Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2018 i BBC Gardeners' World

Gardeners’ cruise Clear your diary for next spring – we’ve organised an amazing cruise of UK and northern European gardens. Your highlights include Monet’s garden, Tresco (Isles of Scilly) and Keukenhof. See page 80. How to save water Water is in short supply this summer, so never waste another drop by following Alan’s wise watering tips in his No Fuss video guide at gardenersworld.com/watering Chance to win! Would you like to see your photos in our 2019 Calendar? To win the chance, enter your photos from National Garden Scheme visits through the year. Find out more on page 25, and enter by 28 August. Facegroup group Share photos of the cosmos and zinnia you’ve grown from the magazine’s 2018 free seeds with our friendly Facebook Gardening Group. Find us on…

If you’re looking for something with an exotic air but that’s vigorous and easy to grow, then look no further. Abutilons fit the bill perfectly. Abutilons? Yes, you could say that they’re a little like shrubby hollyhocks, but they’re also known as the flowering maple because of the shape of the bold foliage, which makes a fine foil for the shrub’s colourful flowers over a very long season. These are sun lovers, and vigorous too. None are fully hardy everywhere in this country, but most are good in a large conservatory. However, where these half-hardy shrubs really excel is on sunny fences and walls and in large patio pots, where they bring bountiful summer colour. Some, including varieties of the taller and relatively hardy A. vitifolium and A. x suntense,…

Having read Monty’s column (The Full Monty, July issue) about the need for careful water use, I had to get in touch. Monty has plenty of rain compared to where I live in Frinton. Our last rainfall was mid-April, and we are now in our 11th week without a drop. Yes, I have used a hosepipe – once a week in the last four weeks, to keep the plants alive! Despite my efforts, the lawn looks like an old coconut mat, the summer bedding has joined the departed and our usually heavy soil is turning to dust. Gary Rose, Essex I’m amazed at the difference between the amount of rainfall Monty gets on his garden, and my garden and allotment in Hereford, a mere 15 miles away. Last year we…

Summer is the height of the gardening season, so should we stay at home to tend our plots? Why abandon flowers and crops you’ve been lovingly caring for? Going away on holiday is hard work. I hope to never see the inside of an airport again, never mind drive round and round the outside edge of one trying to find the way in. Who’d want to miss a single blissful summer evening in the garden we love best, torn about which seat to sit on to enjoy a Pimm’s and loving the fact that the neighbours’ noisy children are away on holiday? The truth is that I love every day I spend here, whatever the season. Even winter, when there’s no garden work crying out for attention – just wonderfully…

Early summer sees our gardens looking lush and verdant, but near the end of the season they can end up feeling dried and frazzled. The remedy for this is an injection of instant colour in the form of well-planted containers. But to ensure they hold their own, these pots need to dazzle with rich, sumptuous tones that will glow in the late-season light and stand out against the muted tones of fading perennials. One way of achieving this is with a range of nearly full-grown plants that’ll look good from the moment you’ve finished planting the pot. After all, there is not much growing season left, so they need to be insta-plants! This recipe guarantees vibrancy with a mix of contrasting colours and forms that will continue to perform up…

Buying and planting • The pittosporums will be the most costly, but are quite fast growing so don’t feel you need to buy a large plant for immediate effect. • Look for large pots of the geranium and Japanese anemone that could be split into a few plants and will be better value than lots of small ones. • All the plants in this border like moisture retentive soil, so add lots of organic matter before planting. • Angle the hydrangea back towards the wall when planting so some of its stems are touching and it should self-cling as it grows. • Water well after planting. Year-round maintenance • Feed all the plants in spring with fish, blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure. • Prune the pittosporums in spring…

In a small city garden, space is always at a premium. Trying to achieve a beautiful, flower-filled utopia isn’t easy when our daily life comes with so much clutter, be it a rotary clothes drier, tools or children’s plastic toys. By creating a storage space inside a garden bench, you get a practical, attractive seating area as well as a space to squirrel away the sometimes unsightly necessities of life. Follow my simple how-to steps so you can do it yourself. You will need • Concrete blocks 440mm x 220mm x 100mm (allowing for the joints, you’ll need 4 blocks per linear metre* ) • Building sand 25kg bag x 3 • Sharp sand 25kg bag x 3 • Cement 25kg bag x 1 • Softwood battens 100mm x 25mm.…

KEEP DEADHEADING • Use sharp secateurs to take off faded blooms so the plant puts its energy into stronger growth and producing more flowers. It will also improve the plant’s appearance. You can forgive many gardeners for thinking that they can consign the secateurs to the shed for the summer, but there’s still plenty of deadheading to do. Plus, there’s the cutting back of flowered stems of roses and summer-flowering shrubs to encourage another flush of blooms. You can also trim many of the early-flowering perennials, such as alchemilla, delphiniums and geraniums. This will promote fresh regrowth and, with luck, more flowers, albeit not as many as the first flush. Fruit trees and bushes also need pruning to contain their growth and help maintain their health. This involves cutting back…

Trap earwigs We have a love/hate relationship with earwigs. They will eat aphids and other soft-bodied larvae but also like to tuck into flower petals and ripening fruit and will make tatty holes in leaves. Dahlias, chrysanthemums, peaches and many annual flowers are particularly susceptible. You can lure earwigs into a trap by stuffing damp straw into a pot, then placing it upside down on top of a cane at feeding height. They will feed at night and take cover there in the day. Rolled up corrugated cardboard lodged in a fruit tree will give them somewhere to roost, too. Empty the trap regularly. Check if sunflower seeds are ready Once the petals of your sunflowers have shriveled and the centre is brown, the seeds are ready to harvest. To…

1 SNIP off some of the old flower stalks on a dry day, when the seedheads have turned brown. Hold them upright to avoid spilling the seed. 2 PUT the whole dry stalks in envelopes or paper bags. Include a label with each sample so that they are easily identified if you are harvesting different seed types. 3 SEPARATE the seed from debris with a sieve or blow it off. Some seedheads will release the seed easily, but others will need to be broken up. 4 LABEL a new paper envelope with the plant name and date before decanting the cleaned seed into it. Seal it then store in a tin or box somewhere cool and dry.…

Japanese or autumn onions can be sown now or planted as sets in October - they grow in the shortening days and flower when the day length is long. So, plant them now and harvest before midsummer next year for fresh, early onions ahead of the summer crop. 1 USE a cane as a straight edge and, on a prepared seedbed, draw a hoe along it to create a shallow drill. 2 SOW the seed along the drill, rake fine soil over it and tamp down lightly with the back of the rake before watering in.…

VIEW FROM BEECHGROVE Strawberry beds Strawberries can be planted in spring and ours fruited well this year. However, they need cold to flower, and a better crop is likely in year 1 from a late summer rather than spring planting. Yield should improve further in years 2 and 3. Choose a sunny, free-draining site. Added organic matter will assist these shallow rooters. Add bone meal and plant through membrane, in blocks not rows for ease of laying membrane and netting. Strawberries grow well in containers, but we found ground grown fruit tastes better. The early variety ‘Christine’ was outstanding and a favourite from our new bed, but its container grown equivalent was nothing special. Trim hedges Give a hedge the chance to thicken and harden its new growth ready for…

Courgettes Bearing long, slender fruits in dark green or yellow, courgettes grow easily and in great abundance THREE WAYS TO TRY • Enjoy a tasty scarpaccia tart by baking thinly sliced courgettes and spring onions with a pancake mix • Spiralise into courgette noodles; add pesto, toasted pine nuts and baby tomatoes fried with oil, garlic and balsamic vinegar, for a delicious ‘courgetti’ dish • Make low-cal rice-less risotto with pearl barley and add fried onion and shredded courgettes, fresh peas and sliced artichoke hearts Courgettes Nutrition Also known as zucchini, this veg is high in potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, folate and dietary fibre. How to grow Plant in a warm, sunny spot, in good soil enriched with organic matter like compost or manure, plus a general fertiliser, and never…

Matt Biggs Matt trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years. Pippa Greenwood Pippa is one of the foremost experts on pests and diseases. She gardens using organic methods. Bob Flowerdew Bob is an organic gardener and a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. Q Can you suggest plants to brighten our school grounds? Karen Jenkins, by email A PIPPA SAYS I’m assuming you have quite a bit of space, perhaps in small to medium-sized pockets dotted about the school grounds, and in locations with varying conditions. This means you have a wide range of plants to choose from. Garden centres tend to have their best-looking plants in prominent positions, so visit a few local centres to check…

Stepping out onto the 14th floor of a tower block is the last place you’d expect to feel any connection to nature. But the Vertical Forest – or Bosco Verticale – in Milan, is no ordinary place. Rooted in the urban sprawl north of the city centre, the towers were the star of Gardeners’ World TV this spring, when Arit Anderson went in search of gardens for our changing climate. Inspired by Arit’s visit, we’ve devoted much of this issue to solutions for city gardeners (or anyone with a small space). Read about Arit’s investigations into plants that help us to live more healthily from p64. The very trees bringing life to the Bosco Verticale are themselves facing threats – from pests and diseases travelling rapidly across Europe and now…

“We are the dreamers and our gardens are the dream half-remembered” Visiting gardens is bad for you. Not only does it encourage too much eating of cake but sets up all kinds of false notions that are ruinous to your garden back home. If it were not for the fact that it also inspires, informs, delights and entertains in a way that few other activities can match – let alone being one of the best sources of cake – then I’d dismiss it utterly. But the harm is real. Add to this a flower show with show gardens and you have pure horticultural poison. I came to this reasonable and balanced view the other day whilst talking to a group of Australians in Dublin, who were touring round the British…

ADAM: How did you get into gardening? HRH: I think it was probably because of my grandmother’s wonderful garden at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, where I spent a lot of my childhood. I remember being riveted as a child, wandering about little paths, and looking at all the plants. It was a wonderful woodland garden with masses of azaleas and rhododendrons, and had a profound effect on me. I also grew to love trees. My Nan started me off in exactly the same way. I think yours was probably just slightly grander! You carry those memories, don’t you? Yes. And you want to do things as you get older. But as children, my sister and I had a little plot in the Buckingham Palace garden, where we grew…

The influence of the Mughals found its way back to Britain in the late 18th and early 19th century by way of the East India Company, and later in the Victorian era through the British Raj. Brighton Pavilion, the fantasy concoction built by John Nash for the then Prince Regent, was a mishmash of Chinese, Mughal and vaguely oriental inspiration. However, there is no evidence that the garden was ever based on Islamic designs. The garden at Sezincote, in Gloucestershire, is unique in that it was created explicitly to celebrate all things Indian – including the Mughal Paradise garden – and it is said to have been the inspiration for Nash’s Brighton Pavilion. Sezincote was built at the end of the 18th century by Colonel John Cockerell – Samuel Pepys’s…

Look for slightly older wood, which will make excellent material for cuttings – lateral shoots (sideshoots) are usually ideal. Cut long pieces so you can make several cuttings from each one. 2 Cut the sideshoot into pieces with three or four leaf joints. Cut underneath a leaf joint and just above one, slicing cleanly and removing lower leaves to prevent rotting. 3 Gently push down the cuttings around the side of a pot of gritty compost, so the lowest leaves are at the surface of the compost. Make sure they don’t touch each other. 4 Cover the surface of the pot with fine grit to help drainage and prevent stems rotting, suppress weeds and retain moisture. Water well and place in a bright position, out of direct sun.…

DEEP SHADE Even the shadiest of urban plots can be a lush green oasis with Joe Swift’s stylish plan I’ve designed many city gardens and gardened in London all my life, so I know a lot about gardening in the shade! Town and city spaces are often shrouded in it, but almost all gardens have some shady spots. In fact, side alleys, basement wells, north-facing plots or gardens surrounded by tall buildings or trees may not see the sun at all. There are a few things you can do, such as use light coloured materials or paint walls a pale colour to help bring up the ambient light levels a little, but with planting it’s just best to fully embrace it. Shady gardens can be the most verdant, cool and…

Be bold with blooms Surround a seating area with flowers to create an intimate feel; even tiny plots can be bursting with flowers – in fact, packing in the plants not only promotes a sense of enclosure but will make the space feel bigger, too. Then, sit back and enjoy the beneficial wildlife the blooms will attract.…

The Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest, in Milan comprises two tower blocks with trees and shrubs built into the structure on every floor. Giant planters around the perimeters contain 21,000 plants, including 30 species of tree and over 100 shrub and perennial species. Planted into a soil-based compost mix, fertilised only by CO2 in the air, and irrigated by water run-off from Milan’s streets, the buildings’ plants are estimated to transform 44,000lb of CO2 into oxygen annually. The towers opened in 2014 and are home to 480 people and an estimated 1,600 birds. Milanese architect Stefano Boeri, who conceived the design, is now rolling out the concept across the world. Find out more at stefanoboeriarchitetti.net…

Our garden is a shady, 5m x 7m paved yard at the back of a small, ground floor flat in London. Overlooked by at least 10 other homes, on paper it’s not exactly appealing. But when the sun shines on the flowers, our cat chases insects and the birds sing, for me, it’s the most perfect place in the world. I’ve loved plants since I was a child, but it was getting a garden of my own, and the process of transforming it, that convinced me to retrain as a garden designer. We wanted to create a garden that would be exciting and colourful both to look out onto, and to be in. We applied for help from the BBC2 series Big Dreams, Small Spaces and were lucky enough to…

Prepared bulbs like hyacinths are heat treated to flower early. Keep them cold and dark for root development then bring them into a cool light room when shoots are just showing and let them flower before positioning them for display. Calculate the timing based on the bulb type. 1 ADD a layer of bulb fibre or aerated, free-draining, low-nutrient compost (not a soil-based mix) to a wide, shallow pot. 2 PLACE the bulbs onto the compost. Arrange them so they’re around the edge, but not touching, and put one in the centre. 3 FIRM in around the bulbs with more compost so that the neck of the bulb is just above the surface. Soak with water.…

Limit height on tomatoes Most tomato plants grow like vines, so their ultimate size is indeterminate. Their growth needs to be halted to prevent them from crowding the limited roof space of the greenhouse, running out of nutrients in the compost and producing small fruits. When the plant reaches the height that you can manage, cut the top shoot to a leaf and keep pinching out any side shoots that try to take over. Keep on top of pests Bright-yellow sticky traps ensnare many flying pests. Attracted by the colour, the pests get caught on the glue surface. This helps to identify the pest but also interrupts their lifecycle, as the winged stage is key to finding a mate or laying eggs. Buy traps by mail order or in the…

Making compost is a sensible harnessing of your garden’s resources. All soil needs organic enrichment, and this doesn’t always have to be bought in in bags. Using natural waste products and returning them to the soil is nature’s own way of enriching the earth. Plus, you’ll save money, be eco-friendly, and have a great sense of satisfaction, as long as you go about it in the right way. You only need to follow a few simple rules for success. Waste plant material will rot naturally - your job is to assist in and speed up the process. The way to do that is to have a well-constructed enclosure filled with the appropriate materials, and now is a great time to make one, while temperatures are higher, rotting is faster and…

Many shrubs, such as hydrangea, will root from cuttings taken now. These cuttings will have ripened wood at the base from this year’s new wood. Use secateurs to collect material and a knife to trim the cutting. Put them in a propagator. When they go into growth in spring, pot them on. 1 SELECT healthy, non-flowering shoots of 10-15cm that have at least two sets of leaves below the top set of leaves. 2 TRIM below a node then remove the sets of leaves on the lower nodes by snipping them off as close to the stem as possible. 3 CUT each leaf in half with a knife. This reduces water loss and the stress endured by the rooting process. These leaves will soon be replaced when the cutting has…

August is the perfect month to start vegetables that will be ready to eat through the winter and on into the hungry gap in early spring next year. This may seem a long way off, but it's important to sow now so your crops are big enough to survive when the cold weather comes. And because the soil and weather are warm now, your seedlings will grow fast. You can sow seeds of many veg directly into the ground now, or raise new plants in module trays to fill the gaps that appear as you harvest summer crops. There are a few winter staples that it's too late to sow from seed, but by buying young plants you can still enjoy them this winter. There is no need to dig…

Making the most of things You’ve inspired me to recycle and reuse this year. Living in a remote part of Derbyshire, our water is supplied by a spring, which is great for the garden, but not so good for drinking when filled with frogspawn. This year I decided to grow plants in severed two-litre mineral water bottles; the top halves made handy small cloches too. Thanks to local council recycling, I recycled the bottles after using them. I have also reused a metal bird feeding station, which now stands in the perennial border adorned with string supporting my sweet peas. Rosemary Pearce, Derbyshire Hopping glad Your Wildlife month feature on frogs (June issue) caught my attention. After moving house last year, we inherited a pond with goldfish and newts. In…

Pests and diseases are challenging the UK’s trees at an unprecedented rate. Look out for: • Ash dieback Chalara is a fungal disease that stops ash trees coming into leaf, causing death. Later in the year the shoots may also die-back. Dark ash keys may be visible. • Acute Oak Decline Dark fluid oozes from bark cracks, the tree declines then dies. The cause may be bacterial. • Phytophthora ramorum Bleeding cankers and withered shoot tips indicate infection by this water mould. • Emerald Ash Borer Yet to reach the UK but the green beetles cause dieback and early tree death. For more details, visit: bit.ly/trees_threats…

1 SHOW SUCCESS 59% of nurseries exhibiting at Gardeners’ World Live achieved a top-level award this summer (platinum or gold) – that’s an increase from 54% in 2017. The 2019 show runs 13-16 June. bbcgardenersworldlive.com 2 WELCOME POLLINATORS 70% of gardeners would like more bees and butterflies in their garden, according to Squires Garden Centres. See how to attract them at squiresgardencentres.co.uk/bee-friendly 3 A KNOTTY PROBLEM Only 19% of people can correctly identify Japanese knotweed according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Environet. 64% didn’t realise they are legally obliged to control it. See environetuk.com 4 SAVE OUR DORMICE Twenty breeding pairs of rare hazel dormice are being reintroduced to the wild in Warwickshire as part of a conservation project. Visit ptes.org/campaigns/dormice 5 TAX BENEFITS Greenfingers, a charity that creates…

There is nothing daunting about collecting or sowing seed of climbers, the same rules apply as for any seed. The advantage of collecting your own seed as opposed to buying it is that you can be certain it’s fresh and is from the plant you want to replicate. Collect on a dry day and at the stage when the plant is about to disperse it – with clematis, wait until one or two parachutes are about to detach themselves. Drop seeds or an entire seedhead into a paper bag. Sow seed individually across the surface of a seed tray filled with proprietary seed compost or take the whole bunch of seeds between thumb and forefinger and push them into a pot of the same compost, just deep enough to secure…

Everybody loves colour in the garden. Even the smallest or most uninspiring of places can be transformed by it; and in urban plots, which can often be shady or surrounded by grey buildings, it can be essential. Colour can completely change the feel of a garden and the way we respond to it. It can alter our emotions and distract us from stress in our lives. Simple additions, as well as outright explosions of colour, are easy to introduce, and can really enhance your mood and the spirit of your garden. Brighten boundaries Think of your plants as actors on a stage. Every stage needs a backdrop and that’s what you create when you add colour to a fence, wall, trellis or shed. Boundary colour is a perfect foil for…

For pollution Box, Elaeagnus, spindle, beech, privet, bamboo, holly, Rosa rugosa, Viburnum, Camellia For flooding Pine, spruce, fir, cedar and privet, grasses, pinks and lawn grasses left a little longer For waterlogged soil Forsythia, Spirea, Eucalyptus, hydrangea, willow, blue fescue, lamb’s ear For cooling walls Fuchsia, jasmine, ivy, Virginia creeper, Russian vine, Viburnum For insulation Ivy, cherry laurel, Viburnum For filtering noise Berberis, box, spindle, hebe (at pavement level), beech, Photinia, firethorn For contaminated soil Box, Photinia, beech, spindle, hornbeam, laurel, firethorn…

1 ‘Bishop of Canterbury’ (pictured) A hot pink version of ‘Bishop of Llandaff’. Great for pots and doesn’t need support (Height 90cm) 2 ‘Purpinka’ A miniature purple anemone flower – so small it grows well in window boxes (H 30cm) 3 ‘Gallery Art Fair’ A dwarf decorative dahlia with large white flowers on a small plant (H 40cm) 4 ‘Gallery Art Deco’ This has the same habit as ‘Gallery Art Fair’ but beautiful orange petals with rusty red backs (H 40cm) 5 ‘Czar Willo’ A dark red-purple pompon dahlia that is compact enough for a medium pot (H 90cm)…

Houseplants have had a huge resurgence in popularity, and they’re a great way to introduce kids to gardening. Succulents are easy to care for, so they’re perfect for children. Having a plant of their own to look after - either in the garden or indoors - will also help them develop nurturing skills and give them a sense of responsibility. You can make it more interesting by using fun objects as planters – who could resist these toy trucks filled with succulents? This is a quick and easy project that has instant appeal. Truckloads of plants ★ Dessert spoon ★ 2 x toy dumper trucks ★ Multi-purpose compost ★ 2-3 x succulent plants, such as sempervivum ★ Gravel ★ Watering can STEP BY STEP These planted-up trucks will happily live…

Many border plants are easy to propagate from seed, which allows you to save money and fill your garden with your favourite blooms. Perennials saved and sown this year will make good, strong plants that may flower next summer, while annuals will do so for sure. Leave faded flowers to turn into dry, brown husks, pods or capsules filled with seed. Bear in mind that seedlings of some highly bred cultivars won’t be exactly like the parent - colour variations will depend on this year’s pollination and the previous plants used in the breeding line. Seed can be collected and sown straight away or saved until the autumn or next spring. Sown now, they will overwinter as small plants; if sown in spring, perennial plants will need another season to…

Remove bolted vegetable plants Leaf and root vegetables are inedible once they have bolted or run to flower, with a tough, new flower stalk replacing the tender edible tissue at the base. Some plants, such as beetroot, bulb fennel, chard (above) and onions, are more prone to do this than others. Cool night temperatures and dry soil are usually the main causes for bolting, although most will do it eventually as part of their lifecycle. Lift out crops if they’ve bolted and throw them on the compost heap. Harvest maincrop potatoes now When the foliage of your potato plants yellows and dies back, the potatoes are nearly ready for lifting. Ideally, they’ll need a two-week period of dry weather in the ground – this hardens them and sets the skin…

1 CHOOSE a shady corner to prevent rapid drying out, which can slow rotting. Make an enclosure from four posts and stout boards, or use a shop-bought compost bin. 2 MIX compostable ingredients so there is no concentration of any one material. Avoid woody stems (unless shredded) and thick-rooted perennial weeds. 3 TURN the heap regularly if the bin is small enough to manage and you have the time. If not, mix it when you fill the bin and firm it down to speed up rotting. 4 MAKE sure the heap stays moist. A piece of old carpet thrown over the top will help. Soak the heap if it looks like it will dry out. Mix, moisten and firm are key tasks.…

• Evaporation occurs when liquid water turns into a gas – water vapour. If you water in hot sunshine, the moisture will evaporate from the soil before your plants have the chance to take it up. • Mulching the surface of the soil helps to hold in water and reduce evaporation. Apply mulch in a thick layer to damp soil. Garden compost, pebbles, bark or wood chips are all suitable choices. They will also suppress weed growth, and garden compost will feed the soil too. • Plants take up water through their roots, so always aim water at the soil around the base of the plant, rather than at the plant itself. This will also help to avoid leaf scorch, which can occur when hot sun shines on damp foliage.…

“Perhaps I can start a movement to send plastic topiary balls the way of plastic straws – into extinction” Do gardeners love every flower that has ever pushed up through the earth? Of course not. But when you write and broadcast about gardening, you express such prejudices at your peril. This was brought home to me forcibly last week when, stepping off the Isle of Wight ferry, I was accosted by a gentleman who squared up to me with a beady eye and said, “You said on the telly that you hate gladioli.” I explained that I did not hate all gladioli, and that ‘hate’ is a strong word that my mother exhorted me not to use. Dislike would be a better way of putting it. And I do like,…