Innehållsförteckning för January 2022 från BBC Gardeners' World

Listen now… to season 3 of our podcast, featuring GW regulars Monty, Alan and Adam plus special guests Joe Lycett and Michael Mosley. Visit GardenersWorld.com/podcast Save… subscribe before 4 January to receive 14 packs of seeds FREE with your February to June issues, saving you more than £31. Pay just £24.50 for six issues and all your seeds, plus a 10% saving with our mail-order partners. See page 93. Learn… how to care for house plants, with our expert online guide. Study at your own pace, in your own time. Courses are FREE, with an option to upgrade. Go to bit.ly/Healthy-House-Plants Plan… for your best-ever year in the garden with our 132-page Year Planner 2022. Order home delivery for just £7.99+ P&P, at magsdirect.co.uk/yearplanner2022 Keep up to date with us…

There is fresh new urgency in the world of gardening to increase efforts towards more sustainable gardening. The impetus follows the recent COP26 United Nation’s Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, as new targets limiting carbon emissions were set in an attempt to fend off potentially harmful temperature rises. Two key pledges from the summit agreement were a scheme to ensure a 30 per cent cut in methane emissions by 2030, and a commitment to end deforestation. Under discussion were urban tree planting, recycling plastic and using water responsibly. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – the only horticultural body with an exhibit – explored ways to use plants to tackle global warming, such as crops that need less water and fertiliser. A 2021 survey for the Royal Horticultural Society found eight…

How do we deal with increased rainfall in our gardens? We must choose plants that can cope with the conditions they will face For every 1°C the air on our planet warms up, it can hold about seven per cent more water. This means more, heavier rainfall and the increased likelihood of flash flooding. We’ve already seen the consequences of climate change on increased rainfall, not only in places worldwide where flooding is a fact of life and has got even worse and more devastating, but also in the UK. So our rainfall is becoming more frequent and more intense. Images of gardens inundated by floodwater have become almost commonplace. Although the trend is towards wetter winters and warmer, drier summers, when rain happens in summer it can be devastating,…

Andrew Chambers County Antrim Situated high above Belfast, Andrew’s garden has views from the Mourne Mountains to Belfast Lough. Andrew and his partner feel their garden is a respite from their stressful jobs and love packing in plants until their plot is “bursting at the seams”. Eula Cooper Worcestershire Eula has created her own little garden paradise where wildlife is welcome and her son can play and explore. She has loved gardening ever since she was a child in the Philippines and has worked hard to create a plot with something to enjoy year-round. Oliver Hymans & Marcus Crofton London Self-confessed ‘pirate’ gardeners, Oliver and Marcus are truly making the most of their tiny urban balcony. By packing in edible and ornamental plants, their unconventional approach to gardening shows what…

It’s such a waste not to use your plant waste – far from being useless and unwanted, your garden leftovers can become a positive benefit to your soil. That’s what composting is: processing garden waste into something of value, not only to your patch of earth, but also in terms of caring for the environment. It may seem like such a little thing – to rot down your garden’s surplus organic matter – but once you’ve got into the habit of it, you’ll wonder why you ever squandered such a valuable resource. Homemade compost is useful, its production involves little financial outlay, it helps to conserve our valuable peatlands by not depleting them and it will save you the expense of acquiring other forms of soil enrichment. Where once you…

Part one: design your plot Head gardener Lucy Chamberlain manages a walled kitchen garden within a 100-acre estate. Inspired by its success, she has followed the key design principles in her own, much smaller garden, to create a beautiful and highly productive fruit and vegetable plot. To get the best from your edibles, give their positioning as much care as you do your ornamental plants. Being a head gardener with a passion for growing crops of all kinds, this was my mindset when designing my own fruit and veg plot five years ago. At a modest 12m x 12m, it’s far smaller than the walled kitchen garden I manage for my profession. But having witnessed the huge benefits of these design principles to the crops within its walls, I’ve echoed…

TASTY HOMEGROWN RASPBERRIES Rubus idaeus ‘Malling Juno’ Heavy cropping medium to large berries with a firm texture and deliciously sweet flavour. Resistant to cane diseases. Fruits: Jun-Jul 6 canes £17 SAVE £1.95 (RSP019) Rubus idaeus ‘Polka’ Autumn fruiting raspberry producing large berries with a superb aromatic flavour. Very heavy cropping. Fruits: Jul-Oct 6 canes £14.85 SAVE £1.65 (RSP002) SAVER COLLECTION 12 canes (6 of each variety) £29.45 SAVE £6 (RSP915) www.PomonaFruits.co.uk/GW1RP Please add £8.95 P&P to your order Offer closes on 28/02/2022. Offer is available to UK mainland only – excludes NI. Delivery will be within 28 days. VISIT GardenersWorld.com/what-to-do-now for more advice on the best crops to sow and plant this month, and how to do it.…

January always arrives at Longmeadow with a general sigh of relief. There is an overwhelming sense that however grim the weather might be at the moment, things are getting better daily. Climate change has brought forward the flowering of the first snowdrops, aconites and crocus, so whereas when we first planted the Spring Garden 30 years ago we waited until February for the first glimmer of flower, by the middle of January things are in full swing. Our snowdrops have spread from the first planting of a small bundle wrapped in newspaper that we were given by friends, to become thousands of brave little white flowers, surviving flood, snow, ice and storm with equal equanimity. Then, by the end of the month the first hellebores and pulmonarias will be starting…

“To see a little seedling emerge, to nurture it, to plant it out and watch it grow is striking deep into the mystery of life itself” I remember back in the early ’80s, the joy of visiting a garden centre and filling the car (albeit a battered, much, much-loved 2CV, so not a lot of car to fill) with plants – with a sense of abundance that was completely new and exciting. We felt that we could shop there every weekend for a year and still not exhaust the range and variety of plants that we wanted for our little London back garden. Since then, garden centres have effectively become supermarkets, dominated by what is easy to produce, very often imported, and not necessarily what is the most interesting, beautiful…

Rodgersia pinnata ‘Superba’ Rodgersias are one of the most handsome of all damp-loving plants, with bold palmate leaves and fluffy flowerheads. This variety has tiny bright pink flowers. The leaf surface is puckered and slightly shiny. Both in spring when emerging and in autumn when preparing to hibernate, the leaves are tinted with rich bronze. Rodgersias love moist or raindrenched conditions. Flowers Jul-Aug Height x Spread 1.5m x 1m Iris ensata ‘Rose Queen’ The Japanese water iris, Iris ensata, is much lauded in its home country and is frequently the subject of paintings and prints, because of its perfect poise. It usually has dark purple flowers, but the exquisite variety ‘Rose Queen’ is a soft bluish-pink. It thrives in wet soil and is also happy to paddle in the shallow…

As we begin a new growing season, it’s a good time to put resolutions in place and going peat-free is a great way to start. The Government plans to ban the sale of peat compost in England by 2024 but, last year at COP26, the National Trust, together with other environmental groups worldwide, called for a ban without delay. There are clear environmental reasons why we should all stop using even small amounts of peat: peat bogs are the world’s largest carbon store, trapping far more of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming than forests, plus digging up peat actually contributes to carbon emissions. Many gardeners understand the environmental implications, but issues with peat-free compost, such as cost, availability and performance, have hindered its take-up in the…

Savoy sambharo A popular warm Gujarati salad made with cabbage, and served with savoury chickpea gathiya and super-sweet jalebi. SERVES 4 INGREDIENTS ■ 1 tsp of sunflower oil■ ¼ tsp mustard seeds■ 3 or 4 curry leaves (optional)■ 3 or 4 green chillies, slit open lengthways■ 1 carrot, peeled and grated■ ¼ tsp turmeric powder■ Half a head of cabbage, washed and shredded■ Pinch of asafoetida■ 1 tsp mango powder (alternatively, use 2 tbsp lemon juice)■ Salt to taste METHOD 1 Over a medium heat, warm oil in a pan, then add mustard seeds. 2 As mustard seeds pop, add curry leaves and chillies. Toss constantly as the chillies blister. 3 Add carrot, turmeric and salt, and mix well. 4 Add the shredded cabbage, asafoetida and mango powder, and stir…

ACROSS 1 Use your local tip’s shredding service to __ your Christmas tree (7) 7 Convallaria majalis is better known as lily of the __ (6) 8 Urtica __ is the formal name of annual stinging nettle (5) 9 Take __ cuttings from deciduous shrubs now (8) 10 ‘Discovery’ and ‘Sunset’ are popular cultivars of this fruit (5) 11 Woody climber that comes in Chinese and Japanese varieties (8) 13 Fat balls are a sustaining food for these garden visitors (5) 15 __ of Lancaster is a name for Rosa gallica var. officinalis (3,4) 18 __ odora is a winter beauty with pale-pink flowers (6) 20 Deadhead winter __ regularly to keep them blooming (7) 22 This dwarf dahlia comes in a variety of bright colours (6) 23 Describes an upright growing…

‘You say to-may-toe and I say to-mah-toe’; so goes the old George and Ira Gershwin song. It is something with which I have enormous sympathy. After all, as far as gardening goes, you say clee-may-tiss and I say clem-ahtiss. Does it really matter? Well, probably not, but on the basis that the aim of the binomial system of nomenclature devised in the 18th century by the Swedish botanist Carl von Linné (Linnæus to the cognoscenti) was that it should be worldwide in its application does sometimes fail to succeed in its universality. When they are written down there is no room for doubt, but in conversation the pronunciation of a plant name is so different from country to country that it is sometimes impossible to understand what the heck your…

1 FIRST FOR SCOTLAND The eight-acre Walled Garden at Gordon Castle in Moray is Historic Houses Garden of the Year 2021 – the first in Scotland to win the title. Take a friend for free with your GW 2-for-1 entry card. gordoncastle.co.uk 2 MONTY TRAVELS AGAIN Escape to sunnier shores with Monty as he embarks on his TV travels in January, with Monty Don’s Mediterranean Gardens coming up on BBC2. Times TBC. Read more next issue. 3 FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY GARDENS The National Garden Scheme Community Gardens Awards are back. The scheme gives grants of up to £5,000. Apply by Feb 28 and find out more at ngs.org.uk/cga-application 4 WATCH THE BIRDIES It’s soon time to help scientists monitor bird populations by recording visitors to your garden for an hour,…

Out of the UK population, gardeners are among the most concerned to act positively for the environment. In a recent survey*, 39% of you said you are doing so already–compared to just 14% of the national population. You recycle more, actively avoid waste where you can, and are engaging with environmental issues – and this is no surprise because, as Monty has shared on these pages, gardens are “on the front line of climate change”. Your actions in numbers GW Magazine readers are more likely to definitely agree that they are willing to make lifestyle changes, even compromises, to help the environment: 91% of you make a conscious effort to versus79 of the UK population in general 57% of you definitely agree it’s our versus43 generally 48% strongly agree shouldbebannedversus…

✓ Collect rainwater Rainwater is a boon – if we collect it. Especially if summers become drier, there may be more hosepipe bans, so it is important to save any rainwater that you can. Imagine how many roofs there are in the UK and how much rain falls on them. The most efficient way of storing collected water is in water butts. Initially, installation may seem expensive, but in the long run they may reduce water bills and more importantly will cut down on water use. ✓ Create a bog garden Making a virtue of necessity is always a good policy. In areas prone to flooding, make the most of the excess water by creating a bog garden, using an array of moisture-loving plants such as irises, astilbes and their…

January is a miserable month. The days are short, dark and often damp, and most wildlife is still hibernating. But there are glimpses of spring on the horizon. Birds are starting to pair up. Blue tits and great tits will be looking for nest sites – it will be a while before they start to breed but you may spot them prospecting nest boxes or even roosting in them. Natural sources of food are in their shortest supply, so keep bird feeders topped up, and consider leaving halved apples on the ground for blackbirds and thrushes. Leave the berries on ivy until the birds have eaten them – they contain more calories per gram than a bar of chocolate and can help birds get into shape for breeding in a…

Thanks 2022, I see you’ve wiped my garden slate clean. The sooner I put away the festive tinsel, the faster I can roll out the heat mats. This year my goal is to right some of the wrongs from last year, because unfortunately a few of my crops failed miserably. The Solanaceae family of aubergine, potatoes and tomatoes took the worst hit. Although I cannot change the weather, I can provide them with better growing conditions right from the start. Even allotment plots need a festive present, right? I’ll be surprising mine by adding organic farm manure. The last time I used manure was when I first got the plot. After that, to be sustainable, I’ve always grown green manure. But to give the soil an extra helping hand, and…

Don’t let anybody say growing your own spuds isn’t worth it: one mouthful of sweet, buttery new potatoes, cooked minutes after you dug them up, tells you otherwise. Grow your own and you’ll discover more variety than you knew existed, with dozens of richly flavoured, brightly coloured potatoes to choose from. Homegrown spuds are also chemical free and count food miles in metres. Potato plants are big beasts, though, and as gardens shrink and awareness grows about how digging damages soil, gardeners are trying new ways to grow them. We put four techniques to the test to see if they’re up to the job, as well as growing spuds the old-fashioned way for comparison. We assessed each method for effort, suitability, environmental impact and, of course, yield. What we discovered…

The cold January days may slowly be starting to get longer, but this change is still imperceptible. Pruning now can be really helpful for many garden plants. It’s the beginning of the rose pruning season, when we remove dead growth and reshape the shrub for the coming year. January is also the prime time for wisteria pruning. In winter you should cut back the long stems to just a few buds from the main framework to encourage flowering in spring. The middle of winter is also the best time to rejuvenate deciduous shrubs and some evergreens by hard pruning. If you have a large shrub with sprawling growth, you can bring it back under control by pruning it drastically now, sometimes down to a stump. Pruning a plant this severely…

Start forcing rhubarb now If you have established rhubarb plants, you can cover one now to force an early crop. By denying light to the first few shoots, you’ll get the sweetest, tenderest rhubarb harvest of the year. Select a strong clump to force, then remove any weeds and debris around it. If you don’t have a forcing pot, use a large dark pot or bucket with any holes covered. Pack some straw over the plant’s crown then cover it with the pot. Check the rhubarb regularly because once it starts to shoot, the stems will elongate very quickly. Choose a different clump next year to allow this year’s to recover. VISIT GardenersWorld.com/force-rhubarb for more advice on forcing rhubarb TOP TIP Feed spring cabbages with a nitrogen-rich fertiliser to encourage…