Gardening Notes

HEAD Gardener’s NOTES

Andy Eddy, Head Gardener at Osterley Park & House, writes

“Now is the time of year to be ordering and starting to plant seeds for this summer’s display in your garden. We grow many hundreds of types of annuals (plants that grow and flower the same year) here at Osterley in our Cutting Garden which provides cut flowers for display in the mansion. These are all grown, picked and arranged by our lovely volunteer team and help bring the House alive for our visitors. As you can see in the photo we grow ours in orderly rows for ease of picking but annuals can be sown in small patches anywhere where you have a gap that needs an injection of colour. A good tip is to sow the seeds in shallow drills (small trenches) rather than scattering so that when the seeds start to show they will be obvious to the eye and easy to weed around without disturbing your chosen variety. All of the instruction that you need can be followed from the information on the back of the packet. We also grow a huge range of perennials (plants that last for many years) and it is an inexpensive – and fun – way to try some new varieties that you may have seen in other gardens. From one packet of seed you can gain many plants that you can then plant or swap with friends or family. Here at Osterley I order from Chiltern’s Seeds a very reliable company with an interesting and eclectic list of plants. Of course a huge range of seeds is available in you local garden centre year round so there should be no problem in finding something lovely to brighten up your garden or allotment this summer.”