15 minute read
Gardening Mary Payne MBE
New Year resolutions for gardeners
A HAPPYNew Year to you all. Snowdrops are already pushing up through the soil and all plants are preparing for the new growing season ahead. Let’s take time to resolve to care for our precious planet while all plants are doing their bit as well in our gardening activities. Here are my suggestions for how you can help. 1. Try not to impulse buy – we all succumb to a good-looking plant with rarely a thought as to where the plant would like to grow. Our thoughts tend go to where we would like it to grow. It is far better to make a list of what would be happy in the gap that you have, with regards to shade, water availability and size. 2. Try to use bee friendly plants – we must all become very conscious that our pollinators are so important to us and that is not only honey bees. Bumble bees, and many other insects, also play their part. Plants that have open single flowers are preferred by bees and insects, although bees will bite a hole in the tube of some flowers to access the nectar. Some plants are able to produce more nectar after a visitation by a bee ready for the next visitor. Choose a selection of plants to give you both pleasure, and the bees and insects pleasure in every month of the year. 3. Use British raised plants from a local nursery if possible. So many plants are imported from the EU that the chance of bringing in a serious pest or disease is very likely. Every plant now has a plant passport, so its origins can be traced should a major problem arise. Bedding plants start life as a seed raised in one country, the seed is sown in another, and tiny plug plants raised in another, and sent to the UK to be grown on to garden centre size, not a good carbon footprint for a plant that itself is contributing so much. 4. Avoid pesticides, where possible, by better observation and early intervention by leaf picking or squashing the odd pest. Most UK growers under glass or tunnels are using integrated pest management which involves using insect friendly pesticides, only if absolutely necessary, and supplementing with a wide range of biological controls now available to them (and us). 5. Try to use peat-free composts. Finding a good multipurpose potting compost that is peat free is proving difficult. Peat was the perfect growing medium, but we are all keen to reduce peat use as peat bogs are fantastic carbon sinks and many are now being re- flooded and re-seeded with sphagnum moss. The inclusion of composted green waste by some manufacturers has proved controversial. Unlike peat it is not a stable, uniform product and has led to nutrient deficiencies and, in my own experience, classic hormone weedkiller damage. Coir (coconut fibre) is often used, but should we really be importing this by-product? Wood pulp, made from old pallets is proving popular, which is why you are seeing small toadstools popping up in your pots. Composted bark is another useful peat substitute. Can you reuse your old compost? So long as you have not had an attack of vine weevil larvae, then I suggest you use the compost from your summer pots and grow your spring flowering bulbs in it. After that it can be used as a soil improver on your garden. 6. Try to use bio-degradable netting for beans. Taking down
With MARY PAYNE MBE
the runner beans or annual climbers and trying to disentangle the haulms from the plastic netting is frustrating to say the least. Last year I made my own jute bean netting during lockdowns from a ball of jute string, using fishing netting techniques learnt from You Tube! I also re-use plastic labels. A quick scrub with a soap-filled steel wool pad cleans off the old writing. Purchased white plastic labels are very hard to write on in pencil which is the only permanent solution for plant labels. Even so-called permanent pens fade in the sun. Wooden labels or lollipop sticks rot away remarkably fast. You may have noticed that most garden centre plants pots are no longer black but taupe coloured, as recycling machines cannot identify black. 7. Visit gardens in your area and beyond that open for the National Gardens Scheme for new ideas for your own garden and help raise money for nursing, caring and well-being charities 8. Designate an area for wildlife e.g. log pile, bug hotel. We do not have to have loads of nettles and weeds to encourage wildlife, our gardens are havens for them, so keep your eyes open for bumblebee nests in the ground, sadly often predated by badgers, miner bee nests in your lawn or old mortar in walls. They are all fascinating to watch. Even wasps have their place and eat greenfly early in the season before they rasp away your wooden fence! 9. Use water sparingly, select drought tolerant plants for containers and line terracotta pots with old carrier bags to cut down on water loss through the sides. Plant the right plant in the right place and it will thrive once established. 10. Check your box plants regularly, from April onwards, for the first signs of the box bush caterpillar which is in our area. Look for the tell-tale signs of webbing and eaten foliage. Pick off as many caterpillars as possible whilst awaiting the arrival of the biological control Topbuxus Xentari, a very effective bacteria specific to caterpillars. This pest can be as destructive as the gooseberry sawfly which can defoliate a bush almost overnight.
Let’s look forward to a productive new gardening year, hopefully the worst of the pandemic will be behind us. Our gardens kept us going during lockdowns and taught many new to gardening what a rewarding pastime it can be, not only for our physical wellbeing, but for our minds as well.
Bug hotel
• Mist over the tops of houseplants regularly especially if they are in a room with central heating. Water carefully; it is better to let plants dry out between waterings and then give a thorough soak than a small amount regularly. • Clean houseplant leaves with leaf shine. Dusty leaves will struggle in low light at this time of year and polished ones look so much better! • Group plants together, the display will look better, but more importantly, they grow better together as a group. • Feed indoor plants monthly; but make sure the root ball is wet first, if not water first! • Keep Citrus cool unless they are actively growing. • If your living room is looking bare once you have taken out the Christmas tree and taken down the decorations, why not liven up the room with a houseplant • Keep deadheading Cyclamen, African Violets, Christmas Cacti and Azaleas to encourage more flowers to open. Don't forget to keep Cyclamen and Azaleas as cool as possible for prolonged flowering. • When the days and nights are very cold, move plants away from cold windowsills into a warmer place! • Apply a good general fertiliser to all borders. • Gather up and burn diseased leaves from under roses and fruit. • Check tree ties and stakes. • Plant when the weather is mild and when the soil is not wet, sticky or frozen hard. Improve the planting area with well-rotted compost or manure.
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PERFECT PAVE
Perfect Pave, based on the Valley Line industrial estate, in Cheddar, has built an enviable reputation over the last 16 years for the quality of its work installing block paving and other landscaping products. Now founders Alex Howley and Simon Bethell have set up a new service run by James Starmer supplying these products to both the trade and public, as well as continuing to expand their installation team. e company now has contracts all over the South West and offers a wide choice of projects.
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Looking to the future
Temple Cloud shines
CONGRESBURY Gardening Club has announced that plans have already been made for a return to full activity in the year ahead.
A spring show is planned for March 22nd, a plant sale on May 7th and the summer rose show on June 25th. Outings are planned to Bristol Botanic Gardens and the Malvern Spring Show.
Speakers have been booked for every monthly meeting until May, starting with Colin Higgins of YACWAG talking about Gardening for Insects on Thursday, January 6th.
President Ann Gunner paid tribute to three long-standing members, Ian and Norma Penny and Margaret Weston, who have died this year.
TEMPLECloud in Bloom members brought some festive cheer to the village by putting lights on planters, trees and the bus shelter by the village green.
The next working party is on Saturday, January 15th when new helpers would be very welcome.
GARDEN Designer Eliza Gray is looking forward to 2022 following a busy and successful time last year, Dami Howard and Pam Jeffery which saw her win the Muddy Stilettoes Award for Best Garden Designer across Dorset and Somerset. She said: “I have been designing gardens across the region for more than 15 years, so I was thrilled to receive this recognition of my work. “Following lockdown, it has been an incredibly busy time and I am so pleased to be able to help people to create gardens where they love to spend time. “Now is the time to plan ahead for next summer – demand for good designers and landscapers means that they are often booked up months in advance, so winter is always the best time to be planning for summer the following year.”
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NGS support for charities
THENational Garden Scheme has announced donations of more than £3million to its beneficiary charities, despite the ongoing restrictions and uncertainty that continued throughout the early months of 2021.
This was only slightly lower than the pre-pandemic donation made in 2019 of £3,106,208. NGS schemes in our area raised £212,113.
The main beneficiaries were Marie Curie, Macmillan Cancer Support, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, The Queen’s Nursing Institute and Parkinson’s UK.
Details: https://bit.ly/NGSImpactReport2021
Time to plan ahead
Details: www.elizagraygardens.co.uk
Kids get planting
Words and pictures by Ros Anstey
CHILDRENfrom Stanton Drew Primary School have been busy planting bulbs, as they did last year, thanks to more donations from villagers, organised by Shirley and Pete Edwards.
This year two volunteers dug the holes the day before and then the school was ready to go, with a wheelbarrow full of bulbs.
Molly with her school buddy Harry Getting ready to plant
Poppy prepares to plant bulbs Elijah with bulbs he is about to plant
Railway gardeners are “outstanding”
VOLUNTEER gardeners at the Somerset and Dorset Heritage Railway in Midsomer Norton have been awarded a certificate of “outstanding” from South West in Bloom for their entry in the “It’s Your Neighbourhood” category.
Judges praised their use of colourful planting schemes appropriate to the industrial heritage theme at Midsomer Norton Station and also the links between the railway volunteers and local schools particularly the Mendip School and the Fosse Way school whose students who had regularly worked at the site.
Busy Christmas at Shoscombe
SHOSCOMBEChurch School has been busy with Christmas shows! The youngest children performed a nativity, Years 1 and 2 put on performances of the Ugly Duckling and the oldest children hosted a carol service.
School passes inspection
SIDCOTSchool was inspected at the start of November by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. The team carried out a Regulatory Compliance Inspection which looked at all the standards schools are required to meet, including those relevant to boarding. The inspection team met Iain Kilpatrick with students and staff, including members of the Board of Governors. They issued pre-inspection questionnaires to parents, students and staff as part of their evidence collection.
Headmaster, Iain Kilpatrick, said: “We are delighted to report that the school was found to be compliant in all areas.”
Sidcot School is an independent school with around 600 students from around the world. It is a Quaker school and places an emphasis on peace and global studies within the curriculum.
It is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All staff appointments are subject to a DBS enhanced check.
Frank flies to 100!
FRANKOtt is hoping to make a nostalgic return to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton – to mark his 100th birthday.
The museum has the medals he won in WW2, when he and his pilot led an attack on a Japanese cruiser. It also has an American Avenger torpedo bomber, which is the type he flew.
He was a volunteer at the museum for many years and wrote a book for the Society of Friends there, Air Power at Sea, marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the war.
Frank lived in Litton for many years, while he was bursar at the University of Bristol and now lives in Wells. He is a former member of Glastonbury Male Voice Choir.
He celebrates his 100th birthday on January 5th.
Supporting nature
VARIOUSprojects are benefiting from the 12-month Levels Up scheme launched in the spring to support nature across Somerset.
Annie Cowell, coordinator, said: “This includes work to improve river water quality in the headwaters that flow into Chew Valley Lake; supporting the Westbury-sub-Mendip Community Tree Group to develop their tree nursery to grow locally native trees; improving boundaries for grazing animals and visitors at a number of sites near Priddy.”
In February the project will host a series of events to provide information to farmers on the new and emerging Environmental Land Management Scheme.
Chew Valley plants trees
MOREthan 100 trees have been planted at Chew Valley School thanks to a group of pupils, who call themselves the school’s climate action team, run by sixth formers Lauren Thomas and Jenny Heath, led by teacher Rose Taylor.
The team meets every Friday in school and consists of members from years 7-10, although all years are welcome.
Jenny said: “We have around 25 members, including Lauren and I who are spending part of our gap year volunteering at the school.”
PROTESTORS opposed to the planned relocation of a mental health unit in Wells have staged a further demonstration outside the building.
The Save St Andrew’s Group wants the Somerset Care Commissioning Group to overturn their decision to transfer the beds in St Andrew’s Ward at the Priory Health Park to Yeovil as part of their plans to improve mental health provision in the county.
Those opposed claim a lack of transport will make it difficult for patients living in Mendip to access the services. They also fear Somerset County Council will have to pay for gaps in the provision out of its adult social care budget.
Emma King, one of the protest organisers, said: “The move is purely for the convenience of the CCG and fails to take into account the legitimate needs of service users and the local community.
“This is why we firmly believe that the CCG needs to invest in St Andrew's Ward properly and reopen Phoenix in order to provide local people with the services they need in light of the growing population and the growing need for mental health provision in the light of the pandemic.”
The protestors were hoping to reach 4,000 names on a petition against the plans by the end of December. It can be found at: https://chng.it/QKZVFzvyzV
Campaign continues against ward plans
