by Thompson & Morgan | Aug 26, 2020 | Gardening Posts
Wildflowers deliver colour, scent, texture and interest to gardens large and small
Image: Shutterstock
Wildflowers are a colourful, low-maintenance and cost-effective way to make your garden buzz with life. Particularly attractive to pollinators, they provide important food and shelter for a wide range of bees, butterflies and insects. What’s more, perennial wildflowers usually prefer poor soil, and often perform well in tricky areas where other plants fail to thrive.
But how do you incorporate wildflowers into a modern manicured garden? What if you don’t have space for a lawn, let alone a meadow? We sent boxes of ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ wildflower mix to a dozen garden bloggers to try out. Here are 7 different ways to sow wildflower seeds in your garden, including what some of our favourite bloggers did with theirs…
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Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
by Thompson & Morgan | Aug 20, 2020 | Gardening Posts
Think you can’t grow exotic fruit in the UK? Think again! Many people assume you need a heated greenhouse – but there are plenty of exotic fruit trees that will grow outdoors in our temperate climate. Bring a taste of the tropics to your garden with these easy-to-grow fruit trees. They’re self-fertile, hardy – and produce delicious fruits that can be harvested from September.
1: Pomegranate
Often associated with much warmer climates, pomegranates are surprisingly hardy in the UK, with some varieties able to tolerate temperatures down to -15C (5F) when grown in a sunny, sheltered position. The vibrant orange flowers last all summer, and the fruits ripen through mild autumns – ready for harvest by October and November. Enjoy the sweet-sharp fleshy fruits in desserts and savoury dishes or use the pomegranate seeds to make a fragrant juice. They’re also delicious sprinkled over a salad.
2: Fig
With their attractive lobed foliage, figs make a dramatic feature when fan trained against a sunny wall or grown in a container on the patio. Fig ‘Brown Turkey’ is perfect for the UK climate and produces large crops of sweet, juicy figs. Fruits develop in spring and ripen from August to September. A second crop often develops in late summer and, if protected, these fruits will ripen during the following summer.
Small garden? Why not try ‘Little Miss Figgy’ – a dwarf variety that’s perfect for growing as a specimen plant in a patio container. Restricting the root growth of fig trees encourages them to fruit, making them ideal for container growing.
3: Sharon Fruit
The Sharon Fruit is also known as Kaki or Persimmon. Originating from China, and totally hardy in the UK, the summer flowers give way to round, orange-yellow fruits with a unique, sugary flavour and make a lovely addition to fresh fruit salads. They continue to ripen on the branches even after the leaves have fallen! This small tree makes an attractive feature in a sheltered border, or trained against a sunny wall.
4: Orange
Bring a taste of the Mediterranean to your patio with an orange tree! Citrus trees thrive outdoors in summer and enjoy a heated greenhouse or conservatory in winter. The small, juicy fruits of orange ‘Calamondin’ have a sharp taste at first before leaving a delicious sweet flavour in your mouth. This decorative, scented and productive plant is perfect for your patio or conservatory.
5: Lemon
Imagine being able to pick a lemon to slice into a gin and tonic!
Image source: Visions BV, Netherlands
Lemon and lime trees can survive brief periods below zero degrees Celsius, but are best grown in large containers and moved indoors to a bright frost free position from autumn to spring. Lemon ‘Eureka’ is an excellent variety to grow in the UK, producing large, thick skinned lemons as good as those bought from a supermarket. Lemons can be harvested as they ripen and, once picked, will keep for up to two weeks.
6: Lime
The Tahiti Lime produces bright green, zesty fruits throughout the year
Image source: T&M
Prefer lime in your drink? The Tahiti lime makes a stunning patio feature. Set against glossy, dark foliage, the delicate clusters of white flowers fill the air with their delicious fragrance from April to June. The fruits that follow may take up to a year to ripen but are well worth the wait. This productive tree produces seedless limes which, if left on the tree, will eventually turn yellow.
7: Apricot
Your own apricots taste better than anything bought in a shop. They can be grown as fans, bushes or pyramid trees – there are even dwarf varieties for a pot on the patio. Apricot ‘Flavourcot’® is a variety specially bred for the cooler UK climate, to produce huge crops of large egg sized, delicious orange-red fruits. Being late flowering, it’s also frost resistant, so you’ll always get a crop. This variety is ideal for cooking, and sweet and juicy when eaten fresh from the tree in August.
8: Banana (Musa Basjoo)
Small, edible fruits develop behind the flowers of this banana palm.
Image source: T&M
Musa basjoo, also known as Japanese banana palm, is the perfect addition to a tropical planting scheme – and grows to 5m (16’) tall! Once mature, it produces a display of white flowers. During hot summers, these may develop into small, edible green fruits. This is a tender palm, suitable for growing in borders in milder parts of the UK – though it will need to be protected in winter.
As with most fruit trees, you may have to wait a year or so before your first harvest – so the sooner you get started the better! But it’s well worth the wait. Save on the food miles, host an unforgettable dinner party – or just enjoy a home-grown slice in your G&T. Find more information on growing fruit trees at our dedicated hub page, or if you’re interested in turning your patio into a tropical paradise, browse our helpful advice on growing exotic plants here. What exotic fruit trees have you grown? Let us know over on our Facebook page!
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
by Thompson & Morgan | Aug 19, 2020 | Gardening Posts, Vegetables
Courgettes are one of the easiest to grow vegetables
Image source: vaivirga
Growing your own fruit and veg has many health benefits, but there are practical benefits too, particularly if there’s a sudden shortage of fresh, organic produce in your local shops. Whether supply is affected by adverse weather, transport issues or a global pandemic – growing your own means you’ll always have access to fresh, healthy vegetables to feed your family.
What could be better than growing courgettes from seed in your own garden? Not only do they taste better, they require fewer pesticides, no plastic packaging and generate zero food miles. Here’s everything you need to know to avert a courgette shortage and grow your own at home…
Less is more…
Courgettes, also called zucchini, belong to the same family as pumpkins and squashes, and are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. If picked regularly, each plant will continue to produce vast quantities of delicious, nutty and flavoursome fruits, right through to October. Added to which, the large yellow flowers are also edible, with a slightly sweet ‘nectar’ taste.
You don’t need an allotment garden or veg patch to grow fresh produce. Courgettes can be grown in large pots and containers on your patio. On average, each courgette plant produces 4-5 fruits per week so you’ll only need two or three plants to feed a family – any more and you’re likely to end up with a glut!
How to sow, grow and max your courgette harvest
- Sow courgette seeds into individual 10cm pots of general purpose potting compost. Courgettes have a very high germination rate, but sow a couple more than you need, just in case. Water the pot until the compost is moist.
- Place the pots in a warm place like a windowsill, but out of direct sunlight. Continue to grow indoors until they’re ready to harden off and plant out. Wait until after all chance of frost has passed.
- For planting out, courgettes prefer a sheltered position in full sun. They’re reasonably large plants, so space them at least 60cm apart. Alternatively they can be grown in large containers on a patio. Protect young plants from slugs and snails in their early stages.
- Give them a mulch of 5cm of compost to help the soil hold moisture. In times gone by, courgettes were planted on the top of compost heaps because they enjoyed the high level of nutrients this gave them.
- Water your courgettes every day. Keep the soil just moist but water at the base of the plant only or they’ll rot.
- Try to give your plants a weekly liquid feed once they start flowering, and pick the courgettes regularly when they reach about 10cm long. This will ensure a delicious crop right through to October.
Growing problems and remedies
Harvest your courgettes regularly or the plant will stop producing fruits
Image source: Axel Mel
In good conditions and normal weather you’re unlikely to encounter any problems growing courgettes. But here are some of the most common problems, with tips on how to remedy them.
- Powdery Mildew is a white powdery deposit over the leaf surface caused by too much humidity and insufficient air circulation. To prevent, don’t plant your courgettes too close together, water the base of the plant, and keep the soil moist.
- Grey mould (botrytis) is a common disease, especially in damp or humid conditions like a greenhouse, and appears as a grey, fuzzy fungal growth that starts as pale patches. The best way to deal with this is to cut out and remove any damaged plant parts. Reduce the humidity in your greenhouse through ventilation and don’t overcrowd young plants and seedlings.
- Reduced fruiting: A lack of fruit is usually caused by the growing conditions and not by a pest or disease. Cool weather in early summer can sometimes cause inadequate pollination, and if you start your courgettes in a greenhouse, remember to open the doors often to let pollinators in. Water your plants every day and pick the fruits regularly to make sure they keep producing.
Courgettes are never dull
Growing your own courgettes allows you to experiment with varieties that you can’t buy in the supermarket, including those with interesting round, striped or yellow fruits. Popular varieties to try include:
In the right conditions, your courgettes will grow rapidly, maturing into large marrows and squashes in just a matter of days if not picked quickly enough. Plan plenty of recipe ideas in advance so you’re ready when it’s time to harvest – salads, soups, pasta dishes and even cake recipes will keep this easy-to-grow vegetable from ever becoming boring! For more courgette advice & harvesting tips, check our our helpful courgette hub page.
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
by Thompson & Morgan | Aug 18, 2020 | Gardening Posts
Naturalised swathes of bluebells, tulips and daffodils herald the arrival of spring
Image: Lois GoBe
Would you love to bring your garden back to life with a joyful burst of scent and colour next spring? With a little organisation – a well-planned combination of spring bulbs, flowering shrubs, colourful perennials and instant-impact plug plants will help you replace your winter blues with some fantastic early colour.
Small garden? No problem. Here are some top tips to help you plan a spring display with real wow factor, even in the tiniest of outdoor spaces.
Planning your spring display
The best way to start planning for the coming growing season is to begin with the plants you like. If they’ll grow in your soil – plant them. Other sources of inspiration include flower shows, gardens which are open to the public, and the parks and gardens you pass as you walk the dog or pick the kids up from school.
Think about plant colour, height, structure and density. And do remember that foliage plants, shrubs and small trees should also feature in your design, depending on how much space you have at your disposal. Consider your garden’s aspect, and the soil type you have at home.
Start with some spring architecture
A bright splash of yellow forsythia is a welcome sight at the end of winter
Image: Vlad_art
Ornamental trees are architectural centrepieces for your garden – and they needn’t be big. In fact there’s a wealth of dwarf trees from which to choose, some of which are great to grow in large containers – the perfect solution for people with small gardens, patios, or even balconies.
An ornamental cherry, for example, produces a radiant display of blossom in April, followed by foliage all summer and, come the autumn, fiery red, gold, or orange leaves. Or what about a crab apple? You’ll get copious amounts of blossom from early spring plus golden fruits during the autumn which the birds will love to feast on.
Providing a welcome backdrop of evergreen foliage, Clematis ‘Winter Beauty’ flowers through the bleakest months of December, January and February to help launch your early spring display. A favourite for fences and trellises, an all season clematis collection will provide height and interest, all year round.
Shrubs are an important way to provide structure in your garden and provide shelter for tender and shade-loving plants. Choose varieties that flower during the winter and into the spring – like forsythia which produces golden blooms from February or March, followed by attractive green foliage. Alternatively, try a dense shrub like Camellia, a popular plant border mainstay offering a striking display and long-lasting flowers.
Add some spring foliage
Evergreen foliage is a must for any garden because it gives you something to look at, even on the gloomiest of January days. But as the grey of winter gives way to bright and breezy spring, foliage plants really come into their own, giving your spring flowers a vibrant canvas to bloom against. Large, silvery leaves of plants like brunnera brighten up shady corners and make excellent ground cover when planted with striking architectural bulbs like spring alliums.
Try growing shrubs like Pieris japonica ‘Debutante’ in containers or borders – this hardy evergreen features pretty, ivory-white flowers from March until May. Alternatively, if you live in a milder area of the country, with its dramatic foliage, pittosporum is a great choice.
Choose a succession of spring bulbs
Spring wouldn’t be quite the same without a plentiful show of brilliant spring bulbs, but we suggest that you think about successional planting so that when one bulb finishes blooming, another is ready to take its place. Snowdrops and crocuses are among the first to flower, followed, depending on the climate where you are, by daffodils, tulips, anemones and plenty more.
Stick to a colour scheme, or mix it up – either can work well, but typically around half a dozen complementary colours creates a dazzling display for a small garden, without overdoing it. Plant your bulbs in drifts of seven to twenty bulbs so that each variety has a strong presence. Do also bear in mind the plant height – generally, it makes sense to put taller stemmed bulbs behind lower growing ones – for example tulips behind crocuses and irises.
Most spring bulbs should be planted during September and October to bloom the following spring. For a quick recap on exactly when to plant and at what depth, see how to grow bulbs, corms and tubers. When your bulbs have finished blooming, allow the flowerhead to die off completely before deadheading as this gives the plant time to reabsorb all that goodness, ready for next year.
Finish with some spring flowers
Finally, complete your spring display with colourful flowers like violas, pansies and primroses, all of which offer that bright seasonal spectacle you’re looking for. They’re easy to grow in pots or in the front of your borders and are a wonderful way to add instant interest.
Pansies and violas are a popular way to bring early colour to your beds, borders, pots and hanging baskets. Buy them as plug plants for quick and easy results.
Coming in pale yellows through to riotous colour, primroses are a hard working perennial that bloom for months at a time, providing continuity as your late spring and early flowers begin to show through. Sow cheerful pansy seeds during the autumn to flower next spring, or buy garden-ready plants to put straight into the soil.
A spring garden is fun to plan and plant in autumn, gives you plenty to look forward to during the depths of winter and, when the new season finally arrives, you’ll be rewarded with a kaleidoscope of spring colours and scents that will prove well worth the wait.
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
by Thompson & Morgan | Apr 15, 2020 | Gardening Posts
With so many sources of online gardening help, advice and information to turn to, it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you sort the good from the not so good, we’ve checked out a plethora of gardening YouTube channels for the quality of their content. Here’s a selection of some of the best. Enjoy.
Do you struggle to manage your sowing and successional sowing schedules? Let Kelly show you how she keeps her busy kitchen garden planting organised – her simple system is easy to replicate, helping you make the most of your garden or allotment.
A brilliant channel with heaps of handy gardening tips, green-fingered Kelly is a friendly and informative host who shows you her mistakes as well as her triumphs. She’s also a passionate baker, loves to cook over a live fire, and because she gardens in Scotland, her channel is also a must for cool climate growers.
Tune into Garden Organic for green fingered tutorials from a community of gardeners
Image: Garden Organic
If you’re sick of slugs and snails devouring your seedlings and garden plants, Garden Organic has some simple fixes you can try without resorting to nasty chemicals. Like leaving an upside down empty grapefruit half, baited with lettuce in a strategic location; slugs will congregate underneath ready for you to eliminate them.
Garden Organic is the UK’s biggest organic gardening charity with over 20,000 members and 60 plus years experience of promoting green growing practices. Looking for some quick tips on siting a garden pond? Look no further – stay away from hedges and tree roots and don’t forget that slope to ensure amphibians have easy access.
Have you ever wondered what’s going on beneath the surface when your seeds germinate? You need to take a look at Gardening at 58 North’s awesome 10 day time-lapse video of a runner bean taking root and growing shoots; you’ll be amazed.
Focusing on small space and balcony growing, this channel is a must for anyone who likes to maximise their plot’s performance. Find out just how easy it is to turn one anaemic-looking supermarket basil into multiple lush, bushy plants with nothing more than a pair of scissors, a mug or two of water and some potting compost.
Follow Matt’s journey as he transforms a disused wasteland into a bustling allotment
Image: Allotment Gardener
Don’t forget to keep checking your onions for flowering heads – an important job around planting-out time in May, says Allotment Gardener, Matt. These second year plants won’t get any bigger but if you leave them, they’ll throw all their energy into flowering.
Matt is informative and has that wry sense of humour all good gardeners possess – the ability to laugh at the vagaries of nature. Since taking over his plot in 2016, Matt has turned a wasteland into a working allotment. An inspiration as well as an excellent source of handy gardening hints and tips, Allotment Gardener is highly recommended viewing.
Lee gives plastic-free gardening a try with great results!
Image: Garden Ninja
When the Garden Ninja – professional garden designer, Lee Burkhill set himself the challenge of eliminating single use plastic from his garden, a steep learning curve ensued. Join him as he repurposes cardboard egg boxes, loo rolls and more, to prove that with just a little bit of willpower and imagination, going plastic-free is easily doable.
Winner of the BBC and RHS Feel Good Gardens Competition, Lee’s video guides help you create awesome garden designs of your own. Check out his Family Garden Design Transformation for a wealth of fun, creative ideas.
Try and get as much of the root as you can when you’re pricking out seedlings, says YouTuber, Nick; that way the plant has the best chance to establish itself. Potting on brassicas? Make sure you firm around the roots to make it harder for the wind to push the plants over.
Share in Nick’s journey as he grows fruit and veg on his North Wales plot. Fancy joining Nick’s 2020 sunflower challenge? He has three categories this year: tallest, largest head, and best display in a group – check out the video for info.
Follow avid gardening vlogger Sean in his endeavours down the allotment
Image: Sean James Cameron
Think you can remember everything you’ve sown so far this season? Organic allotmenteer and avid Vlogger, Sean thought so, but it turns out he sowed Evening Primrose twice in one month. That’s why he says it’s so vital to take an inventory of what you’ve already sown and what seeds have yet to go in the ground.
Sean has been filming his gardening adventures since 2012. Last year he walked away from his allotment of 11 years to a much bigger plot of land. Follow his YouTube adventures as he develops this new allotment to a productive vegetable and fruit garden. Later this year Sean plans to take on another allotment and run it using information supplied by the 1940’s Dig for Victory campaign. Sean James Cameron is: “The Good Life meets urban London living.”
For seasoned growing advice, make sure to bookmark Tony’s channel
Image: Simplify Gardening
Problems with creeping cinquefoil? This troublesome weed looks a little like a strawberry plant, only with five-bladed leaves rather than three. Just like strawberries, cinquefoil spreads by sending out runners, but each node sends down a deep taproot. The bad news, vlogger Tony says, is that if you leave even the tiniest piece of root in the ground, it will regrow. Check out his tips to get rid of it for good.
Want to grow nutrient dense organic food? Tony’s channel is the perfect place to start. Covering everything greenfingered, including beekeeping and poultry, you’ll find just the helpful advice you need to get the most from your plot. Check out Tony’s 12 tips to grow better tomatoes – give the roots plenty of room…
Visit Kris’ channel for advice on growing exotic plants in a colder climate
Image: Yorkshire Kris
Think you can’t grow a tropical garden in Yorkshire? Kris can – check out his video of his plot in the coldest temperature he’s ever experienced in his garden. The mercury read -5.8C, but plenty of fleece, good positioning, and the plants’ own defenses save most from the worst of the frost.
The UK isn’t perhaps the best place to grow tender plants, but as Kris demonstrates, it is possible. If you’d like to give it a go, this is the YouTube channel for you. That said, there are some tropical species best avoided. Check out Yorkshire Kris TV for the top 10 – sasa bamboo for one – once you plant it, it’ll spread like crazy and you’ll never get rid of it.
On his channel, Tony shows off both the good and the bad days at the allotment
Image: Tony C. Smith
Bad day at the allotment? Pigeons ate Tony’s brassicas, other birds feasted on his banana shallots. The red onions? Scythed. And when he went to buy replacements, he bought the wrong ones – not to worry – planting chard is just the thing to cheer Tony up.
Informative and entertaining, Tony’s YouTube channel is full of handy hints and good ideas, and he also makes a witty, warm, and energetic presenter. Thinking of growing your own? Check out what a good day in the allotment looks like – remember, a bad day in the garden beats a good day in the office.
Did we miss one of your favourite YouTube gardening channels? Head over to our Facebook page and let us know what gardening vlogs you love to watch. Alternatively, you might be interested to know we have our own YouTube channel – Thompson & Morgan TV. It’s packed full of useful info, hints and tips to help you get the most from your gardening.
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
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