Baldock Gardens

By Graham Tapp

I'm going to start with an apology. In the November edition, I wrote about the bad weather we had here in 1987 when we had minus twelve degrees centigrade for weeks and lots of snow. I think I intimated that wouldn't happen again as we haven't had snow or cold weather like that for years; what happens is Minus twelve and lots of snow.

So sorry it was my fault. I should not have tempted fate.

Not this time. I intend to write about something very different, which will be about communication, not the sort we are used to, speaking, hand signals, body language, corresponding etc., the things we use daily, but the language of plants.

Back in the seventies and eighties, anyone who spoke of plants communicating with each other would have to sit in a corner at the back of the room with a big pointy hat. When I was at agricultural college in the early seventies, research had only just started on it and was spoken about very quietly at the local pub, never openly in class.

What was always discussed, and with great merriment, was that some people were talking to their plants, and a certain HRH ( Sorry Sir) was known to discuss the subject openly; what did we know? It seems that the joke is on us: it now appears that playing music and talking to your plants benefits them.

More recently, this work has taken a step nearer mainstream research, and several well-known universities, mainly in America, have been investing time and money into it.

Plants evidently have been communicating for millions of years, many years longer than humans or animals.

My understanding of the research, as it appears today, is minimal, so I intend to swat up on it as this is not basic stuff. Simply put, plants can inform others of their kind that they are under attack or something is eating them.

Its believed and has been chiefly proven that plants release volatiles (compounds emitted from plant organs). The easiest way for me to describe a warning volatile is the smell of freshly cut grass; this contains many warnings of danger for the grass and the plants growing in the lawn.

It has been discovered that in some plants, when attacked or eaten by an insect or herbivore, the plant will release compounds that trigger other plants to produce different chemical volatiles that may repel the attacker.

Can you imagine your gardens full of secret chemical messages blowing around in the wind?

Similarly, something is going on below ground; researchers have found that plants communicate through their roots by secreting small amounts of chemicals called root exudates, sending signals to every other living thing in the root zone.

It is believed that plants can identify the stress state of other nearby plants, thus enabling them to take preventive actions. For instance, if a plant indicates that it is suffering from a lack of moisture, nearby plants will adapt to preserve water and pass the message on to others.

Further research shows that plants can indicate that they are short of nutrients and water via their roots as well as using vegetative volatiles. As far as I am aware, it is not proven whether this is by root interaction or has some involvement with fungal mycorrhizal colonization. Further, research indicates that in older forestations, there may be such things as mother trees that are older than most, and these have put their roots down deeper and wider so they can make use of nutrients that some of the other trees cannot. In this instance, it seems that the massive web of underground mycelium formed by the woodland fungi can distribute nutrients and water from the mother or older trees to the younger trees.

There is, of course, always a debt to be paid for this complicated interaction. Paid for by the host plants in the feed needed by the fungi, they take this when transferring the water or nutrients from one to the other, a win-win situation.

You will no doubt have seen and heard on television the famous gardeners and garden presenters that push the use of mycorrhizal fungi and that you can buy at good garden centres and online.

I have been to see mycorrhizal trials in Holland, where they had square kilometre after square kilometre of glass houses with plants under test with mycorrhizal fungi; these plants went literally as far as you can see, but with no real visible difference. Many of the growers in the trial were very disappointed; maybe some changes will have taken place over a few years, and it may take a long time for the mycelial connections to evolve. I have not been back for a couple of years due to covid, but I will sometime soon.

I sell mycorrhizal fungi, as do most garden centres, but with every potential sale, I explain what I've just written and ask whether its purchase is going to give the return on investment they think they will get if you provide the plants with the feed they need to do what you want them to do, flowers, fruit or lovely foliage then you don't need to put it in.

I suppose it is all related to what I have been writing recently. To dig or not to dig? Again is the question, if you leave the soil undisturbed, you may eventually build up a network of mycelium.

The system seems to work over years and years in forests on poor soil with no system or interference to bring in nutrients other than recycling the leaf fall from the trees (leaf Mulch). Still, if, as all good gardeners do, you feed and water appropriately, there is no need for it; also, if you grow in hanging baskets, gro bags, or pots, there is nowhere to acquire the nutrients from or many plants to communicate with.

I have written this piece to encourage a different thought process when planting this spring and summer. If, after consideration, you are going to try some mycorrhizal fungi, can I ask you to come and discuss the results? I would love to hear from you about your experience so we can fill in some knowledge gaps. Don't expect miracle differences. Indeed, don't buy a van to transport your extra crops. Cheers

Too much choice out there? Spend more time deciding what to watch than actually watching something?

LET BALDOCK'S RESiDENT TV GLUTTON HELP YOU ON YOUR MiSSiON!

Slow Horses – Apple TV

Looking for some espionage entertainment that brings in some light-hearted jokes and never takes itself too seriously? Apple TV+'s excellent Slow Horses can help ease you into the new year then. Gary Oldman (all kneel at the alter to worship him) plays Jackson Lamb, a curmudgeonly old MI5 agent charged with looking aer Slough House – the place where washed up MI5 agents go to see out their careers (hence 'Slow Horses') aer large scale gaffes and calamies of their own doing. Oldman plays the world weary 'seen it all, got the t-shirt' ring master Lamb with perfecon as he is joined by a rag tag group of agents all keen to impress in the hope they can get themselves back to MI5 proper. Two series are available now on Apple TV of this spy drama that sits somewhere between Spooks, Killing Eve and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. A 3rd season is due later in 2023. *A brief nod to Apple TV+ who are killing it right now with their quality over quanty mantra – Oscar winning film CODA, Severance, Ted Lasso, Bad Sisters……the list goes on*

Big Boys – All 4 ( formerly 4OD)

Available on the Channel 4 catch up streamer, I stumbled upon Big Boys over the in-between days between Christmas and New Year. A comedy that hinges on ITV dayme TV in jokes, Alison Hammond references and stale University jokes wouldn't usually pull me in. But, like an onion there are many layers to this coming-of-age comedy wrien by comedian Jack Rooke and based on his stand up tour. Derry Girl's ('the wee English fella') Dylan Llewellyn plays the teenage Jack, who is heartbroken by the death of his father and later leaves home and his loving mum, Peggy, for university. Jack is crippled by shyness and doesn't know how to tell his Mum he's gay. In his halls he meets Danny (Jon Poinng), a jack-the-lad who appears to be only focussed on bars, girls and the banter. What follows is a really tender portrayal or grief, loss, mental illness and an important discussion on 'lad-hood' and modern-day masculinity and emoons. The last episode brought a tear or two. Lines like “neighbours showed they cared by dumping lasagnes on the doorstep like unwanted babies” aer the death of Jack's father, are carefully and hilariously played out in this feel good comedy.