The end of February is the perfect time to prune your roses, whilst they are still dormant but just about to burst into life. On Tuesday, as mine were starting to show signs of growth with a few buds opening I decided it was a job that needed tackling, so armed with some cleaned and sharpened secateurs and some gloves I set about the task.

I do have a bit of a love/hate relationship with roses. They are such a quintessential part of a garden for me and their scent is beautiful but they take a lot of care to look good. They seem to attract every greenfly in the vicinity, along with leafhoppers and are particularly prone to fungal infections such as blackspot and mildew. Trying to look after them organically, without an arsenal of chemical sprays at your disposal can be a real test.

Then there’s the pruning, a thorny problem indeed. A lot of people are flummoxed by pruning in general but roses, like clematis, seem to cause more than their fair share of panics. I think it is mainly due to the many different types of roses available; species roses, ramblers, climbers, old English roses, modern shrub roses, tea roses, musks, I could go on. It can be confusing to say the least as to how to tackle the different varieties. Coupled with this is the fact that roses have evolved to be covered in vicious thorns, natures way of protecting them from being eaten by grazing animals, although there are times when it feels like it was probably more to fend off gardeners wielding secateurs.

Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll'

We have 3 roses; Gertrude Jekyll an old rose hybrid, with a particularly strong ‘rose’ scent which was voted the nations favourite rose by BBC viewers in 2006, Geoff Hamilton, a Leander hybrid, again with a lovely scent and named after one of Britain’s most popular TV gardeners and A Shropshire Lad, an English Alba hybrid which we grow as a climber.

I started with the 2 shrub roses first. Pruning these is fairly straightforward, removing any dead, diseased or damaged stems first and then reducing the other stems to between one and two thirds. It is also good practice to try to create quite an open bush with no congested stems growing in the centre as this allows air to flow through the plant minimising problems with fungal diseases. To maintain this open structure always prune back to an outward facing bud, so any new growth is growing out and away from the plant.

It wasn’t long though before the roses were putting up a fight. It may have be the warmest February day for years yesterday but on Tuesday it was still quite chilly so I was wearing my winter hat. Whilst bending over my hat was snagged on some thorns, Gertrude Jekyll has some particularly vicious ones. My hands were full with prunings and I couldn’t release my hat. After a couple of tugs the hat came off my head but remained attached to the thorns as if the rose had acquired a triumphal trophy. The other problem was my gloves. They’ve been through the wash so much now that they’ve become really stiff, making it awkward to perform tasks that require a bit of dexterity. It was no good the gloves would have to come off, of course this meant I was scratched to bits. I also came across the first green fly of the year, can you believe it, already congregating on the young rose leaves just as they’re opening. So much for that cold spell killing them off.

I then turned my attentions to A Shropshire Lad. We have this growing up against a fence and I have been training in the stems over the last 2 years to create a nice framework. I still find it a bit daunting pruning this rose though and after a couple of minutes of looking at it wondering where to start I went into the house in search of my trusty RHS Encyclopedia. Because there are more stems and branches it can feel a bit overwhelming tackling a climber but with my book propped open at ‘How to prune and train a climbing rose’ I felt a bit more confident. Initially, the principles are the same as the other roses removing the dead, diseased and damaged stems but then it became more about maintaining a shape that encourages the most flowers.

By training the vertical stems to grow horizontally this changes the hormone balance in the stems and rather than the plant concentrating on producing vegetative growth it focusses on flowering. I removed a couple of large stems from the base and any spindly, twiggy branches and then reduced any sideshoots by about two thirds. Finally, I tied in the stems to wires already on the fence to hold them in place. The flowers on A Shropshire Lad are quite large and especially after rain can become heavy so it’s important to tie in any new growth over the year to prevent any stems snapping.

A Shropshire Lad, pruned and tied in

My back was aching afterwards and I was a little blood-stained from my thorny encounter but it felt very satisfying. Although pruning the climbing rose has exposed that I now need to paint the fence. Another job to add to the list. The question is can I manage to paint the fence without covering the rose in it.

I have always had a plant or two since I left home. Plants at university never really survived my student lifestyle. In contrast, my good friend doted on her plants, all of which had names and thrived. During the summer breaks I would be treated to updates on their progress in her letters to me.

In our first home together we bought a couple of plants from that large Swedish furniture shop. Along with the flat pack furniture with the strange names it seemed obligatory to buy a couple of plants. The one that I remember, possibly because it survived our attentions or lack of them, was a rubber plant or Ficus elastica. He even made the move back from Germany stuffed in the back of our car with the rest of our possessions deemed essential for living for several months whilst the rest was moved into storage. In our new flat he, his name is lost from my memory, was joined by a weeping fig which within days of purchase completely shed it’s leaves leaving a pathetic looking couple of bare stems in the pot. Eventually, the rubber plant got too big and was given to someone with more space.

Streptocarpus Seren (image from dibleys.com gold medal winning streptocarpus growers)

There have been other plants; a kalanchoe whose leaves were eaten by some undiscovered creature, an areca palm that developed blotchy leaves, orchids that never flower again and a streptocarpus that I overwatered amongst others.

My peace lily

My current houseplant roll call consists of 2 peace lilies, 3 money plants and 1 streptocarpus. The peace lilies were flowering when I bought them four years ago but haven’t flowered since but they do make attractive foliage plants and obligingly droop when they require a drink, so there is little danger of overwatering. They are also, according to NASA,  one of the best plants to have in the house to absorb the chemicals that are given off by modern furnishings and electrical appliances. I read somewhere that peace lilies are particularly sensitive to chlorine in tap water. It causes the tips to brown and die. So now I leave a glass of water standing overnight before using it to water them.

The streptocarpus is fussier and has proved more of a challenge to keep alive. It doesn’t like full sun so is only really happy on one particular window sill. It has slightly hairy leaves and doesn’t seem to like water splashing it’s leaves, otherwise it develops brown, dry patches. I have managed to get this one to flower though, which is something and once it starts flowering it goes on and on. I did forget to water it for a while though, partly because I killed the last streptocarpus by drowning the poor thing, so now the compost in the pot has formed a solid mass and shrunk away from the sides. Fortunately, March is the best time to pot on houseplants and give them some TLC so it won’t be long now before I can give this plant a new home.

My money plants

The money plants were grown from cuttings from my mum-in-law’s plant and have been very successful, they can get quite big and I don’t have the space, so I have to take cuttings every couple of years and start the plants off again. Money plants, however are really undemanding and there would be something wrong if they couldn’t survive my attention. They sit on my study window sill facing south east which is apparently where they should be according to feng shui. I have to say this has less to do with any adherence to this eastern philosophy than it is the only window sill available but still when I win the lottery I can say it was because of the placement of my money plants.

I know I’m not alone when it comes to struggling to keep houseplants alive. So why do they give us gardeners so many problems? Well as most gardeners know you should work with the conditions you have rather than trying to get plants to adapt and to some extent this is the problem with houseplants. Our homes really don’t provide most plants that are sold to us for the house with the conditions they require. Most houseplants are tender plants from the tropics. They generally like humidity and constant temperatures, the 2 things homes can’t really provide. If they did it wouldn’t be very pleasant for us to live in them, think Eden project in your lounge. Despite this I do still like having a few plants indoors and I’m sure they do make the environment in my home healthier, I just need to try a little harder to nurture these plants that I so often neglect.

Please feel free to share any houseplant horror stories, it’s a cathartic process.

Winter Sweet

The last time I visited a garden was back in September, so feeling a little deprived of new inspiration coupled with a touch of cabin fever and frankly just needing a change of scene, we decided to visit RHS Wisley, in Surrey. Unfortunately, the combination of good weather, half term and some children’s events meant that we weren’t the only ones with that idea. To say it was busy was understatement, heaving more like.

The RHS has 3 other gardens in North Yorkshire, Essex and Devon but Wisley is the largest and it’s flagship garden. Covering 240 acres it combines being a training establishment for it’s students and it’s educational role informing the public about horticulture with providing a day out in beautiful surroundings. We used to live close by so have been lucky enough to see the gardens throughout the seasons. High summer is in my opinion the best time to visit but there is still plenty to see even in winter.

Intoxicating Scent of Daphne

Winter scent is easy to find at Wisley with Daphnes, winter-flowering Honeysuckle and the incredible Chimonanthes or winter sweet.

Witch hazel

There were some beautiful specimens of witch hazel with it’s lemon peel-like flowers. The overnight frost had not had too much of impact on the carpets of crocus and snowdrops and there were hellebores scattered all over the gardens.

Alpine house at Wisley

A great treat at this time of year is the Alpine House which was bursting with colour. A stunning collection of Hepaticas, Crocus and Narcissi were all in bloom protected from the elements. Later in the year the green tussocks of Saxifrages will be covered in tiny little flowers.

Glasshouse at Wisley

One of main reasons for our visit was to see the glasshouse which was opened in 2007. We had seen the construction work going on but had moved away from the area before it was completed and opened. The structure is very impressive especially with the lake in front of it, providing beautiful reflections. It covers an area of 10 tennis courts and has different climates – dry temperate, moist temperate and tropical. As part of the half term activities was a ‘Come and See Butterflies’ event in the glasshouse which was proving incredibly popular with families, so popular there were long queues. We weren’t so bothered about seeing the butterflies and were more interested in the plants, so thinking we could bypass the 40 minute queue to see the butterflies, we left the queue to have a look at the plants only to realise half way round that you could only see the rest of the glasshouse if you were in the queue for the butterflies. We didn’t have the time or stamina to queue again. What we saw was good and I particularly liked the display about roots but it was quite frustrating not to get to see the rest of the glasshouse especially as we seemed to be the only people interested in seeing the plants.

Inside the glasshouse

The plant centre is amazing and could do serious damage to your bank account. The nursery has a wide selection of herbs, shrubs, trees, alpines, herbaceous plants and fruit bushes and trees. It is horticultural heaven. The staff, as you would expect, have a wealth of knowledge and are very helpful. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I was so tired after 4 hours of walking around I didn’t have enough energy for the shop. I was very tempted by the trained fruit trees but all I could manage was a pot of blue wood anemone. If you really want to do the plant centre justice I suggest you start here first. It has the added advantage that you don’t have to pay to get into the plant centre so if you didn’t have time to visit the gardens you could just pop into the shop.

I can highly recommend Wisley and realise how lucky we were to live so close by. The gardens cover such a large area that even on a very busy day you can find quiet spots. Visitor facilities are good with a selection of places to eat. It is always worth checking what events are on, they offer a full programmes throughout the year ranging from courses and talks for adults to childrens craft making days.

For more information visit the RHS website

I wouldn't be without my cold frames

The seed sowing season is about to start in earnest and over the next couple of months my window sills will be stuffed with seed trays and pots as I grow vegetables and flower plants for my allotment and garden. I prefer to start seeds off at home rather than directly into the ground for several reasons. Last year, the seeds I sowed directly germinated very patchily because of the very dry spring, whereas the seeds started off at home germinated well as it was easier to control their growing conditions. I also find that if I can nurture a plant to a reasonable size before planting out they are less prone to pest attacks, slugs in particular love young seedlings, but I wouldn’t be able to grow the volume of plants I do without my cold frames.

When we first moved here we realised, sadly that there wasn’t the space for a greenhouse, which was even more annoying because we were offered one for free. The compromise came in the form of a sturdy, 5ft by 3ft cold frame from the Greenhouse People. It cost £250, which felt like quite a lot to spend on a cold frame, especially since money was tight as we were doing quite a bit of work to the house and garden but I wanted something that looked like it would last. Two years later and with a newly acquired allotment I knew one cold frame wouldn’t be enough so I bought another but this time I went for the cheaper option. Well I certainly have proof you get what you pay for. The second cold frame took twice as long to erect and wasn’t very well designed. It has perspex lights rather than glass and annoyingly the perspex has a habit of working it’s way out of it’s fittings and slipping down exposing plants to the elements. Despite the second cold frame’s shortcomings it has still provided me with the extra space I need.

Seedling packed cold frame

In February and March you will find hardy plants such as broad beans, sweet peas and early peas in my cold frames and then towards the end of March and into April, as these hardy plants are moved to open ground, they are replaced by hardy flowering plants such as antirrhinums, sunflowers, scabious and cornflowers that will form my cut flower patch. Half hardy and tender plants sown indoors in April will gradually move to the cold frames in May. By the end of May, with the danger of frost having receded and all the plants now in their final growing place, the cold frames fall quiet for a while. But it isn’t long before they have filled again with sowings of biennials such as sweet williams, honesty, sweet rocket and wallflowers, sown in July to flower the following spring. Then in September I start off hardy annuals such as orlaya and scabious that will overwinter in the coldframes and can then be planted out in early spring to provide an early show of flowers.

This all sounds very organised but invariably some plants are slow to germinate, or the weather makes life difficult. Last spring was so warm and my plants grew so quickly that my cold frames were bursting at the seams but it was still only the start of May and too early to plant out, in case the weather changed and there was a late frost.

It’s not just for providing protection for young seedlings that I wouldn’t be without my cold frames, they have been useful places to overwinter plants that can cope with cold but just don’t like sitting in wet compost. Winters here in Wales tend to be wet so I move herbs, succulents and alpines into the cold frames so they stay dry, protected from the winter rains.

Of course, like anything cold frames have their problems. It is really important to keep on top of ventilation. Even in early spring the warmth of the sun on the glass can make temperatures underneath rise, causing young plants to wilt. On mild days in autumn and winter ventilation is important to stop damp air lingering and fungal diseases such as botrytis flourishing. It’s also essential to keep an eye out for pests, in particular aphids and slugs. Aphids multiply rapidly and in a confined space will spread quickly from plant to plant and if slugs find their way into your cold frame full of young, juicy seedlings. Well, lets just say it will be like a banquet for those loathsome creatures. I speak from experience, the damage caused by slugs unleashed in a cold frame can be heartbreaking. I don’t like using slug pellets, even though I buy the ones that aren’t supposed to be dangerous to wildlife but I now find a scattering in the cold frame is the best way to keep on top of them. Birds and hedgehogs don’t go into the cold frame so there is no danger of them coming into contact with them.

What wouldn’t you be without in your garden or on your plot? What piece of gardening kit has really made a difference for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m a list maker. Not as bad as my mum who writes everything down on Post-it notes, which are stuck all over the house but a list maker non the less. Last year, however I didn’t have enough lists. It was my first year with an allotment and I spent most of my time feeling overwhelmed by the jobs to do. I always felt I was playing catchup. I would pick up a book or magazine and read that I should have pruned my gooseberries months ago or given my roses their high potash feed. It’s not that I’m short of information, far from it, my bookcase groans under the weight of gardening books offering tips and advice. The problem is finding the relevant bit when needed and having to wade through lots that I just don’t need for my own garden. So this year I decided to draw up month by month lists of tasks to do that were relevant to my own garden and allotment.

2012 will be the year my roses are pruned and fed at the right times, the year I don’t forget to sow the Antirrhinums in early March and the year I achieve some sort of successive sowing. Well that’s the theory anyway.

Confined indoors over the last week or so by the cold weather I went through my gardening books and created a tailor made to do list. I now have 2 sowing lists, one for the veg and the other for the cut flowers and a list of tasks to do, such as pruning and feeding. Suddenly everything seemed clearer and less daunting. Would it be taking it too far to get them laminated? Mmmm probably, although it won’t be long before they’re covered in muddy finger prints and water stains.

Buoyed by my feeling of organisation and the relatively mild weather I tackled the first job on my list for February, feeding fruit. Now is the time to give your blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries a sprinkling of a balanced fertiliser. I use one from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.

Then it was time to prune the autumn fruiting raspberries cutting last year’s growth down to the ground. I can already see new growth at the base of the plants that will become this year’s stems and hopefully by August they will be groaning under the weight of fruit.

Back at home I filled a seed tray with 50:50 multipurpose compost and vermiculite and sowed some celeriac and Verbena bonariensis. You could use a special seed compost but I don’t really have the space to have different types of compost. I find a good quality multipurpose compost such as New Horizon mixed with some vermiculite works well for me. I haven’t grown Verbena from seed before, I normally buy them as small plants and once in the garden they do self seed but I find the plants you get from these seedlings are often quite spindly and never really bulk up like the ones that have been raised under cover. I collected some seed at the end of last year so I thought I’d see if I could get some earlier plants from starting them off indoors. I just used one half tray for both seed types. Dividing the tray in half and being careful where I sowed I find this works when space is limited. I only want 9 celeriac plants for the allotment and although I sowed more than 9 seeds in case some don’t germinate I couldn’t devote a whole tray, even a half tray to just celeriac.

Celeriac is another new addition to the allotment this year. Apparently I have to be patient because it is slow to germinate, up to 4 weeks I’ve read. Not really my kind of seed, I like French beans and courgettes which can be up within days of sowing but I love celeriac mashed in Bubble and Squeak so wanted to give growing it a try. It’s strange to think that I am already planning for this autumn by sowing seed for such long growing plants as celeriac but a whole spring and summer will have passed before I come to eat it.

Somewhere to Escape - My Garden in Summer

I’ve just spent half an hour on the phone to my bank whose security features are so robust I can’t even access my own account. They’ve implemented a new faster payment service but are now so worried about fraudulent transactions, every time I use the account it is frozen. This is even after I have had to undergo the tortuous process of remembering passwords, ID codes, pin numbers and obscure security questions such as my favourite food to make the transaction in the first place. Am I the only one whose brain struggles with the myriad of pin numbers and passwords I need to retain? For heaven’s sake, I even need a pin number for my library card.

Then there’s the washing machine which has managed to time it’s hissy fit until it is safely out of the guarantee. Are these machines programmed to do this? And don’t get me started on the supposed advance in technology that is digital TV and it’s ability to scramble the picture at crucial points during a programme.

As modern life gets more complicated and the gadgets that were supposed to save us time actually create more problems I don’t think it is a surprise that so many of us retreat to our gardens and allotments. These spaces really do feel like an escape from the modern world.  I nearly always feel better about the world after an hour or so on my plot. The jobs such as weeding, staking and deadheading are simple but incredibly absorbing, a form of meditation really. There is always so much to do, there is little time to stop and think and that’s how I like it.  The tools I use are simple, no complicated buttons to press, nothing asking for a pin number before I can use it here. I love how even a short amount of time spent in my garden or on the allotment reaps instant rewards. Even if it is as simple as weeding and making a patch look tidy I go away feeling satisfied but with a lot of modern life there isn’t that same sense of achievement.

The ground is still a bit too wet to do anything on the plot but I knew I wanted to do something that would take my mind off the frustrations of modern life so I sowed some broad beans in pots on my window sill. I didn’t grow broad beans last year but they’re one of my favourites and always really expensive to buy. I choose the variety ‘Masterpiece Longpod’ on the basis that it is strong growing, has an excellent flavour, apparently and has an AGM award from the RHS. The Royal Horticulture Society performs trials of selected plants every year, growing a number of varieties of each to see which perform the best and then awarding these the Award of Garden Merit (AGM). It’s always worth looking out for the symbol, a green label with a white trophy in the centre, on plant labels and seed packets. There are so many varieties out there and sometimes it is overwhelming deciding which ones to pick. The AGM award gives you the reassurance that that variety performs well.

You can sow some varieties of broad beans in late autumn but I read in Clare Matthews’ The Low Maintenance Garden that if you live somewhere with particularly wet winters, and I do, it is best to sow in late winter. Once the seed have germinated, I’ll put them straight into my cold frame and then hopefully it won’t be long before I can plant them into the ground.

A little spot of seed sowing wasn’t quite as effective an antidote to modern life as an hours digging but I’ll take what I can get at the moment.

Why not buy some daffs this Valentine's Day

So it’s that time of year again, Valentine’s Day, when the colours red and pink take over every shop you walk into, in a celebration of love and romance. I once lived in a town where even the local hardware store covered it’s shop windows in red and pink hearts. I’m not sure whether it just felt left out but I half expected to see a sign inside saying ‘Nothing Says I love You More Than a Cordless Drill’.

Of course, it’s flowers or more specifically, red roses that are still the number one choice of gift for a loved one on Valentine’s Day. The red rose has long been the symbol for love and billions are sold around the world on the 14th February. The deep red, velvety roses are beautiful but I was reading Anna Pavord’s The Curious Gardener recently about her experiences in Ecuador at the flower farms there and it made me wonder whether there was an alternative to the now ubiquitous red rose.

In order to supply the ever increasing demand across the globe Valentine’s Day roses are grown intensively in South America and Africa using chemicals that are banned in Europe, with little attention paid to Health and Safety, causing pollution to the local area and health problems for the workers. The crops are often grown in places where there is the need for irrigation, using up limited water resources and then flown thousands of miles around the world to their final destination. Ethically, red roses get a big thumbs down.  You can read more about imported flowers in my previous post about British Cut Flowers.

It got me to thinking about why the rose has become the gift of choice. In the days running up to 14th February you can’t get stirred for dark red roses and the prices charged are eye-watering. When I asked Wellyman what he thought about flowers for Valentine’s Day, he said that a dozen red roses are seen as the done thing, that’s what all women want. But I’m not quite sure where this idea started. Does it really say ‘I love you’ if you and millions of others purchased exactly the same thing? Or does it say ‘I believe this is what global consumerism tells me I am supposed to buy you today’?

So what are the alternatives? Even in February it is possible to get flowers that have been grown in Britain. This is the peak time for daffodils from Cornwall. Cornish Country Flowers for instance, sell 60 stems of daffodils for £16 that will be delivered to your door. How many red roses would you get for £16 and just imagine the house full to the brim of daffodils?  The Flower Farm also sell a range of Cornish daffodils which includes a selection of scented Narcissi. Tregothnan Estate, again in Cornwall, have a range of beautiful British grown Valentine’s Bouquets for delivery. It’s also coming into the British tulip season with some stunning colours available from most florists.

So, Wellyman if you’re reading this it’s seasonal, British flowers for me. That should be a bit kinder on the bank balance, too.

My favourite childhood book

I enjoyed reading the recent posts by An Urban Veg Patch about a book she had picked up from her library called  A Roses’s Garden and Anna at Green Tapestry with her Winter Aconite Flower Fairy post. They both made me think about my favourite childhood books from the Brambly Hedge series.

The books by Jill Barklem were about a colony of mice who lived in the trunks of hollowed out trees. Jill trained at St. Martin’s School of Art and it was on her long train journeys to college that she came up with her imaginary world. Using inspiration from walks in her local Epping Forest she filled sketch books with drawings of mice, trees and plants from the hedgerows and created the world of Brambly Hedge.

It was her illustrations that I loved the most. I was and still am mesmerised by her drawings of hollowed out trees with names like Crab Apple Cottage that had staircases winding up inside them leading to a myriad of rooms, with roaring fires, four poster beds and kitchens laden with food gathered from the hedgerows. I was fascinated by the idea of twinkling lights appearing from windows in the tree trunks, as night fell and mice with names such as Poppy Eyebright and Wilfred Toadflax scurrying back to their cosy homes. Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge books imbued me with a love of the countryside which has never left me.

Ironically, as Jill was writing her books the quintessential British hedgerow was continuing it’s decline. Between 1986 and 1996 the Independent estimated that Britain lost more than 110,000 miles of hedgerows, grubbed up to make fields easier to farm with large machinery. Hedgerows, it is believed, had been a feature of our landscape even before the Romans conquered and up until the Second World War they were a vital tool for farmers to manage their land, defining boundaries, dividing up land and providing shelter for livestock. The oldest known surviving hedge in England is ‘Judith’s Hedge’ in Cambridgeshire which is over 900 years old. After the Second World War there was pressure on farmers to produce more food and cheaply. Changes in agriculture meant smaller fields divided by hedges were not the most efficient way of farming and so vast tracts of hedges were destroyed, some may well have been there for hundreds of years. Norfolk, for instance has lost half of it’s hedgerows since the Second World War.

It wasn’t until 1997 that the Hedgerow Regulation Act required landowners to submit a hedgerow removal notice to their local planning department which gave councils the chance to protect ‘important’ hedges by issuing a retention notice. It seems crazy that it was only 15 years ago that hedgerows were given some protection when they are recognised as incredibly important for biodiversity. According to CPRE more than 80% of farmland birds rely on hedges for protection and food and many threatened mammals feed on their fruit and seeds. Geoffrey Lean writing in the Independent  says they are home to over 250 species of plants and nearly half of lowland butterflies breed on them. Hedgerows even lock up carbon, a 2km stretch of hedge can absorb between 1200 and 1600 kg of CO2. An average car travelling 6000 miles would emit this amount of CO2. (Norfolk Wildlife Trust)

Hedgerows criss-crossing the countryside

All is not lost though. Some counties such as Devon, Cornwall, Herefordshire and my own Monmouthshire have held onto their hedgerows. The topography suiting small fields and a predominance of livestock farming rather than arable meant there was no need to grub out hedges. Devon, in fact has more hedgerows than any other county with 33,000 miles and one quarter of these are over 800 years old. (Devon County Council website) I love holidays in Devon and Cornwall at any time of the year but in Spring a real treat is the site of the deep and tall earthbank hedgerows alive with wildflowers. Driving down tiny lanes with tall hedgerows and trees creating a tunnels of dappled light with drifts of bluebells, wild garlic, red campion, cowparsley and foxgloves lining the lanes. A beautiful and integral part of our landscape that should be more appreciated and protected.

For more information there are some great websites out there. CPRE produces a small guide to hedgerows with a handy pull-out identification chart. Devon County Council’s website has an excellent section on hedgerows. I’ve included links for both in the post above. If you would like to survey local hedgerows contact your local Wildlife Trust.

A beautifully designed garden - Piet Oudolf's garden at Pensthorpe in Norfolk

At the beginning of January I started a four week online course with My Garden School (see my previous post My Garden School). I chose to do Planting Design Part One with Hilary Thomas, a former head of garden design at Capel Manor. Well I’ve just finished my last assignment so I thought I’d let you know how I got on.

Each Saturday a video and course notes, along with details of that week’s assignment were available to view on the website in a section called My Classroom which you get access to once you have signed up to a course. You could log on any time during that week to view the video and read the notes and go back to them as many times as you wanted, even during the following weeks. The videos lasted about half an hour and consisted of a series of photos illustrating the themes whilst Hilary talked you through the subject.

Each week there was an assignment related to the themes of that week. For example, I had to create a planting plan inspired by Piet Oudolf and create a collage of purely evergreen plants and select a group of plants based on their special characteristics such as beautiful bark. Assignments were uploaded in the My Classroom section and then I would receive comments from Hilary on how I had done. It was also possible to chat and leave messages for fellow students.

So what was my verdict. Well I found the course interesting and informative.  The course is really aimed at someone who hasn’t really had an previous experience so I did find the course easy but there are courses available for those with more knowledge and experience. A plus is that it did highlight the mistakes I have made in my own garden. The negative is that because we don’t think we will stay in this house too much longer I probably won’t implement the necessary changes, so now I will have to look at my mistakes knowing where I’ve gone wrong. I’m not sure whether I preferred blissful ignorance! Anyway, I do feel I have a much better understanding of why structural planting is so important in a garden and  I will definitely refer back to Hilary’s notes with any future garden projects.

I thought the tutor support and comments were prompt, friendly and constructive. My previous experience of an online course with another horticulture college was completely let down by the lack of tutor involvement. So it was good to see one of the more important elements of a distance learning course working well here.

I know the word ‘assignment’ can sound quite scary but they weren’t complicated or onerous and really just required sitting down with some good gardening books and/or the internet and selecting plants that fitted the requested criteria. Possibly the most time consuming aspect was finding suitable photographs to create the collages.

I found you do need a certain degree of computer literacy, being able to create a digital collage. I just used the photo package on my computer and once Wellyman had shown me what to do I was fine. You do also need access to a scanner for elements of this particular course. Fortunately, Wellyman could use a scanner at work.

Now the crunch question – did I think the course was value for money?  The courses cost £120 for the 4 weeks. I personally would have liked another week or two for that price but if you have nowhere locally that offers gardening courses or you have limited time available then they may well be what you’re looking for. If you do have access to a local college or you want something more in depth or with some practical experience then it probably isn’t the best value. For instance, my local college is offering a 15 week garden design course for £67. Although this course is for 2 hours every week during the day so might not be convenient for a lot of people. There is also the added value of the calibre of tutors the college offers, such as Hilary Thomas and John Brookes.

Ultimately My Garden School is offering a level of convenience that most colleges can’t offer, as well as tutors that are respected in their field, that most of us wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get access to.

I would just like to thank Hilary and Elspeth for their time.

For more information go to www.my-garden-school.com

Snowy visitors

I like a flurry of the white stuff, even a bit of a drift of it from time to time. I love how snow transforms the landscape and that strange quiet that accompanies its fall but I had rather got round to thinking that Spring was on its way. I’ve got my list of jobs to tackle at the allotment, storage areas to tidy, a path to lay, compost to be spread but Mother nature has had other ideas and snow is falling here in Wales. I’m sure all across the country there are frustrated gardeners confined indoors frowning as the flakes fall.

Patience is not one of my strong points. A virtue it may be but it’s not one that comes naturally to me. People seem to assume I’ll be a patient person because I’m a gardener, well I must be musn’t I? I have to wait for all those seed things to germinate and for my favourite flowers to bloom and crops to ripen when I could have just bought them at the supermarket, is what some non-gardening acquaintances think. When I think about it, there are so many things to be impatient about as a gardener. There are the plants that seem to take an age to grow. I planted a Trachelospermum asiaticum a couple of years ago only to discover it can take years to get established. We’ll have probably moved before it flowers. The day after sowing seed the ritual of checking the pots for germination will begin. I have yet to discover a seed that has germinated over night but that doesn’t stop me checking.

I have a fairly complicated seed sowing schedule because I grow everything from seed using 2 window sills and 2 cold frames which leads to a frantic and ever so slightly stressful April and May. My patience wears thin as the weather invariably plays havoc with my planting plans and some seeds, such as Didiscus, turn out to be erratic germinators. The exceptionally mild spring last year meant a lot of plants were ready to go in the ground but with the danger of the weather turning cold I had to keep potting everything on. It did get to the point where it looked like the plants were taking over the house.

On the other hand I know plenty of people who wouldn’t even bother with any of it. So maybe I am more patient than I think. Or maybe it is gardening and it’s ability to bring out the best in people. Maybe plants are forcing me to realise that not everything is in my control.  So rather than sit and grumble at the grey, leaden sky and snowy scene outside I watched the birds on the feeders and sat down with a cup of tea and some gardening books from the library. There’ll be plenty of time for rushing around in the weeks and months to come and then I’ll be telling everyone I don’t have time to read any books or just watch the birds.

Snowy visitor