk to collect the juicy berries from unchartered hedges. Plastic bags stuffed in one pocket, boiled sweets in another , a gang of kids and dogs would all set off milling around my Nan, like characters from an Enid Blyton book. I remember getting back from one blackberry foray to find Nan had a hole in her bag and hadn’t even noticed it wasn’t filling up. Typically, this resulted in roars of laughter and leg pulling for many blackberry seasons to follow. There are many superstitions and legends connected with the popular autumnal berries. In one old proverb they signify haste. A man is so excited to pick the berries that he jumps into the bush and the thorns cause him to lose his eyesight. He regains it, however, upon jumping back out of the bush. Greek mythology contains a legend similar to this. When Bellerophon, a mortal, tries to ride Pegasus to Olympus, he falls and becomes blind and injured upon landing in a thorny bush. This is his punishment for trying to take the power of the gods. Therefore, the fruit also symbolizes arrogance. A little ironically, last year I arrogantly claimed that I was too busy to go blackberrying; I could sense my Nan’s ghostly disbelief and exasperation at such a ridiculous notion. I went. In
fact I went several times. Admittedly, some batches were passed onto Mum to actually create the tart or crumble but I did manage to make a little blackberry vodka as well as experimenting with less traditional recipes for Blackberry Sauce (allegedly delicious with pigeon, though as a vegetarian I can vouch that it’s also good with char-grilled veggies) and Blackberry Schezuan sauce that is also fabulous. All these recipes (and more) were found on the internet. And whilst I appreciate some of the technological advances such as Google, I just wish that ‘Blackberry’ was in not a prime position in the Google listings in all its glory as a darn mobile phone. Blackberies were also used in Christian art to symbolise spiritual neglect or ignorance. Mid-Mediterranean folklore claims Christ’s Crown of Thorns was made out of blackberry runners with the deep red juice of the berries representing Christ’s blood. Another legend suggests that the Devil spits (or even pees) on blackberries on Michaelmas Day (29th September) rending them unsuitable for picking. The tale goes that the Devil was kicked out of Heaven on St Michael’s Feast Day and landed on a blackberry bush. He cursed the bush and this curse is renewed every year on Michaelmas Day, resulting in Lynne has an impressive gardening the belief it is unlucky to pick resume with over 25 years in the Landscaping & Garden Design Industry. blackberries after this date. If indeed you find it a ‘devil’ of a job picking the fruit from Lynne is best known following TV shows: the thorny bushes, you can grow the thornless blackberry in your own garden on trellis Garden Designer & Co-Presenter work, against a wall or in an informal hedgerow. Choose Loch Maree for beautiful Judge double pink flowers which make the shrub attractive as well as productive, or the Presenter & Garden Designer Loch Ness variety that is perfect for the smaller garden and doesn’t need staking. Both varieties fruit well and are disease resistant. And the last words must go to American author and farmer, with a relevant surname, Wendell Berry, who advices, “Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet berries.”
Lynne Lynne Allbutt www.lynneallbutt.com Plants & Gardens Magazine / 9
Top
10 Jobs This Month
September is generally a cooler, gustier month than August and the days are noticeably shorter. While there's not as much to do in the ornamental garden at this time of the year, if you have a fruit or vegetable patch, you'll be busy reaping the rewards of harvest. It's also time to get out and start planting spring-flowering bulbs for next year. Make the most of the remaining warmth while you can!
1.
Divide herbaceous perennials
6.
Keep up with watering of new plants, using rain or grey water if possible
2.
Pick autumn raspberries
3.
Collect and sow seed from perennials and hardy annuals
7.
Start to reduce the frequency of houseplant watering
4.
Dig up remaining potatoes before slug damage spoils them
8.
5.
Net ponds before leaf fall gets underway
Clean out cold frames and greenhouses so that they are ready for use in the autumn
9.
Cover leafy vegetable crops with bird-proof netting
10. Plant spring flowering bulbs
Ann-Marie Powell Ann-Marie Powell is an RHS Chelsea Gold (2010) and Silver Flora (2011) Medalist representing both Green and Black’s and The British Heart Foundation in association with Brewin Dolphin Investments.
Garden SOS, Chelsea Flower Show coverage RHS Hampton Court Flower Show coverage This Morning, Sky High, House of Horrors, Grass Roots Lost Gardens, Real Gardens, Gardeners Gardens
● I’d like to think my gardens are individual to each commission, but I hope they are all rooted in the natural, using texture, tone, and a space’s natural ambience - light and shadow and a garden’s surrounding environment - to create gardens which suit the client’s personality and exceed their expectations.
● I’ve been designing gardens since 1999 and am drawn to the varying aspects of garden design – horticulture, architecture, and project management are all a creative challenge. After travelling abroad in my early twenties, experiencing the most phenomenal landscapes, on my return I was inspired to recreate spaces where people felt completely at home. Designing gardens seemed a natural choice and after retraining as garden designer I worked at wholesale plant nursery Tendercare to build upon my plant knowledge, before setting up my design practice. Every day, and every project brings a new and exciting challenge - I’ve never looked back.
● As part of a garden design television programme, (Lost Gardens for Channel 4), I worked on the redesign of the cloister garden of a Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight. Women were closed to the order and I required special dispensation to be allowed into the site. Once the design had been completed, the challenges of the build were plentiful. The large cloister garden was at the heart of the monastery with no direct access, so machinery (including diggers and bob cats), and great palettes of York stone had to be craned in over the roof. There were several hairy moments and it was an extraordinary experience.
● I’m inspired by every garden I visit – there’s always something to take from a space, but it’s landscape and its surrounding architecture which inspire me most. My office is in deepest Sussex and is an exceptionally beautiful place to work, but in contrast I also love the architecture, shapes, textures and colours of the city and am pleased that so many of our projects are in London. If pushed to pick a favourite garden, it would be a hard choice between Broughton Hall in Oxfordshire, Waltham Place in Berkshire and of course, my own! Plants & Gardens Magazine / 11
●
In a small space, keep the design simple and uncluttered using a restricted planting and materials palette. Elements such as walls and steps can become multifunctional if used in the right proportions, creating places to sit, or even hidden storage areas. Plants should have a long flowering period, interest throughout the seasons, use a garden’s vertical height (think climbers and upright small trees) and at least some plants should be evergreen to provide year round structure.
● I love multi-stemmed trees in small spaces, most especially those that work hard to hold your interest. Spring flower, summer leaf shape, autumn colour and then interesting bark allow you to experience the seasons year round and really connect with your space. Favourites include multi-stemmed Cercis siliquastrum, Amelanchier lamarckii and Cornus kousa. And in town, I wouldn’t be without pleached trees, particularly hornbeam, to provide privacy at a garden’s boundaries.
●
My absolute favourite climber for sun or shade is Trachelospermum jasminoides. We regularly plant whole fence lines with this evergreen, scented white flowering beauty to blur the boundaries of small garden spaces.
●
Grasses and ferns are pretty much bomb proof and this year are about the only plants in my garden that haven’t been chomped at by slugs and snails! My favourites are Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’, Deschampsia cespitosa and the architectural evergreen fern Asplenium scolopendrium.
● I’m very squeamish and rather than gathering them up by torchlight, prefer to use a biological control by applying slug nematodes. With all the rain this year I have topped up my control with Neudorff Sluggo Slug and Snail Killer, which is certified organic, resistant to rain and I’ve found is extremely effective if applied regularly.
· I love so many of the late season performers which provide a burst of colour before the nights draw in, Echinacea, Eupatorium, Dahlia, Pennisetum alopecuroides and Anemone x hydrida in their myriad and varying varieties are all stunning.
● Hardscape / Hard Landscaping for the Garden (2001) ● Urban Gardens (2006) ● Ann Marie-Powell’s Plans for Small Gardens (2012)
www.ann-mariepowell.com
Apples
●Worlds best Apple Pie recipe ●Apple Trees ready for planting ●What to do with bumper crop Plants & Gardens Magazine / 13 3
An old favourite. It was raised by
By far the most popular cooking
Raised in 1964 at East Malling
Mr Hale of Swan Pool near
apple. The reason is easy to see.
Research Station in Kent. The first
Worcester and thought to be a
Heavy crops of extra large fruit,
new cooking apple for decades. A
seedling from Devonshire
with creamy white flesh that is
good choice for people who want
Quarrenden. Introduced in 1874
juicy and full of flavour. But think
large fruit but haven't the space for
and received a First Class
before making it your first choice.
a Bramley’s Seedling. This compact
Certificate from the Royal
The variety is vigorous so it needs
variety pollinates freely, does not
Horticultural Society in 1875. A
plenty of space.
suffer from mildew and is heavy
hardy reliable variety with
cropping. The fruits are pale green,
resistance to mildew. Leave the
It is also a triploid and needs two
striped with orange to red and
fruit on the tree until fully ripe and
other varieties of apples to cross-
they store well. Fruit is sweet and
the flavour and aroma are
pollinate. If you can live with this
juicy and retains its shape. Picking
enhanced. Tip bearing variety.
then the rewards are great. If not
time late September. Pollination
Picking time September.
then Bountiful would be the next
group 3.
Pollination group 3.
choice
Fun facts Apples are ranked No. 1 in antioxidant activity compared with 40 other commercially available fruits and vegetables. That means a serving of apples has more of the antioxidant power you need to fight aging, cancer and heart disease.
A simple slice of heaven
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 15
Some recipes only require a simple touch to wow, this apple pie recipe does just that.
Recipe
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie 1/2 cup unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 cup water 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. Plants & Gardens Magazine / 16
Surplus Apples can often become a burden rather than a blessing. Here we look what you can do with your bumper crops.
The ultimate in comfort foods when you are having a
Who doesn’t love an apple pie? YUMMY! Apple pie is
bad day or you just want to splurge on something that
fairly easy to make and it freezes beautifully. You can
is yummy!
also cut your pies into slices and freeze those separately. That way, you can pull out a slice at noon and it will be ready for dessert after dinner! Check out
Fruit Crisps are essentially dried fruit, but done in such
our amazing Apple Pie recipe, it will blow your mind,
a way that they turn out crispy. They are not fried and
how can such a simple recipe be so amazing?
hence no oil is added. For this reason, fruit crisps are exceptionally healthy, and are an excellent treat for a kids' lunchbox. Crisps that are actually healthy, and contribute towards your fruit intake (or 5-a-day).
Apple Butter is not actually a butter It is basically a jam or jellie with a smooth and creamy consistancy like butter. It is amazing on toast!
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 17
Apples float because 25% of their volume is air.
Apple Salad is great alternative to the regular green salad. These are especially good in the early Autumn when apples are at the peak of flavor! You can mix apples with normal leafy greens or make a delicious
Apple sauce is such as comforting food and a great side dish for just about any meal. When you make your own, it is even better! Applesauce can be used on pork, roast, and even over ice cream.
fruit salad.
Turnovers can be filled with everything from apples Apple cake is one of the great joys in life! Not to be
and blueberries, to meats like chicken, beef and pork,
confused with the Apple Pie. It is one of those dessert
to cheese, raisins, cranberries and sweet potatoes, to
“comfort foods� , and full of apple and cinnamon
wild rabbit and leeks.
goodness.
Kids love them, they make a fantastic treat for the old and young. Plants & Gardens Magazine / 18
How to make a book planter Got any old books sitting in the loft gathering dust? Why not use them for creative purposes? Here we show you how to make your very own book planter for succulents.
1 week later new growth
The night before, rub a very thin layer of white glue against the loose paper binding, just enough to make some of the pages stick. It doesn’t need to be precise. It just helps when starting to cut into the book that the pages stay in one place.
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 19
Select a item which has either a square or circle shape that you can use to draw an outline of. Do not use items too large as this destroys the artistic element of a plant growing through a book. Now using a Stanley knife cut out the shape. From the hardback, then use the cover as a guide.
Using the hard back as a guide cut all the way through until you hit the outer back page. You may need to gently tear some of the pages out to ensure you progress. The harder you cut through the pages the more pages you will be able to pull out.
As you work your way through you will notice that the pages do not look 100% even and there are a lot of imperfections. You need not worry as no one will see the internals. So keep cutting through until you reach the back page.
If your book is very, very deep, you can put a layer of gravel at the bottom of the hole. This will provide some drainage that your succulents would appreciate. Succulents don’t need much water but they do prefer to not have their roots sitting in water so the gravel provides a place for the water to drain that the roots won’t touch. In a regular sized booked you won’t have room for gravel. Don’t worry; the succulents will still live even without the drainage.
Now the fun begins, you have managed to cut your way through the hefty hardback book. It is time to clean up your work surface, and get your the succulent plant of your choice ready for the final stage of this amazing DIY
Line the book with plastic, any type of plastic will do, you must ensure the plastic fits into the hole. The plastic needs to be cut just above the rim, but make sure you do not leave too much plastic showing as this will destroy the beautiful effects.
Now get the book cover and place it over the plant. You will notice the compost is showing, so make sure you add either dry moss/small stones or gravel to cover the compost. Once that is done your book planter is now complete.
In this ‘how to’ we used Sempervivum - Blue Boy which can be bought from all our garden centres for £2.99. As a succulent and relative of the heat-loving cactus, the sempervivum needs lots of sunshine to thrive. It is best to plant in a sunny window.
Rudbeckia Rudbeckia
Cone flower
Asteraceae
60cm (6ft) x 90cm (36in)
Full sun or partial shade
Fully hardy
Moderately fertile, that is moist but well-drained soil.
Apply a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every 3 to 4 years as new growth begins between September and March, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps. Generally disease and pest free.
We currently stock the following varieties of Rudbeckia â—? Little Gold Star â—? Goldstrum
Plants & Gardens Magazine /21
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m
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S
CH OI CE
Allbutts Almanac 2012 Allbutt’s Almanac 2012 is a fun, insightful, and enlightening book. Packed with useful tips for the novice and professional gardener.
●
Really wild recipes including ‘energy soup’
●
The secret behind red daffodils
●
Organic ways to improve health and wealth
●
Which bathroom products will deter slugs
●
How Viagra can boost your ‘flower power’
●
Great gardening gifts
●
Celebrity gardening revelations
●
Horti-scopes for gardeners
●
Simple steps to design your own garden
●
Outdoor inspiration for children & teenagers
●
Lots of money saving ideas
●
Clever ways to ‘guard your garden’
●
Ways to ‘bee’ friendly
●
How to keep pets happy outdoors
YES, I’LL HELP A FAMILY FEED THEMSELVES, BY PLANTING AN ACRE OF LAND WITH DROUGHT-TOLERANT SEEDS DONATE ONLINE AT FARMAFRICA.ORG.UK/DONATE OR CALL 020 7430 0440 Registered charity no. 326901 Food and Agricultural Research Management Ltd is a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales no. 01926828
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 24
Win
Email answers to: competitions@capitalgardens.co.uk
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 25
Approximately ÂŁ34.99
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 26
Written by a , Ann-Marie Powell’s Plans for Small Gardens lists all the gardening ingredients you need to create and maintain your own perfect patch of greenery.
ANN-M ARIE’S BOOK IS O UT N O W!
Packed full of beautiful colour photographs, detailed planting and construction plans and a handy practical section at the back, Plans for Small Gardens is ideal for both novice and expert gardeners. Ensuring that you have all the resources you need, whilst including year by year maintenance guides, Ann-Marie helps your garden to flourish for years to come.
visit for more information & to purchase a copy Plans for Small Gardens is published by Pavilion, an imprint of Anova Books
Plants & Gardens Magazine / 27