‘The Garden of Reading: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Short Fiction About Gardens and Gardeners’ edited by Michele Slung.

I was going to write about brochures, bulb and seed catalogues, but then I came across this book. At least the anthology collects works that set out to be  fiction, whilst gardening brochures presumably did not.

On Brochures

• The best photographs you can imagine are used in brochures. So more flowers and better colours are visible than you may attain with your own plants.
• Printed brochures are subject to the skill and vagaries of the printer and his reproduction processes. Accurate colour matches can’t be guaranteed.
• Brochure side step, insect damage, weather problems and  other trials and tribulations facing gardeners.
• It is a brochures  job to put the best foot forward not talk you out of a purchase.
• So are Brochures fact or fiction – well I will read the Anthology whilst I make up my mind.

On the Anthology

‘….The twenty-four stories in The Garden of Reading comprise a diverse and unexpected collection but one that stays true to its central and harmonious theme. Included are Colette’s sensuous ‘Grape Harvest,’ David Gueterson’s poignant ‘The Flower Garden,’ Stephen King’s sinister ‘The Lawnmower Man,’ J.G. Ballard’s lovely and otherworldy ‘The Garden of Time,’ the ominous ‘Green Thoughts’ by John Collier, Rosamunde Pilcher’s touching and simply titled ‘The Tree,’ and the splendid ‘the Fig Tree, by V.S. Pritchett – as well as classics from such masters as Saki, Robert Graves, and Eudora Welty, and contemporary writing from the likes of Sandra Cisneros and Garrison Keillor. If you’ve ever nurtured a flower, a green plant, a tomato plant, or a gleam of imagination, there’s something in The Garden of Reading that is sure to delight.’ source amazon review.

‘Marriage is like life in this….
That it is a field of battle
And not a bed of Roses’

R.L.Stevenson

Uses for Aromatic Roses

• A large vase of cut flowers, rose buds and full blooms offer a scent experience not to be sniffed at.
• When drying rose petals, cut out the white heel, dry in an airing cupboard (finish off in a low oven if needed), then use in pot pourri or scent bags.
• Rose water is meant to be distilled but can be made as follows. Beat a pound of rose petals in a blender and leave to stand in there own juices for 5 hours then cover with water and add a further pound of petals infusing for 24 hours. Boil, strain and bottle leaving it in a sunny position for a couple of weeks. It may need diluting 50% before use.
• Rose Oil is not for the ordinary gardener as it takes 50,000 roses to make an ounce of oil. Rosa Damascena and Rosa Centifolia are the traditional roses for making oil by distillation but Tea Roses will make a third fragrance of oil.

Cheat your Senses

• Cheat and grow the rose scented  Pelargonium graveolens.
• Cheat and buy ready made perfume.
• Cheat and use synthetic rose oil (not a patch on essential oils though).
• Do not cheat and be happy to leave the scent in your garden.
• Grow Old Fashioned Roses (top ten) you will find great perfume and no cheating.

Ehow says ‘… that rose scent is used in various beauty and health treatments and considered a very powerful aphrodisiac? It’s true! The scent of rose is also thought to be a potent scent that heals emotional wounds, anger, resentment, depression, and nervous anxiety. One way to get the full benefits of the rose scent is to use it in combination with bath salts.

There are numerous books on garden design but not much information on garden maintenance. Some maintenance jobs are ‘as and when’ but others need to be done at least annually. Below are my gardeners maintenance tips.

Maintain Structure Maintenance

• Keep on top of all repair jobs before they develop into rebuild jobs!
• Paths need to be safe and that means obstruction free. I am guilty of using paths for seed trays and odd plants that I am waiting to plant out and I have been known to trip or kick them over.
• Clean up after winter as concrete or flagged paths are often covered in slippy green algae. This needs to be removed or chemically treated.
• Walls need re-pointing if stones become too loose. The   stones sometimes get loosened by frost or plant roots.
• Fences may need treating with preservative or supporting if in danger of blowing down.

Maintenance of Services

• Ensure your power cables and extensions are safe and haven’t been gnawed by rodents. Read the rest of this entry »

June is a spectacular month for flowering hedgerows and particularly the under-storey.

Identifying plants whilst out walking as a child, was my first introduction to the environment and natural gardening. There is still a buzz seeing a plant growing in the wild that some careful gardeners has subsequently developed for the garden or nursery trade.

Why not under-plant your garden hedges with native species of hedgerow flowers. The trick is to leave them undisturbed, unfed and untreated with chemicals. I would bank up the soil to start your hedge’s lower storey.

Hedgerows by County

• I nominate Somerset as my favourite hedgerow county but I would like to know what other UK counties can lay claim to be hedgerow county 2010.
• Cornish hedgerows have a soil banking (so that helps the smaller plants) with a rocky top and shrubs.
• Devon hedges are similar to Cornwall but with turf on and at the top of the banking.
• The Yorkshire Dales tends to have dry stone walls rather than hedges but the understorey plants can still be attractive.
• In Perth, near Blairgowrie, is the tallest and longest hedge on earth. Meikleour Beech Hedge, planted in 1745, is 98 ft in height and nearly half a mile long. (I wouldn’t want to trim it).

‘Hedgerows, moors, meadows and woods – these hold a veritable feast for the forager.’ and all is laid bear in the River Cottage Handbook. Book link

The English Hedgerow Trust provided this apposite quote from Shakespeare.

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite canopied over with luscious woodbine
With sweet muskroses and with eglantine.

For a bit of fun read Copper Beech Hedges

This book says it all in the title so you don’t need any more Tips from Gardeners (as long as you purchase the book).

Quick Tips Anyway

• Experimenting, trialing and taking a chance is a part of fun gardening. Horticulture and farming take it more seriously but you can have fun and enjoyment from hobby gardening.
• It is better to tell someone there is no remedy than to delude them with a false one. If a plant is really bad get rid of it and grow something else.
• Do not covet your neighbors garden ask for a cutting or some seedlings.

Great Seed Catalogues for Gardeners

• I keep all my seed catalogues in an old box. Periodically they get thrown out but I find they are a great source of information and inspiration.
• I regularly buy from Wallis Seeds and Chiltern Seeds, neither catalogues  have  gone to the expense of glossy photographs.
• I am more selective when buying from the bigger well know suppliers on the grounds of cost and I am just as likely to pick up a packet at Focus or similar own brand.
• For tips on growing from seed see Gardeners tips
• The best germination however comes from fresh seed so you need a company with fast turnover:

Thompson-Morgan have 2206 different packets of seeds on the website at the moment with an A-Z search. The catalogue is one of the most colourful and once on their list you get regular offers. They are a good partner to Gardeners Tips and if you buy via our link we get a small commission that helps with the cost of this site.

Tozer Seeds can’t be beaten when it comes to Vegetables at which they excel. Link

Wallis Seeds have a web site at last

Read the rest of this entry »

For something a bit different this book on botanic art covers some of the unusual colours from black flowers, plants and seaweed like strange green, blue and puce pink.

Contemporary Botanical Illustration with the Eden Project: Challenging Colour and Texture by Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan according to Amazon

• The tricky subject of texture in both pencil and paint is covered in detail.
• To ensure you are at the cutting edge of botanical art, the book covers the latest ideas for presentation  including new ideas for arranging flowers before painting.
• Fantastic illustrated with drawings, stunning finished paintings and many step-by-step demonstrations.
• ‘The book covers an overview of contemporary botanical illustration; your workplace and materials; pencil drawing; sketchbook practice; composition; basic colour theory; colour and subjective colour exercises; primary colours and their uses; painting techniques; paint it black; challenging texture, pattern and colours; and, food plants.’

Alternatively look at the illustrations in Mr Marshall’s Flower Book

‘Take Chelsea Home’ by Chris Young shows the “Best Garden Design from the Chelsea Flower Show”. Below is a brief preview of the 2010 gardens and designers.

1. Tom Stuart-Smith; The Laurent-Perrier a champagne of gardens featuring a woodland of birches.
2. Roger Platts; The M&G garden roses for the main sponsor.
3. Sue Hayward; The Stephen Hawkins MND garden with unusual plants.
4. Pual Stone; Place of Change a large community design.
5. Leeds City Council; Hesco garden trying to pretend Leeds is  a tourist destination.
6. James Wong;  Malaysia tourism garden, now here is a tourist destination.
7. Robert Myers; Cancer Research garden, charities normally perform well at Chelsea.
8. James Towillis; The L’Occitane garden a landscape of Provence.
9. Andy Sturgeon; Daily Telegraph garden with international plants
10. Thomas Hoblyn; F&C Investments garden that should grow better than the investments.

History of Allotments
Allotments were first introduced in 1845 as field gardens for the landless poor. Originally intended to grow food Victorians thought it would ‘keep them from the evils of drink’. (A cool beer or glass of wine at the end of a session on the allotment is just the job now-a-days.)
In 1908 the Small Holding and Allotment Act made it a duty of Local Authorities to provide allotments where there was a demand.
During both World Wars allotments were a vital source of food & the number of allotments peaked in 1943 at 1.4 million. There is less than a quarter of that number now.

First Steps

• Time spent preparing a new plot is seldom wasted time. Remove weeds.
• Put in permanent structures like good paths, a compost bin, water butt and a shed.
• If the land slopes use raised beds or make a terrace.
• Arrange the beds so you can rotate crops (see below).
• Check the site and association rules.

Planting your Crops

• Grow what your family like to consume or use.
• Easy vegetables to start with include Potato, Leek and Runner Beans.
• Courgettes, Tomatoes and salad crops are only slightly more difficult.
• I would have an area for cutting flowers but that is my personal preference.
• Sow seed sparsely, thin out to avoid over crowding and do not sow too soon in the season.
• Give herbs there own area in the sun.

Crop Rotation
Different plant groups do different things to the soil. Using 4 beds, rotate the following crops around so that after 4 years each bed has been used by each group.

1. Potatoes
2. Legumes; Peas, Broadbeans, Other beans, mangetout etc
3. Brassicas; Cauliflower, Cabbage, Sprouts, Broccoli etc
4. Onions and roots

Lettuce, Courgettes are neutral and can go anywhere. Soft fruit and rhubarb may go around the edges or in there own space.

Rhododendrons have many praiseworthy characteristics.

Why Grow Rhododendrons

• They are some of the most colourful spring and early summer flowering shrubs. Red, white and blues with yellows, pinks and shades to suit all tastes.
• Rhododendrons are generally evergreen and provide structure through the year.
• Modern hybrids are easy to maintain, slow to outgrow their allocated space and need little attention.
• There are 1000 species to select and learn about. Prostrate and miniature rhododendrons suit a rock garden whilst some varieties can fill a woodland.
• Scented Rhododendrons are shorter lived but have great aroma. See Caerhays Estate

Where to See Rhododendrons

• Kew Gardens’ Rhododendron Dell dates from the early 18th century.
• Lea Gardens in Matlock has a large display of Rhododendrons and Azalea.
• A good list of gardens with Rhododendrons is available at Great British Gardens.

Further information Read the rest of this entry »