July ramblings,

As I write these ramblings for July, the Society has just staged its annual garden party at the home of David and Annie Scotland. Keenly anticipated, it lived up to expectation.  It was a grand occasion attended many members, held in a magnificent garden which was brimming full of inspiration for the many members attending.

At the same time, awards were presented for the “Best Garden in Wellow” competition. Contrary to my expectation that there would be few, there were 13 entries from owners of gardens large and small and great diversity. It would not have been easy to judge them and we were very fortunate to have as judge, the winner of the BBC’s Gardeners World gardening magazine “ Garden of the Year,” Wayne Amiel.

Each garden was visited and judged against criteria laid down by Wayne and awards were made as per the Royal Horticultural Society’s system i.e. bronze, silver, silver gilt and gold. Each garden was in receipt of an award and the overall winner was that of Di Dalgleish and Johnathon Knights on which Wayne commented he was “blown away” by. Receiving their award, Di and Johnathon invited anyone present to visit their garden the following day.I have just returned from such a visit and have to say that I was equally blown away by the garden that was truly visionary.

Back to more mundane matters: June served up a disappointment in terms of weather with below average temperatures and rainfall but things have improved of late but we could still do with a significant amount of rainfall. Today my water butts delivered their last drop of rainwater.

Most things in the vegetable garden are growing nicely particularly onions which were a disappointment last year.  The plot is bursting with vegetables of all varieties and we are currently eating, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, broad beans, carrots, mange tout, courgettes and so many strawberries we have been making jam with them. For those of you wondering why potatoes don’t get a mention in this list, it is because, like a lot  but not all gardens in the village I have soil bordering on the quite alkaline which results in potatoes suffering from blight which, although edible, would certainly not win any prizes on the show bench hence, I do not grow them.

In the ornamental garden, activity features mainly dead heading and feeding paying particular attention to sweet peas, roses and dahlias.

I pride myself on gardening organically and was interested the other day, to receive an email from a well known company offering a complete range of organic pest controls including, would you believe, ladybirds. Whatever next!

At this time of year, the tool that gets most use is the hoe, ensuring that plants get an unrestricted access to the best that the soil provides. I find it a most therapeutic activity. Most by now will have a good idea of what they want to enter in the show and schedules are now available. Don’t forget, even if you are not entirely happy with your produce it could well be that other gardeners are also suffering from less than perfect specimens. Let the judges decide. Don’t forget, the flower show is a week earlier than normal this year on Saturday 31 August.

Happy gardening,

Alex

Well, here I am back again after the winter break sharing thoughts and experiences for the upcoming gardening year! Let’s hope it is going to be a more moderate one than last year’s.

The weather this past winter has not been as bad as last year. Who can forget “The Beast from the East?” February has seen record temperatures which prompted the sound of many lawn mowers in the vicinity. Snowdrops and crocus are all finished. Daffodils are bursting out. You could be forgiven for thinking Spring has arrived but as my mother would have said “we will probably pay for it later.” Temperatures have returned to a lower level but are still above the seasonal average and it is heartening to see more of the sun and experience the lengthening days. As I sit here writing this, we are experiencing some short, sharp showers which, pardon the pun, puts a dampener on things for a while.

No doubt all of you will by now be thinking of sowing seeds to get things off to a good start and I’m no different. If you haven’t completed your seed order, it’s not too late or you can pop into one of the local garden centres. All have clearance sales on and bargains are there to be had. A tip for your next seed order:  I managed great savings by purchasing on Black Friday. Don’t forget to bear in mind what you would like to enter into the flower show which is a week earlier than usual this year. I have already made sowings of onion in February and this month, three varieties of tomato, Sungold, surely the sweetest variety of all, Golden Sunrise, a yellow variety great for salads and grilling and San Marzano, great for cooking. Together with the tomatoes, I have also made sowings of peppers and cucumbers. With the plant sale scheduled for May 4^th this year, I have sown extra of all of these. It would be great if you could do likewise. Last year’s sale was a great success and we are hoping this year’s will be even more successful.

As the month progresses I shall be making sowings of sweet corn, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, leeks and lettuce in the sparkling clean greenhouse which was one of those winter jobs I did manage to get round to!  Speaking of winter preparation, all of my vegetable beds are available for planting and those on my allotment have been covered since the autumn so I am hoping to get early plantings of onions and sowings of carrots, beetroot and parsnip later this month.

As far as the formal garden is concerned, my attempts to repair the ravages of last year’s drought have been pretty unsuccessful. I am undecided whether to redo each of them or purchase new turf with which I can patch the affected areas. My borders have been afflicted for some time with an inundation of wild strawberry which manages to root itself very cleverly in the very centres of my bedding. The grandchildren do enjoy picking and eating the tiny fruits but they have to go and to that end, I have completely dug out my largest bed and am in the process of replanting with some existing plants from that bed but also with stock raised by myself in the summer/autumn of last year together with some bought in examples such as alliums, lilies and agapanthus. With an eye on the flower show, I am about to start off dahlias in pots from which I can take cuttings and hence increase my stock.

No doubt you will remember last year, the Hort Soc had pollinators as its theme for the year supported by talks, films and a bee walk  on the subject and I hope many of you will have or be about to include something in your garden to make life easier and increase the level of these creatures. This year the chosen theme is Climate Change. Most people I know think it irrefutable that the climate is changing. I remember my mother in the sixties moaning about climate changes although she did not call it that and blaming the atom bomb! I, as a know-it-all teenager at the time, dismissed such observations out of hand but now realise that although she may have attributed it to the wrong cause, she had witnessed in her lifetime perceptible changes to the climate. One leading organisation in the field has proclaimed “we are the first generation to realise what we are doing to the planet and we are the last generation able to do something about it.” A sobering thought indeed.

As gardeners one might ask: what can we do about it, it’s a global problem that will require global action and anything gardeners achieve will have little impact. Well, anything we can do will help and who knows where it might lead? A few suggestions for you to consider:

• Garden as organically as possible with the aim of eradicating chemical use.
• Encourage pollinators into your garden. Install rainwater collection devices.
• Compost as much of your own material as possible: your compost will keep your soil in good heart which, in turn, will produce healthier and better crops.
• Avoid peat based composts.
• Recycle all that garden plastic material so that it does not end up in land fill.

If you have any further suggestions, drop me a line and I’ll share them with everyone.

In the meantime, I wish you

Good gardening,

Alex