Gardening articles that may not include tips
These gardening books are just crying out to be written so we suggest some titles and authors.
Do not smoke your grass by Mary Wana
Turn your MP into Compost by Pete Substitute
Money saving tips add up by Alice Summ
Trollius, Yaks and other plant transportation by Dick van Bike
Daisies are a large group of flowering plants under the family name Compositae. Included in the daisy family are well known groups such as Rudbeckia, Osteospernum, Helianthus, Coreopsis, Helenium even the cornflower and Globe Thistle.The Compositaes (Asteracea) are recognisable through their compound blooms consisting of many tiny flowers. A daisy has a yellow “core” of 200 disc florets, surrounded by 50 marginal, white ray florets with a conspicuous limb (these are the petals also called ligules). A single daisy “flower” contains about 250 separate flowers! Each central floret, a flower in its own right, has a style, anthers, corolla, pappus and ovary. The Daisy is one of the “core families” on which research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew concentrates.
Perennial Yellow Daisies
The RHS produced a bulletin on this subject and an interesting pdf can be down loaded. …
The lime green bracts on this Euphorbia are looking very bright in the spring sunshine. The plants are evergreen and easy to manage and form a good clump after 2 or 3 years. This clump has 17 flowering stems about 3 feet high but is only 2 feet in diameter.
A pleasant mix of Stonecrop Sedums and Saxifrages or Saxifraga, as some would have it, are in flower at the moment. Stonecrop has taken my interest after reading about green roof plants. I also have a friend who has created a Sedum Seat on an old dining chair by planting up the padded seat area to good effect.
The grand-daddy of books on the subject of Sedums is Ray Stephenson’s ‘Sedum Cultivated Stonecrops’.
Tips
Other Resources
Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening
Beth Chatto believes you can transform a shady spot with easy-care planting that includes foliage and flowers for a brighter Spring garden. Illuminate a shady spot under trees with a range of flowers and plants.
Beth Chatto has an extensive list of plants for shady areas for all year round interest
Available from Amazon ‘for anyone wishing to take an ethical and sustainable approach to gardening and garden design.’
One Gardener’s natural garden is another’s pile of logs and collection of compost bins. These tips are based on my view of a design led natural garden that is full of plants and informality.
Natural Garden Tips
Other Resources
Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
A lazier shrub with exciting blossom I have yet to find.
How do you tell an Azalea from a Rhododendron? Most Azaleas have only 5 or 6 stamen while most rhododendrons have 10 stamen. Azalea leaves tend to be thinner, softer and more pointed than rhododendron leaves.
In a subjective way I think Azaleas produce more flower cover per plant.
Lancelot Brown 1716 – 1783
Lancelot Brown is the most famous gardener who popularised English landscape design. Lancelot Brown’s nickname ‘Capability’ came from his saying about an estate he was commissioned to work on ‘It has great capabilities’ .
During his life he was Sheriff of Huntingdon, gardener to King George III, architect and innovator of ‘Landskip’ gardening. At the age of 24 he went to Lord Cobhams garden at Stowe where he learnt from William Kent who had studies Italian and Grecian gardens and John Vanbrugh. In 1764 Lancelot Brown was appointed Master Gardener at Hampton Court.
Lancelot Brown described himself as a ‘place-maker’ not a ‘landscape gardener’. He didn’t want a series of tableaux within a garden, he wanted a piece of countryside. Formality and straight lines had to go and to avoid fences he created the Ha-ha a sunken version. Flowers were cosigned to walled gardens and trees imported to suit his design.
Some of his designs were elaborate and involved changing hills and lakes and some thought them lavish. After his death the strong vision he had carried through in his work fell out of favour and only in the last century was he fully rehabilitated.
Capability Brown is believed to be responsible for over 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain. He never worked in Ireland saying ‘he hadn’t finished England yet. His work still endures at Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle, Harewood House, Milton Abbey and below is a further edited list of his work. Get out and visit some of these 18th century landscapes:-
Old-Fashioned and David Austin Roses by “Barbara Lee Taylor
Instead of the usual division into Gallicas, Damasks, Albas, Centifolias, Moss roses etc. the chapters are divided into History, once-flowering old-fashioned roses, Repeat-flowering old-fashioned roses, David Austin roses, Cultivation, Landscaping with old roses and the book contains over 160 rose varieties. As you read this book you can virtually smell the scent of your successful roses as though it were a warm June evening.
‘Discovering old-fashioned roses is often the beginning of a love affair that lasts a lifetime. These beautiful plants offer you not only fragrance and beauty, but also a fascinating link with the past. In this beautiful yet practical book, some of the most popular old-fashioned roses are described in detail and illustrated in full colour. There is a complete chapter on the work done by David Austin in the 1950s and 1960s to create new English roses. Topics include species roses; Gallicas; Damasks; Albas; Centifolas; Moss roses; Ramblers; China roses; Portlands; Noisettes; Bourbons; Hybrid perpetuals; Teas and early hybrid teas; Hybrid musks; Climbers; Shrub roses & ramblers; Rugosas; David Austin roses; Cultivation; Pruning; and Landscaping ideas.
Gardeners Tip
Plant an Old Fashioned Rose or two as near to your bedroom window as practical. Enjoy the evening scent.
Try Just Joey HT Rose
Water water every where and not a drop to drink unless you are an aquatic or part of garden wildlife.
February may be a bit cold to think about water features in your garden. Be ready as soon as the hard frosts are over to redesign your garden with an appropriate fountain or continuous flow of water like the powered globe above. Water features in this context are the prefabricated devices you can buy ready made, ponds streams and your own designs come under DIY
.
