DIGGING DEEP Our perennial favourites

Sharing knowledge is always a positive, and gardening is a prime example of an activity where communal learning leads to greater satisfaction. Unless of course, you are trying to cultivate a prize-winning specimen for a competition!

When it comes to flowers, The Hardy Plant Society (HPS) is a nationwide charity which promotes the joy of herbaceous plants, and the society’s roots are all over, with more than 40 groups in all, including locally in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire.

It exists for people who love hardy perennials for their variety, colours, shapes, sizes and longevity, and also has a number of interest groups, such as Geranium and Galanthus. Members support each other to grow better examples, and different species.

Margaret Pateman, from Northampton, is well invested in the HPS – she has been a member for 35 years.

What drew you to perennials?

“The fact that many hardy herbaceous plants are deciduous means they disappear for several months at different times of the year in their dormant state, and even the evergreen ones tend to look a bit ragged in the ‘off’ season.

“Whether they are dormant in the summer or the winter, there’s a feeling of anticipation when looking for the first green shoots, and signs the plants are still alive - the excitement when an old favourite is seen to be emerging from the soil!

“There’s just as much pleasure attached to the expectation as there is to the actual flowering spectacle, and if things don’t go as well as they might, perhaps due to marauding slugs or heavy feet, there’s always next year to look forward to,” Margaret told Pulse.

“There is an amazing variety of scents and colours and most can be grown from seed, cuttings or division. Most people have

How does your garden grow?

As things warm up, our crops start to get a thirst too, so remember to water tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes in the greenhouse to avoid disappointment later on.

Tomatoes, or the lack of them on some supermarket shelves, have been making headlines recently, but if you grow your own, you’ll already know they are so much more flavoursome and juicier than those that are shop bought, and you’ll not need to worry about the little red fruit disappearing from your plate!

The first Sunday in May is International Dawn Chorus Day – what an incentive to get up early! This is a good time to hoe young weed seedlings off and leave them to dry later in the sun.

different favourites depending on the time of year, and are only too pleased to propagate them.” With so many possibilities, which is Margaret’s favourite of all the perennial flowers?

“To choose a favourite is like trying to choose a favourite child, impossible, but if I could only have one, it would probably be the taller Phlox, Phlox paniculata and various hybrids,” she decides, “Not only are the flowers lovely and have a long season with different varieties, but they smell absolutely gorgeous! If only I could find it made into a perfume. I once saw a hummingbird moth with a white Phlox and it was a perfect picture.”

You must belong to the national society in order to join the regional groups.

Perhaps you like the idea but are apprehensive about being the new flower in the bed, so to speak. Worry not, says Margaret –dig in and grow your confidence.

“Apart from at shows, gardening is not competitive and most people are only too happy to give beginners the benefit of their wisdom and help out with both advice and plants,” she promises.

> Plant the seed: hardy-plant.org.uk or visit FB: @hpshome

The Northamptonshire branch meets on the first Saturday of each month from 2pm, at Moulton Community Centre. Contact northants@hardy-plant.org.uk

The Buckinghamshire arm is hosted at East Claydon and Botolph Claydon Village Hall. Email bucksandoxon@hardy-plant.org.uk

We will sow courgettes in pots and short rows of fast maturing salad crops between slower growing crops such as onions, and will sow French and runner beans in raised beds. Later in the month, salad-leaf plug plants will be planted.

Some of the tomato plants will be raised in grow bag compost in large plant pots and others will be grown in a raised bed. Both will have a general fertiliser added, and some well-rotted manure, if we can get any! One or two growing bags will be used to grow early potatoes, to be harvested before the summer holiday.

After a slow start, the broad bean plants will have their tops pinched out, to encourage bushier plants and avoid blackfly infestation. Elsewhere, daffodils and tulips will be deadheaded, leaving the foliage to die down and feed the bulbs.

Sweet peas must be planted out in big pots or in the open garden with a support structure of stakes, branches or twigs, using soft garden twine to attach the stems.

Feed the lawn but remember ‘No Mow May’ to let bee-friendly lawn wildflowers bloom.

Let this be your contribution to rewilding! Listen, if you can, to the loud humming noise of a flying cockchafer beetle, which are now a rarity.

Spend all the time you can in the garden this month.

Ralph Westmoreland, Denton & District Gardening Club member

> Denton & District Gardening Club is a small, friendly club which meets on a Monday evening every month. New members and visitors are always welcome. For more information please contact Margaret at m.pateman@yahoo.co.uk or 01604 890875.