My Garden is My Space

Winter Returns but Snowdrops Give Hope of Better Days to Come

2010-02-24T03:32:00Z

Thank goodness I took advantage of the couple of day’s fine weather to do some “real gardening”. Since then we have gone back into the depths of winter with snow and cold temperatures. In fact the cold wind has made it unpleasant to do anything than to work in the greenhouse. However I you see the world news of earthquakes, floods and mudflows I realise just how lucky I am. Once the snow and ice has finally gone I may have quite a bit of work to do sorting out any damage and debris but at least I will have a garden to work in and many poor souls will not even have a roof over their heads.

In the greenhouse it is nice to see the tomato seedlings coming on, new life with the promise of warmer days to come.

Also germinated is Lobelia but not the annual (tender perennial) type that use as annual bedding but the perennial variety. I have chosen a packet of mixed colour seed but from the packet they complement each other and so I do not have to wait for them to flower before planting out and worrying whether there will be a colour clash. The packet says forty seeds and I have to believe them, the seed is like powder so there was no chance of counting them. I could not even be certain the seed had rested on the surface of the seed compost! The good news of course is that as long as I can nurture them through to planting out I will not have to buy any more Lobelia seed or plants. I will be able to take cuttings and eventually divide the plants, a continuation of my policy of only buying plants when it is a necessity.

My Standard Fuchsia has leaves. The dead looking twigs of the many past weeks have decided it is time to start into life again. I keep it in the conservatory which has no heat whatsoever apart from any weak winter sun. It is still only young but the stem and branches are looking much thicker and stronger. If I find another of my fuchsias vigorous enough to train I will have another go.

The renewed snow and extended cold has brought the Fieldfare back into the garden. It might be cupboard love but I will take it as he will not be around for much longer I am sure. Hanging a large fatball in the magnolia outside the conservatory has paid dividends. We have had close views of birds that we normally only see from a distance and maybe not even notice them visiting. The Blackcap for instance, a pretty little bird with as the name suggests a black patch on its head, and Long Tailed Tits that we see flitting through the bush in gangs but not sitting still very often.

It is not all doom and gloom outside, the Christmas Box has opened up even more flowers and the perfume is just stunning as I walk through the back gate. It may be considered a dull looking shrub the rest of the year but for me it more than makes up for it at this time of the year.

The Snowdrops are in bud at last and one small patch that are catching the welcome bit of sun today has opened a flower or two. Soon there will be swathes of these little white beauties – I hope!

Although it is only the end of February many of the gardening news articles have vegetable growing as their theme. Mainly about planning the vegetable garden but it will soon be time for that vegetable garden preparation. It is good to see so many column inches being devoted to vegetable growing again. Like all gardening it can be hard work, frustrating and so rewarding. And all in the same growing season!

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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Gardening and Wildlife - Gardening and wildlife stories, hints and tips...
How to Vegetable Garden - How to vegetable garden each month of the year with hints and tips on a variety of vegetables
How to Vegetable Garden in February - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in February
How to Vegetable Garden in March - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in March
Snowdrops (Galanthus species): A Letter from Sylvia ... - We've received a letter from Sylvia on a bulb I know very little about - snowdrops. And it explains why my few spasmodic attempts to grow them have.

Another Great Reason to Grow Marjoram

2010-02-17T21:56:00Z

After weeks of winter weather that has included snow, frosts, ice, hard ground and very cold winds it has been a joy to be able to get back into the garden again if only for a couple of days.

In those couple of days I have been able to get on with some real gardening. What do I mean by real gardening? The answer may come as a surprise when I say starting to clear last year’s debris from the herbaceous borders, pulling up any weeds that have managed to survive the winter months, gathering leaves and cutting out and dead spotted on shrubs while weeding. I have heard so many people say that they enjoy planting up a border but hate the maintenance that follows. I can understand but gardening is not just about planting. Just like a room in the house the garden needs a bit of TLC to keep it looking good, how you plant will determine how much time you need to put into the regular tidying. I plant quite densely so most of my work is late winter / early spring clearing the borders before everything starts to put on a spurt and cover the soil.

Along the edge of one border I planted marjoram (oregano). The golden leafed form is a plant I would not be without; it is like a ray of sunshine in the garden and has the benefit of small but masses of beautiful flowers. Also along the border edge I have the larger varieties with much darker green leaves and these again have a mass of flower. The idea of the planting was to have them close to the kitchen and be handy when required for cooking, so much nicer than dried oregano. This has worked well but there is yet another advantage of growing marjoram. As part of my cleaning up the borders exercise I have been weeding around the marjoram plants and cutting off all the old flower stalks and the smell of marjoram that has surrounded me has made the job such a pleasure.

The garden birds strangely are eating more seed now than when the weather was really bad. I will have to buy a new sack of seed sooner than expected! It is not very often I spot the Blackcap but this pretty little bird has been visiting the fatball that I hang in the Magnolia close to the conservatory. He is quite nervous and as yet I have not managed to take a picture. However, one bird I have been able to picture is the Sparrowhawk. I heard a bang on the conservatory window and also heard our cockatiel going berserk. She must have thought her days were numbered and he that here was a colourful and easy meal. Anyway he sat very conveniently on a bowl not far from the window so although taken through glass I am quite pleased with the results. We humans are taught by our parents what is danger and what is safe. Our cockatiel will have been separated from its mother at a very tender age and yet she instinctively knows danger. We don’t have to look out of the window to know that a Sparrowhawk is flying by or a neighbourhood cat is passing through. Amazing when you think about it.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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How to Vegetable Garden - How to vegetable garden each month of the year with hints and tips on a variety of vegetables
How to Vegetable Garden in January - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in January
How to Vegetable Garden in February - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in February

Do My Garden Birds Know Something That I Do Not?

2010-01-27T09:39:00Z

Do my garden birds know more than me and the weather forecasters? Sometimes it makes me wonder. This is the most severe winter we have had for years. Snow, freezing temperatures that have not even reached as high as the norm for this time of the year and yet as soon as the snow and ice have cleared the birds are singing like spring is just around the corner. Not only are the garden birds singing to claim their territories but the Jackdaws are trying to build a nest in my chimney. With the winds coming from the north temperatures are still below what they should be so what is it that instils so much encouragement in them? Maybe it is the lengthening days.

Food for our feathered friends must be in short supply; a Greater Spotted Woodpecker is visiting and feeding on the large fatball I hang in the tree near the seed feeder. I have had them visiting and taking peanuts from the feeder but this is the first time I have seem them take fat. The Blackbirds are still coming to me to beg for dried fruit but even they are now taking peanuts from the feeder.

The garden birds may be preparing for spring but I think it is going to be a while before I can do any gardening outside. The lawns are looking a bit sad after the snow and I have never seen so many shrubs, including hedging, with such burnt leaves for a long time. Mother Nature has a way of recovering from these setbacks but it would not surprise me to find the odd shrub and perennial plant not putting in an appearance this year.

Probably another week and I will be making a sowing of tomato seeds. As decided after last years growing season I will just be growing Harbinger. There are newer tomato varieties that will produce fruits all the same size. However that is not a consideration for me, my tomatoes can ripen at many different sizes and I can put up with that in exchange for the excellent flavour.

In spite of the very bad weather my early flowering Mohonia is still providing colour. I have met gardeners who do not like this group of shrubs but I am a fan. There were a couple in the garden when I moved here and I have added to the collection. Very accommodating, nice yellow flowers with a pleasing perfume that can fill a garden. They make great “full stop” plants in a border or can be used as architectural plants due to their shapely (and spiky!) dark green leaves.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary - Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
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How to Vegetable Garden - How to vegetable garden each month of the year with hints and tips on a variety of vegetables
How to Vegetable Garden in January - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in January
How to Vegetable Garden in February - Seasonal hints and tips on how to vegetable garden in February
Greater spotted woodpecker - At Lavell's today. Attached Thumbnails. Click image for larger version

Garden Wildlife Winter Visitors, Welcome and not so Welcome

2010-01-06T13:21:00Z

There is a new pecking order in the back garden. Most of the year it is the blackbirds who boss this part of the garden, chasing off the thrushes that are brave enough to attempt a quick meal. But temporarily this has changed with a thrush relative, the Fieldfare, now in charge. The Fieldfare is a long-tailed thrush with contrasting plumage pattern and defends its territory with great authority. With the ground so hard and the snow on the ground it seems unfair that one bird should claim the apple that we throw onto the lawn and so we cut a couple of apples into pieces and spread them around the back garden. That did not solve the problem; it just gave the Fieldfare more of an area to protect!

It is not all bad news for the blackbirds however as the Fieldfare does not seem interested in the dried fruit that I put into a bowl for them. Yet anyway!

The other bird that has arrived with the Fieldfare is another thrush relative, the Redwing. The Redwing is the smallest of our thrushes but still a pretty bird with distinctive markings. Two things make it easy to distinguish, the first being the cream eyebrow stripe and the second rusty red flanks. The Redwings fed with the Fieldfare when they first arrived but now seem just to patrol the front garden, polishing off what was left of the holly berries.

These two visitors, and that is what they are as they will stay for the winter and then disappear, are welcome but over the Christmas period a not so welcome guest made its mark in the garden. Topping up the bird seed I saw something out of the corner of my eye that did not look right. There had been heavy frosts and some snow so I had not really been taking much notice of the garden borders but it was not hard to see that something had been at work. Soil had been kicked or flicked over quite a distance and it then became clear where it had originated. A large hole had been burrowed and quite deep too. Roots of plants were hanging down inside the burrow but probing with a stick found nothing at home. My first thought was that it was a badger foraging as there is a family with a set in the field behind but the hole narrowed too quickly. It must be a rabbit trying to make a new home although I have not spotted any wild rabbits for quite some time. The hole is now filled in and thankfully no more holes have been dug.

As you might have guessed from the mention of snow and hard frosts not much gardening if any has been possible for a while. At least my seeds for the new season are on order and once the package appears on the mat I can dream of better weather and a new growing season.

I am sure fellow listeners to the BBC Gardeners Question Time radio programme will be as shocked and saddened as I am by the news of the death of John Cushnie. I will miss his sense of humour. Whenever he was on the panel you were guaranteed a laugh as well as sound gardening advice. But he never claimed to be the all knowing gardening expert. A member of the public would ask a question and the chairman would ask John to answer only to hear the words, “I have absolutely no idea”. How refreshing for “an expert” to admit that in front of millions of listeners. When you listen to a voice regularly on the radio you picture what that person looks like. Sometimes you are right but most of the time you are not. I have not heard anyone say that John Cushnie looked anything like what was imagined from his voice. Maybe it is something to do with that gentle Irish brogue. Farewell and thank you John Cushie, may you rest in peace.

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Rain and Frost and Stops Play in the Garden

2009-12-06T20:44:00Z

When you have rain, rain and more rain with the first good frost of the winter, what can you do in the garden in weather such as this? Not a lot outside is the answer.

The ground is waterlogged, there is no point in walking on it and causing compaction and the soil is just too wet to work. I have lifted the dahlias and they are under cover now and drying odd ready to start off in early spring so that I can take more cuttings. This year’s cuttings have been a great success so that gives me the incentive to get the parent plants through the winter.

The frost has finished off any remaining annuals but there is still colour in the garden. In spite of the frost there are still roses in bloom and the winter jasmine is opening up more flowers daily. Also one of my magnolias is also full of sweet smelling yellow blooms that are very welcome this time of year.

Before the rain and frost I did manage to clear up a small amount of leaves, many, many more still to go! Vacuuming leaves almost on autopilot from one of my flower borders I caught sight of movement out of the corner of my eye. I must have disturbed a large frog nestled in amongst the large soggy sycamore leaves. I could so easily have sucked him up with a load of leaves and dread to think what the consequence would have been. It just proves how careful we gardeners have to be as the weather turns colder, the frogs and hedgehogs are still about. It certainly feels too warm at the moment for the hedgehogs to hibernate. I do leave leaves piled up around some tree prunings so the hedgehogs can find refuge if they so want. Wet leaves are dangerous on garden paths and do the lawn no good but in other areas I make a point of not being too tidy. That’s my excuse anyway!
Take a look at this little fellow, definitely too small to hibernate:

Byte Size Biology » Byte Size Hedgehog - Byte Size Hedgehog. December 6th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments. I don't know whether to categorize this guy under microbiology or zoology. He's so small! Cute little fella. From pixdaus.com Click on pic to go to site. ...

Not being able to get on with jobs outside in the garden has provided me with time to start getting the greenhouse ready for winter. The structure both inside and out has been scrubbed and power washed. Can anyone tell me why after all this treatment there are always areas of glass that don’t look like they have been touched? The next job is to put up the bubble insulation, a job I never look forward to. The sooner it is done the better so that it is out of the way but it is just one of those garden jobs that has to be done as a chore rather that a pleasurable pursuit.

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Locally Grown Vegetables

2009-11-17T19:53:00Z

Going through town I stopped for a chat at a market stall that is run by a local farming family. Needless to say they sell vegetables that they grow on their own farm and, if they do not have enough of a variety to crop and bring to the stall that week, they buy from their local farmer friends. The fruit that they sell is locally grown where possible, the exceptions being things like bananas. To attract custom my friend has a habit of shouting “home grown bananas”. Now if anyone believes that one! He had healthy looking Brussels Sprouts for sale that he has grown but he was telling me that he had been reading an article in a trade magazine about sprouts being grown in Scotland and then being transported to Poland for processing before, yes you guessed it, being shipped back to the UK for sale. Has the world gone mad?

He also had some great parsnips for sale so I decided to buy some for home. “You don’t mind buying the dirty one, do you?” was the question. No I don’t but apparently they have to hose some off because there are those who will not buy root crops that still have any sign of the soil on them. I am old enough to remember when all vegetables were sold that way.

We are so lucky to have a market stall to shop for vegetables where they have been grown locally and travelled just a few short miles to the table. Also here is a second generation that have kept up the farm started by their parents and have learnt skills by experience and know their land. With farms closing down every week it makes you wonder how long small farms such as these will be able to continue.

If you have any spare room in your garden or even landscaped try growing a few vegetables for yourself. It can be frustrating but more often than not it is very rewarding and very satisfying.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Own Vegetables Everything you need to know about growing your own vegetables? Learn how to vegetable garden, the basics to create a home grown vegetable garden

Summer Bedding Plants still Doing Well in November

2009-11-03T13:12:00Z

November in the garden last year was a bit bleak to say the least. Early really cold weather finished off the annuals and the dahlias had to be put into storage. What a difference this year.

The weather did turn cold, the cold winds suggested a repeat of last year but instead the cold winds went away and unseasonal mild weather returned. The result is that the Dahlias are still looking good, the Cosmos are still stars in the border, Geraniums are still flowering en mass and Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) in sheltered spots are flowering their hearts out.

It is strange looking out of the window into the garden. There are trees that have completely lost their foliage due to the strong weekend wind, others with no foliage but have berries hanging like coloured baubles, Acers that are showing there beautiful autumn foliage, shrubs with autumn colour, roses still blooming and annual bedding still in flower. There can be no doubt however that we are well into autumn, the Sycamore leaves are thick on the ground with still more to come off this majestic tree. The leaves of most the trees in the garden are easy to gather using my Stihl Leaf Blower / Garden Vacuum but the shear bulk of wet Sycamore leaves make the job hard work.

I can report pleasing results from my summer containers this year apart from two bowls that sit either side of the steps down to my front lawn. Why I cannot say but they have just not looked good all summer and yet two other large pots a few feet away using the same compost and plants from the same sowing are still looking good. This weekend I removed them thinking that I may discover a problem at the roots but no, the compost was full of healthy root. I have replanted now with Winter Flowering Pansies that I sowed earlier this year so it will be interesting to see if they fare any better.

The one problem, if you can call it a problem, of summer bedding still doing well in containers is that I do not have the heart to uproot them as I know I should and the Winter Flowering Pansies really need to be planted out. Still, I am sure I will wake up one morning soon to see bedding that has collapsed and had enough!

The last of the cucumbers have been picked and eaten this week. What prolific croppers they have been. Just two plants have provided more than enough cucumbers for the family and there were plenty to give away. If you have not tried the smaller fruiting varieties that grow just big enough to provide one meal then I urge you to do so. Picked fresh, still crisp and used in a salad or put onto sandwiches, excellent.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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Fall Colors In The Ozarks & Buffalo River Area - Fall is an absolute splendid time of year along the Buffalo River or pretty much anywhere in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. If you've ...

Honey Fungus, Save the Hedgehogs and Vegetables in Season

2009-10-12T13:02:00Z

I strolled out into the garden to check what tasks needed to go onto the list of things to do and, although I have seen it before, I was amazed to see several eruptions in the garden. There is no other way to describe it. The awful Honey Fungus has decided that the time is right to send up its toadstools. One day there is nothing and the next there is this mass of toadstools so strong that they push anything in their path out of their way. Digging down to remove the horrors I found that it was living on and reproducing from bits of Silver Birch root still in the ground from when the Boot Lace Fungus destroyed the tree.

It is sad to read an article in The Daily Telegraph saying that gardening makeovers are being blamed for the rise in orphaned hedgehogs. The article states that Dr Toni Bunnell, who runs a sanctuary in York, has taken in dozens of baby hedgehogs this summer, many more than usual. It seems that mass makeovers where everything is cleared before creating a new garden is disturbing the families, the mother runs but the young get left behind. Sometimes it is difficult to get the balance right but if the new garden has planting that will encourage and help the wildlife then perhaps it is worth it but if the resulting new garden is neat, tidy and sterile then that is another matter. We gardeners need the wildlife just as much as the wildlife need our gardens as a way to navigate around their territory. If a six lane motorway was built across one of our favourite walks with no obvious way around we would get upset. This is what it must be like for the likes of a hedghog that forages for food one day and the next finds some of its prime food locations unaccessible.

This weekend I picked all the remaining tomatoes, all shades from green to light orange. The good news is there is enough to make some tomato chutney. Cannot wait!

Also the Runner Beans have come out. We tried to eat some of the remaining beans but they were a bit hard and stringy. Still, there is always next year. one of the great things, to my mind anyway, about growing your own vegetables is that you get educated once more into eating vegetables that are in season for your country or region. I am old enough to remember when we had to eat what was grown locally and in season and did not eat so much imported fruit and vegetables. Personally I would like to see more people with a bit of spare ground or space learning how to vegetable garden for each month and season or just to buy vegetables in season locally. It gives you something to look forward to and the food seems more enjoyable.

· UniqueDaily.com – Fat Hedgehog Gets Stuck Through Hole - Either way this poor hedgehog was left in a most humiliating position when he managed to wedge himself firmly in this hole in a garden wall. Animal rescuers were called out to help the hapless animal which became wedged in a hole, ...

· Vegetables in Season in September | Womens Nook - List of vegetables in season in September in Australia. Asparagus, artichokes and peas are at their peak. A recipe for leek and goats cheese galette included.

Winter Flowering Pansies Have to Wait Their Turn

2009-10-05T16:02:00Z

When you go away on holiday in the height of summer it is always a worry that friends or neighbours cannot get round often enough to keep up the watering. Everyone is busy and they cannot be expected to lavish all the love and care that you would yourself. One of the good things about taking a vacation this time of the year is that most things will survive well enough with a watering every other day. This has been the case with my week away rambling in the wilds enjoying the fresh air.

The birds have had to find alternative arrangements for the week but they are slowly finding the food again. Each day is bringing back more feathered friends.

Only a week away but I can see significant changes. Autumn colour in plants, tree and shrubs that was not present a week ago. The grass is not growing so quickly, it is cooler and the days are getting shorter.

There is still plenty of colour in the garden from flowers and the colour from the flowers is being joined by foliage colour.

The Rudbeckias seem to have been flowering for weeks as do the white Cosmos. The large flowered Dahlias have certainly been worth waiting for and have provided good value.

The tomatoes are coming to an end now. There are still tomatoes on the vines but it is doubtful whether they will all ripen. Of course I can pick them and ripen them inside but my preference is to use the green tomatoes in chutney. The theory is that we will eat the chutney through the winter months but believe me it has no chance of lasting that long no matter how much we manage to make!

The Runner Beans are also coming to an end, there are still some to pick but do not look as appetising as a couple of weeks ago. Very likely they will be a bit hard and stringy.

One success of this year has to be the Mini Iceberg Hearts lettuce. Sown close together in a deep box they have done well and hearted up into nice crunchy heads. They stand for a long period and the cut heads will keep for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

I sowed seed of Winter Flowering Pansies a few weeks ago and they are ready to go into their winter locations now. Two containers can be cleared to make way but I am pleased to say that the other containers that will home them are still full of flower. Sorry pansies, you will just have to sit in trays a little bit longer.

Gardening Jobs for November | Gomestic - One of the easiest ways to brighten a dull garden is to put in a few winter flowering pansies. They do well in pots, or in the borders. Winter jasmine and early hellerbores also provide some welcome colour. Image via Wikipedia ...

Tomato Harbinger Takes the Prize

2009-09-08T09:42:00Z

It is not so long ago that I made an entry in my diary giving an opinion on the tomato varieties that I have grown this year. At the time I stated that I would grow more of the same next year, this being Harbinger and the plum variety Red Alert. I have changed my mind and will only be growing Harbinger next season.

So what has changed?

Harbinger has proved to be the best cropper by far and in my opinion Harbinger has the better flavour. In addition Harbinger tomato plants have proven to be much healthier.

The blackbirds have disappeared as they usually do at this time of the year to moult. I spotted one in one of my rhododendrons and he hardly had a feather left on his head.

The great news on the bird front is that we have more sparrows this year that we have had for a very long time. They are doing their best to eat me out of bird seed but I have no complaints. Flocks of them arrive on mass and disappear together. I hear them in the bushes near the feeder waiting for a refill. Their numbers suddenly declined dramatically one winter and it has taken years for them to make a comeback. The funny thing is, last winter was the harshest we have had for many years and yet it is this summer that we have had the biggest increase in numbers. Long may it continue.

For the first time ever I have had problems with caterpillars on my salad crops grown under cover. I recognised the caterpillar of the cabbage white but I must confess my ignorance when it comes to identifying the other thug. Whatever it was it had a voracious appetite!

This autumn I must give some thought to my vegetable garden layout. I have already made some alterations that will help next years crops which has entailed cutting back shrubs and trees that had put on more than expected growth due to good growing conditions.

My begonia hanging basket is looking good at last. For the first time this year I have grown tuberous begonias from seed that are recommended for baskets and containers, having only grown the fibrous rooted varieties from seed. They have taken a while to reach flowering size but the wait has been worth it. Hopefully I can over winter the tubers and have earlier flowers and a cheaper hanging basket next year.

How to Vegetable Garden - Step by step instruction on starting to vegetable garden
Tomato Blight - One of the Few Tomato Diseases
My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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Bird Ecology Study Group » The Eurasian Tree Sparrow in Urban ... - Contributed by Jeffrey Low. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow ( Passer montanus ) we commonly see around is actually adapted to human habitation. It usually nests in any convenient holes in buildings.
Singing Song Sparrow | Sitka Nature - 03-15-07song_sparrow.mp3 (624kb). As I headed out of the building where my office is, I heard a Song Sparrow singing from the bushes near the entrance. Hearing the song, I stopped to listen for a short time. ...

Tomato Blight Strikes and Ideas for Next Year in the Garden are Forming

2009-08-24T08:08:00Z

Normally I take pictures of beautiful flowers to show on my diary. This week is very different; this is a picture I never wanted to take.

I have been growing tomatoes for over thirty years with very few problems. This year I had a few extra tomato plants going spare so I asked my daughter whether she would like to try her hand at cultivating her own tomatoes. There was no room in the greenhouse and so I helped her to plant in containers outside.

She probably gave her tomatoes more TLC than me, she was doing a good job, listening to all the advice and had started to pick fruit. There is nothing better to encourage and enthuse people to gardening that enjoying the fruits of their labour.

However, one day she asked me to look at her tomatoes as she thought they were suddenly taking a turn for the worse. Although I have never experienced the problem it was clear what the problem was, tomato blight. Thankfully this is a tomato disease that does not affect tomatoes grown under glass very often but it can devastate tomatoes grown outside when the summer is warm but wet.

On a brighter note my large flowered dahlias are open and stunning again this year. The cuttings I took earlier in the year are looking healthy so I will hopefully increase my stock again next spring.

That sounds like I am already planning for next year in the garden and, yes, I am! I have identified one area of the garden that needs revision next year. Around the patio has perhaps been a bit neglected while developing another couple of new areas but you cannot do everything. I have not decided fully what changes I will make but I always like to mull several ideas over before taking action. Whatever I do I want it to be there for a few years so it is worth taking that extra time to think it over.

How to Vegetable Garden - Step by step instruction on starting to vegetable garden
Tomato Blight - One of the Few Tomato Diseases
My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary - Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
Gardening and Wildlife - Gardening and wildlife stories, hints and tips
Tomato Casual » Reader Questions: Tomato Blight - Reader Questions: Tomato Blight. Tags: blight, Questions. late-blight By Vanessa Richins. This season, we have a lot of readers concerned about the late blight that has spread throughout the Northeastern United States. ...
Growing tomatoes and tomato blight | Grow & eat | Gardening Blog ... - Daily blogs from the experts at BBC Gardeners' World.
Tomato blight and me | Los Angeles Metblogs - The tomato crop has been crushed to a large extent this year nationwide, thanks to a fungus that started in nurseries in the US South where the plants were.

When Did The Garden Shrub Go Out of Fashion?

2009-08-12T06:57:00Z

I say that my first garden was not very big and yet when I see the small gardens that are offered with new build homes I realise how luck I was.

That garden was my learning curve and was fine at first but gradually I became frustrated because I could not plant specimens, especially shrubs that appealed to me. In a small garden you have the choice of planting small shrubs or medium sized shrubs that need to be pruned back each year. The latter solution is a never ending battle as the shrub tries to regenerate by being even more vigorous. Shrubby Potentillas performed extremely well for me and I still retain affection for these “superb doers”.

Moving to my present garden, over 20 years ago, I found that it had been maintained but for me it was not a garden. As I sit in the back garden writing this it is not only the colour on show that pleases me but the structure of the garden. I have to say it is made more pleasurable by the delicious perfume of Rosa Rugosa Alba that I introduced into the garden this year. Yes I know ideally I should not let it flower in its first year but could you snip off all those buds and miss those beautiful flowers and the scent?

The main structure of the garden is formed by trees and shrubs. A lot of thought went into choosing the right trees to plant as they were expensive to buy and I knew they hopefully would be with me for many years.

When developing the planting plan for the borders my first thoughts went to the shrubs that I wanted to form the backbone and being a much larger garden than my previous one I had a lot more to choose from. Colour, size and form needed to be right as, if done correctly, this would enable me to mix and match colourful perennial herbaceous plants and annuals. One thing I remember about this process was that the pencil eraser was worked very hard!

Perhaps all these years on I take these shrubs for granted. They demand so little from me yet give so much.

The reason that I sat down to pen this article is that I have just been reading something by a well known garden designer championing the cause for the return to favour of shrubs. Apparently they have been out of fashion for a number of years and he feels that it is time that they regained their rightful place in our gardens.

I have to confess that I didn’t know that they had gone out of fashion but this only goes to strengthen the opinion that I have held for a long time. If you are going to create a garden then create one to please yourself. Fashions and fads come and go, look at new ideas and pick out things that you like but incorporate them into your own ideas. I can think of “new ideas in gardening” that caught my imagination in my early days of learning to garden but certainly did not deliver what was promised and disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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Tomato Tasting - Best Tomato Varieties?

2009-07-28T07:01:00Z

Warm summer days with the sun heating the greenhouse and ripening the tomatoes. Picking the tomatoes, taking them into the house and after a quick wash, straight onto the salad while still warm and juicy. Well, I can dream can’t I?

Summer seems to have deserted us while I get emails from friends in California to say it is sizzling. I have to admit that I would find it hard to live in that intense heat. The weather seems to be fooling the robins who this last week started calling in their soft autumnal way. If you know your robins you will know what I mean. Maybe they know something we don’t but I hope they have got it wrong.

But let’s get back to tomatoes. Is there anything like the taste of a tomato fresh from the vine? This year I have grown a bush type tomato called Red Alert. It was recommended in the seed catalogue as possibly the best tasting tomato. What I can say is that it has produced enormous, heavy trusses that have ripened before my other tomatoes. The taste is different, I would describe it as a bit more acidic to the tomatoes that I normally grow but there is no argument that they are delicious to eat. However, my favourite for taste still has to be Harbinger which is an old variety that you are never likely to see on the supermarket shelves as it produces quite a variety of sized fruits on a truss. When I had difficulty sourcing Harbinger I tried an F1 variety called Shirley. Shirley are also an excellent tasting tomato and being F1 the fruits are of uniform size. Next season I will do as this year and grow Red Alert and Harbinger together to get early crops and the later delicious Harbinger.

Writing so much about tomatoes you might expect to see pictures of ripe fruits. However I also mention regularly that my garden would not seem to be alive without the insects buzzing around and the other various visitors. Here are a couple of pictures taken this week showing some of my garden friends.

The garden is still filled with colour. At ground level there are the Impatiens or Busy Lizzies that are so colourful and demand so little. I sometimes wonder why some gardeners turn there noses up at the mention of these little gems. Adding height to the borders and shining like beacons are the Crocosmia, bright red and orange through to yellow. The strappy leaves add so much structure to the border. Still to come are the dahlias, their buds are so swollen that they will be bursting forth any day now.

In my early days of gardening I wanted everything flowering at the same time to get mass colour. How my ideas and tastes have changed, now I like green and form from foliage with a succession of flowers providing highlights.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
Garden Diary - Stories, hints and tips by a gardener
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Best Tomatoes - Growing Tips - The first thing you have to do once you decide to grow tomatoes is to choose your variety. There is so much choice when it comes to tomato varieties.
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Lucifer Crocosmia - Crocosmias are such cheerful and easy summer bulbs that everyone should try them. The ones I have came from a friend in town who didn't even know what they were. He just told me about some nice red flowers on plants that looked a little ...

Hebes and Hostas

2009-07-14T01:59:00Z

Having one of my late evening walks around the garden I began to think back to when I first started to create a garden for myself.

What sparked off these thoughts was seeing the Hostas and Hebes in flower. It is hard to believe that way back they were not that commonly grown in small gardens and were looked upon as something almost exotic.

There were not many varieties to choose from in the local garden centres or nurseries then. I suppose there was not enough demand and so not worth stocking.

Hostas

The gardening book which was my bible at the time had a small write up about Hostas.

The two things I remember are the warning that they are slugs and snails’ favourite delicacy and the advice to cut off the flower spikes as Hostas are grown mainly for their leaf colour and architectural qualities.

There is no doubting that those slimy enemies of all gardeners can reap havoc but there are varieties that seem to survive far better than others.

As for the advice to cut off the flower spikes I can maybe see the benefit in a very formal garden but personally I love the bell shaped flowers towering above the foliage. And there are those that are scented, one that I have which is not yet in flower but when it is it will fill that end of the garden with its delicious perfume.

Hebes

Again I found little articles about Hebes with the warning that they were not that hardy in our climate. The big problem I had was finding any at all to grow and then found two in a small nursery, one with red flowers and the other blue. The red was a real beauty with large flowers but the warning in this case proved to be right, it did not make it through the winter. This put me off growing them for quite a while but more varieties became available as the garden centres grew in size. Now I have several and one in particular has become a very large bush that gets covered in scented flowers.

Of course it is not just Hebes and Hostas that are more readily available in garden centres now. Twenty years ago, perhaps even less than that, I remember struggling to find ornamental grasses and when I did there was little advice on the varieties to grow. I bet I am not the only gardener to plant a grass and see it try to take over a border within two seasons.

I still hear criticism of garden centres not providing adequate advice for customers about their purchases. However in my experience of too many years to admit to I have to say it is better now than it used to be. The small nurserymen have always known their stuff but it is the larger new fangled supermarket type garden centres that needed to improve. Providing the expertise for the variety of trees, plants and shrubs that are now available is not that easy and it does come with a cost attached, an extra price that perhaps many of us are not happy to pay.

My Garden is My Space - Hints, tips and how to articles for gardeners. Reviews and offers of garden tools, gardening equipment and many other garden related items
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A Garden for the House: Hostas: A Magic Circle Wards Off Slugs ... - Here at A Garden for the House, slugs and snails have attacked not only my hostas, but my delphiniums and zinnias, too. So what's the best remedy for these malevolent mollusks? Beer? Poison?Electrocuting strips of copper? ...
Mickfield Hostas: New at Hampton Court '09 - Graham Rice's New ... - There's a huge number of hostas introduced every year, many raised across the Atlantic, and some of the newcomers are to be seen at this week's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Mickfield Hostas from Stowmarket in Suffolk, ...
Meanderings: Hostas - In a shady corner outside our kitchen window a group of hostas quietly sit, growing each year without any coaxing or pleading. Each year they provide us with their lovely purple flowers on long spikes. The flowers don't last long...

Deadheading Roses and a New Garden Bird Visitor

2009-06-29T08:05:00Z

How do you deadhead your roses? Listen to the experts and they tell you not to just take of the faded flower but cut further down the stem. For one thing you prune the rose at the same time and keep the rose neat. I confess that the method I use is a mixture of both. Not being a professional gardener with my secateurs in a holster at my hip, I pinch off the faded flowers and when I am at work in the garden I tidy up and finish the job.

My view has always been that it is better to remove the dead flowers when I see them than leave them on (looks better) and anyway, some roses produce their blooms in clusters so you cannot deadhead and prune at the same time. Now, as we know, ideas and fashions in gardening change all the time so it did not come as any great surprise to hear a gardening expert on the radio telling me that research has proven that our roses will come back into bloom quicker if we only nip out the old flower rather than pruning back. Maybe the lesson here is to do whatever your gardening instinct tells you to do.

The latest rose to star in the garden is my Iceberg standard. When it is in full sun it seems to burn your eyes out it is so white and in the early morning light and evening it is like a little beacon.

For anyone who has read my ramblings in the past, it will be clear just how much I love having the garden birds sharing my creation. I just cannot imagine a garden that is not given life by the movement and music of a song bird. To see a variety of bird types gives a sense of satisfaction that maybe I have created an environment that encourages that variety to visit. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a Goldfinches flying through. I have seen brief glimpses in previous years but they have never been a regular visitor. I decided to try to change this and bought a cheap bird feeder that is especially for Niger seed and Goldfinches. Only their tiny beaks can access the seed through the hole in the feeder.

The feeder was hung using the rules for other feeders, which is where they can be seen but close enough to cover and safety. No visits were seen which was supported by no apparent depletion in seed. The feeder was moved but again no success and so was yet again moved to quite an exposed position hanging in the old Hawthorne Tree just across from my office window. You guessed it; I now have several visits per day by a pair of Goldfinches hanging there like a pair of bookends. Was it worth it? You bet it is, I now have a new bird song to listen to and who would not want to look at these beautiful coloured little birds. They are still a little nervouse and so to date I have only managed to photgraph them through the window.

The Day Lilies are starting to bloom. I am just hoping that the Day Lily Midge is not as troublesome this year although I have already had to remove some infected buds.

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British Garden Birds Blue tit,Great tit,Coal tit & Chaffinch - Related posts:5 Great Ways to Attract Birds into Your Garden It’s not just nice for you to have birds visit...Attracting Birds to Your Garden There is nothing that tells us it’s spring more than...Why You Should Feed Garden Birds a ...

Garden Diary

Gardening and Wildlife

Tomato and Garden Wildlife Update

2009-06-16T07:43:00Z

The garden is filled with one fragrance at the moment, that of Mock Orange. I have Philadelphus shrubs on the front and side garden and the one on the side garden fills the back garden with its gorgeous perfume. I could not be without one of these shrubs in my garden and the good news is that they come in a variety of sizes and can be pruned.

The tomatoes are really coming on now. This year I have gone back to my old favourite Harbinger. These I am training as cordons but I also am trying a new variety to me, the plum tomato Red Alert which is grown as a bush variety. Red alert is described in the seed catalogue as one of the best for flavour and very early. I will have to wait to test the flavour but they are living up to the early tag, the fruits are far more advanced than Harbinger.

The wildlife in the garden never ceases to create interest.

Firstly there is the frog mention in the previous diary entry. I walked into the kitchen to see him sitting there on the floor looking up at me. He had found his way over the porch, through the conservatory and into the kitchen. I am not sure he appreciated his little trip back to his cool home behind the garage amongst the compost bags.

Then there is the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. The Greater Spotted appears on the nut feeder throughout the year but we only used to have a visit from these little beauties every spring. They could be seen going round and round the Silver Birches pecking fir insects. Needless to say that once those Birches reached the end of their days the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers stopped visiting. Or so I thought. I awoke early one morning this last week and went into the kitchen to get a drink.

Looking through the window to the bird seed feeder there was the usual queue of sparrows fighting for position but then a different shaped bird arrived. There was no doubt that it was a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. It seemed to be eating the seed which according to my books should not be, they only eat insects. Not only that, it was accompanied by two others who took their turn. Maybe they were finding insects but it did not seem that way. I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had a similar experience.

Lastly there is the tale of Mrs Blackbird. I have been putting out dried fruit for the blackbirds for a long time and they always meet me in the garden to tell me the pot is empty. This season a female has been collecting a beak full and disappearing into the undergrowth to feed a fledgling, a verbal youngster at that. That youngster is now appearing on the pot but is not absolutely certain what to do. His or her mother is intelligent. She sits on the pot which is outside the shed and watches me go in to collect her fruit. I also keep the seed in there and so I leave the door open while I take a scoop full of seed to the feeder. That practice is having to stop. Now when I get back she is in the shed looking to help herself to the fruit. Very cute but there is a danger of her being shut in and in the heat of summer it could do her a lot of harm and keep her away from her fledglings for a few hours.

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Worcestershire Source: Today's Sightings 13/06/2009 - Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Throckmorton area early afternoon (Adrienne Sanders) Spotted Flycatcher in gardens adjacent to Cropthorne churchyard (Adrienne Sanders) Dipper and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker along Dowles Brook in the Wyre ...

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Osprey, Warblers and more....! - A trip to RSPB Ynys-hir this morning proved to be a very rewarding one. Highlights of the day were an Osprey on the nesting platform, 2 Sedge and 1 Grasshopper Warbler near the break-water hide, 2+ Redstarts and 3 Pied Flycatchers in ...

The Joys and Trials of a Gardener

2009-06-02T11:17:00Z

You could say gardening is like life, nothing is certain apart from the fact that there will be successes and failures.

This last week has been a bit this way. It is not so long ago that I wrote about a green shooted dogwood that has been superb for the last couple of years. I should have kept quiet. I thought it was suddenly not looking too healthy and the reason quickly became all too apparent, honey fungus. This terrible parasite has struck again. There is nothing that I can do, it was in the garden before I came and it will be here long after I have gone.

On the upside the garden has really blossomed this spring in all senses of the word. You would think that the cold winds and very wet weather would have discouraged blooms but no, some shrubs have flowered better than ever. My Pineapple Broom is the best it has been since I planted it, my Ceanothus is laden down and just a mass of blue. Last year I did a drastic pruning of my orange patio climbing rose and at the moment it is just stunning, absolutely covered in flowers and is like a beacon in the garden.

The weather has gone from cool to unseasonably hot almost overnight. My annuals I have grown from seed needed to be planted out but the weather was not good enough until now. After hardening off I have managed to plant up some containers and put a few in the ground. A fresh bag of compost was required and I went to a part of the garden where I store such things, not seen by anyone else. I must get round to sorting this mess out one day! To keep the bags dry I put empty compost bags over the top of the unopened ones. I removed the first bag to find a large and healthy looking frog looking up at me. He must have been feeding well on my slugs which I thanked him for. Anyone who stores compost will know that the slimy things seem to like the cool surface of the plastic bags. How often have I got hold of a bag and wondered whet was so cold in my hand. Yuck!

I sowed various salad crops in containers when the weather was chilly which seemed a bit optimistic. However with the sudden hot spell it proved to be a good decision. It really is a treat to be able to pick fresh salad leaves and put together a good mixture for a meal. No big carbon footprint for these vegetables.

A real bonus of the sudden hot spell is that my favourite rose has burst into bloom. Gertrude Jekyll may not be the rose with the neatest habit but for me it is my all time favourite for scent. The perfume from this rose is unmistakable and just fills the air. A rose I would never want to be without.

The downside of the wet weather followed by heat is the hedges have had to be cut a month earlier than usual. Last year I bought a Gtech HT06-Nicad Cordless Telescopic Hedge Trimmer and this has made life so much easier. I can now cut the hedges without having to get out the stepladders and I do not have to think about cutting through the electric cable. Oh yes I have, many times!

This year I have tried growing strawberries from seed and this week they have been transplanted into containers. Several flowers have appeared. Now that all remains to be done is getting the flowers to turn into fruit, ripen and eat them before the birds and mice!

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Gardening and Wildlife
Armillaria: A Pathogen to Admire - Well, OK, maybe that's a little much. Admire a forest pathogen? But bear with me. Armillaria is the genus name for a group of fungi that are found in forests worldwide. Some species of Armillaria are virulent tree-killers, while others ...
Individuality, Size and Growth in Armillaria ostoyae - One problem with which we have to grapple relates to the concepts of 'size' and of 'growth' because these, in part, relate to our notion of an 'individual', the former (that of size) giving us presumed boundaries relative to other ...
red oak decline and mortality by ecological land type in the ... - the high rates of mortality are leading to rapid changes in species composition, forest structure, and related changes in fire risk, insect populations, and colonization patterns of root diseases such as armillaria. ...

Chelsea Flower Show 2009, a Personal View

2009-05-26T04:41:00Z

The Chelsea show has come and gone again for another year. Did you go? This year I only saw the television coverage but having said that, with the show being televised every day I probably saw more than if I had attended!

The large show gardens left me cold, did absolutely nothing for me and seemed to be for the designers circle. That is unusual as there is normally one that I find inspirational. This year seemed to revamp old ideas and there was nothing that I could take away as an idea to use in my garden. “Concept garden” seemed to be the phrase used most often to describe this years’ gardens. Three things struck me about these concept gardens, expensive, impractical and I got the impression that the plants were an afterthought.

The courtyard gardens offered more for me and yet there seemed to be a desire to “push the boundaries”.

The real show for me this year was inside the pavilion. Great displays of plants and great plants people to go with it. The knowledge and enthusiasm of these people has to be admired and, yes, I did get inspiration and ideas of things to plant in my own garden.

At last in May I have been able to do some gardening. Most of the month has been wet, in fact very wet, and if not wet then strong cold winds which has made it almost impossible to work outside.

The trouble is when you do get outside after a spell like this in spring there is a tendency to go mad and try to catch up. I am no exception and certain muscles are complaining. It is a real treat working in the back garden at the moment as the lilac is in full bloom and filling most the garden with delicious perfume and the pineapple broom is making the trip to the greenhouse a delight.

In the front garden the laburnum is in glorious flower and it is difficult to miss the sweet scent. The side garden is also full of perfume from the Choisya Aztec Pearl, no matter where I am working it is an absolute treat.

This is what a garden should be as far as I am concerned, full of flowers, yes form, perfume and wildlife.

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Barbados Success Story At The Chelsea Flower Show « Barbados ... - We read a report a couple days ago which highlighted the track record which the Barbados Horticultural Society (BHS) has had at the Chelsea Flower Show over a 21 year period. The report mentioned that the BHS had won 13 Gold, ...

Chelsea Flower Show Goes From the Ridiculous to the Sublime ... - The Chelsea Flower Show is so big and so glorious that it can accommodate some silliness within its midst without losing its dignity. This year's absurdity, and controversy, was easily supplied by one of the infamous stars of Top.

Chelsea Flower Show - the flowers (I want them all!) | Greenforks - Chelsea Flower Show - the flowers (I want them all!) May 24, 2009 | easygardener. Besides Show Gardens and stalls of garden sundries Chelsea also has flowers on show, as you might expect. These are housed in a huge marquee structure. ...

Memories of Past Springs and The Little Wood Returns

2009-05-04T06:27:00Z

Is there anything that sparks off memories of spring and early summer for you?

There is for me but it is probably not what you might think. It could be bird song with our feathered friends beginning to claim their territories. Or it could be the perfume of hyacinth, the first crocus or a drift of bluebells.

But no, it is the smell of creosote or freshly opened lawn feed. Not very romantic is it when I could have chosen so many more beautiful flowers or scents. The truth is that my first garden was surrounded with fencing and early spring before any perennials started to grow or annuals planted the fence panels had to be treated. Back then there was little choice of colour and creosote did the job. I can remember my neighbour splashing it on later in the season and of course it drifted through in a drift and burnt tiny holes in the plant leaves. Even now if I catch something that smells similar on the breeze it lifts my spirit, perhaps fooling my brain into thinking warm, bright sunny days filled with flowers and perfume are not too far away.

Lawn feed has the same effect. Not everyone likes the smell but when I open my shed door and the smell hits my nostrils from a freshly opened bag I know the days are getting longer.

When my children were little they used to disappear to the side garden to play in the “little wood”. Sounds grand doesn’t it but it was just a small are with a few closely planted trees that gave them a bit of privacy from grown ups and shade on a hot day. Unfortunately eventually three trees were lost to old age or disease.

Replanting followed and now the “little wood” is back. Laurel, Rhododendron, Azalea, Hawthorne, Ornamental Pear and variegated Elder have matured to get the area back to its former self if not better. At the moment the star has to be Rhododendron Pink Pearl which is the best it has been since I planted it. This is a Rhododendron that I used to admire in someone else’s garden and always promised that I would plant one in my garden if I ever had the space and aspect to suit it.

Perfume is provided by Rhododendron Lutea, to be followed by an Azalea that was here before us and not labelled and finally by the perfume from the Laurel. Although I say finally, later in the season as I walk through the arch formed by the Laurel and a large Rhododendron I will be hit by the sweet smell of Clematis Rubromarginata. The flowers may be small but it makes up for it with number of flowers and perfume that fills the air.

A Gardeners Rant and A Great Rose Specialist

2009-04-20T11:00:00Z

Time for this gardener to have a bit of a rant. There is only one television gardening programme that I watch regularly but I do keep an eye out for anything in the schedule that may be interesting. Recently such a programme was aired on a digital channel so I sat down expecting an informative and entertaining watch. Instead I had ninety minutes of self opinionated snobby so called garden lovers and designers talking down to us the masses.

For example one obviously well-healed celebrity who is seen every year at the private showing day at the Chelsea Flower Show spoke about the horrors of hanging baskets that should not be seen in any garden. Excuse me madam but not everyone is as fortunate as you to have a large garden, maybe there are people living in terraced houses with no garden space or maybe a flat and the only thing close to a garden that they can manage is a hanging basket.

Another garden designer poured scorn on people in the UK having water features. Apparently they only make sense if you are in a hot country and you need something to cool the air. I find the sound of water very relaxing and I don’t have room in my garden for a stream or river so I have a water feature that provides the sound I like very nicely thank you.

We are all entitled to our opinions but a programme like this giving just the opinion of the privileged few is just annoying a waste of television time. These are the same people who spend thousands on their gardens but I bet they don’t have the same satisfaction that I and many others do who sow their packets of seeds and take cuttings each year and patiently watch their babies grow.

Rant over and boy do I feel better for it!

The garden is really flourishing now and the Exochorda The Bride is taking star place as it does every year. What a cracking shrub this is, a bit lax maybe but with a little help it really is a stunning display.

Last year I made a point of not buying anything for the garden, just growing from seed, taking cuttings or splitting perennials.

This year I have made two purchases, a rose and a tree. Normally if I want to buy a rose locally there is a top grower less than twenty miles away, plenty to choose from and now has grown into a garden centre. However they did not have the rose I wanted in stock and would not until the autumn.

Looking on the Internet I found national suppliers but again they were out of stock or being too late for bare rooted, had potted up roses that were very expensive.

Then I discovered a little grower not far from my usual supplier. He had the rose I wanted potted up and for a fifth of the price that the large growers were asking. The trip took me down a country lane and I have to admit I thought I must have missed the nursery but then in the middle of nowhere there it was.

It might have been a small nursery but the quality of the plants was superb and what is more the service the owner gave me was exceptional, full of knowledge that was freely given with each purchase. I also spotted a tree I wanted and again the price for the size was unbeatable and again the advice on planting and pruning was invaluable. Here is a lesson for us all, don’t just head for the large garden centres but look for these specialist little growers who know their stuff and are all to willing to help.

As I left I asked how long his nursery had been open – 1967! Now here is a man who knows his roses.