Where has the year gone?

Is it really the middle of autumn already? Judging by the first frost last night I guess it must be. Maybe it’s my age. But this year has just shot past and I’m already getting ready for the winter onslaught.

I’ve spent the last few days starting to put the garden to bed for the winter. I’ve started digging up all the half-hardy bedding plants, potting them up individually and putting them in the greenhouse. What was full of tomatoes, peppers and aubergines is now rammed to the gunnels with bedding, tender bulbs, succulents that can’t take winter wet and just about everything else that needs protection. I’ve still got the dahlias, cannas, hedychiums and colocassias to find some room for.

On Gardening Plus on BBC Essex on Saturday, we were inundated with calls, e-mails and texts from people who are all still keen on getting the best from their gardens and desperate for some timely advice. Whether it’s because they want to talk to a human being or whether they’re yet to discover the wonders of the internet I’m not sure, but there still seems to be a place for the ‘old fashioned’ means of information gathering.

Gardening clubs also look like they’re holding their own in the massive tide of new technology. Although, sadly, it seems that it’s the older gardeners who still attend their local club regularly – there aren’t that many where I turn up to give talks that have a good representation by younger (that is under-50!) gardeners. Again, I think it’s having human interaction and having a real place to gather socially that keeps them going; even social networking sites, forums and blogs and other recent web developments can’t offer that – not yet anyway!

So, although I’m firmly in favour of the joys of virtual gardening, let’s hear it for the old technology and the great British tradition of gardening clubs, magazines and local radio stations.

With much Glee

I’ve just got back from Glee at the NEC, Birmingham. Glee is the UK’s gardening industry’s biggest trade show taking up several halls at the NEC. Here many of the major gardening product manufacturers and suppliers show off their wares for the following year.

One of my first ports of call was the new products area – and several things caught my eye – not necessarily for the right reason!

Many of the new products were centred around the grow your own bug that is sweeping the nation. There were lots of patio growing kits, raised bed kits, containers and compost specifically for veggies - including fat growing-bags, including some specifically for potatoes - and even new feeds and fertilisers, crop covers and other bits and bobs.

One of my favourite new products was an inflatable/blow up greenhouse – a bit like a transparent, greenhouse-shaped airbed. The air in the walls would provide excellent insulation – but I’m not sure it would be that practical in a windy area. I also thought it would be fantastic for Glastonbury Festival – although everyone could see what you’re doing inside!

I also loved the Bosch battery powered secateurs. This uses lithium ion battery technology, as I’ve got in my Bosch lawnmower, and will make up to 900 cuts with one battery charge. It was much lighter than I thought and well balanced. Perfect if you\’ve got a lot of pruning to do or you have arthritis or similar affliction that doesn’t allow you to grip secateurs handles properly.

And for the squeamish among you a slug grabber to pick up and dispose of the number one garden pest. It’s basically one of those long-handled rubbish picker-uppers with the trigger activated grabbing mechanism. Not sure about this one – just wear gloves.

Wildlife attracting gizmos were also much in evidence – including an all-in-one friendly insect overwintering station. The same company was also promoting its new ceramic bumblebee overwintering hive, which looked great until I saw the instructions: “First fill with material from a mouse nest or old bumblebee nest – OK, so where on earth do I buy/find either of those!

All in all some winners and some losers in next year’s race to remove money from your purse or wallet when you visit your local garden centre.

Gardening Plus...

We had a busy day on Gardening Plus on BBC Essex yesterday. I think the wet weather meant everyone was indoors catching up on their gardening advice – rather than outside actually doing it.

The morning started with some interesting pictures of an unidentified plant – Cannabis sativa or marijuana, the seed from which had come from a batch of bird food. The owner thought it probably was and was off to destroy the plant.

There were quite a few calls, texts and e-mails from people whose trees, shrubs and woody climbers had suddenly died this summer. Although difficult to do an exact diagnosis over the radio, the likely culprit is phytophthora root rot – a soil-borne disease that has become prevalent this year due to the wet weather and waterlogged soil.

One listener wanted to know how to control rust on pelargoniums that had spread from her hollyhocks. This sparked an interesting discussion that, although some diseases, such as botrytis, will spread from different plant species, others, such as rusts for instance, are specific to a particular plant or group or plants. So, rose rust only attacks roses, onion rust only attacks onions and other members of the allium family, pelargonium rust only pelargoniums and hollyhock rust only hollyhocks. Rusts are some of the most difficult diseases to control; carefully picking off affected leaves and spraying the rest of the plant with Dithane being just about all you can do – or assigning the plant to the dustbin if all else fails.

Another disease that provoked some interest is a new one in the UK – impatiens downy mildew, which appeared in 2003/2004 and kills busy Lizzie plants. Full details are available on the RHS website.

We had a call from someone who had taken over a neglected allotment and whose potatoes were riddled with wireworm and wanted to know how to control it. Sadly, there aren’t any cures, but wireworm are usually only present on undisturbed soil, and so tend to decline as the soil is cultivated – in a few years they should disappear altogether. We then had a text from a listener who said they controlled them by cutting old potatoes in half and part burying them in the soil. The wireworm start to feed on the potatoes and they can then be lifted and the wireworm removed – or fed to chickens, according to the texter.

Probably the most interesting call of the day was from a man who was trying to grow his own field mushrooms at home. He had cut an old mushroom into pieces and buried them under the turf of his lawn. He wanted to know when he’d start to get mushrooms. I answered it was more likely if rather than when as I doubted this would work. However, he was convinced it would and we asked him to keep us informed when he saw his first mushrooms – and to send us some!

Radio, radio

It's weird how I can go for weeks without doing any radio programmes and then they come round like proverbial buses.
On Monday I was recording my monthly pre-record inserts into Jane Smith's Saturday breakfast programme for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. I'm so glad we now pre-record them as they go out at 7.45am ish and I used to hate having to get up at that time on a Saturday to do them over the phone. And after a heavy night out on Friday I'm sure they didn't sound that great either! We've also started recording a new item called granddad's garden (I'm not so hot on the name - being a young chicken and all that!). It's aimed at trying to beat the credit crunch by going back to first principles, doing things like they were in the olden days and so saving money.
Next on the agenda is a trip down to BBC Essex on Saturday for Ken Crowther's Gardening Plus programme. This has replaced Jane Smith's phone-in for the Saturday morning hangover slot; they used to start at noon but now they start at 9am and it's a one and a half hour drive down to Chelmsford. Never mind - it's all good fun. Just must remember not to overdo it this Friday night!

Committing a sin...

Yes, I've committed the ultimate web/blog owners sin - I haven't updated for ages; but I can't believe it was pre-Chelsea Flower Show when I posted my last blog entry. I've been away and I've been busy - not much of an excuse but the only one (or is that two?) I can use.
I've also committed the ultimate gardeners' sin and been away on holiday during the summer. In my defence, the mother-in-law did house-sit and made an excellent job of looking after the garden while I was away.
The day job at the RHS has been very taxing as we've been working on our show coverage and running some major projects, and to be honest I just haven't felt like sitting in front of a computer screen when I get home. I don't make resolutions, and I'm not going to start here, but I will try harder to keep the blog up to date.
I have been answering gardening questions by e-mail that have been sent to me, so I don't feel totally wretched with myself.
It's also been a hard year in the garden. A few weeks ago, what with all the rain, wind, cold weather (we're all doomed!), I did feel like giving up gardening too! Everything has grown up tall and lanky and then been bashed about by the weather. The veg garden isn't performing as I'd like either - well, it's mainly the tomatoes - they've been rubbish.
However, I did spend all three days of the bank holiday getting things back into shape and now I feel more positive and up for the fight. The garden has also been plagued by vine weevil - the first time ever - and I've been spending time and effort dealing with the little beggars; they do make a lovely crunching noise when you stamp on them.
So, if you've thought that 2008 has been a rubbish year in the garden, take heart - you're not alone. And, as us gardeners always say: "Well, there's always next year!".

It's Chelsea time

Oh no it does not move me. I don't want to go to Chelsea! At least that's what Elvis Costello thought about it. I, on the other hand, love going to Chelsea - the Chelsea Flower Show, that is. And that's where I was today and will be for the next three days - so don't expect any replies to your e-mail enquiries until I get back.

I've been going to, and working at, this show every year since 1988. Being a gardening journalist it's one of THE places to find out what's going on in the world of horticulture, check out the latest trends and see what's new. For the last seven years I've been there to produce the live, virtual flower show for the RHS. This involves long days, early mornings and late nights and a lot of running around with camera and notebook in hand. But I love it!

I'll let you know how I get on over the next few days. In the meantime, to view the full coverage visit RHS Online, the RHS website.

Three-day Weekend

You can't beat it - apart from the four days at Easter!
Apart from the antics in the veg patch and my appearance on Dougan Does Gardening on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on Sunday, both of which you can read about on my RHS veg blog, my only other main gardening antic this weekend was to help Clare cut back the large holly and the cotoneaster growing underneath it to reclaim some new planting areas.
The shade and the room covered by the holly meant that this area has been much under-used. The bed was also quite narrow, so we stripped off more turf (which makes the lawn smaller and reduces mowing - hurrah!). Next job was to dig in some old, well-rotted leafmould from two years ago and some compost.
I'm still vigilant for lily beetles - even though I've sprayed them with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer. I've found another four, but they're obviously very drowsy from the Provado and just fall into my hand.
Have a great gardening week.