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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Great Gardening a Thoughtful Book of the Month Title

Thoughtful Gardening: Great Plants, Great Gardens, Great Gardeners by Robin Lane Fox

What to Expect in the Book of the Month

• As you would expect from a Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College Oxford there are grand opinions and insights.
• As Garden Master of the college gardens the practical nature of the author lends the book to problems with badgers, to how to take root-cuttings or choose flowering trees. (A bit grand for my taste).
• Thoughtful Gardening ‘combines a principled view of the craft of gardening with dozens of new ideas for planting and visiting, and touching reminders of the power of literature and art to deepen what we see and realize in gardens of our own’ according to the blurb.

Who Wants to Read ‘ Thoughtful Gardening ‘

• Robin Lane Fox has written a weekly gardening column in the Financial Times since 1970. He has many followers who will be interested in this book his third gardening book but first for many years.
• The book is fine for dipping into and need not be read as one work.
• One reviewer says the book is suitable for the traveler who expects to visit or know about gardens in other countries
• ‘Thoughtful Gardening: Great Plants, Great Gardens, Great Gardeners’ to give the book it’s full title probably sums up the target audience as having great expectations.

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Quick Thoughts of the Month

• It looks like the Greats are what to read in Oxford. Sadly this is not one of my classics.
• ‘Thoughtful Gardening: Great Plants, Great Gardens, Great Gardeners’ contains 368 pages for £12.99. This and 40 years of learnered experience probably make this book good value.

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Gardening Aprons and Tool Holders

This year I have found 3 trowels when emptying and spreading my compost heap. I am not claiming that a tool belt or pocketed apron would have prevented me loosing them in the first place but you never know.
Apart for comments about the small size of this apron it gets good reviews from Amazon buyers. They are particularly happy with the price (£8.25) and the functionality.

I have no discernible system and carry my secateurs, string and bits and pieces in numerous pockets of an old gardening jacket. When I get warm the jacket comes off. As I say no system.

There is a wider range of Aprons available from Amazon. There are some Laura Ashley ones for ladies and some more robust ones that the picture above. Have a look at the range.

If I was investing in an apron I would want it to:

carry tools but also a mobile phone and note book and pencil in a dry zippered pocket .
protect me from sharp prickles and cutting leaves and stabs by my own tools.
keep my gardening clothes protected from the worst of the dirt.
keep out of the way of my activity and actions.

Tool Belts and Holsters

I am not sure about tool belts that hang in front of me when I am gardening but there is a range of products available in garden centres, Homebase and B&Q
I like the look of the Felco holster and will put one on my wish list. amazon

Looks like I will have to belt up!

Garden Spring Clean Products

Read about our ‘Quick Fix Garden Spring Clean’ tips.

Free Products to Help Garden Spring Cleaning

• You have already supplied the first product with your brain power and resolve to spring clean.
• Elbow grease is one of the most useful products you can imagine. It is even more use if applied in a preplanned, focused and logical manner.
• A willing or paid helper may be the next product on your list. Make sure who is calling the shots or the helper may delegate to you!
• Local councils collect your refuse so ‘Dustbin it’ or throw it on a compost heap with a tidy lid.
• Plant out in neat rows any early or overwintering seedlings. This looks tidy and you can aim for the natural planting look when plants growth really takes off.
• A sweeping brush is essential and could be made as a besom out of birch twigs but I would splash out on a bought brush.

Product Reports and Articles

Path Cleaning and Cleaners
Garden disinfectants
Best Weed Killers
Wood Care
Fence Care

Calcified Seaweed Treatment and Benefits

What is Calcified Seaweed

• Calcified seaweed is dried seaweed and lime or other calcium based salts
• Calcified seaweed is an organic substance without any nasty chemicals. There is concern that it is no longer approved by the Soil Association for use in organic growing, due to concerns that the harvesting of this material is not sustainable and has adverse effects on the marine environment.
• Seaweed is rich in minerals, encourages beneficial soil bacteria, helps improve heavy soil structure and neutralises acid soils.

Uses of Calcified Seaweed

• As a soil improver and clay breaker it breaks up the heaviest clay without damaging soil pH.
• As a compost accelerator it speeds up the breakdown of organic garden waste.
• Seaweed adds trace elements and minerals to the soil.
• Calcified seaweed neutralises acid soil
• Adding seaweed is beneficial to bacteria and is used in lawn treatment.

Maxicrop Organic Cal-Sea-Feed Calcified Seaweed 6kg tub from Amazon

Vegetable & Fruit Gardening Book of the Month

The RHS’s ‘Vegetable & Fruit Gardening’ new book edited by Michael Pollock will be published on 1st February. As you would expect from Britain’s leading gardening charity and authority on horticultural matters this work will be comprehensive.

What to Expect

• Everything you need to know about growing your own, fruit and vegetables. Kitchen gardening advice from the experts at the RHS.
• Practical advice on growing over 150 vegetables, herbs and fruit with the new edition of RHS Vegetable & Fruit Gardening
• You’ll find easy-to-follow step-by-steps of tried-and-trusted techniques.
• Specialist tips on seasonal tasks, yields per crop, sowing and harvesting times and controlling pests and diseases.
• Organic options and traditional gardening practices are combined with up-to-date methods to guarantee success.
• ‘The definitive guide to successful growing.’

Who Wants to Read RHS Vegetable & Fruit Gardening

• This is not a primer but it is accessible to those who are new to growing their own crops. It will form a good basis for a number of seasons of home grown food production.
• Allotment holders and those with an established vegetable plot will find new plants and ideas to augment their current skills and output.
• The book collector wants to keep up to date with the current RHS thinking. This is an excellent book for local libraries to stock. (If libraries still buy books)

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Quick Thought of the Month

RHS is a charity but has become very commercial in the recent past.
RHS should donate a large number of appropriate books such as ‘Vegetable & Fruit Gardening’ to libraries through out the UK.
This helps budding gardeners, increases the RHS brand awareness and fulfills part of their charitable remit.

Terracotta Pots – Best are British

I like UK made terracotta or clay pots. Good pots are made frost hardy and should last through all the British seasons. Imported pots have often been made in warm climates where they do not know the meaning of cold never mind frost.

Why Clay Pots not Plastic

• Old pots do sometimes collect a white salt deposit on the outside. You can see that on the photograph or the old pot collection above. As long as the pot is washed in a solution containing a disinfectant they can be reused indefinitely.
• Pots are porous and let in air to the roots.
• Evaporation from the clay pot keeps the roots cool. Plastic and particularly black plastic boils the roots of your plants.

Tips for Maintaining Plant Pots

• Avoid pots getting top heavy in windy conditions. Too much plant growth can get caught by a wind, blow the pot over and smash the pot. For tall plants weight the bottom of the pot.
• Pots can freeze to the ground and this weakens the bottom of the pot until it falls off. Use bricks or special feet to stand the pot on during winter.
• Keep the outside of decorative pots clean or algae and moss will be encouraged and discolour your pot.
• If you want to artificially age your pot coat it in Yoghurt to encourage green algae growth.

Amazon offer

any number of plant pots. They come in all shapes and sizes but terracotta pots are few and far between. Perhaps it is because they are heavy and expensive to deliver, all the more strange that we see Chinese pots in many garden departments at DIY stores.

If you break your pot do not despair you can make a feature like the one below.

Best Organic Plant Fertiliser

These are some of the best organic plant foods and how they can be used.

• Blood Meal – high in nitrogen for grass and leafy growth e.g. Vegetables like Cabbage
• Bone Flour / Meal – Nitrogen and Phosphate. Quick acting for strong growth.
• Fish Meal – low Potash, high Nitrogen and Phosphate.
• Fish / Blood / Bone – Nitrogen and Phosphate. Apply around plants on planting
• Poultry Manure – Good all round plant food. Helps for soil preparation and for putting around new plants.
• Rock Potash – good for flowers and fruits. Offers slow release of potash over a couple of years.
• Seaweed Meal – Nitrogen and Potash. Also excellent source of trace minerals.
• Wood Ash – High in Potash. Good for fruits and flowers. Quick acting.

Organic Plant food for bedding plants

Also consider liquid organic feeds such as:

• Compost Tea
• Comfrey feed and
• Liquid Seaweed.

Related

• Home made organic garden sprays
• Best Plant Food
• Fertilizers for growth
• Organic Plant Food at Amazon
• Read more about Organic Seaweed