Gardening

SWEET AND SOUR

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

It’s always exciting to see plants in flower early in the spring as it gives a feeling of hope and they can be a great splash of colour, brightening up dull days. For some reason, a number of such plants are lovers of acidic soils and are known as ericaceous plants. The challenge for many of us who live locally is that the soil in our garden isn’t suited to growing them so it might be better coming out of the garden and into pots. This means that the correct soil environment can be created using ericaceous compost. The sorts of plants that I am speaking of include rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and pieris – they can be very useful throughout the year but spectacular when in flower.

Many rhododendrons are very large growers, but there is a wonderful range of compact growers perfect for tubs. One such variety is called ‘Wine and Roses’ and as well as having a mass of large pink flowers it also has an unusual red underside of its leaf which is striking but can only be viewed by lying on the ground and looking upwards! Others include ‘Nancy Evans’ which has an outrageous orange and yellow flower, and ‘Golden Gate’ (but it’s red with a golden throat!). There are some very dwarf varieties including the wonderfully named ‘Patty Bee’ with yellow flowers, ‘Snipe’ which is pink, and the blue flowers of ‘Gristede’.

Camellias are a joy but ideally need to be positioned where they don’t get the morning sun. The reason for this is that if it is a frosty night when they are in flower, rapid warming by the sun can damage the flowers and also the leaves, spoiling the display. It’s also important to keep them really well watered especially in the summer when the flower buds are forming. The best bet is to use rainwater as this is slightly acidic and will be preferred to tap water. Should rainwater not be available then it’s still important to keep them moist and so just add a spoonful of vinegar to a watering can of tap water to reduce the pH. There is a huge selection of colours and also different flower types with singles, doubles and semi-doubles. I particularly like the variety ‘Brushfield Yellow’ although it’s creamy rather than yellow and a semi-double. An old favourite, still popular now, is ‘Donation’ with large pink blooms, the sophisticated ‘Lady Campbell’ with an exquisitely shaped red flower and then ‘Silver Anniversary’ with white flowers and a yellow centre, and very useful for that special occasion. As we get to the autumn there are some lovely smaller-flowered varieties known as sasanqua camellias. These have two advantages; one being that the flowers are often scented, the second being that it gives you bragging rights when telling your gardening neighbours how early your camellia comes into flower!

Whereas camellias and rhododendrons are mostly prized for their flowers, pieris have wonderful foliage too. The best known is ‘Pieris Forest Flame’ which has bright red young leaves which come out early in the spring. ‘Forest Flame’ is quite a large variety but

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there are more compact forms which are suited to pots including the variegated ‘Little Heath’. The bonus with pieris is the flowers which are the showy clusters of small, bell-like blooms – some of which are pure white and others which are powerful, deeper colours such as the red of ‘Polar Passion’.

More tolerant of our soils but preferring acidic conditions are skimmias. These shrubs are great in pots and bud up in the autumn and then the highly scented flowers open in the early spring. There are male and female varieties - the males having the finest flowers with the females less spectacular in flower but with masses of red berries. The usual male variety is ‘Rubella’ with dark red buds opening to white flowers and it makes a great centrepiece for a winter tub. There are some excellent hermaphroditic varieties which have male and female flowers on the same plants and as a result they have masses of berries. Look out for ‘Skimmia O’berry’ and also ‘Obsession’, but be careful if giving the latter as a gift!

With all of these acid-loving plants, they don’t like drying out so keep them well watered all year round and they will benefit from being fed. I like to use a seaweed fertiliser which will feed them through the leaves as well as through the roots. Avoid doing this when the plants are in flower and so wait until the blooms have finished and then only feed until the end of the summer.

ALLOTMENTS

Simon Ford, Gardener and Land and Nature Adviser

The first house I bought was in the small village of Buckland Monachorum, on the western edge of Dartmoor. It was a small 18th-century terraced cottage with a tiny garden at the rear. However, part of the selling point for me was that there was also a much larger garden, with a derelict pigsty, down the footpath opposite. Each of the cottages had its own plot with just a grass strip separating them and they were full of neat rows of potatoes, carrots and every vegetable under the sun. The majority of the people tending them were retired gentlemen who were a wonderful repository of knowledge and advice. I soon started to learn about carrot fly, clubroot, potato blight, eelworm and how to grow a good crop of tasty fruit and vegetables. I even won some classes in the village flower show, which as a 23-year-old National Park Ranger, made me very proud!

When we moved to Sherborne six years ago, once again we had a relatively small garden with no space to grow produce. We therefore approached Sherborne Town Council to see if there was an allotment available.

Image: Katherine Davies

We were pleased to hear that Sherborne has a number of allotments at Lenthay Road, Harbour Way, McCreary Road and elsewhere which are available for residents to rent. We chose an overgrown plot, off Harbour Way, with a semi-collapsed shed, surrounded by a lovely old hedge.

Allotments, as we see them today, were first set up in the 19th century after rapid industrialisation drew people to cities for work. It was vital to help sustain large families and many would grow vegetables, have a chicken coup and even sometimes pigs. In 1908, a law was passed to require councils to provide allotments and to protect them from developers. This was of particular importance during the first and second world wars when food shortages meant people needed to grow food and it is believed there were 1.4 million plots in 1945. Sadly, there are now only 300,000 allotments available and in many areas, there are long waiting lists (a whopping 17 years in parts of London). Since the 1960s, cash-strapped councils sold off many allotments for housing, factories and car parks, much to the upset of those who tended them so carefully.

During lockdown, people became increasingly aware of the importance of gardens and open spaces, but of course, many people did not have their own gardens or even balconies. Additionally, there has been a greater understanding that healthy eating and growing your own vegetables means you can be sure that it has not been sprayed with pesticides or grown in a damaging way. Rather than importing food from the other side of the world, there are zero food miles.

The licence fee for an allotment is controlled at an affordable rent. Recent research has shown that an average allotment produces an incredible £550 worth of produce each year, with some producing a great deal more. I suspect that for many people, it is not necessarily the amount that can be saved by growing your own, but it is more about the physical and mental health benefits of gardening and being outdoors and connected with the soil and nature. It is wonderful to watch the robins following your digging and seeing slow worms basking in the sun and butterflies overhead (although perhaps not so much the cabbage whites laying their eggs on the brassicas!).

Over the years in our allotment, the weeds and brambles have been removed and the ground tended. We have fun choosing which variety of French bean or courgette seed to buy and have added some apple trees and a variety of fruit bushes. We have learnt what grows best and what to avoid and we share our thoughts (and sometimes produce) with fellow allotmenteers. It is surprising how much produce can be grown and to concoct meals from whatever is ready to harvest. Sometimes, the parsnips are twisted and the carrots are wiggly, the sprouts are runts and the cabbages have been nibbled by slugs, but they still taste good!

Perhaps it is worth putting your name on the waiting list for an allotment.

11 Dreadnought Trading Estate, Bridport DT6 5BU 01308 458443 www.bridporttimber.co.uk

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