At the end of the season, it’s nice to look back and reflect on the successes in the garden – and the failures. As a result I thought it might be a bit of fun to run my own winners and losers – in various categories – so that perhaps when they are less good / awful I will be reminded of their merits / shortcomings.
The following is based on loose observation from dry East Anglia. Please feel free to add your comment with your own winners and losers.
Trees
Winner – Weeping Willows. Stuffed with rich coloured leaves, regalled in wonderful garb, they excelled this year.
Runner Up - Prunus / Malus varieties in the hedgerows, stuffed with fruits.
Bronze – Red Oaks whose late colour was breathtaking.
Losers – Laburnums never seemed to get going and petered out. All my ornamental Acers suffered in the dry weather. Chestnuts had another stinker.
Large Shrubs
Winner – The Lilacs (syringa) were simply beautiful early on the year, when they are often so poor.
Runner Up - Holly. Rich foliage colour all year and now dotted with bright red berries.
Loser - Viburnum Opulus Roseum. Flattered to deceived and faded away early.
Shrubs
Winner – Roses. They were wonderful, flowering on and on. Even now, one refuses to let go of it’s petals.
Runner-Up – Hebes in general were fabulous. The one that impressed was the usually placid Hebe Raciensis, normally weak, which simply burst into life.
Bronze – Viburnum davidii. An insignificant garden plant, I was stopped by its modest flowers and latterly, it’s waxy rich mauve berries.
Loser – Buxus. Partly because it was so dry I guess, but none of the regular bushes looked at all ‘bushy’. Bad year too for my Choisya Aztec Sun. Looked miserable.
Annuals
Winner – Sunflowers. Astonishingly happy!
Runner Up – Geraniums. Bloomed away like an everlasting firework.
Loser – Pansys and violas. I just couldn’t get them right.
Fruit
Winner – Apples. I’ve never seen so many large juicy apples before.
Runner Up – Plums & Greengages were breaking the branches and they seemed particularly delicious.
Loser – Strawberries. Panned.
Vegetables
Winner – My neighbours ‘Anya’ potatoes were sensational.
Runner Up – Plums / Greengages were breaking the branches and were particularly delicious. Grapes were full of flavour.
Loser – Tomatoes. Seemed a little tasteless in comparison to recent years and not quite so plentiful. (All my fault, I should think)
Other (un)commended plants:
- Corsican Mint (prostranthera cuneata) was astonishing. I couldn’t help myself taking a pinch of its spicy mint foliage every time I passed.
- Lavenders were wonderful but couldn’t keep up with the late summer.
- Grass – lawn was abysmal.
Deters not only Deer, but Badgers, Squirrels and Humans!
(A testimonial by Bumble)
What a joy it has been to go into the vegetable garden and find that despite the fact that all the cabbages are uncovered, the walnuts are multiple on the tree without protection, the carrots are not dug up and there are no holes in the ground that the badgers have used for lavatories, we realised that either something odd was going on or the Deer Scarer was doing its work. And it certainly was the latter. We tried it out in the spring – but after the damage had been done – in the flower garden and we managed to save a few bulbs , pinks and wallflowers from being guillotined by the deer and hares.
Firstly I must describe the machine. It is a wireless with a light attached and a ‘presence sensitivity’ or what ever it is called and when there is any movement in front of it the radio goes on the light goes on and everyone not expecting it has a big surprise or shock including the rabbits, pigeons, squirrels, badgers, hares and deer. It only stays on for about 30 – 50 secs and after a pause, if the beast has not fled and it moves again, it comes on with a different voice or a piece of music or whatever happens to be playing on Radio 2, to which it is tuned, day and night.
The animal has had enough and flees. We have put ours on a stand so it can be easily moved around.
I am giving these as Christmas presents. I now need to find some sonic devise to scare the white fly from the brasicas and the butterflies from the cabbages, beans etc and then I will be truly turning ‘green’ so roll on experimenters.
BUMBLEBEE
Has there ever been such a vibrant, lasting blaze of Autumn colour? Here, in the East Anglia the Oaks and Poplars, Maples and Malus are showing off the very best colours of stirring autumn hues imaginable. And with every passing day of this mild Autumn the show becomes even more breathtaking.
In the garden, the abundant crops of apples still abound, and the blackberries (brambles) are nearly over, the final few pinched off by the birds. For cultivated blackberries, when the fruit has been gleaned off the bushes, cut out the old fruited canes at the base and tie in the fresh new canes to supports. With Loganberries, cut back the old and tie the new in place. Leave a gap in the centre and fill it next season with new stems, tied temporarily in a bundle.
Clean up Lavender hedges, removing the straw-like heads with secateurs, but trim rather than prune. Do this in Spring. Likewise with privet hedges where a trim will keep them tidy and orderly over the winter months.
And finally, as bonfire night approaches before the leaves get burnt, an Autumnal ditty:
Pretty leaves are falling down,
Green, orange, yellow and brown.
Here comes one coloured red,
It landed on my head.
Enjoy the season,
James
New in store at The Garden Factory is the Aerobin, is a breakthrough in home compost bin technology. As the blurb says, it is a ‘revolutionary’ compost bin, which will add a significant tick to your environmental jobs check box.
‘Revolutionary and compost bin’ go together about as well as ‘Marxism and Champagne’, but in this case there’s a twist. Tests at Swinburne University of Technology Environment and Biotechnology in Australia show that the Aerobin can reduce at least 50% of household waste which would otherwise end up in landfill – halving your rubbish outlay. And what’s more the Aerobin breaks down organic waste faster than any other compost bin creating cracking compost for the benefit of your flowers and vegetables.
So how does the Aerobin work? Well, it has a patented ‘lung’ within an insulated bin which sucks in air and literally lets the bin breath. This promotes aerobic and efficient breakdown of organic matter which in turn helps to reduce greenhouse gases. Condensation and aerobic activity make heat. And heat, as even any high school musical games teacher will tell you, creates reactions. In this case the high temperature kills pathogens (garden baddies), weeds and seeds. As a result, it produces great quality compost in a very short period of time.
Compost technology: the easy way to help the environment
Autumn has been a long time coming this year. With the last blasts of our glorious Indian summer on the wane here in the wilds of East Anglia (and a rain shortage the West Country simply won’t credit), the leaves have been reluctant to drop from their perches. But finally, the colours are changing and the leaves mounting up.
This inevitably leaves gardeners a host of jobs. Tidying up is essential, so make sure you have a proper garden rake or sturdy leaf collectors or leaf grabbers.
The EASY way to pick up fallen leaves
High quality garden fleece 1.8m x 10m
Below is our very first gardening clip of some suitable products on offer from The Garden Factory this autumn, including a superb garden rake from Burgon and Ball, a 4 tier compact mini greenhouse, a cold frame and cloche, a hand held bulb planter, patio brush / garden sweeping brush, rolling lawn aerator and finally a fire pit / firebowl to keep you warm after your hard days work.
Looking forward to the next couple of months when the garden will be put straight for next year
BEST WISHES
JAMES
There’s no doubt that a large amount of you will have heard the hype, seen the strange looking bird and wondered, what is it all about?
Who uses Twitter? Is it relevant to me? Is it just a fad and anyway, how on earth do you use it?
So The Garden Factory’s quick guide (with thanks to JTweed at Coracle online).
So, WHAT IS TWITTER?
Quite simply, Twitter is free service that allows you to send and read updates (news, info, blurb) which are known as Tweets. Tweets are text posts of up to 140 characters, similar to an SMS text message but with the option of a much broader audience. And this audience is growing fast (20 million and counting) with a community sharing not only mundane but high quality and informative information. In a nutshell, it allows you to follow the noise and gossip of, say, celebrities, or to seek information on things that really interest you, like gardening, garden products, veg garden, politics, stocks and shares, discount offers and much, much more.
Here is The Garden Factory’s 10 step guide to using Twitter:
Step 1: Go to Twitter and set up an account.
Read the rest of this entry »
While working in a garden centre many moons ago one of the most frustrating things was caring for the houseplant section, which I grew to loathe. It may look easy but just keeping them alive up in the North East was fiendishly tricky.
On holiday it was a joy to sit in the charming garden of the hotel and admire how they really should look. Deliciously scented Jasmines, ever-flowering Bouganvillia, Ficus plants tall and bold, Cycas palms, Vriesias, Crotons, Birds of paradise with perfect flowers, spiky Mother in laws tongue.
And driving through the villages I stopped off at one of the terracotta emporiums dotted along the roadside. Piles of pots of all shapes and sizes to make your mouth water. Read the rest of this entry »
The colours of autumn have been quite breathtaking this year with the leaves of the field maples leaving carpets of gold along the road verges. The trees, a kaleidoscope of red, orange, yellow, ochre and purple, a last burst of glory before the realities of winter – and of our financial crisis – take root.
Gardening could become an essential part of our lives but also a wonderful hobby in the next few years. It will help with the family budget to grow your own vegetables, whether in a small patch of garden, alongside existing flower beds, or in pots. It is surprising what you can get into a medium sized pot on a balcony and it is so satisfactory to grow and eat ones own produce. Children love digging Read the rest of this entry »
We have been trimming up hedges and ditches, chopping down unwanted trees, bushes and fallen branches and storing the wood for next winter. We are reshaping the climbing roses, and tying them up so that they bloom more beautifully and are safe from snapping in the spring winds.
We are deciding when to prune the others (my husband always says it should be the Grand National weekend) and also planning patterns and plants and where to put what, where.
I hardly dare mention the word Spring as the weather is so inclement but there have been the most spectacular swathes of snowdrops in gardens and along the roadsides.The polyanthus and daffodils are beginning to show their colours and the ducks on our pond are wandering around the garden making a dreadful mess trying to find worms, a place to nest and a suitable husband – in that order.They seem to waddle around in groups of three – two drakes to one duck –and they don’t give there favours lightly!
I was tempted to put out the large pot plants but didn’t, thank goodness as the weather became bitter.I also haven’t dared look at my poor banana trees and the datura which were covered and left in the garden over the coldest winter for 20 years. It will be a miracle if they are still alive.
Bumbleworld
Thanks to Mr R from Kent for his recent comment regarding an order that arrived from The Garden Factory.
‘Dear James, I appear to have been sent a consignment of fireworks. If you look at my order I ordered a Deer repeller. Whilst fireworks will probably do the trick, it isn’t exactly what I had in mind…’
I quickly wrote back noting that;
‘Dear Mr R,
Please open the box. Inside this box you will find the full contents including one deer repeller. The box is for packaging purposes only and fulfils our requirement of getting your goods to you undamaged and in good shape. There are no fireworks…’
It is worth pointing out that I have just moved house. Therefore, as I am a conscientious recycler (why throw away perfectly good boxes?) you may find, on buying, say, an obelisk a few strange scribbles on your boxes like, ‘children’s toys’ or ‘kitchen pans’.
Therefore, do not be alarmed. Open your box, check your obelisk is there in perfect, pristine condition and then recycle this box in the knowledge that it has performed a task greater than that of moving pans or pictures.
Final note. My daughter has lost one pink sock and a bear with ‘Barcelona’ on the tag. If found, please return.
Thanks
James
Cow parsley, also known as Anthriscus sylvestris boasts fresh, dainty, green fern-like leaves and frothy flat heads that line the lanes and roadsides in May. And I can’t remember seeing a better show than this year; it has been a joy to behold. Also known as Queen Anne’s Lace it is one of the winners among wild flowers at this time of year, benefiting from the heavy use of fertiliser in the fields, and possibly an over-dose of nitrogen from traffic fumes.
I remember, as a child, using the hollow stems as a pea-shooter but now I use it in flower arrangements, setting off the illustrious colours of flowers such as the bold, elegant tulip. And like most umbellifers, it is attractive to a huge number of insect species.
Good old cow parsley.
Bumble XX
With the newsletter just released, the ringing of my ditty from my Grandmother, ‘Ash before the Oak and we’ll have a soak, Oak before Ash and well have just a dash,’ has grown louder in my ears: the heavens have opened, rainwater pours from the guttering.
Nevertheless, loads to shout about here. Plenty of lovely offers on the site and some top new products. The Easy Hammock has to be the bargain of the summer. 
At £40 I had to confirm the price twice. Read the rest of this entry »
One of my friends suggested that the homepage title of the ‘Merry, merry month of May’ sounded a little … Christmassy!? (‘It’s a bit too Merry, like Christmas …’)
Somewhat bewildered I mentioned ‘the Merry Month of May’ nursery rhyme to him. NO response.
So here it is; a sparkling spring gem:
‘In the merry month of May
When green leaves begin to spring,
Little lambs do skip like fairies
Birds do couple, build and sing.’
Ahhh! But there’s also this fab poem courtesy of Thomas Dekker, a poet of Elizabethan fame: Read the rest of this entry »
The grass is parched
The rains don’t fall
The weeds are growing nice and tall
Whilst my new plants are sick and small.
It must be summer
The Queen has come the Royals appear
The Seasons’ started – Chelsea’s here
Flowers sumptuous, design sublime
Plants from every country find.
It must be summer
Read the rest of this entry »
Shabby garden chic is an expression I’ve been hearing a lot recently. And it seems to be the trend of the moment. Nothing would suit this expression better than some of our beautiful cast iron garden urns.
In the garden these urns have a quality so far beyond some of the ornaments available on the market at the moment. They have a timeless stateliness, a majesty recognised throughout the ages denoting a simple, yet powerful statement of grandeur and style. And this is still the case today. Read the rest of this entry »
Here in East Anglia, summer has been long and warm. I’m not so sure it’s been the same in the West where friends holidaying in the West country were under a constant deluge. A local farmer told to me how he couldn’t get his plough in the ground, ‘Too dry!’ he moaned. How strange that in one small isle, we can have such differing weather patterns.
At The Garden Factory we have been busy putting together offers for the Autumn, which will be on us shortly. Details to be announced shortly, but time to start thinking of planting bulb and elongating the last of the summer evenings. A range of bulb planters to suit all budgets are now in our Autumn garden section. Other popular products for this time of the year are the mini chimineas, of which the Dorado is the cutest, smartest little chiminea you could wish for. For a little fella, it certainly punches a big heat. For a more refined piece of outdoor fire heat kit try the fire bowls, available in black as well as stainless steel. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little depressing when spring bulbs arrive in their strange netted bundles to the garden centres, bearing the images of things to come. Why? Because it means, without a shadow of a doubt that summer has ended. Autumn is here and the first of many planting jobs (winter boxes/baskets, trees and shrubs) has begun.
Furthermore, I detest planting bulbs. It boils down to a poor experience in my landscaping days with 400 daffodils in torrential rain in terrible soil. Like a bad dream, we were given a garden trowel and told to get on with it. Hours later, blistered, bleeding hands from working the handle furiously we turned to inspect our handywork. Nothing but small piles of brown soil tinged with blood. Very depressing. I never discovered how it turned out.
A couple of tips. If you’re in the market for bulbs we’ve got some fab varieties like the double white Sir Winston Churchill or the Delibes; tall, stately with a gorgeous ruddy centre. There’s a very tempting 25%off rrp for the large 25kg bags. Read the rest of this entry »
