Gardening

The post-lockdown garden

Through the unprecedented events of this year, our gardens have become more important than we could ever have imagined in those carefree preCoronavirus times. Although restrictions are easing, it is still likely to be a long while before travel and holidays become their old relaxing selves. Instead, look at how to re-organise your garden for a ‘staycation’ summer. Meeting family and friends outdoors is Covid-safe, so the ideal gathering spot is a good-sized patio with potential for socially-distanced overspill. When planning a patio area, the commonest trap to fall into is ‘undersizing’ – because paving does look expansive when empty or measured out on bare ground. But once occupied by a table and several chairs, possibly a few planted containers; allowing for space to push chairs back from the table and move around, and the space soon fills. Adjacent lawn makes for easy guest overspill, using folding chairs or outdoor beanbags. Extra ‘occasional’ seating can be made in the form of widetopped raised beds made with wooden sleepers, or stone topped with slate. Fill these with fragrant flowers and aromatic foliage, and your patio will become your own little ‘paradise garden’. My summer favourites include pale pink Nemesia ‘Confetti’, with a light floral fragrance that lives up to its name; dark red Chocolate Cosmos with a mouthwatering scent and late-flowering Gladiolus murielae, while the rich perfumes of tobacco plants (Nicotiana) and Oriental lilies intensify in the evening and night. Get the most from your space by growing up: sweet peas and star jasmine (Trachelospermum) clamber up arches, trellis and obelisks. All these plants are great for containers, borders or raised beds, so you can have perfume anywhere that gets a reasonable amount of sun. Watching wildlife in the garden was one of the great discoveries of lockdown for a huge number of people,

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coming as it did at the start of the breeding season. Without traffi c, birds were able to make themselves heard and were able to set up home in previously inaccessible places. In our garden, a constantly open shed door meant swallows were able to prospect and, with the aid of a hastily put-up artifi cial nest, are busy raising a brood, to my absolute delight. Hedgehogs have reappeared and can be heard after dark noisily prospecting for slugs and snails. Entice more wildlife in with food, water and shelter: go chemical-free and wildlife will munch up the organic slugs and bugs; install boxes for birds, bats and hedgehogs, as well as dense thorny shrubs; and water in any form. A new garden pond would be a wonderful legacy of this lockdown year. For anyone who is still shielding, a selection of bird feeders (go to www.rspb. org.uk) would make a wonderful gift that’s likely to give many hours of pleasure.

Keep calm and grow veg

‘Keep calm and grow veg’ pretty much summed up my approach to lockdown, which saw sales of vegetable seed and plants absolutely rocket as the nation turned to home growing. In response to fear of food shortages, yes, but also as a something to fulfi l a real practical purpose to fi ll suddenly empty days. Hopefully you’ll now be tucking into this summer’s harvest - here are some timely tips to carry on growing all year round.

Tips on how to ‘grow your own’ - Feed tomatoes and other fruitproducing crops (such as cucumbers and peppers) with a weekly liquid producing crops (such as cucumbers and peppers) with a weekly liquid feed, for a bigger, better harvest. - Sow quick growing veg little and often to harvest in late summer and autumn, such as beetroot, radish, rocket, lettuce, baby carrots and spinach. If the soil is dry, make the seed drill (shallow trench) using a trowel or hoe, and water well before sowing the seed. - In late summer and autumn, sow hardy crops to harvest next spring, like perpetual spinach, turnips and Swiss chard. - Sowing seed in small pots or modules means you’ll have young plants ready to put into any gaps that appear as you harvest. Rootrainers (deep grooved pots) are perfect for larger plants. - Buy young veg plants such as kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli which will crop over winter and into next year. Protect with fi ne insect mesh to keep off pests and pigeons. - Plant strawberries for a luscious harvest next summer. They grow well in containers – even hanging baskets and window boxes.

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If this is your fi rst time of growing your own and you’ve had a few disasters, don’t be discouraged. Every garden has successes and failures: at the moment my brassicas have lacy-edged leaves due to an invasion of wood pigeons; some of my seeds didn’t appear (lettuce doesn’t germinate well in the heat); and the dry conditions were ideal for a plague of red ants on my soft fruit. I’ve now planted Pennyroyal mint round my fruit patch, which deters slugs. There’s lots of advice and information on the internet

specifi cally for ‘lockdown’ gardeners like the excellent www.digforvictory.org. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) was quick off the mark to launch ‘Grow at Home’, with advice that covers veg, fruit, herbs and fl owers, as well as lots of great projects for children. www.edenproject.com/learn also has many superb ideas to inspire and occupy children through the long summer holidays. Pardon the pun, but it could sow the seed of an interest that can last a lifetime. n Sue Fisher

Clockwise from above: Fragrant lavender at RHS Rosemoor; Honeysuckle; Gladiolus murieliae, Tobacco plant blossoms; Sweet peas

GARDEN DESIGNER & HORTICULTURAL SPECIALIST Inspirational ideas to transform your garden

Sue continues to be available for garden advisory visits and design work, operating according to Covid-19 social distancing guidelines. Sue’s book on growing food in small spaces, ‘Growing up the Wall’, is available from www.greenbooks.co.uk