Out with the old – learning to be ruthless

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Anne Wareham, Blackberry 'Waldo', Gardeners' World, Highgrove, hostas, Monty Don, Outwitting Squirrels

Blackberries

I’m not sure why I have persevered with certain plants but this is the year I devote my energies elsewhere. I’m currently reading the wittily written book Outwitting Squirrels by Anne Wareham (review to follow in the next few weeks). Two of Anne’s tips which I have taken to heart are ‘to be ruthless enough to throw out miserable plants’ and ‘to be brave enough to change course if something is turning into far too much trouble’. It seems simple advice but one many gardeners find hard to follow, including myself. For years I have admired the tightly rolled, spear-like leaves of hostas emerge in spring. For a short time their new leaves unfurl, pristine and beautiful, but this stage is fleeting. As spring merges into summer they become increasingly studded with holes, looking increasingly like lace doilies, devoured by the mouths of slugs and snails. My hostas have been grown in pots, hostas in the border would be like treating them as sacrificial lambs. I tried copper tape last year around the pots. It didn’t work. As it was sold specifically for that purpose perhaps I should have made a complaint under the Trade Descriptions Act. I noted with interest that Monty Don on last week’s Gardeners’ World suggested hostas which are attacked by slugs are stressed plants. There’s certainly something in a slug’s homing instinct for the runt of the litter and the weakest plant in the row, and perhaps my pot-grown hostas didn’t have enough food and water. I did look on with envy at his pristine, hole-free hostas just as I did when I visited Prince Charles’ garden at Highgrove and saw his immaculate hostas.

Hosta doilies

I have used organic slug pellets and they work to some degree, but I have seen slugs climbing onto hosta leaves from a nearby fence or from another plant, and it’s hard when my attention is on the more pressing needs of my young flower and vegetable plants to devote time to hand-picking slugs and snails off my hostas. So this year the hostas are going … well, they’ve already gone. No longer will I wince at doily-like leaves or feel the need to hide them when a garden photographer comes to the house. Oh the shame! The gooseberry has gone the same way. Not because it is beloved by pests but because it was the pest. I inherited it when I took on the plot along with at least four other gooseberry bushes. Doing the maths and coming to the conclusion there were only so many gooseberries the two of us could eat I decided to keep just one, and it was one too many. It’s the thorniest plant I’ve had the dubious pleasure of gardening around and this is someone who just removed a pyracantha from her parents’ garden. Every year I would curse as I tried to harvest the berries and weeding underneath it was impossible. There was such a heavy crop a few years ago coupled with a deluge of rain that the branches all sagged and the plant hugged the floor like an octopus spreading out its tentacles. Underneath it a carpet of wild strawberries had established itself which I could neither weed out nor eat because of the vicious thorns that were in the way. I could be tending another bed and bend down absent-mindedly forgetting what was behind me only to be spiked in the bum. I’d been mulling over getting rid of the damn thing for a year or so but after the latest encounter with a thorn in the finger its days were numbered. I made the most of a dry spell last week and out it came. It was odd though. As I made the first few cuts with the loppers I wondered if I’d done the right thing. Seems it’s hard for a gardener to kill a plant. Well, until it spiked me again…

Blackberry ‘Waldo’ waiting to be planted

Its neighbour the blackcurrant has gone too. There were two blackcurrant bushes but it’s too much for us. We don’t make jams and blackcurrants need so much sugar to make them palatable that they tend to languish in our freezer rather than being eaten. Instead a blackberry bush will fit nicely into the space now created by the absence of the gooseberry and blackcurrant. I prefer fruit I can eat without the need for extra sugar – anything that I can scatter on my porridge is ideal. The tayberry, blueberries and strawberries are perfect for this and I think a cultivated form of blackberry will make an excellent accompaniment. Why grow a blackberry when there tend to be plenty to pick from the hedgerows? Foraged blackberries are often quite small and their quality is very dependent on the weather we have. A dry summer tends to produce small fruits with very little juice and a wet summer often results in watery fruits with little flavour. The benefits of growing a cultivar are bigger, juicier fruits and a stronger blackberry flavour. Hedgerow brambles are incredibly vigorous plants, as anyone who has tried to get rid of a patch of them will know. Many of the cultivated versions though are much better-behaved, and some can be grown in a relatively small space, especially if they are trained up against a fence or wall. We’ve chosen the variety ‘Waldo’. Choosing a thornless variety was essential after the problem with the gooseberry and the online reviews all suggest this is a heavy yielding cultivar with great flavoured berries. It takes a certain leap of faith to buy a pot with one unpromising looking stick planted in it and it’ll be next year before we get any fruit as a blackberry fruits on two-year-old canes. We managed one tayberry fruit in the first year of planting. The excitement at this one fruit was enormous and it was halved for us to both try. Perhaps we’ll get a tantalising taste this year too, if not this impatient gardener will have to wait until next summer for the taste of home-grown blackberries. I’d love to know if there are any plants you’ve decided aren’t worth the trouble or you’ve persisted in growing even though you don’t really eat them.

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Grow Wild – Transform Your Community

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Barrhead Grow Wild project, Big Lottery Fund, Grow Wild, Monty Don, native wild flowers, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, The Great British Garden Revival

Meadowy delight

I don’t know if you got a chance to catch the first part of the new gardening programme, The Great British Garden Revival,  last night. A series of ten programmes kicked off with Monty Don extolling the virtues of our native wild flowers and highlighting the decline in our native species. It’s a subject I’m really passionate about. We’re lucky here in south Wales to have some stunningly beautiful meadows. Tiny pockets of land, which have been protected by the local wildlife trust, sparkle every summer with wild flowers and teem with insects.

I’ve written here about my favourite spot, just outside Monmouth several times. Last year as part of Wellyman’s degree we spent a morning recording species on the site comparing the diversity of plants between two fields. One was classed as unimproved pasture land and had been managed without any fertilisers for over ten years. The other field had been fertilised up until about two years ago. It was a fascinating few hours. Using a grid system we randomly selected squares to record. We were finding between two and ten species per square in the improved grassland but once in the unimproved field the distinction was clear almost immediately. Here recordings ranged from the high teens up to thirty. It was impressive that there could be such a difference when no more than 30 metres separated the two sample sites.

Grow Wild Barrhead flagship project

Wild flowers thrive on soil lacking in fertility and this ability is something we could exploit. We can all probably think of a patch of scruffy unused land somewhere, seemingly not much good for anything, that sits there unloved and makes our hearts sinks every time we see it. So I was really excited when I was contacted about a new initiative devised by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Grow Wild will transform sites across the UK into wild flower gardens. The first Grow Wild Flagship site has been awarded to Barrhead in Scotland which will see a former sewage works transformed into an oasis of native flora. There’s even a plan for the derelict sewage tanks to be used as huge planters showcasing Scottish native wild flowers. Nominations are now open for a flagship site in England, with projects in Wales and Ireland to follow in 2015 and 2016. The winning English project will be given £120,000 to create a mini nature reserve in their town or city.

Kew and the Big Lottery Fund hope to encourage over 3 million people to get involved with wild flowers through this initiative, distributing 1 million packets of seeds through a variety of partners such as Girlguiding, Groundwork UK and the Prince’s Trust. There are also smaller grants available for community projects but you’ll have to act fast as the closing date for these is in January 2014.

Delicate harebells

There’s something very special about wild flowers. Perhaps it’s their simplicity, maybe it’s because they were often the first flowers we encountered as a child; whatever the reason, a meadow is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights in the British landscape. It would be desperately sad for us to see our native flowers disappear and it would have a terrible knock-on effect on biodiversity. So, if you were watching Monty last night wishing you had the space for your own meadow then maybe this is an opportunity to get involved in creating a space for wild flowers. If you can think of somewhere local to you which is currently a temple to shopping trolleys, rubble and brambles, a disused, neglected patch of land which has become an eyesore, then why not nominate it and who knows, maybe by the summer of 2015 you will be walking past a sea of grasses and wild flowers swaying in the breeze.

To nominate a potential site in England and for more information go to the Grow Wild website. The closing date for nominations is 14th February 2014. A short-list of four sites will then be drawn up and announced in August. Each of these four locations will be given £4000 to develop their proposals and a voting campaign will take place with the ultimate winner announced in October 2014. Work will commence on the winning site with the first wild flowers transforming the chosen project in 2015.

Memories of France

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French Gardens TV programme, Jean de Florette, Marcel Pagnol, Monty Don, Patrick Blanc, Robert Miles, Versailles

The recent French Gardens programme by Monty Don has been a real treat. Stunning gardens and scenery and an engaging presenter . . . oh, and lots of sunshine. For an hour I was transported to somewhere warmer and sunnier. In fact, the only downside to the programme was that when it finished, the reality of it actually being February returned. I can imagine bookings of French holidays have increased as a result of the programme.

I’ve been captivated by France for a long time now. I studied French at A’ level and was introduced to the delights of French literature and film. I was less enamoured by French TV which my teacher would record and make me watch in class. These programmes were generally hosted by Antoine de Caunes, (he of Eurotrash and Rapido fame), and were bizarre to say the least. It didn’t help that I only understood every few words and the content was generally so distracting I don’t think it did anything to boost my vocabulary.

Gardens at Versailles

Despite being fascinated by the country I’ve only ever been to France once. My one and only Gallic experience was whilst at university. I was nursing a broken heart and a couple of friends invited me along on a short break to Paris to cheer me up. Admittedly three days in the capital city of romance with three platonic friends, visiting the classic tourist sites and being surrounded by loved-up couples might not seem like the obvious way to get over heartbreak. It did the trick though.

Monty’s programme brought back happy memories. Back then, at the age of 20, gardening wasn’t the all-consuming passion it is now but two of the strongest memories I have of the trip are plant related.  I was so surprised that Paris was such a green city, which wasn’t my experience of British urban areas. There were trees everywhere you went, lining the boulevards and giving Paris a light and airy feel even in the heat of summer. It seems, thanks to the imagination of botanist and garden designer Patrick Blanc, who creates incredible green walls, Paris is now even greener than when I visited in the late nineties.

Gardens at Versailles

My other memory is of Versailles. Our visit there hadn’t been planned. We were at a Metro station and discovered we could get to the palace from there and for a few francs. So off we went.  It was a blisteringly hot day and for some reason we didn’t actually go inside the Palace, instead we wandered around the back and were greeted by the jaw-dropping sight that stretched out in front of us. It was the sheer scale of the enormousness of the clipped hedges, the boating lakes, the planting,  everything. It was as if the garden had been created for giants. It took our breath away and it all went on for miles and miles. People were dwarfed by the vast proportions and looked like ants. Since then, I’ve seen gardens that are more beautiful than Versailles, but for sheer grandeur nothing has matched it.

Gardens at Versailles

It’s strange how some memories stand out. I dug out some old photos when I thought about writing this post and couldn’t remember other aspects of the trip but that afternoon at Versailles has stayed with me. The blue skies, the heat and lying on the grass of the vast avenue listening to a French radio station on my Walkman. I had one earphone, my friend Faiz had the other and Children by Robert Miles was playing as we stared out across the scene in front of us. When I hear that track now I’m immediately transported back to Versailles.

Monty’s series has awakened a desire to return to France and particularly to Provence. I read the books Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol for my A’ level. Set in Provence, Pagnol captures so evocatively the sights and sounds of the countryside. He was born in the area and his love of the landscape and flora and fauna is obvious from his descriptions. Jean de Florette, and it’s sequel Manon are tales of struggle and revenge and follow a man and his family when they move back to his home village to farm the land. They are wonderfully crafted stories which were turned into films in the 1980s.

Directed by Claude Berrie, the cinematography is sublime. You can almost smell the lavender and the sun-baked ground. Gerard Depardieu plays the title role, Jean and with the poignant music , they are perfection for me, in terms of film. I don’t want to give away the story for those who may want to watch the films or read the books but everyone who has grown their own will understand something of the struggle Jean faces. There is a scene in the film where Jean is tormented by the rain and the effect it is having on his crops. It’s a scene all growers will empathise with. Ever since I read these books it has been my dream to visit the area. Nearly 20 years later and I have yet to go, but maybe Monty’s programme has ignited the desire enough for me to actually start planning a trip. Wellyman quite likes the idea of hiring a 2CV but is less keen on copying the youthful Monty wearing a beret.

English translations are available of Marcel Pagnol’s books and the films are still available on DVD. They have subtitles and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

One final recommendation. For a witty and cheeky take on Monty’s recent series take a look at The Sea of Immeasurable Gravy blog, it will make you giggle.

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!’

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.

An Unexpected Treat – RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

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Franchi Seeds, Mark Diacono, Monty Don, Otter Farm, RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Hampton Court Palace (copyright Ian Curley)

Of all the RHS flowers shows Hampton Court Palace is the one I’ve wanted to visit the most. Held in the grounds of the historic royal palace, once home to Henry VIII, it is the world’s largest flower show and known for its relaxed, friendly feeling. So far I hadn’t got round to going, that is until yesterday. It was all rather unexpected though. A friend had been given some tickets but wasn’t bothered about going so he asked us if we’d like them. Free tickets to Hampton Court, I couldn’t quite believe it. So here’s a bit of a round-up of our day.

The weather – Left home in Monmouthshire on Wednesday at 7.30am, rain, rain and more rain. Arrived at Hampton Court to dull skies and drizzle and stepped out of the car into what felt like a sauna, the humidity was so high. By lunchtime the sky was blue and the sun was shining but the humidity kept on rising.

Hazards of the day – Firstly, the mud. It was squelchy and slippery in places and I narrowly missed an embarrassing slip. Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend the day with a muddy backside. Secondly, there were a couple of ladies stood behind us at one stand who were a little overexcited at the prospect of meeting Monty Don, I hope he survived the experience.

Trifolium ochroleucon (copyright Ian Curley)

Most Popular Plant of the Show – It had to be Trifolium ochroleucon or giant clover as it became known on the day. It was everywhere, used in the show gardens, on the nursery stands and in trolleys and bags all over the showground.

Mark Diacono about to make cocktails (copyright Ian Curley)

Purchases of the Day – With so much to choose from and an empty car boot I think I was very restrained, or maybe reality has finally set in that my garden cannot take any more plants. I did bring home a Tanacetum ‘Flore pleno’ or the double flowered feverfew. I’ve been looking for this plant for several years now but hadn’t come across it until here. There were some Franchi seeds of an Italian broccoli and several packets of seeds from a great stall in the ‘Growing For Taste’ marquee. I’ve never come across the organic seed company Beans and Herbs before but they had a great selection. And finally, I succumbed to the charms of Mark Diacono at his ‘edible forest garden’ stand. Mark has become known, in recent years, as an exponent of growing more unusual edible plants at his nursery Otter Farm. To show us the taste sensations of some of the plants he grows, he was making and serving cocktails from his stand. We timed our visit perfectly to experience a thyme syrup and lemon verbena cocktail which used some unusual plants to add the sweetness and flavour and then as we were leaving we were passing his stand again, just as his second session was starting. It was a coincidence, unless it was Wellyman’s cunning plan. So we stuck around for his strawberry cocktail, well it would have been rude not to. The cocktails were gorgeous and I fell for the idea of giving something a little unusual a go and came a way with a yacon plant and an Aztec sweet herb (Lippia dulcis). I’ll post in more detail about these plants another day. All I can say is, it’s just as well he’d sold out of the Szechuan pepper trees.

The Casablanca Steps (copyright Ian Curley)

Summery Moment – We haven’t had much of a summer so far, so when these moments happen it’s all the more memorable. I just loved the 1920s/1930s band Casablanca Steps, dressed like they had just stepped out of a Jeeves and Wooster book, they played in the bandstand, whilst we ate lunch in the sunshine. Perfect.

The ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ Show Garden (copyright Ian Curley)

Favourite Show Garden – Bridge Over Troubled Water. I just loved the planting on this show garden. The use of grasses and plants mingling in between, made me think of a hedgerow but with a cultivated, contemporary look. This is where I spotted my favourite plant of the show, Dianthus carthusianorum.

The ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’ Conceptual Garden (copyright Ian Curley)

Favourite Conceptual Garden – Light at the End of the Tunnel. This garden was designed by Matthew Childs who was injured in the July 7th bombing of Edgware Road Station in London in 2005. Inspired by his experiences on that day and subsequently, I thought it felt like a garden with real substance. You entered the garden through a hole in a large stone wall where a path took you through a dark, claustrophobic feeling tunnel but as you walked down the path the tunnel gradually became more open to the sky until you were once again in daylight. It was a simple but clever way of expressing the impact his experience had on him. The planting was beautiful with shade loving plants alongside the path in the tunnel and soft forms and flowers as you left.

The colour of the show – orange (Copyright Ian Curley)

Colour of the Show – This had to be orange. Achillea ‘Walter Funke’, Heleniums, Pilosella otherwise known as ‘fox and cubs’, Eremurus ‘Cleopatra’  were all a stunning shot of colour which came to life as the sun came out.

Favourite Plant – This was the Dianthus carthusianorum used in the Bridge Over Troubled Water garden. The brilliant shot of pink from the flowers worked so well planted with grasses. With flowers similar to sweet williams but with fewer flowers on a stem, they looked quite ethereal, similar to verbena bonariensis although much shorter in height. This is definitely a plant that will go on my wish list.

The herbaceous borders at Hampton Court Palace (copyright Ian Curley)

Surprise of the Day – The stunning herbaceous borders of the palace itself. We’d only visited Hampton Court once before, about 13 years ago in January, to look around the palace. We had no idea that the gardens themselves would be so beautiful.

We left tired, with sore feet but having had a great day. Can’t wait to explain my yacon plant to the guys on the allotment.

Book Review – Gardening at Longmeadow by Monty Don

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BBC Gardeners' World, Gardening at Longmeadow, Monty Don, Soil Association

Monty Don, gardener, writer and presenter of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World programme has been gardening the land around his home, on the English/Welsh border, for nearly 20 years now. A year ago his garden, Longmeadow, became the location for the filming of Gardeners’ World and this book takes the reader through a typical gardening year there.

The book starts with an introduction to Longmeadow, with Monty describing how it was a complete blank canvas of farmyard and fields when they first moved there and how he has tried to create a garden that works with nature and sits happily in the landscape. From the beginning of the book you get a real sense that Longmeadow is a very special place to the author. Although viewers of Gardeners’ World see parts of the garden every week, it still felt that the book was giving me an insight into a private space.

The book is then divided into months but it isn’t a book with your typical monthly listings of things to do. Each month focuses on plants that are at their height that month whether they are ornamental or edible, tasks to do and what that month means to Monty and Longmeadow. The plants featured are those growing in his garden and he shares his knowledge and tips and doesn’t mind writing about his mistakes and disasters, which makes any gardener feel much better about their own shortcomings.

I particularly liked the relaxed feel to the book, maybe this is because the author is self-taught and has no hang-ups about how things should be done. A lot of gardening books are written from the perspective of teaching the right way to do things and feel quite strict and a little scary for new gardeners. He manages to combine horticultural knowledge and skill without it feeling like a straightjacket. Monty’s approach is very refreshing and it’s heartening to know that he has created such a successful garden with this attitude. The book is peppered with stories and anecdotes such as the day he went out to buy a few yew plants and came back with 1400 trees! It is this personal element that makes this book so enjoyable.

Monty, currently President of the Soil Association, the main body for organic regulation in Britain, has always been a passionate advocate of organic gardening and working with nature. The sumptuous photographs in the book of kitchen garden abundance and stunningly beautiful flowers could not be better adverts for both policies.

The book covers most aspects of gardening; from the coppice he has established to dry areas and parts that flood, to the comprehensive range of fruit and vegetables, from topiary to his passion for flowers, it’s all there. I liked the added touches of a page where he talks about foraging and how the book finishes with Christmas and what are the best presents for gardeners.

My only criticism is there was a degree of repetition when talking about some plants or tasks if they featured in several months but I think this is inevitable in gardening books. In my opinion, it isn’t a book to turn to for quick reference or if you’re looking for lists of tasks to do but then it wasn’t designed with this in mind and most gardeners have those books already anyway.

I would certainly recommend this book, Monty’s enthusiasm is infectious and you don’t need to watch Gardeners’ World to find this book useful and a good read. For me, the book has captured many of the reasons why people like to blog about their gardens; to share knowledge and a passion with fellow gardeners, to write about seasonal changes and what they’re doing at that moment and to find inspiration from other people’s gardens.

Monty Don’s book Gardening at Longmeadow is available from Amazon and all good bookshops now.

Thanks to Claire at Ebury Press

Gardening Attire

Tags

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.

Green Manures – To sow or not to sow?

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green manure, Monty Don

So I’d just sown some Phaecelia at the allotment and bought some Winter Grazing Rye and then I picked up my copy of Grow Your Own magazine to find an article on green manure. The article unfortunately said there was little recent data to show that they were any good, but I had just seen Monty Don sowing some winter grazing rye and he had said it would be as good as manuring his ground. So had I just wasted my time and money or are green manures worth the trouble?

There’s certainly an awful lot of material out there in favour but I’m not sure whether the agricultural practice of allowing a field to go fallow can be suitable for small scale growing.

The problem for me is that this is my first year on my plot and I won’t have enough compost to mulch all of my beds. I have acquired some manure but I am still wary of manure after the problems with herbicide contamination. Also as a third of my beds are devoted to cutflowers these don’t need high levels of nutrients. So I thought green manures could fill that gap.

The Phaecelia I sowed has grown to form a feathery green carpet that certainly looks better than a patch of bare soil. It will, hopefully, provide some cover for beneficial insects over the winter, although it will equally provide cover for the creatures I don’t want. It should also protect the soil structure from heavy winter rain. It seems that it is the nutritional benefit that green manures provide that is the main area of dispute and one that is hard for the amateur gardener to measure. It seems that green manures need to be in the soil for much longer than is viable for the amateur grower to provide any significant nutritional benefits.

By next spring I will have areas that have been manured, areas that have been mulched with compost and ares that have been green manured, so I’ll try and keep some notes and see what I find.

I definitely think that soil benefits hugely from having something growing it. Plant roots have a beneficial impact on soil structure helping the break up the soil, forming channels that air and water can enter and leave, making the soil environment a better place for soil organisms to thrive and improving drainage. So I’m willing to give green manures a go and if nothing else, digging them in next spring will provide some welcome post-winter exercise.

For more information read October’s issue of Grow Your Own magazine or go to the RHS website.