Garden News August 8

SEEDS E FRrE th £ !

August 8 2015

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Penstemon for an instant garden perk-up!

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Carol Klein "Get a smarter plot with my tidying tips!"

S D E E S E FRE 1.99!

Worth

£

SOW NOW FOR

WINTER SALADS!

BEST-EVER

Make

ROSES FOR PERFECT

SHOW BLOOMS

Brilliant bedding bedding!

Discover the plants scoring 10 out of 10 this summer

3

easy steps to better soil this season

summer last longer!

Quick ways to keep borders gap free and full of colour!

BRIGHTEN UP E TRICKY SHplaAntsDfor flowers now Anything-but-dull

AboutNOW

Weedkiller worries continue Retailers lobbied as industry says concerns are unfounded

P

T

he tastes of Britain’s gardeners have changed substantially, it would seem. New research shows we now hanker after things environmental and yearn for high-calibre creature comforts, rather than cheap, decorative items. A survey of 2,000 people by outdoor cleaning specialists Jeyes indicates that in more affluent times making do just won’t do. Out goes the white plastic furniture and old favourites like gnomes, fairy statues and wind chimes, which have all fallen out of fashion. Our desire for wooden and metal patio furniture, gazebos and patio heaters ranks alongside bird feeders and solar lights.

While the research found just a fifth of gardeners felt their outdoor space was tidy, over three-quarters said their space definitely needed sprucing up.

4 Garden News / August 8 2015

In the firing line – weedkiller glyphosate

Bauer

opular weedkiller glyphosate continues to cause widespread concern after being identified as ‘probably carcinogenic’ by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Consequently, environmental bodies such as The Soil Association (TSA), Pesticide Action Network and Friends of the Earth have all lobbied retailers such as Tesco, the Co-op, Morrisons, Asda, B&Q and garden centre chains asking them to withdraw products containing the active ingredient, predominantly branded as Roundup, from public sale. With over 223 products available in the UK, glyphosate is the most widely used weedkiller in the world, with 700 million kg (771,618 tons) used globally in 2012. Its use in agriculture has increased by 400 per cent in the last 20 years, partly due to farmers using it to hasten ripening of corn. TSA presented

data from UK agri-body DEFRA to illustrate the scale of the problem, showing glyphosate residues were found in a third of o UK bread samples and also in urine and breast milk.

Industry bodies the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) and the Crop Protection Association (CPA) have both declared glyphosate safe if used according to manufacturers’ instructions. CPA are also very concerned that lobbyists have misstated IARC’s research. “The IARC programme evaluates cancer hazards, but not risks associated with exposure,” said CPA chief Nick von Westenholz.

“It’s disappointing to see pressure groups misrepresenting the science in using this classification to promote their own agenda, whipping up lesss stated k unles Photos: Shu erstock,

Words Ian Hodgson

concern amongst the public, despite glyphosate’s excellent safety profile. Let’s not forget IARC made similar assessments of items such as coffee, mobile phones, pickled vegetables and aloe vera,” added Nick, “products we are quite capable of using in our day-to-day lives while managing any risk. Crop protection products are no

different.” He considers calls for regulatory action unfounded and risk assessments by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation, along with others, valid in the absence of any significant new information. ● For more information, visit www.glyphosate.eu and www. soilassociation.org

We want natural, not novelty!

Thumbs down for…

Thumbs up for…

1 Solar lights 2 Hanging baskets 3 Bird feeders 4 Wooden patio furniture 5 Patio heaters 6 Ceramic pots 7 Summer houses 8 Metal patio furniture 9 Gazebos 10 Manicured lawns

Favoured – solar lamps…

1 White plastic furniture 2 Gnomes 3 Windmills 4 Crazy paving 5 Fairy statues 6 Swinging seats 7 Tarmac drives 8 Wind chimes 9 Bunting 10 Vintage station clocks

… and bird feeders

Had their day?

Plastic furniture and gnomes

Plant

Penstemons!

OF THE WEEK

Dainty bells to bloom through summer and beyond White ‘Snowstorm’ looks great in a ‘cool’ colour-themed garden

P

Keep them happy Penstemons are tolerant of most soils but they hate to be waterlogged or overshadowed by

Fa ct

Penstemons derive their botanical name from the flower’s five stamens.

other plants. Deadhead them to prolong the display. Their mass of top growth helps to protect the plants from winter weather, so prune the straggly stems in April, after the risk of frost has passed.

Penstemons are easy to propagate from summer cuttings

and will make strong plants within a year.

Penstemons don’t make good cut flowers, as they droop alarmingly. But if you really want to try, sear the stems in hot ho water before steeping them in cold water overnight.

Hayloft

Hayloft

enstemon flowers may look fragile but the plants are pest-proof, long flowering, and unbowed by rain and wind. Most will also tolerate a little frost. They flower from early summer until autumn, filling the gap between early and late summer perfectly.

They come in a wide range of colours including dark plum-purples such as ‘Raven’ and ‘Storm’, plus true blue. Old favourites are the blue-mauve ‘Stapleford Gem’, the whitethroated red ‘King George V’, and wine-red ‘Garnet’, one of the hardiest and oldest varieties, correctly known as ‘Andenken an Friedrich Hahn’.

New introductions such as the Pensham penstemons bred by the late Edward Wilson include the Ice Cream series, with larger flowers on compact plants, ideal for containers.

‘Storm’ is one of the best deep blues

Five beautiful varieties to try

‘Apple Blossom’

One of the oldest and prettiest varieties, with blue-mauve fowers on medium stems.

Height: 60cm (24in).

The delicate pale fowers stand out dramatically against its striking dark foliage.

Height: 60cm (24in).

‘Pensham Wedding Day’

Hayloft

‘Stapleford Gem’

Upright and largefowered, the fared blooms really show of the white throats.

Height: 70cm (28in).

Hayloft

Hayloft

GWI

Hayloft

‘Maurice Gibbs’

‘Midnight’

This white variety is ideal at the front of a border, or in a container.

Height: 80cm (32in).

These sultry blooms in a beautifully rich hue look superb when teamed with pale roses.

Height: 80cm (32in).

● Hayloft Plants, tel: 01386 554440; www.hayloftplants.co.uk

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August 8 2015 / Garden News 5

Quick tips to transform a gap Maximise fowering time Deadhead regularly to get the maximum fowering from your plants.

Sow quick veg If the veg plot is looking bare, sow some quickgrowing salad crops, or oriental veg and salad leaves that aren’t daylength sensitive.

Pop in a pot Fill temporary gaps with displays of container plants. Even an empty pot can look good at the front of the border if it is decorative enough.

GWI

Pam Richa Richarrdson dson

Encourage new leaves

Neaten shapes

Shear away the foliage of earlyfowering perennials such as pulmonaria, oriental poppies and species geraniums, immediately mmediately they’ve f fnished nished fowering. There’ll be a fresh fush of foliage in place in two to o three weeks.

Keep hedges and grass areas trimmed rimmed to provide a neat manicured framework ramework that sets ets borders of of,, whatever their contents ontents are doing!

Create a feature Add texture Leave the spent stems and attractive spiky fower heads of alliums in place, rather than remove them and leave a gap.

16 Garden News / August 8 2015

Use decorative objects, stone urns and statues, woven, metal or painted obelisks, or natural fnds to plug a gap.

WHAT TO DO Meet the tea m

THIS WEEK

Clare Foggett

Ian Hodgson

Karen Murphy

Horticulturist Clare’s 50m (165ft) garden is home to fruit, cut flowers and ornamental borders.

Kew-trained horticulturist and garden designer. Previously with the RHS, Ian is interested in all aspects of gardening.

Keen fruit, veg and ornamental container gardener, Karen is also a wildlife enthusiast.

If y o u d o ju st o n e jo b...

Sow winterwinter cropping salads Taste summer all year round, says Karen

Y

ou’ve probably got plenty of lettuce and salad leaves right now – you may even be getting slightly bored of them! But it’s worth thinking ahead to the winter, when you’ll crave that fresh crunch of a tasty green leaf. Hardy winter salads, sown now, can satisfy that craving and are really easy to grow.

Just imagine picking American land cress (Barbarea verna) in a few months’ time, enjoying its watercressy flavour in warm autumn salads. Or adding the succulent shoots of lamb’s lettuce (also known as corn salad, Valerianella locusta) to crisp, tart apples and walnuts – delicious with pork.

And if you can’t get enough of lettuce, there are plenty of winter hardy varieties that you can sow now for cropping during the colder months, such as stalwart butterheadtype ‘All The Year Round’, which will happily sit out the entire winter on your veg

plot, for picking as and when you want it.

These hardy, tough winter salads are easy to grow. Find a vacated patch of veg plot soil Sow thinly and fork it over to break up along the drill any compaction, then rake thoroughly so the soil is fine.

If you’ve had hungry crops back over and watering well. Alternatively, there, it might be worth scattering a scant handful of blood, fish and bone or Growmore sow in module trays and transplant the young plants outdoors where you want over the area to restore any depleted them, to guarantee regular spacing and the nutrients. Draw out straight drills and thinly right number of plants. scatter the seed along them before covering

Photos: Neil Hepworth unless stated

Garden News RECOMMENDS

Rake soil to break into fine crumbs before sowing

Salad leaves to sow now for fresh winter pickings

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

Lamb’s lettuce

American land cress

Lettuce ‘Grenoble Red’

Succulent, spoon-shaped leaves that are great in a mixed salad. They’ll crop whatever the weather but guarantee quality with a cloche in really harsh weather.

Tasty leaves with a peppery watercress flavour. Have a cloche handy to cover them in severe winter weather, and watch out for flea beetle damage.

Sow to the end of September and harvest until early December, with this red-tinted alpine le uce from chilly Grenoble. Find seed at Seeds of Italy.

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August 8 2015 / Garden News 25