Plant Pick – Marigold

When the word Marigold is mentioned, your mind very quickly either thinks of cheesy and old fashioned council flower beds, or getting to work scrubbing the kitchen. And whilst the latter is one of my worst phobia’s, the blousy french marigolds synonymous with hanging baskets, council estates, and tiredly designed council flowerbeds, fill me with dread. But the simple marigold, with is vast array of species, can be used to great effect in the garden and allotment, and I certainly wouldn’t be without it.

On the allotment, marigolds have been used to great affect in the corner of one of the salad and bean beds. Here, interwoven with wild flowers and self sown blooms from other allotmenteers, they provide a welcome splash of colour to draw the eye. And with insects, especially hover flies and bee’s, darting amongst them throughout the summer months, they are wonderful addition to the garden – plus you can eat them! A few vibrant orange petals will liven up even the blandest of green salad’s in an instant.

At the allotment marigold’s nestle with native flowers in a vibrant corner

Meanwhile, in the flower garden they are perfect for adding a splash of colour and reward with flower after flower after flower. I sow mine amongst my fern bed, so at this time of year the oranges clash beautifully with the delicate foliage and green’s of their ferny neighbours. And contrasted against the white Cotswold stone path, September days are still filled with colour.

Marigolds are perfect in a flower border where they contrast beautifully

Name: Marigold (Calendula officinalis)

Thrives In: Sunny, well drained locations. However, I’ve always found they’ll survive pretty much anywhere given enough water and feed, offering colour to all but the shadiest of corners.

Yearly Care: A downside of marigold’s is their annual nature. However, with plenty of flowers at the end of the season, seeds can be collected for a constant supply of new plants. Sow in situ, or pots, from February to April (in trays is best for earlier germination’s to allow seedlings to be placed in frost free areas) and plant out when young plants are between five and ten centimeters tall and the last frosts have passed. Dead head regularly to encourage a proliferation of flowers and collect seeds at the end of the season for next year.

Growing Medium: Germinate in any all purpose seed friendly compost and plant into well drained soil when plants are mature.

Stockists: If you haven’t already got some marigold seeds languishing in your store somewhere, nearly all nurseries and garden centres will have seeds, along with many supermarkets.

Quick Tip: Plant against dense foliage for stunning contrasts, and use flowers in salads to add a dash of vibrant orange to the mix.

Lunar Planting, Friend or Foe?

In principle, lunar planting sounds like a great idea. Planting by the phases of the moon, such a planting process is theoretically sound too, with movements in the water table affecting root growth. Working with the moon’s monthly cycle, particular days are better than other’s for sowing, planting and harvesting. In periods when the moon draws the water table to the surface, gardeners are urged to plant, when the soil is moist and the best condition for germinating seeds. As the water table recedes back into the earth, it draws growing plant roots with it, making them more sustainably viable and creating stronger, healthy plants. That’s the theory anyway.

As some may know from my blog, I was rather taken with the lunar planting scheme this year, with its advantages far outweighing possible disadvantages. No watering, yet healthier plants with a better harvest? Yes please. Adhering to the advice provided on the Gardeners Calendar website I’ll admit, Mary and I became a little pagan about the whole thing. I was bought Nick Kollerstrom’s Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2010: Higher Yields in Vegetables and Flowers and soon the entire potato crop had been planted within the very specific guidelines.

Root Days were strictly adhered to for all potato planting

However, whilst a typical British summer provided perfect growing conditions in June, July’s beating sun resulted in parched, cracked and sandy soil. But it was fine, potatoes were growing strong, their roots had been pulled down by the receding water table and watering was in no way needed. How wrong could I be?! Whilst much of the allotment harvest has continued as normal, the potatoes planted by the phases of the moon have been a dismal failure. The crop will in no way provide a years worth of delectable spuds, and though the ones we have are delicious, the harvest is pitiful.

So, lunar planting on this occasion has not worked in the slightest. Far from providing a sustainable and economically safe way of growing food, it has resulted in lacklustre spuds. Whilst I may have had to water more, at least the home grown harvest would have provided astonishingly good taste and reduced the food miles and supermarket consumption of the household. And based on its theoretically sound methods, the lunar planting principle should always work. I have to admit, I think I’m done trying. Lunar planting, friend or foe? You decide.

Famine and Unexpected Delight

Life at any allotment during this time of year is largely a continuous process of keeping the weeds under control, and happily harvesting crops that you’ve put so much work into growing. But its been a funny summer, and for many crops, its been rather disastrous.

Baking sun in July reduced the beautifully rich and manured soil to a thin, dry and crusty wasteland. Our lunar planting principles did not hold up to to the conditions well and whilst summing pudding alley swelled blissfully, potatoes have been left few and far between. And that being said, a glorious crop of summer raspberries were ravaged by drought at the end of ripening, sucking the juice and leaving shrivelled inedible fruit. Meanwhile, though some managed the swell, the onion bed has also been left dusty and brown, with our anticipated year’s harvest lucky to cover three or four months.

Elsewhere however some crops our thriving. The three sister’s plot is doing wonders. Fat yellowing gourds lay rotund on the surface, whilst beans clamber their way up the stems of green sweetcorn. Flowers of gourd yellow, sweetcorn browns, and bean pale pinks glimmer amongst the scrambling greens, and the bed is truly alive with life. A beautiful Verbena has also self seeded, poking its purple petals towards the sky. And whilst a potato famine has hit this year, the unexpected delights of happy crops makes the loss seem a little less heavy.

A Gourd Lays, Fat and Rotund

Sweetcorns Ripen Beneath their Fibrous Skins

A Gourd Flower Attracts Busy Bumbles

Beans Scramble Amongst the Three Sisters Bed

A Self Seeded Verbena Makes a Welcome Appearance

The Chicken or The Egg

Which came first?! Who the hell knows is my answer, but with recent changes in my chicken coop, the egg will most definitely lead to the chick! After several months of post illness recovery, and one very broody Charlotte refusing to sit on the eggs I actually wanted her to incubate, my finest Silkie has settled upon a clutch of six. In approximately 21 days (make that 19 on the day of posting) I hope to hear the tiny sounds of pipping as wet, yellow new lives break their way out of their three week cocoons and enter into the new world.

Georgia tightly settles upon her clutch

Georgia had one clutch last year, producing four Light Sussex chicks, one of which I ate, two of which sadly died on the flock infection earlier this year, and one which still remains the most ferocious and boisterous hen I’ve ever known. Poor Georgia’s been through the mill. She had chronic sickness when the flock were infected by a mould composition. She then got an eye infection which has left her partially blind and her early season moult left her looking more like a rat than a chicken. However, she is never happier than when incubating, and see her going down I quickly dashed to eBay, bought six Rhode Island Red hatching eggs, and shoved them under her as quickly as possible.

She’s now happily ensconced in her cardboard box, so much so that I’m having to lift her off the nest everyday so she actually has a drink and something to eat. She’s a dedicated mother if anything is to be learnt from her previous clutch, clamping onto her precious cargo of eggs and rarely letting them see the light of day. And being later in the season than normal, she’s unlikely to leave the nest because of overheating. So the calendar is marked, Septemeber 8th, and patter of tiny feet and the sounds of tiny chirping may soon fill my ears with sweet delight.

Win A Place in the Country

Any long term readers of this blog will full well know my cravings to return to my family farmland in Suffolk and live as a hobby farmer/writer. The countryside’s attractiveness for a quieter, more relaxing and family friendly way of life is a huge lure for many…and now you have the chance to win a your perfect country home.

Studio Lambert are developing a new series for Channel 4 in which lucky candidates will be offered the opportunity to win a home in rural Britain. Relocating to the countryside for a week at a time, contestants will become fully involved in village life – an important factor as it is the VILLAGERS who will decide who wins this fantastic opportunity. Everyone over 18 can apply, whether you are looking for a first home or simply wanting to relocate and live mortgage free. And the best part……the villagers want gardeners, so get those green fingers at the ready!

You can download the application form here and with the filming schedule due to start in the coming months, send that form in asap to be considered. Or call studio lambert to find out more (click on the image to get a larger view). This seems a really great, original concept for a TV show. And with a mortgage free country home and an entirely new life on offer, the stakes couldn’t be any better. Good luck!

Mini Made At Home

Whilst some of us may be lucky enough this weekend to get some gardening in without distraction, for those who now have children on their summer break, the next weeks are unlikely to be filled with personal hobbies. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get out into the garden and start a family project. Something you’ll enjoy making and the kids will love playing in.

Lending some help to garden presenter Sven Wombwell, in the first of two ‘Mini Made at Home’s’ for This Morning we create a Tipi kids. Fantastic for any garden and made in such a way that it can be easily taken down at the end of summer, stored, and recreated when the warm weather hits again, its the perfect thing to enjoy the outdoors whilst making something to entertain the kids.

Click the pic below to watch the video at ITV.com

Plant Pick – Sarracenia

I’ve decided to start a new thread, mostly just to indulge myself in my favourite plants. I often wander around the garden and notice sculpted leaves, vivid blooms or simply stunning individuals of horticultural greatness that should be shared and talked about and at this time of year there are no end of conversation starters. It may be as simple as a wonderful rose species that provides multiple blooms or a heady scent. Or perhaps a rare and treasured echium that I’m over the moon at getting my hands on. Either way….we’ll start with my favourite plant this week…the White Trumpet Sarracenia leucophylla.

One of my favourite carnivorous plants I managed to kill my last sarracenia when I accidentally left it for a few days and the sun baked it dry. Managing to find a new addition to my windowsill at this years Chelsea Flower Show my White Trumpet has held strong over the past couple of months and now, with one mature flute and another developing, the flies are already being lured to their grisly death. Realising that they really do thrive on several inches of rainwater in their pot I’ve managed to avoid baking it dry and with the odd dying buzz vibrating out of the mature flute this wonderful specimen continues to hold my fascination.

Name: White Trumpet Sarracenia leucophylla

Thrives In: A carnivorous plant by nature Sarracenia’s thrive in damp but sunny conditions. South facing windowsills are therefore ideal but ensure that throughout the growing season one to two inches of rainwater is maintained so that they don’t dry out.

Yearly Care: Whilst in the warmer periods of the year Sarracenia’s can be kept on windowsills and even outside as long as they are not allowed to dry out during the winter months they need a cold snap to simulate natural growing conditions. Placing in a frost free greenhouse or cold frame reduce the water, maintaining damp conditions only, and move back to summer positions mid-late February. Cut off dead flutes (those that have turned brown) at the base as required.

Growing Medium: Unlike Venus Fly Trap’s which need pure moss peat I’m happy to say that Sarracenia’s aren’t quite as ecologically unfriendly, needing a 1:1 ratio of peat to perlite. Alternatives are Moorland Gold or Cocpeat the latter of which remains environmentally unfriendly due to travel miles. Pot up every few years to ensure maximum growth.

Stockists: Not found in general nurseries my specimen came from Hewlitt-Cooper Carnivorous Plants. Hampshire Carnivorous Plants are also a great stockist who have won RHS recognition for years.

Quick Tip: Whilst it is extremely tempting to fiddle with the flutes, especially when there’s a buzzing insect inside, resist to avoid damage. Instead just sit for hours waiting for a fly to come along….I did….it’s well worth it!

An Allotment of Drought

Though today the blustering heavens have managed to scatter a few drops of precious water of a burnt and dried London I doubt it is enough to penetrate the stone hard soil of the allotment. Whilst blistering heat has made for a merry time for many Londoners, with soil as parched and cracked as the bottom of a desert stream, plants on the allotment seemed to have had a turbulent struggle. Some, like the onions and currents have come through blissfully well. Others….haven’t

An Onion swells in the sun

Our well planned lunar planting cycle which we particularly put to the test with the potato crops seems to have not worked in the slightest. Digging  up a foremost only four or five treasurable spuds clung to the roots, a sore sight for any wanting a large harvest. And whilst lunar planting my have reduced the drought effect on the plants I’m sure that continued watering would have helped to swell the pale buried tubers into a multitude of huge harvest. I doubt I’ll be taking that experiment further.

Whilst potatoes fail sweetcorn and beetroot thrives

Meanwhile, whilst the french beans, beetroot, salads and courgettes continue to thrive in the summer sun, the incredible glut of raspberries proved to be fatally flawed by the reducing water table. Though gooseberries and currents continue to ripen, offering beautiful tart tastes to the tongue, a 24 hr period reduced the glimmering raspberries to pitifully dried husks. An awful sight to arrive at with plans of jam making and pudding creating and though the autumn varieties are still to fruit they’re lack of lushness brings concerns of yet another lacklustre harvest.

Red currents ripen

But life as an allotmenteer is always as such. My first ever year I had the most amazing broad bean crop ever, something I have not acheived again. I’ve realised that carrots, seemingly quite daring vegetables to grow, are as easy as pie and my first year in growing brussel sprouts is continuing well with Bertie brussel growing tall. The salads haven’t been attacked by pigeons this year, but the raspberry’s have falling foul to drought. And so with the ongoing year its only a matter of trying again in 2011 and seeing what the outcome is.

I Live In London

Its sometimes hard to believe that I live in London. Whilst the big smoke continues to bustle away, never grinding to a halt and in a perpetual state of activity the suburbs are a slightly quieter affair. It takes two minutes from my door before I’m ensconced in Epping Forest. Seven minutes wander through dappled shade provided by the towering boughs of tree’s and open patches of wafting grasses and I’m at the allotment. And if my running feet take me further I can disappear into the thin strips of nature that ripple through London like crystal grains in a rock.  My mind (a complicated place at the best of times) sways from one extreme to the other. On days like this when white fluffy clouds shade the sun, when the whir of grasshoppers reaches intoxicating levels, and when the bluster in the air washes refreshing cool over my bare skin I am quite complete. I have musicals and restaurants, socialising and dating, partying and dancing on my doorstep whilst I can install myself in a green environment if I wish. But when the grey days arrive, when I think to the crumbling farm languishing in Suffolk its sometimes hard to not pack my bags and head to the deepest of hermitages.

On days like this its impossible not to take inspiration from nature. With exuberant life all around it confounds the idea that nature and wildlife are truly vital for any prosperous garden. Plants may be glorious but the added depth that is brought when butterflies flit from flower to flower or when a singing wren sits in a shrub caught by the sun cannot be bought. The meadows by the allotment are filled with ragwort, clover and thistles. They bring vibrant flashes of colour to the swaying muted palette of the dried grass heads, drawing the eye across the fields…a feat which many gardener attempts in their own garden. The natural height differentiation of plants brings an automatic display that horticulturists strive for, including me, whilst isolated trees in a sea of meadow provide the perfect highlights.

Meanwhile cinnabar caterpillars munch their quiet but steady way through leaves, crickets call in the crackling dry grass stems and leap out from underfoot. The entire portrait is sublime, the epitome of a summer’s day, a gardeners perfect muse. And though I often berate living in London, taking the time to look, listen and take in my surroundings has invigorated my waning spirit with renewed enthusiasm.

More photo’s at the Facebook Group

Second Servings Anyone?

As July storms into session with parched earth and baking sun many of the late spring and early summer flowering plants are on their way out. The last flowers of towering digitalis are clinging to the stems, exciting the bustling bees that stumble upon them. Rose blooms have come, gone and are if we’re lucky are repeating,  whilst for many of the alliums their exploding firework flowers are already losing their sparkle. However, as achilleas prepare to burst and thrift continues to provide cotton candy like lollipops, a quick trim may help some species to burst back into blissful life.

A.T. Johnson is a wonderful geranium that will benefit from a trim

Summer sprawling geraniums are often fading at this time of year, their leaves beginning to brown and the heads of beautiful flowers losing their petals.  But whilst clearing away the dead and dessicated leaves of ornamental poppies does not promote new growth,  a hard cutting back of perennial geraniums can cause an upsurge and often a second serving of flowers later in the season. Trim back all the foliage and flower stalks to ground level, leaving only a few scattered newly grown leaves to provide some source of energy for the plant and very quickly vibrant growth will reappear.  With any luck they’ll repay their radical haircut with a wealth of late season blooms, bringing colour and cheer to the garden once again.

When I say cut back hard….I mean it!