Out of doors

Here comes planting season

The Thorngrove team aren’t terribly sad to see the end of the heat, and are eagerly looking ahead to planting season, says Kelsi-Dean Buck

To be honest with you, this summer was a difficult one. As I discussed last month, heatwaves and drought aren’t really ideal when you’re trying to care for thousands of plants. We were constantly fighting an uphill battle, but a huge credit has to be given to our staff in the glasshouses, plant nursery, and all across Thorngrove. With all the extra watering and care that was required, thankfully we didn’t take too much of a hit with our beautiful plants – many of them looking as beautiful as ever. But it really was a stark reminder just how much of a task it can become if that ‘great Gritish summer’ is actually lacking in its signature showers! to offer, and a special well done goes out to The BV for producing the official G&S Show Magazine. It really did feel like such a special community event, and it’s occasions like this which remind us why we do what we do. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Autumnal switch up

We now look ahead to the autumn. It’s planting season, so don’t forget your bulbs! We also have lots of bedding for baskets, borders, and planters; your garden doesn’t have to be any less vibrant. We’ll be swapping out the begonias, petunias and geraniums for pansies, primroses and violas to name a few. The cyclamen are making themselves known too, and it won’t be long before their bright colours are flooding the glasshouses. Another sign of the new seasons … and yes … even that festive one … it’ll be here before we know it! Coming up in October we’ll also see the return of our Hanging Basket Workshops with Chris Francis. So keep your eyes on our website and social media in the next week or so for dates on that. Join for a demo, and then get creative with our gorgeous selection winter basket plants, and take home something unique that you put together with the expert guidance of Chris. We’d love to see you there!

The G&S Show

A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand at Gillingham and Shaftesbury show. It was a glorious day in the end, despite some worry of storms, and we always have such a brilliant time at the show. We were so impressed by what many of the local businesses had The cyclamen are appearing

The BV magazine, September ‘22

OUT OF DOORS

The Voice of the Allotment

Poor mangetouts and waxy brassicas

As the plot breathes a sigh of relief after the summer’s heat, Barry Cuff shares how his plants fared though the drought, and the impact on his harvest

We picked our first sweetcorn cobs (Swift) on the 25th August. They were on the plate with lashings of butter within four hours of harvesting! The drought has meant shorter plants and we do not expect to gather more than 50 cobs from the 40 plants. In a normal year we would expect to have 60 to 65. Throughout the heat, our plot was watered daily, mostly early mornings around 6am. Taking turns with another plotholder to pump from the well, we have been able to keep the 1,500 litre tanks and troughs filled. We have seven tanks on the allotments, all of which supply troughs fitted with ballcock valves. To date our 14 foot well has not run dry and checking daily water levels we have had about eight foot of water consistently. The heat has had different effects on our crops:

• Peas

Both mangetout and shelling gave up producing much earlier than usual, and a second sowing of mangetouts (Purple Magnolia and Carouby

De Maussane) performed badly.

• Carrots and beetroot

Successional sowings of both did well. A last sowing of Early Nantes was made on the 14th.

• Celery and celeriac

With copious amounts of water both are making good growth • Runner and French beans Again with plenty of water both are producing well now temperatures are lower. Both stopped producing pods on the hottest days.

• Leeks

Our Musselburgh were planted out in midBarry’s Spanish flag (Mina lobata) grown through with Grandpa Ott (Ipomoea purpurea)

July. They are doing well as they have received plenty of water. A few had leek moth damage but appear to have overcome it.

• Lettuce

We only grow Little Gem and sow once a month in plug trays, planting out when large enough.

These have been watered twice daily on the days the thermometer hovered around 30º.

• Brassicas

All have been well watered. All plants have waxed up giving them a bluish tinge – this helps them conserve moisture. Despite the fact they have not been protected from the cabbage white butterfly, there is little or no damage. I wonder if the waxing acts as a deterrent? It has certainly not deterred whitefly which is very bad at the moment.

We picked two very small curds of Cheesy cauliflower on the 26th. Normally these are not ready for at least another month. Under stress from the drought the plants are wanting to produce seed early.

• Courgettes and winter squash

Courgettes have been slightly less productive than a normal year. Among the forest of squash leaves, however, we can see some very large fruits forming of both Crown Prince and Butterfly butternut.

We have also kept our flowers well watered as they attract the bumblebees, moths, butterflies and hoverflies. Some of their favourites are tithonia, cosmos, Spanish flag (Mina lobata), Grandpa Ott (Ipomoea purpurea) and larkspur.

Gardening with Pete this month

It’s September – if your garden has survived the summer, there’s still watering needed, planting to begin, and maybe no deadheading this year

As mentioned last month, watering is something everyone is going to need to pay close attention to, particularly if there are lots of potted plants around the garden. See last month’s article for more info and handy tips on this. As September quietens down, it’s a good month to look at ways we can help the wildlife in our gardens.

The log stack

Why not try adding a log stack in a sheltered corner. Logs can usually be sourced from tree surgeons, landscapers or firewood dealers. Native tree logs are best, but any will do. They can be piled up any way you wish, but a more concentrated stack has more opportunities for wildlife. Log piles can also benefit from having an old carpet on top of the pile. This will help create warmth and a drier place for insects, frogs, hedgehogs and even birds to live. There are numerous hedgehog ‘hotels’ available to purchase – or you can make your own. Position one under the log pile to provide a safe place for them to hibernate. here are many online videos showing how to do this.

Leave those heads alone

The seedheads of teasels, lavender, verbena and rose hips are all particularly good for wildlife. If you can, stop deadheading roses to allow the hips to form, providing food for birds in the winter months. Rosa vanina, moyesii, rugosa, spinosissima, and Madame Gregoire Staechelin (to name a few) all produce very attractive rose hips.

Go wild

Leave patches of grass in corners of your garden to ‘go wild’. Try to refrain from using pesticides and wherever possible, control slugs and snails organically, dawn and dusk when bats are emerging and returning to roost, will help protect them. If you erect a bat box, ensure it is high enough (at least four metres, if you can do so safely). The bat box should be away from artificial lights. See bats.org.uk for lots of advice on supporting bats in your garden.

Bat boxes

Bats are in significant decline and they need all the help they can get. There are lots of things a gardener can do to encourage them – planting night-scented flowers and building a pond will encourage the insects they feed on, as will letting your garden go a little wild. Having linear features like hedgerows and tree lines help them too. Domestic cats are the main bat predator in the UK – keeping cats indoors at night, particularly around

September jobs

• Continue to feed and deadhead hanging baskets if they have survived all that heat! • Prune climbing and rambling roses. • When we get some decent rain and the soil becomes workable, spring bulbs – daffodils, crocus and hyacinths can all be planted now.

Looking sweet in the meadow (and on the roadside too)

September is a month of abundance, even after a summer drought, says foraging expert Carl Mintern as he enjoys the literal fruits of the season

This year has been a test of water management for both us humans and the natural world, with droughts seen across much of the country and record temperatures to boot. Indeed, many of our trees have decided to shed brown leaves as early as mid-August, giving some areas a very autumnal look and feel already. I, along with you I am sure, am hoping that the coming weeks and months give our surroundings a chance to recover from this summer with some muchneeded rainfall.

I have also noticed that many of our hedgerow harvests seem unaffected by the conditions, with a bumper year for blackberries and also many nut trees looking extremely bountiful. One such tree is the walnut (Juglans regia), I made meadowsweet a prized tree in custard by infusing my goat’s milk with the flowers; an the forager’s inventory. While many people are almond flavour with surprised to hints of vanilla. hear that we can go foraging for walnuts in the UK, the walnut tree has been growing here since Roman times and can be found in many parks and larger gardens, as well as on roadsides. Indeed, it is one of the things I will often spot from my car on journeys all around the Blackmore Vale and surrounding area. As with most nut trees, the trick is getting to the ripe nuts before the squirrels, who are particularly adept at outwitting us human collectors when it comes to timing our harvests. Ideally you will wait until the shell has started peeking through the green husks which are in clusters of two to five. They are green and oval in shape, looking a little like a lime from a distance, and inside is the wrinkled seed. As the nut ripens, the shell forms and hardens around it. Once collected and dried out it can be stored for up to a year. In the world of foraging, nuts

hold a special place for me, alongside mushrooms, as they can form the centrepiece of a meal and offer a huge amount of protein and other nutrients. As such, it should come as little surprise when I say that the walnut tree is by far my favourite tree to find on the landscape.

Meadowsweet

The next plant I wish to share this month is meadowsweet, (Filipendula ulmaria), a truly abundant wild herb that likes a damper environment – hopefully the autumn will deliver one. This sweetlyscented plant was famous both as a strewing herb, scattered on the floor for its scent, and as a flavouring for mead. Today I use it to infuse many things, from vinegars to custards. Last September I undertook a challenge where I only consumed food I could procure myself, with not a single thing bought from a shop, and I made meadowsweet custard by infusing my goat’s milk with the flowers from this plant, which deliver an almond flavour with hints of vanilla. All parts of the plant are edible and can be added to soups or sauces, giving a deliciously sweet aromatic flavour to

Wait to harvest walnuts until the shell has started peeking through the green husks

sweet dishes such as stewed fruits. The bitter roots, along with the leaves and flowers, have been used dried as a tea. Traditionally found in damper meadows, meadowsweet grows prolifically in the Blackmore Vale along roadside ditches which have been created and maintained to irrigate agricultural land. It is both abundant and easy to find and identify.

Wild fruit

Finally this month, I would like to draw your attention to the possibility of finding other fruits we usually associate with cultivated harvesting.

While I will spotlight no one in particular, I think its easy for us to forget that wild strawberries and raspberries proliferate in wild spaces all around us, along with wild blueberries and currants. As I sit to The difference? write this Well, apart from article, I can the fact mine see a heaving taste better, and bowl of pears, were free, not much at all ... collected from a wild pear tree growing on an almost unused roadside connecting two small hamlets. The differences between the pears I have and the ones in the shops? Well, apart from the fact mine taste better, and were free, not much at all ...

Wild pears are free for the picking, and just the same as those you’ll buy in the supermarket

The BV magazine, September ‘22

FLOWERS

Flower farming in a drought

The dry summer has been difficult, says flower farmer Charlotte Tombs as she makes plans to work around drought with her 2023 plant choices

I won’t bore you with how I was going to have natural free spring water for my flower beds this summer. Nor how I was going to have irrigation in all the beds. Or how (like always) the plumber never came when he said he would, and has only just turned up some eight weeks later – which is rather late. Or even how I’ve spent hours watering and keeping things alive this summer and I’m never going to get those hours back. In fact I just had to give up on some beds and as a consequence had to cut down on the flower orders I’ve been able to take on. But of course there is always next year to do things differently; with different plants and different varieties. The great thing about gardening, as I’ve written before, is you always get another season to try again.

Climate change plants

Perennials are the way forward if our summers are getting hotter and our climate is changing – I will certainly be looking to grow more drought-tolerant plants myself. Of course they are more expensive, but they can be

Some of Charlotte 2022 dahlias – Seniors Hope, Creme de Cassis, Burlesca, Franz Kafka, Molly Raven and Zippity Do Da Images: Charlotte Tombs grown from seed and some will flower in their first year. Good choices for this are achillea, yarrow and eryngium, or sea holly, which is the most beautiful steely blue colour and the bees LOVE it so it’s a real winner for the garden. It’s a good idea right now to take the time and have a good look around your garden; see what has survived and thrived in your poor parched flower beds. Drought-tolerant plants tend

These dahlias remind me of fruit salad penny sweets – they are Daisy Duke, Totally Tangerine, Burlesque and Molly Raven, with cosmos apricotta and scabious salmon rose. to have grey or silver leaves – the light-coloured leaves reflect the sun’s rays. Often the leaves also have tiny grey hairs on them, which help to retain moisture around the plant’s sensitive tissues. Some plants which really don’t mind a drought are echinacea (or coneflower), nepeta (or catmint; be warned, cats really do love this plant!), agastanche, salvias, lavender and rosemary. A lot of ornamental grasses thrive in dry conditions, unlike their moisture-loving cousin otherwise known as your lawn. The zinnias this summer have been amazing; they love it hot and dry. They are considered a ‘dirty flower’ because they make the vase water dirty, but a small drop of bleach will help prevent this. There is an autumnal nip in the air first thing now, and thankfully a heavy dew which is helping my thirsty flowers. It’s certainly been a challenging summer for a cut flower grower.