Letters to Wendy: from AG readers

Your

LETTERS TO WENDY

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com

A boost for fundraising

LIKE many gardeners I have “collected” the free seeds I receive with the magazine, not always having space to grow them. This year I grew many of the packets and sold the plants at a sale on my drive. I made £200 which I divided between the Alzheimer’s Society and the Frailty and Dementia Ward at our local hospital. Thank you for helping really deserving causes.

Steph Hall

Wendy says Well done Steph for growing on your spare packets.

A r c h i v e T I

Star letter

Steph grew plants from packets of free seeds and raised £200

Winning compost is too pricey

PHEW, gardening will be getting more expensive if we have to follow the rules. Dobbies new Peat-free John Innes 1, 2 and 3 won the inaugural prize for the sustainability product at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Good news and bad news. The good news, some people reckon it’s the bees’ knees. The bad news, it costs a whopping £3.99 for 10 litres and £5.99 for 25 litres.

What proper gardener buys 25 litre bags for their plots. Am I right or am I wrong? Check it out.

Tony Hoare, Bootle, Merseyside

“Compost will be getting more expensive if we follow the rules” Editor Garry replies I am afraid you are spot-on Tony. Conventional peatbased compost has already risen by at least 20% and the better peat-free options are around £9 for a 30 litre bag. The days of special deals of three 70 litre bags of good compost for £15 are long gone.

Pick a posy of potato flowers!

HAVING taken heed of Bob Flowedew’s advice given in a recent column to remove the flowers from my potatoes it seemed a shame to just compost them, so I popped them into a small vase.

I didn’t realise they were so pretty and they have lasted several days.

Chris Jones (Mrs)

Wendy says Good idea, Chris, and why not? After all, we admire the flowers of the scrambling climber Solanum crispum, which is in the same family as the potato, and the flowers are similar.

Removing potato flowers as they form is believed to boost yield Please continue to send us your themed poems. This week, Mrs Stevens shares her thoughts on the daily struggle and quest for survival amongst the visitors to her garden.

WIN £20

A Day In My Garden

The world around me is at war! I sit and stare into the sky, Concentrating, questioning why, That kite, I now wonder what it saw?

Waves of colour sway, Bees buzzing around, .Crickets make that methodical sound, All going about their busy day.

Mr Squirrel is visiting the table, Robins, duty soldiers, wait and sit, Magpies, jays, blackbirds and tits, Wait, anticipate, eat when they are able.

Dusk brings night like a shroud. Air is cooler, eery and damp. Pools of yellow light from the solar lamp. And then it comes, dancing all around.

Moths flutter, dive and hum. Silent wings dart by, The bat flying in the night sky. Creatures silently come!

The day is over and done. Creatures repeat the day tomorrow. I will sit full of wonder and sorrow, The WAR around me who has won?

Photo of the week

Slug free – these baskets of hostas make a lovely feature

Hanging garden of hostas

I THOUGHT your readers might be interested in my hosta tree, created using old hanging baskets. And the best bit is the slugs haven’t found them!

Sue Beale, Maidenhead, Berkshire

Why do hedgehogs ignore slugs?

I HAVE been putting out food for hedgehogs for several years. Lately though I have found that cucumbers, courgettes and sweet peppers have been devoured by slugs as soon as they are planted, when I had hoped that by encouraging hedgehogs, they would to some extent curb the slug menace. T

Could it be that our resident hedgehog has filled his/ her tummy and has left without hunting for the slugs?

A r c h i v e I

Jacob Dales, Frome, Somerset

Jacob encourages hedgehogs but the slugs remain a problem Wendy says Hedgehogs do eat slugs, they like the small ones that usually cause the most damage, however, they much prefer to eat beetles and other invertebrates. Slugs and snails are sometimes hosts to a parasitic worm, and if eaten, hedgehogs can get infected with lungworm. Gardenwildlifehealth.org

Slugs are no friend of mine

THE article by Val Bourne about slugs (AG, 14 May) said that Dr Andrew Salisbury [principle entomologist at the RHS] asks us to think kindly on them.

Well, Mr Salisbury, so far, without the benefit of slug pellets, the slugs in my garden have eaten nearly all the marigolds that I grew from seed, pricked out, potted on and planted. Once they got through those they started on the zinnias. Every single one of the Lupin ‘Pixie Delight’ have been eaten, they pick out the rudbeckias even if I disguise them between other plants. They have crawled up the stalks of the sunflowers and chewed through them half way up, they are now eating the bottom leaves of the runner beans.

We mulch with Strulch, put out beer every night t (costs a fortune, I wish the pub would let us have slops) and do night-time patrols. The only things they seem not to eat are roses and bedding geraniums.

u r e F u “Gardeners need to re-think how they view slugs, snails and greenfly, ” says Dr Salisbury

Marion Moverley, Easingwold, North Yorks

Wendy says How frustrating for you, Marion. I would suggest growing on annuals in pots and planting out once grown on a little, they will be more resilient this way. The RHS expert says cover with cloches while small. In winter, rake over soil and remove fallen leaves to reveal slugs eggs for birds to eat.

Future Publishing Ltd Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP

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