Join us on Instagram on 9th June for a chat with Anjee and Ally.
Then on 16th June we will be taking a flower farm tour with Jen
Live at 7pm on the @gardenfolkmag page
This year, as part of this year ’ s Garden Folk grow alo a range of our favourite edible flowers and sharing o through the magazine and our social media We're Cornflowers, Nasturtiums, Pansies, Calendula, Amara from The Hampshire Seed Company.
There is still time to sow your seeds (look back at our on sowing them) If you already sowed them, you mig seedlings growing away by now and will be ready fo them on- you’ll find tips of handling this stage in the May issue.
For those of you who have been sowing and potting on along with us, you should now have some sturdy little plants which are ready to plant out into their final growing space This might be into a garden border, raised bed, large pot or even a hanging basket
It’s generally a good idea to consider how large each type of plant will be once it is fully grown when it comes to placing your seedlings so here is a handy guide to sizes and recommended spacings (gardening is all about experimenting though so do feel free to do your own thing and see what happens)
Borage
Height:90cm Plant Spacing: 20-30cm
Calendula
Height: 60cm Plant Spacing: 20cm
Nasturtium
Height: 45cm Plant Spacing: 25cm
Amaranthus
Height: 80-90cm Plant Spacing: 30cm
Pansy
Height:15-20cm Plant Spacing: 10cm
Cornflower
Height: 40-90cm
Plant Spacing: 15cm
Do remember that not all flowers are edible, some plants with edible flowers may not have edible leaves or roots and some flowers such as Foxgloves, Azaleas and Lily of the Valley are deadly poisonous!
Always do your research and don't eat it if you're not completely sure it's safe! You can find an extensive list of harmful plants here
By Tori Thomas
After sharing my journey into sustainable vegan living and how a kitchen garden can support that lifestyle in issue 19 (sept 2024), I’ve had many people ask how to take it further; how to truly live off the land, especially when money is tight The truth is you don’t need a big budget or specialist tools to begin You can grow what you eat using what you already have, right where you are
Living off the land starts with rethinking your resources. My own kitchen garden began not with raised beds or garden centres, but with scraps, second-hand materials, and a bit of creativity. Old containers like buckets, broken pots and even fabric bags became growing spaces. I repurposed whatever I could find; an unused pallet became a lettuce bed, and odd scraps of wood were my raised beds. For water, I collected rain in old containers and reused leftover water from rinsing vegetables. Starting small, I turned corners of my garden into productive spaces and lined windowsills with pots of seedlings.
Seeds don’t have to cost anything either I regrew spring onions, garlic, and lettuce from kitchen scraps, collected seeds from flowering produce and traded unwanted seeds with friends When seeds weren’t available, I took cuttings from herbs like rosemary and mint, which root easily in water and grow with very little care I also started paying more attention to the plants growing wild around me; dandelions, and wild garlic became part of our meals, foraged carefully and gratefully from nature’s offerings
has created the perfect kitchen garden for her space. Foraging your own food is great for your physical and mental health.
Instead of buying compost, I made my own using vegetable scraps, cardboard, grass cuttings, garden waste and leaves. Even without a compost bin, I created a simple unit in the corner of the garden made from pallets and let nature take its course. For feeding plants, I soaked nettles, comfrey and seaweed in water to create natural, nutrient-rich fertiliser that cost nothing and worked better than anything I could have bought.
In the first season, I focused on growing the basics; potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes, lettuces, and herbs. As each crop flourished, I learned a bit more about timing, care, and patience Each small harvest gave me the confidence to try more exciting crops the following season I discovered that perennial herbs like mint, lemon balm, thyme, and oregano not only grow back each year but become the backbone of homegrown flavour all year round
This way of living is not about perfection or going completely off-grid overnight It’s about shifting your mindset By even growing a small portion of your food, you begin to rely less on the supermarket and more on your own hands and choices It becomes a rhythm, one that teaches you to eat seasonally, reduce waste, and reconnect with the land under your feet
For me, gardening isn’t just a way to feed my body; it is how I come back to myself.
It calms the chaos of working full-time in the NHS, helps me parent more intentionally, and gives me space to create, reflect, and heal. My kitchen garden is where I reset. It is a quiet act of self-reliance, of resistance, and of care.
Even if you only grow one thing this year, let it be something you love to eat Let it remind you that you don’t need much to begin; just a little soil, some sunlight, and the courage to grow
Just start
edible/ companion planting staples
I didn’t like the idea of planting sacrificial blooms to go to their slaughter, I hated spending my time and money on things that I wouldn’t benefit from and I was all about the veg!
By JayneWallace @theallotmentmum
Then I learned more about flowers…or rather how many beneficial insects are attracted to different types of flower. I learnt that each form of flower has its own beneficial pollinator that will in turn prey on the nasties that chomp/ destroy my harvests. I found out that the more cultured, human cultivated flowers aren’t as good for pollinators (I’m looking at you pom pom dahlias). Some flowers even attract bats as they are luminescent in the dark for our winged, bug eating buddies (evening primrose being one)
I also learned that most of the beneficial blooms are either perennial or easily self-seeding win! So as per usual, I went down the rabbit hole of research and my obsession with seed grown flowers began Open faced, umbellifer, trumpet, short cup, deep cup, onion, night scented, colour specific, tiny or huge I was determined to have as wide a selection of native or naturalised flowers as possible that I could grow from seed This did pose a problem though: our allotments are limited to how many flowers we are allowed to grow, and flowering bushes that aren’t food producing are a no no I dreamt of swathes of colour and stature, of cutting armfuls of flowers to take home but his did not happen! Instead, I found little dots of colour interspersed in the green. Each bloom became treasured as it appeared like a jewel…. and nothing got picked for fear of it not growing back!
I was nervous that my new flower based obsession was going to get me in trouble with the council lady…until I found out that a lot of flowers are actually harvestable crops! Did you know that amaranth is not only a fresh/dried flower staple but also an ancient grain? That some salvia grow chia seeds? That some poppies create edible seeds that can be baked with? That there is such a thing as Chinese Artichokes that create great plumes of flowers but also edible roots that can be harvested after the first frosts? That there are edible lupins where you can eat the seeds like beans? I didn’t know this before, but I do now! I am fully embracing the edimental dream and fully ready to explain my planting and avoid the grumpy lady! (always make sure you know what you are eating and do your research, never eat anything you are unsure of)
This year, I also came across the lovely Hampshire Seed Company Jane is an expert in growing flowers for cutting and drying and grows all her flowers in the same city to me: I have finally found my expert to follow! So I am learning step by step from Jane, especially from her podcast. I am also having the happy realisation that a lot of my plant babies are coming back stronger! There are several clumps of achillea and nigella growing strong. The aquilegia has not only come back but seems to have had babies. The poached egg plant that struggled to take hold has also come back and is now spreading like wildfire! Adding these to my many pots of other annual sowings (you can’t have too many snapdragons, cosmos, zinnia, aster.. right?) and I’m really hoping for a bumper crop of pretties to even up with the green. If the beneficial bugs also make an appearance? Win! Onwards and upwards!
The hot topics of Chelsea 2025 may have been Climate resilience and drought; challenging perceptions; and innovation; but the key colours which ran like threads throughout the show were the plum purples and tangerine oranges, often in glorious combination
By Kim O’Brien @gardenwithkim
Stepping out of the Sloane Square Subway and joining the throng of visitors, I trailed past the hotels, brasseries and couture nouveau establishments who had entered into the spirit of Chelsea in Bloom As a florist, I appreciate these installations as much for their engineering as for their visual impact, and as I continued excitedly along, I made mental notes of the display mechanics more than any colours at this point. It was the fabulously garish mannequin at Sloane gardens in florals of purple and orange that made me stop and take note of these colours, echoed by the iconic RHS letters, which too were predominantly adorned in vibrant tones of warm orange.
My first garden visit was to Monty Don’s feature exhibit, ‘The dog garden’, designed and developed alongside expert plantsman Jamie Butterworth, and of course, Ned. At an RHS meeting earlier this year, Jamie had presented the proposed planting content of this garden, and I had formed a far ‘grassier’ image than the one before me in my head, since grass and grasses were discussed – a lot! (I even have a handful of the seed used to seed Monty Don’s Chelsea grass lawn sitting in a container on my bedside table - as you do..), so my vision of a very green, very grassy garden was a firm one. Monty’s dog garden was green, but far from very grassy. Instead it was green from lunaria, now over its flowering and forming wonderful penny-like seed heads, architectural poppy pods standing like small sculptures, an abundance of other foliage knitting together, and among all this stood bold statement flowers in plum purples singing out like notes striking on a xylophone and tingling the senses in the most delightful way Huge purple lupins rising like tuning prongs or fingers of a giant hand, and swathes of Lysimachia (L atropurpurea) ‘Beaujolais’ spiring up all around added colour and height that pulled the purple from the poppies, the Baptisia and all the other jewel flowers together into one tune; probably a dog whistle! The orange geums supported it all, punching out small woofs and barks with a playfulness, magic and joviality by their contrast, that lifted everything and almost made you see the dogs as they ran about playing ball Monty gave a short presentation about the garden explaining that one evening during the build, a fox had been found sleeping by a tree, showing what a welcoming space it is. I’m not sure there is a higher seal of approval than that.
Purple was also the dominant colour that featured in the planting scheme of Jo Thompson’s glasshouse garden Jo used purple beech, iris, astrantia, and roses to create a blend of colours on a palette that sit together on the purple side of the colour wheel Grouping together a collection of plants that share a common colour but in different shades is a really simple but effective way to create a powerfully dramatic effect in your garden and this could be repeated throughout your beds for maximum impact
Purple and Orange weren’t limited to just the planting but were also evident in the hard landscaping The orange in Nigel Dunnet’s Hospital Field Arts Garden came from a combination of the sand that the plants were directly planted into, and the corten steel frames that held the vertical planting in place, along with the corten steel fencing. Nigel told me that these were in fact not corten steel at all, but wood that had been treated and painted using iron filing-based paint to give the same effect, making them more sustainable and more economical than using steel. The contrast of the orange ‘steel’ with planting, which included the purple flowered rock rose (Cistus x purpureus) caused these colours to pop in a dramatically impactful way.
Inside the Great Pavilion, Proctors Dahlias, Strawberry Bon Bon, Mystic Wizard and Hawaiian Sunrise caught my eye, as did the Waterfall that trickled through the protea and South African floral display, again in oranges and purples; and although I think it would be a challenge to try to replicate the latter; I would recommend any purple and orange Dahlias to anyone who wants to add a touch of the exotic to their garden
Also in the Great Pavillion, and proving that harvests are beautiful, the ‘She Grows Veg’ team wowed us with a pristine and artistic display of flowers and vegetable arrangements in purples and oranges; another perfect depiction of the two staple colours of Chelsea 2025
It’s that time of year where it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the stunning flowers which are looking their very best. At flower shows and garden centers there is so much choice Purple and white globes of Alliums standing tall like giant lollipops, fields full of wild Poppies creating a red blanket and of course spires of Foxgloves and Lupins It can all be a bit of a sensory overload can’t it?
The question I always try to ask myself is not ‘do I have space for it?’ Or ‘Can I get this home?’ Instead I try to think ‘is it in keeping with what’s important for my garden?’ This can mean many things Is it pet safe? Is it suitable for the climate? Or can it cope with living in a pot?
For me the most important thing is pollinators. Are the bees going to flock to it and carry the pollen away? Or will the pass it by in search of something more attractive? For the past year or so I’ve been observing what the bees and butterflies love, plus what they avoid.
We all have our favourite colours for the garden, but for our bee and butterfly friends you can’t go wrong with purple, pink and yellow. This is purely down to the fact they can see them clearly. Bees will then head more towards blue and white whereas Butterflies are more likely to head for reds and oranges All in all a rainbow of bright colours will keep pollinators happy Now I adore dark flowers, give me an almost black petal and it must be in my garden, however those pollinators will probably fly past it to head straight to the lavender bush instead
Accessibility is another thing to consider, as in can our pollinator friends reach the one thing they want, pollen and nectar There is a reason a Buddleia is also known as a butterfly bush They are not only the perfect colour but the cluster of tiny flowers in the shape of a cone makes it easy for the butterfly to navigate and search for nectar
Long tubular varieties of plants may look visually stunning for us, but to a pollinator they can be difficult to navigate. Bees are savvy little things however, and have worked out how to make life a little easier for themselves. Take the Salvia, visually it’s perfect with gorgeous flowers in attractive colours, but the pollen is hidden away at the end of the tubular tunnel. Not a problem for bees. Using their mandibles, a bee will effectively ‘drill’ a tiny hole through the flower so it can access the nectar more easily
Pollinators are vital in our gardens, so next time you ’ re in a garden center overwhelmed by choice, keep a lookout for the bee and butterfly friendly plants and if you can source native ones even better!
As our summers are getting warmer, and we are often faced with hose pipe bans, saving water is a massive part of gardening In my garden I have a collection of water butts coming off one drainpipe in the back garden, which collects up to about 900 Litres of water These all feed from the garage guttering down my greenhouse and are collected at the prime location where I need them When the weather is warmer, and we haven’t had much rain for a few months, we will save the water from the fish tank. Ralph our puffer fish needs a water change every few weeks to keep the nitrates from spiking in his tank (especially now he is eating more and is getting very big). So, rather than putting that water down the drain, I add it to the water butts. When my water butts are full, we use the water to water the plants on the patio in pots. Fishtank water is excellent for plants because of the nutrients in fish waste.
Another way I reduce my need to use a hosepipe and watering in general, is by the type of soil I use in my pots and vegetable garden I use mushroom compost as a middle layer in any of my pots in the garden, and my vegetable garden is 90% Mushroom Compost Mushroom Compost is a great alternative to Mulch and fairly cheap to source Not only does it enhance the soil's structure by making heavier soils more aerated, but it also helps lighter soils hold moisture This reduces the need for frequent watering It also encourages slow absorption, which will help prevent water run off, unlike multi-purpose compost, and stops plants from becoming waterlogged
method called water training for my potted plants. With the help of mushroom compost and training my plants, I typically only need to water them once a week Water training is when you reduce the frequency of watering your plants, or as I call it, pamper them less, so they learn to retain water more efficiently Plants like my Peonies, which I have had for years, very rarely need watering and are potbased But with more thirsty plants, I like to use a sound technique that works very well on tomatoes This is when you set the pot in a bucket and fill it up, and they will take what they need when needed This gives the plant what it needs, meaning you need to water it less This is also great if you are going on holiday, as you don’t need to worry about anyone coming and watering them If you have an allotment, you can create wells using lemonade bottles, which will also help with watering less and ensure the water goes straight to the plant's roots rather than watering areas that don’t need it.
Other ways you can save water when using a hose are to avoid watering on windy days, which can waste water, but distribute it unevenly. Avoid watering from the top of the plant; always keep the hose near the base. Try watering before the sun has come up or after the sun has gone down to prevent excess evaporation. I will generally water when the sun is no longer directly in the garden, rather than waking up at the crack of dawn or in the pitch black.
In my garden, I generally water only on weekends I never water the main flowerbeds, which encourages the plants to develop strong root systems and retain water I also use my hose as little as possible With Ralph needing more water changes this summer as he is now 7 inches long, I am sure I won't use the hose much this year
By Jamie Marsh @ amies little a lotment
After the driest spring I can ever remember, most of us have got issues on sources of water and how to use them as efficiently as possible
Non gardeners may love the constant sunshine and above average temperatures, but the subject I’m going to talk about today needs plenty of water on a regular basis, especially if it’s abnormally sunny
Now the risk of frost has passed, the allotment activities are in full swing, which means seed sowing has reached its peak for the veg growing year
The majority of the beds out on the plot are empty, I’ve topped them up with some lovely compost, and kept on top of hoeing the weeds, so I’m ready to start the almost magical process of growing my own veggies for this year.
There’s two ways you can get your seeds into the ground where you want to grow your food, firstly there’s direct sowing, then there sowing in modules and trays in the green house.
Direct sowing is what I can remember doing with my dad, way back when I was a little ‘ un After double digging the whole front garden, and adding in manure which he had been and collected in sacks on his bicycle on many a trip over the winter months from a not so local riding school, the front garden is where he used to grow all the vegetables we needed as a family, he would rake and rake until the soil had a tilth so crumbly, it almost reminded me of a bread crumb like texture or a apple crumble topping. That’s the difference between what he did and probably the majority of people who grew their own food back then, to what I and many others do now.
It’s great to direct sow if you ’ ve got a lovely fine soil like my dad created, but the problem I come across is that when I add compost to the surface of my beds, which is what you do when you practice the NO DIG way of gardening, the particles in the compost are really quite big, well in comparison to seeds they are This leaves lots of spaces and air gaps which are not good at all when your direct sowing, because the seed needs good contact with whatever your growing in to germinate My dad’s technique with uniform, fine crumbly soil and no air gaps was basically near on perfect conditions for direct sowing seed into
Since I prefer to use the no dig method to grow my veg, I don’t really direct sow straight into the beds that much at all. I’ve tried, but a lot of the time I get poor germination rates.
There are a few seeds I will direct sow and that’s because they are root vegetables
Carrots and parsnips are the main ones I will always sow straight into the ground, mainly because if you disturb the root of the small seedlings when you transplant them, you can almost definitely say goodbye to a nice straight crop Transplanting root crops is also risky as if that delicate tiny tap root sits in an air pocket in the soil, it will quite possibly dry up and die
When I do sow my carrots and parsnips I use a quite conventional way of doing it until the end. Drill sowing is the most common way to direct sow into the allotment bed, and the one I use most.
I simply use a string line pulled tight across the bed, or a plank of wood placed where you want your drill. Then, I draw either the corner of a hoe or even just a bamboo cane, along the string line or beside the plank to make a small shallow trough or drill in the soil ready to sow the seeds in
The depths and spacings you need will be printed on the back of the seed packet so follow those quite closely It can be tempting to make the gaps smaller because the seeds are so tiny, but it’s very important to think about how big the plants will be when they are full size and the space they will need to grow strong without any competition from another plant
Some people say to sow thicker, then thin out the seedlings when they get to a good size, but I always think if you can avoid doing that, it saves you a job later on and it stops you from disturbing the ones you want to leave in. Also, with carrots and parsnips, I try my upmost to sow nice and thin, because if you start thinning them out you might get carrot root fly problems. As soon as you pull the small carrots out, the root fly could smell them and then that’s it, you could end up with black marks and scars running through the roots when you cut into them.
Once I’ve pulled my drill into the soil, I will moisten the bottom of the trench with the watering can, especially if it’s dry I then sow the seeds and cover over with the soil
This next bit is the part which is the non conventional part, which I’ve found works really well, especially for parsnips
Parsnip seed is really flat and almost paper like, and it dries out so fast, if a seed dries out once it’s started to germinate, its curtains, so what I do to stop this is, once the drill has been back filled with soil or compost, I give it a real good soaking, then place a plank of wood over the whole length of it, this will keep the sun from getting to the soil and drying it out
Parsnips can take up to 3 weeks to germinate, so don’t give up, check under the board every few days to make sure it’s still damp and as soon as you see the first seedling emerge remove it I do this for carrots as well The other seeds I sow direct are beetroot and radishes, which can be done in a drill exactly the same, these seeds are a bit bigger and tougher so don’t need as much mollycoddling, but it wouldn’t hurt them if you want to do the same trick to keep them moist.
The other way I use for the majority of seeds is to sow them in either, trays, pots or cells
Doing it this way you can either buy special seed compost which is lovely and fine or you can sieve your own compost or top soil to make your own.
Once again follow the seed packet for spacing although the only one you need to follow really at this point is the depth, because the plants won’t be in there long enough to worry about crowding out.
Once the seedlings have a set of true leaves, you can prick them out and pot them on, or plant them straight out into their final growing space
When I plant my seedlings out, I like to puddle them in, especially when it’s been really hot and dry
Puddling in just means to fill the hole your popping the plant in with water, so it has a good drink to get started, don’t forget your spacing at this point, because if they are too close to each other you will get smaller and weaker vegetable plants
As always, you can email me and let me know what your up to in the garden on jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com and you can also follow me on instagram @jamies little allotment
At first, it seems easy.
A spray, a sweep, a silent defeat. No aching backs, no stubborn roots, No dandelions to scuff the neat.
A trigger pulled. A promise kept. No mess. No fuss. No wild regrets.
But look again:
The river drinks what we spill in haste
The bees forget the way to taste. The hedgerow leans into a poisoned breeze, And the soil, the soil, forgets how to breathe.
Each droplet runs to the streams and seas. Each ‘weed’ lost, a thread torn from the tapestry. Each ‘clean kill’ a memory erased: Of nettle-fed butterflies, Of clover-fed bees, Of roots that held the hillside’s knees. Weed is not waste - it’s the land’s own repair.
The stitches of green in a fabric torn bare. And if you dream of wildflower skies, where butterflies stitch the morning risedon’t reach for poison to make it so.
Reach for Yellow Rattle - the meadow’s heart softly taming the grasses' hold, and bringing the blooms like summer rain. No need for the bitter spray, when wildness offers a wiser way.
Every easy kill leaves a harder debt: A thinning forest, A failing harvest, A hollowed breath. It is not the weeds we must fear - It is our forgetting Choose instead:
To pull with a hand, not a chemical flood. To tend with patience, not slaughter with mud.
To walk slow enough to hear the Earth plead. Because what you kill today is the life you will need. This soil is borrowed. This river is loaned. The future is planted in the choices we own. There is no cleaner way than to care. There is no easier way than to love.
In choosing to care, to slow down, to let life lead, we practice something far greater than tending a meadow. We practice the art of reframingof seeing not weeds, but wildness; not problems, but possibilities; not enemies, but threads of belonging. The rewards are greater than a field of flowers. They are the skills we need to heal the Earth - and ourselves.
Last year we shared the journey of some amazing gardeners at GW Live. They even went on to be award winners! This year we have two more growers who have offered to share their journey openly and honestly while creating their Beautiful Borders for Gardeners World Live.
Will you be inspired to create your own show worthy garden?
It all got real!
With the start of my BBC Gardener’s World Live Beautiful Border ‘big build’ just days away now, I have been reflecting back on the theme of this year ’ s show and what my show garden means to me.
Nourishing the Soul has always been inspired by the gardens of the Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull Although the gardens have changed since passed away peacefully at th in June 2014, in my mind th peace and comfort. When I my eyes and remember the d that Mum passed, the garde of the hospice evoke a connection with nature as the relaxing scent of lavender and the gentle humming of bumble bees come to mind, drawing me into a comforting embrace
By LauraWhiskens
My border is designed to reflect the memory of the hospice gardens from this time, connecting and cultivating the soul with nature, allowing you to sit and enjoy a peaceful space surrounded by plants, which offer a symbol of healing and protection Opposite the seating space there will be a prayer bowl, where you can offer thoughts and prayers to loved ones through the pebbles into the cleansing water The centrally placed arch adds to the sensation of being embraced and protected whilst in the space and is reminiscent of the benches and arches found in the hospice gardens
The border and the theme have taken on a deeper meaning during my time planning the border and making contact with various people and businesses to make it a reality. Nourishing the Soul has connected me to some incredible small businesses and with the most beautiful, handcrafted products, that I am so proud to be able to display in my show garden. It’s also strengthened my connections with gardening friends, several of which will be joining my build team. The wonderful Annette (@mypatchofnorfolk) has so kindly and generously given her time and is travelling from Norfolk to stay for the duration of the build!
Good Friends
I met Annette at the People Plants Wellbeing retreat in 2023 and she has been a wonderful friend ever since; Leanne (@my little patch of earth) who I met through an Instagram gardening book club and convinced me to be brave and try and build a Beautiful Border will be lending a hand; and Abi was the first ‘stranger from the on a few years ago and have al adventures with since is also e on hand to help (and tell me to calm down when I have a melt down!)
feel so blessed (and stressed!) hat I have had the opportunity to create a Beautiful Border, and am really excited to share this stage of the process with my fellow show garden builders during the pre-show days I know from helping Leanne in 2024 that the build days are stressful, but also bring a great sense of community and I am looking forward to being able to share that experience with the other designers.
am also excited to be able to ight the wonderful work of the volunteers at the Marie Curie everal of the volunteers will be there to see the garden during the press event just before the show officially opens, which will be emotional for me, and I hope they can see and feel the lasting impact their work has had on loved ones like me
Lastly, I hope I can do justice to my kind sponsors, and also the small businesses I will be presenting on the garden I genuinely love each and every item that has been handpicked to go on display – and they will be going home with me for a little garden makeover! The majority of the plants will be going back to the hospice, some will be planted and lots will be sold on to raise funds for them which I think is wonderful
Nothing is simple
Time does funny things when you ’ re in the whirwind of show gardens I drew up my design fuelled by biscuits and coffee in the dim light of a rain-drenched January afternoon The summer felt a million miles away and it would be months and months before my little sketched out idea would have to become a reality that I would actually build. I’m not complaining, but this year ’ s glorious spring has come along at warped speed, and all of a sudden, the plants I had dreamed about are almost in flower and I’ll be loading up the car within down to the NEC.
When I last wrote, the wonder kind Jack Moody Nursery had to the rescue with their very kin offer of loaning me trees; I had just about finalised my plant lis and had even stumbled across a blacksmith at my new job (Middleton Hall & Gardens, in case you ’ re ever in the neighbourhood) who would be able to bash some old copper into a bird bath to furnish the space
But my ‘simple’ log spiral was still a lumpy pile of hacked up bits of dead tree glaring at me every time I looked out of the window. I had created a proto spiral out of kiln-dry logs boug our wood burner, but as the th the garden is giving new life to things, it seemed a bit silly to b and get them all wet and unsu could hack the tree up myself and optimistically emailed Stihl asking if they fancied sponsoring the garden by giving me some of their expensive kit Unsurprisingly, they didn’t reply Perhaps giving someone with absolutely no experience of chainsaw work a few of their incredibly powerful and dangerous tools didn’t feel particularly good for their brand
Luckily, Gardener’s World Live gives out a bursary of £200 for each border - not a lot - but not far off the fee the very kind Liam of McLeish Tree Services proposed in exchange for sending his Dad round to cut my tree to size - and bring a few more logs to add to the collection
With a little help
Should you ever decide to build a spiral of logs (I mean, are there better uses for your time?), there are a few things you need to know, which I have gleaned from YouTube’s lumberjack influencers, and also from RHS Bridgewater in their excellent video about logpiles for nature The largest logs need to go at the bottom and, for a spiral shape, you will need some cut into slices, a bit like a piece of cake. This is because there is less room on the inside of the spiral curve and the slices allow the whole thing to was willing to give it a good go, a few hours I had all the puzzle would need to make my dream spiral come true.
ou know, organising something his does nothing for the quality of your sleep, and a few nights ago I woke up worrying about he level of the logs You see, in a normal garden, you can just put the logs on the ground but in a show garden, you ’ re working with an empty border filled with compost Plants aren’t really planted; they’re placed in their pots, and covered with topsoil In many ways it’s not really a garden at all; more ry complicated (and expensive) flower arrangement. s means the logs will need to sit the plant pots or they won’t be nsulted my fellow panic-stricken oup; I asked a Facebook garden he ideas down to one optimistic solution: I will borrow more flat pieces of wood from my work, hammer rebar poles around the structure to give a bit more support and, well, hope for the best I’ve since assembled the logs several times in my garden, just to ensure the neighbours are completely confident I’ve lost my mind, and I suppose at this point I feel as confident as I am going to be
In the next few days, the build period will begin, and I can be certain of at least a couple of things One - that I was very brave to have a go at this It’s been an adventure, and even if it all falls down I will have learned a lot And two that even if the whole thing is a disaster, in a few days, it will all be over, and I will be drinking a big old drink
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The garden supervisor is back!
Last month saw the completion of the raised beds and an entrance created to the Kitchen garden Since then, we ’ ve been busy planting out and this space has come alive in the blink of an eye with lush green salads and edible flowers
Planting out has been the main job over the past few weeks and one that Rob has even been able to help me with during his recovery given how accessible the raised beds are. We had quite a bit to get squeezed in and so companion planting was the best way forward. The first bed has been planted with broad beans, borage, spinach, marigolds. Bed two has cabbage, lettuce, onions, leeks. Bed three has been planted with kale, broccoli, lettuce, elephant garlic and nasturtiums. Bed four planted with tomatoes, marigolds, asparagus and sweet peas. The front beds all have violas growing in them because they are one of my favourite edible flowers to adorn salads and cakes with; I love their little bearded faces! and surely, I can’t be the only one who wants a little touch of Alice in Wonderland to their garden The warm weather has given all of these plants a real boost in their growth and we have already been enjoying the pick and come again salad
All the chillies that were sown back in January have now been potted up into their final homes and placed into the green house Tomatoes are next on the list to get an upgrade so they can stretch their roots too The tomatoes are the one thing that I've actually struggled with this year; I find there's always something each year which doesn't follow the text book and go to plan Lots of them wilted back and died after being potted on and I wondered if the compost was to blame Perhaps I over watered them during the hot spell. To be honest I don't really know why it happened as other varieties of veggies and flowers in the same compost, with the same amount of watering have grown just fine so who knows?!
My wonderful gardening pal Tori came to my rescue though and during a recent trip to Norfolk she kindly shared some of her tomato abundance with me. Tori's tangy treasures will get some stylish pots to live in (thanks to my fave bargain shop B&M) and will grow down the side of the greenhouse taking place of where the tulips were
The cucumbers that will grow over the arch have now been sown, although a little later than I’d have liked but I’m sure they will catch up In addition to all the veggies that we have growing, I still need to source some temporary planters for the sweet potato slips, peas, and dahlias which will then complete the growing space in the kitchen garden
And with all of those plants, comes watering duties! Now, I’ve had my eye on a stylish little number of a water butt for a while, so let’s see if I can get my water collecting game sorted for when the rain returns?
Leucanthamum provide a great resource for pollinators.
I was going to write an article about some of my favourite flowering plants for this time of year but instead I have been inspired by a few books I have been reading lately
The first is ‘The Future of Gardens’ by Mark Lane and the second one is ‘We Are The Ark’ by Mary Reynolds I highly recommend you read both books if you want to grow in a more sustainable way that will help the planet and help you to navigate the changing climate I have also been inspired by the beautiful wild flowers out and about where we are currently on holiday in Fairbourne in Wales
@gardeneriddler
I’ll start with Navelwort - Umbilicus rupestris it is a really unusual plant that I hadn’t seen before apparently it’s most found in the west of the country but slowly spreading elsewhere, even as close to me as Rutland It’s also edible so could be an excellent addition to my unusual salad crops if I can get hold of some seeds. The name navalwort comes from the fact the leaves appear to have bellybuttons. They are lovely round leaves similar to the house plant Chinese Money Plant but with more serrated edges, the flower spikes are also stunning, pale yellow and almost resembling a mini foxglove. It likes to grow in cracks and crevices; the ones I have seen have been growing out of a slate wall. I look forward to trying to grow it at home to increase their spread in to Lincolnshire too.
My garden could never be without a Foxglove I wonder how many people realise it is a native plant to the UK, it is definitely not edible, in fact it is poisonous but the bees and wildlife absolutely love it. It’s an extremely versatile plant growing in full sun, partial shade to almost full shade. The native foxglove is Digitalis purpurea it is a biennial which means when the seed germinates it will form a small plant but not flower until the second year but if you have them in your garden you should always have flowers as you should have plants from the previous year that didn’t flower. I like to transplant a few seedlings into pots every year so that if I have gaps I can plug them with these plants.
During my visit to the Chelsea flower show this year I noticed that it was obviously a very good year for the Iris but that is not my next choice it is instead something you will often find growing alongside Iris, Ragged Robin - Lychnis fos-cuculi it absolutely loves a damp spot and it’s an absolute gem It has tall flowering stems topped with curly pink flowers that remind me of Nerine The light pink lacy flowers on a dark red stem make a great nectar source for pollinators If you have a sunny damp spot around your pond edge, or a spot that collects water, you won’t be disappointed with this native wonder
Next is Ox-eye Daisy - Leucanthamum vulgare another staple in the UK meadows but one of my absolute favourite wild flowers; who doesn’t love a daisy flower and the ox-eye daisy is like a giant version of the common lawn daisy It’s actually considered invasive in a few states in the US It is a perennial plant so will come back year after year it looks fab in a mixed perennial boarder it’s a great plant for atracting a range of wildlife including bees birds and moths
Finally, this is a plant that I have always admired but never tried to grow and I think I will add it to an area at work that should have its ideal conditions, Pasque Flower - Pulsatilla vulgare is an exotic looking plant with a purply pink anemone like flower. It is actually on the red endangered list in the UK. It has legendary status as it was said that it only grew where the blood of vikings has been spilled, pretty gruesome right? One of the locations it is growing in the wild is in Lincolnshire, it also can be found in The Chilterns, Cotswold and East Anglia. It likes to grow in undisturbed chalk, sand or loam in full sun so maybe not one everyone will be able to grow but if you do ever come across it make sure you admire it because it’s super rare and special
Why is it important to include native plants in to our gardens if the climate is changing? Well these native plants have been here a lot longer than we have and have adapted to no end of different conditions, they are also the best food source for all of the native species of wildlife that are seeing their habitats squeezed smaller and ever more fragmented Do your little bit and invite the natives in to your garden
As summer begins in earnest, June brings with it long, sunlit days and gardens teeming with life. It’s a time of colour and blue skies, but also an important season for wildlife as many creatures work hard to raise their young For wildlife gardeners, June is the perfect time to focus on providing food, water, and safe spaces for the visitors who bring so much joy to our gardens y
