Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

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.

Hello October.

October is my favourite month, as I can do my favourite annual job in the garden.

A lot of people seem to be scared of rose pruning, but I actually love it. The more challenging the better.

Each year the lovely Rosa “Climbing Shot Silk” gets a tidy up.

Shot Silk is a fragrant, repeat flowering rose which have large double blooms. It has silky textured flowers with golden centre, with strong growth, (ideal for tying in) and dark green glossy foliage.

Tools of choice for this job are, my beloved Felco No2’s, I will be lost without these, (each year I send them to Felco to service them), pruning saw and loppers.

I try to reuse ties for the previous year, but having spare ones help!

This is the Rose before I started, the long whips that are reaching to sky are going to be tied in to produce new blooms next year.

I start by untieing last years clips and start reducing the ends to make it easier to deal with.

With pruning any Roses, always remember to prune the D’s :-  Dead, Dying Damaged and one other I tend to include is Don’t know! So if I have particular piece that doesn’t look right, I will prune it out.

Reduce stems which could potentially grow next year’s long whips, always to an outwards facing bud, a sharp clean cut.

These pieces which are untied float around begging to be tied in, I loosely tie them in and then step back to see the finished vision, I aim for two long stems per wire to maximise flowers on each rung.

This is my finished rose. With the branches laid flat it encourages new growth to shoot up and lovely roses on the end.

And, here is a picture of our beloved Rosa “Climbing Shot Silk” it her full glory!

So that’s the climbing rose pruning done and now to prune back the other Hybrid Teas.

Enjoy October, the nights are drawing in, so make the most of the glorious Autumn sun.

Happy gardening!

Sue x

For help choosing the right climbing rose for you, and to find out when and how to plant it, head over to our rose hub page. While you’re there, browse our new roses collection or select from our award-winning roses to find the perfect climbers for your garden.

Sue Russell

One of my earliest memories; helping my Mum and Dad weed the veggie plot and collecting chicken eggs from the chooks at the end of the garden. I grew up on a farm as a child and always had my own piece of land to grow and learn with, so I suppose its in the blood!
In my mid twenties, I re trained in Horticulture (Professional Gardening ANCH) and set up my own Gardening business working for clients in the Suffolk/Essex area. For the last thirteen years I’ve had the pleasure of working on a private twenty five acre estate tending to the grounds.
In 2016, I joined the team at Thompson and Morgan in the Customer Care department.
Also season ticket holder at Ipswich Town Football Club!!