They are not making ‘Carbon’ anymore nor is carbon ever totally destroyed. Carbon is one of natures greatest recycling projects. Carbon is present in gaseous form like Methane(CH4), Carbon dioxide(CO2) and Carbon monoxide(CO). Carbon is also dissolved in water particularly the oceans but is naturally present most notably as a solid in rocks such as limestone, minerals like oil and coal plus trees and plant matter.

Do you think about the carbon cycle?

Is your garden carbon neutral?

Are you offsetting your own carbon emissions?

Environmental Benefits of Planting Trees

Common Sense Carbon Neutral

Do you think about the carbon cycle?

As a conservationist or concerned gardener you probably don’t burn trees, twigs and garden waste any longer. – Burning creates greenhouse gases by converting solid carbon into gaseous carbon. This is done by releasing as heat all the years of sun that have been soaked up by the trees and plants changing the solid carbon into a gas. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide help create the greenhouse effect and global warming. However burning only changes the carbon from a solid to a gas it is always there in one form or another.

As solid carbon can help control global warming grow longer lived hardwood trees if you have the space. Hardwood trees are usually deciduous such as Oak, Ash and Beech. They lock up the carbon in solid form for a long time and create wood that can be used for furniture, construction and other environmentally friendly purposes.

Is your garden carbon neutral?

Carbon in the forms of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, oil and wood are converted into energy and CO2 by consumption at the point of use, say in a petrol driven mower or via electricity. To be carbon neutral you need to convert CO2 back into a solid in equal quantities to that you have consumed.

Transport is one of the big fuel consumers. Consider the import of plants, from say Holland, which are grown in hot houses, shipped and trucked to a garden center for you to visit in a car. Worse still may be the flowers grown in Columbia or South Africa that are airfreighted.

Packaging uses energy in its production and often in its destruction. I am not totally against plastic in the garden as the carbon is locked in but I detest the disposable nature of thin plastic pots that can’t be reused. Reuse and recycling are two of the best ways to contribute to a friendlier environment in the garden. I buy fresh seed usually in paper packets without a glossy printed picture on the front and a foil wrapped internal packet. Both these later two items the foil and the print are to help retailers sell more and increase the shelf life rather than help the gardener or the environment.

Energy use directly in the garden is not normallyso heavy but a heated greenhouse will have a large carbon footprint. Insulate the greenhouse with bubble wrap in winter and keep the heated area to a minimum by partition or division. You may be able to move plants indoors where it is already frost proof and maintain a cool greenhouse. Where practical locate the greenhouse so maximise solar gain and minimise winter heat loss. Old greenhouses were often against north facing walls or had a solid rear wall. Consider heat pumps or reusing heat from composting or sub soil heat.

Water use if from a mains supply has to be pumped filtered and treated so it is more effective to conserve your water in a rain butt. Hard landscape creates water run off and cement costs energy in production whereas soft landscaping can be carbon footprint reducing.

Are you offsetting your own carbon emissions?

So you have reduced your carbon emissions. You have recycled, composted and reused to the best of your ability. Your buying habits have been tuned to local production that is environmentally sensitive. What is left to do? Big companies can ‘trade carbon credits’ a hot air generating scam in my view. We can join pressure groups, support charities and try maintain rain forests and support replanting schemes.

Above all we can plant our own mini forest. There are schemes for those who do not have the space at home but even small gardens should be able to find somewhere for a small tree or shrub.

Environmental Benefits of Planting Trees

• Trees are like the lungs of the planet. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.
• Additionally, they provide habitat for birds and other wildlife.
• Trees trap CO2 from the atmosphere and make carbohydrates that are used for plant growth. They give us oxygen in return.
• CO2 is one of the major contributing elements to the greenhouse effect
• Trees also help to reduce ozone levels and pollution
• Trees reduce urban runoff and erosion by storing water and breaking the force of rain as it falls.
• Trees can absorb or deflect sound and reduce noise pollution.
• Planting trees can also help cool your home in the summer avoiding the need for air conditioning (with our summers we should be so lucky).
• In the winter, trees can act as windbreaks and can help you save on heating costs. If enough trees are planted the overall microclimate improves and total energy use for heating and cooling is reduced.

Common Sense Carbon Neutral

• Growing your own vegetables and food crops cuts transport, packaging and often chemical treatments of the crop.
• Read more about the subject and think through the cause and effect particularly of the big issues
• Do what works for you economically and socially
• Do not get too stressed out – the carbon cycle balances out – you should retain your natural balance

Wild Roses

These roses have 5 petals, a mass of stamens and produce large hips. There is a large range of size, scent and flower colour. There are approximately 150 species of wild roses.

Gallicia Roses

Amongst the oldest cultivated roses for the scent and medicinal properties. The plants are suckering with dark green leaves and bristly stems.

Damask Roses

The petals are distilled to make Attar of Roses perfume. Summer Damask flower once whilst autumn damask flower twice a year. The colour is generally purple fading to washy pink. They are grown in Turkey and Bulgaria for commercial perfume manufacture.

Alba Roses

Alba roses may have been cultivated since Roman times to form large shrubs with arching stems. The plants are very tough and can survive in neglected gardens for many years. Large volumes of white flowers show over a short flowering period.

Centifolia Roses

Dutch paintings of the 16th century often features these rounded double pink roses.

Moss Roses

Often depicted on crockery in the 19th century these roses have stems and sepals with a dense mossy cover in green or brown.Little or no pruning is required.

Portland Roses

A small group similar to Gallicias but with repeat flowering in bright red or pink. A tough and hardy rose.

China Roses

China roses have smooth leaves and less scent but the flowers have thick petals and smooth shiny leaves.

Tea Roses

With few thorns and smooth shiny leaves the yellow, apricot and pink flowers are graceful plants in a warm climate.

Noisette Roses

Originating from North America these plants combine the good scent and late flowering of Musk roses with the larger flowers of China and Tea roses.

Bourbon Roses

The rounded flowers in sprays are usually well scented were popular in the 19th century. See also

Hybrid Perpetual Roses

Coarser and leafier than teas these plants are prone to mildew but with strong colours and good scent they are popular for late flowers.

Climbing Roses

These roses are bred for climbing and need plenty of water to excel. Varieties may flower only once or twice per year depending on the parentage. They need support and pruning to get the best flower display.

Ramblers

Distinguished from climbers by the masses of small flowers in one flush. Generally they are originally a cross from a white climbing wild rose.

Ground Cover Roses

Developed to fill the need for trouble free spreading and weed suppressing with long flowering periods. Try Flower Carpet, Grouse or Nozomi.

Hybrid Musk Roses

One of the best small groups producing scented flowers in white, cream or pale pink.

Rugarosa Roses

Grows well and relatively trouble free in poor soil to produce single flowers and large decorative hips.

Shrub Roses

This is a catch-all grouping of wild crosses that do not fit other rose categories.

Hybrid Tea Roses

The traditional and popular type of cultivated rose bred for the tall bud and larger blooms.

Polyantha Roses

Repeat flowering small plants that have been bred to produce the floribunda varieties. They are often confused as miniature hybrid teas.

Floribunda

Masses of coloured flowers throughout the season they became a dominant type of rose through the last century.

English Roses

David Austin inspired old roses crossed with disease resistant modern varieties have produced some stunning plants.

Romantica and Generosa Roses

Meilland branded roses with scented double old fashioned, HT or climbing roses. Generosa are branded from roses developed by Guillot in France

Miniature Roses

All parts of these original roses are small and they are now grown as dwarf pot plants. I am trying several miniature roses in my rockery to add colour and interest.

Imagine the conversation The Creator might have with St. Francis about lawns:
“Frank you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracted butterflies, honey bees and flocks of birds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.”

“It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great extent to kill them and replace them with grass.”

“Grass? But it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It’s temperamental with temperatures. Do these suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?”

“Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.”

“The spring rains and cool weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.”

“Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.”

“They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?”

“Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.”

“They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?”

“No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.”

“Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?”

“Yes, sir.”

“These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.”

“You aren’t going believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.”

“What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It’s a natural circle of life.”

“You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and have them hauled away.”

“No! What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and keep the soil moist and loose?”

“After throwing away your leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.”

“And where do they get this mulch?”

“They cut down trees and grind them up.”

“Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. Saint Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?”
“Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It’s a real stupid movie about…”
“Never mind I think I just heard the whole story.”

Why is Water Important in the Garden

• About 90% of active plants cells are water.
• Water is the means of a plant obtaining dissolved nutrients to feed the plant
• Water moves chemicals and hormones from the roots of plants to the growing parts of the plant
• Water maintains a plants health
• The presence of water can be necessary to germinate seeds or stimulate natural growth.

Water for Plants and Trees

• Precipitation in the form of rain, drizzle, dew, and fog all have a place in providing water
• Hail, snow, sleet and hoar frost also provide limited amounts of water.
• Ground water from springs underground streams and the natural water table can contribute to the soils water content.
• Gardener introduced water augments the natural systems.
• Irrigation is a form of transporting water through channels or pipes.
• Foliar feeding can provide limited amounts of water via a plants leaves.
• Watering devices, sprinklers, hosepipes and watering cans are the gardeners best friends in dry or drought conditions.

Problems Caused by Lack of Water

• Deprived of water to transport food a plant may starve
• Biological malfunction caused by lack of water can cause irreparable damage to a plant cells leading to loss of turgidity and death.
• Lack of water may cause structural instability in the plant.
• Water shortage can make a plant more susceptible to heat.

Rain Zones in the UK

• High ground in the west of Scotland, Wales and Cumbria has the most rainfall. .
• Cyclonic or convection rain can occur over low ground such as East Anglia but this is low in frequency and volume so flat areas have low or very low average rainfall.
• 30″-45″ are annual average levels of rain but there are many surprises within averages. London with 25″ pa is drier than Rome or New York. Colchester can be drier than Beirut or Jerusalem
• Thunderstorm rain can be damaging by flattening crops or causing excess splashing back off the soil. This is not zone specific.
• In addition to volumes of rainfall the frequency or consecutive number of days without rain can be crucial. Apart form the south east most zones seldom exceed 30 days without rain and in Scotland and Ireland it rains even more regularly.

Water Retentiveness

• Water retentiveness is crucial for a healthy trouble free garden.
• Improved soil structure by the addition of compost and manures increases the water in the soil.
• The addition of a top layer or mulch holds water in the soil reducing evaporation
• Alginates like seaweed increase water retention and improve the crumb structure of the soil.
• Retentiveness is damaged by compacted soil that water is unable to penetrate.

Gardeners Water Tips

• Understand your plants and select them based on their need for water. How much and when are valid questions
• Too much water can be as bad as too little so ensure you have the right drainage in your soil not a sticky mess.
• When augmenting natural supply of water do a thorough job of watering then leave for a few days. Little and often can bring roots to the surface and not penetrate to the deeper drinking roots
• Do not plant water hungry plants in heavy rain shadows caused by walls hedges or other plants.
• Be aware of the prevailing wind that brings the most rain from the west.

What is in my Water

• Oxygen and hydrogen are the elements that have combined to form water. They are not available separately except for an amount of oxygen that may have been dissolved in the H2O. Pond fish and algae need this dissolved oxygen.
• Hard water contains dissolved mineral salts (this is what makes up the fur or limescale on a kettle). Hard water may be drawn straight from the tap in many districts of the UK where calcium and magnesium are present. This water is often detrimental to young plants.
• Soft water has little or no dissolved mineral salts and like rain water is better for seedlings and young plants. Distilled water and ionised treated water is rendered soft by the process.
• Sea water and brackish water contains dissolved salt (sodium chloride)that will kill most plants. It is no use in gardens.
• Stagnant water and old water from butts will contain algae or microscopic life. I have found that this often results in moss or growth on the top of seed pots before the seeds germinate. Clean water is best for seeds and greenhouses.

Top ten green garden habits

Modern homes and modern materials can have an effect on your health. Plants that filter the air or react with pollutants can make your home a better place to live in several well-being ways.

Why Homes Need Air Filtering Plants

• Formaldehyde can be released from household furnishings, carpeting, foam insulation, upholstery, curtains, and furniture made from MDF or composites. Formaldehyde can cause sore eyes, nose, and throat or nausea, coughing, and even skin rashes.
• Smoking consumes oxygen as it created carbon dioxide and monoxide. Plants reverse this process by consuming carbon dioxide and releasing Oxygen. Plants will not achieve a reduction in the particles left by smoking.
• Xylene, toluene and benzene are volatile gases which can effect sore eyes and stimulate potential allergies.
• Trichloroethylene is an industrial solvent which has anesthetic properties that can lead to depression.
• Some house plants are more efficient in filtering out toxins than others

Best Air Filtering Recommendations

• There are numerous lists of plants that have air filtering properties. Nasa conducted a thorough study of both plants and the chemicals that they remove. This list is the best I have come across and I recommend you check it out on wikipedia
• NASA recommend growing a good-sized houseplant for every 100 square-foot 10 m2 within the house.
• Air fresheners are not to be relied upon. They may mask smells but give off chemical pollution.
• Some house plants are more efficient in filtering out toxins than others
• Gardeners tips recommends you grow a good variety of houseplants and Pot Mums to look good and help pollution control

Other Plant Filtering Benefits

• In the home Chrysanthemum plants offers colour, tranquility and are one of the best pollution controls according to the NASA table.
• Outdoors Bioremediation uses plants that mitigate environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminant material and dispose of it elsewhere.
• Phytostabilization uses plants to reduce wind erosion or the plant roots to prevent water erosion and offers long-term stabilization and containment of pollutants.
• Phytotransformation uses special plants for specific problems such as pesticides, explosives, solvents, industrial chemicals. Cannas and Sunflowers can render these substances non-toxic by their metabolism.
• Phytoremediation consists of mitigating pollutant concentrations in contaminated soils with plants able to contain, degrade, or eliminate metals, pesticides and solvents in a soil.

More Benefits of Air Filtering Plants Outside the Home

Air filtering plants in an office can help reduce air conditioning energy consumption according to a study by K Meattle.
Better blood oxygen supply increases productivity.
See video

Photo B
The West Yorkshire branch of the Alpine garden society had Peter Cordall as speaker on Saturday. The title of his talk was ‘Photography in the garden – garden landscapes to close-ups’.
Whilst I listened carefully I am painfully aware that I have breached many of his rules of thumb from the very start.

Photo C
I should have had a title and know what I was photographing before I started.
‘Hypericum’ is not a great title but ‘Hemispheres and Hypericum’ may have worked better.

Photo D
I did take several shots and tried to use my favourites, the rest wont see light of day again.

Other Photography Failings

• I failed in composition even though I tried hard to divide the frame into thirds and place the interest on a crossing point. This is harder than I thought.
• So is picturing the main subject as though it was moving into the frame rather than facing out.
• Crystal sharp focus on the critical part of the photo has been sacrificed to an extent in favour of decent depth of field automatically without engaging brain.
• I have done no cropping or editing – I very seldom do.
• Some backgrounds are a distraction but fortunately I have no unintentional lamp posts in view

I should have read up on Related posts

• Top 10 Flower Photos
• Close Up Flower Photos
• The Perfect Rose

Statistic on Number of Species (2011 estimates)

• Total number of species 8,700,000 eight point seven million. 86% still undiscovered.
• Land based species 6.5 million sea based 2.2 million – seems low for the sea to me!
• Number of animals 7,770,000 three quarters of which are Arthropods (insects and crustaceans)
• Total of all land plants including trees, mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants, and so on = 298,000. (I bet I have that many weeds in my garden.)
• Fungi 611,000, protazoa and chromista 64,000 (and the dollar question is what are they).

ref Dr Camilo Mora Census of Marine Life

Biological Classification Table

Creative commons share alike license from wikipedia

Plant Classification

Species
The rank of species is an important botanical classification. Plants within a species can be very different for example consider the types of Apple or Rose.
‘A species is a group of plants with similar DNA that are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.’
The creation of genetic variation in a plant species and the selection from within that variation of plants with desirable and inheritable traits, forms the basis of one or more plant varieties.

Variety
This has two similar meanings. It is a legal term for a cultivated plant protected under UPOV
Some horticulturists use “variety” imprecisely; for example, viticulturists almost always refer to grape cultivars as “grape varieties”.

Cultivar or Variety
Cultivars are produced by careful breeding, propogation and selection for flower colour and form on plants such as roses, rhododendrons and many farm & food crops.
A cultivar name consists of a botanical name of a genus, species and taxon followed by a cultivar epithet. Cultivar names are always written in Roman letters enclosed in single quotes, like Hosta ‘August Moon’ it should not be italicized.
Rosa ‘Peace’ “Peace” is a trade designation or “selling name” for the cultivar R. ‘Madame A. Meilland’ and should therefore be printed in a different typeface from the rest of the name, without quote marks, for example: Rosa Peace.

Hybrids.
Hybrid consists of crosses between different cultivars within a single species. This meaning is often used in plant breeding, where hybrids are commonly produced and selected because they have desirable characteristics not found or inconsistently present in the parent. Occasionally plants from two different species can be hybridised or ‘crossed’. They are usually given a collective latin name or English name Quercus x hispanica or Rhododendron Lady Chamberlain x Gleam.

Common Names
Common names may be local or descriptive but are too inconsistent to be part of a plants formal name for identification purposes.
An example may be Quercus coccinea “Scarlet Oak”(common name)

Plant Names and Protections

The International Plant names index has records from three sources: the Index Kewensis 1million plus, the Gray Card Index 350,000 and the Australian Plant Names Index 63,000. Whilst needing some deduplication it ‘represents the most comprehensive listing of plant names available today’.

The Plant Varieties Act 1997 establishes rights, known as “plant breeders’ rights”, in plant genera and species that qualify for protection under that Act. British Plant Breeders’ Rights protect creators of new varieties against ;

• production or reproduction (multiplication),
• conditioning for the purpose of propagation,
• offering for sale, selling or other marketing, exporting, importing, stocking for any of the above purposes or
• any other act prescribed for the purposes of that provision without his authority.

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants or UPOV grants plant breeders’ rights to new varieties that meet four criteria ;

1. The new plant must be novel, which means that it must not have been previously marketed in the country where rights are applied for.
2. The new plant must be distinct from other available varieties.
3. The plants must display homogeneity.
4. The trait or traits unique to the new variety must be stable so that the plant remains true to type after repeated cycles of propagation.

Crocus Cultivation Tips

• Allow foliage to die back. Do not tie foliage because it weakens the bulb and flowers for next year.
• A little bonemeal in spring will help build up corms and bulbs for next year.
• Crocus often like a rather heavy but well drained soil. Enrich sandy soil with leafmould.
• If troubled with mice or squirrels eating corms, place wire netting just below the soil surface.
• Bring a pot of Crocus into the house when the first buds show and keep in a light cool spot.
• Allow species crocus to self seed to increase your display in years to come.
• Suspend black cotton over the buds to stop them being attacked by birds.
• After the foliage fades Crocus can be lifted and split every 4-5 years to avoid over crowding. Leave them be if they are naturalised under grass.
• Mulch with garden compost only sparingly 5cm deep.

Types of Crocus

• Autumn Crocus  flower before the leaves and are also sold as Colchium. If autumn is dry water the corms.
• Crocus vernalis tend to have larger bulbs and spring blooms.
• Crocus chrysanthus like sun or light dappled shade and a lighter soil.
• Species Crocus Tommasinianus, C.sativus, C. angustifolius C. biflorus, C. korolkowii and C. olivieri will grow well under a late leafing shrub.

Buying Hints and Advice

• Buy firm plump bulbs.
• Avoid bulbs that are in the least bit soft.
• Avoid bulbs which are already sprouted and showing green.
• Avoid any bulbs that show signs of fungus, spots, rot or mould.
• Buy as soon as Crocus become available and plant September-November

I have just planted 100+ crocus around a new Paperbark Acer and a similar number in a variety of pots and containers. When the containers have flowered the crocus will be fertilised and planted out.

See our other photos

Update 28 September 2011 New Bulb Book
Bulb: A Hand-Picked Selection of the World’s Most Beautiful Bulbs by Anna Pavord is a personal selection and authoritative guide to the most gorgeous bulbs on the earth.
Anna Pavord, world-famous author of “The Tulip”, writes charmingly about her favourite subject from Acis to Zigadenus via Tulip and Crocus.

Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy

Sir Joseph Banks possibly the father of Kew accompanied Captain Cook on HMS Endeavour’s voyage to the South Pacific (1768-1771), was involved with the HMS Bounty and breadfruit and many early plant hunts. He was appointed as a of Kew Gardens by George III in 1773. A Joseph Banks Tribute Garden has been established in Lincolnshire which is now part of the National Gardens scheme. Many plants are now named Banksii as a tribute to his collecting, introducing and organising the Plant Hunting of the 18th century.

William Lobb and his brother Thomas Lobb were prolific plant hunters in the Georgian and Victorian era when new plant introductions were in great demand. South America was the terratory where they collected many trees and species for Veitch the nursery.

George Forrest, 1873 – 1932 was a Scot who collected Rhododendron forrestii, R. sinogrande, R. repens, R. griersonianum, R. intricatum and R. giganteum, as well as more than 50 species of primula. Also introduced were numerous buddleias, anemones, asters, deutzias, conifers, berberis, alliums and cotoneasters and plants that now bear his name including Pleione forrestii, Pieris forrestii, Iris forrestii, Acer forrestii.

Joseph Hooker 1817-1911 took part in several expeditions. The first voyage was in 1839-1843 onboard HMS Erebus, an Antarctic expedition. During 1847-1849 Hooker travelled to the central and eastern Himalaya where he collected c.700 species in India and Nepal and added 25 new rhododendrons to the 50 already known.

Robert Fortune smuggled tea plants out of China which contributed to the foundation of a vast cash crop vital to the development of the Empire.

William Hooker Kew’s first public Director and father to Joseph, encouraged the UK colonies to send plants and seeds to Kew in the UK for botanic gardens and ornamental growing.

Frank Kingdon-Ward (1885-1958), often referred to as the last of the great plant collectors, sent 120 plants to Kew. He explored regions such as Yunnan in China, Burma and Tibet in the 1920s and 1930s.His plant hunting financed his treks but it is said he was an explorer first and a plantsman second.

Francis Masson 1741-1805 was a prolific collector credited with Agapanthus, Amaryllis belladonna, Arum Lily, Bird of Paradise Flower, Cineraria, Red Hot Poker and some Protea.

Allan Cunningham 1791-1839 collected many Australian species and also made trips to Brazil

Plant Hunters feature in various books, often with a thrilling component from Amazon

See also Top 100 Gardeners
Joseph Banks Society

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has come up with a new wheeze to be launched for 2012. The National Gardening Week will take place from 16th April to 22 April 2012.
Not surprisingly this is warmly welcomed by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) whose members will be looking to benefit your garden and their bank balances.

Early Ideas for National Gardening Events

• A Compost Clinic will help with other green initiatives and solutions.
• Gardening clubs, societies, schools and local organisations are encouraged to participate and arrange special events.
• RHS will offer a ‘Border-Boosting service’ giving 6 tips and ideas based on a photograph of your garden.
• Facebook question time sessions will be supported by scientists and gardeners from the RHS
• RHS ‘will also be offering 20,000 starter packs with seeds, organising a career day at all four of its gardens and holding masterclasses, including a workshop on seed raising.’

Get Ahead of the Game for 2012

• Plan now for 2012. There is a lot you can do
• Start with one item that you can use to Shock and Awe from the start of April. Bulbs would fit this bill in large drifts or containers and window boxes.
• Rhododendrons and Azalea are currently growing their buds for next spring’s big show. Give them a boost of liquid feed and keep the soil moist until October
• Alpine gardens look their best in Spring. Check out your lay-out of rocks, top up grit levels and generally tidy the area now to avoid needing to do so later.
• If you are stuck for Christmas or birthday presents what about Garden Tokens from HTA. Then you will have money to spend during National Gardening Week.

More information from the RHS

To join in, please email the RHS at nationalgardeningweek@rhs.org.uk telling them who you are and how you would like to get involved with National Gardening Week.

Garden Tokens from HTA

Must Do During National Gardening Week

• Do not forget to enjoy your garden.
• Visit other spring gardens and join in events organised for National Gardening week
• Invite folk to see the results of you pre-planning