Adventurous Window Boxes

There must be a window box on this picture to tempt you to be adventurous this year.

As you can see window boxes come in all shapes and sizes and there are no holds barred.

What Makes a Good Adventurous Window Box

Credit for photo mosaic
Window Boxes by robynejay CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Garden Clock and Thermometer

If you want to know the time ask your gardener or at least consult his antique rust coloured clock. As a bonus this clock  also has a stylish thermometer on one side and a clock on the other face.

With this garden feature you will know it is too cold to be putting your seedlings out in march (as if that ever stopped me from getting it wrong).
The clock is suitable for indoor or outdoor use and is mercury free. It is available from Amazon for about £32.

The 9″ Paddington station Garden clock is more ornate but only costs £22 not shown.

Out of stock clock but don’t let your temperature rise

Garden Plants

As I considered what garden product to cover this time I realised that garden plants do not get the full coverage on Garden Products. What would a garden be without plants? (Easy to maintain I hear someone say.)

Some of our costs are defrayed by the affiliate income we get if readers buy there plants from Thompson & Morgan or Jersey plants so I do not apologise for giving them a plug.
Plugging away on that theme, click on the top right and peruse the seeds and plants that you want to buy this year. The prices and deals are the same as you would pay even if you were not helping us!

Garden Plants for Free

• OK our commercial is over and you do not need to buy garden plants if you are a bit crafty
• Cuttings will root and take at this time of year. I have several Ceanothus and Dog Woods I have grown for nothing. Even some annuals can be increased by cuttings including Petunias or Verbena and healthy Fucshia, Dahlia or Delphinium can be raised from cuttings
• Saving seed or collecting it as you walk around can produce some interesting plants. I like to collect wild rose hips and grow on the seed.
• Beg plants from friends and neighbors, they are often generous if given a little praise about their garden.
• Split clumps of hardy perennials to increase the number of plants. Some just need the roots pulling apart like the primroses shown above.
• Bulbs and self sown seedlings will multiply for free but you may need patience and be willing to move the wayward seedlings

Choysia grown from cutting

Russian Gardening Tools

‘The Garden tools of the proletariat will rise and overthrow the bourgeoisie with their flymo’s and strimmers’ according to the photographer of ‘Garden Tools by tim ellis’ under CC BY-NC 2.0. So not quite Russian gardening tools but the hammer and sickle have there uses in revolutions and gardens.

Uses of a Hammer

• I have a double skinned boundary wall for alpine and rock plants. A rouge buddleia seedling with big roots pushed part of the wall down and my wife needed a hammer to clean up the stone to rebuild the wall.
• I do the easy planting and used a hammer to get a tree post and climber pole deep enough for the intended support.
• Meanwhile my wife was laying rolls of logs between the concrete path and the herbaceous bed. To partially bury the log roll she used the hammer to crush down the stray rubble foundations.
• I use drink to get hammered but that is another story.

Uses for a Sickle

• Apart from cutting off my head it is hard to see what use the sickle will be, although the resulting blood can feed the plants.
• Long grass, old stalks and stems can be tidied up in one fell swoop or sweep of a sharp tool like the one pictured.
• I do have a Japanese weeding sickle that I was given as a present and it does a good weed and rooting out job.
• I have seen some other names for a sickle including a scythette, a grass hook and a hand scythe. A weed slasher is a tool of a different ilk.

To ‘Build a dry wall’ you may need yon hammer

Planting Combinations of Shape, Colour, Texture or Form

It makes sense to plan what plants you put where and therefore what plants will be next to other plants. At the extremes you wouldn’t put Cacti with bog plants and there are many combinations that would be ridiculous.

This book for March considers a range of reasons for combining plants to make good combinations.

Reasons for Good Combinations

• Mutual support in the form of prevention of insect attack or supply of nutrients.
• Bringing shape, colour, texture and form together in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
• Harmonising with natural features within the gardenscape or wider landscape.
• Good companions working in harmony enhance the garden. Conflict plants can distract from the overall garden.
• Seasonal variations and ground utilisation or crop rotation need to be taken into account

Planting combinations various books

Hang up Your Garden Tools

When I say hang up your garden tools I do not mean you should stop gardening, quite the opposite. You will get more gardening completed if you can find the right tool, in the right place, at the right time. Hence my quick selection of ways to hang up your garden tools from a range of photographer-gardeners.

The DIY model has much to commend it. You can tailor to fit your shed, garage or work space. You can vary height and inter tool spacing and use your own design flair.
I like the string through the handle method rather than the nail in the wall style.

Well stored tools should not be damaged as easily as those thrown into a box or drawer at random. It is easier to see which need oiling, cleaning, sharpening or repairing.
Unfortunately it looks like someone has hung up their garden tools and left them to the spiders and their webs.

Old tools need venerating and some have become real collectors pieces. Some of these older spades have had new shafts fitted and I know of some really old tools that have had several new handles and 3 new blades!

Credits
Tools Of The Trade by Barefoot In Florida CC BY 2.0
Garden tools by cathyducky CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Gardening Tools, Chandos Lake, 2009-07-19 by Open Texture CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
tool rack by robotson CC BY-NC 2.0

How to Grow Winter Vegetables -February Book of the Month

What to Expect in the Book of the Month

• Advice on how to come through winter with plenty of vegetables stored and for growing plants to withstand the winter.
• Growing tips for eating in spring during the hungry gap season of April, May and early June.
• Winter and early spring require a different kind of gardening to the summer months. Not a lot grows at this time but a well planned plot may nonetheless be quite full.

Who Wants to Read ‘How to Grow Winter Vegetables ‘

• If you have a hungry family to feed then have a read.
• If you like fresh home grown produce have a gander at this books ideas and advice.
• If you thought salad could only be grown in summer think again.

Buy from Amazon

Quick Thoughts of the Month

• High producers that take up little space make fantastic sense and this book has lots of help with salad crops, raised beds etc.
• I like the idea of winter making the garden an outdoor larder. That is OK if the soil has the chance to get reconditioned.

---

In Tune With The Moon Planting by Month

In Tune With The Moon 2012: The Complete Day-by-Day Planner for Growing and living in 2012 by Michel Gros

What to Expect in the Book of the Month

• In Tune With The Moon has a biodynamic approach to gardening in harmony with the moon. It is a simple and green way to boost garden yields and live a better life.
• This detailed guide includes information on the waxing and waning moon and an abundance of gardening tips.

Who Wants to Read ‘In Tune With The Moon ‘

• I should be one who reads this book as I have largely ignored the moon when sowing, planting and harvesting my garden.
• Green allotmenteers may find the tips and calendar useful.

Buy from Amazon

Quick Thoughts of the Month

• The moon is one factor but a gardens latitude and height above sea level may trump the zodiac
• We are all influenced by the cycles of the natural world and plants are no exception. However is the moon one of the influencers


The Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar: 2012 by Maria Thun and Matthias K. Thun

The original biodynamic sowing and planting calendar, now in its 50th year. This useful guide shows the optimum days for sowing, pruning and harvesting various plants and crops, as well as working with bees.

---

Garden Canes – New Ideas

I have just returned from my local nursery with a stock of new canes. I must now weed out the poor and damaged canes I have left over from previous seasons.

In Praise of Canes

• 2012 is the year I resolve to support my plants better than ever before.
• Why should Sweetpeas be forced to spend energy on climbing when I can help them with a good cane arrangement.
• Why should runner beans get top heavy and risk being blown sideways.
• Well now my plants should be able to perform with the aid on my new cane, string and net supports.

Too my surprise Amazon now supply or arrange to supply canes in volume via the web – it makes transporting the 7-8 foot ones in my car a thing of the past.

There is one further job I must do. I have a clump of bamboo that would benefit from some aggressive thinning out and I hope to get some 3-4 foot canes from this exercise.
The Hazel has already provided this years crop of stems to use as further supports.

I like the idea of mixing bamboo canes with more twiggy stems as shown in the photograph ‘Bean canes’ by jackhynes CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I also like the idea of putting two canes across the twin row of canes for extra support and rigidity

100307 Canes by scaglifr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Still the best canes are my Raspberry canes but I have a sweet tooth.

Green Gardening Book of the Month

Green Gardening – Practical advice from National Trust Gardeners

What to Expect in the Book of the Month

• As it says in the title this book contains lots of practical advice from 10 gardeners at 10 different National Trust properties.
• Each gardener and garden takes a different theme based on organic and green gardeneing subjects.
• A strong feature is the tips section at the end of each chapter.

Who Wants to Read ‘Green Gardening’

• This book has been around for 10 years but is still a must read for those who have vague ideas about how green they should be when it comes to their garden.
• Those planning a visit to the National trust properties will get a foretaste of what to expect and see.

Buy from Amazon

There are numerous other books on Green Gardening from Little Green Books to Joey Green’s gardening Magic

Quick Thoughts of the Month

• You do not need to be a full blown environmentalist, ecologist or tree hugger to recognise that you can improve your gardening techniques by reference to nature.
• See and read Top Ten Green Gardening habits
• You can even find a use for glyphosate in a green garden context
• ‘Green Gardening’ is the common sense application of techniques that are in tune with nature without needing to become an eco-warrior