Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i BBC Gardeners' World

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HOT TOPIC Nigel: everyone’s best friend Nigel’s passing touched so many across the world, not just the nation, with hundreds of emails and social media messages reaching us that shared your condolences, love and sympathy. Here is just a small selection: We wanted to say how sorry we were to hear that Nigel had died so suddenly. We cried when we heard the sad news. We know from experience how devastating the grief of losing a beloved pet can be. They become part of the family and the loss is great. The bond and love between Nigel and Monty was a joy to behold. He was a real character and was adored by so many Gardeners’ World fans across the globe. Nigel obviously had a good life at Longmeadow and…

■ Mark out the pond using string and canes, or a hosepipe. Allow for marginal plants by including shallow shelves around the edge, making these at least 45cm wide and as level as you can. Aquatic plants such as waterlilies need deeper water, so aim to include a section that is at least 90cm deep. Even digging a small hole will give you several barrowloads of soil, so plan what you will do with it – ideally incorporating it elsewhere in the garden. ■ Check the edges are all level. Use a spirit level and be exact, because water will instantly expose any inaccuracy. If the site is sloping, then you will have to build up one side. Avoid steep slopes falling down into or away from the edge of…

Feed the birds Although birds will benefit from this feeder more during winter, they will still appreciate an energy boost from this easy project. You will need: Pine cones String Smooth peanut butter Suet Wild bird seed Step 1 Tie the string firmly to the pine cone. Mix the peanut butter, suet and bird seeds together in a bowl to form a thick, sticky mixture. Roll a pine cone in the bowl, pushing the sticky mixture well into all the gaps in the cone. Step 2 Hang your feeders from a bird table or trees, where you can see them easily. Go on a bug hunt Children love discovering all the creepy crawlies that live in their garden. Organise a bug hunt and see how many they can identify. All…

“As I garden organically, the wildlife owns my garden every bit as much as I do” There is no doubt about it, being confined to my house and garden every day for the best part of two months has brought me so much closer to my patch of earth – spiritually as well as physically. Like many whose jobs take them away from home I rush out into my garden on my return – marvelling at how something has grown, exclaiming with delight as the bearded irises in the border by the house erupt into flower, or seeing how much more of the pond’s surface the lily pads have taken up since I left. It’s not that I am ever away from home for any length of time – a…

Tomatoes Pick toms daily when they’re fully and evenly coloured – ideally warmed by the sun and eaten or served straight away. Gently squeeze each one to check it gives slightly, then snip off the fruit to avoid damaging the stem. Keep tomatoes cropping by feeding weekly with a liquid tomato feed that’s high in potassium. Avoid over-watering as this can dilute the flavour – but water consistently to avoid split skins. Savour fresh ■ Mix halved cherry toms with chopped spring onions, olive oil, vinegar, Tabasco and cooked pasta ■ Warm up spicy Italian sausage with fried shallots, then add to a tomato salad with mozzarella and torn basil leaves New potatoes Potatoes are ready to dig up once the first flowers appear. For the best flavour, harvest as…

Chemical pesticides have steadily disappeared from garden centre shelves in recent years amid concerns over safety. But within your own garden, you’ll find a ready-made armoury to help defend your plants. Many wild plants rely on natural chemicals they produce themselves to repel attackers, and they’re as effective as anything you could buy. A few minutes at your kitchen chopping board and you can extract these plant-made defences to make an organic spray that won’t damage the environment and costs practically nothing. The only extra you’ll need is horticultural soft soap (ladybirdplantcare.co.uk) or Castile soap to help it stick. Don’t use hand soap as it’s full of unwanted additives. Here, we’re sharing our favourite recipes as well as ways to tackle weeds without chemicals using day-to-day items you’ll have at…

Best for using on difficult ground Kent & Stowe Heart Shaped Hand Trowel, £7.99 Strong, well balanced and comfortable, this pointed trowel is great for weeding among plants and for getting through stony ground. Best all-round trowel Wilkinson Sword Stainless Steel Hand Trowel, £9.99 A traditional-style trowel with a comfortable, shaped handle and a scooped stainless-steel head. This performs all digging, weeding and planting tasks well. Best for quality and value DeWit Planting Trowel, £10.99 Hand crafted from high-quality materials, this well-designed trowel is comfortable and sturdy, and deals with all soils and jobs with ease. Excellent value for the quality of design and performance. Best premium performing trowel Niwaki Moku Trowel, £69 Worth saving up for, this trowel is a pleasure to use. It’s comfortable, light, and sits perfectly…

UK turns to gardening in crisis “Gardening is the second most popular lockdown activity after watching TV” The nation has been gardening its way through lockdown, with almost half of us turning to backyards and allotments to help us through. Gardening is the second most popular lockdown activity after watching TV, with more people (42 per cent) taking it up than cookery (40 per cent) or reading (39 per cent)* . Over 70 per cent of those who responded to a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) survey** felt their garden has helped their mental health during lockdown, with weeding most likely to have a positive impact on wellbeing, closely followed by planting. Professor Tim Kendall, the NHS’s clinical lead on mental health, says gardening is unique in combining exercise, time outdoors,…

“One of the wonders of making any kind of pond is how soon wildlife takes up home there” I resisted water in this garden until eight years ago. It seems extraordinary to me now, but I had reasons that seemed valid enough back then. The first was that when we came here, we had small children. Friends of my parents had a two-year-old daughter who drowned in their small garden pond, so it was drummed into me from an early age that small children and ponds did not mix. Our previous house had quite a large pond that was very beautiful, but one of the first things I did was to fence it off. No pond, I decided, until the youngest can swim unaided. Time went by, the garden became…

One of the joys of container growing is its flexibility. Planted pots can be arranged, rearranged and moved to suit you and your garden throughout the season. A short-term potted plant can be brought to the fore when it’s at its peak, then tucked away again as it fades. Equally, a large, permanent planter can have its display changed through the seasons. Growing this way means that you can match pots to exact locations in your garden. Narrow, skinny walkway? No problem, try a tall, slim pot. Dark, shady corner? Not an issue – a pale planter can bring it to life. Pot growing also opens up endless creative opportunities in terms of how you group containers together. You could go for the same style and colour of pot in…

Make a herb planter Upcycle juice and milk cartons into funky planters that are the ideal size to sit on a kitchen windowsill. Fill with herbs such as oregano and basil to add to home-made pasta. You will need: Empty juice or milk carton Scissors Compost or soil Potted herb plants Water Step 1 Cut a large rectangular hole in the side of the carton. (Younger children may need help.) Step 2 Half-fill with compost. Remove one or two herbs from their pots and plant into the carton. Step 3 Fill in any gaps with compost and gently firm down to remove air pockets. Water lightly (taking care not to overwater as there are no drainage holes). Place on a windowsill, then simply snip off sprigs whenever needed. Grow speedy…

Keep on top of summer pruning Cut back low-growing perennials that have flowered and collapsed into the border, leaving the centre of the plant bare and unsightly. Alchemilla, centaurea and geraniums will shoot again within a couple of weeks, providing more foliage and flowers. Summer pruning trains shapes and encourages flowering wood, so snipping the long shoots of wisteria and wall-trained fruit is part of their maintenance. Early summer-flowering shrubs like philadelphus and weigela can also be thinned out now to improve flowering for next year. Don’t forget Top up pond water if the level drops, using water from a butt, if you have it Check that automatic watering lines are working and debris is not preventing flow Water newly made lawns regularly. Established ones will survive summer drought and…

“Make a garden – my way!” Follow ADAM’S no-fuss advice for creating the garden you’ve always wanted Secateurs for pruning – we reveal our Best Buys for woody plants Pick now, enjoy later – how to preserve your homegrown harvest New to gardening? MONTY shares what you need to know for success Keep summer colour rolling with CAROL’S late-season stars No borders? Discover an inspiring real garden grown in pots Join the community – how to connect with other gardeners online PLUS Take our gardening pub quiz ■ welcoming hedgehogs ■ fun family projects ■ a houseplant with tropical flair…

“When do I water it?” This is a question that’s often asked by those new to gardening (or unaccustomed to looking after anything living in a pot). The answer is usually, “When it’s dry”, but the more accurate answer would be, “Just before it gets dry”, which is not quite as easy to explain. This April and May were a real challenge in the garden – a mixture of scorching sunshine, strong winds, a late frost and precious little rain. Anyone with reasonably free-draining soil would have found themselves faced with that quandary: to water or not to water? A good many years ago now, when I put this question to a head gardener at one of the country’s leading stately homes, he boasted that he never watered. “The plants…

“The summer looks out from her brazen tower, through the flashing bars of July”Francis Thompson STAR OF THE MONTH Allium sphaerocephalon In May, we were awash with alliums: white ones, purple ones and pink ones. Some with flowers like sputniks, others with blooms as big as a bundled lemur. They are a big part of our early-summer gardens, but by July, they have faded to handsome but less colourful seedheads. Except they haven’t all gone over, as in July we have the pleasure of the drumstick allium, so called because, if Ginger Baker was ever caught short of a stick, he could conceivably use them for a bit of a paradiddle. Wouldn’t last that long though, so best keep them for a bit of extra colour instead. Plant as bulbs…

WATER LOVELY DAY A strong swimmer, floods held no fear for Digel, as water poured into the Jrchard Beds, last autumn. SCENE STEALER A thick golden coat and endless patience meant Digel always caught the light – just how photographers like their stars! “Nigel was a symbol of the goodness that we all know matters more than wealth or success”Monty Don BEHIND THE SCENES Digel graced many covers – but we can now reveal that a little biscuit bribery was the way to get his full attention. A PERFECT BOND His love of tennis balls and stray snacks was matched only by being part of the action with Conty. ON PATROL An unintended star of the show, Digel’s early appearances were accidental but soon, where Conty went, so did Digel…

1 B&Q DROPS GLYPHOSATE DIY store B&Q is to stop selling the chemical weedkiller glyphosate, which has possible links to cancer. B&Q has already stopped selling neonicotinoid pesticides and metaldehydebased slug pellets. diy.com 2 LONDON’S HEDGEHOG HOTSPOT Hampstead Heath has the highest hedgehog population in London, with hogs in about half the 150 locations monitored by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. bit.ly/ptes-hedgehogs 3 BEE VIRUS ‘SPREADING’ Chronic bee paralysis virus, which causes honey bees to stop flying, has now spread to most counties of England and Wales. Newcastle University scientists are investigating this upsurge. bit.ly/bee-virus 4 BOOST YOUR VITAMIN D Health officials warn we’re at risk of going short of vitamin D after staying indoors during lockdown. Short spells in sunlight usually give us enough vitamin D, but Public…

The water feature at the centre of the Paradise Garden looks slick but was in fact cobbled together. Luckily I had the great Mark Gregory to advise me – he has built over 90 Chelsea show gardens, all featuring water, and won countless Gold Medals for them. The basin is a metal fire bowl, bought on eBay, with a hole drilled in the bottom. A copper pipe fits through this, connected to a piece of hose that’s attached to a small pump. The water is fed from a nearby tap, via an underground pipe, with an everyday lavatory ballcock controlling the flow. All this hidden stuff is housed in a concrete-block tank about 1m³. I dug a hole and lined it with the thickest butyl liner I could find, then…

“Herbs have always had important roles to play in human society, from the medicinal to the culinary” Herbs are lovely plants, attractive and ornamental, fragrant and evocative of sun-drenched hillsides and wild places, but so often we underestimate their role and their importance in our lives. It’s hard to get serious about sage or challenging about chives, but remove herbs from our gardening and culinary repertoires, and we are so much the poorer. In many cases, you can’t have the latter without the former and though it is true that many herbs can be bought dried, they don’t compare to the real thing, fresh from your garden. Despite their lowly status, herbs have always had important roles to play in human society, from the medicinal to the culinary. They are…

“Grasshoppers go through an incomplete metamorphosis – a three-stage lifecycle of egg, nymph and adult” You may spot… Common field grasshopper ( Chorthippus brunneus) The common field grasshopper is brown, with mottling and stripes in anything from orange to purple. Found in long grass from June to August, the males woo females by rubbing their legs against their wing cases to make their familiar chirrup-like song, known as stridulation. Grasshoppers go through what is known as an incomplete metamorphosis – a three-stage lifecycle of egg, nymph and adult. After mating, the female digs a shallow hole and lays around 50 eggs. These hatch into nymphs, which go through four or five moults before finally reaching the winged adult stage. It can take around eight weeks for the nymphs to…

Ooni Koda 16 gas-fired outdoor pizza oven £399 The gas-powered Ooni Koda 16 is a portable pizza oven, designed to create authentic-tasting pizzas in just 60 seconds. And from taking the oven out of the box to having pizzas on the table took no longer than 30 minutes in total. It comes fully assembled and couldn’t be easier to set up. uk.ooni.com Gozney Roccbox portable pizza oven £399 A great option if you’re totally new to pizza ovens, it can be set up in no time. It quickly comes up to temperature to create Neopolitan-style pizzas in just a few minutes. It’s easy to move around, plus you can also buy a wood burner attachment. Overall, it packs a serious punch for a small piece of kit. gozney.com Igneus Classico…

■ What do you need it for? The shape and size of the head dictates the job that each trowel is best for, so think about how you’re going to use it. Trowels with long, narrow heads are shaped for working among plants and in tight, congested spaces. They’re also useful for planting deep-rooted plants such as sweet peas, and digging out dandelions and other tap-rooting weeds. Wider, flatter trowels are best for digging and planting, while deep heads can scoop up the most compost and soil, useful when potting on or planting larger plants. Pointed and sharpened heads will slice into soil easily and are great for weeding or transplanting. If you have particularly tough ground, look for a trowel with a long tang (the neck that joins the…

July is another season from June. Summer shifts and alters its angle. None of the freshness that June inherits from spring remains, but in its place there is a lushness and richness of colour, texture and sheer volume. Another wave of plants takes over the reins from the early summer flowering, and by the end of the month all the tender annuals – such as sunflowers, tithonias, zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums and petunias as well as bananas, cannas and dahlias – are hitting their full stride. To accommodate this high summer flush of flowering, however, you will have to cut back the earlier perennials, such as oriental poppies, delphiniums and hardy geraniums. This will both remove the dying foliage and flowers (that might otherwise rot and damage the crown) and will…

Harvest and store garlic Dig up your garlic now that the foliage has yellowed and begun to collapse. It must be harvested at once and should be carefully stored to keep it plump and fresh for as long as possible. Keep the stems intact, and dry the papery bulbs for a day or two, then plait them (if you wish), then hang somewhere airy and dry where you can snip them off for cooking. You can also peel the cloves and freeze them or preserve them in oil. Don’t forget Earth up brassicas to help them stay upright Sow beetroot, calabrese, mibuna and salad onions After fruiting, cut the leaves off strawberry plants, water and weed around them Continue training climbing veg and fruit such as hybrid berries and apple…