Innehållsförteckning för April 2017 från BBC Gardeners' World

• Plot to plate Open up a new world of flavours with our 132-page special edition, Grow Your Own. Get 60 crop grow guides plus 6 free seed packs, at £7.99 in shops or at buysubscriptions.com/ gyo17 for your copy by post. • Monty’s toms Watch Monty’s multi-part video guide to growing flavoursome tomatoes at gardenersworld.com/ monty-tomato-trial • Sowing flowers Follow Alan’s guidance on raising cut flowers, including your free flowers with this issue, bit.ly/flowers-for-cutting Gardeners’ World offer Grow our cover star Make dahlias your garden’s showstopper, with ‘Bishop of Auckland’. Its single flowers are a magnet for pollinators and bloom from July-Nov. Buy 5 young plants for £12.95 (51009) or 10 young plants for £19.90 (51010) – SAVE £6 PHONE 0845 658 9137 (quote code GWDBA17APR) ONLINE www.woolmans.com/GWDBA17APR Despatched early…

“Gardening in black and white had a following, but when broadcast in colour, it really took off” Gardeners’ World was first broadcast on 5 January 1968, so this year we are celebrating its 50th year on our screens. However you measure it, it is a landmark. So the celebrations will rightly be loud and long and I will be cheering as loudly as anyone. But when the partying is done, there remains a much deeper fascination with the changes that those 50 years mark. It goes without saying that the world has changed utterly – I was 12 in January 1968 and, as the opening words of L.P. Hartley’s book The Go-Between so memorably say, ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ It was. We…

“We’re in danger of stripping away their identities” Children’s play trail? Check. Café serving gluten-free organic lemon drizzle cake and macchiato? Check. Exit via the gift shop? Check. Gardens are transforming at a startling rate in an attempt to keep pace with our increasing demand for attractions that indulge our every need. It seems that visitor centres, activity areas and endless opportunities to eat and drink are becoming fundamental to our experience of visiting gardens. As such, we’re in danger of stripping away their identities and losing what it is that made them so popular in the first place. Some of Britain’s most beloved gardens – pioneered by horticultural heroes such as Christopher Lloyd, Vita Sackville-West and Gertrude Jekyll – evolved with a strong identity, full of romanticism, simple charm…

• UK rainforests You don’t have to go to Brazil for rainforests; only to Scotland’s West Coast! The National Trust for Scotland and Plantlife are promoting Celtic rainforests. Visit nts.org.uk or call 01599 566325 to book a guided walk. • National Gardening Week Running 10-16 April, don’t miss a week of activities across all four RHS gardens – Wisley, Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall and Rosemoor. Visit nationalgardening week.org.uk for more. • Most-loved herb Coriander was the most popular herb of 2016 according Johnsons, supplier of Jekka McVicar’s seed range. • Flowers at the castle The RHS’s first flower show of the year is at RHS Cardiff Castle, 7-9 April. Tickets from £9. Visit rhs.org.uk • Hear Dan’s chat Award-winning garden designer, Dan Pearson, will give a lecture in aid of the…

 Gardens are getting smaller, and whatever the size of your patch, it’s always tempting to think wistfully about what you’d be able to do, if only you had a larger plot. But lack of space needn’t be a source of frustration. Small gardens are often warmer and more sheltered than larger spaces and can become extensions of the house. By thinking creatively, it’s often possible to squeeze in far more than you might think. “I wanted to create a space that had impact when viewed from inside Juan Carlos Cure” Last year, we ran a competition to find Britain’s best gardens and this month we show you round the gardens of our three finalists in the Small Space category. The garden owners, Steve Moodey, Geoff Stonebanks and Juan Carlos Cure,…

STEP BY STEP Sow indoors SOWN indoors in the warmth, rudbeckia seeds will grow away quickly, germinating about 14-21 days after sowing. When they have more than two leaves, prick them out, each into its own small pot (see page 115). Place the pots in a draught-free, well-lit spot, keeping the compost damp but not wet. Harden off and plant out when the risk of frost has passed. Prepare a tray or pots of seed-sowing compost, tapped to consolidate it and left in a tray of water to make it damp. Sprinkle the seeds evenly on the surface. Cover the seeds lightly with 5mm of compost or vermiculite. You can use the holes in the base of a flowerpot to shake an even layer over the seeds. Place a…

30 mins to spare? CARRY out a pest check. Many, such as whitefly, hide underneath leaves. Waft a sticky yellow trap over the top of plants as you disturb them to catch small flying pests. Spotting and tackling the start of an infestation now will pay dividends. Sow pansy seeds for winter beds SAVE MONEY on winter bedding by starting some pansies from seeds now. Fill a modular tray with multi-purpose compost. Firm it gently and water using a fine rose. Sow the tiny seeds onto the surface of each cell. Cover with a light layer of sieved compost or vermiculite and germinate in a propagator at 18ºC. Thin out the seedlings selecting one per cell. Grow the pansies in their modules until they are ready for planting out…

There are only 38 weeks to go until Christmas! Yes, it’s true – for a home-grown Christmas dinner, it pays to get your sprouts on early. It’s a proud moment when you dish up a Christmas feast of fragrant home-grown potatoes, plump sprouts, and sweet carrots and parsnips, pulled fresh from the plot. So this year, why not take our Veg Pledge challenge to grow as much of your Christmas dinner as possible. Timing slow-growing winter veg to peak on the 25th December takes patience, but you’ll have the very best for the year’s most important meal – plus plenty to pick all winter, too. Follow our guide and we’ll lead you every step of the way from now to a deliciously home-grown Christmas Day. Your Xmas essentials Brussels sprouts…

Weeds! We’ve all got them and these ‘plants-in-the-wrong-place’ have an uncanny habit of being able to populate just about any bit of the garden. They look unsightly, steal nutrients and light from garden plants and often carry transmittable diseases. Keeping weeds in check is the bane of most gardeners’ lives, but eradicating them can be simple with the right know-how. How to beat them Annual weeds complete their life cycle in one year – they germinate, flower, set seed and die. They can easily be removed by hoeing and leaving them on the soil surface – especially effective in hot weather. Or in paved or open areas, a hand-operated gas-powered flame gun works well. Annuals are easier to manage than their bully-boy brethren – perennial weeds. These longterm pests maintain…

Gardeners are famous for ingenuity – after all, we’re generally a practical bunch and if you want something enough, you’ll find a way to make it happen. So we think you’ll like the ingenious ideas throughout this issue, designed to help you get more from your garden. We go back to basics with Monty and Carol, on the right way to grow those two essentials: tomatoes and dahlias. We’ve got long-term solutions for the age-old problems of pests and weeds; and we’ve mapped out a foolproof plan to guarantee you fresh veg on Christmas Day (clue: you start now!). Most ingenious of all, our 16-page Small Space Solutions section shows you 20 achievable, economic – and clever – ways to grow on any size plot. Since Gardeners’ World launched…

Euphorbia characias Dark green to silvery-blue foliage on woody stems, and dense heads of yellow flowers, often with black eyes. Flowers Feb-May. H x S 1-2m x 1.2m Euphorbia ‘Blackbird’ This is the best purple-leaved variety, with contrasting acid-green flowers. Also sold as ‘Nothowlee’. Flowers Mar-May. H x S 40-60cm x 50cm Euphorbia epithymoides The vibrant yellow flowers fade through reddish tones, until the foliage turns bronze during autumn. Flowers April-May. Hx S 45cm x 60cm Euphorbia mellifera An impressive shrub with honey-scented flowers. Not fully hardy, so needs a warm, sunny, sheltered spot. Flowers May-June. H x S 2m x 2.5m Euphorbia myrsinites The silvery, leathery leaves are packed on sprawling stems tipped with chartreuse flowerheads. Flowers April-May. H x S 10cm x 40cm From sprawling alpines to spiny…

• Oriental poppies and aromatic herbs are fairly resistant. With wire fencing, lay 30cm flat just below the soil surface to stop them burrowing under, and 90-120cm vertically. And never leave the gate open. raisingirl • The rabbits that visit my yard every night feast on the bird seed. As long as there is a pile of seeds under the feeders, they leave my plants alone. Johnny canoe • I put four canes and a ring of chicken wire around young shrubs to protect them in winter, when rabbits are most likely to eat them. I find they leave them alone in summer. lindseytaylor01 • Grow resistant plants such as daffs and snowdrops, potentillas, berberis, rhododendrons and azaleas, vincas, junipers and other conifers. Use a tree guard round the base…

Kitchen garden trug Robust and lightweight trug made from corrosion-proof galvanised steel. £19.99, crocus.co.uk Stewart Garden Trug A practical, long-lasting plastic trug with a simple design and budget price tag. £7.99, longacres.co.uk Sarah Raven, Willow Trug Made from strong and durable willow, this baskets looks good inside and outside the house. £27.95, sarahraven.com Burgon & Ball Traditional Wooden Trug This attractive handmade trug makes a stylish garden accessory. £29.95, thebasketcompany.com…

Have you created a garden that’s full of interesting ideas and beautiful planting? Then why not enter our 2017 Garden of the Year Competition to win £10,000-worth of Cobra gardening equipment – plus the chance to have your garden photographed professionally, to appear in Gardeners’ World Magazine. You can enter your garden into one of three categories: Wildlife-friendly Garden, Small Space or Challenging Plot. We’ll share the results in the November 2017 issue. Readers will have their say, too, with a vote in the People’s Choice award – and all voters will be entered into a prize draw to win great Cobra kit! For inspiration, go to: bit.ly/gw-goty Who can enter? To be eligible for our Garden of the Year Competition, sponsored by Cobra, you must not earn a living…

APRIL is the kindest month, healing all the hurts of winter, and feeding every hope and dream of the long spring and summer to come. The month opens with a prickle of green in the hedgerows and ends full blown, steaming into May on a fanfare of new growth. It is also the month of daffodils and, most gloriously, of tulips, which rise to their crescendo at Longmeadow in the last week of the month. Drumstick and native primulas can be potted to augment the display. But although the garden is filling with early clematis, bulbs and spring perennials, and blossom is sitting like a glorious floral cloud in the orchard, it is really the growth of green that makes April unlike any other month. At the beginning, the garden…

STEP BY STEP Pot on young tomato plants CHECK the base of tomato seedlings’ pots to see if roots are coming out of the drainage holes. If so, it’s time to pot them on. A bigger pot, fresh compost and more space will boost growth. Tomato plants readily send out new roots from their stems, so pot them deeper than they were, to stimulate extra roots. These will help the plant to take up more nutrients and water, resulting in a better crop. Fill a pot with potting compost and make a deep hole in the centre. Press the young plant out of its old pot and lower it gently into the hole. Firm the tomato plant into its new pot. Add a label giving the variety name and…

Pricking out FLOWER AND VEGETABLE seedlings need to be pricked out once they have their first true leaves. This will give them enough space to grow healthily, and will also allow them to benefit from the extra feed in the new compost. It is possible to avoid pricking out by sowing seeds singly into modular trays, but these take up much more space in propagators or on windowsills. If your germinating seedlings are close together and have become leggy, pricking them out allows you to lower them further into the compost, which will help them to grow into sturdier plants. You should aim to put 12 seedlings into a half-sized seed tray. Use a dibber to mark out the spacing, with three plants across the width and four down the…

COURGETTES TEND to germinate pleasingly quickly and are sown 2 cm deep, individually, into 9cm pots. After watering, it’s into the propagator at 18-20°C until the seed leaves appear, when the plants are moved to develop in the more open environment of the heated greenhouse. Courgettes resent root disturbance, so use pots rather than cell trays to avoid transplant shock when planting out in June. Courgette seeds are often sown edge side down to assist germination and avoid decay. On the programme this month, Jim will be sowing larger seeds to see if orientation and position makes a difference to their germination. Beechgrove • CHECKLIST • Harden off plants, gradually at first, bringing back indoors on cold nights • Shade greenhouse seedlings even on cold days when the sun is…

In the absence of a pond, a bog garden can provide a habitat for egg-laying dragonflies and other invertebrates, plus damp shelter for frogs, toads and newts. And it doesn’t have to take up much space – simply follow our steps to create a container bog garden. YOU WILL NEED • Container, such as an old tin baby’s bath • Pond liner • Peat-free, multi-purpose compost • Moisture-loving plants (we used astilbe, variegated eupatorium and rodgersia) • Slate chippings or gravel (optional) 1 Drill holes in the base of the container, then add the liner so it overlaps the sides. Part-fill with compost. 2 Arrange the plants to your liking, then fill in around them with more compost. Firm in and water well. 3 Trim back the edges of the…

April • Prepare the soil now Weed thoroughly, then cover with clear polythene. This warms the ground for sowing and remaining weed seeds will germinate, so you can hoe them off before sowing. • Sow parsnips Parsnip seed is slow to get going, and germination can be patchy. Use fresh seed and sow generously into shallow drills in free-draining soil in a sunny spot. Seedlings can take a month to emerge so mix in a few radish seeds. These pop up in days, ‘marking’ the row – and you get a salad crop. • Sow maincrop carrots Sprinkle seed sparingly into shallow drills in light, stone-free, watered soil. Lightly cover with more soil, then place fleece over so carrot fly can’t reach emerging seedlings. • Sow leeks Start leeks in…

• Translocated herbicides have the capacity to enter a plant through its leaves and then travel though the entire plant via its vascular system, which means weedkillers of this nature will kill the plant, roots and all. The following ‘active ingredients’ do this: glyphosate, 2,4-D or MCPA. • Salt can work as a contact weedkiller but used extensively it will poison the soil making it unsuitable for other, desirable plants. • Horsetails have been around for well over 100 million years. One of the reasons for this long-term survival is that their roots can penetrate 1.5m into the soil. • Small annual weeds such as bittercress have an unusually short life cycle, meaning some can go from seed to a flowering plant in 4-6 weeks. Un-checked, their exponential spread in…

The trouble with wildlife … We welcome wildlife into our garden, but the rabbits, squirrels, badgers and foxes dig up the lawns, the deer eat the shrubs and roses, the pigeons eat the vegetables and the bird food, and the field mice help themselves to the seedlings. As for this handsome fellow I do wish he would do something useful like eat slugs or moss. Who would be a gardener? Mrs E Leach, by email Can of worms 1 – Rodents 0 I read with interest your reader’s query regarding how to keep rats out of a compost bin (GQT, January issue). I had the same problem until I invested in a wormery for green waste. Since then I’ve had no sign of rats, so I assume that it was…

Good bugs, bad bugs There’s little worse than seeing new shoots and seedlings destroyed by garden pests. Research project The Big Bug Hunt is asking gardeners to log pest sightings at bigbughunt.com, so that nearby gardeners will be warned of bugs active in their area. The scheme uses weather data and methods developed at York University to predict where bugs will strike. However, some bugs are to be welcomed – the stag beetle, for example, is not only on the endangered list, but performs handy tasks, like pollinating plants or recycling decaying matter. The People’s Trust For Endangered Species is running a survey from April to August and wants volunteers to monitor stag beetle sightings. To join in and to see how to hold a stag (beetle) party in your…

Celebrating its 50th year in production, BBC Gardeners’ World is as treasured today in 2017 as it was back in the 1960s. From the first pioneering programmes aired in colour (with Percy Thrower wearing a tie!) to the beautiful HD, hour-long shows we enjoy today, it’s been quite a ride. The presenters and gardens have come and gone, with Percy, Geoff and Alan all making their mark along the way. Of course one thing has remained constant – our nation’s love for all things gardening. Read more from Monty on p17. Share your memories Join us in the coming months as we celebrate 50 years – share your GW memories with us by post or email (see page 18) and use the hashtag #gw50 on your social media messages. The…

Sit back and relax A simple bistro set is one of the most versatile ways to include seating in a small garden. It can be moved around, takes up little room and the chairs can be folded up when not in use. The table can also double as a potting bench. Great value for money!…

Water your pots CONTAINER DISPLAYS of bulbs can be left to their own devices through the winter, but once shoots start to emerge and flower buds form, you need to keep them well watered. The same goes for pot displays of seasonal bedding. Don’t just assume that April showers will do the watering for you – when it rains, the leaf canopy acts like an umbrella, so very little of the water actually gets into the pot and reaches the roots. You can use a liquid or slow-release or fertiliser to give the plants an extra boost. Thin out bushy perennials SOME clump-forming perennials, such as sedums, can produce so many shoots that when flowers develop, the outer shoots are forced to the ground and the rest flop down on…

Mist humidity-lovers AS TEMPERATURES warm up, start misting any plants that like high humidity. Keep a supply of water at room temperature in a mister and spray the leaves regularly – daily isn’t too often. Rainwater is best if your tap water leaves limescale marks on the foliage. Keeping the humidity high will also deter red spider mites from settling in, and plants sprayed regularly will need less watering overall. However, never mist succulents, cacti and any plants with hairy leaves, as these tend to rot in humid conditions. Repot cacti ALTHOUGH CACTI can be tricky to handle, once in a new pot they can stay there for several years. Fill the new pot to 1cm below the rim with a free-draining mix of John Innes No.2 compost and grit,…

Sowing outdoors SOWING VEGETABLES outside couldn’t be easier. You don’t need much space to grow smaller crops, and because the seeds are in the ground, aftercare is far less critical than when they’re in pots. Prepare the soil by weeding and digging in well-rotted garden compost or manure. A week before sowing, rake in a sprinkling of blood, fish and bone. Water the bottom of the drill before rather than after sowing to avoid disturbing the seeds. Try to sow at the spacing recommended on the packet, so you don’t need to thin out the seedlings later. If you sow in clear rows, you can easily distinguish the crop from any weeds, and can then quickly hoe the weeds away between the rows. Once the seedlings appear, take care to…

April is the ideal month to channel all the vigour of spring into the right place – the production of flowers. First on the pruning list should be your summer-flowering species – hydrangeas, potentillas and hibiscus – which can quickly become overgrown masses of twiggy, bare branches at the base. Also chop back softer-stemmed fuchsias, penstemons and salvias, all of which – if left unattended – are liable to flop under the weight of their summer growth and blooms. You can also get away with cutting back any remaining buddleja, lavatera or roses, the pay-off for such late attention being a two- to three-week delay in flowers that far outweighs the floppy consequences of leaving them unpruned. And don’t forget to prune your winter- and spring-flowered shrubs as soon as…

Rocket Fast and easy to grow, rocket has a distinctive peppery flavour. Regular sowings can ensure a near year-round supply. 3 WAYS TO TRY • Stir into a creamy goat’s cheese risotto • Blend with garlic, pine nuts and parmesan to make a peppery pesto • Stuff into a steak baguette Nutrition The leaves have good levels of vitamin C and folic acid as well as calcium and potassium, and are an excellent source of vitamins A, B and K. Usually eaten raw, so no goodness is reduced by cooking. How to grow Rocket is best sown directly in good, fertile soil as it dislikes root disturbance. Thin seedlings if necessary to avoid overcrowding. Spring and autumn-sown crops tend to be most successful. Provide shade in summer to avoid bolting.…

Hygiene is king when propagating. That’s why we advocate sterilised pots, trays and tools, fresh compost, clean water and the regular tidying and removal of damaged, diseased and dead plant material. Seedlings and cuttings are too young to fend off infections and will succumb quickly. Damping off is the broad term for the death of seedlings. This disease describes infection by various organisms. You might see a sudden collapse in a seed tray, sometimes with the seedlings showing dark patches at the base of their stems, like those on the right. Roots rot away and grey mould may be obvious. To avoid this you need to act like a strict nurse, keeping your propagating area clean and tidy, and looking out for symptoms. If just a few seedlings die, you…

Anne Swithinbank A keen fruit, vegetable and houseplant grower, Anne was formerly the glasshouse supervisor at RHS Garden Wisley. Bob Flowerdew Bob is an organic gardener and a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. Matt Biggs Matt trained at Kew and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years. Q What will do well in a conifer-shaded bed with clay soil? Shanti and Phil, by email A MATT SAYS The combination of clay, conifers and shade means the soil is going to be dry. To increase your options, create raised beds using non-treated railway sleepers, which you can then fill with well-rotted organic matter or ericaceous compost, and install a seep-hose irrigation system. As you prefer evergreens, try Bergenia ‘Bressingham White’ with pure-white flowers in spring…