Finding Inspiration

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Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein, Cleve West, Dr Hessayon, Garden Media Guild, gardening books

What are your favourites?

It seems that the speech Dr Hessayon gave at the recent Garden Media Guild awards has created a bit of a stir. He wasn’t very optimistic about the future of gardening books, and in particular reference books, suggesting that the internet is killing them off. It was a statement that a substantial part of the audience, the assembled writers and publishers, probably didn’t want to hear. Then came a feature on the Guardian’s website entitled ‘Why are gardening books so boring?’ by Lucy Masters.

I LOVE books and always have, well, apart from a period of about a year after my degree when I couldn’t get beyond the second page of any book I picked up. My year at university had been a case of book overload and had taken the pleasure out of reading; I needed a break. It was gardening books that got me reading again. Wellyman bought me a set of Alan Titchmarsh books. We had just moved home from living abroad. I was stuck in a hotel on my own before we could move into our flat and all of our possessions were still in storage. I devoured those books in a day, mentally planning out a garden.

I advise anyone I know who takes on an allotment to spend the winter months reading as many gardening books as possible, taking notes and formulating ideas, then they can start the growing season with confidence and a plan. That’s the brilliant thing about gardening, you don’t need to go to college to be able to learn enough to have a beautiful garden and productive allotment. But are there the books out there to teach and inspire gardeners? If anyone has been to the RHS bookshop at Wisley it would be hard to say there isn’t enough choice. Some subjects have been covered more than others in recent years. The popularity of urban gardens and allotments mean there are container books and grow your own fruit and vegetable books galore. But this isn’t unusual, it happens with anything that has become popular, authors and publishers are simply capturing the zeitgeist of recent times.

I don’t think there is much doubt that the internet will have an impact, if it has not done so already, on gardening reference books. I’m much more likely whilst I’m writing to search online if I need information quickly. But, when I’m in the garden and I’m not sure how to prune a particular plant or I’m wondering which pest is chomping on the leaves in front of me it’s a book I’ll turn to. When my hands are covered in soil, I need some tips quickly and I’m gingerly tiptoeing through the kitchen trying not to shower everywhere with compost a book is much more forgiving than a computer keyboard. Perhaps the reference book’s days aren’t numbered just yet.

Complaints about gardening books seem to focus on the idea that many books are ‘celebrity’ driven, that books are aimed at too broad an audience and books are too often pitched at the non-experienced gardener. All these factors are driven by economics; is a book commercially viable? Perhaps it’s unpalatable but the reality is that publishers need to produce books which will sell well if they are to at very least recoup their costs. It shouldn’t then be any surprise that authors with a TV presence prove to be popular with publishers. They already have a large audience of fans and potential buyers. There are books by well-known faces which make me wonder what else are they offering but a ‘celebrity’ author doesn’t have to mean a lack of substance or knowledge. Alys Fowler and James Wong are both hugely knowledgeable and have inspired young and old alike to look at food and plants in a different way. Some of my own favourite gardening books are by Carol Klein, a gardener and writer who exudes enthusiasm for her subject, and Monty Don writes thoughtfully about connecting with the soil and nature. To dismiss these writers simply because they are on TV would mean missing out on some great reading.

Go to a publisher with what they consider a niche idea for a book and if they can’t make the figures add up then you’ll be unlikely to get it commissioned. There’s the option for an author to self-publish but it isn’t an easy option. New avenues are opening up such as Unbound but to get the money you would still need a profile of some description to gain funding from the public.

Working out where to pitch a book can be tricky too. Don’t write about the basics and you could exclude those new to the subject and not provide a comprehensive coverage of a topic, include the basics and you risk annoying the more experienced gardener who thinks ‘Blah, blah, blah, I know all this already’. Certainly what I have learnt from gardening is that no matter how experienced you are someone else may have a tip or sliver of information, however simple, that you haven’t thought of or come across before.

The other problem is the value put on writing itself. In a world where free content is increasing are people willing to pay for creativity any more? Few people would probably say they like advertising but it makes paid for content possible in magazines and newspapers. I remember an interview with Ian Hislop where he explained why Private Eye hadn’t gone down the route of free online content. He said he had explained to his children that if they ever wanted a job in the creative industries how would they ever earn a living if their work was given away for free. The perceptions of worth seem to be changing too? I overheard a couple complaining about the price of a book in a shop recently. It was the same price as the the bottles of wine they had in their trolley but they obviously didn’t see the value in a book they could go back to again and again. Creating a book is time-consuming, in some cases it can feel as if it has taken over your life. Unfortunately advances don’t cover the true time spent creating the book and so the author waits, hoping they’ve made something people want to buy. The phrase ‘deferred gratification’ couldn’t be more apt than for writing a book. More knowledgeable gardeners may crave specialist books. But the more niche a book the less of an audience and the less likely the author is ever to be rewarded for their efforts. And so, in the immortal words of ABBA ‘Money, Money, Money’ is the driving force. Whether it’s authors needing to make some sort of living and having to make compromises, whether it’s publishers needing to turn a profit and whether it’s consumers making choices with how and where they spend their own cash.

It’s quite a gloomy prospect, particularly for a new author but I didn’t want to end on such a negative thought because I do think there are some fabulously interesting and inspiring books out there. So here are my suggestions for useful and inspiring garden reading:

• I love all of Carol Klein’s books but my favourite is ‘Grow Your Own Garden’. A subject which could be dry and dull but this is neither. Informative and enjoyable with useful tables at the back for quick reference.
• Monty Don’s ‘The Jewel Garden’. He writes with a passion and eloquence about the making of his garden, the depression he suffers from and how the connection with the soil helps to heal him.
• Cleve West’s ‘Our Plot‘. A celebration of allotments this isn’t a ‘how to grow’ book but with a plethora of those to choose from anyway this is no bad thing. Should be required reading for planners who should understand how important spaces for growing are in our communities.
• Alan Titchmarsh ‘How to be a Gardener’ and the ‘Complete Gardener’. I would recommend these to any first time gardener. Packed full of information to start you on a lifetime of gardening.
• Anything by Alys Fowler and Mark Diacono for their fresh approaches to writing and growing.
• Charles Dowding’s ‘Salad Leaves for all Seasons’. This man knows his stuff. Ditch the supermarket salad bags of soggy leaves and grow your own.
• Other favourites include Val Bourne’s Ten Minute Gardener books, any of Anna Pavord’s books and Elspeth Thompson’s writing.

I’d love to hear what you think about gardening books. Which are your favourites, the authors you love and what books you would like to see published in the future?

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Squirrels, Mr T and inappropriate watering cans

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Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein, Dr Hessayon, Garden Media Guild Awards, Jason Ingram, Matthew Wilson, Strictly Come Dancing

Ditching the wellies

I’m in a bit of a daze at the moment. Some of it is due to a lack of sleep. We appear to have mice or squirrels in the loft/wall cavities which sound like they are performing their own version of Strictly Come Dancing throughout the night, right above our bedroom. Wellyman and I weren’t keen on the idea it might be a rat so thought we’d refer to it as a squirrel in the hope that would make it all better when lying there at 4am listening to some hobnail booted creatures above our heads. But it turns out rats are preferable to squirrels on the sliding scale of unwanted creatures in your loft. Squirrels, according to the pest control guy, are the animal equivalent of a teenager left home alone. I’ve always had a soft spot for squirrels, even the unloved greys, but apparently they will cause a scene of devastation given half the chance. Not a particularly comforting thought as it seems, on initial inspection, unlikely to be rats. Lets hope for mice then, although it’s hard to imagine something which can squeeze through a gap as narrow as a pen can make so much noise that even Wellyman is roused from sleep.

Only two hours slumber was probably not the best preparation for my day out in London last week. My publisher had invited me along to the Garden Media Guild Awards at a rather swanky hotel on Park Lane. So I ditched the wellies and jeans in favour of heels and a frock and headed east. The awards recognise the best in broadcasting, books, print, photography and online media in relation to gardening. Many of those attending are freelance so I suppose the event doubles as a bit of a Christmas do for those who wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to end the year with a bit of a party. Although everyone seemed much too well-behaved for it to resemble a true Christmas party. I wish I could post up some photographs but the ballroom was strangely lit with green lights. Maybe they thought it appropriate as we were all gardeners but it gave everything an odd Kermit-like tinge. It was lovely to meet up with fellow bloggers Michelle, Petra and Naomi. Alan Titchmarsh made an impassioned ‘I have a dream speech’ about the future of gardening and horticulture, Carol Klein looked very glamorous and Matthew Wilson managed to keep the post-lunch (and wine) audience under control. Dr Hessayon, he of the ‘Expert’ books fame, took to the stage to present an award and made a speech, a speech which was oddly misreported in several newspapers. There was much consternation on Twitter from those who had been there – had we really missed the standing ovation? Turns out you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspapers. I was really happy for Jason Ingram, who took the photographs for my book, when he won ‘Photographer of the Year’. Then it was time to leave; the matchsticks would hold my eyelids open no more. I did have to navigate a room of over 300 people with my goody bag first though. I’m sure the idea behind using a watering can as the receptacle for a variety of gardening related gifts rather than an actual bag seemed like a great idea on paper, the recipients were after all a group of gardeners. On the other hand the very long pointy spout was an accident waiting to happen. Numerous groins and a pregnant lady narrowly missed a poke from me but I thought it was safest to make my exit when I realised I had been stood with the spout only millimeters away from the ear of a man who was sitting down behind me. Still, I guess a watering can was an improvement on an axe, the gift given to all the guests a few years ago.

Delicious food at the GMG awards, shame about the green lighting

Then there was the long trip home before heading off the next day on another long journey to visit family in the north-east for the weekend. And now I’m back home and it’s December and I feel completely unprepared for everything this month demands. The garden and allotment demand little or no attention at this time of year which is just as well really. I miss the fresh air and exercise of a morning spent gardening but I’m enjoying the break this year more than in the past. Scouring seed and plant catalogues and the internet for ideas for projects I’ll be working on next year is exciting but daunting also. Where will I fit it all? Am I biting off more than I can chew? There are the first signs of new life on the plot as daffodils poke through the bare soil, encouraged by the mild autumn. It’s surprisingly how the sight of just a few fat green shoots can spark a feeling of positivity and creativity but they did. It’s going to be a hectic few weeks but I’m determined to get out into the garden and have a poke about in search of new life. As we move closer to the shortest day it makes all the difference to my mood to be reminded spring won’t be too far away.

Spring delights

Is the revolution over?

Tags

Alan Titchmarsh, allotments, Gardeners' World, grow your own, River Cottage

Borlotti beans

Over the last ten years or so a phenomenon has taken the garden world by storm. Nobody could have predicted back in the nineties that growing your own fruit and vegetables would be so big. With so many magazines and books devoted to the subject it’s hard to remember what gardening was like before. Of course, there were people growing their own before it became the trendy thing to do, then, for a whole host of reasons, a new generation was inspired to pick up their trowels and start growing. The problem with anything that becomes trendy though is that it can fall out of fashion just as quickly.

I’ve been wondering about the whole grow your own thing for a while now and whether the bubble has burst. I loved gardening before it became fashionable. I was an incredibly uncool teenager who watched Gardener’s World on a Friday night. As growing veg surged in popularity I was moving around the country from rented house to rented house with no garden to call my own, and with the urge to grow and put down roots of the plant kind getting stronger by the day. When we finally settled in one place it was no surprise to us that there was a waiting list for allotments in our village. Why wouldn’t there be, everyone wanted an allotment. We were lucky, it didn’t take long for us to get a plot but my experience there suggests that the enthusiasm for growing your own food has waned.

The last few weekends when we’ve had dry and even sunny weather, Wellyman and I have been the only people at the allotments. This is the perfect chance to get the allotment ship-shape before growing gets under way. Most tenants are retired and tend to go to the allotment on weekdays. The newest plotholder is a lovely man in his seventies and these guys really do look after their allotments but they were all gardening and growing food long before the recent resurgence. What we don’t seem to have any of are families and those younger people who were meant to have been excited by the idea of growing heirloom carrots and tending a compost heap. They have been there. My neighbour loved River Cottage and the idea of providing fresh and tasty food for her family but, in the end, other commitments were more pressing and she has given up her plot.

I’m lucky, because I work from home I can generally find an hour or so during the day to pop up to the allotment. If it has been wet for days and days and then there’s a dry spell I have the advantage of being able to go and get jobs done. But it has got me thinking, is it possible to manage an allotment when you work full-time and have other responsibilities or are allotments mainly the preserve of the retired? Has the generation swept up by the ideas of their own bit of the ‘good life’ realised that juggling jobs, families and other demands on their time aren’t compatible with maintaining an allotment.

Alan Titchmarsh wrote recently about the accusation that TV gardeners have made the whole subject appear too easy and have lulled a whole group of people into a false idea of just how much work is actually required. Unsurprisingly he disagrees. He believes it has more to do with people being used to instant gratification and not being able to see things through. This is an opinion shared by many on my allotment site who have seen people come and go. Certainly when it comes to cooking, if you look at the vast numbers of recipe books sold every year and the almost wall to wall food programmes you’d think we’d have a better relationship with what we eat. And yet it seems many watch these programmes whilst eating ready meals. Perhaps growing your own is going this way too. The idea is very lovely but the effort required not so. There is no denying though that modern life has become much more demanding. The idea we would work a three or four-day week and that technology would liberate us has never materialised. Plotholders do have the option of taking on really small plots on our site but even this hasn’t been enough to make them more manageable.

Squash flower

It was decided recently to set up a committee to liaise with the council and to try to improve the management of the allotments. The idea was to work towards establishing an allotment association. Unfortunately it was a struggle to get four people to be on the initial committee. I put my hand up and looked around at the sea of faces, no one wanting to make eye contact, hoping others would volunteer themselves. The idea that there would be enough enthusiasm and drive to become a self-managing site is rapidly diminishing. The dilemma for my village’s allotments is that we can’t attract and then keep younger plotholders and the older tenants generally aren’t interested in trying to inject some vibrancy into the place. They really want the site to stay as it is. My other allotment neighbour is 82 and said to me the other day ‘I’m not that fussed about the plot this year, my knees are giving me grief but it gets me out of the house’.

I don’t know about you but it all makes my heart sink. I’d love it if there were people who wanted to put up a polytunnel and introduce an allotment show but ideas like this are greeted with complaints about people trying to change things. It will certainly be an interesting year for my village allotment. I’d love to hear your thoughts. What does your site do to attract and keep new tenants?

The Mind Boggles – Part Two

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Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein, Monty Don

Cephalaria gigantea

Back in July I posted about the strange search terms that brought people to Wellywoman. They do make me laugh. So on this grotty, miserable, November day I thought I’d post about the ones I’ve had since, in an attempt to cheer myself up, if no one else. Oh and there are a few completely unseasonal photos along the way to hopefully bring some colour to the day.

It’s a weird mix which I suppose rather sums up the internet in all it’s glory. There are those clearly desperate for enlightenment on a particular topic. I often feel like I want to respond to them or learn a bit more about them. It’s a little like people watching at an airport when I wonder where the people around me are going to, who they’ll be meeting and why. The ‘my lawn is boggy and faces north’ really should be advised to give up the lawn unless he or she wants to cultivate moss. The especially simplistic ‘tree with red fruit’ says to me not a gardener. Possibly someone who has moved into a house with a tree in the garden that has red fruit on it and has no other points of reference other than the obvious. They may be some time in their attempts to discover what their tree actually is with such little information at hand. My sympathies go out to ‘itching like ants crawling’ although I’m relieved they didn’t add where they were itching. I doubt very much they found any solace from my blog.

There are the nosey, searching for ‘where does Carol Klein go on holiday?’ and ‘how tall is Carol Klein?’. Why would you want to know how tall Carol is?

‘Why is Alan Titchmarsh boring?’ did make me chuckle, although it is rather mean and really what did they hope to find? Did they really think they would find an answer?

The fascination with Monty Don’s clothes continues although it seems to have moved away from his shirts to his footwear. After my last ‘Mind Boggles’ post Danielle from Tasmania left a comment to say she had actually found my blog whilst searching for what type of shirt Monty wears. It has been fascinating to read about her gardening on the other side of the world and to think it was Monty’s shirts that introduced us.

Dahlia ‘Nuit d’Ete’

The welly fetish searches continue with a particular interest out there apparently in welly aroma. ‘Forced to smell her wellies’, ‘I love the smell of sweaty wellies’ and ‘who likes sniffing their wellies?’ are all rather disturbing but I think it is the strange random search terms that puzzle me the most.

‘A knight and lady went riding one day in forest’. . . sounds like the start to some Arthurian tale.  Or how about the long-winded and grammatically dodgy ‘what is the French for excuse me madam whereabouts are your shopping trolleys at’?

Corncockle

My favourite has to be though ‘how do I get rid of slug slime which has dried on my cat?’ That sounds like one lazy cat for a slug to be able to climb on board and leave behind it’s slimy residue. I’m not even sure I’ve ever met a cat that would be happy to share its fur with a slug. And aren’t they always preening themselves? Does make you wonder whether the cat was actually still alive?

And finally, this was actually gleaned from my spam box. Normally nothing there is worth bothering with. It’s either incomprehensible gobbledygook or if it isn’t, you wish it was, then you wouldn’t be subjected to the unsavoury elements of the internet. But this I thought was a gem. No idea whether it was a genuine compliment and things just got a bit lost in translation or whether they thought it was a cunning way to ensnare me. And so, I leave you with, ‘an excellent site . . . I am sending it to a few pals sharing in delicious. And of course, thanks in your sweat!’

Book Review My Secret Garden by Alan Titchmarsh

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Alan Titchmarsh, Ebury Publishing, Gardeners' World, My Secret Garden

Alan Titchmarsh ‘My Secret Garden’

Perhaps the most famous gardener in the UK over the last two decades, Alan Titchmarsh was used to sharing his own garden with the public. For 6 years, as host of the BBC’s Gardener’s World, Alan allowed the viewers into his garden known as Barleywood. Then, in 2002, he left the programme and his home and garden of over 20 years. His latest book, My Secret Garden, is the story of the new garden he has created over the last decade. A space, until now that has not been shown to the public.

I was looking forward to receiving this book. I used to avidly watch him on his BBC gardening programmes, even though I had no garden of my own at the time and I’ll often refer back to his gardening books for ideas and advice now I do have a garden. And, to be honest, I’m quite nosey so the idea of being able to see the garden he has created appealed to me.

It’s quite a hard book to pin down. There are lovely photographs by Jonathan Buckley showing the garden in all its glory which gives it the feel of a ‘coffee table’ book but there is also text from Alan as he talks you around the garden. This is a book about the raison d’etre of his own personal garden. He avails us with the thoughts behind his design ideas and his planting choices.

I don’t think I’ve read a book like this before. It is described as a gardening memoir. I’m not sure that memoir is the right word but then I’m not sure what is. I did enjoy hearing the reasons behind the ultimate look of the garden and where his inspiration came from. He shares his triumphs and disasters and doesn’t feel the need to hide elements that haven’t worked so well, for instance the use of box and the subsequent blight attack. It makes those of us with less experience feel better to know that someone as knowledgeable as Mr. T can still make mistakes.

I liked the photographs taken from the same angles throughout the seasons. These particularly highlighted the value of evergreens and structure in the garden. And, whilst the book is not so much about passing on gardening expertise, I did think it was possible to take elements away from the book to possibly use in my own garden. Certainly by studying the photographs you could take inspiration for planting combinations.

If you like cutting edge design this won’t be the book for you but then Alan is probably not on your radar anyway. The garden surrounds a stunning Georgian house and the garden he has created is classical in style but there is a relaxedness about the space that came across in the photographs. It’s certainly a garden I would like to spend time in. There are elements of the garden that I loved, the topiary lining the terrace, for instance, and his stunning greenhouse but there were other aspects that were less to my taste such as the Union Jack flying from a flag pole. However, I like the fact that he doesn’t feel the need to hide these from the ‘design police’, this is after all his own garden.

I would have liked a few ‘before’ shots of the garden showing what it was like when he first moved there, to give the creation of the new space some context and I was disappointed there weren’t any pictures of the vegetable garden. It was a shame this area wasn’t given any coverage.

If you’re a fan of Alan’s then you’ll love this book. It’s interesting to read about the formation of a garden and the reasons behind it. So many gardens seem to evolve quite haphazardly over time or are created in one fell swoop by a design team. It was good to read about the problems he encountered with his new garden. It wasn’t a blank canvas as so many gardens aren’t and yet this seems to be only rarely touched on in features about gardens. Having someone describe their garden is a interesting idea. It’s quite easy to pick at someone’s personal taste but I wonder how many gardens would stand up to such scrutiny. I think it’ll make me question ideas I have about my own garden in future and the plans I have for it.

Alan’s book is available to buy now from Amazon and all good independent bookshops.

Thanks to Claire at Ebury Publishing.

The Mind Boggles!

Tags

Alan Titchmarsh, Monty Don, The Anxious Gardener

A while ago now I read a very funny post, ‘Anxious Hog’, by David at The Anxious Gardener. He had been keeping a note of some of the strange and funny search terms that people had used and, by doing so, had ended up at his blog. The statistics page is a fascinating element of writing a blog. Something I had never given any thought to when I first started writing Wellywoman. It’s intriguing to see people from far flung parts of the globe such as Pakistan, Burma and Mongolia visiting my blog. I have no idea what has brought them here, does my name confuse, if not,  I’m sure my ramblings do!

After reading David’s post I noted down a few of the more unusual search terms that came up on my own blog but then I got distracted and a million and one other things got my attention instead. That is, until the other day. A quick glance at the search terms for Monday revealed someone had come to my site using the search words ‘alan titchmarsh crotch’. Well I have to say it did make me giggle. In fact, I’m smiling now. I happen to have mentioned Mr T’s name a few times in my posts and I did write about having a hole in the crotch of my jeans when talking about the scruffy attire I can be found in when gardening. However, I don’t think I want to know why someone was specifically searching for more info on the gardening guru’s groin.

Anyway, it was my lunch break and, rather than do something useful like sorting through a pile of paperwork, I started to go through all the search terms wordpress had stored for my blog. And what an intriguing world it opened up. When I was trying to come up with a name for my blog I really didn’t give any thought to those out there with a welly fetish. It never crossed my mind, why should it? Very early on the search term ‘I’m turned on by wellies’ appeared, much to my surprise and concern. I did worry that Wellywoman had been a bad choice and I was going to attract the wrong sort of attention. Fortunately, those worries haven’t materialised. It’s quite amusing to think though, that there are some seriously disappointed people  out there, who have no doubt thought my site will offer all sorts of titillation and instead it’s me writing about my seeds not germinating and marauding slugs. There seems a particular interest to see ‘women in muddy wellies’, note the ‘muddy’ element. Well, each to their own. There have also been various searches for a selection of female gardeners, who shall remain nameless, posing topless. The page 3 gardener or lads mag equivalent of Gardens Illustrated are concepts, as yet, untried. Clearly a disappointment for some.

I was particularly fascinated by the person who felt the need to search for ‘should postmen cut across peoples gardens instead of using paths’. My imagination suggests someone seething every morning when their mail is dropped off by their garden philistine of a postie. I’m not sure what they were looking for, some piece of legislation that they could threaten he, or she with, maybe.

There was the plaintive ‘why have I got so many slugs in my garden’. It conjures up a picture of someone at the end of their tether, feeling as if they must be being punished for something in a previous life to have been subjected to plague-like proportions of slugs. I just want to give this person a virtual hug and say it’s not just you.

In one post I wrote about leaf mould being like a duvet and in another a passing mention was made to Prince Charles, who’d have thought there would be someone out there who would then come through to my blog searching for ‘prince charles doesn’t like duvets’! Why, why why?

I’m not sure whether ‘wellies in bed’ and the cryptic ‘wifes wellies filling’ are touching on the unseemly again. I’m guessing so.

And finally, my misspent lunch-break uncovered a particular fascination with Monty Don’s attire. I did write a post entitled ‘Gardening Attire’ in which I mentioned Monty and his signature blue uniform which he wears whilst gardening. Well it seems, if my blog is anything to go by, that Monty clothes generate a lot of interest, with search terms including ‘monty don smock’, ‘monty don’s blue shirt’, ‘shirts worn by monty don’, ‘monty don clothing’ and ‘where does monty get his clothes’. Maybe Monty is missing a trick. His own clothing range for gardeners, perhaps?

So, I just want to say thanks to David at The Anxious Gardener for his initial post on the subject and for a diverting way to spend a lunchtime. If you don’t already follow his blog, take a look, for witticisms, garden and wildlife related musings and ace photos.

Plant of the Moment – Philadelphus

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Alan Titchmarsh, mock orange, orange blossom, Philadelphus 'Manteau d'Hermine, Philadelphus x lemoinei, scented flowers

Philadelphus x lemoinei

There are times in the gardening calendar when it’s a struggle to find a ‘plant of the moment’ but in burgeoning June with flowers at every turn it is much less of a challenge. I try to pick plants for my ‘Plant of the Month’ posts that are ‘good doers’, as Alan Titchmarsh would say, and therefore will work well in small gardens. However, occasionally a plant might sneak in that doesn’t fit this criteria and the choice for this post is in that category.

Philadelphus is a plant that means a lot to me. We had one growing by the garden gate when I was a child. I don’t know which one it was but it was about 5ft tall and would be smothered in beautiful ivory flowers in early summer. I loved standing by the gate and inhaling the intoxicating perfume reminiscent of orange blossom, hence its common name the mock orange. But, for some reason my dad took against this shrub and with his ‘slash and burn’ policy towards gardening (I really have no idea where my green genes come from) its days were numbered. Many a plant went the same way, Forsythia, Buddleia, Weigela, I could go on, all to be replaced, and it pains me to say this, by . . . conifers.

Now I’ll freely admit for ten and a bit months of the year a Philadelphus shrub is a fairly nondescript looking plant. Its season of interest is short, flowering from June into July, it’s deciduous, its mid green leaves are not particularly interesting and neither is its form. Garden designers would say it was the wrong plant to use, especially in a small garden, suggesting something like Choisya instead, which is evergreen and produces scented flowers for a much longer period. And to be honest, I agree with them but gardening isn’t always about the perfect design and the perfect plant for the perfect place, which can sometimes result in ‘designing by numbers’. Plants can mean things to people and therefore don’t fit these logical principles. This is why you can often tell the gardens that have been designed by someone for a client and the gardens that have evolved and have been created by the owners.  A Philadelphus might not have been the ‘right’ choice for my small front garden but it is the scent from my childhood, a time when I was discovering the natural world and plants and learning to love them and for those reasons it was inevitable that when I took on my first garden a Philadelphus would find its way in there.

The intention was to follow some sort of logic and I chose the compact and double-flowered ‘Manteau d’Hermine’ however, when it flowered I discovered that the nursery must have labelled it up incorrectly as mine wasn’t double-flowered. After some research I found that I had actually bought Philadelphus x lemoinei, a hybrid created by Victor Lemoine in 1884 when he crossed Philadelphus microphyllus and Philadelphus coronarius. Not only is it not double-flowered, it isn’t dwarf either. I could do a whole post on garden centres and nurseries labelling plants incorrectly. Anyway, it is not a complete disaster as with a bit of judicious pruning I should be able to maintain my Philadelphus in the years to come. In some ways growing this variety is better as the simplicity of its single flowers are much more attractive to bees and hoverflies. My plant, lemoinei, grows to about 1.5 metres tall with a similar spread so is still manageable in a small space but for those of you looking for something smaller ‘Manteau d’Hermine grows to half this size.

Philadelphus are fully hardy and love full sun. They are easy plants to grow and are tolerant of most growing conditions making them good choices for seaside gardens and urban areas suffering from pollution. Most garden centres and nurseries stocking shrubs will sell at least one variety but there are some great mail order nurseries if you would like a bit more choice.

So, Philadelphus, a plant that makes my heart overrule my head. I’d love to hear about plants that you grow for sentimental reasons or that go against design principles.

Book Review, Interview and Giveaway- Laetitia Maklouf’s Sweet peas for Summer

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Alan Titchmarsh, Chelsea Physic Garden, English Garden School, Laetitia Maklouf, Sweet peas for Summer book

When I first started gardening in my mid 20s about 10 years ago there was a perception that gardening was for older people, something you did when you hit 40 and this is still to some degree the image that is reflected by the gardening media. But with more young people being bitten by the gardening bug and taking on allotments, it’s good to see some younger gardeners writing and appearing on TV.

Laetitia Maklouf is one of these younger faces. Her first book The Virgin Gardener was the Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph Gardening Book of the Year. You might have also seen her on Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Garden programme.

This book Sweet peas for Summer sees her move from her flat where she gardened on her balcony for 10 years to a house with a proper garden. Laetitia, determined that her garden will be beautiful in it’s first summer shows the reader that even in a short space of time it’s possible to have a blooming oasis.

The book begins with useful advice for making plans of the garden and how to create planting designs. It’s then divided into monthly sections focussing on how to make a new garden look it’s best quickly and thinking about how your garden will evolve in the future. All the gardening books I’ve ever read have said don’t do anything in the first year of having a new garden. It may be the proper way of doing things but it’s boring, boring, boring. The last thing I wanted to do after waiting 8 years for our first garden was to do more waiting, so I loved Laetitia’s ‘get stuck in’ approach. I also thought it was refreshing to see an average sized back garden featured, this is after all what most of us, especially first timers, have.

I loved the idea of using non permanent planting such as Sweet peas or Verbena bonariensis as a screen in the garden where she later planned to plant a hedge and the combination of growing plants with craft ideas such as growing Santolina and then making moth sachets.  Laetitia’s previous gardening had been confined to containers and her love of growing in pots is still in evidence with lots of ideas for seasonal window boxes and pot cascades.

It is very much a girly book but she has studied at both the English Gardening School and the Chelsea Physic Garden and clearly knows her stuff. The book isn’t short on horticultural advice ,for instance, there is a section on root cuttings using Japanese anemones as an example.

Sweet peas for Summer is fun and fresh and Laetitia has inspired me to try some of her projects. I’ve never really been one for hanging baskets but she’s convinced me to give one a go this year and she’s given me plenty of ideas for an empty zinc bath I have lying around.

To mark the launch of her new book Laetitia kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

What was your first gardening memory? Planting strawberries with my mother in our London garden.

What tool couldn’t you be without? I have a Sophie Conran hand fork that I use constantly.

What has been your greatest gardening success? Creating my own, first garden from scratch – I’ve loved every moment.

and your biggest gardening disaster? Ha! Too many to mention. Things die on me all the time . . . and mostly because I do something stupid like forgetting to water.

Who inspires you most from the gardening world past or present? I have devoured all of Vita’s books many times over. I love Anna Pavord, too and I am inspired, impressed and amused on a daily basis by all my brilliant gardening Twitter friends.

Which garden would you most like to visit in the world? I’d love to go to Japan, I’m very partial to moss and blossom.

What would be your dream garden project? I’d love my own meadow (a big one please).

And finally, wellies or boots? Wellies.

Bloomsbury have kindly offered a copy of Laetitia’s book to one of my blog readers. So if you’d like a chance of having your own copy of Sweet peas for Summer just leave comment with this post by midnight on Friday 13th April to say you’d like to be included. I’ll then put all the names in a hat and draw a lucky winner. It’s open to anyone so if you’re outside the UK feel free to enter. Good Luck!

Sweet peas for Summer is available now from Amazon and all good bookshops.

Thanks to Jude at Bloomsbury and Laetitia for taking the time to answer the questions.

Gardening for Kids – The Campaign for School Gardens

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Alan Titchmarsh, Eden Project, RHS Campaign for School Gardening, RHS National Garden Week, Writhlington School Orchid Project

Alan Titchmarsh encouraging children to garden as part of the RHS Campaign for School Gardens (image courtesy of picselect)

As part of the RHS’s first ever National Garden Week which runs from 16th to 22nd April 2012 they will be launching a Campaign for School Gardening. The RHS want to get as many schools as possible to create their own ‘living classrooms’, where children can learn how to grow plants, understand where the food they eat comes from and build a love for the environment. The RHS will provide tools and course material for teachers illustrating how gardening can fit in with the National Curriculum and there will be teams of local advisers on hand to come along and help get the ‘living classrooms’ up and running.

I loved gardening when I was little. My first real gardening memory is being given a small part of my parents’ garden and spending my pocket money on alpines from my local DIY store. I would spend hours with a trowel digging, weeding and just generally messing about in the soil. I loved it, being outdoors and watching the bees and butterflies landing on the sedums I’d planted. Me and a friend would exchange plants we’d grown and I loved the visits to his dad’s allotment. His dad’s shed and greenhouse, stuffed full of tomatoes, had a mystical quality about them. But then I hit my teens and the combined distractions of schoolwork, boys and music filled my time. Although I did have a guilty secret, Friday nights were always about Gardeners’ World but I knew this wasn’t cool.

There are so many more distractions for children nowadays though, generally involving mobile phones and computers, is it possible to get the next generation interested in gardening?

Well the RHS believes it is and that is why projects like the Campaign for School Gardening are brilliant. There was nothing like this at my schools. My secondary school had had an extension built in the 1980s that included a large lean-to greenhouse and a small patch of land outside it that was meant for growing plants. Great you think, how forward thinking. Well it would have been if someone had actually done something with them. In the 7 years that I was there from the late 80s to the mid 90s the greenhouse was never used, in fact I never even saw anyone go inside and the garden, well it was knee deep in weeds, the sort of growth that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a railway embankment. It breaks my heart to think about this now, this potentially amazing resource that was so neglected.

Fortunately, it seems that things are changing with education understanding the benefits to children of time spent growing plants. So far 15,000 schools have registered with the RHS. However, it does seem that whilst primary schools have embraced the grow your own idea, secondary schools seem a differerent matter. Just as I lost interest in my teens, gardening seems to drift off the radar with post primary education. Maybe if mine had made use of the greenhouse, well who knows. There are schools who are bucking the trend, for instance Batley Girls High School which has an on site garden, allotment, greenhouse and polytunnels and pupils have recently designed a sensory garden for a local nursing home.

There is also the incredibly inspiring Writhlington School near Bath and their orchid growing project. They started out growing native orchids from seed and reintroducing them into the wild but the project expanded so that they are now world famous for their work with growing tropical orchids by micropropagation. Pupils who join the Greenhouse Club in their first year at the school are given responsibility for their own orchids and older students act as consultants to Kew Gardens and the Eden Project. Students have won gold medals at Chelsea and there are opportunities to travel to places such as the Himalaya to carry out actual scientific research. Doesn’t this sound like the most amazing place. My school had the gear but obviously no idea, (can you tell I’m annoyed by this!!). So despite the constraints of the curriculum, projects like these prove it is possible to engage teenagers in horticulture, disappointingly though they do seem few and far between. It would be a shame if gardening was just thought of as the green equivalent to messing about in the sand pit. It isn’t really enough to encourage young kids to have an interest in growing plants if it’s abandoned by schools as they get older. Hopefully, the Campaign for School Gardening will encourage more secondary schools to see the value of horticulture, with a changing climate, plant science and the environment are going to be increasingly important areas where we will need passion, interest and knowledge.

I’d love to here about your early gardening experiences. Do you know of any great projects getting young people involved in horticulture?

More information is available at the Campaign for School Gardening

Gardening Attire

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Alan Titchmarsh, allotment, Carol Klein, Monty Don, rachel de thame, Sarah Raven, what you wear

What do you wear when gardening?

So what do you wear when you’re gardening or at the allotment? Are you like Alan Titchmarsh wearing jeans, a jumper and boots? Do you emulate Monty Don and his intriguing uniform of blue shirt come smock? I always wondered where he got them from until I came across an ironmongers in Ludlow that had some in stock and wondered whether this was his source. Maybe you manage to garden in a skirt a la Sarah Raven and Alys Fowler or with funky, chunky scarves like Carol Klein.

Me . . . . well I like to think of my gardening attire as ‘scruffbag chic’. I’m messy at the best of times, although not on a par with Wellyman whose record is 2 minutes wearing a clean shirt before food ended up on it. Put me somewhere with soil, tomato feed and flower pollen and there really is no point wearing anything that is considered ‘good’. I’d love to look half as elegant as Rachel de Thame does in her Barbours, even when she’s digging up an enormous shrub. But it isn’t to be.

You will find me in jeans that are paint splattered and holey, teemed with Wellyman’s jumpers that have shrunk in the wash and an oversized fleece which has splatters of ‘Wild Thyme’ paint on it from painting the fence last year. Of course, there are my trusty green wellies but even these are looking past their best and have traces of paint on them. I told you I was messy.

The thing is I actually quite like the opportunity to not have to worry about how I look. It makes a refreshing change when there is so much focus on fake tans, designer clothes and botox everywhere you look now. A woman did turn up at the plot last year in big ‘Posh Spice’ style sunglasses, smart dark jeans and pristine black wellies. She planted up some strawberries and then I never saw her again. Allotments really aren’t the place to be precious about appearances. As I found out early on when I was caught in a torrential downpour. With nowhere to shelter on the plot, I tidied up and set off for home. By the time I got there I was completely drenched, hair plastered to my head, rivers of water running down my face and soaked right through. I got some strange looks from people as they drove past in their cars cocooned from the elements.

Fortunately, there was nobody about the other day to witness my trouser incident. Having decided to go to the plot I got changed into my scruffs. One pair of jeans had a hole in the crotch and were waiting to be patched up, my other pair had a gaping hole in the thigh and it was cold and I didn’t want a draught. After some digging around in a drawer I found another pair, got changed and wandered up to the allotment. Now these jeans normally need a belt but when I had put them on they had felt fine. I just thought that I might need to do a bit more exercise after Christmas excesses, so I didn’t bother with the belt. However, after 10 minutes or so of bending and digging something didn’t feel quite right. It was then I discovered the jeans had slipped right down and I was now displaying my knickers to the world, like some teenage boy in his deliberately saggy trousers. I am just so grateful it was January and I was alone with my embarrassment and that my oversized fleece pulled down as far as it would go protected my modesty on the walk home. Note to self, those jeans need a belt next time.