Secret Garden

Exit January… enter February

Did you feel it? The subtle season shift?

Yesterday, on the 1st of February, the air felt different. The sky was a bit lighter, the greens were a bit greener. It was as if – once January was finally out the door – the world could breathe a sigh and get on with the business of spring.

There are only very early signs: a few little snowdrops nodding on their stalks, fat shoots of daffodils poking out of the soil and leaf litter, an extra few minutes of daylight each afternoon. I even heard the sound of a woodpecker hammering on a tree in the woods – which always gives me a thrill because it’s one of the earliest spring sounds.

These are just little things, small signs, and we are still very much in the depths of winter here in Scotland – but it’s enough to inspire hope and a sense of anticipation about the new season that’s around the corner.

Spring preparations

While we wait out the last blasts of the winter winds and (no doubt) icy, cold days still to come I’m getting busy with preparing indoors for the growing season. That means sorting my seeds: checking which open packets still have seeds in them, assessing their likelihood of germination against the suggested expiry date, reminding myself of those plants I want to grow again, and those which I’ve lost enthusiasm for.

One of the beautiful things about growing a garden is that you can change it up every year if you like – or keep things exactly the same. Or something in between! There are some flowers and vegetables that are on my ‘must grow’ list, including tomatoes, dahlias, sweet peas and cosmos. I grow these every year and I mix a few favourites with new varieties and colours.

Then I also look down the notes and lists in my phone or saved photos on Instagram which remind me about new plants I want to grow or new varieties to try. I think about the colours I’m most drawn to – I like to choose shades which complement each other and at the moment I’m loving soft pinks, creams, apricots but also pairing this with a dash of dramatic dark red or purple.

For example, I love cosmos and will nearly always grow white ‘Purity’ as it’s such a fantastic, reliable plant and great in cut flower arrangements. But this year I’m very excited to try ‘Apricotta’ as I’ve admired the many Instagram photos I’ve seen other growers posting last summer! It looks like a gorgeous soft colour which will probably vary between blooms and change as the petals age, which is often the way with coloured cosmos.

So, now I’ve got an idea of the seeds I already have, and I like to arrange these (and any new additions as they arrive in the post) into the months I’ll plan to sow them so that I can keep track of what to do and when. It makes it much easier when I have an opportunity to get into the greenhouse to simply glance through the collection and pick the ones I want or need to sow that month.

January and February’s selection is always much smaller than March and April! But there’s no rush – for me, the timings are more of a guide and way to prioritise rather than a hard and fast rule. And it’s also important to keep an eye on the weather – I may hold off some of the sowings in February and March in order to give more plants a better start later in the spring as they will catch up fast in warmer, sunnier conditions.

In the meantime, I’m browsing some of my favourite seed suppliers to fill the gaps in my wish list and look out for any good bargains.

In terms of other indoor prep, I also usually draw a plan of the raised beds in The Secret Garden and figure out what I should plant and where, with a loose idea of crop rotation. If I’m feeling really nerdy I’ll open my spreadsheets (Airtable in fact) and update the plants and seeds I’ve got in stock – I might even start a mood board of colours for my sweet peas and dahlias!

Most of these plans will probably change and be adapted as the season goes, but it always feels good to start off with a plan – and it’s something enjoyable and constructive to do when the days are still short or the weather is, as they say round here, “blowing a hoolie” and making it difficult to get outside.

What I’m looking forward to growing in 2024

Here are some of the flowers I can’t wait to see in flower in my garden this year:

Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’ – I resisted growing these for ages but sowed some last year and instantly fell in love with them; gorgeous deep pink coloured flowers, a good size with little frilly double petals – like a jewel in your garden.

Sweet pea ‘Juliet’ – I usually go for pinks and purples (and have plenty of these this year too!) but I was drawn to the soft cream-apricot colour of these, so I’m giving them a try.

‘Amazing Grey’ poppies – they look a bit weird in photos but when I saw these in real life at Gardeners World Live not only were they a mesmerising grey-red-purple colour, they were heaving with bees! I managed to resist buying one then and there, and ordered seeds instead to grow my own!

Calendula ‘Sunset Buff’ – these grew in huge clumps at Hospitalfield where I’m a garden volunteer and they are the prettiest soft peach-pink. A lovely alternative to the more common bright orange varieties and they just caught my eye every time I visited.

Dahlia ‘Café de Paris’ – related to the Insta-popular ‘Café au Lait’ dahlia, this one has a similar shape with a soft pink blush to the petals – it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Other good stuff…

📖 I can’t wait to get started on Arthur Parkinson’s latest book The Flower Yard: Planting a Paradise. I want to do more container growing this year and Arthur has the best eye for combinations of plants which also benefit pollinators and wildlife – I’m certain I’ll be inspired.

🧤 More spring prep – I’m ordering more gloves from Niwaki. These are my favourite light gloves with a nice neat fit which makes it easier to weed or do more fiddly work with them on – I dislike bulky gloves. I’m ordering two pairs this time as I lost one of my existing pair and have been bereft ever since!

👩🏻‍🌾 I love the variety of international horticultural jobs in this list from Mr Plant Geek. It really shows the variety of roles and skills you can combine in the world of horticulture – so check it out if you are entering the industry or fancy a career change.

Finally… are you going to this? I’m tempted 🤔 The brand new RHS Urban Show seems like it will step away from the usual, more traditional ideas of gardening with its focus on urban and indoor growing and an emphasis on wellbeing. I’d be interested to see if the kind of gardens and exhibits they will have on show are realistic and achievable for all or simply a token nod to houseplants and balcony gardens… could be interesting!

Winter Sown Sweet Peas

Sweet peas were one of the first plants I grew from seed – or, now that I think about it, from seedlings. It was quite a long time ago when my children were still small, and I felt the urge to grow something in our little garden. It needed to be easy and rewarding and I remember picking up some small sweet pea plants in cardboard pots from somewhere – probably a local garden centre.

They succeeded, and the love of growing was awakened from deep within, although at the time I had two youngsters and a job and not very much time to do anything about it. Fast forward a few years later and sweet peas are still one of the stalwarts of my garden. I sow some in late autumn/winter and usually some in the spring too, aiming to have at least two or three large frames with a variety of colours and scents, and a steady supply of flowers to pick and bring inside for the vase.

As far as I’m concerned these are fair game to sow at any point between now and spring. I sometimes even make a point of sowing on New Year’s Day – a welcome break from the festivities to mark the turning of the year and the beginning of a new growing season.

Autumn/winter sown sweet peas are generally stronger and flower earlier than spring-sown, but you do have to have a bit of space somewhere to raise them and overwinter them. This year I’m germinating mine on a windowsill in a small north-facing sunroom at the back of the house, and will then move them to the greenhouse where they can grow on, slowly and steadily, until spring when they can be planted out surprisingly early – sweet peas are hardier than they look.

Sowing

Some people soak sweet pea seeds first but I’ve never done this and my seeds usually germinate very reliably. I use a mix of general purpose peat-free compost with a couple of handfuls of horticultural grit and perlite. For pots, I either sow one seed each into rootrainer modules (like these from Sarah Raven) or three seeds into regular square 9cm pots.

The benefit of the rootrainers is that they are nice and deep, giving the roots lots of space to develop, running up and down the grooves inside each module. And once the seedlings are big enough to be planted out there’s very little root disturbance as you can just pull apart each module and plant out the whole seedling, roots and compost and all.

Although not quite as deep as rootrainers, 9cm pots also do a good job, they save a little bit of space and compost as you can sow three seeds into each one, and you can opt to pop the three seedlings from container to ground as well, no need to pull apart each plant.

Pinching out

This needs done when the seedlings have put on some good growth, which is likely to have happened by spring. When the plant has three or four pairs of leaves, either snip or squeeze off the top of the main stem, leaving one or two pairs of leaves. This means side shoots will develop, leading to bushier plants and more flowers.

Planting out

This will depend on the spring weather! For me, in Scotland, I choose an opportunity in April or May when the weather is reasonable and there’s no imminent heavy frost or cold snap. This wouldn’t necessarily kill them off, but would certainly check their growth, so ideally I’ll try to wait until I’m fairly sure the weather will be settled to let them get established. If it’s very mild it’s possible (but perhaps more risky) to plant out in March. As I said above, sweet peas are tougher than they seem and although a touch of frost may nip the youngest leaves, it shouldn’t do more harm than naturally pinching out the top growth.

Support

Sweet peas need support, and when they’re first planted out they may need tied in or at least pointed in the right direction – as they grow they’ll develop little twining tendrils which will keep them attached to the structure you provide (or to nearby plants!) So check on them regularly and tie them in with soft wool or jute twine to ensure they’re growing against the structure, otherwise the weight of the stems or a stiff wind could bend them over and damage the plants.

I used to craft a V-shaped structure out of bamboo canes and twine – until summer 2022 when most of the twine was stolen by nesting squirrels, leading to major structural integrity issues! Last year I bought a couple of these willow obelisks from Wilko and they’re fab – they look natural and are really easy to pop up and place wherever you want them in your garden. I put them onto the surface of the raised beds where I grow most of my cut flowers, but they’d blend in really well in a mixed border too.

Varieties

When it comes to what kind of sweet peas to grow, that’s entirely up to you and there’s a plethora of colours, sizes and scents to choose from. There are different groups of sweet peas, so you can choose broadly depending on what you’re looking for:

Grandiflora – as the name suggests, have large flowers and a good scent

Spencer – bred to be frilly and brightly coloured, good for showing

Species/heirloom – these have smaller blooms and simpler colours and a really strong scent

There are also dwarf varieties – these are compact and good for containers.

NB – there’s also an everlasting sweet pea – this is a perennial variety, so it comes back year after year, but it doesn’t have any scent so if that’s important to you then make sure you go for the annual types!

Recommendations

I’ve grown a lot of different varieties – I usually mix it up year to year, going for colours that I’m drawn to, or names that are meaningful – or simply sowing whatever packet I happened to have received as a gift or special offer!

These are some of the sweet peas I’ve enjoyed most in recent years and would be happy to grow again: Jimmy Shand, Cupani, Judith Wilkinson, Cream Egg, Erewhon. I also usually grow a packet of heritage mix, which reliably provides a variety of colours and good scent.

New Year, new blog post, new garden plans

It’s 2023! Garden-wise January can be a bit of a grim month. Everything looks brown and soggy and the days are still very short and usually cold, offering far fewer opportunities to get outside and do anything more than tidying up fallen leaves or cut down decaying stalks.

I do always get strangely excited about the turn of the year though, because I know that very soon I’ll be seeing the first little shoots of bulbs poking through the soil – and in fact many of them are already doing just that. January also means it will soon be time to start some early seed sowings. True, it’s still much too early for most annuals or vegetables, but there are a few seeds which do benefit from an early start, especially in Scotland, if you can time it right.

Bulb shoots are nosing their way out of the soil in my back garden

Instead of making new year resolutions, I prefer to consider what I’ll do more of and what I’ll do less of each year. These are small shifts, as opposed to grand gestures, which are more likely to fall by the wayside.

In the past 12 months I’ve moved up from part time working hours to full time – and that has definitely impacted on the time I can spend in the garden, so I’m taking that into consideration for my 2023 growing plan.

What will I do less of in the garden this year?

Grow dahlias – I tell myself every year not to buy too many dahlias, and I inevitably fail miserably! However this year I think I’ve really learning my lesson – the dahlias definitely suffered because a lack of time, not to mention the very cold weather we had quite suddenly in November, and as a result of not lifting them and protecting them at the right point I’ve lost most of this year’s tubers. So this year I will grow fewer dahlias and look after them better. I’m certain I’ll enjoy growing, taking cuttings and nurturing a smaller group, especially if it results in a better display of flowers from them this year.
Growing less, better! – Again, my time in the garden is more limited than it used to be – and I want to avoid spiralling into overwhelm because I have 40 million seedlings to pot on, grass up to my knees and borders full of weeds! So simplification is the key – growing a smaller collection of vegetables, cut flowers and hopefully keeping on top of things as much as possible.
Spend less time in the garden – but MORE OFTEN. This is key – I may not have 2 hours to spare every day but I can still get a lot done in 10/15 minutes, or half an hour here and there – and I’m reminded of that every time I do it. Pulling a few weeds, deadheading flowers, pricking out a few seedlings – these things never take quite as long as I think and even a short spell in the garden or greenhouse is time well spent on my own health and a welcome break from work or home life!
Hatching chicks – we love hatching and raising little chicks, but after a difficult time rehoming a number of boys last year, I swore I would not do it again. I’m planning to sell the incubator and enjoy the lovely hens we already have this year.

What will I do more of in the garden this year?

Design – I need to revamp one of the main patio areas in the garden; it’s been looking sad and bare (apart from the weeds) all winter and it’s one of our main sitting areas when the weather is good, so I really need to crack on, decide what we’re going to do with it and then get it done! I have a vision for a combination of circular paving, gravel and some drought tolerant, airy planting.
More design – I’m interested in Scone Palace’s design competition (details on their Facebook page) – I have no idea if I can do it, but I’d love to give it a try and I already have a few ideas around a possible theme… it seems like a good starting point to test my garden design skills, which I am currently studying to acquire so that I can pass some…
…exams – I’m determined to complete the RHS Level 2 course this year so that I can finally achieve a horticulture qualification. Two more exams to go in February – fingers crossed!
Pollinator friendly plants – more, more, more. I think this (and a decent level of drought tolerance) will be guiding my decision making this year – I just love seeing bees, hoverflies, butterflies, bee flies, ladybirds, all manner of insects flying or crawling around the flowers in my garden, so I’ll be choosing and growing more of the kinds plants which attract them and feed them.
Podcasting?? This is a very tentative late entry. I miss writing and recording and meeting new and interesting Scottish gardening people. I might need to experiment a bit with format, content or routine, but if I can work out a way to make podcasting fit into my life alongside work, family and the garden itself, then you might be seeing some new episodes of The Scottish Garden Podcast in 2023…

I’ll be growing more pollinator friendly plants in 2023, like this Knauti macedonica, which bees love

Wildflower Love ♥

This year I have set myself a casual challenge to learn to identify more wildflowers. When I say it’s a casual challenge, it’s one that has developed in part because of my natural curiosity about plants and in part through necessity. Garden visits have been almost impossible this spring and summer because of lockdown restrictions, so my focus has fallen to the flowers and plants around me – in the woods and hedgerows where we’ve walked more than ever, as well as further afield as restrictions have been eased and we’ve been able to go out for day trips.

I’ve looked out for all kinds of wildflowers since they began emerging in the spring, and have watched the forest floor and the hedgerows grow and develop through into summer. Some plants are of course common and easy to identify – wild roses, foxgloves, cowslips and primroses for example. I love the big fat red clover flowers which are a cousin of the smaller variety popping up in my lawn. It’s also fairly simple to spot ox-eye daisies and now at this time of year the statuesque rosebay willowherb is gradually turning its eye-poppingly pink flowers to fluffy seedheads.

All the pinks and purples! Rosebay willowherb, red clover, field scabious, pink yarrow, foxgloves

But there are lots of flowers which I had previously disregarded or just didn’t look closely enough to really see them, and now I find myself peering into the undergrowth when I visit a new place to see if I can find anything unusual. I use my phone to take photos of whatever I find, and anything I really can’t identify I can then look up in my handy Wild Flowers book at home. It’s a slightly old-fashioned book, with illustrations instead of photos but I’ve found it simple to identify each plant according to its kind, and I can also be slightly smug with myself about looking up an actual reference book for a change instead of relying on Google or an app!

One of my most exciting finds this summer was a Common Spotted Orchid, discovered at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, and the infamous Himalyan Balsam which I found on the banks of the River North Esk. It’s not uncommon, which is part of its problem – it’s an infamously invasive non-native plant but up until recently I had read about it, but never knowingly seen it.

Common-spotted orchid, Himalayan balsam

Closer to home, I was also gifted a Seedball to trial earlier in the year, so I’ve used it to help develop a wildflower section in one of my raised beds. I’ve documented the sowing and growing on my Instagram feed, and there’s a video in my Highlights showing just how easy these are – you just scatter the little clay balls in spring around the area where you want to grow your wildflowers and they will naturally break down and germinate in time to flower for the summer. I’ve also been growing Ragged Robin from seed, a wildflower which loves damp soil around ponds, so a little group of these is now in a pot next to my tin bath pond. I would love to introduce more wildflowers to my garden – they’re tough but pretty in a natural, uncultivated way, and loved by all kinds of insects.

Corn Marigolds popping up where I scattered my tin of Seedballs

So it’s been a mini journey of discovery for me so far this year. I’ve really enjoyed spotting and identifying the plants I’ve seen every day but couldn’t name, such as lady’s bedstraw, field scabious, self-heal, eyebright and also looking out for the best and most beautiful specimens of some old favourites, like harebells, foxgloves and meadow cranesbill. Try it yourself – take a closer look and use a book or an app to figure out what you’ve found. The plants which grow in our home environment are so important for biodiversity, supporting pollinators, providing a healthy eco-system and help us to notice the change in seasons as early dots of colour give way to blousy, overblown hedgerows. It’s useful and enjoyable to know what’s growing just outside your garden walls.

Harebells and self-heal at the River North Esk

Meadow cranesbill, evening primrose, wild thyme, cornflower, rest-harrow (I think!), yarrow at Elie, Fife

Wild rose, in the woods behind my home

Quadgrow trial – part 1

Let’s talk tomatoes. At the beginning of this year’s growing season I was lucky enough to be sent a Quadgrow planter, after spotting them at this year’s Garden Press Event in London (back when we are able to travel freely around the country – remember those days?!).

The Quadgrow display at the Garden Press Event, March 2020

I was really impressed with the set up on display – they had a selection of chilis growing in these, as it was March and still early in the season, but they’re also suitable for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other tall cropping plants. The really big deep pots are placed into a large tray which you fill with water, making it a self-watering system which keeps your plants from drying out for up to 2 weeks. This makes it incredibly useful during the summer when a) the weather is hopefully nice and warm, making your greenhouse very cosy and b) you might (under non-Covid circumstances) be planning to go on holiday. With the Quadgrow you simply fill up the tray and can leave your plants for a few days, knowing they won’t be crispy when you come home again!

After speaking to the guys from Greenhouse Sensation at the GPE they got in touch and asked if I’d like to trial the planter and I jumped at the chance. Growing tomatoes is one of my favourite things to do in the garden – I love the whole process, from sowing the seed right through to harvesting those ripe red fruits, and as I’m always interested to try new varieties and techniques I thought this would be an excellent system to use this year, in pursuit of the perfect tomato!

The package came safely in the post, complete with two trays, four pots and some plant food and I set up the system in mid-May when my tomato plants were getting big enough to plant out and live in the greenhouse. Bearing in mind that I’m not particulary handy or technically-minded it was easy to set up and I had the thing slotted together in minutes. You simply have to connect the trays with a little pipe and also insert the filters and make sure the wicking material is in place within each pot. This is how the system keeps the soil moist so it’s important to make sure the wicking material is in contact with the water. I actually left a little corner of it visible above the soil so that I can check it’s still damp – that way I know the soil is still getting the moisture it needs. Once the pots were filled up with some peat-free tomato compost I popped in each plant, inserted a bamboo support and tied them into place as I usually do.

In the interests of not-very-scientific experimentation I’m also growing the same varieties of tomato in the same peat free compost but in growbags and pots. I’m looking forward to seeing how each method compares, and whether I have healthier plants, or better fruit, from those grown in bags, pots or the Quadgrow. There will have to be a lot of tasting to find out… 😋

And if you’re wondering what varitieties I’m growing, I’ve got: Gardener’s Delight, Sungold, Rosella and Black Russian. I’m also growing one plant called Maskotka outdoors – another experiment to see if it’s possible to get a decent crop of tomatoes outdoors in Scotland. I have my doubts, but actually this plant seems to be doing fine – although a bit more compact than the others it’s setting fruit and looking fairly healthy!

So far, I’ve topped up the Quadgrow with water about three times and it hasn’t yet been empty when I’ve checked. The plants are definitely more thirsty the bigger they’ve got so I’m keeping a close eye on the water level each time I’m doing a #Fridayfeed.

You can check out photos and videos of the Quadgrow on my Instagram feed @mycornerofearth – there’s a series saved to my Stories including the set-up video and I’m including regular updates as the plants develop. I’ll report back more progress here on this blog as my plants grow and hopefully give me some tasty tomatoes!

My tomato plants are flourishing so far in their Quadgrow planter!

Get Into Grow Your Own

“Nothing tastes as good as home-grown!” – a familiar cry from allotment owners and keen gardeners everywhere. But is it true? And are you ready to find out for yourself?

Why?
There are many reasons why growing your own is a good thing to do – both for yourself, and for the environment. When you grow your own food, you know exactly where it’s come from: your own soil, pesticide-free and freshly picked. Often, the produce we buy from the supermarket shelves is already several days or even weeks old and may have been treated with preservatives to prevent them from spoiling. Carrots, for example, are typically stored for anything from 1 to 9 months before being sold in the shops; in contrast, you can pick a carrot from your garden and have it cooked and on your plate within minutes – guaranteed freshness which also means fantastic flavour.

And the total food miles? Zero! At a time when the climate emergency is on everyone’s lips, reducing the amount of carbon emitted by food transportation is another way we can contribute to the fight against global warming. Not to mention that growing your own food completely bypasses the plastic packaging involved in unnecessarily wrapping fresh produce. But perhaps one of the best reasons to get into ‘grow your own’ is because it’s really enjoyable! It’s incredibly satisfying to sow some seed, watch the shoots germinate and grow and eventually harvest some delicious food to feed yourself and others.

Where?
You don’t need a huge garden or allotment plot to begin growing fruit and vegetables – any outdoor space can be adapted for growing. Garden beds are useful, but if space is limited you can grow in pots, window boxes or growbags. If you are fortunate enough to have some room in the garden, or even an entire allotment plot, you can sow straight into the ground or create raised beds, which can be constructed from various materials, and can offer easier access to the soil and plants. In terms of tools, a basic but useful set would include: a spade and/or fork, a rake, a trowel and a watering can or hose.

Your growing area should be prepared during autumn to late winter, so that the ground is ready for planting in spring when the soil warms up. This is the time of year to begin sowing – a wide range of vegetables can be started from seed either indoors on a sunny windowsill or under glass in a greenhouse or cold frame; these will be planted out into your veg beds once they’ve established a good root system and after the last frosts (generally around mid-late May for Scotland).

What?
You’ve got the space and the tools – now what to grow? The best place to start is to think about what you like to eat, and grow that. Love potatoes? They’re quick and easy, and even better fresh from the plot. Can’t stand carrots? Then don’t bother – they have a relatively long growing season, so put your efforts into something you prefer. Figure out how much space you’ve got, and choose the crop to suit. Peas and beans grow vertically, so don’t take up much room; potatoes, on the other hand, are large and leafy and need to be spaced around a foot apart. Smaller, fast-growing salad veg such as lettuce, radish, beetroot and spring onion can often be planted among those which take longer to harvest, maximising your growing space.
Tomatoes require some extra effort, but are well worth it – there is nothing to compare with the flavour of a fresh, homegrown tomato. These usually need to be grown in a greenhouse, with careful watering – but there are some outdoor varieties which may withstand the variable weather of a Scottish summer. Other greenhouse (or warm conservatory) options include chillis, peppers, cucumber and aubergines.

The other addition to your plot should be some flowers – these are important for attracting beneficial insects and repelling pests. Pollinators will visit for bright blooms such as cosmos, calendula or nasturtium, while marigolds are said to be effective at repelling aphids.

How?
To find out more information on growing your own you don’t have to look far – there is a plethora of books on the subject, along with websites, apps, magazines and podcasts. Charles Dowding is the creator of the ‘no-dig’ movement and a master of grow your own – his books and website are a great place to start. If you’re short of space, try Huw Richard’s book ‘Veg in One Bed’ for a very simple guide to growing as much as possible in a small area. The book ‘Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland’ by Ken Cox and Caroline Beaton is especially useful for identifying the best varieties for Scottish gardeners.

If Instagram is your thing use the hashtag #GYO or #growyourown to find a community of like-minded gardeners and allotment holders who love to share photos and advice. There are also plenty of podcasts covering food growing and related topics – such as The Organic Gardening Podcast or The Dirt, which is produced by Grow Your Own magazine, another excellent source of information and advice – plus each issue comes with free seeds!

If you’re thinking now’s the time to try growing some food – just go for it. You’ve nothing to lose but the price of a packet of seeds – and you might gain a new passion, better health, more time outdoors and some really tasty fruit and veg!

This article appeared in the Weekend supplement of The Courier, 11th April 2020

Garden Goodies @ GPE 2020

Last week I attended the Garden Press Event in London for the first time – this is an event organised to allow the horticulture industry to come together so that journalists can view the latest products, find out about new campaigns and generally share information and news. It was a whistlestop tour of all the big names in the industry, plus lots of smaller and emerging businesses with new and interesting products to bring to the market. Not to mention initiatives like National Children’s Gardening Week and Garden Day which aim to raise the profile of gardening generally.

There were a few items which particularly caught my attention, so here’s my list of Top 5 Garden Goodies from the GPE 2020:

Nemaknights – I had spotted this advertised in a magazine and then promptly forgot what it was called, so I was delighted to find NemaKnights had a stall, and quizzed them on this potentially transformative product! Essentially it’s nematodes in granular form which you can shake onto the soil as and when you need it. It’s a biological pest control which is child, pet and wildlife friendly and targets slugs and snails, although it’s also available for vine weevils, ants and sciarid flies. If you’ve used nematodes before you’ll know that up until now they’ve been a bit fiddly to use – with a short shelf life, they’re kept in the fridge then you’ve got to add water, mix and water into your soil. Nemaknights seems to eliminate the fuss, making it much easier to use a pesticide-free solution to an age-old problem. I’m looking forward to trying this as we do have many slugs in our garden – I’d also be keen to use it for fungus gnats because this is the time of year they tend to reappear, when my windowsills are full of germinating seed trays!

Quadgrow – another product I was very taken by was the Quadgrow by Greenhouse Sensation. This is a self-watering planter, ideal for crops such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines or courgettes, and can be used in the greenhouse, polytunnel or on a patio. It promises to keep plants at just the right moisture level for around 14 days using a wicking system, resulting in 2x bigger harvests compared to grow bags or pots. I can see this working well for my tomatoes – or possibly the aubergines and courgettes which are currently only seedlings… so watch this space!

Claire Austin’s Book of Perennials – it was great to speak to Claire Austin herself who was there to promote her newly revised Book of Perennials. I had read about her most recent venture The Sarn in February’s Gardens Illustrated and loved the idea of opening a pub with a plant nursery out the back! Beer and plants – what more could you want?! And I was lucky enough to take away a copy of the book, which I am certain will fuel my daydream of one day owning my own independent nursery. The book was first published in 2015 and has been revised to include 180 new varieties with extended features on peonies and irises. It’s full of advice on choosing and caring for perennials, and how to plant them together. Plus there are 700 plants listed – a perennial lovers paradise.

Honeyfield’s – this is a company producing wild bird food and associated feeders, nest boxes etc. The brand is owned by Marriages, which makes pet food and animal feed, and is now an authority on environmentally friendly wild bird care. Honeyfield’s stands apart from other suppliers in its approach to sourcing seed and sustainability – it’s the first supplier of Fair to Nature bird seed in the UK, which means it’s commited to using cereals and other feeds from farms which grow crops to sustain farmland bird species. So Honeyfield’s not only feeds garden birds, but also looks after those in the countryside too. Not only that, but their packaging is recyclable and they encourage consumer to use a refillable ‘Tub for Life’ for zero-waste shopping. I’ll be popping one of their Easy Clean Seed Feeders out into the garden shortly and I’m certain the local birds are going to love it! Check out Honeyfield’s excellent range of feeding guides here and their brilliant Bird Bites videos, which cover a host of different wild bird care topics.

Activearth – I was very intrigued by this new product, which claims to supercharge your soil. As the owner of some under-performing raised beds, I’m currently on the hunt for ideas to help increase the nutrient levels of my soil and improve the health of the plants I grow in them. Activearth is an organic pellet which provides the soil with 4 essential minerals (Magnesium, Calcium, Hydrogen and Potassium) plus beneficial soil bacteria, to improve fertility and plant growth in a slow release format. Scattered over the growing area, Activearth promises to transform the soil ‘from compacted and dormant to biologically active and nutrient-rich’. This, I like the sound of. So I will try the small sample I’ve got and see if there are any significant improvements – it sounds like a magic formula, and it smells like biscuits! Is it too good to be true? I hope to find out and report back…

Peat free compost

I was recently sent a couple of sample bags of peat-free compost from Westland* – in fact, they turned up shortly before Christmas – cue much head-scratching as I tried to work out what on earth kind of huge, heavy present had I forgotten about ordering…

The two kinds are New Horizon All Plant compost and New Horizon All Veg compost – both claim to be 100% sustainable, natural & peat-free compost. Now, I will confess that up until now I haven’t been a huge fan of peat-free compost, although this is very likely because I’ve bought poor quality stuff. The last bag I had was dry, woody and hard to handle – I didn’t have a very good experience of growing dahlias in it last year so it really put me off. However, I’m fully aware of the issues around peat, so I’m very keen to find a good quality (and hopefully good value) brand which will be as good for my plants as it is for the environment.

So I recently gave the first New Horizon bag a try – the All Plant version – for some pots of bulbs and for sowing some early seeds**. In contrast to the previous variety of peat-free compost I tried, this stuff is lovely and soft, it’s dark in colour and nice to work with – I would have a hard time distinguishing it from ordinary compost containing peat. So, first impressions are good.

My current seed-sowing mix: New Horizon All Plants peat free compost plus a trowelful of grit and a couple of handfuls of perlite

I will report back a little later in the season once I’ve raised some seeds and used it for containers but I’m expecting good things and I’m looking forward to trying the veggie version too. I recently had a conversation on The Scottish Garden Podcast with Ken Cox, who was quite forthright with his views on peat and how it may not be the black-and-white issue it’s portrayed in the media. I found his views really interesting and I do think it’s sensible for gardeners to do their bit in avoiding the use of peat where there’s a suitable substitute. So I’m already hoping these are products I’ll be able to use again.

For more discussion about peat and peat-free compost, you could listen to the Roots and All budcast on Going Peat Free with John Walker (scroll down about 2/3 of the way down the page) or there’s some useful advice on peat free growing for houseplants in this episode of On the Ledge. And Garden Organic has good info on peat free on this page, along with great tips on the best mixes for various growing media.

The 2020 growing season is off to a good start!

*This isn’t a sponsored post or anything – I was simply offered the chance to try some of this compost, so I took it! I hope it’s interesting for others to read about my experiences of this new product.

**So what have I sown so far in 2020? Not much, as it’s still only January! But I’ve started a couple of varieties of sweet peas and I also wanted to get a good early start on some snapdragons, which need a long growing season I believe. I’ve also fired up the propagator and popped in some Verbena bonariensis (I want loads more of this in my front garden!) and some Stipa tenuissima, which is great for pots and borders too.

Time to plan…

It’s winter, but it’s not cold.

Little green shoots are appearing – but they’re too early.

Hellebores are emerging, the witch hazel is blooming and we even have a couple of snowdrops almost fully out in the front garden. It’s SpringWinter – not cold enough to be properly winter but not light enough to be properly spring. Also known – on Instagram at least – as #thatwinterspringthing.

The mild weather and green shoots are not unwelcome – in fact they’re a wonderful reminder of what’s to come. I just wonder if we’re being lulled into a false sense of security, only to be shocked back into the depths of winter by a lengthy icy blast…

In any case there’s not much going on in the garden just yet, and I’m glad of the time to plan ahead for the coming season. The main projects for this year will be:

the white border in the front garden – I’m redesigning one side of the front garden as it’s currently looking the most bare and in need of rejuvenation. I want to drastically increase the planting and hopefully stick to a mainly white theme, as it’s partly in shade and its backdrop is much larger trees and bushes within the wooded area next door. The plan is for some lush green/white planting which will lift the whole area during spring/summer
planting and sorting the area round the chicken coop – this area needs replanting after we switched the smaller chicken run for a much larger, covered run. The grass needs fixed and there’s plenty of room at the front of the coop for some new hen-friendly plants
growing/selling plants from the Secret Garden – this project began last year when I sold the surplus plants I’d grown for my own garden. I put the extras onto Facebook Marketplace and they were snapped up by quite a few local folk looking to support a small independent nursery. I got the best buzz from growing healthy plants for others to enjoy so I definitely want to repeat the experience this year! (The Secret Garden is so-called because it’s the space I have for raised beds and greenhouse behind a rather unobtrusive-looking door at the bottom corner of the garden.)

So the planning and designing is getting into full swing – I’m researching, drawing, reading and checking my seed stocks to get ready for what is likely to be a busy growing season.

This preparation includes testing out a couple of online drawing/design tools alongside the online systems I already use. I use a range of different tools for different things – Evernote for clipping and saving articles, photos and plant information; Google Drive for plants/seeds spreadsheets and keeping track of budgets; Microsoft OneNote for drawing and saving designs. I’m also currently trying the Suttons veg planner tool, which will hopefully help me to plan my fruit/veg growing for this year, as well as my cut flower bed. And I’ve downloaded an app for my laptop called Bamboo Paper which also allows me to draw and create ‘mood board’ style notebooks.

Designing the front ‘white’ border with OneNote. It helps if you do this with wine 🙂

I did contemplate starting an actual physical notebook as a garden journal, and using a real-life pen and ink…but for some reason I seem to get on fine with the online methods. I think in fact I’m more likely to access these electronic records and keep them updated than a diary-style physical notebook, as lovely as it is to hold and treasure a well-thumbed, dog-eared notebook…

Oh and one more goal which I hope to achieve imminently – sitting two more RHS Level 2 exams in February. I’ve already been hitting the books again to swot up on plant biology and soil nutrition. Wish me luck!

Happy 2019 – here’s to a great gardening year!

Where do ladybirds go in winter?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself lately.

I’ve noticed more ladybirds than ever in my garden this year. They’ve popped up all over the place – in pots, under the bin lids, on doorframes, in the house, and – thankfully – on my plants, presumably feasting on any pests which would dare to come their way. It’s no coincidence that I’ve barely noticed a single greenfly since the spring.

They seemed particularly happy perching in and around the sunflower heads, especially the slightly dried-and-curled-up faded flowers which must give them plenty of nooks and crannies in which to hide.

They also – strangely – took to congregating in the multiple hose head thing which I installed to try and keep the plants watered while we were on holiday. I’ve no idea why this was an attractive place to gather, but each time I looked in there were at least half a dozen piled into it.

So, as the season has changed and the temperature’s dropped, I’ve been asking myself what’s going to happen to the ladybirds now? Many of them still seemed to be hiding out in my faded sunflowers, and I needed to cut these down – but I didn’t want to disturb them or compost their winter hideaway. And I don’t have a bug hotel in my garden which I could encourage them to populate instead.

Apparently they do hibernate for the winter in various types of sheltered spots – tree bark, leaf litter etc. They like crevices, leaves, bark, often low down. So, having spent some time clearing the raised beds today, I did cut down the sunflowers, but took the heads of the flowers off first with a short section of stem and have piled them, and their little ladybird occupants, in a sheltered corner. Hopefully the ladybirds will make themselves cosy there for the winter or can crawl away to the many trees and piles of leaves nearby which might make a more suitable winter holiday home.

I certainly hope they will wake up and return in the spring – it’s been a real joy to have a loveliness of ladybirds sharing my garden this year.

September Stars

It seems I have a late summer garden – there’s more colour on show in September than there has been during the rest of the year.

The front garden is currently showing off all its colours – yellows, pinks, peachy dahlias and flashes of reds from the crocosmia, roses and even a few second-flowering geums. I haven’t really planned a late summer garden, but each season I have been adding layers of colour and texture so there’s as much interest throughout the year as possible. It looks like I’ve certainly been attracted to late season plants!

I do love my dahlias, of course, and they’re really hitting their stride at the moment. I’m also really enjoying the echinaceas which are flourishing, the rudbeckias (still small, only sown this year) and the cosmos, which is a great gap filler. I bought a couple of sedums several weeks ago and love to see the bees still busy around these flowers as they deepen in colour each day. These are all being propped up by some of the shrubs and plants which may have finished flowering but are still providing essential structure and mass – the two cotinus, the damask rose, teasels and eryngium for example, whose spiky texture is also providing soft browns and purples.

Some of my front garden plants have had a second wind, most likely due to the very warm summer we’ve had. The geums I’ve already mentioned – these first bloomed in May I think and are still popping out a few flowers! The hot pink salvia is coming out again for another throw, along with the geranium ‘Lace Time’ with its pretty veined pink flowers.

But the stand-out repeat flowerer has to be the rose ‘Lady Marmalade’. I might be wrong, but I think she’s currently in flower for the third time – and still looking beautiful.

‘Lady Marmalade’

It’s lovely, as the summer slips away and the temperature starts to fall, that the hot colours are still warming up the garden. I feel a bit sad about the season changing – I really loved the hot weather – but I can still enjoy the summer blooms. Plus now is the time to collect seed, take cuttings and begin thinking about next year. I know – it’s only September! – but I’m already thinking of what I want to grow and/or sell in the Secret Garden next spring and what I will add to the borders, front and back, to keep building those layers of colour, texture and foliage.

The hit list for next year includes more Stachys byzantina for its gorgeous soft leaves and rich pink flowers; more Verbena bonariensis as it’s so bee-friendly, the usual cosmos, sweet peas and aquilegia, and a plan for some new plants – Sanguisorba (inspired by a recent visit to Cambo’s walled garden) and Cerinthe major (which I loved at Chelsea). I’ll also be sowing some Stipa tenuissima as I want to add some more soft grasses and I just love the texture and movement of this feathery grass.

Sanguisorba and Stipa tenuissima in the beautiful perennial borders at Cambo

And that’s just a small selection of the seed packets I currently have spread out across my dining room table! There will be a lull around November/December but between now and next spring there’s a lot of sowing and growing to do. If you want me, I’ll be in the greenhouse…

Flower & Food Festival

This is one of the highlights of my gardening year – Dundee’s Flower and Food Festival.

I go every year and really enjoy being in the midst of the best of what our area has to offer in terms of plants, produce and food. There are displays of beautiful plants and flowers, from amateurs, dedicated growers and local businesses. Not to mention the rows of fruit and veg and the amazing giant leeks, carrots and cabbages. It feels like an exhibition built on the hours of love and joy which people have put into growing their favourite things.

I have a new-found appreciation for the people who enter these competitions. You can’t accidentally grow three petal-perfect chrysanthemums or dahlias. It’s impossible to grow a leek the size of a plank without putting in a great deal of time and effort to make it as large and perfect as it can be. Maybe someday when I have more experience, and a great deal more time, I’ll consider trying my hand at a competition bloom, but for now I think I’ll continue to enjoy the flowers and veg I grow on my windowsill or on my plate…

Dahlia heaven at the Flower and Food Festival – so many beautiful blooms on display as part of the Scottish Dahlia and Chrysanthemum Society’s annual competition.

I was also very taken with some of the indoor plants on display – especially this frilly variety of coleus and these gorgeous swirly begonias.

The fruit and veg looked so healthy and colourful – you can tell the people who produced them just love growing! #veggiegoals

Learning lessons…

This summer I have been learning a few lessons. Not the book-reading kind – I’ve taken a break from horticulture studies as I decided that it would be madness to add this to the summer agenda of school holidays, parenting, working, enjoying the heatwave and almost constant watering. I plan to resume studies in September (seems like a good ‘new-term’ kind of time to do it) but there have been plenty of other things to learn on a more practical level during the past few weeks:

1. I CAN have a nursery in my back garden. This is number one because it’s been the most exciting and satisfying lesson of recent weeks. For quite a while I’ve dreamed of having my own nursery – growing the kind of plants I love to sell to others – and I’ve take a big step forward by simply doing it. I had quite a large number of surplus perennials and annuals which I had grown for planting in the front garden. So I started a Facebook page, listed a few plants on FB Marketplace – and people actually wanted to buy them!

I’ve called this a micro-nursery because it really is tiny – both in size and in stock availability – compared to a proper commercial nursery anyway! It’s very small-scale and I have not made a huge amount of money – perhaps enough to re-invest in some plants and seeds for next year. But it has been worth it for the experience of producing plants for others, learning how to market them and deal with customers and moving towards my dream of owning a little independent nursery growing wonderful perennials, annuals, herbs and shrubs suitable for Scottish gardens. In fact, I suddenly realised that not only moving towards it but I’m actually doing my dream – the Secret Garden micro-nursery is my own little corner of the earth for doing just that. It may be small, and I may not make a living from it just now – or ever – but I’m doing it! Having dipped my toe in the water this summer, so to speak, I’m excited to see how I can take it forward. I am already planning ahead for next year: which plants to grow again and which were not successful or less popular; better ways to market the business, how to grow and expand via social media…. I have so many ideas for how to keep going and growing – and I’m so glad I’ve taken the first step.

2. Echinaceas are tricky to grow from seed.

When they do succeed and flower in the garden they are gorgeous and are currently providing a fantastic pop of pink in my front border. But I have been trying since early spring to grow the intriguing looking variety ‘Double Decker’ and this is the result…

Barely an inch of growth for the entire season. I don’t know if it’s the seed, the soil, the conditions, or my lack of faith. But those echinaceas are not going to grow into beautiful, flowering plants. Mainly because I’ve composted them.

3. Don’t grow cucamelons too close together.

This was a difficult lesson to learn, resulting in me recruiting my eldest daughter to help me untangle about 20 young cucamelon seedlings which had started to twine around each other as well as other plants in the greenhouse. We spent some time separating the cucamelons’ delicate tendrils, trying not to damage them. Finally we got them all apart, so I potted up the ones I wanted to grow on, supporting them with bamboo canes. I also potted a few more into a hanging basket, to see if they’ll grow as successfully hanging down. However I was still left with quite a number of plants which no-one showed any interest in buying (I guess my local customers are not as interested as I am in experimental or exotic fruit/veg!) so I had to compost these too. Which leads me to the next lesson…

3. Don’t sow too many seeds!

I do this Every. Single. Year. and tell myself I don’t care – I just want loads of plants!

But inevitably there are Too Many Plants. So I have to spend more time and effort potting on, watering and resisting throwing them away because I hate getting rid of potential plants. However they do end up going in the compost as I have no room or they’re not selling or become too poor quality to sell. If I want to raise more plants to sell I must be more efficient with space, materials and my time. So – I will sow more sensibly next year. I will sow more sensibly next year. I will sow more sensibly next year… I will…

4. Don’t dig – and don’t do green manure

I wanted to have a no-dig policy this year…but then I also decided it would be a good idea to sow green manure. But these two things are not entirely compatible. Yes, I think it is possible to do both – but I ended up doing neither very well. The green manure grew well in some beds, but not so well in others, at least giving me an indication of the soil quality in each one. But in the spring I then had to cut down and either remove or dig in the plants. I tried to remove the majority of the largest plants, but eventually ended up digging over most of the soil, which still had shoots and roots left in them. This is, of course, what you are supposed to do with green manure – but didn’t comply with the no-dig theory! This autumn I will try to mulch the beds and may well cover some over if they are bare. I don’t tend to grow many winter crops so I think I will mulch, cover and officially begin my no-dig policy next spring.

5. It’s all about layers

The front garden is looking well – probably deserves its own separate post to update on how it’s developing – but I still see lots of gaps. I can see bare soil and smaller-than-they-should-be plants. When I visit other gardens, I notice the fullness of the planting, how each plant blends together and merges to create a whole effect. I think I am moving towards this, but it’s taking time. And that’s ok. I’m learning that I can’t achieve this look in one growing season, unless I empty the bank account at the local garden centre (not an option, according to my husband). But I appreciate that this year there’s an extra layer that wasn’t there last year. And next year there will be another and then another, until I’ve got the overflowing herbaceous border that I can see in my mind’s eye! I’m playing the long game – and that’s good, because I’m really enjoying it.

20170821-DSC_0438 — Echinacea purpurea – as it should look – in the front garden

Spring has sprung…

…and my blog is suffering! But it’s a good sign – I’m blogging less because I’m spending more time in the garden. I have to – there are seedlings to prick out, beds to mulch, weeds to weed and plants to pot up. And it’s only going to get busier from here on in!

Real Life is also getting in the way of Creative Life, as it sometimes does.

The best way to bring you up to speed is perhaps to post a few photographs of some of the garden jobs I’ve been up to in the past month or so…

I’ve bought and planted half a dozen Anemone blanda to perk up a bare patch of earth under the magnolia in the back garden

I’ve got two plants for my tin-bath pond – a lovely double marsh marigold and a corkscrew rush

The forced rhubarb is about ready to pick!

I briefly considered starting a sycamore farm – these are all the seedlings germinating at the side of the greenhouse… and there are many, many, many more popping up around the raised beds, paths, plant pots, in between paving stones…

I’ve started all my dahlias…and *may* have bought some more along the way… #dahliaaddict

Most of my seedlings and young plants are progressing well – some of these I’ve already planted out, like the forget-me-nots, wallflowers and gypsophilia.

Basically I am loving the fact that Spring has arrived, bulbs are blooming and the sun is occasionally shining – long may it continue!

It’s the age-old battle for a garden blogger – blog vs garden.

I suspect I will be posting monthly for the forseeable, however I do post much more frequently on Instagram and you can follow me there for some micro-blogging action at @mycorneroftheearth.

Sow many seeds…so many seedlings

I’ve been on a sowing frenzy.

Although I work part time and theoretically have two days each week to spend in the garden/greenhouse doing lots of lovely gardening…it never usually works out that way. Family/work/home responsibilities often creep into this time and so I have to grab gardening opportunities with both hands and make the most of it. This sometimes means that I will sow like mad or get planting even if conditions aren’t perfect or if it’s a bit early or late – because if I wait until just the right time, I may miss it.

Yesterday gave me just the right opportunity for a bit of seed-sowing: some spare time, a sunny day and the need to stay close to home to nurse a poorly hen (latest on her on my Instagram feed @mycorneroftheearth). Also we’re into another month – February! – and this brings with it a whole new set of seed packets to crack open and sow to get things off to a nice and early start. I realise this can be a risky move, as seedlings can end up leggy or be exposed to frosty weather if sown very early. However, where we live (North-east Scotland) it can be fairly cold and even frosty right into April/May and summers are frustratingly short. So this year I’ve decided to give many of my plants a good head start so that they can flower for as much as possible of that short window of time when summer properly begins and autumn hits us again.

So my greenhouse is already looking pretty busy…

This panoramic shot makes it look like the bench is bending under the weight – but we’re not quite at that stage…yet! We have: sweet peas, calendula, greater knapweed, leeks, wallflowers, more sweet peas, nasturtiums, various cuttings, astrantia (taking a while to germinate!) two varieties of cosmos and shasta daisies.

And outside I’m hardening off the seedlings which were sown in the autumn and have been overwintering in the greenhouse…

This selection includes aquilegia, gypsophila, some geum cuttings, plus hollyhocks and stipa tenuissima. What you can’t see on the ground under the table and along the fence is all the extra teasels, lavender and various cuttings of shrubs and fruit trees which I grew last autumn too!

What am I going to do with all these plants? Well, some of them will definitely be planted out in the front garden. I’m deliberately sowing a lot of herbaceous perennials and hardy annuals according to my planting plans for the front. However, I know I’ll end up with too many. Some, I will probably gift to family and friends but if I really end up with a lot of extra plants, I’m seriously considering selling them – I’m just not quite sure how to do that yet. More on that later, perhaps.

Bearing in mind all this new growing activity, I’m going to need more kit. I will definitely need more pots. Thankfully I spied a bargain recently which will help with hardening off all these new seedlings – my local B&Q was selling off hardwood cold frames marked down from £48 to £20, so I snapped up two! My husband very kindly put them together for me yesterday.

So that’s what’s going on in the Secret Garden at the moment. Lots of sowing and growing already – and I haven’t even started on veg and/or cut flowers for the raised beds yet! Spring isn’t quite here yet but I’m getting ready for her…

Julianne Robertson

writer | communications consultant | garden media specialist