Beating bindweed Terrariums The last burst of summer dahlias PLUS: Making sloe gin Impatient gardeners September days out Gardening throughoutnewsDorset Dorset www.countrygardener.co.uk Issue No 200 SEPTEMBER 2022 FREE Saving the summer! How or n a m e nt a l g r a s s e s c ont i nue t o f l o u r i s h i n t h e d r o u g h t And while we are on the weather: How to save seeds this autumn; Long term water wise gardening; The right plant in the right place
■ commissionCompetitive rates ■ No joining or annual fee ■ A Marketing or Marketing and Managed Service ■ photographyProfessional ■ No restrictions on use of your property ■ damagePeace-of-mindcover Our local team is dedicated to managing your property with the same care and attention you would. With tailored services to suit your needs, you can be involved as much or as little as you like, knowing that you and your guests are in safe hands. We are always looking to grow our portfolio, so why not get in touch today? newowners@dorsethideaways.co.uk 01929 448 dorsethideaways.co.uk708 Letting your holiday home has never been easier ● Pansy and Viola 6 packs £2.49 ● Planted containers from £9.99 ● Autumn container plants, grasses etc. from £1.49 ● Cyclamen £1.49 8 for £10 ● Polyanthus packs £2.79 ● Amazing range of planted containers all year round - always fresh, perfect gifts. ● Peat Free Compost, Pots, Feeds & Garden needs always in stock ● Wide range of locally grown shrubs and climbers Stuckton, Fordingbridge SP6 2HG 10am - 4pm www.basketsnblooms.co.ukeveryday OPEN7daysWeekPLACEYOUR PLANTS4 392 Christchurch Rd. West Parley, BH22 8SW 9am - 5pm Mon - Sat ~ 10am - 4pm Sundays Tel: 01425 655150 ‘Blooms’ Cafe Now with outdoor seating area For updates and news join our eMail newsletter on our web site. At West Parley Country Gardener2
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A green-fingered father who has spent more than a decade turning his garden into a tropical jungle managed to store thousands of litres of rainwater to protect his exotic plants when the country was desperate for water. Mike Clifford’s 65ft-long garden behind his bungalow in Poole, is packed with speciesextraordinarynative to South and Central America, Africa, and China, many of which are at risk of dying due to the shortage of rain.
Visit www.rhs.org.uk/glow
Knowle Cottage Knoll Gardens
The avid gardener used all his creativity to allow submersible pumps connected to the butts as well as two hosepipes to soak the plants. If his water reserves last until September, then he will be able to salvage the garden for next summer. He will then dig up and pack most of his micro-jungle away in a back-breaking effort to protect it from the winter cold. He said: ‘The hot weather has affected each species differentlymany of the plants like the gingers have had an early blossom. ‘We would normally expect to them to flower in September just a few weeks before they need to be packed away for winter, so it’s nice to enjoy them a little earlier. But the big, leafed plants don’t like the heat. They are wilting terribly. If you go out there at midday, you can see it happening. I water them quite a lot but I’m trying to cut it back. I’ve got water butts buried four feet beneath the ground. Mike Clifford’s exotic garden in Poole
There are still some lovely gardens to visit in Dorset during September, opening for the National Garden Scheme which raises much needed funds for nursing and caring charities. KNOWLE COTTAGE AT NO 1 SHORTS LANE, BEAMINSTER DT8 3BD opens for the NGS on Saturday 10th September, from11am until 3.30pm. It’s a large 1½ acre garden with a 35 metre long south facing herbaceous border with year-round colour.
www.cherrytreenursery.org.uk
There has been a stark contrast between the 61-year-old’s luscious green plot and his neighbours’ parched lawns.
Tickets for RHS Glow at the RHS Gardens including Rosemoor are now on sale as the UK’s gardening charity prepares to light up its five gardens once again this winter. Giving visitors the chance to experience the RHS Gardens in a whole new light, the twinkling winter walks are unique to each location and highlight some of the season’s most spectacular sights after dark. This year for the first time, visitors will be able to take advantage of lower prices for off-peak bookings from Monday to Thursday. All tickets must be booked in advance, and visitors are advised to book early to secure their preferred date and time. RHS members enjoy early access to booking and discounted ticket prices for Glow. RHS Garden Rosemoor, has selected dates from 17th November to 30th December.
Creative water storage leads to tropical jungle garden
Cherry Tree Nursery is a plant nursery and registered charity, based in Bournemouth, that has provided a haven and a realistic working environment for people with life impacting mental illness. Established in 1990, the charity has supported over 750 people. The charity has gone from strength to strength and the need today is as great, if not greater, than ever. Many of the people who have been referred to the nursery for therapeutic horticulture directly attribute their being alive today to the existence of the charity. There is no time limit on how long volunteers stay and there is no cost to them. Statistics predict that one in four of us will experience a mental health issue in any given year. The charity believes it is possible to live a happy and fulfilled life alongside mental illness. Cherry Tree Nursery is open to the public all year. They stock a wide range of home-grown shrubs and perennials as well as seasonal bedding, heatherstrees, and climbers. They now also allaccessoriesgardeningandhouseplantsgardenstockpots,year round. Fundraising events are held throughout the year. It all helps to raise funds to continue what the nursery does. Please visit the Facebook page or website for current opening times and details of fundraising events. You can also keep in touch with Cherry Tree Nursery on Instagram and Twitter.
A formal rose garden within a circular floral planting is bound on three sides by lavender. A small orchard and vegetables in raised beds is in an adjacent walled area, with the whole garden leading to a small stream, and a bridge, to pasture. A wild flower meadow is being created on slopes and in the orchard.
A LOOK AT NEWS, EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS IN YOUR AREA CUTTINGS
Gardeners cuttings in Dorset
Admission is £5, children free. Homemade teas available, visitors are welcome to bring a picnic, and dogs are allowed on short leads. There is level grass but also a slope not suitable for wheelchairs. The ever-popular KNOLL GARDENS, AT HAMPRESTON, WIMBORNE BH21 7ND, owned by the UK’s grasses expert Neil Lucas, opens for the NGS on Friday 23rd September from 10am until 5pm. A unique, naturalistic and calming garden, renowned for its whispering ornamental grasses, it also surprises and delights with an abundance of show-stopping flowering perennials. A stunning backdrop of trees and shrubs add drama to this wildlife and environmentally-friendly garden. The on site Chelsea gold-winning nursery sells quality plants, with expert advice readily available. Admission is £6.95, children £4.95. Light refreshments are available, and coaches are welcome. There are some slopes and various surfaces including gravel, bark and grass. For more information go to the website at www.knollgardens.co.uk For more gardens opening in Dorset and those in the areas covered by Country Gardener, go to our main feature on page 32
TICKETS ON SALE FOR WINTER ILLUMINATIONS AT RHS GARDENS
Gardens opening for the NGS in Dorset during September
CHERRY TREE NURSERY - ‘CARING FOR PEOPLE, CARING FOR PLANTS’
Country Gardener4 THE RHODODENDRON & AZALEA CENTRE Visitors Welcome Tue-Fri 9.00am-4.00pm all year round Sat 10.00am-4.00pm Apr-May 30% OFF SELECTED PLANTS THROUGHOUT SEPTEMBER WITH THIS ADVERT Koirin, Crossroads Nursery, Woodlands, Wimborne, Verwood Road, Dorset BH21 8LN (Near Verwood) Mail Order Available Tel: 01202 enquiries@azaleacentre.co.uk824629www.azaleacentre.co.uk All day breakfast served from 9am-3pm Monday-Saturday 10am-11.30am Sunday Lunch time specials Sunday lunch choice of 4 meats served 12pm-2.30pm Or just come in for a tea or coffee and a slice of homemade cake Telephone: 01305 759503 Lynch Lane Garden Centre & Restaurant Lynch Lane, Weymouth, DT4 9DN Telephone: 01305 766336 The Gardeners Garden Centre National garden gift vouchers sold and accepted here ourWhynottryrestaurant? THE RETREATGARDENERS QUALITY FOOD + AFFORDABLE PRICE Large traditional family-run nursery Wide selection of trees, shrubs, perennials & fruit bushes 4-acre woodland garden & Tea Rooms Many unusual plants Hours: Mon-Sat 9am-5pm Sun & Bank Holidays 10am-5pm MACPENNY’S NURSERIES BRANSGORE Burley Rd, Bransgore, Nr Christchurch BH23 8DB Tel: 01425 672348 www.macpennys.co.uk Mark Hinsley MSc.Res.Man.(Arb), OND (Arb), F.Arbor.A Arboricultural Consultants Ltd. TREE ADVICE & REPORTING Established 1994 ALL ENQUIRIES WELCOME 01202 876177 enquiries@treeadvice.infowww.treeadvice.info We are a Dorset based company offering a friendly, professional tree consultancy service for all areas of the South. We specialise in: ■ Tree Condition Advice and Surveys ■ Tree Liability Assessments and Management Plans ■ Tree Preservation Order Advice ■ Planning Applications - Advice and Reports (to BS5837 standards) Find inspiration and joy in a garden Your perfect garden awaits: ngs.org.uk ARE YOU STUMPED? We offer a professional, specialist tree & shrub stump removal service, grinding those troublesome stumps to a clean and tidy mulch that can be used around the garden. Domestic & commercial. Fully qualified & insured. www.stumpbusters.co.ukAndrew:07990035310
Stuart Lane, sustainability and carbon manager at University Hospitals Dorset said: “This project builds upon the Trust’s biodiversity and greenspace efforts, creating new micro habitats including a bug hotel. “Specially selected plants also help to improve air quality by removing pollution. The project avoided high embodied carbon choices where possible via the use of natural materials and recycling. “The old patio slabs were reconditioned and reset and much needed wind breaks have been created with wooden batten fencing and shrubs.”
Southwest plant fair at RHS Rosemoor RHS Garden Rosemoor stages its popular Plant Heritage Autumn Plant Fair on Saturday, 10th September from 10am to 3pm. The fair has grown in size and interest since it was first held at Rosemoor more than two decades ago. It’s a chance for visitors to explore a wide variety of rare and unusual trees, shrubs and perennials from local nurseries, many of which are not generally open to the public – all for sale under the Plant Heritage banner. Normal garden admission applies.
RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Torrington EX38 8PH www.countrygardener.co.uk
AUTUMN WORK IN THE GARDEN GETS CLOSER
If
Covid donations help fund new hospital garden
The British PreservationHedgehogSociety and People’s Trust for Endangered Species, who together run nationwide campaign Hedgehog Street, are urging people to connect as many gardens in their area as possible. This will allow local hedgehogs to roam between them in search of food, mates and nesting materials – a small action vital for the species’ longterm survival. The idea is simple: become a ‘Hedgehog Champion’ and connect as many gardens as possible via ‘Hedgehog Highways’ (a 13cm or CD case sized square gap under garden fences or walls), and then submit your entry online. Free dedicated invitations for Hedgehog Champions to share with neighbours explaining the idea, and window posters highlighting Hedgehog Highways, are also available online. The highest number of gardens linked will be crowned ‘Britain’s Biggest Hedgehog Street’, with prizes including special Hedgehog Highway plaques and a hamper packed with hedgehog-themed goodies. The search for ‘Britain’s Biggest Hedgehog Street’ will run over the summer holidays until Saturday 10th September. Throughout the summer, PTES and BHPS will be sharing hints, tips and examples on their social media channels, where the winner will be announced at the end of September.
Look out for the October issue of Country Gardener available from Friday, 30th September Gardening club events and meetings in Dorset September 3RD Bridport & District Gardening Club SUMMER SHOW Details on 01308 301272 5TH Ferndwon & District Horticultural Association ‘MOUNTAIN GORILLAS OF UGANDA & KENYA’ - CHRISTOPHER LEGRAND Details on 07790 089889 7TH Dorchester & District Gardening Club ’THOMAS HARDY’ - SUSAN VINCENT Details on 01305 268523 12TH West Moors Horticultural Society ‘LAND OF THE SOMER PEOPLE’ - MIKE READ Details on 01202 871536 13TH Broadstone Horticultural Society ‘FROM ATLANTA TO NIAGRA VIA DC & NY’ - MIKE WEBBER Details on 01202 695873 Marnhull Garden Club ‘PUTTING THE GARDEN TO BED IN WINTER’ - ROGER HIRONS Details on 07875 151327 Lymington Gardening Club ‘REWILDING - THE USE OF WEEDS IN THE GARDEN’ Details on 01590 672909 The Southill & Radipole Horticultural Society ‘HOSTAS, HESPERANTHAS & HEUCHERAS’ - MARTIN YOUNG Details on 01305 788939 15TH Bridport & District Gardening Club ‘THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DAFFODIL’GWYNNE www.bridportgardeningclub.co.ukDAVIES 19TH St Alban’s Garden Club ‘HENGISTBURY HEAD’ - STEVE ROBERTS 21ST Milford Gardeners’ Club ‘THE GILBERTS’ DAHLIA YEAR’ - NICK GILBERT, GILBERTS’ DAHLIAS, SHERFIELD ENGLISH Details on 01425 612887 27TH West Parley Gardening Club ‘KINGSTON LACY THROUGH THE SEASONS’ - ANDREW HUNT Details on 01202 896711 28TH Uplyme and Lyme Regis Horticultural Society ‘HERBS: A TASTE OF THE UNEXPECTED’ - MARK DIACONO www.ulrhs.wordpress.com ‘Time
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Dorset gardeners have been asked to help hedgehogs by connecting as many gardens as possible and submitting entries online. Two wildlife charities are asking the public to link their gardens this summer in a bid to help hedgehogs and find ‘Britain’s Biggest Hedgehog Street’.
After a hot and dry summer, the autumn months will be a relief for many that have struggled to keep their plants, trees and grass hydrated and alive. However, autumn brings challenges, and there’s still plenty of work facing those who care for the outdoors. Leaves will soon be thick underfoot, and a rake is often woefully inadequate even with hours of backbreaking labour. Making life easier for those with the difficult task of caring for the land is the passion and expertise of SCH Supplies. As a British manufacturer of leaf collectors and sweepers, they are ideally suited to help with the task of leaf removal. When it comes to efficiency and practicality, nothing compares to the Leaf Suction Unit (PSU), which is hungry to clear up large areas of fallen leaves. The PSU features a powerful 9hp Honda engine, which is mounted next to the fan on a two-wheeled chassis. The fan is belt driven and not connected directly to the crankshaft, adding longevity to the engine’s lifespan. The green waste passing through the fan is chopped up and propelled into the trailer, significantly increasing the storage density, allowing for fewer empties per day, and saving a great deal of time and cost in labour. For a free 80 page brochure featuring all the designs and variations, contact SCH on 01473 328272, email sales@schsupplies.co.uk, or www.schsupplies.co.uk Off’ set to return your gardening club or association is back in full swing after the restrictions of the past couple of years be sure to let Country Gardener know. Send your club meetings and details to timeoff@countrygardner.co.uk
CUTTINGS
Search for ‘Britain’s biggest Hedgehog Street’ begins
A new garden has opened at Poole Hospital thanks to Covid-19 donations. A courtyard at Poole Hospital has been transformed into a modern green space for staff, patients and visitors to enjoy as part of University Hospitals Dorset’s sustainability strategy. The new ‘Dolphin Garden’ was funded by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Charity with donations received during the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of this, an area outside the Dolphin Restaurant at Poole Hospital was identified as a space which could serve as a much-needed space for staff to have a break while also helping the trust meet other Green Plan objectives.
There are of course plants which just love the sun. Hibiscus is a perennial which fills the summer garden with stunning, dinner plate-size blooms. Purple coneflower is a plant which will give your garden a burst of colour. Sunflowers of course are the sunniest flower of all, and which love full sun. They need at least six hours of direct sun a day to create those big yellow blooms they’re known for. Both verbena and chocolate cosmos are tender perennials so will benefit from some protection but are generally sun lovers. Of course, the wide varieties of dahlias on the market all love the sun.
The best sandy soil amendments are ones that increase the ability of the sandy soil to retain water and increase the nutrients in the soil as well. Amending sandy soil with well-rotted manure or compost) will help to improve the soil the Hydrangeasfastest.prefer well-draining, loam and sandy-loam soils. However, they can tolerate clay soil or sandy soil if it is amended with compost, peat moss, or other organic material. Hydrangeas cannot survive in soils with a pH below 5.0 or above 8.0 Sandy soils have high proportion of sand and little clay. Also known as light soils, these soils drain quickly after rain or watering, are easy to cultivate and work. They warm up more quickly in spring than clay soils. But on the downside, they dry out quickly and are low in plant nutrients, which are quickly washed out by rain. Lavender is hard not to love. Originating in the dry, rocky hills of the Mediterranean basin, it is not only tolerant of sandy soil, but it also actually requires the excellent drainage provided by sandy soils. Artemisia - these low-growing perennials have the grey foliage that characterizes many of the most drought tolerant plants. The leaves are finely cut and incredibly soft to the touch; when you brush up against them a delicious fragrance is released. Rosemary is another familiar herb that thrives in dry, sandy soil. It never needs water once established and blooms in late winter when most other plants are still waking up from dormancy.
Get to grips with sandy soil
Plants for a shady glade Plants which love the shade are increasing both popular and in demand. The list includes Stinking iris (Iris foetidissima), snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), winter aconites, bellflowers, foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) and Granny’s bonnet.
This year more than ever before the fact that we should think of plants like we think of people seem particularly Putrelevant.people in the wrong place and they look miserable and often succumb to stress and illness. Every garden however small, has its own complex microclimates whether its damp, shady or dry. Then in turn there’s the vagaries of the soil – sandy perhaps, heavy clay. Add to this soil depth and structure, location exposure to or from shelter, the impact of drying winds, exposure to sunshine. The list of relevant conditions and circumstances which affect every garden is huge. Yet how often do we take these conditions into account. We buy a plant, we think it will look nice here, or perhaps there and in its goes. Finding the right plant for each part of your garden is essential and is perhaps the one thing which gardeners don’t take into proper account. Mapping the path of the sun across your garden
The pH of your soil dictates what will do well for you. Certain plants thrive with their roots in acid soil while others love alkaline conditions. You cannot really understand what to plant if you don’t know how your soil is going to Makereact.the most of a suntrap
Choose the right plant for planttranslatingsoilEveryrighttheplacegardenhasacomplexrangeofplanting,andweatherconditionsallofwhichneedintoaunderstandingofwheretothingsproperly Lavender thrives in sandy soil Forsythias grow well in heavier soil
Artemisia - low growing lovers of sandy soil
the most versatile of ornamental grasses, switchgrass thrives in moist, dry, or clay soil—and even in part shade. It offers wispy seedheads that sway gracefully in the Thebreeze.message is clear. The wonder of plants is their uniqueness and individuality. Given the right chance to succeed they will thrive but it comes down to a knowledge of where they should go and how they should be treated. Again, the right plant in the right place.
Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima) loves the shade Country Gardener
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Tame your heavy clay soil with the right plants Clay soil is heavy to dig and can bake in summer but lots of plants love it. Many shrubs grow well on clay soils, especially the popular deciduous flowering shrubs: weigela,philadelphus,deutzia,forsythia and ribes for example. The level of nutrients in the soil means that supplementary feeding is rarely required for good flowering and performance. Some of the best evergreens for clay soils are cotoneaster, escallonia, euonymus, gaultheria, mahonia, pyracantha and vinca. These varieties will help provide year-round structure and form to your borders even on the heaviest of Amongsoils.
Pachysandra terminalis is a shade-loving perennial that can cope with dry shade, making it useful for creating a dense, evergreen carpet beneath trees and shrubs. It likes an acid soil, so is often paired with acid-loving rhododendrons.
See if you can track the sun’s path across your garden at different times of the day and the year. Learn where the sunshine most affects it. See what areas are always in shade and never in sunlight. It will help you when it comes to Testplanting.your soil
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1. Start by picking early in the day, a good practice for any cut flower.
DAHLIAS HAVE DESERVEDLY BECOME OUR MOST POPULAR CUT FLOWERS BUT WHETHER IN THE BORDER OR IN A VASE THEY SHOULD BE READY TO PUT ON A SHOW STOPPING END TO THE SEASON
2. In order to maximise their relatively short three to four days life, warm or hot tap water is ideal. Dropping them in a vase of hot water and letting it cool to room temperature can extend their vase life up to two or three days.
Three top tips for cut dahlias
Some old gardens around the country often have varieties that have been in the borders for many decades. There is a beautiful old ruby-red variety with smallish flowers that seems very robust and is often seen in old gardens and farm gardens in the south and west in mild areas. This variety, and many others, are obviously left outdoors in the ground from year to year and survive without frost damage to the tubers. These plants will flower later but their show will go on into autumn when they are most useful and the secret is to try and plan that last dramatic burst of late summer, early autumn colour. Dahlias must have full sunshine and reasonably good shelter to increase temperature levels.
• Dahlias became hugely popular in the 19th century when hybridisation created many new forms including a true double flower.
If you want to collect seeds from your dahlias then wait until the seed heads become nice and brown and crispy then collect them on a dry day and store them somewhere cool and dry in paper bags or envelopes until next spring. They may not turn out exactly like their parents but that’s half the fun of sowing seed.
It’s important to grow single flowers as well these dramatic blooms. You can choose short varieties for pots and containers or bedding schemes or tall plants to borders and cut flowers. Dahlias come in most colours except blue. There are shades of red, orange, yellow, pink and white. Their foliage is attractive too with strong stems and broad green or even chocolatey colouring. It’s not just the open flowers that are beautiful. Dahlia buds are something special too. They are easy to grow but watch out for earwigs which like to hide inside the folded petals. How many times you wait for a lovely big fat bud to open only to find that all the tips of the petals have been nibbled by earwigs. Setting earwig traps is the only way to prevent your beautiful blooms being ruined. Did you know that you can grow dahlias from seed?
to
• By 1936 there were some14,000 recognised dahlia cultivars. To date this number has risen to over 57,000- all developed from two or three species brought in from Mexico.
Dahlias create a show and cut flower harvest like no other plant The more they are cut for the vase the more buds they produce, and no other flower gives as much glamorous clout. They have deservedly become the most popular summer and autumn cut flower enjoying a revival that has not been seen since they first sent Georgian Britain into a craze when they arrived from Mexico. These exotic looking flowers would steal the show in any garden, and you will love them in yours. A single plant may produce up to 100 blooms. The reasons for this devotion to the dahlia are obvious; it’s the sheer range of sizes and colours unmatched in the world of garden flowers. Equally important is the time of flowering. Continuously from July to the first frosts, dahlias provide colour when so many flowers are past their best. Hence the appeal of a bonanza full colour finish to summer. A very accommodating plant, it does well even in the hottest, dry summers. It likes good soil but will grow almost Itanywhere.relishessunshine but can still do well in partial shade. On their own, in the herbaceous border or even patio containers for dwarf varieties, they are ideal. Dahlias are also excellent for providing cut flowers.
It’s grand finale time!
• Dahlias originated from central and Southern America and were cultivated by the Aztecs who used parts of the plants for culinary and medical purposes.
• The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London in 1851 was paramount in showing off the dahlia to all classes of society. The rise of the exhibition dahlia started and the National Dahlia Society was formed.
seeds for next year Country Gardener8
There are more than 57,000 different dahlias to choose from so if you prefer flowers with a more open centre for bees and butterflies then there are plenty of those to choose from too. Easy to propagate from tubers or by cuttings, as well as from seeds, dahlias became widespread in gardens. There are thousands of varieties, but the best thing is to find a colour and shape that suits. Height is important because it should match the other plants in the area where the dahlias are to be grown. While some people like to have lots of kinds and colours, it is probably best to choose just a couple of varieties and increase plant numbers by dividing the tubers in spring or taking cuttings in early summer.
3. Dahlia buds do not open after cutting. Dahlias should be harvested when they are about three quarters open and the back petals are not yet wilting. forget collect
• The name dahlia is not Mexican or Aztec but Swedish, named after the botanist Andreas Dahl.
Don’t
Never put bindweed roots in a compost bin as they will survive and can be spread around the garden when you use the compost. The roots can be safely composted in stout black plastic sacks (a good use for old compost bags) by folding over the top of the bag to keep out light and leaving for at least a year. Bindweed can be disposed of in your garden waste collection or taken to your council recycling centre. This is the time of year when to our horror we find bindweed in our gardens which has yet again succeeded in smothering plants. We asked RHS horticultural advisor Steve Nichols to share his advice on controlling it without the use of chemicals
If you can wait 12-18 months before planting, the easiest way to kill all perennial weeds is to cover the soil with something that excludes all light. Plants need light in order to make food, so in the dark, even the toughest weeds will succumb in time. Use a material such as weed control fabric, black polythene or old carpet. It’s important to weigh down or bury the edges to keep out all light.
DISPOSING OF BINDWEED ROOTS
BINDWEEDBEATING www.countrygardener.co.uk 9
I should start with a bit of an admission. I think it is virtually impossible not to wander round any garden of reasonable size at this time of year and not see bindweed causing Wedamage.allstart with high hopes of eradicating it in spring. We see it starting to grow and attack it with new season enthusiasm. Stifling it ‘at birth’ is one way and pulling out the early season appearance of the weed. But this is a hugely aggressive and persistent weed. When the workload in the garden builds in late spring and summer it is human nature to have other priorities, and this is when suddenly the bindweed starts to win the battle and before long you’ll find it strangling plants and getting dominant.
THE LONG TERM APPROACH
In beds and borders, digging out bindweed roots is the only way to tackle this problematic weed. Winter to early spring is a good time to get on top of it, before plants start growing. Every piece of root left in the soil will grow into a new plant, so remove every last bit wherever possible. Use a fork to avoid breaking up the root. Where bindweed has grown through the root systems of established plants, loosen the soil on each side of the roots to carefully pull out entire pieces.
WHY IS BINDWEED A PROBLEM?
Bindweed is long-lived and hard to get rid of, especially when it’s growing amongst garden plants, because the fast-growing root system grows right through the roots of other plants. Hedge bindweed is a particular nuisance, being fast-growing with roots that can grow well over a metre a year and stems that can reach several metres high. The creamy-white roots are brittle and break easily, and even the smallest piece left in the ground will develop into a new plant. Field bindweed is less vigorous, but the same issues apply with the brittle roots and twining stems.
DIG AND DIG DEEP
Bindweeds are problematic for a number of reasons. Bindweed, which also goes by the names of ‘Wild Morning Glory’ and ‘Creeping Jenny’, spreads mainly from sections of underground stem (rhizome) or root. The roots may penetrate up to five metres deep or more and spread rapidly, but most growth is from white, shallow, fleshy underground stems. Established colonies can spread outwards by three metres or more in a single season. Even very small sections can produce shoot growth and can unwittingly be brought into gardens hidden among plant roots and in soils or manures. Field bindweed produces seeds freely and they can remain viable in the soil for several years. As with many wild plants, bindweed has a medicinal history. The Greek physician Dioscorides prescribed it to heal wounds and stop internal bleeding. Medieval herbalism cited it as a laxative, as treatment for spider bites, to delay menstruation, as a brain tonic to promote intellect and as a tranquilliser to help with insomnia, confusion, fits, nervous disorders, blood impurity and venereal disease. So there are no easy wins as bindweed grows so intimately with other plants that it is almost impossible to eradicate it without causing collateral damage. I do not believe in using any sort of chemical approach even in the worst cases of bindweed in a garden. I’ll take hard work over chemicals and the other damage they cause any day.
Herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses that are full of bindweed can be lifted and divided whilst dormant and the bindweed removed. In summer, if it’s not possible to dig up roots, hoe, cut or pull off shoots to weaken growth.
The problem is that attacking the bindweed in spring isn’t going to work unless you go deep in, getting all the root out. Often gently lifting the weed will split the root and you are making things worse. Bindweed is a perennial weed that can become a persistent problem throughout the gardening year and beyond. There are two types: hedge bindweed and field bindweed. The most familiar and problematic bindweed is hedge bindweed, Calystegia sepium, which is fast-growing with slender, twining stems and large white trumpet flowers. It can grow to form a large mass of foliage, choking garden plants, reducing their growth or killing smaller plants entirely. Field bindweed, Convulvulus arvensis, bears smaller pink or white trumpet flowers and is smaller and less vigorous overall, although still perennial and problematic, especially on bare soil.
DIVERTING THE WEED Where bindweed is growing among garden plants, put canes in the ground for the bindweed to twine up. This at least takes the damage away from much loved plants. GET HEAVYHANDED WITH MULCH Bindweed likes sunshine, so mulch can discourage it.
1. Fit more water butts Simply collect as much water as you can. Rainwater seems to suit plants so much better than tap water so fit water butts to as many downpipes as possible. Organise this now so that when spring and summer comes round you have a useable supply of water to start the season with.
5. Tackle your soil long term Add lots and lots of organic matter so it can better hold on to moisture in dry spells. Lay a five cms covering on the damp early in spring to conserve moisture and keep down weeds.
Hardy geraniums are low-maintenance, long-flowering perennials that can flower for months from spring, and need very little care. They thrive in sun or partial shade and are good for the front of the border. Cut back after flowering to encourage a second flush.
Agapanthus ‘Silver Baby’
6. Add shade If our summers are to be this hot then our gardens need more shade so start planning now for more trees and shrubs gathered together in planting regimes that will provide cool and restful areas away from the sun in the years ahead.
Turn to more drought tolerant plants
Sea Hollies Beautiful and long-lasting, sea hollies such as Erygnium x zabelii have tough, silvery leaves that never suffer in drought. Many species come from mountainous regions, where their long tap roots venture deep into the soil in search of water. larger containers water butts
Choose
3. Avoid watering the lawn It may be that lawns will start to be less important in our gardens in the coming years. They can be vast areas of drought affected parts of the garden. As tempting as it might be, don’t water the lawn. It will recover. This summer more than most it may take a few weeks but the amount of water you can sensibly use on a lawn will not make much difference, so the answer is to be patient.
It stands to reason we should all use water wisely. Weeks without rain in this most dramatic of summers has led many gardeners to accept the inevitable – that their gardens have suffered and will continue to suffer and there has been permanent damage. The rain which finally came for much of the country mid-August, was too late for many plants. The biggest worry has been the availability of plants which need it most, the newly planted shrubs and trees, the plants in pots and the fruit and vegetables which run to seed or shrivel up without the right use of moisture. We mustn’t waste water on trees and plants which don’t need it – such as well established trees and shrubs but even plants which come under the ‘drought tolerant’ description will need to be watered during their first season to give their roots any chance of survival. Long term solutions for the years to come:
Drought-tolerant plants, usually native to dry regions such as the Mediterranean, have evolved to thrive in dry soils with little rainfall. With climate change and extreme weather events such as drought increasingly likely in the UK, growing droughttolerant plants means you can still have an attractive garden during a hosepipe ban.
4. Choose larger containers They look more dramatic and dry out more slowly. Small pots are very labour intensive.
This scorching summer perhaps more than any other has put our watering techniques to the test and has suggested we need longer term solutions for the garden if the recent heat is to become the norm
Agapanthus is a fantastic drought-tolerant genus of plants, hailing from South Africa. There’s a variety of types to choose from, with both deciduous and evergreen agapanthus, with flower colours ranging from darkest purple-blue to white.
Fit more
7. Use more decorative mulches around the garden Pebbles and stones added in more areas of the garden specially around specimen plants means things won’t dry out so quickly.
8. When you do water use common sense Never water in the heat of the day when the water just evaporates and does little to help the plants. Wait until the cool of the evening or even before the temperatures rise in the mornings.
Sedums Sedums are drought-resistant succulents that produce domes of starry pink, ruby or white flowers in late summer and autumn. Taller sedums may flop, but many of the smaller varieties have glaucous foliage which turns a rich purple when water is scarce.
Look into irrigation systems Never water in the heat of the day Country Gardener10
Are you water wise?
Agapanthus ‘Silver Baby’ is a compact variety reaching 60cm in height, so is ideal for the front of the border or a pot. It has white flowers that have just a hint of blue and combines well with ornamental grasses such as Nassella tenuissima. It’s a hardy, deciduous variety. Geums Geums are hardy perennials that flower from May to August –cut them back after flowering and they should reward you with another flush later in the season. Geums look especially good when growing with contrasting colours such as blue flowers and lime green leaves. Grow in sun or part shade.
2. Investigate garden irrigation systems Technology has moved ahead significantly over the last few years and there are now some wonderfully efficient systems on the market. At a very basic level they will mean you don’t have to lug hosepipes and cans all over the garden. The other huge benefit is they are hugely efficient with watering as they deliver the water directly to where it is needed. Perforated pipes close to the ground and covered with bark mulch will ensure that every drop of water is used.
Q. MY LAWN IS A MESS AND I’D LIKE TO MOW IT JUST TO TIDY IT UP
A. Mowing your lawn during hot weather can push it past its tolerance for physical and environmental stress. Mowing your lawn less often and removing less grass when you cut reduces the stress on your lawn and makes heat damage less likely. Fertilising your lawn with nitrogen-based fertilisers during hot weather promotes the growth of green foliage over roots and makes your lawn less tolerant of heat. By cutting your lawn too short you remove the shade that the taller blades provide, which in turn helps retain soil and blade moisture.
Burnt
A. Many plants will inevitably suffer from ill effects in a heatwave. While some plants such as succulents are equipped with handling heat by conserving water in their fleshy leaves, most do not have this luxury. If you have a plant that’s become dry and crispy, don’t throw it away - because there is a way to possibly rescue it. Put it into a bucket of water, see the bubbles coming out, and you wait until all the bubbles have gone and then lift it out and that plant is properly hydrated. You leave that to stand, make sure it doesn’t dry out and it should come back to normal again.
A. If the plant is short of water, try and avoid the foliage as that can cause leaf burn, but there is nothing wrong with carefully watering to the soil and root system, to alleviate heat stress. Plants normally consist of 80 percent water, and the only means of drawing up water and nutrients from the soil is through the roots, meaning proper watering is essential in ensuring they survive. Plants can often suffer during hot weather and making sure they get enough water is vital. Overwatering in hot weather is a real issue and is a common error made by many.
Q. DO PLANTS EXPOSED TO HEAT IMPROVE WITH FERTILISERS?
Q. MY HYDRANGEAS HAVE REALLY SUFFERED THIS SUMMER AND NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP THEM
Q. CAN SCORCHED LEAVES RECOVER?
Q. HOW DO YOU SAVE SUNBURNED GARDEN PLANTS?
A. For plants already suffering, use a sunshade to restrict their exposure to UV light. Slowly give them more time each day with the sunshade removed until they are toughened up. This process can take about two weeks, at which time your plant should be ready for the sun.
A. Mulch and wind protection will certainly become more important in gardens. Beside the intensity of the heat during a heatwave, the accompanying hot winds remove traces of moisture in a flash. In order to retain it, you need a layer of mulch between 20mm and 75mm thick, depending on the material. Organic mulches will achieve good levels of moisture retention and mulches need to be applied generously to retain moisture efficiently. Plants that are situated in garden beds may regularly in hot summers benefit from a temporary shade structure. A beach umbrella is perfect for the job. There are all sorts of shade structures that are commercially available, or you can also get some shade cloth and tomato stakes and make your own.
A. It is certainly true that nutrients rather than fertilisers will help your plants survive the hotter, drier months as the nitrogen in fertilisers can burn a heat stressed plant’s roots and force it to grow rather than repair itself. A weekly application a seaweed solution which acts like a multivitamin, will provide essential natural compounds and trace elements for resilience and growth, particularly root growth which is vital for water uptake.
A. Plants which are moved too quickly from a greenhouse to the outside can be at risk. This is because while plants are inside a greenhouse, they are exposed to high levels of filtered or artificial light, so their leaves get used to absorbing light rays at this wavelength. But, if they are suddenly moved outside during an extremely sunny spell, their leaves won’t be prepared for the extra UV rays.
Our Q&A special looks at how the extreme heat this summer has been affecting our plants and gardens and forcing us to start to think of different ways to cope longer term with high temperatures out gardens!
A. You can protect vulnerable and young plants from direct sunlight and dry winds with shade cloths. Choose a high shade factor for young and heat-sensitive plants and a low factor for hardier, older plants. Also, don’t lay the cloths on or too close to your plants to allow good aeration and light, and secure tightly on one side or above the plants depending on your garden’s perspective to provide protection from the harsh midday or afternoon sun. A cost-effective shade cloth option is an old cotton bedsheet.
www.countrygardener.co.uk 11
Q. IF THE GREENHOUSE IS TOO HOT WILL MOVING PLANTS OUTSIDE DAMAGE THEM?
Q. WHAT IS THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO WATER VEGETABLES AND FRUIT DURING EXCESSIVE HOT WEATHER?
Q. WHAT CAN GARDENERS DO DIFFERENTLY IF HOT SUMMERS LIKE THIS ARE TO BECOME THE NORM?
Q. MANY OF MY HOUSEPLANTS ARE DRY AND CRISPY AND LOOK TO BE DYING
Q. DOES COVERING PLANTS WITH SHADE CLOTHS HELP?
It’s the latter part of the day where you will see wilting and scorching of plants occur, making them look brown, burnt, shrivelled and dead on the ends in the days following a heatwave. Easterly or morning sun is tame in comparison. It is likely that in the future delicate flowers including roses and poppies will have to be swapped for plants such as salvias and dahlias, which are more resistant to heat.
A. Once leaf scorch has occurred, there is no cure. The leaves that have already turned brown will not recover. Scorched leaves normally indicate water is being lost from the leaves faster than it is being replaced. This usually happens to plants situated in positions that catch the sun all day, or those in exposed sites. Brown patches following a hot spell can also indicate high temperature damage. If you water properly, the rest of the plant should survive. Deep watering is the best option– a slow, deep soaking of the soil at the roots.
A. Hydrangeas have a fibrous and reasonably shallow root system and require consistently moist soil to thrive. If your hydrangea is wilting or drooping then this is most commonly a sign of stress due to drought or lack of moisture. The soil is draining too quickly without retaining moisture, tree roots that compete with the hydrangea for water/ intercept rainfall, too much sun or too much nitrogen fertiliser.
What will stop parrot feather from invading a pond. Andrew Osborne Exeter Parrot’s-feather Myriophyllum aquaticum remains a controversial non-native invasive plant. It produces long stems and floating mats of attractive feathery leaves. It can root from small stem fragments and readily escapes into the wild, where its vigorous growth allows it to become dominant in ponds, lakes, reservoirs, ditches and canals. It grows to such an extent that it can choke water bodies and out-compete native vegetation, blocking light and altering patterns of flow. It is mainly found in southern England but is spreading in the wild, possibly assisted by our warmer Regularwinters. cutting will help to weaken the plant. In your pond you can thin using a rake. Cut material must be removed from the water and all fragments need to be removed to prevent regrowth.
I have an old and much-loved rhododendron which needs moving as we plan some landscaping work. What are the chances of it being able to be moved successfully?
The spots can look like water spots on the petals, however, the spots are actually caused by the plants’ reaction to the invasion of the fungus Botrytis cinerea, at the spot where the petal has been damp. Other times, the flowers simply ball and fail to open, or result in a mess of brown petals. The cause, as with so many of the Botrytis infections, is to do with water. The flowers and leaves get wet: the ground is wet, therefore the air is generally humid: and the rose does not have much in the way of air circulation. It’s important to remove infected flowers as soon as you see them. If you don’t remove them, the mould will spread to the stem of the flower, and if you are very unlucky, it will continue to spread downwards.
Is there a simple explanation why so many of my new plants bought at great expense in my new garden are dying. I don’t think I have been doing anything wrong – certainly nothing differently but it has been a tale of woe. I need some encouragement that it’s not all me.
Garden advice September
Frieda Rankin Martock
Eric Patterson Poole This has been an exceptional spring and summer and there is a common theme here which has affected many gardens. A dry hot sunny spring, and these significantly record-breaking summer temperatures is most likely to be the cause. New plants are very vulnerable to drying out in hot weather and matters are compounded if they don’t have the right soil (typically moist but well drained) regular watering and shelter. It may not be too late for some plants. Try applying a mulch. Repot sick plants into John Innes rather than normal compost. Make sure the pots are not over watered during the winter and you may be able to salvage some of the plants.
Henry Robinson Cullompton
Country Gardener12
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
The extremely hot weather over the past few weeks has been the cause of a number of reader problems. A busy gardening season has also brought a record number of queries from readers which we are happy to advise on. If you need advice on any gardening problem or concern the write to us at Country Gardener, Mount House, Halse, Taunton TA4 3AD or email editorial@countrygardener.co.uk
Emma Bracken Taunton They have been a victim of the hot weather I am afraid. The most likely thing is that the extreme heat at various stages of the summer caused the cherries to colour up prematurely when they were not fully developed. As a result, they looked ready for picking and they were in fact a long way from being ripe.
My compost bin is proving very hard work to turn, and I think this year the compost won’t be up to standard. Is a revolving bin the answer? If nothing else I should be able to turn it. Mark Henderson Torquay Gardeners have different views about revolving bins and those with most experience in growing compost don’t rate them. You are right that getting in and turning compost is very hard work. There are however tricks to make it all easier. Make sure the compost bin stands on soil. Most importantly, mix the material well before adding it. Don’t just heap piles of material on top of each other. Finally keep the material moist then you should be able to get everything rotting down faster without needing to turn it.
What is causing pink spots on my roses? I haven’t noticed them before.
Most rhododendrons, even large ones, can be moved using proper care. Large leaved rhododendrons have shallow fibrous root systems and should be dug with as large a root ball as possible. The dug root ball will likely not need to be too deep to get most of the roots, but it should be wide. Take your time in digging the plant so you can feel or see where the roots are and dig a root ball to get as many roots as possible. The planting hole should be prepared before you dig the plant you are moving when possible. It is best to plant your newly dug rhododendrons right away, but if you are not able to do so, the plants can be heeled in with a good mulch, such as pine bark soil conditioner, or even potted up in very large containers using good potting medium, such as the pine bark soil conditioner. Careful attention to watering will be required for plants heeled in or potted up, and for the plants once they are transplanted. Why has my early crop of cherries tasted so bitter this year? It was a great disappointment to pick them and then taste them.
www.countrygardener.co.uk 13 Subscribing is simple. Just fill in the form below and include your cheque for £20. SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIBE NOW ..and treat yourself to a gardening delight Ten issues throughout next year Just £20 for a respected, knowledgeable and inspirational gardening magazine P P I would like to subscribe to Country Gardener for the next ten issues for £20: This is a subscription just for me * This is a gift (send next available issue) * Please choose your region by ticking the box: Cotswolds * Devon * Dorset * Somerset * Hampshire * Complete this form and include a cheque for £20 made out to Alro Publishing Ltd and send to: Magazine Subscriptions, Country Gardener, Mount House, Halse, Taunton, Somerset TA4 3AD. Remember to tell us which one of the five editions you would like to receive. Your details: Title Forename Surname TelPostcodeAddressNo Details of gift recipient: Title Forename Surname TelPostcodeAddressNo Hassle free and delivered to your door every month The subscription costs just £20 and guarantees a 10 times a year magazine packed with information , gardening advice, local events. You can select from one of our five editions of the magazine which is relevant to where you live. The dahliasPLUS: sloegardenersgin September days outthroughout OPEN Tues-Sat: 9am 4.30pm ALSO MONDAYS LOVERS On A423 Farnborough, Tel: 01295Autumn Gardening www.farnboroughgardencentre.co.ukfocusses garden Cotswolds www.countrygardener.co.uk Issue 189 SEPTEMBER 2022 FREE Saving the summer! How ornamental grasses continue to flourish n the drought And while we are on the weather: How to save seeds this autumn; Long term water wise gardening; The right plant in the right place P
When should I prune my French lavender plants.? Jackie Sharpe Topsham Ideally at the end of winter but some tidying up may be necessary in May. Stoechas lavenders, also known as French or Spanish lavenders, are more and more widely available but they are less hardy than English lavender (Lavandula angustifola) and they don’t have as long lifespans. In terms of pruning, there is one core rule to follow: Only ever prune growth that still bears leaves. You should never cut into the wood of the plant (or it won’t grow back) and it’s important not to take too much away when cutting. Use secateurs when pruning as these will offer a good, clean cut.
I was given a pot of lovely golden lilies as an anniversary present and while they have been a picture this summer I wonder if they will come again next year and am not sure if they are hardy and I can leave them outside all winter? May Atkinson Clevedon Ideally keep containers in a cool but frost-free, airy place with strong light, such as a well-ventilated cold greenhouse or frame. In Somerset where you are lilies will be fully hardy and can be left outside in larger containers year-round. If there is any danger of frost, simply move your potted lily plants indoors until it has passed.
Why are my onions bolting so early this year? Cameron Preece Chichester Red onions have a genetic tendency to bolt more so than white onions when they suffer a check to their growth caused by a dry or a hot spell so this may be another effect of the dramatic weather. The higher temperatures can cause the bulbs to be over stimulated and produce flowers rather than put energy and growth into the bulbs. My windbreak conifer hedge is going brown from the roots. Is this a sign I need to remove it and start again? I would be very reluctant to do that. Annie Laws Portsmouth Most conifers that turn brown are suffering from an attack of cypress aphid which tend to attack closely clipped hedges. They suck sap from the bark of a wide range of spruce trees (Picea species) and may form dense colonies several feet across on the trunk. The aphid is active from April until the autumn with populations reaching a peak in late May and June. The trunk and branches can become heavily coated with honeydew and sooty mould. This often causes a gradual drying up and browning of the foliage. Don’t give up on the hedging yet. It may be possible to reverse the damage depending on how long the roots have been affected. Organic sprays, such as natural pyrethrum are the best solution.
4. In the soil, make a hole big enough for the roots of the plants to rest.
6. Position the plants in the thin layer of soil and add the second layer of soil around the plants. Press somewhat firmly – the new soil level should be about the same level as the soil of the plant’s original root ball.
TREASURES IN A BOTTLE
Terrariums are a wonderful way to bring greenery into your home. Making them is also a great way to enjoy growing things if you don’t have an outdoor space or when there is less to do in the garden. You don’t need to be an experienced gardener to make a terrarium either- all you need is enthusiasm and a glass
DO YOU HAVE TO WATER
DO TERRARIUMS NEED TO BE AIRTIGHT?
Terrariums can create a sense of peace and calm
Terrariums are self-nourishing, which is why they require little maintenance, if sealed.
1. Buy a special terrarium case to hold your garden or make one of your own out of a bottle, fish tank, fish bowl or vase.
The history of scientific discoveries is full of experiments that had taken another path from the planned route. Terrariums emerged from such an ‘accident’. The story of the modern terrarium goes back to a 19th century experiment by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, a doctor who also studied botany and entomology. Ward’s interest stemmed from a journey to Jamaica as a 13-year-old boy, when he fell in love with the exotic plant life. He developed a large collection of specimens, but he was disappointed to find that many species – particularly the ferns and mosses –died in his east London garden, due to the air pollution in the city. Britain was, after all, in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, which brought coal, ash and other toxic chemicals into contact with his precious plants. The solution came in 1829 from one of Ward’s experiments. He had been trying to hatch the chrysalis of a sphinx moth, buried in some moist mould within a covered bottle. The water, he noticed, would evaporate and then condense on the side, before returning to the mould – seemingly recreating the basic flow of the Earth’s weather systems. After a few days he found a tiny fern had begun to grow in the sealed ecosystem. The glass microcosm provided the perfect way to control air quality and humidity, Ward realised, allowing species to flourish that had previously withered. In 1842, he published a book on the subject, entitled ‘On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases’.
Coir or peat moss works best in terrariums Country Gardener
5. Remove the plant from its container – you may need to lightly massage the roots to loosen the roots from the soil.
14
DO TERRARIUMS NEED AIR? Yes, but plants in airtight, or closed terrariums, recycle air. During the day, sunlight promotes the growth of sugars during the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide into oxygen, releasing it into the Interrarium.aclosed terrarium, you may want to remove the lid to let fresh air into the terrarium, but a closed terrarium will not damage the plants.
2. Then fill the bottom of your container with half the amount of the layer of soil you plan to use. You may lay rocks as your first layer in the terrarium, but this is up to personal preference.
Thecontainer.resurgence today of theses gardens in glass may have less to do with their photogenic properties than the sense of peace and calm that they provide, with many finding that the creation and maintenance of these miniature worlds offer a salve to the pressure and uncertainty of modern life. Terrariums are great for people living in small spaces or for those who just love to garden. They are lowmaintenance, space-saving and simply beautiful, making them great additions to any home or business. Being easy to care for is one of the biggest perks of having terrariums, but questions can arise about the essentials of terrariums. They are indoor gardens in a sealed container. The plants and the soil in the terrarium release water vapour –essentially recycling water. The vapour is then collected onto the walls of the vessel and trickles down to the soil.
WHAT TYPE OF SOIL WORKS BEST IN TERRARIUMS? Coco – coir, peat moss or houseplant soil works with most plants, besides succulents which prefer a well-drained inorganic medium. Some people choose to make their own soil but if you’re short on time, garden store houseplant compost works just fine. For succulents, you’ll need soil with a sand or gravel mixture.
Terrariums are fine if they are airtight, but remove the lid periodically (about once a week or even daily) to allow fresh air into your garden.
BOTANICAL ACCIDENT SPARKED OFF A MIDDLE-CLASS OBSESSION
The ‘Wardian Case’ soon became an obsession for the British middle classes, who had found a way to reconnect with nature. They were not merely the interest of hobbyists, however, since they also allowed the long-distant transport of crops around the globe.
Terrariums have a long and fascinating history that predates social media by more than 150 years but now they are again booming and the perfect way to display houseplants
7. Get creative and mix up the plants, colours and sizes. Typically, foliage plants and plants that grow slowly work best – avoid fast growing plants. Ferns, carnivorous plants and airplants are quite difficult to grow without terrariums. So, if you would like these plants in your home, it’s recommend to buy or make a terrarium.
3. Add any large rocks or pieces of driftwood that you would like to include in your garden.
Yes,TERRARIUMS?butnotasfrequently as typical indoor plants. The types of plants found in terrariums tend to be hardy plants that don’t require frequent watering. Also, the greenhouse-like structure of terrariums recycles water instead of evaporating water into the ambient air as with normal indoor plants.
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The start of autumn is still one of the favourite times of year for gardeners and garden lovers. Hopefully the brutally harsh heat of the first two weeks of August is a memory and September arrives with cooler days when there is still so much to see. Stunning autumn colours will be lighting up gardens throughout the south and southwest and for those looking for days out there some high-quality garden shows worth a visit. And don’t let’s forget Cornwall where a trip to the sea is still high on the agenda of a lot of people. We have again rounded up some idea of places to visit, things to do, events to take part in so you can make the most of what promises to be a memorable September.
September is a wonderfully peaceful time to relax in the Hartland Abbey gardens after the school borderscoloursStunningholidays!autumnlighttheandkitchen garden. Hopefully after the intense heat of August the ‘Monet’ display of annuals will keep going alongside rosy red crab apples, squashes, old apple varieties; dahlias and michaelmas daisies. The Hartland Abbey hydrangeas growing in their acid soil are deepest blues, purples and whites in the cool of the woodland gardens. Enjoy the walk to the beach at Blackpool Mill before a delicious lunch or cream tea in The Old Kitchen Tea Room, to see the stunning Hartland coastline with views to Lundy Island, much enjoyed by four legged friends too!
Next up is the popular event at Llanover House, near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, on Sunday, 18th September. This is a 15-acre listed garden and arboretum with lakes, streams and cascades, created by the Rhyd y Meirch stream as it flows through the garden..
Peace, quiet and beauty at Hartland Abbey gardens
The 2022 season of Rare Plant Fairs draws to a close in September with four fabulous events, all set in interesting and unique gardens, with full garden entry included in the admission price. On Sunday, 4th September, the first fair s set in the beautiful grounds and gardens of Adwell House, near Thame in Oxfordshire, an idyllic spot just on the edge of the Chiltern Hills. Visitors are greeted with a magnificent herbaceous border which sweeps around the drive. The Parish Church nestles within the grounds, and you are led around to the walled garden, with its herbaceous borders, roses and a superb collection of salvias.
www.hartlandabbey.comBroadlands show ready to welcome the best of autumn
The fairs return to the historic gardens of The Bishop’s Palace at Wells for an Autumn Fair on Sunday, September 11th. The Bishop’s Palace lies at the heart of the historic City of Wells and is a place full of secrets, stories and stunning scenery, and home to the Bishops of Bath and Wells for 800 years.
The third in the series of Garden Shows this year run by Southern Shows Ltd takes place in the glamorous surroundings of Broadlands in Romsey on Friday, September 30th, Saturday 1st October and Sunday 2nd October. Opening times are 10am to 5pm on Friday and Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday. The show will provide an excellent opportunity to explore all that autumn planting has to offer, the show will be set over three days and feature specialist growers, garden related goods, artisan designs, homeware products, fashion accessories and delicious country foods. There will also be talks, demonstrations, activities for young and old, expert advice and a variety of music & entertainment. Adult tickets are £10 with concessions at £8.50. You can buy tickets at discounted prices online at www.thegardenshows.com Only assistance dogs are allowed on site Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 9ZD Hartland Abbey hydrangeas will be out in full glory Country Gardener
Hotel Meudon remains Cornwall’s best kept secret Cornwall’s best kept secret: a hidden valley hotel with its own secluded beach, Hotel Meudon is a coastal paradise near Falmouth, Cornwall.
QUARTET OF PLANT FAIRS ROUNDS OFF A MEMORABLE SEASON
The final Fair is at a brand new venue, Langford Court, near Bristol, on Sunday, September 25th. Rarely open to the public, Langford Court Garden is the 6 acre private garden of Sir David and Lady Wills, and is set in a 19th century parkland with a ha ha, yew topiary and a late 18th century orangery. The garden also includes a cutting garden, large mature pond, woodland, parterre, and a fernery, along with large established herbaceous borders. The Fair supports the work of the charity Canine Partners.
GREAT PLACES TO VISIT
There is a great selection of specialist nurseries attending each of the Fairs, including several National Collection holders, all of whom are experts in the plants that they grow. Please visit the website at www.rareplantfair.co.uk for full details of the events, including admission charges and a complete list of the exhibitors attending each one.
The stunning hotel is a stylish retreat boasting 9 acres of sub-tropical gardens, stunning sea views, 29 bedrooms and a treatment room. Award winning Restaurant Meudon, The Drawing Room and Freddie’s Bar are open to all, whether you’re staying at the hotel or simply passing by. All menus feature a variety of dishes and are created using Cornwall’s bountiful larder. A stay at Hotel Meudon will offer you time to sit back and unwind whilst enjoying stunning surroundings and topquality service. Hotel Meudon, Maenporth Rd, Mawnan Smith, Maenporth, Falmouth TR11 5HT www.meudon.co.uk
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Hartland Abbey & Gardens, Hartland, Nr. Bideford EX39 6DT Tel: 01237441496/234
SEPTEMBER AND GENTLER COLOURFUL DAYS TO RELISH
www.rareplantfair.co.uk Please visit our website for full details of admission fees and times of opening. September Fairs 4th September Adwell House, Adwell, Nr. Thame OX9 7DQ 11th September The Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset BA5 2PD 18th September Llanover House, Nr. Abergavenny NP7 9EF 25th September Langford Court, Nr. Bristol, BS40 5DA Hartland Abbey & Gardens Visit this timeless historic house, gardens and wildflower walks to a remote Atlantic cove Visit our family home with its fascinating architecture, collections, displays and film exhibition. Fully reopen again after filming Series 4 of ‘Malory Towers’. Enjoy its beautiful Walled and Woodland gardens, Fernery, Bog garden and walks to the Atlantic Coast. * Dogs welcome * Holiday Cottages * * Homemade light lunches & cream teas * * Hartland Quay 1 mile* For more information and events see www.hartlandabbey.com Hartland, Nr. Bideford EX39 6DT 01237441496/234 Sunday to Thursday until 3rd October 11am - 5pm (House 2pm - 5pm last adm. 4pm) DELIGHTFUL GARDENS TO INSPIRE YOU PLANT AND GARDEN ADVICE Mail order and click and collect available, or pop along and visit us at the nursery Groups welcome by appointment Open 7 days a week from 1st April to 30th September. Weekends 10am -5pm, Weekdays 9am-5.30pm Sands Lane, Badsey, Evesham, WR11 7EZ 01386 833849 info@cgf.net www.cotswoldgardenflowers.co.uk www.countrygardener.co.uk 19
Excitingly in the woodland, many trees are already beginning to show autumn leaf colour. This recalls memories of warm hats and scarves, which some of us may be missing during the recent heat waves. Flowering cherry Prunus sargentiana is the first to show autumn colour changing from green to bright scarlet. Whilst japonica ‘Pendula’, begin to emit a burnt sugar perfume as leaves turn yellow and pink. Go and explore for yourselves.
Garden Flowers
Marwood Hill Gardens, Marwood, Guineaford, Barnstaple, North Devon EX31 4EA Tel: 01271 342 528 www.marwoodhillgarden.co.uk
Late sensationssummerat Cotswold
As the nights begin to draw in and the temperature gets cooler, there is still plenty to see in the garden at the nursery. Come and see the late summer flowers of dahlia, phlox, rudbeckia and heleniums and look out for the new autumn plants. As the days shorten chrysanthemums and asters start to flower and enhance their display. Michaelmas daisies come in many shades. Also look out for the changing colour of leaves especially shrubs. Now is the time to make a note of your favourites so you can plant them at home. Foliage can be a real asset to the garden at this time of year. There are also autumn flowering bulbs to look out for, including autumn crocus, cyclamen and other bulbs and you can see their collection of nerines.
GREAT PLACES TO VISIT Colours galore a real attraction at Marwood Hill Gardens
Cotswold Garden Flowers, Sands Lane, Badsey, Evesham WR11 7EZ
SEASON TICKETS AVAILABLE OFFERING 12 MONTHS OF GARDEN ENTRY AND 10% DISCOUNT ON PURCHASES OVER £20. Open daily, 11am to 5pm. Also open TUESDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER for the National Garden Scheme OPENING TIMES FOR THE YEAR: 1st Feb - 31st July, Wednesday to Saturday / Throughout August, Wednesday to Sunday (plus BH Mon) / 1st September - 20th October, Daily. Open 11am - 5pm (except during Feb/Mar, 11am-4pm) Specialist nursery and beautiful 1.5 acre garden just waiting to be explored CATALOGUE ONLINE OR AVAILABLE BY REQUEST Tel: 01684 540416 www.autumnasters.co.uk Old Court Nurseries, Walwyn Road, Colwall WR13 6QE The Michaelmas Daisy Specialists since 1906 Old Court Nurseries & The Picton Garden Cotswolds Garden Flowers nursery offers late summer sensations Autumn colours await Marwood Hill visitors Country Gardener20
Cercidipyllum
There is still lots of colour here at Marwood Hill Gardens. Salvias, such as the two-toned blue and white ‘Phyllis Fancy, deep blue S. ‘Amstrad’ and Aconitum Arendsii really light up the tearoom borders with their deep purple hoods towering over surrounding flowers. In the ‘Ladies Garden’, the black eyed pink flowering Geranium ‘Anne Thompson’ attracts a lot of attention - a vigorous creeping geranium that starts off small, but quickly takes the space of other perennials that have finished for the season. Tucked away secretly by the walled garden gates, a large pineapple relative Fasicularia bicolor looks both monstrous and impressive, with its red spidery inner leaves and central blue and gold flowers. Really worth a look if you can find it!
Want to advertise in one of our features? We offer special all counties prices when advertising with our features, plus 100 words of free editorial with an advert. Speak to one of our sales people for more details. Shhhh! Meudon’s the word. Discover Cornwall’s best kept secret - a hidden valley hotel in subtropical gardens leading to its own secluded beach. For special offers and bookings go to meudon.co.uk @HOTELMEUDON • #MEUDONMOMENTS Enquiries & Tea Room 01271 342528 Plant Sales & Nursery 01271 342577 e info@marwoodhillgarden.co.uk w marwoodhillgarden.co.uk Marwood Hill Gardens, Marwood, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 4EA Tea Room & WalledNurseryGarden BEHAVEDWELLDOGSONLEADSWELCOME Catch up over coffee and homemade cake or a cream tea in the picturesque Garden Tea Room or take a bit of Marwood magic home with you from our Walled Garden Nursery and Plant Sales. Nestled in the heart of North Devon, Marwood Hill Garden is a hidden gem Home to four National Plant Heritage collections, this private valley garden spans over 20-acres and showcases three stunning lakes, rare trees & shrubs, and colourful surprises throughout each season. Not only a haven for wildlife, the garden is also the perfect environment to explore and be inspired. Enjoy a day of inspirational and relaxation for the whole family. CADHAY, OTTERY ST. MARY, DEVON, EX11 1QT 01404 813511 www.cadhay.org.uk Member of Historic Houses GARDENS & TEAROOM Open every Friday 2pm - 5.30pm from 6th May to 30th September Also August Bank Holiday weekendSaturday, Sunday & Monday GARDENS: adult £5, child £1 21www.countrygardener.co.uk
Dahlias continue to be a seasonal attraction at Cadhay
Want to advertise in one of features?our We offer special all counties prices when advertising with our features, plus 100 words of free editorial with an advert. Speak to one of our sales people for more details.
PICTURESQUE CARAVAN PARK IN CORNWALL
Cadhay, Ottery St Mary, EX11 1QT BOSCREGE CARAVAN MOST With a welcoming atmosphere and set 12 acres of Cornish countryside miles from beautiful sandy beaches of Praa Sands, Boscrege Caravan & Touring Park is the best place to Cornish minute date changes as a result of Government Covid Guidelines
The collection of dahlias continues to be a feature at the wonderful Cadhay gardens in Devon in late summer -providing a riot of colour. Most of the dahlias are left in the ground over the winter and a few more get planted in case of casualties from the frost. The last few winters have been so mild that there have been very few casualties with the result that the collection has multiplied. With spring fed medieval ponds, the Cadhay gardens have enough water to remain vibrant despite the shortage of rain over the summer. Cadhay gardens stay open on Friday afternoons until the end of September.
enjoy your
PICTON GARDEN READY FOR LATE SEASON SPLENDOUR As mid-summer becomes a memory the place to visit is The Picton Garden in Colwall. A hidden gem at the foot of the Malvern Hills this one-and-a-half-acre garden is just starting its late summer and autumn show. Home to the National Plant Collection of Michaelmas daisies there is plenty of colour to wow and it only gets better as October draws nearer. Should you be tempted by the plants you find on your wanders the adjoining Old Court Nurseries is well stocked and almost everything is grown on site from unusual succulents to delightful daisies. Tel: 01684 540416 www.autumnasters.co.uk
BOSCREGE - WHERE YOU CAN FIND THE REAL CORNWALL Boscrege Caravan and Touring Park in Cornwall is a peaceful and picturesque park, set at the foot of Tregonning Hill, Godolphin National Trust and amongst a myriad of Cornish lanes in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The park, open all year through, is situated close to the wonderful Cornwall coast and only a few minutes’ drive to Praa Sands, one of Britain’s best beaches. St Ives, Penzance, Hayle, Lands’ End, The Lizard Peninsular, Helston and Falmouth and many other Cornwall attractions and beaches are very easily visited from the central location in West Cornwall. And new this year, an exciting development of single/ twin lodges available to buy with a 20-year site licence and two years free site fees. You can stay for two nights free, available for genuine buyers. Boscrege Caravan Park, Boscrege, Ashton, Cornwall TR13 9TG Tel: 01736 762231 www.caravanparkcornwall.com
only two
in
GREAT PLACES TO VISIT
holiday. Each of our luxury holiday homes comes with a private garden and Wi-Fi. Perfect for families and couples, we are open all year, and offer seasonal pitches. We offer the following: • Designated dog walking fields • Pet friendly accommodation • Comprehensive storage • Luxury holiday homes for sale 01736 762231 • www.caravanparkcornwall.comenquiries@caravanparkcornwall.com CARAVAN & TOURING PARK West Kington Nurseries West Kington, Nr Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 7JQ 01249 782822 www.wknurseries.co.uk PLANTAUTUMNSALE! Open to the Public Sept 10th & 11th 2022 SATURDAY 9AM-5PM SUNDAY 10AM-4PM Follow the yellow signs from the A420 FREE ENTRY Over 5 Acres of Refreshmentsplants Catalogues sold in aid of local charities PerPP Perennials Topiary Climbers Shrubs Roses Bedding Please check our Website for last minute date changes as a result of Government Covid Guidelines West Kington, Nr Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 7JQ Tel 01249 782822 PLANTMASSIVEwww.wknurseries.co.ukSALE! Open to the public Over 5 Acres of Refreshmentsplants Catalogues sold in aid of local charities Please check our website for last
Plant sale is the way to restock your garden While the ground is still warm, autumn is a wonderful time to reconfigure tired borders with herbaceous perennials, grasses, ferns and shrubs. With this in mind, do keep Saturday 10th (9am to 5pm) and Sunday 11th September (10am to 4pm) free to explore West Kington Nurseries’ Massive Plant Sale. Normally a trade nursery, the five-acre site will open its gates to all with refreshments to revive happy plant hunters. As well as presenting thousands of keenly priced plants, proceeds from catalogue sales will be donated to local charities so just follow the signs to West Kington from the A420 and fill your boots!
the
West Kington Nurseries, West Kington, Chippenham, SN14 7JQ Quality plants at West Kington to revive borders Dahlias offer a riot colour at Cadhay Picton Garden remains a hidden gem Country Gardener22
& TOURING PARK THE
rhs.org.uk/theplantreview Telephone: 0203 176 5810 (Mon-Fri, 9am–5pm) Get that kid in a sweetshop feeling… Discover plants you never knew you had to grow • Amazing collectionsplant • New developmentsbreeding • Growing techniques • World gardens & exploration • Latest findings from RHS Trials • Quarterly issues (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec) SUBSCRIBE TODAY £29 for FrommembersRHSjust TPR for CG 311x239mm.indd 1 20/07/2022 09:21www.countrygardener.co.uk 23
And remember it’s all for free. It is so quick and easy to save seed from fruit and vegetables which will have been commonplace in your garden this summer such as lettuce, peas and chard.
When savings seeds there are a few basic rules which you will need to adhere to. Saving seed involves three steps: selecting seeds from the most suitable plants, harvesting them at the right time and storing them properly until you need to sow them.
September is a time of abundance in the garden with lots to harvest. This is also the key time when many of your plants are running out of steam and setting seeds. This isn’t such a bad thing as your plants are providing you with the seeds for next year’s crop.
Keep it pure and simple Some vegetables like courgettes and squashes are particularly likely to cross fertilise which just means that your saved sees can produce plants which are a hybrid of their parents. You can reduce the chance of cross pollination by only growing one variety so that pollen is less likely to be transferred from between plants of different varieties by insects or by the Somewind. vegetables produce seeds more easily than others and are more likely to produce good yields. For example, it is generally not recommended that you save seed from vegetables in the squash family, as the same variety will rarely grow the following year and what does grow can be inedible. On the other hand, it is easy to save seeds from peas and beans and the seeds produce good plants the following year.
Now is the perfect time to collect seeds from your crops. It is so easy, and you will save a fortune on next year’s seeds 24
Seed-saving is easy. You’ll get better seeds than you can buy, you can keep your own varieties going for future years and rather wonderfully you can start a whole new dynasty of plants.
In the gardening world there are few things that are more rewarding than starting a dynasty of new plants. Growing plants from seeds is one of the most basic and fulfilling of all the things we do in the garden. When we collect our own seed, clean it, dry it, store it ,we are taking part in an endeavour that stretches back for thousands of years. It is of course all to do with the cycle of life. It’s exciting to sow from brightly coloured seed packets which adorn the shelves of garden centres, and it is far more satisfying to collect your own seeds and start a new dynasty of plants.
Tomato seeds Allow the fruits to fully ripen on the plant and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place in a jar of water and leave for a few days, swirling them in the water daily. After a few days, the seeds should have come free from the pulp and sunk to the bottom. Pour the liquid away and rinse the seeds. Leave them to dry on a paper towel and, when fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place. Most ordinary tomatoes you buy from the supermarket are not suitable for seed saving, because they are F1 hybrids.
Pepper seeds Harvest seeds from peppers after the fruit has fully ripened on the plant and started to wrinkle. Remove the seeds from the peppers and spread them out on paper towels to dry. When fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place. Pea seeds Allow the pods to ripen on the plant until they are dry and start to turn brown. Remove the pods from the plant and spread them out on a tray indoors, to dry. Leave them for at least two weeks before shelling the pods or wait until you are ready to sow the seeds the following spring. Use saved seed within one year. The older the seed the lower the germination and vigour. Frozen pea seeds will not germinate and will most likely just decompose if planted directly into the soil.
SEEDSVEGETABLE for free
It is important to label your seeds correctly, including the name, variety, and date you collected them. Not only does this ensure that you know which seeds you are sowing but you can also evaluate how successful each seed-saving project was.
www.countrygardener.co.uk 25
Sweet peppers and chillies These are both are members of the same species, Capsicum annuum (some less common chillies come from other capsicum species).
To save parsley seed, overwinter at least two or three plants. In warmer areas mulch heavily with straw or cover plants with a frame, elsewhere grow a few plants in a polytunnel or greenhouse. The next spring, the plants will start to flower and produce seed. Flat and curly leaved varieties will cross, as the flowers are insect pollinated, so you should only grow one type for seed at a time. Harvest the seeds from individual flowerheads as they dry and turn brown, as they tend to drop from the plant when ready.
Lettuce seeds Select two or three good lettuces from your row, and mark them for seed. It is very important not to save seed from any plants that bolt early, as you want to select lettuces that stand well. Heading lettuces may need a little help for the flowering stalk to emerge; slitting the heads partially open with a knife works well. Once the lettuces have flowered, the seeds will ripen gradually, starting in about a fortnight. Harvest seed daily to get the maximum yield, shaking into a bag. Or wait until a reasonable number of seeds are ready and then cut the whole plant. Put it headfirst into a bucket, shaking and rubbing to remove the seeds. If you leave the whole cut plant upside down in the bucket somewhere dry, slightly immature seeds will continue to ripen over the next few days. Most of what you have collected in the bucket will be white ‘feathers’ and chaff. To sort the seed, shake it gently in a kitchen sieve. Some seeds will fall through the sieve, with the rest collecting in the bottom. If the seed feels a little damp, dry it further on a plate before labelling and storing. Lettuce seed should keep for around three years, provided it is kept dry. Cucumbers Cucumbers need to be ripened well beyond the edible stage. They will become much fatter, and green varieties will turn a dark yellow brownish colour, white varieties a paler yellow. Keep for a week or so after picking to let the seeds mature fully. Then cut open, scoop out the seeds and surrounding pulp into a jamjar, add a little water and stir well. Leave the jar on a sunny windowsill for 2-3 days for the seeds to ferment. On the third day, fill the jar fully with water, and stir well again. The good seeds should sink to the bottom of the jar, leaving pulp, debris and empty seeds floating on top. Gently pour off the water and debris, refill the jar, and repeat. After a couple of rinses, you should be left with good seeds at the bottom of a jar in clean water - spread out on a plate to dry well.
To save the seed, take peppers on your isolated plants which have ripened fully to their final colour (usually yellow or red). Cut the peppers open carefully and rub the seeds gently off of the ‘core’ onto a plate. Wear rubber gloves to deseed chillies, as the chilli oil sticks to your fingers and is very hard to wash off. Dry the seeds in a warm but not hot place until they snap rather than bend.
F1 hybrid varieties are commercially produced seeds that combine certain traits of two parent plants such as resistance to disease, pests or bolting and a tendency to produce heavy yields. F1 varieties can usually be identified by the variety name or by a close reading of the seed packet. How to store seeds Seeds should be stored in individual envelopes, in an airtight container and in a dry place above ground level. This prevents moisture from spoiling the seeds or animals such as mice eating their way through your supply.
Basil flowers are insect pollinated, and different varieties flowering within around 150’ of one another may cross. On a garden scale, if you want to grow several types of basil, just keep picking the flower stalks off all the varieties apart from the one that you want to grow for seed. Once several flower spikes have set and the flowers have started to wither, mark those spikes for saving seed from, and you can then allow the other varieties to flower. The seeds are ready to collect when the spikes turn brown and dry out. With both coriander and dill, to get the best seed for sowing in future years, pull up and discard the earliest plants to bolt, and only save seed from those plants that produce plenty of leaf and flower late. It is best to plan to save seed from early summer sowings, to allow plenty of time for the seed to mature and dry on the plant. Harvest as soon as the seed is brown and dry, as it does tend to drop from the seed heads. Rub the heads together in your hands over a bucket to free the seed. Dill seed usually comes cleanly away from the seed heads. Coriander seed tends to contain more chaff.
Broad beans will cross with other varieties that are growing nearby. So if you want to keep your variety pure, you need to isolate them in some way. Always keep seed of strong, healthy plants and get rid of any that are not typical of the variety, ideally before they flower. Let your seed beans mature and dry on the bush. The pods will turn dark drown, dry and wrinkled. Then pick and shell them out. Save only the best clean seeds.
You must dry your seed properly, or it will not survive storage. The key is to find the best option to get them dry. Don’t use heat though to dry it. One fairly foolproof way to really get rid of all the moisture is to use dry rice to suck the water out of the seed to get it dry. Then it will hibernate completely. You need to use at least twice as much rice as you have seed. It doesn’t matter if you have too much rice, but too little won’t work. Bake the rice on a tray in the oven for 45 minutes until it is bone dry. While it is still hot, put it in the jam-jar, about half full, and screw the lid on. Let the rice cool. You now have a jam jar half full of very dry, cool rice. Put your seed in a bag made by cutting off the foot of a pair of tights and tie it in with a rubber band. Put it in with the cool dry rice. Put the lid on tightly, so damp air can’t get in. Leave your seed sealed in the jar with the dry rice for a fortnight, and the dampness in the seed will be drawn out into the rice.
How to really dry the seed?
Herbs are very rewarding to save seeds from Basil, coriander and dill are annuals, parsley is a biennial, flowering in its second year of growth.
F1 Hybrids Make sure you only save seed from open-pollinated varieties and not F1 hybrids. Open pollinated vegetable varieties are often heirloom varieties that have evolved over the years and been passed down through generations of gardeners. The vegetables produced from the seeds are like the produce of the parent plant and gradually evolve to cope with local conditions such as moisture levels and high or low temperatures.
Lettuce seeds need to be sieved well to leave pulp behind
Broad bean seeds
The maintenance of trees planted in autumn is minimal because, once the weather gets consistently colder (around mid-October usually), there is no need for watering (unless we have a sudden winter heatwave and with the way the weather has been this year, it wouldn’t surprise us!). Plants planted in autumn will be allowed to gently settle their root systems before the onset of the harshest winter months usually in January or February and when the weather gets consistently colder the plants become dormant until the end of March.
Autumn is nature’s planting time!
Autumn is for example the best time to plant spring flowering bulbs. It helps to plan, so have your selection of bulbs ordered and delivered in time for planting. There are lots of wonderful nurseries who have an amazing range of spring bulbs for sale. For tulips, buy whatever variety takes your fancy and plants loads! Like alliums, these are best scattered through a border, as if you clump them, you’ll end up with gaps when the flowers are over. You can also combine two or three varieties with different colours and flower forms. They should be planted in a sunny spot, and look best in large numbers, scattered through a border, amongst low shrubs, ornamental grasses and perennials. This will hide the foliage, which gets tatty by the time the flowers are up. Wildflower seeds Seeds that are sown between August and October often germinate quicker, although this does not always show until the following spring. Autumn sown wildflower meadows tend to flower earlier in the spring, as they require the winter ground frost to kick start their germination.
Be generous when planting your rose — generous hole, generous feed, generous can of water!
PLANNING & PLANTING Northcote Hill, Honiton, Devon, EX14 9TH Tel: 01404 43344 'Growing in Devon since 1957' • Native, Formal & Evergreen Hedges • Screening • Woodland • Specimen Trees • Gardens Large range of ornamental and fruit trees Trade discount available • Delivery available Growers & suppliers of native & ornamental trees, shrubs & hedging for: Order online at www.perriehale.co.uk Email: faye@perriehale.co.uk FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS, SPRING BULBS OR ROSES THEN NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO GET MOST THINGS INTO THE GROUND…. Plant in autumn for a flourishing harvest Country Gardener26
It’s also the time to give plants the best chance of strong growth including watering systems , nutrients or quality composting material. There’s an exciting choice for gardeners looking to get gardening.
Spring flowering bulbs
Contrary to popular belief, autumn is the time of year when you should be doing the most gardening – not Ifspring.youdon’t plant in the autumn, your garden won’t flourish until the last three or four weeks of spring - any most people are desperate for some gorgeous greenery before that! You can plant pretty much anything over the next few weeks; it’s the best time of year for planting as the soil is warm and perhaps not wet in this drought affected summer but with adequate watering when planting the principle remains the same. The warm soil allows roots to grow until the ground freezes, whereas in the spring, plants don’t grow until the soil warms.
Roses Roses need a special mention when planting. If you look after your roses in autumn, they will get safely through the winter, coming back healthy, vigorous and full of flowers the following year. Roses are particularly well suited to autumn planting. They tend to benefit immensely, and you can pay a quarter of the price for plants that you might be charged during the spring. Although container grown plants can be planted at any time of the year, autumn is the preferred time to encourage well established root systems before the surge of growth in spring. Bare rooted plants can also be planted once their dormancy has begun, and this can be a very cost-effective way to purchase, particularly as rose plants can be expensive. Roses can live for many years in the garden, and initial care taken with planting can assist health and longevity. Even though there are many different varieties, their needs are broadly similar and whilst certain varieties can tolerate some shade, most roses thrive in full sun, and will benefit from being planted in the sunniest parts of the garden.
Specialist trees
The best possible way to plant your roses is to use the Empathy range of products, which happen to be modern, natural, sustainable, child and pet safe but above all else highly effective in the garden.
Perrie Hale Nursery, Northcote Hill, Honiton, EX14 9TH www.perriehale.co.uk or email faye@perriehale.co.uk AVAILABLE ONLINE OR FROM ANY GOOD GARDEN CENTRE rootgrow.co.uk
www.countrygardener.co.uk 27
Empathy range will give your roses the best chance to thrive
COIR FREEEXCITINGGARDENERSOFFERSRANGEPEATOPTIONS CoirProducts.co.uk provides a wide and innovative range of natural and peat-free products that can be used to grow a variety of flowers and plants, including roses, perennials, and wildflowers. Made from organic material extracted from the husk of the coconut, they are ethically produced and sourced, with minimal harm on the environment. If you are looking to grow roses, CoirProducts growbags are ideal. Containing a mix of natural, peatfree, and biodegradable coir and chips, CoirProducts growbags are easy-to-use. CoirProducts coir potting mix is a versatile growing medium that can be used to grow a variety of wildflowers, perennials, and other plants, while CoirProducts coir chips are an ideal soil conditioning supplement. Coir retains water and moisture well, as well as having a neutral pH value, with such natural properties of coir helping plants develop strong and healthy root systems.
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PERRIE HALE STOCK LARGE QUALITY COLLECTION OF POT GROWN TREES
Healthy crops and plants don’t have to suffer because the season is changing. If you plan, you can upgrade your garden by making your irrigation system more efficient. HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A HARVST WATERMATE IN THE SIZE OF YOUR CHOICE (mini or pro) with Country Gardener. WaterMate is a smart irrigation system that helps you spend less time watering, whilst wasting less than a standard irrigation timer. It comes in two ready-to-fit kits, the mini for small greenhouses and the pro for larger greenhouses and polytunnels. Harvst are a green-tech company who make smart, automated mini-greenhouses and automatic watering systems. They help people grow more at home in less time whilst reducing food miles, waste, packaging, water and chemicals. WaterMate can also be used across your garden, flower beds and pots too! To enter all you have to do is Sign up to Harvst’s newsletter. You can do this at www.harvst.co.uk. Enter Use the code ‘COUNTRY’ when signing up.
Just put a handful of After Plant For Roses 1KG in the backfill and as a top dressing. After Plant contains nitrogen from alfalfa, potassium from comfrey, seaweed meal for trace elements, bio-char and humates to condition the soil and plant derived Amino acids that feed soil biology. Also feed with liquid After Plant for roses and make sure you soak the foliage as well as the roots as the nutrients can be absorbed through the foliage. It remains the perfect combination for perfect roses. www.rootgrow.co.uk
Your chance to WIN A WATERMATE AUTOMATIC SOLAR WATERING SYSTEM
You need to start off by planting with Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi, which has also been shown to overcome rose replant disease.
Perrie Hale Nursery is a family run specialist tree nursery based just outside of Honiton. They have a large collection of ornamental and fruit trees that are pot grown and can be planted most of the year round. Some of the more unusual trees they stock include birches such as Betula utilis ‘Forest Blush’ or Betula utilis ‘Budda’ along with the favourites such as flowering cherries, crab apples and rowan. Fruit trees include a range of varieties local to the southwest such as the Totnes apple. They also have a large range of bare-root trees and shrubs suitable for woodland creation or native, evergreen and formal hedging. Bare-root plants are sent out between November and March while they are dormant.
www.coirproducts.co.ukContact: hello@coirproducts.co.ukor
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Scientists have also discovered that it affects many broader aspects of our health, from the immune system to the brain, even our mood and mental health –adding up to a profound influence on our overall wellbeing and quality of life. High stress levels, too little sleep, highsugar and processed foods, antibiotics –can all damage our gut microbiome, and the effects are not always easy to talk about.
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‘I just couldn’t eat a lot and I was very unhappy,’ says 27-year-old Vicky Jaspal, a junior school teacher from Ipswich. ‘I was tired all the time. I didn’t really want to go out and eat with my friends or do anything, because I was limited in what I could eat.’
But if you take care of your gut, it will take care of you – and far more than just your digestive health. Our ‘gut microbiome’ – the trillions of friendly bacteria and microbes in our intestines – is key to digesting the food we eat, helping us to absorb essential vitamins and minerals.
After two months, the change was profound: ‘It worked wonders. I’ve been able to eat anything. It’s just been amazing.’
Around 40 per cent of Brits suffer at least one digestive symptom at any one time, from feeling bloated to long-term gastrointestinal issues. pay £2 postage ‘It worked wonders. I’ve been able anything. It’s just been amazing.’
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2 The last of summer days are fizzling away but not without a final flourish. In September, there might be hot days while some mornings will be spent wilting roses and picking the last of the summer soft fruit. There is still plenty of time to enjoy the abundance of the lighter months, but now is the time to think about change-over jobs. September is not all toil, though. It’s a time to take note and plan for next year, whether that’s visiting an inspirational nursery with a great display garden or scrutinising your own garden for gaps. Take photos on your phone, make notes and mark up the bits which haven’t gone as well as expected. Later in the autumn, when you are digging up and dividing, you’ll have an excellent visual reference of what to move and what gaps need to be Meanwhile,plugged. here are some jobs to be getting on with.
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Spring flowering bulbs need planting September is the perfect time to be planting hardy springflowering bulbs such as narcissus (daffodil), hyacinth and crocus. These bulbs will do best in a warm, sunny spot and they all love good drainage. If you’re planting them in a bed or border, dig a hole about four times the depth of the bulb. Put a layer of sand and grit in the bottom of the hole to aid Coverdrainage.this with a little compost, then plant the bulbs under about two bulb’s worth of depth of soil. Try to bunch six to ten bulbs together in one spot, placed one bulb’s width apart, or line a path with them for an impressive display.
www.countrygardener.co.uk 29 JOBS FOR THE MONTH
Now is the time to focus on taking cuttings Taking cuttings is a brilliant way to grow more plants for nothing. And there’s something satisfying about nursing plants through from tender young shoots to fully-fledged plants for use in your own containers.
Clear waste and fallen leaves
Now is the ideal time to start looking at investing in a compost bin. Be prepared for when the leaves begin to fall this autumn, and your garden is full of golden leaves. Not only does filling a compost bin save you general bin space for the winter, it can also help save you money, making fertiliser and other chemical compounds redundant when the time comes to encourage new growth in your garden.
3 It’s not too late to sow wallflowers
Lift and divide perennials Summer-flowering herbaceous perennials can be lifted and divided in September when they’ve finished flowering and the soil is still warm enough to aid new root development. In fact, most perennials need to be divided every two to three years, otherwise they get too big for the space they’re in and become congested – it will also increase plant stock for free! Gently dig out the plant with a fork to not sever plant roots. Once the plant is out, divide it in a way suitable to its type. Small fibrous-rooted plants like hostas, can be gently teased into two with your Largerfingers.fibrous-rooted varieties, such as hardy Pelargonium (Geranium), are best levered apart using two garden forks thrust back-to-back into the plant’s centre. This will separate the plant into two with minimal root damage.If the plant you’re dividing is especially big, you will need a good strong fork to get good leverage. Protect your pots During the gloomy, cold and wet months you will need to stop your potted plants from becoming waterlogged. Naturally, bedded plants don’t require any extra care due to the excess water just being soaked deeper into the soil. However, for potted plants this is not the case. You can prevent this from happening simply by buying some ‘pot feet’ or try propping your pots up on some old bricks or wood to allow the excess water to drain.
Place the cuttings somewhere bright and warm, but keep them out of direct sunlight until roots have formed (about six to ten weeks). It’s a good idea to mist plants daily to ensure their water needs are met while they are still rootless.
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JOBS IN THE September garden
Many experienced gardeners used to think September was too late to sow wallflowers, but it is perfectly possible to direct-sow them in the first week of the month and, with no transplanting till spring, they did very well. Ideally, sow them where you want them to flower and add tulips in between in a couple of months’ time for a fabulous spring show. Remove shading from the greenhouse so plants benefit from maximum light. Temperatures can still be quite high, so make sure there is adequate ventilation during the day and shut everything up at night.
You’ll need to find strong, young growth that hasn’t flowered this year. Snip it off using pruning snips at an angle just beneath a leaf joint, leaving a stem of about seven cms in length. Next, strip off the leaves from the lower stem, leaving just one or two pairs towards the top. This will help to prevent the plant from losing too much water via its leaves while it has no roots to take moisture up from the soil. Dip the end of the cutting in hormone rooting powder and plant in compost mixed with a little horticultural grit for drainage. This will help to prevent the end from rotting and promote good root growth. Put the plants in a propagator and cover them with a plastic bag to help retain moisture.
Sloe Gin Ingredients • 500g sloes • 250g sugar • 70cl gin (strong) Method Pick over your sloes to remove any stems and put them in the freezer overnight. Find a clean, airtight jar. You’ll need something that comfortably holds 1.5 litres. Pop the frozen sloes into the jar. Add the sugar. Pour in your gin. Keep your jar in a dark place, but for the first week or so bring it out and turn the jar over a few times before replacing it. Once all the sugar has dissolved, leave it in the dark for as long as you can bear, three months at the very least. Then strain the mixture through some muslin and into a clean bottle, and it will be ready to serve. To make a sloe spritz This gin is lovely on its own, or reduced and drizzled onto cakes, but is also a great cocktail ingredient. To make a sloe fizz, simply pour 25ml of sloe gin into a champagne glass and top with Prosecco.
9 Lengthen the tomato ripening weeks
Sloe and strongthe perfect gin Country Gardener reader Janet Bates has been making sloe gin from fruit picked near her west Somerset cottage for 20 years and now shares her long practiced secrets We are very lucky as the common blackthorn , commonly known as sloe grows in abundance down the lanes round the cottage. I confess to being worried this autumn as a good crop of well ripened sloes needs the perfect balance of warmth and water over the spring and summer. We’ve had the warmth but not the water over this summer in west ThereSomerset.isalways some debate about when to pick the sloes but for the best flavour you must wait until the berries are ripe. They should be a rich dark colour and should squash easily between your fingers. I think it’s a good sign if they have already started to fall to the ground naturally. We always wait until after the first frosts before picking the berries to make sloe gin. These days it’s easy to bag them up and mimic that first frost in a freezer. The frost is thought to split the skins so the juices can flow into your gin without the effort of pricking all the berries.
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• Do a last outside sowing of radish. With the soil still warm and moist with dew, you should be eating these in four to five weeks.
• Remove any crops that have finished leaving unneeded areas clear – weeding and tidying for the winter. Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars; these will most probably be under the leaves.
Outdoor tomatoes are in danger of blackening overnight without protection, but experiment with cutting them down from their supports and laying them on fleece before you cover them with a polythene tunnel, so the fruit can continue to grow and ripen for a few more weeks. It is possible this way to enjoy at least three more weeks from outdoor vines. You can ripen tomatoes by covering them with a polythene tunnel.
– Phacelia tanacetifolia for example, is one of the best nectar sources for the honeybee, bumble bee and hoverfly. 10
• Bean and pea plants that have finished their harvest can be cut back, leaving the roots to be dug into the soil to provide extra nitrogen for future crops.
7 Order garlic and onions Garlic and overwintering onions are planted out from now till the end of October but get your order in as soon as possible or you will be picking over the spoils. Get used to regularly overwintering onions; try ‘Japanese Shensyu Yellow’, and ‘Radar’ for red onions. Garlic does best planted out as early as you can; ‘Solent Wight’ and ‘Cristo’ are both reliable and hardy. Onions need to be spaced 20cm apart each way; garlic is best at 18cm each way. Choose your sunniest spot.
• Keep watering winter squash and pumpkins if the weather is hot. This will prevent their growth from being checked. Use stored rainwater wherever possible. Keep pinching out the tips of triffid-like pumpkins and squash. They prioritise vegetative growth over fruit formation, and you may get fruit drop if you don’t keep them contained. With the tips pinched, all the fruit down to the base of the stem will now be ripening well. Place a tile under the largest fruit to stop rot creeping in where they sit on the damp soil. Leave pumpkins, squash and marrows to ripen in the sun if possible so that the skin can harden.
• Continue to feed tomato plants until all the fruits have finished growing and ripening. If your tomatoes refuse to ripen in miserable weather, then you could make a delicious green tomato chutney.
READERS STORY
Once you have your stash of berries you are ready for the fun part – making the gin. There’s two pieces of advice in all this -one is that while it is quick and easy to make sloe gin, the longer you leave it, the more it improves. The second piece of advice is use a good quality strong gin to give it a real west country ‘kick’.
• Sow Swiss chard, winter spinach, broad beans and hardy peas.
Potatoes out: green manure in
Plant a hedge September is a good time for planting hedges. The soil is still warm and there is usually plenty of rain. It’s traditional to plant a mixed native hedge in the spring, but autumn planting is also successful. Evergreen hedging can be planted now, too, but don’t leave this any later than October as plants may be damaged by frost.
Plus, there’s still work to do in the vegetable plot
• Sow spring onions – these will be ready to eat before the frosts get going in most parts of the country. Even if frosts are forecast, they are fine under glass or plastic to harvest through late winter and autumn.
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When you think you’ve harvested your last potatoes, carefully dig over the veg bed, collect those that were still lurking under the surface, and then dig over ready to plant some green manures. These green manures are useful in many ways; they protect the soil from erosion over winter, reducing the potential of any leaching of mineral and nutrients, and protect soil structure, as well as boosting nutrients when dug into the soil. They also provide a green carpet that helps provide shelter for beneficial insects through the winter, such as ground beetle, and if you leave a patch to flower they are loved by pollinators
Now’s the time to help wildlife
Data from Living with Mammals are the basis of national reports such as the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022, published by PTES and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society in February. The survey’s findings indicated a more positive outlook for urban hedgehogs than previously thought and that numbers in urban areas might be starting to recover after a decade-long decline..
In the survey’s 20-year history, the data have also shown an increase in the numbers of muntjac being recorded, while a decrease in the numbers of bats and rabbits has been noticed. Numbers of foxes and grey squirrels have changed little.
2. Making sure there are areas of shade, to provide some respite from the sun on hot days.
Taking part in surveys and making your garden wildlife friendly can make a real difference as help is needed in Hampshire and Dorset
31 Boldre Nurseries, Southampton Road, Lymington, Hants SO41 8ND TEL: 07973 291062 / 01590 ChelseaHeucheraholics670581GoldMedalwinningHeucherasHeuchera ‘Wedding Bells’ Heucheraholics Sales Area www.heucheraholics.co.uk BUY ONLINE ChelseaHeucheraholicsANYTIME!GoldMedalwinningHeucherasNURSERY OPEN DAYS 2022 OUR ONLINE SHOP IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL • Now is a great time to get your gardens ready to add some Glorious Heuchera technicolour • We have a the best range of Heuchera’s in the UK including many of our own introductions • Heuchera’s for the garden and for containers and baskets • Heuchera’s for Fabulous foliage and some for Fantastic flowers The Nursery Open Dates for 2022 For more information on the Open days please visit our website www.heucheraholics.co.uk Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Sat 3rd - Sun 4th Sep Sat 1st - Sun 2nd Oct NEED AN EXTRA PAIR OF HANDS INyour garden? Head Gardeners and Garden Owners: enthusiastic and hard-working help two days a week can be yours. Take on a WRAGS (Work and Retrain as a Gardener) trainee and you will get a dedicated and willing helper, plus the satisfaction of nurturing the next generation of gardeners. Your part of the deal? You pay the trainee the National Living Wage and provide horticultural training. WRAGS is a unique scheme, administered by the WFGA, designed for career changers and those returning to work. Our trainees are keen to learn and hard workers. For more admin@wfga.org.ukinformation:wfga.org.uk “I had the opportunity of reading it fromcover to cover. It’s a real gem and I lookforward to every issue. Thanks to all yourteam for their input and what must be oneof the best magazines around.” DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD...
It’s easy to forget that local wildlife – from hedgehogs and hares to bats and badgersmay also be struggling with this summer’s harsh conditions. But, the impact of the changing climate on wildlife numbers is barely known. So, this summer wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for people to take part in wildlife surveys both in their gardens and whilst out and about during the summer holidays, as well as offering some other practical ways to help a variety of species. The Trust is looking for volunteers in Hampshire and Dorset to take part in its two annual wildlife surveys: Living with Mammals and Mammals on Roads, which run throughout the year.
5. Create log piles for invertebrates, such as stag beetles. Visit https://ptes.org/make-mammals-count-this-summer/
Living with Mammals is one of the country’s largest surveys of mammals in towns and cities, and asks volunteers to record sightings of any wild mammals (or the signs they leave behind, such as footprints or droppings) in a garden or local green space such as a parks or allotment.
PTES also wants records from further afield to monitor wildlife in our countryside, as that’s where some of the biggest declines are being seen. So, for those without a garden or nearby green space (or for those wanting to do even more for wildlife), taking part in the survey is a great way to help. All you need to do is download the free Mammals on Roads app and record any road journeys and sightings of roadkill that you spot along the way, whether from your car, campervan or even simply en route to work.
There are other garden-based ways everyone can help wildlife for the remainder of this summer such as:
1. Providing a shallow dish of water, which will benefit ground-dwelling mammals like hedgehogs and foxes, but also birds, butterflies and other insects.
4. If you have a pond, make sure there’s a ramp so that any wildlife that goes in can get back out safely!
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The survey is one of the largest looking into the habits mammals
3. Create a ‘Hedgehog Highway’ – a 13cm x 13cm square gap at the base of your fence or wall, connecting your garden with your neighbours.
The medieval Hospital of St Cross, one of England’s oldest almshouses, nestles in water meadows beside the River Itchen. The tranquil, walled Master’s Garden, created in the late 17th century, has colourful herbaceous borders, old fashioned roses, interesting trees and a large fish pond. The Compton Garden has unusual plants of the type imported in the 17th century. Open for the NGS on Sunday 11th September, 2pm-5pm, admission £4, children free. For other opening times and information visit the website at www.hospitalofstcross.co.uk or phone on 01962 851375. Country Gardener
BUMPERS Sutton Common, Long Sutton, Hook, Hampshire RG29 1SJ
Ammerdown Park, Radstock, Somerset BA3 5SH
SILVER STREET FARM Prescott, Uffculme, Cullompton, Devon EX15 3BA
A new opening for the National Garden Scheme on Saturday 3rd September from 2pm-5pm, the Ammerdown garden was a brilliant idea by Lutyens who wanted to link the house with the beautiful Orangery, creating ‘rooms’ of yew, sculptures and parterres, enclosed formal areas; there are clipped Portuguese laurels and honeysuckles trained over wired umbrellas. The kitchen garden is undergoing restoration. Admission £7, children free.
Visitors welcome by arrangement Coaches welcome consult owners
This large country garden with beautiful views is spread over two acres with mixed herbaceous and shrub borders laid out in a series of individual areas, some interesting sculptures and water features with informal paths through the grounds and places to sit and enjoy the views. Open for the NGS on Sunday 4th September, 2pm-6pm, admission £5, children free. Visitors with wheelchairs park in front of the house.
A plantsman’s garden in a rural setting, alive with scent, colour and dynamic planting. Roses, herbs and perennials, enormous herbaceous borders with meandering paths, an eclectic collection of plants and shrubs, designed with the family and surrounding landscape at its heart by Alasdair Cameron as a haven. Open for the NGS on Saturday 10th September, 1pm5pm, admission £6, children free.
compiled by Vivienne Lewis
The mellow early days of autumn are perfect for getting out and visiting gardens, so here’s a selection opening for charity in the areas we cover, raising much needed funds for nursing and caring charities. Do check whenever possible before starting out on a journey as circumstances can force cancellations in private gardens. www.ngs.org.uk
Wheelchair access to much of garden Partial wheelchair access Dogs on short leadsUnsuitable for wheelchairs
AMMERDOWN HOUSE
THE HOSPITAL OF ST CROSS St Cross SO23Winchester,Road,Hampshire9SD
32 DRIVEALLENSTYLE Yelland, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 3DZ
The Grade II landscaped Edwardian gardens surround the 15th century manor house, with extensive plantings undergoing considerable redevelopment by the owners and their head gardener – a wide range of organic horticulture in eight acres. Open for the NGS on Wednesday 14th, 10am-4pm, and Sunday 18th September, 11am-4.30pm. Admission £7.50, children free.
The garden is 30m x 15m that’s packed with huge bananas, cannas, colocasias, delicate and scented tropical passion flowers, prairie planting, a wildlife pond and two large greenhouses. Rest awhile in the many seating areas. Open for the NGS on Sundays 28th August, 4th and 11th September, 12pm-5pm each open day. Admission £4, children free.
TOGARDENSVISIT in September
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GARDEN VISITS
Plants usually for sale Accommodation at this venue Refreshments available
Picnics welcome
OUR KEY TO FACILITIES ON OFFER AT THE GARDENS:
HAZELBURY MANOR GARDENS Wadswick, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire SN13 8HX
Keyneston Mill is the creative home of Parterre Fragrances - a 50-acre working estate dedicated to fragrant and aromatic plants, each compartment of the gardens featuring plants from a different perfume family – floral, fern and citrus. Enjoy a walk around the river meadow and the perfume crop fields where the ingredients for the perfumes are grown, and see the exhibition and distillery. Open for the NGS on Tuesday 13th September, 2pm-5pm, admission £5, children free. For other times and information visit the website at www.keynestonmill.com or call on 01258 786022.
Credit Sue Sayer Photography www.countrygardener.co.uk 33
A new opening for the NGS on Friday 9th, Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, 11am-4pm, an unconventional half-acre, multi-level garden above Lyme Bay, adjoining National Trust’s Ware Cliffs, with an exotic range of shrubs, cannas, gingers and magnificent ferns. Apart from a rose and hydrangea collection, the planting reflects the owner’s love of Southern Africa with succulents and late summer colour. Admission £5, children £1.
THE RED POST HOUSE Fivehead, Taunton, Somerset TA3 6PX
MILLKEYNESTON Tarrant DorsetBlandfordKeyneston,Forum,DT119HZ
This beautiful Arts & Crafts garden overlooks a quiet valley on descending levels with terraces designed by Norman Jewson in the 1930s. Enclosed by Cotswold stone walls and yew hedges, the terraces, shrub garden, herbaceous borders and bog garden are full of scent and colour, and there are rare orchid walks. Open for the NGS on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September, 2pm5pm, admission £7.50, children free.
SUDELEY CASTLE & GARDENS Winchcombe, Gloucestershire GL54 5JD
1 SOUTHVIEW Wick Lane, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 5DR
GARDEN VISITS
Ten magnificent and contrasting gardens at Sudeley Castle, surrounded by striking views of the Cotswold Hills, each reflecting a fascinating 1,000 year history, set among the Castle and atmospheric ruins and including a knot garden, Queen’s garden and Tudor physic garden. It’s the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within the grounds, Queen Katherine Parr, the last and surviving wife of King Henry VIII, who lived and died in the castle. Open for the NGS on Friday 23rd September, 10.30am-3pm, admission £10, children £6. For other opening times and information go to www.sudeleycastle.co.uk
1 PINE WALK Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3LA
COTSWOLD FARM Duntisbourne Abbots, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 7JS
An atmospheric, very long town garden packed with beautiful and unusual plants, shrubs and trees, many with striking foliage; gravel garden areas, a patio area with conservatory, large potted acers making a tunnel effect, collections of plants in pots; through an old iron arch a winding path leads past herbaceous beds with an old cherry tree. Open for the NGS on Sunday 11th September, 2pm5pm, admission £4, children free.
A half-acre walled garden with shrubs, borders, trees, circular potager and topiary, and a further one and a half acres of lawn, orchard with a range of fruits including apples, pears, quince, medlar, mulberries and figs, and a vineyard, the views aligned on Ham Hill. Open for the NGS on Sunday 25th September, 2pm-5pm, admission £5, children free.
Go for contrast in colour, in height and in the shape of the grass. Bluey greys can work well with those purple reds and clumps can look good against wispy. Or, for the opposite effect, go for identical grasses in three containers of different heights for a sense of calm and serenity or to break up and soften the harsh, clinical lines of a wall or backdrop. Soften other garden features by planting grasses around them. Pots and other containers will blend much more effortlessly into your display with a little screening from your grasses. Add the end of season colour with your grasses. Bluestem and switchgrass varieties are great for this and look fabulous in the early autumn light.
What would you like to hide? Is it an oil container, a compost heap or just an unsightly wall or fence? If you have a wire fence, feathery light grasses can provide just the right amount of screening. A long, low row of fountain grasses. Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ along a pathway leads the eye toward an entrance. A hedge encloses an area, blocks a view, or creates privacy. Shrubs such as privets, yews, arborvitae, and boxwoods give a dense, heavy, evergreen statement to a garden. But what about using grasses? They don’t need pruning and are generally hardy. For even more screening, try planting some taller, thicker varieties such as bluestem or moor grass in groups to hide those unsightly eyesores. There may be a short period of time when you cut your grasses back in early spring when you can see the offender, but it won’t be long until it’s hidden again. The potential of ornamental grasses is endless and all you need is a little bit of space and a touch of creativity to achieve some really stunning, varied and beautiful displays. Ornamental grasses can help structure, texture and the sensory nature of a garden and the soft wave of a grass in the wind can be wonderfully relaxing
Gorgeous grasses
There was a time once when planting ornamental grasses was thought of as being a rather lazy way of gardening. It was filling large areas of the garden with undemanding and perhaps uninspiring plantings. Things have changed however as more now accept that grasses are versatile, hardy and spectacular, bringing movement, texture and drama to gardens of all styles, nearly all year round. They can be woven through borders, used as a focal point, scattered through gravel gardens and planted in containers. Easy to grow, low maintenance and available in many beautiful shapes, sizes and styles, they are ideal for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. The soft wave of a grass in the wind, and the quiet rustle can be wonderfully relaxing. Ornamental grasses shouldn’t be overlooked for their benefits to wildlife too and you can grow them easily in gravel gardens or in Theycontainers.tolerate a wide range of conditions and don’t need much looking after. Are they the perfect plant? Grasses can act visually like shrubs. Some are arching, others stiff and formal. They have different weights as well, and grasses can be used to define space in a garden. Closely planted dwarf varieties of grass can make a fun and different flower border and soften a pathway or edge. They may continue to provide interest and cover throughout the winter. Intersperse grasses in groups of three amongst your other plants. This not only acts as a filler but can really add depth and interest to your display. Your plants and grasses don’t have to be the same height but what you want to achieve is an overall sense of balance between tall and Trysmall.choosing grasses with a completely different texture to the plants they’ll be near. Think wispy plumes of silver, next to the heads of the round, yellow flowers of the Rudbeckia for example! Try planting a fountain grass with its height and its gently splaying feathers to make a wonderful focal point in your garden. In a limited space, take three different sized containers and plant three different types of grass for a dramatic and unique display.
Use ornamental grasses for screening
The potential of ornamental grasses is endless Country Gardener
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This is a magnificent, elegant grass with attractive golden yellow variegated ribbon like foliage that forms gradually spreading mounds of long-lived refined cover in sun or shade. Insignificant flowers. Stunning in pots. Brighter yellow in sun more lime yellow with more shade. Excellent in dry soils and dislikes too wet. It is also one of the slowest growing. It makes a graceful mound of green and yellow striped foliage, sure to lighten any dark corner. After several years, a border of this beauty is a crowd stopper! It now has the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Carex buchananii
Pennistem alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ or Fountain Grass Fountain Grass to give it its more popular name is a much favoured when it comes to selecting grasses. This selection forms an upright mound of arching green leaves, bearing bottle rush spikes of silverywhite flowers that turn to buff or tan as they dry. It is most effective when mass planted, but also useful as a specimen accent in the garden or in containers. The flowers are excellent for cutting, fresh or dried. Plants usually remain attractive well into the winter, the leaves turning bright golden-yellow in the fall. Clumps may be easily divided in spring. Old foliage should be cut to the ground in March. Drought tolerant once established. ‘Hameln’ refers to the German town of Hamelin, most famous for the folk tale of the Pied Piper.
Stipa tenuissima This is a very graceful and beautiful ornamental grass. Forming dense clumps of arching, filament-thin, bright green leaves, it bears all summer long a profusion of long, narrow, softly feathery plumes - greenish-white to start with then changing to buff. ‘Pony Tails’ describes the whole perfectly, particularly when the whole plant billows in the slightest breeze. Flowers the first year from seed and is excellent for the border, pot or patio It is now officially known as Nassella tenuissima, and is an incredibly useful plant in the garden, as it combines well with pretty much all other plants – other grasses, perennials and annuals. Dotted throughout a sunny border, it can unify a planting scheme. It’s an excellent choice for a gravel garden, a naturalistic or prairie border, a coastal garden, or a contemporary urban garden. It also works well as ground cover and grows very well in pots. It’s very low maintenance, drought tolerant and is rarely affected by pests and diseases.
Lagurus ovatus This is a delightful, award-winning, dwarf variety. Suitable for drying. A hardy annual with creamy-white, soft, furry seed heads like a bunny’s tail so beloved by flower arrangers. As this variety is on taller stems, it likes full sun and well-drained soil. L. ovatus was introduced to cultivation in Britain by 1640 and is widely grown. It was first recorded in the wild in 1791 in Guernsey, where it has long been naturalised. Deliberate attempts to establish it in Jersey were eventually successful in the 1860s. It appears to be increasing as an established alien on sand dunes in the southwest.
This is an unusual evergreen grass with fine-textured, coppery-brown foliage that has attractively curled leaf tips and takes on a lovely hint of pink in the summer. It has a unique and beautiful colouring and forms a dense mound of foliage which is ideal for planting on the edge of a mixed border so that it’s allowed to trail gracefully over the lawn. Silvery-white flower spikes which bow to the ground under the weight of the seed heads are produced between July and September, adding further colour and interest to the garden well into the autumn months. It is tolerant of a wide range of conditions and looks great when grown as a specimen plant surrounded by green groundcover.
Stipa gigantea Stipa gigantea is a striking evergreen grass, forming a spiky clump of arching deep green foliage from which a huge sheaf of long-stemmed, oat-like flower-heads erupts in mid-summer. When mature, these splay apart to make a wide fountain shape that almost hides the plant. The seedheads dry out naturally on the plant and persist into early winter, where they make a good architectural feature, especially when outlined in frost. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it its prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM). It is an excellent alternative to pampas grass as a lawn specimen in small gardens, and is perfect for growing in a border or a gravel garden. Grow in moist but welldrained soil in full sun to partial shade.
Pennisetum × advena ‘Skyrocket’
This ornamental grass has green foliage with white margins and small, bristly cream-red flower spikes appearing in summer. A gorgeous, great value ornamental grass that looks great planted in a large clump where the flower spikes swaying in the breeze, making it a real eye catcher. For best results plant in a sunny spot in well-drained sheltered position.
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Clockwise from top left: Stipa gigantea, Lagurus ovatus, Hakonechloa macra aureola, Pennistem alopecuroides, Stipa tenuissima, Carex buchananii, Pennisetum × advena
Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’
Here’s some wonderful options for adding to your garden
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The
The
24. Poisonous substance found in the seeds of the sabadilla (9) DOWN 1. This palmetto is also known as Garfield’s tree (5) 2. Alternative name for the cornflower (10) 3. Fully blossomed as of a flower or plant (2,5) 4. Small African tree which produces oily nuts (4)
country gardener CROSSWORD
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Welcome back to our popular gardening themed crossword compiled by Saranda which over the past year has become enormously popular with readers. The winning entry to be drawn by us will receive £100 of RHS gift tokens. Completed entries should be sent to Mount House, Halse, Taunton, Somerset TA4 3AD. closing date for entries is Friday, 23rd September. winner of the August issue crossword was Richard Spencer from Exeter.
17. Having a distinctive smell such as a plant (7) 19. English poet (1572-1631) who wrote ‘The Blossome’ (5) 21. The holm oak or holly (4) WIN £100 IN RHS GIFT TOKENS
CROSSWORD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 WOOGLBEFLERTOPICAL ORRRABIIAEA OORPKFIEVLANCASTRIAN GDCUPVIKIS WONNNALTAAIRSEETPEA GDETNSANN CUCDCDRPEEEASETILES HSEEAALITI OOGOODDESTRNERRIDTT OOOEFLNLIU RCNNDRRURALIESPEYESS GODKDFTKNE MGOCRUETEPEALLSPIEA OORIAIIALI MOOCNCEPTSRANSNAILS UPTIYEPIST GOOHETLYISLEHEATHER WPTYCRGRE OORPTUBERATENECTARUS RNRRRELEKSS NRRRATTEYATTLESAKE Answers from previous, August 2022:37
22. Famous school where Luxmoore, a housemaster, created a special garden (4) 23. Small genus of South American trees yielding latex (5)
5. Area of parkland within a city, considered beneficial to people’s health (5,4) 7. Biblical plant that symbolises beauty (4,2,6) 9. Plant genus whose members include birthwort and Dutchman’s pipe (12) 13. Genus of flowering plants found in Northern Brazil (10) 14. Permeated with pine gum or sap; often applied to Greek wines (9)
Investing is like gardening in that you need to think ahead to create a plan that will meet your long-term objectives. You must start by planting the seeds and continue feeding and nurturing your investment plan.
Editorial Publisher & Editor: Alan Lewis Tel:alan@countrygardener.co.uk01823431767
Three plots close to mine have been abandoned in midsummer as their owners who were active and interested in April and May sowing seeds, applying compost, sowing, weeding and planting just didn’t have the patience to see it through. The tomatoes have gone wild, the spring onions dried and shrivelled, the courgettes now huge inedible marrows, the leeks dried out and hopeless, the onions the size of marbles. They seem to think that after all that hard work early in the year they can sit back, go down to the plot once a fortnight and expect to reap harvests galore.
I have tackled some of them about it and the best answer is they ran out of time. They ran out of patience. It is called a growing season and the clue is in the word season. You can’t just stop at the end of May. Patience is a virtue in many aspects of life, but particularly so in gardening. Plants take their own sweet time to bloom, to produce fruit, to become mature. So, gardeners must be patient. I watch as life begins to emerge from the soil. Never all at once but rather slowly, steadily and in its own time. I learned not to give up on my plants just because they were taking a little while to grow. My willingness to wait for my plants to do their thing began to bleed into the way I thought about other parts of my life. To build a successful garden you must plan, prepare the earth, and plant seeds long before reaping the benefits.
The Country Gardener magazines are distributed FREE at Nurseries, garden centres, National Trust Properties, open gardens, garden machinery specialists, country stores and farm shops in each county. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or made available in any form, without the written permission of the copyright holder and Publisher, application for which should be made to the Publisher. Unsolicited material: do not send or submit your only version of manuscripts and/or photographs/transparencies to us as these cannot be returned to you. While every care is taken to ensure that material submitted is priced accurately and completely, we cannot be responsible or liable for any loss or damage suffered. Views and/or opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Country Gardener or the Publisher. Printed by Mortons Print Ltd, Morton Way, Boston Road Industrial Estate, Horncastle, LN9 6JR.
One Country Gardener regular reader has written to us asking to be anonymous as he criticises his fellow allotment holders and family members for not having the patience to be proper gardeners ‘I learned not to give up on my plants just because they were taking a little while to grow.’
‘Gardeners lose patience too easily’
Cath PettyferTel:cath.pettyfer@countrygardener.co.ukDevon0183782660 Corina Reay - Cotswolds & Tel:corina@countrygardener.co.ukDorset01823410098 Classifieds classified@countrygardener.co.uk
My gardening ‘comrades’ on our Dorset allotment and I love your magazine even if sometimes we have to work hard to get a copy.
‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’
• Raspberries take three years to establish a wellfruiting patch.
• Rhubarb and asparagus should grow for three full years before harvesting the fourth.
Time Off Kate Lewis timeoff@countrygardener.co.uk Advertising Sales Ava Bench - Somerset & Tel:ava@countrygardener.co.ukHampshire01278786139
Design & Production Aidan Gill aidan@countrygardener.co.uk Gemma Stringer gemma@countrygardener.co.uk
• Tree growth varies by type, but eight to twelve inches per year is common. Starting from a five-foot-tall spruce, expect to wait about 20 years until it reaches 25 feet.
• Fig trees need four years before they yield the first fruit. My point is far too many gardeners don’t think like this anymore. Not round here they don’t! I have three favourite quotes which back up my case I hope in not too sentimental a way.
Distribution & Stockists Pat Eade Tel:distribution@countrygardener.co.uk01594543790 Accounts and subscriptions Heather Rose heather@countrygardener.co.uk Magazines
‘The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit’
I’ve been tempted to write to you for a few months now, but I’ve not wanted to get into the bad books of some of the guys and gals who garden alongside me. So, taking the advice of my wife, as I do most times by the way, I’m going to be anonymous, which I hope will protect the innocent! It will become clear why this is a sensible option. My gripe is that I think gardeners are these days losing their patience in a big way and by doing so are missing out on the great joy of gardening. I have several pieces of evidence. Some of them are on our allotment. One other involves my son and daughter-in-law. Let’s deal with the family one first. They moved into a new house just outside of Dorchester and had the chance to build a long-term garden - a good sized plot that would allow them to grow vegetables and have borders, shrubs and a lovely garden. They read a lot. I spoke to them about what to do. It would take five years I thought. But they didn’t have the patience. A large turfed lawn went down, a few mature trees dropped in at great expense and lots of decking and paving. That kind of gardening isn’t gardening, of course. It’s landscaping. Gardening is the work of building something over years, not days. And they didn’t have the patience, as simple as that. You can have an ‘instant garden’ if you buy huge plants, but they are hard to settle in and they are more likely to die. It’s usually better to choose smaller plants, and to let them find their feet in your garden’s own microclimate and grow in their own sweet time. What’s more, it seems to me that instant gardens generally don’t seem to have the same magical qualities as a garden where patience and time have been allowed to do their work. I have always been drawn to plants and gardens. As a young gardener, as young as five years old, I struggled with impatience. Even as an adult and as I became a more serious gardener, I wanted results fast. Now, with decades under my belt, I have finally come to appreciate the value of Plantpatience.theright plant in the right place – somewhere where it has elbow room, and somewhere where the soil, the shelter and the sunshine are right. If you take care of plants they will usually grow for you -that’s part of the fascination of gardening. Our allotment also proves my case and if it were up to me there’s at least half a dozen who shouldn’t be allowed to have a plot because they don’t have the soul for gardening.
READER’S STORY
•Remember:Appletrees require three to nine years for a substantial harvest.
‘A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in’
Nitrogen: Dried blood, blood meal, cottonseed meal, fish emulsion, seaweed extract
And the best part – You can easily make your own compost (nature’s superfood) for free. All the ingredients you need come from many things you would otherwise throw away from inside and outside your house. Non-compost, organic nutrients When shopping for other organic alternatives to feed your soil, options are often listed primarily by what they are, such as blood or bone meal or rock phosphate. Here is a partial listing of the most commonly available organic nutrients sorted by their role for providing nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium.
Soil consultant and Country Gardener writer David Burrows from Dorset says there is another world below the soil surface that gardeners don’t fully appreciate ‘Feed the soil, and let the soil feed the plants’
Somewhere on the labelling, you’ll find those three important numbers representing their total analysis of nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium. Understanding these numbers is the key to knowing what role that product will play in your garden.
Compost improves soil drainage, yet allows soil to retain sufficient moisture. It helps create the type of soil structure that is critical for nutrients and water to be absorbed, and roots to spread. Compost also helps reduce soil erosion and runoff. It protects plants from certain diseases, moderates pH levels, feeds earthworms and other soil-dwelling creatures, supports beneficial microorganisms, is known to be a growth stimulant, and even buffers toxins in the soil.
How does feeding the soil help our plants? Scientists tell us that in ideal conditions, soil is teeming with billions of beneficial microorganisms that provide plants with everything they need to grow and prosper naturally. That takes as read we haven’t been damaging our soil with synthetic fertilisers. Instead, we should improve the soil with a steady supply of organic mattercompost, shredded leaves, or aged manure - to promote plant growth by maintaining a healthy soil food web. Think of it regarding our own bodies. If we’re trying to be as healthy as we can, do we fill up on a bunch of junk food every time we’re hungry? Or do we opt for something that satisfies our hunger craving but also isn’t loading our bodies with a bunch of fat building empty calories? It’s the junk food versus whole foods argument, but applied to plants. Plants can get their primary nutrients in one of two ways. The first is through synthetic fertilisers. This is typically salt-based compounds which include nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus. Those chemicals become available to the plant as the particles dissolve, or when they pass by the roots, as with water-soluble fertilisers. There is no denying this is a proven way to get nutrients into the plant quickly. And it works. But so does junk food to ease your hunger pangs—temporarily. While your plants will respond to the fertilizer, and your taste buds will love the junk food, is that how you want to take care of your health… or the health of your plants long Nutrientsterm?that aren’t immediately taken up as they pass by the roots are gone forever. And that says nothing about the salt remaining behind. It’s organic matter such as compost and organic fertiliser that builds the lasting health of the soil. If synthetics are junk food, then this organic matter is health food… and my method of choice for building long-term soil quality. In this method, rather than trying to satisfy the immediate craving by supplying a quick fix with no real lasting nutritional value, the focus instead is on giving soil what it needs to naturally provide nutrients that are available to plant roots when needed most. These organic nutrients must first be broken down and digested by soil organisms, from bacteria and fungi to other soil-dwelling creatures including small insects up to the mighty earthworm. Collectively, they release nutrients in an organic form that plants can use, while also improving soil structure. Unlike water-soluble synthetic chemicals, organically-derived nutrients bind to soil particles and are far less likely to leech. The net result is a cache of nutrients that remain in the soil until utilised by plants… with little risk to plants of burning or dehydration, even in periods of extreme drought or over-application. As we continue to feed the soil with organic matter (through compost, leaf litter, worm castings, food scraps, natural fertiliser, etc.) existing soil organisms utilise these inputs and continue to supply food and nutrients for a soil environment that supports other living organisms and plant life. The result is a thriving, balanced ecosystem. Just the way nature intended. Whether you buy or make it, compost is the absolute best way to feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants. I believe it’s the single most important ingredient anyone can add to their garden. Beyond adding life and fertility to the soil, it does so much more.
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Phosphorus: Bone meal, rock phosphate Potassium: Greensand, sulfate of potash
“It’s organic matter such as compost and organic fertiliser that builds the lasting health of the soil”
