Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all feeling good, and still working hard in the garden. This month has been so mild,it’s been the best year ever for Autumn sowing. Well at least it has for me here in Pembrokeshire. I feel so privileged to spend so many warm dry days pottering in the greenhouses, especially as I was so unwell for the first six months of the year.

So what have I been up to? Well lots of things – apart from my gardening, I’ve been taking part it in a long distance writing course, two online mini photography courses, and I’ve set up my own blogs on Weblogit and WordPress. Both of them are about living with Fallot’s Tretology, Ovarian Cancer and Heart Failure. My personal blog links are on my Facebook page If you would like to read them.

Gardening-wise – since being off sick, I have had an awful lot more time to study my garden. I’ve been able to understand more clearly why things are failing, (unfavourable conditions/wrong site,) the areas of deep shade, the sun’s path through the garden, micro climates, soil types and wildlife. I have made many plans in my head, about what to improve or change altogether. I have fallen in love with simple flowers that have done nothing but flower their hearts out all summer. My surprise love is French Marigolds.

But most of all I have learned to live in the moment. Best described by the words of the late great Welsh Poet William Henry Davies’ poem; Leisure

. “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”

 Well I have found plenty of time to stand and stare!

I have been keeping a paper diary of my gardening year. Again I feel so lucky to have done this. I would encourage any gardener to keep a diary similar to mine. Track the sun’s path, note your soil and weather conditions, record the wildlife. Draw your plans, jot down your favourites to grow. However, most importantly, record your mistakes. Mistakes, show that you tried something that didn’t work this time around, but maybe you can improve it next year, or at least not make the same mistakes. It’s really is better to try and fail, rather than never try at all. I’ve failed at growing pumpkins because my supports were not good enough. I can change this if I grow them again. I failed at melons, as the weather changed, so there was nothing I could do, but I will try again next year. I grew cucumlelons two years ago, I hated the taste. A mistake? No as other people liked them, they were easy to grow. Though I won’t do them again.

The last bit of news is I have got so many new blog ideas for here, that I am hoping the kind people at Thompson and Morgan will let me write some additional blogs apart from my monthly ones. It’s so lovely writing for them, as well as sharing my gardening exploits with you lovely readers, I also get given some excellent seeds free to grow and write about. Occasionally, I win blogger of the month and as winner, they give fantastic prizes. Have a look at the photo below, it shows my latest box of goodies sent by the editor. I especially love the teal Gubbins tray, flower pouches, and vermiculite.

October has given me many things – let’s start in The Office – it’s so well stocked, I could give my local garden centre a run for its money! I have recently had to move a load of plants to the cold frame as they are growing too quickly in the warmth of the staging under glass. The border is almost carpeted by Aloe Vera’s rooted houseplants are flowering, the spiky cactus has got fatter, and the yellow tomato is still producing. The money tree, is definitely becoming more tree like.

I’ve had great success with germination and transplanting of Calendula Snow Princess, and Orange English Marigolds. There are a few nasturtiums appearing too. I have a mass of beautiful Black Ball Cornflowers ready to go out in spring. There a numerous pots of Viola Jonny Jump Up ready to go outside.

Next job pot on Amaranthas Ouesburg seedlings from an old soft fruit punnet (I like to recycle) to singular pots are – these I would sorely miss if I didn’t collect the seeds each year. I think the most similar type that T&M do are called Ribbons and Tails. However, mine look more like a cross between a bottlebrush and a pampas grass flower. They have dark red/chocolatey leaves, that start off a deep grey green. The flowers are a cerise/burgundy, soft and fluffy to the touch. They don’t seem to have any scent, and the only thing I have seen feeding from/pollinating them are tiny bugs. They grow anything up to six foot in a hot summer, or even taller under glass. I’ve not tried eating the leaves, although it’s a delicacy in France and akin to spinach, nor have I wanted to try the flowers either. I have no idea which Amaranthas varieties are edible, so I wouldn’t chance it

Once I have done these, I then need to transplant the Larkspur, which look so pretty when they are small; as well as a few lavenders, Malva Moschatas, Heleniums and Radish. I also have a surviving turnip after a pesky slug got in and munched its way through them, as well as my cabbage and broccoli.

There is still no sign of the Kniphofias, Lupins, Foxgloves, and Stevia. Nor the grasses, nigella, hollyhocks or liatris. I’m not ready to give up on them yet.

In gaps on the middle shelves are White Lavender cuttings, a Christmas Cactus, some hyacinths that I have just started to water, two slightly dead looking buckthorn alder trees and a broken stem off my apple tree, that I’m hoping might root. It probably won’t, but I want to give it a chance. On what little space I have on the lower shelves, I have pots, vases, baskets, and various gardening equipment and tools.

Ty Mawr has been mostly prepared for late autumn and early winter. After giving fruits from late July until just a few days ago, the left border has now been cleared of tomato vines. What were left of the fruits were splitting at every opportunity, or failing to ripen. I made green tomato chutney once, but the bungalow stank of vinegar for days after, so I vowed never to make it again. There were hardly any green ones left anyway, so it wouldn’t have been worth the bother.

The only things remaining are a slightly floppy Amaranthas and a few French Marigolds. I plan to put the turnip and radish in this border for winter pickings. I also plan to overwinter my strawberries here too. I’m tempted to try some really late potatoes, but usually it’s best to get them in by September, so I might do onions instead.

The back border has been stripped of all except one aubergine plant. They didn’t really amount to much, maybe two or three fruits per plant. We just didn’t have the long hot summer they prefer. This is my least successful year for aubergines. Strangely the plant that’s left is a tiny T&M one, I grew from very late seeds. It isn’t even four inches, and has stayed this size all through summer, it had food and water and heat like the rest of them, but it just never grew any bigger. It’s the only one not to succumb to powdery mildew, mould or blight. So it’s staying for now. I have no idea if it will be strong enough to cope with winter. I may have to put a little cloche over it, even though it’s already under glass.

The right border has the two peppers which look really healthy, so again, I’m hoping to overwinter them. The chillies are turning a hot red, so fingers crossed I can keep this plant going too. Behind the chillies are ever expanding Nicotianas. One purple, one lime green. They are still flowering and smell divine. However, if they carry on multiplying as they are they will have to be evicted. Or even potted up to put outside next year.

Next to the chillies is a Sweet Aperetif tomato vine, that it still producing little red treats. I’m hoping to beat my personal best and pick tomatoes in November. The plants have usually caught blight by now, so I’m really chuffed this hasn’t happened yet. Spotted between the vine stems is a mini Amaranthas. I have a feeling they will grow like weeds in the greenhouse next year.

We had to take the Yellow Stuffer tomato out from the left border as it looked odd. The leaves were turning brown and the fruits were becoming mottled with brown patches. It didn’t look like blight, but I didn’t fancy eating the fruits so out it went. Lastly, there are two garlic plants growing. They have shot up over the last week, and have three leaves each.

On the hanging shelves in Ty Mawr are two money trees, repotted and brought in for the winter, as well as the spider plant that had to go out for the summer. There is also a single leaf from the money tree in a pot of its own, as it fell off one of the little ones. It had such good roots to it, I thought it might propagate this way. The other hanging shelves hold random pots, tomato feed, secateurs, a few garden ornaments, and outdoor solar lights so they don’t get damaged in the high winds and frost. There’s also a couple of China coasters for when I bring my hot chocolate with me on a plant inspection.

Anyhow, that’s enough from me.

Happy Gardening,

Love Amanda xx

Amanda Davies

My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.

And I’m done… kind of!

I’m sat in my cottage and the log burner roaring; the smell of burning cat hair fills the room- Martha once again has attempted to melt her tail on the fire door. Outside the leaves have all but dropped and my beard is a scruffy mess!

It’s been a while since I last managed to sit down and excrete horticultural information. The past few months have been even more hectic than the previous year!

I feel slightly lost now that I don’t have to harvest, water and tend to everything 7 days a week.

So apart from abusing your facial hair, what has been happening Sam?

Well, Cucumber Armageddon is complete. I feel rather elated and proud of what I’ve achieved. The plan was to grow every cucumber needed for every meal at the pub- that’s a lot! They regularly serve 300+ meals a day and most include a salad garnish. Apart from couple of days in mid-summer, I did it!!! 1678 straight, wonky and green cucumbers from 86 plants. That’s 19.5 per plant, which isn’t bad. It wasn’t easy but it proves other small businesses could do the same achieving great success.

The most successful varieties from this year are:

Golden Sweet Mange-tout that’s well…sweet.

Shiraz Mange-tout that’s well…purple.

Candied Beetroot with its vibrant growth rings.

Heirloom Rainbow Carrots picked small and fried in a pan.

Every new crop I trialled at the pub gets reviewed by myself and the chef, every September. This gives us a chance to find out what worked and in some cases what didn’t. We then discuss new varieties and I ramble on about random tropical fruit that might be the next big thing in 2018……keep an eye out for Actinidia arguta (Hardy Kiwi). 

The one tropical fruit I’d recommend trying next year is Horned Melons! These peculiar climbers originate from Africa and have been a great talking point in the polytunnel. Once ripened, you can use the pulpy interior to flavour jelly, desserts or cocktails but it is rather ‘snotty’ in texture! The taste is a weird but good fruity banana ish thing.

Finally, I’m currently trialling Bluemoon and Redmoon radish in pots. You can just about get away with it in a polytunnel/greenhouse/window sill. It’s a good way to test varieties you might have missed in the summer.

Now I better put the kettle on, light a scented candle and clean burnt cat hair off the fire!!

Martha

Sam Corfield

Having trained at Duchy College in Cornwall, he then spent 10+ years on and off working at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. In between Sam has setup a garden at RHS Hampton Court show, lived and worked on large private garden in New Zealand and worked for the BBC as a Natural history cameraman.

Sam now advises, designs and builds vegetable gardens for businesses, allowing them to grow their own crops. He tends to grow slightly more unusual crops and loves experimenting!

samcorfield.co.uk/

Everyone loves a freebie, don’t they? Couple that with a claim of said freebie as provider of joy and you’d be shooting that person a kind yet concerned look.  Have a sit down and have some sugary tea, you’d gently suggest.

And yet it’s true, alright, kind of true.  For the cost of a few basic ingredients which you may well have anyway, and a few minutes outdoors this Autumn, you can morph into Artisan Producer.

Which is just the excuse we need to get in some girding lungsful of all of these seasonal mists and mellow fruitfulness.

Now, I realise this is meant to be a #gardeningblog.

Sometimes though it’s good to look beyond our own patch of lovingly tended earth and refocus the eye on the wider garden of the borrowed landscape.  Those green and public spaces we all use and rely on.

Maybe you’re lucky enough to have the British countryside on your doorstep, or maybe you’re not.  Chances are there will be some pocket of public greenery half tucked away, but still available to those out looking.  In my case, the footpath running behind where we live has been thoughtfully, or rather cost-minimisingly, planted up by the local council with a job lot of blackthorn trees.  Fast growing, spiny and a haven for wildlife, they provide useful ground cover and can grow on even scrubby ground.

Happily, blackthorn also produces masses of pretty white flowers in Spring and, around about now, a plethora of plump blue-purple sloe berries. Very handy.

Country lore has it that witches’ wands and staffs were made using blackthorn wood. Interesting, yes, though let’s not explore that much further right now.

We have a far better proposition: Sloe gin of course, or if you want to add a few brambly extras, Hedgerow gin.

It hardly takes any time or effort for what you get out at the end.

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What kit you’ll need:

• A pair of sturdy gloves and/or nimble fingers to dodge the thorns
• A container to hold your sloes in as you pick them
• 3 litre Kilner jar or similar wide-necked screw cap bottle

Ingredients: (to yield a litre or so, although that’s clearly a guess)

• Your sloes. I had 1.7 kg – adapt ingredient quantities depending on your haul.
• About one and a half 70 cl bottles of any gin you like
• 400g granulated sugar

Optional

• For hedgerow gin: blackberries, raspberries etc.
• Herbs and spices. I used two cracked cardamom pods and a some juniper berries.  Maybe try rosemary or basil, star anise even?
• To help pick the sloes, a garden cane with a hook at one end to pull down those tantalising-looking branches which are always just out of reach somehow (yes, my other half did custom make one for this actual job, although I realise this is atypical behaviour and not really warranted)
• A barely repressed desire to be the watered-down, more creature comforts version of Ray Mears crossed with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

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Method (what passes as one)

I’m no Delia Smith.  The somewhat laissez-faire approach to an ingredients list is your clue.  Just use whatever fruits and ingredients you think will work and go with it.

You may already know that it’s a big waste of your time to prick your sloes beforehand, and there’s no need to wait until the fabled first frosts before you go foraging (unless that’s your bag, in which case be my guest), just put your sloes in the freezer.  This will cause them to rupture so the recipe works.  And use as much or as little sugar as you like.  Some people say you can always add more later, which makes sense.

I had a lot of sloes, too many probably, but there we are.  I took the enormous Kilner jar, tipped in the frozen sloes, berries and spices and poured over enough gin until it reached the top and sealed it shut.

Immediately the sloes fell into a pleasing symmetry, the sugar cascading and flowing between the spaces like powder snow.  It is possible at this point I was already mentally scoffing mince pies and bestowing seasons greetings to anyone happening to walk by.  But if there’s any cheaper, more cheery gift to be had at Christmas, I need to know.

In just a matter of minutes the outside of the jar was covered attractively in condensation droplets and the spirit turning the faintest pink already.

All that’s left is to shake and turn daily for the first few weeks to dissolve the sugar and then keep turning occasionally for the next few months. Then, for a clear, garnet, jewel bright liquid, decant through a muslin cloth into smaller bottles.  Pretty up with gift tags and bibelots of choice, if intended as gifts.

That’s it!  Well, that’s almost it.

I know some of you are reading this and thinking all of that sloe foraging is a complete faff, and it’s not for me, thanks.

1. It’s not, and it is
2. I have seen sloes for sale on eBay. Repeat, eBay. There are no further excuses.

Bottoms up, as Ray Mears probably doesn’t say in the forest.

Why not tell everyone your top foraging and home grown gift tips and stories?  Comment here, we’d love to hear them!

Alison Hooper

I’ve lived in various places from freezing flats in Manchester with just enough room to swing a pot rubber plant, to a Leicester semi which must have held some kind of local record for most concrete used in the garden. That took some digging out. Now living in Market Harborough with husband Matt and two young daughters. And a cat who shows up for mealtimes. Gardening neophyte, learning always.

Five years ago my local horticultural society was on the brink of extinction. Membership numbers had dwindled and the society was losing hundreds of pounds every year.  The main expense was the putting on of the shows. Something had to change or the society would have been forced to close its doors for good.

The great weigh in commences

In recent years we have tried many different things to try and encourage more people to attend out shows. One of the ways we have tried to do this has been through the launch of a seed potato growing competition.  Each member is able to purchase for a nominal fee one seed potato and one bag. They have to take them away with them, pot them up and grow them on. They then have to bring their potato bag to the Autumn Show for the big weigh in.

In its inaugural year twelve bags were brought to the Autumn Show. The winner, Andy Gaskin, managed to grow 2.4kg of potatoes from his bag. Although twelve does not seem like a great number it was the most popular class in the whole show.   The competition had added an extra dimension to the show as many people were excited to watch the big weigh in. It was without doubt a great success.

Each entry is weighed under watchful eyes

For 2017 I have taken on the role of Show Secretary for the society. My goals were to make the shows more popular with people in terms of showing and visiting. At the same time I wanted to try and make the shows profitable for the society. It also meant for this year that I would be responsible for the seed growing potato competition. I started by looking for sponsors for the competition itself. I was thrilled when I got the news from Thompson & Morgan that they would agree to sponsor this year’s competition. We were sent 60 nine litre bags and some “Jazzy” seed potatoes. At our February monthly meeting the seed potatoes were distributed to the membership.

We have a winner!

Before I knew it, September had rolled around and it was time for our Autumn Show. I was hoping that this year we would beat the number of bags returned from last year.  To my amazement we managed to get thirty bags to the weigh in and it took over an hour to weigh all them! The winner managed to get 1.4kg from the 9 litre bag. It had been a hugely successful competition.

I believe this simple competition has had a huge impact on our society.  It is so easy to get involved with and generates friendly competition between the members of the society. It gives people more of a reason to come to the show and it has generated income for the society. Most importantly, it helps to break down the stigma attached to Horticultural Shows that you need to be an expert to enter them. It encourages anyone to get a seed potato and a bag and have a go.

I hope to build on the success of this year’s competition and make it bigger and better for next year. I would like to thank Thompson & Morgan for their support and hope this competition continues to help this small village horticultural society thrive.

Thomas Carpenter

My name is Thomas Carpenter and I live in Essex. At my home I have a vegetable patch and greenhouse where I grow a range of flowers and vegetables for both the show bench and for eating. I am the Show Secretary for my local horticultural society and have been a member there for the last eight years. Currently I am in training with the Essex Guild of Horticultural Judges and the National Vegetable Society. I have a real passion for growing and showing vegetables as well as encouraging children and young people to get involved with horticulture.