Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb – and agapanthus

I’ve just got back from my latest stint on Gardening Plus with Ken Crowther on BBC Essex – another action-packed, three-hour programme with loads of questions, comments and problems to solve. And lots to eat – this time a local frozen yoghurt manufacturer brought in some delicious tubs stuffed with fruit and fabulous jersey and Guernsey milk creaminess. The programme always flies by and it wasn’t long before the three hours were up. We did have to keep cutting across live to the build-up to Jade Goody’s funeral though.

It’s weird how themes of questions start to emerge. Whether it’s because someone asks a question and then everyone else thinks: “Oh yes, I’ve got a question about that plant too”, or whether it’s because that’s the way it is, I don’t know. Anyway this week it was mainly rhubarb and agapanthus – although fruit and other plants in containers came in high up the list as well.

The rhubarb theme had many sections. Most revolved around poor, spindly crops and what to do to put it right. Others were about rhubarb going to seed – already! One phone call was about using rhubarb leaves in the planting hole for brassica plants to prevent clubroot. Luckily, for us, it was a comment that it worked, not a question about whether it can be used. The reason? Because as rhubarb hasn’t been passed as a garden pesticide we can’t recommend its use as such. Crazy, but true. Another text message was about the poisonous virtue or rhubarb leaves – yes, they are, so don’t eat them!

The agapanthus questions were about getting good flowers, should they be grown in pots rather than the ground as this keeps them potbound and so flowering well, the virtue of splitting them and how to look after them generally.

Back home and it’s a glorious April day, so I’m off into the garden.

I’ve got some lawn care to get on with. After the winter wet, there’s been a spot of die out and general grass thinning, so I’m going to oversow the whole lawn with grass seed to help thicken it out. It needs a good feed, and there’s a bit of weed to control – mainly speedwell, which is never easy.

All my plants in containers need a little TLC too. So I’ll be topping up with fresh compost, feeding with a controlled-release fertiliser and using Sulphur Soil, both from Greenacres Horticultural Supplies, on all the lime-haters, especially blueberries and Japanese maples. And some of them are in need of a good drink too. I know the feeling, so it’s gardening and beer sipping for me this afternoon.

It's Christ-massssssssssss!

Praise the lord it’s Christmas – well, that’s what you’re supposed to do at this time of year, isn’t it?!
I need a break before I simply wither away like a rotten courgette slung on the compost heap or, worse still, my head explodes.
The autumn/early winter is one of my busiest times of the year. Apart from trying to hold together all the threads that make up my normal working days, I also put together the Garden Media Guild Yearbook and produce the trade catalogue for Greenacres Horticultural Supplies. A bit of extra work and a lot of extra strain making sure they’re sent to the printers on time during the normal Christmas rush and festive shutdown.
This year it has been compounded by the ‘day job’ – editing the RHS website, RHS Online. We’re having a complete overhaul of the site – redesigning, restructuring, re-editing and any other re- word you can think of. This has meant talking to all the various RHS departments about their needs for the new look, having redesign team meetings and visiting Vincent Square and the four RHS gardens to tell them what we’re up to. All in all, a lot of zooming around the country and a lot of time taken up with meetings – time when I should be trying to put into operation the action points that arise from all the meetings. So, basically, I’m knackered!
Anyhoo, the Yearbook and catalogue stuff is mostly finished, the RHS Online redesign is simmering away nicely in the background and so I’m off to enjoy at least several days of eating, drinking and general merry making. With a bit of luck I may even be able to stagger to the allotment.
Wishing everyone as merry a Christmas as you can possibly have, a fantastically prosperous (credit crunch, what credit crunch!) and happy New Year and I hope you don’t get too many rubbish Christmas presents; or if you do, remember that’s why they invented ebay.

This weekend’s forecast for yet another mixed bag of weather meant that I needed to get cracking early – just in case, just in case things turned really nasty and put the kybosh on my plans. As a result I was out in the garden by 8 o’clock on both days.
The weather wasn’t as bad as expected – although Sunday started out dull, damp, dingy and wet, but by 11.15am (having gone back indoors for American pancakes and The Archers) it had stopped raining and the rest of the day was fabulous.
The plants from the front garden from Beth Chatto had arrived mid-week, so Clare had the delightful job of getting those planted and announcing the front garden complete. Hurrah! Apart from putting back the gravel mulch. Boo! About an hour and a tonne of gravel later, this was also complete. We think it looks great and certainly a vast improvement on what had been there before. And, as it's all planting and gravel we’re doing our bit to prevent localised flooding from hard-standing run-off!
The finishing touch was to yank out a moth-eared clematis that hadn’t been doing well for the past three years and replace it with something a bit more exotic and in keeping with the new look front garden – we chose Campsis radicans ‘Flamenco’.
I felt that this weekend was a good time to start feeding everything in pots. I’m a firm believer in controlled-release fertilisers – they feed just the right amount when the plants need it for anything up to six months. I get mine from Greenacres Horticultural Supplies who do a wide range of feeds and the results are always excellent. I also went around treating those plants in pots that need an acid soil (our water is very hard/alkaline) with Sulphur Soil – also from Greenacres; this included rhodos, Japanese maples and blueberries.
Every day this week I’ve been patrolling the lilies for the red menace – I found one on Saturday, but that has been the first since last weekend’s six; but this is no time for relaxing – vigilance is still needed.
By Saturday evening the lawn was dry and ready for a cut, and on Sunday I decided to rake and oversow some of the thinner patches. I’m not sure if many people realise that up to 25% of the grass in a lawn can die each year and the best and easiest way to replace this is to oversow with grass seed.
Of course, this weekend also involved some activities in the veg garden. You can read all about these on my RHS veg blog.
Enjoy your week.

Long time no blog

It's hard to believe that I haven't posted a blog since the end of August - but then again not! I've been soooo busy with other things that I just haven't had the time.

I managed to get some holiday in during September and went off to Greece for some sun and relaxation; I also went on my annual fishing trip to the Norfolk Broads with friends from University.

I've also had the proofs back from my pruning book, so have had to spend some time checking for corrections. Autumn is a busy time for me as I put together the Yearbook for the Garden Writers' Guild and produce the catalogue for Greenacres Horticultural Supplies. And, the autumn is a busy time for talks to gardening clubs. All in all, things are pretty hectic - but I have managed to get out into the garden too.

The last couple of weekends I've been having an autumn tidy up, lifting, storing, cooking and freezing the last of the summer veg and generally getting the garden and greenhouse ready for autumn. I do love this time of year. Towards the end ofsummer the garden can start to look a bit tired with plants going past their best, but a quick tidy up puts everything to rights.

All I need now is 40-hour days, six-day weekends - or the chance to retire from the day job!