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Most sweet potatoes have rosy pink skins and orange flesh, but when you grow your own you can diversify a little, with purple or white varieties added to the mix. Make sure the variety you choose is suitable for growing in the UK (all of ours are) and if you’re planning to grow them outdoors, choose a hardier variety like Beauregard. Which is the sweetest of the sweet? Orleans just edges it on sugar content at 11%, but all of them are ideal for roasting, baking, making into fries or adding to a curry. Fun fact: they’re not even remotely related to potatoes, but are members of the Ipomoea family, which includes the flowering climber Morning Glory. The flowers are very similar!
I’ll be honest - our grower really doesn’t recommend this. Growing from seed is very hit and miss, but if you’re patient, up for a challenge and can find the seeds on sale, it could make an interesting project.
Plant your seeds indoors in pots of seed compost, about 6mm deep. Alternatively you can wait until the soil temperature is around 18°c and plant them directly outdoors under cloches.
Your seeds will need temperatures of around 27°C to germinate, so you’ll need to use a heat mat and cover them with a humidity dome or similar. Be patient - germination can take 2-4 weeks or even longer. Once your seedlings have two pairs of leaves and are strong enough to handle, you can pot them on or plant them outdoors under cover, making sure to harden them off first by putting them outdoors for increasing periods of time during the day, then bringing them back inside at night.
The main issue with growing from seed in the UK is of course the temperature. Sweet potatoes need a lot of warmth to grow, and as you need to wait for the soil to warm to 18°C, this doesn’t leave a long enough growing season until the temperatures drop again. If you have access to a heated greenhouse though, you may be in luck!
If you’re wondering what the heck a slip is, it’s just a cutting from a sweet potato plant, and one of the best ways to grow them. You can buy these online from around April.
When your sweet potato slips arrive, you’ll need to rehydrate them in a jar of water for a couple of days, then plant each one in a pot of compost with as much of the stem underground as possible, to encourage the roots to grow. Cover each pot with a plastic bag or mini cloche until they show signs of growth, then you can pot them on or plant them outside.
The easiest way of all is to grow your sweet potatoes from plants, and this is the method our grower recommends. It just means that the hardest part (getting the plants to germinate and develop roots) is already done and you can focus on caring for your established plant.
Our sweet potato plants arrive with you in 10cm pots so you can just place them in a warm, sunny spot and grow them on until it’s time to repot them or plant them in a bed. When repotting your plants, choose pots at least 30cm wide and deep, and use one pot for each plant, or if you’re planting in a bed, leave at least 30cm between each plant.
If you’re using slips, you can plant these out when the soil is at least 18°C, or around 3-4 weeks after the last frost. Our grower’s sweet potato plants are delivered to you in May, so you’ll need to keep these indoors for about a month (depending on the frost dates in your area) before planting out.
Growing under cover is a lot more reliable - you can plant your sweet potatoes into their final position at any time as long as it’s warm enough for them.
It’s definitely possible to grow sweet potatoes outdoors, but your crop may not be as good, and you will need to be on the ball with protecting them from the cold. In warmer regions of the UK it can be worth a punt - the trick seems to be in warming the soil first before you plant them.
Choose the sunniest, most sheltered place in your garden and prepare the ground by laying plenty of compost or well rotted manure. Then cover the ground with black polythene sheets (you can use empty compost sacks for this) and leave it to warm up.
After the last chance of frost has passed in your area, cut holes about 30cm apart in the polythene and plant a sweet potato plant in each one. To improve your odds of success even more, cover your plants with cloches or cold frames, especially overnight. If you’re growing in rows, leave 75cm between each one - those plants really do spread!
We’d always recommend growing sweet potatoes indoors if you can - it’s easier to give them the conditions they need and your crops will be better. A greenhouse, conservatory or polytunnel is ideal, but if you have a sunny, warm windowsill at home, this is also fine. There’s no need to pre-warm the soil like you would if you were growing outdoors, so you can plant directly into your greenhouse border or large pots. The ideal temperature for your plants is between 21-27°C.
Planting sweet potatoes in pots is a great way to grow - you’ve got so much more control over their heat, light and soil conditions. Make sure your pots are at least 30cm deep and wide and have good drainage holes, then fill them with good general purpose compost and use one pot per plant.
Sweet potatoes are surprisingly unfussy about their soil, so as long as you use one that’s rich in nutrients, well drained and free of clay, weeds and stones, you’ll be fine. The best type seems to be a slightly sandy, acid or neutral soil, but general purpose compost works perfectly well. For the best results, prepare the soil in spring by mixing in some well rotted manure and give your sweet potatoes a really good watering when you first plant them.
As much as possible! As tropical plants, sweet potatoes need all the heat and light you can give them, so choose a warm greenhouse, conservatory or windowsill for your indoor plants, or a sheltered sunny spot outdoors (preferably south facing) where your plants will get a full six to eight hours of sunlight daily throughout the growing season.
Sweet potatoes are thirsty plants (must be all that heat) and need regular watering or the tubers won’t grow to the size you want them. Check your plants regularly (especially those indoors or in pots) and water deeply if the soil is dry below the surface. On hot summer days you’ll need to water every day.
You’ll get much better results if you feed your plants regularly with a low nitrogen, high potassium (or potash) fertiliser - this is especially important for plants in pots. Feed them every other week throughout the summer to help the tubers develop properly. Banana skins are also high in potassium, so cutting them up and adding them to the soil will give your plants an extra boost.
Sweet potatoes grow on stems that can climb upwards (to about 1.5m) or trail on the ground. Growing them vertically is by far the best option if you’re limited for space, but they will need something to climb up. A trellis is a good option, or you can use a pyramid of canes like those used for climbing beans. Choose canes or sticks about 1.8m long and tie them together at the top to form a tent shape for your plant to climb up.
Alternatively, you can position your plants next to a sunny wall or fence and use vertical wires as a support. In a greenhouse you also have the option of tying them to strings hung from the roof.
You shouldn’t need to prune your sweet potato plants, but if you do find they grow especially well and sprawl out of the space you’ve put them in, you can trim some of the stems back and it won’t harm your plant.
Your sweet potatoes will be ready to harvest about 12-16 weeks after planting. This will usually be between August and October. Watch out for the leaves turning yellow and wilting - this is your sign that they’re ready! Dig up your sweet potatoes using a garden fork or spade, and gently lift them away from the soil (their skins are quite delicate). Don’t leave it too late though, as an early frost in autumn could damage your crop in the ground.
Sweet potatoes will keep for about two weeks on the kitchen counter or up to a month in a cool, dark place. It’s best to use your sweet potatoes fresh, but if you get a bumper crop, brush the soil off and cure them in a warm dark, humid place for 4-7 days (outdoors in the sun is fine) to toughen up their skins and maximise their storage life. You can also freeze them if you blanch or boil them first.
You shouldn’t have too much trouble with pests and diseases when growing sweet potatoes - they’re generally very strong and resilient plants. However, anything grown under cover is at risk from greenhouse pests like red spider mites and whitefly, so it’s worth regular checks. If your plant’s leaves start drooping and turning yellow, appear mottled or covered in cobwebs, you might have to take action.
Whiteflies look like small white moths and are most commonly found on the underside of leaves. If left to their own malign devices they will feed on the leaves, damaging them and turning them yellow. Your best defence against whitefly is to simply spray your plant down with some water or a mix of water, vegetable oil and soap, aiming it at the whiteflies to try and wash them off. Make sure you check the whole plant and get as many of the fiends off as possible.
You can also plant companion plants such as marigolds near your cucumbers. Marigolds deter whitefly as well as attracting ladybirds and hoverflies which will come and feast on the pests.
Red spider mites are tiny (about 1mm) red beasties that are often a problem in greenhouses.
If left unchecked they can cover entire leaves in their webs while sucking the sap from them, causing yellowing leaves, leaf drop and sometimes the death of the plant.
To prevent the red menace infesting your sweet potato plant, mist the leaves daily - they don’t like that. You can also use biological control against red spider mites, by introducing predator mites such as Phytoseiulus persimilis. These can be bought online and are a natural way to control pests.
]]>*Eat responsibly.
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All chilli plants grow in roughly the same way and they’re not difficult, so choose the kind of chilli you like to eat best and the heat you can handle. The SHU ratings measure chilli heat and vary from 0-500 (Trinidad Perfume) to 1,000,000+ (Trinidad Scorpion) and there are chillies to suit every kind of cuisine, including Scotch Bonnets for Caribbean dishes, jalapenos and habaneros for Mexican food and Naga Red chillies for the hottest curries. None of them will present you with any major growing challenges, but a dwarf variety such as Apache needs no support and makes the job even easier.
The Scoville scale measures a chilli’s heat in SHUs (Scoville Heat Units). It was created by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, who devised a test in which volunteers (we hope) ate chillies ground up and increasingly diluted in sugar water until the testers no longer felt the burn. The number of units refers to the number of dilutions needed (for context, pure capsaicin, the compound that makes chillies hot, is 16,000,000 SHUs). I reckon Wilbur would have gone down a storm on TikTok…
Chillies are simple to grow from seeds, provided you start them early enough. Sow your chilli seeds about 3cm apart in trays or pots or in individual coir pellets, and cover them with a thin layer of compost. The seeds will germinate quicker if you use a heated propagator or heat mat, but a plastic lid or bag over the pot works too. Position on a warm windowsill where they’ll get plenty of sunlight.
Once the seeds have sprouted, remove the cover to allow better air circulation and prevent mould. Move them into their final pots when your plants are about 10cm tall and have at least two ‘true’ leaves (these will be a different shape to the two seedling leaves that grow first). Use one 20cm pot for each chilli plant or plant two to three in a bigger container.
For a budget option, you can grow chillies successfully from the seeds you scrape out of your average supermarket jalapeno, but you’ll be able to grow a much bigger variety of chillies if you buy the seeds from a specialist chilli company or get them from a seed swap.
Image source: Flickr.
If you’d rather skip all that sowing, waiting and hoping (or you’ve left it too late for seeds) you can buy your chillies as young plants which can be grown on in pots. If you’re growing outdoors, your plants should be hardened off (gradually introduced to the great outdoors for increasing lengths of time and brought back in at night) then planted out only after the last frost date has passed. This varies according to where you live, and can be checked here. Otherwise, simply pot up your plants and keep them in a sunny place indoors.
Grafting is where the plant breeder joins together two different vegetable plants which have certain qualities (such as disease resistance or vigorous growth) to produce a plant with the best features of both.This can really benefit more tender vegetables such as chillies.
Grafted plants tend to have better root systems, which means the plants can take up more water and nutrients from the soil, growing bigger and producing more fruit. Many of them also seem to crop for a longer period of time.
Grafted chillies are an especially good idea if you’re planning to grow them outdoors - they’ll stand up to more drought, heat and cold than non-grafted plants, saving you money and disappointment.
Chillies generally do best in a sunny spot indoors, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t give them a go on a sunny patio or balcony in the summer. Make sure you don’t put them outside too early, when there’s still a risk of frost, and plant them in pots so you can easily move them indoors in case of a change in the weather.
Choose one of the hardier dwarf varieties of chilli, such as Apache and position it in the warmest spot possible, sheltered and well away from cold winds. I’ve also had really good results from growing Basket of Fire outdoors in hanging baskets (and I’m in Yorkshire) but I did start the plants off indoors, only transplanting them once they were well established and the weather was warmer.
Chillies are one of the earliest seeds you should sow, as they need a long growing season. I always start mine off in February, but sowing as early as January is even better, while starting as late as March to early April should also give you decent results.
If you’re growing from plants, you can order your chillies at any point from April, moving them to larger pots if the roots start to look crowded. Grow them indoors or move them outside only when there is no longer a risk of frost.
Chillies can take between sixty and a hundred days from sowing seeds to harvesting, depending on the variety. Using plants will obviously cut this time down by a few weeks and your chillies should be ready to harvest from late summer and into autumn. You can pick chillies at any stage of their colour development, depending on how you like them.
Chilli plants need plenty of heat and light to grow and fruit, so choose a warm greenhouse, polytunnel, conservatory or windowsill for your plants, or a sheltered sunny spot outdoors (preferably south facing) where your plants will get a full six to eight hours of sunlight daily throughout the growing season.
Little and often is the best way to water chillies. A couple of times a week will probably do it until summer, when you’ll need to increase that to a daily watering. Don’t allow the soil to become too saturated though, as this can encourage mould and mildews. Misting your plants with a fine water spray is also beneficial if they’re growing indoors, as it helps to keep down pests and maintain a good level of humidity.
When you first plant your chillies or pot on your seedlings, start them off with a sprinkle of general purpose plant food, unless your compost already contains some. When the flowers start to appear, that’s when your plant really needs a regular feeding schedule, to allow the fruits to develop properly. Use a high potash (AKA potassium) feed such as tomato fertiliser every week. Banana skins are high in potassium too, so cutting them up and adding them to the soil will give your plants a boost.
Chilli plants do best in a fertile, well-draining soil - standard garden compost is fine, or a mixture of one part topsoil to three parts compost. To help the soil drain, you can add broken crockery or gravel to the bottom of your pots.
Taller varieties of chilli might need support from a garden cane to prevent them bending or breaking - a 60cm one should be fine for most. To avoid damaging the stem, tie it in to the support gently with string, wool, pipe cleaners or soft plant ties.
Chilli plants shouldn’t need any pruning, other than to remove the dead flowers once they’re finished. To encourage the plant to grow bushier rather than taller, you can pinch out (trim by hand) the top of the main stems when the plant reaches about 20cm in height.
I was told a couple of years back that if you keep your chilli plants over the winter, they’ll start blossoming and fruiting again, but it wasn’t the case for mine. I kept some chilli plants on my kitchen windowsill for over a year, but although they kept on growing taller and producing foliage, they didn’t go on to flower or fruit at the time my new plants were doing so. Perhaps the plants were worn out? Maybe it was too cold? Who knows, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Chillies are ideal for growing in pots. When you first pot on your seedlings, a 9cm pot will be sufficient for each one - they’re pretty fragile when young, so take care not to break the stems. Use a good quality compost, firm down the soil around the plant gently by hand and give your plant a watering. After a short while the plants will reach about 10cm tall - time to pot them on to their permanent homes! Choose pots which are at least 20cm deep and wide and add a support such as a bamboo cane if they’re a variety that grows tall.
Your plants will do best under cover, but you can move the pots to a sunny patio from June onwards if you prefer.
The evolutionary purpose of a chilli’s heat is as a defence mechanism to stop animals eating it (so that worked well) and they produce higher levels of heat when they’re more stressed. Some growers believe, therefore, that by treating the chillies less kindly than perhaps you normally would, you can increase their heat. The hottest chillies to grow are those with the highest Scoville heat unit count (see above) but if you want even more heat, there are some tips and tricks you can try.
Image source: Wikimedia.
To harvest your chillies, simply cut them off at the long green stalk with a sharp knife or scissors once they reach the size and colour you want. Harvesting regularly will encourage the plant to produce more chillies!
Freshly harvested chillies will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge or about a week on the kitchen counter. You can also chop them up and store them in the freezer until you need them if you have lots - or try one of these preserving methods to enjoy your chillies for even longer. (But don’t touch your eyes!)
Make sure all of your chillies still have their stalks attached, then thread a needle and pass it through the base of each chilli stalk until you have a long line of them. Tie a loop at the top and hang them up in a warm, dry, airy place. Once fully dry, you can use them whole or remove the stalks and grind them in a coffee grinder* or pestle and mortar to make chilli powder.
*For the love of all that’s holy, clean it well afterwards. I speak from experience.
Chilli jam is a glorious invention and a great way to use up both chillies and tomatoes. Make sure your jars are really clean and sterilise them before filling, to avoid the heartbreak of mouldy chilli jam. If you get it right, it lasts for ages and is fantastic on burgers and panini.
Pickled jalapeno slices are a Mexican food essential (they’re also great on pizza) and they’re surprisingly quick to make. Why restrict yourself to one kind of chilli though? Experiment with your favourites and make your own mixed jars for added colour (and surprise heat!).
Making your own signature hot sauce is surely worth growing extra chilli varieties for, although purists would say it needs at least one Scotch Bonnet. Add your favourite herbs and spices to this basic formula, label it with your own image and bring it out at barbecues to impress the neighbours.
If your plant has produced flowers but few or no chillies, it’s probably down to a lack of pollinators. This can be a problem with plants grown indoors, so always make sure you leave windows or doors open regularly where you’re growing, so the bees can get in. You can also help by misting and hand pollinating your plants - use a paintbrush and transfer pollen from one flower to another by gently brushing inside the middle of each flower on the plant.
Some chilli varieties take longer to fully ripen than others, which means that while some of your chillies might be maturing, others stubbornly stay green. You can either shrug and use them green, or ramp up the light levels to encourage them to change colour. You can do this by moving your pots to a sunnier, warmer place or even putting them under a grow light. Alternatively, pick them green and ripen in the kitchen - putting them in a bowl with an overripe banana helps.
Whiteflies look like small white moths and are most commonly found on the underside of leaves. If left to their own malign devices they will feed on the leaves, damaging them and turning them yellow. Your best defence against whitefly is to simply spray your plant down with some water or a mix of water, vegetable oil and soap, aiming it at the whiteflies to try and wash them off. Make sure you check the whole plant and get as many of the fiends off as possible.
Aphids are the dreaded green bugs that cluster on the plant stems, particularly at the joints, and also the underside of leaves. They cause leaves and fruit to become discoloured and misshapen. Aphids also leave behind a sticky residue known as honeydew which can then promote the growth of a fungus known as sooty mould - about as fun as it sounds. You can use soapy water to blast the aphids off the plant or wipe them off with a damp piece of kitchen roll.
Powdery Mildew is a fungal disease that usually attacks the leaves and stems of a plant, leaving a white powdery residue. It can cause stunted growth and affect crop yields.
Powdery mildew thrives in damp, humid conditions. To prevent it from affecting your plant, always water at the base of the plant in the morning so there’s enough time for the surface water to evaporate, and try to prevent splashing from the ground to the leaves.
If your plant is suffering from powdery mildew, prune away infected leaves at the stem with a sharp, sterilised tool. Be sure to sterilise the tool before touching another part of the plant or other plants in your garden as this can cause the infection to spread. You can then spray the plant down with a mix of one teaspoon of baking soda mixed with a litre of water to prevent further occurrences.
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Serves 4-6
To make the pastry, mix the plain flour, rye flour, and salt. Work the cubed butter into the mix to make fine breadcrumbs (this can also be done in a food processor or blender).
Add the cold water and bring it together with a cutlery knife, or give it a few more pulses in the food processor.
Knead on the work surface for a minute to form a smooth dough. Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Chill for 30 minutes or overnight.
Note: shop-bought shortcrust pastry also works well for this recipe.
To make the filling, slice the shallots into half moons and sweat down in a saucepan with one tbsp oil and a generous pinch of salt. Cook down for 15 minutes or until super soft. Allow the shallots to cool.
Meanwhile, slice the spinach finely and mix it through the shallots once cool. Add the zest of half a lemon and season well with salt and pepper.
Slice the courgettes into thin rounds. Preheat the oven to 200°C – put a flat baking tray into the oven at this stage.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it into a circle on top of some greaseproof paper. You’re looking for pound coin thickness.
Spread the shallot and spinach mix into the centre of the pastry, leaving a large border around the edge. Top with the sliced courgettes and drizzle them with oil and a little salt.
Fold the edges of the pastry to create a pie crust – it can overlap and look rustic. Finish with an egg glaze and a sprinkle of salt. Carefully slide the galette on the greaseproof paper onto the preheated baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Sprinkle the tart with freshly blanched peas and freshly picked basil, and there you have it! Bon appetit!
Serves 2 (or 4 as a side)
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Prep the carrots – clean them and trim the carrot tops off, leaving a little green top. Cut the carrots in half, lengthways, and then again into quarters, and toss with the olive oil, cumin, chilli flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Take the carrots, now coated in the oil and spice mix, and place them on a baking tray or within a deeper roasting tray. Cover the carrots with some rosemary and thyme, preferably fresh. Roast for 15-25 minutes (depending on how thick the carrots are) until soft and slightly charred.
Meanwhile, grate the garlic as finely as possible and zest the lemon. Mix the grated garlic and lemon zest into the ricotta and whip it for a minute or so to lighten it. Season with salt and pepper, then spread the risotto onto a serving plate. Top with the sumac, then place the roasted carrots onto the spread.
Add your dill and basil leaves, plus a final sprinkling of sumac, and you’re good to serve up!
Serves 2 (or 4 as a side)
Juice the limes and the orange. Slice the red onion into half moons, making sure to cut them as thinly as possible. Deseed and dice the red chilli.
Mix everything in a bowl with a pinch of salt and scrunch the onions with your hands. Do this a couple of times over 2-3 hours or allow them to sit overnight. These will keep in the fridge for 5 days.
Cut or tear the sourdough into cubes or bite-sized pieces. Make the dressing by mixing the oil and lemon and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the bread so that it soaks up all the juices.
Slice and quarter the heritage tomatoes so you have a mix of shapes and sizes for the salad. Add your tomatoes to the dressing-soaked bread, then slice the olives into rounds and do the same.
Roughly chop the herbs and then mix everything with a handful of the pink pickled onions. Leave to sit for 15 minutes before serving. Finish with a glug of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and a few fresh basil leaves.
First, bash the cucumbers! Keep the cucumbers whole and use a rolling pin to smash them so they break down. Salt the cucumbers and leave them to sit while you make the rest of the dish.
Char the scotch bonnet in a hot, dry frying pan so it’s blackened on each side, allow to cook then deseed and dice the chilli – use half the chilli if you don’t want it too spicy.
Slice the spring onions, peel and grate the ginger and garlic, then place in a heatproof bowl along with the diced chilli.
Heat the oil to roughly 180°C then pour over the chilli mix. Be extra careful with the hot oil! Allow to infuse for half an hour then add the soy sauce. This keeps in the fridge for up to one month.
To serve, squeeze off the excess water from the cucumbers then chop roughly. Pour over the chilli oil, making sure to get some of those lovely spring onions over the cucumber, and garnish with freshly picked coriander leaves.
Serves 4 as a side
Start by washing the potatoes, and cut any large ones so that they’re all roughly the same size. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15-20 minutes or until cooked. To make the dressing, mix the yoghurt, oil, one tsp sumac, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Slice the radish and fennel as thinly as possible, chop the dill then toss everything together in a large mixing bowl. Serve on a large platter and scatter over some picked dill fronds and the remaining sumac.
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Thanks to an increasing awareness of how important sustainable food and biodiversity are for us all, heritage vegetables have become more and more popular. By growing weird veg, you not only get the joy of discovering new flavours, forms and colours, but you also get the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping to save non-regulation veg types from extinction at the hands of global capitalism. But what does that term ‘heritage’ really mean?
‘Heritage’ (sometimes called traditional or ‘heirloom’) simply means an old fashioned vegetable variety that isn’t commercially produced and sold. The definition isn’t set in stone, but it usually means a plant variety that dates back before 1950.
Heritage vegetables are the beautiful old fashioned, flavour-packed varieties that used to fill our fruit bowls before supermarkets insisted everything had to be the same shape, size and colour and could be transported across a national delivery network before being sold. What that added in uniformity, it took away in taste, as vegetables began to be bred for shelf life and durability rather than taste. The plants are open pollinated rather than F1 hybrids, which means that you can save the seeds and they’ll produce the same plant as their parent when you sow them the following year (global capitalism does not approve).
Nothing at all, don’t get me wrong - it’s simply that heritage vegetables will give you much more variation in colours, nutrients and flavours than your standard commercial varieties, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping to carry on a tradition and preserve these lovely old varieties for future generations. Factor in also that growing your own gives you much fresher produce without any dodgy pesticide residues, and you’re onto an undisputed winner.
Similarly, there’s nothing wrong with F1 hybrid veg - in fact since they’re cross bred for better yields and vigour, you can rely on them to produce plenty of good, trouble-free crops.
For the best of both worlds, why not grow a selection of each?
Heritage vegetable seeds can be more expensive than other varieties, but trying even one or two is definitely worth it in terms of the variety it adds to both your diet and your garden.
It used to be the case that you had to seek out specialist seed shops, but as the demand for heritage vegetables grows, you can find a selection on even the most mainstream sites. I still have a soft spot for the smaller, weirder shops to be honest, and love to see what new varieties they have to offer each year. Tomatoes and chillies are especially well represented, and I’m enjoying the trend towards Caribbean vegetables like calaloo and Indian varieties like lablab bean and okra. Even better (and cheaper), save your own seed from the plants you grow and sow it next year or find a local seed swap event and get seeds for free.
If you’re finding it difficult to source seeds or grow them successfully, heritage vegetable plants offer a reliable solution. Again due to the growing popularity of these vegetables, nurseries are trialling new (old?) varieties every year and we’re adding more and more of these to our vegetables range - let us know how yours get on!
An added bonus of growing heritage vegetables is discovering the interesting origin stories behind your crops. Superb taste with a side dish of history? Don’t mind if I do. Here are some of the best heritage vegetables to grow.
The Brandywine tomato originates in the Amish community of Pennsylvania USA, and was popularised after seeds were sent to a museum in the eighties by an elderly farmer whose family had grown them since at least 1885.
Although there have since been several hybrids, the original and best is the red Brandywine, a large beefsteak tomato with a deep, rich flavour and very productive vines. It’s become a classic worldwide since then, with gardeners choosing it for taste, reliability and resistance to cracking.
Image source: Flickr.
Grown for centuries in the rich, loamy soils of Tuscany, this flavour-packed kale came to the UK in the 1860s on one of Thomas Cook’s ships - possibly the best holiday souvenir ever? As Cook was also a prominent temperance campaigner, perhaps this was also the origin of the kale smoothie. Originally adopted by British gardeners as an ornamental plant, once people discovered its delicious flavour and nutritional benefits, fast growing Cavolo Nero became a firm favourite. Grow it in pots or beds and harvest the dark green, textured leaves as and when you need them.
It’s the national symbol of Wales, but there’s a long history of leek growing in Scotland too, dating back to the Middle Ages. By the 18th century the Scots had pretty much perfected this versatile, hardy veg, and the Musselburgh leek was the result, appearing on the market around 1834. Sadly they’re no longer grown commercially as bigger (but less tasty) varieties have edged them out, but you can still grow your own. As you’d expect from a Scottish variety, Musselburgh is exceptionally cold hardy and makes an excellent winter crop.
Image source: Flickr.
Probably the world’s most photographed vegetable, fractal-patterned romanesco is often categorised as a cauliflower or as broccoli, but although it shares characteristics of both, it’s a unique brassica in its own right, with a nutty flavour and a delicious crunch. Romanesco as we know it can trace its origins back to 15th or 16th century Rome (hence the name) but it’s probably a result of selective breeding dating back even further. Use romanesco as you would broccoli or cauliflower - it looks amazing roasted whole. Don’t forget to instagram your crop - I think it’s the law.
There are lots of heritage potatoes you can grow - it’s one area that’s seen a real boom in recent years, and I’m very much here for it, since potatoes are really easy to grow and the difference in taste between these and your average supermarket spud is massive. Sharpe’s Express sounds like Bernard Cornwell fanfic, but was in fact introduced in 1900 by Charles Sharpe of Sleaford, Lincolnshire. A pear-shaped white potato with a classic, waxy new potato taste, it was the favourite of another complete legend - original Gardener’s World presenter and creator of the Blue Peter garden, Percy Thrower.
Image source: Flickr.
The records are a bit hazy on this one, but it’s thought that Painted Lady has been grown in the UK since at least the 1600s, gaining popularity in the 19th century when cottage gardens first became a trend. With tender green beans and beautiful white and crimson flowers on one plant, it’s practically a cottage garden all by itself and was a space saving favourite in the allotments of new industrial towns and the kitchen gardens of miners cottages.
Starting your own heritage vegetable garden? Our expert growers have all the advice and inspiration you need.]]>Jump to:
Dried herbs will last for months or more in an airtight container, saving space in your fridge or freezer. The process of drying retains a lot of the flavour and nutrients in the herbs and concentrates the flavour intensity, so that in most cases you can use a smaller quantity of dried herbs compared to the fresh version.
Almost any herbs can be dried - if you have a lot of one particular variety and nothing to lose, why not give it a go? Choose your method carefully, as each way of drying can be more suitable for some herbs than others.
If you have a bay tree it’s even easier as the leaves will dry by themselves. Just pick them off your bay trimmings and store them in a paper bag until they’re fully dried. Use them whole to add depth of flavour to everything from casseroles to curries, and remove before serving.
Some herbs lose too much of their flavour when dried - these include basil, borage, chives, coriander and parsley. You can still dry these (the quicker the method, the better) but freezing is a tastier option - just wash, pat dry and place the stems in a plastic bag in the freezer, or chop them and freeze in an ice cube tray.
If you’re not in a hurry for your herbs, it’s a good idea to prepare them the day before you harvest them, by spraying them with water. This will remove any soil, dust, insects or spider webs that might have accumulated on the plant.
The best time to harvest is in the morning, on a dry and sunny day. Most herbs are best picked just before they flower in spring or summer for the best flavour, but don’t worry if you’ve missed that window. Your herbs will still taste exponentially better than shop bought!
Using clean, sharp scissors, snip off whole stems of the plant - younger leaves at the tips of the stems have the best flavour, and if you leave about 15cm of the stem at the bottom, it will keep growing. Remove any damaged, discoloured or pest-eaten leaves and compost them.
If you’re not going to dry them immediately, you can stand your cut herb stems in a glass of cold water in a cool spot away from direct sunlight until you’re ready.
There are several different methods for drying herbs, so you won’t need any special equipment - just use what you have to hand.
The original and best - but it does take time. The traditional way of drying herbs is to bundle them together and hang them upside down. The best place to air dry herbs is a warm indoor room with good air circulation, away from moisture (so not the kitchen, laundry room or bathroom). A dark place is better still.
Gather a small bundle of herbs and fasten them together at the bottom of the stems with a rubber band. Then hang the bundles upside down with plenty of space between them (the more air circulation the better). You can hang them from a coat hanger, picture hook or washing line - mine are hung from drawing pins on my bookshelves.
Although herbs with strong stems are best for hanging to dry, you can still dry more fragile herbs like basil and parsley, by laying them out on a wire rack or baking tray lined with paper towels or newspaper. If you’re using this method you can remove the leaves from the stems and they will dry quicker. Cover your drying herbs loosely with paper to avoid contamination from dust or insects. If your herbs have flowers or seed pods on them, you can tie a paper bag around them to collect the seeds, too.
Air drying by hanging takes about a week to complete, with drying flat taking a little longer. Your herbs will be ready when they detach easily from the stems or crumble between your fingers.
If you have an air fryer, here’s yet another job it can do!
Wash and pat dry your herbs, then place them in a single layer in the air fryer basket. To stop them being blown around during cooking, tie the stems with string or put a metal rack on top of the herbs.
Air fry them at 160°C until they look dry and crumble in your hands - this should take around 3-4 minutes. Remove your herbs and let them cool completely before putting them in a storage container.
Dehydrating is a little different to drying. It gently removes all of the moisture from food using circulating heat, while retaining the nutrients. It’s a good method for herbs with a high water content which are more at risk from mould, which benefit from being dried quickly.
Arrange your herb leaves in a single layer in the dehydrator tray with space between them and dehydrate at 30-45°C). Keep checking the herbs - when all the moisture is removed, they should feel dry and crumbly, which can take from 1-3 hours. If the herbs dry unevenly, try turning the temperature up a little or switch the trays around.
Drying your herbs in the microwave is an easy way to get them in a hurry, but I can’t stress this enough - don’t leave them unattended while the microwave is on, as if you don’t have enough leaves in there, you can create a lot of steam or even set the paper towels on fire (the same applies to anything microwaved without water or fat). If in doubt, open the door and abandon the mission.
So with that out of the way, here’s how. Arrange your herb leaves in a single layer between two paper towels in the microwave. Using your lowest heat setting (usually ‘defrost’), heat the herbs for 2-3 minutes. Check them, turn the paper towels over and repeat. If your herbs aren’t crumbly after this, you can repeat the process until you’re happy.
If your oven can get to a really low temperature (we’re talking ideally 50°C) then you can use it to dry herbs.
Remove the leaves from the stems and lay them out evenly on a lined baking tray, then place them on the bottom shelf of your preheated oven.
I wouldn’t personally recommend this method as it is rather labour intensive - you’ll have to keep checking the oven in case your herbs burn, turning them over every twenty minutes.
Make sure your herbs are 100% dry before you store them, or you run the risk of them going mouldy. To check, rub them between your fingers - if they’re fully dried they should crumble like an egyptian mummy in an adventure film.
Store them in airtight containers (herbs, not mummies) in a cool, dark place away from bright light and heat sources. Label the containers, as when they’re dried and crumbled, many herbs look the same. If you don’t have jars or pots, self-seal bags are fine.
You can store your herbs for up to a year. (Just don’t check the labels on mine… 2016 was only yesterday, right?)
As well as using them in your cooking, home-dried herbs are brilliant for herbal tea (use the leaves loose or put them into reusable cloth tea bags) or homemade soaps and cosmetics. (I use melt and pour soap with dried lavender and oat milk but you can experiment with combinations of your own favourite herbs.
]]>You might have heard of grafting trees, where growers join the rootstock (the roots and part of the trunk) of one tree with the scion (flowering or fruiting part) of another to create a plant with the best characteristics of both, but grafted vegetables are less well known. We asked our expert vegetable growers to explain everything about grafted vegetables to us - how they’re grown, which vegetables are suitable for grafting and what results you can expect.
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Using a similar method to tree grafting, two vegetable plants which have certain qualities (such as disease resistance or vigorous growth) are joined together to produce a plant with the best features of both.
You can’t just graft any plants together though - they have to be of the same type so they’re compatible, for example, pears and quinces can be grafted because they’re from the same plant family, but a pear can’t be grafted onto a pumpkin because they’re too different (and it would just be weird).*
Is vegetable grafting a new thing? Not really. Grafting has been used in the commercial vegetable growing world for some time, and it’s now gaining popularity with home growers too, as more people grow their own and get more serious about it. Where growing vegetables might have been seen as just a hobby in the past, now it’s acknowledged as a way of reducing our impact on the environment, enabling us to buy less commercially grown food.
Image source: Flickr.
Grafted vegetable plants are used by commercial growers mainly for their greater resistance to pests and diseases. Growing them in a domestic garden is a fairly new trend, but so far gardeners have reported some very encouraging results, with our growers reporting up to 75% more yield from the plants. Why is this? It’s mainly due to the selection of better root systems, which means the plants can take up more water and nutrients from the soil, growing bigger and producing more fruit. Many of them also seem to crop for a longer period of time.
If your soil isn’t the best or you live somewhere with adverse weather conditions, you should definitely consider using grafted plants - they’ll stand up to more drought, heat and cold than non-grafted plants, saving you money and disappointment.
Image source: Flickr.
Grafted vegetable plants are more expensive, reflecting the extra work that’s been put in to create them. In terms of results, however, the additional cost is likely to be recouped as fewer young plants will be lost to pests and diseases and the end harvest will be bigger than that of a non-grafted plant.
Bear in mind that everyone’s growing conditions are different and that in commercial trials, the environment will have been perfect. You should still plant in quality soil, water and feed your plants as usual, protect against pests or diseases and carry out essential pruning jobs such as pinching out tomatoes.
A lot of grafted plant growers will say the fruit produced is bigger or of better quality, but unless you’re growing those tomatoes for the village show, this may or may not be a selling point for you!
You’ll find grafted versions of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, cucumbers, squashes and courgettes - grafting tends to benefit more tender plants which can use a boost in terms of cold resistance, early growth and protection from disease.
Simply plant and care for your grafted plants as you would any others - climbing or scrambling varieties like cucumbers and cordon tomatoes might need a little more support than usual as they tend to grow more vigorously.
If you find the grafting clip left on your plant (this is how the two plants are joined), don’t try to remove it - it won’t do the plant any harm, and as it grows, should just fall off of its own accord.
* Interestingly, you can graft a tomato to a potato as they’re both from the plant family Solanum, or nightshades, but honestly… why would you?
Top image source: Flickr.
]]>I asked our growers how it’s done - as always, they were full of great advice, so here it is: the complete guide to growing potatoes at home.
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Potatoes grow from other potatoes, so you’d think so, and granted they have skin in the game, but the growers advise against using those shrivelled up sprouting potatoes from the bottom of your veg drawer. The seed potatoes you buy from Roots are grown specially for planting and are certified virus free. There’s also the risk with supermarket spuds that they’ve been treated with pesticides, which can affect your new crop.
You should aim to buy your seed potatoes early in the year, so you can chit them and plant them in January or February for a spring or summer crop. It’s best to order your seed potatoes as soon as they become available, as they’re very popular and if you wait, you can miss out on the best varieties.
When your seed potatoes arrive, you can give them a head start by letting them sprout (develop shoots) - this is what we call chitting and here’s how to do it.
Be careful when you transfer the potatoes to your garden or pots - the shoots are fragile and can easily break off.
Do you have to chit your potatoes? Not at all - they will still develop sprouts underground, it will just take a little longer than if you’d started them off indoors.
Image source: Flickr.
The right time to plant your potatoes depends on what type they are. You'll see on our potato collection page that each variety is classed as first early, second early or maincrop, and each has a different planting time. If it’s still frosty in your local area, you can protect the new plants with cloches until the weather improves.
These should be planted in March - traditionally they were planted on St Patrick’s Day in Ireland (March 17th). First early varieties tend to be used as new or salad potatoes and include Rocket, Pentland Javelin and Swift.
Plant these in the first two weeks of April. Second early potatoes like Charlotte, Kestrel and Maris Peer are bigger than first earlies and smaller than maincrop varieties.
Maincrop potatoes should be planted in the second half of April. They’re large potatoes which are good for storing and eating through the winter, and include varieties like Cara, Pink Fir Apple and Rooster.
If you’re growing for a Christmas harvest, you’ll need to buy your seed potatoes in summer and plant in August or early September. Some of the best varieties for a winter crop are first and second earlies such as Charlotte, Maris Peer and Red Duke of York. You don’t need to chit these as the soil will be warm enough for shoots to develop quickly.
Potatoes need a sunny growing position which won’t get the worst of the frost. They’ll grow anywhere, but do prefer acidic soil, so mixing in plenty of well rotted manure and compost will give you the best crop. If you’re able to plan ahead, grow them in a bed where peas and beans were grown the previous year - all the nitrogen that the bean and pea roots have put into the soil is great for potatoes. Use your garden fork (or a hand rotavator) to turn the soil - potatoes like it loose and airy.
If you’re growing any other vegetables in the same bed, avoid brassicas - their nutrient needs are very different and neither will grow well together.
To grow potatoes in containers:
Potatoes need regular watering throughout the growing season but be careful not to overdo it as waterlogged soil can be a cause of mould and rot - aim for moist, not wet soil, and avoid letting it dry out completely.
For a nutrient boost which will improve your crop, feed the plants with potato fertiliser or any high potash plant food. This should be applied every two to three weeks from mid-May to the end of June, then every two weeks after that. Make sure you avoid fertilisers high in nitrogen, as they can delay the maturing of your crop.
Earthing up is a simple technique used to get a bigger potato crop, and as an added bonus it keeps the weeds down too. It works by covering up the stems where the potatoes form as they emerge, encouraging them to grow longer. Longer stems = more spuds!
For potatoes planted in the ground, start earthing up when about 10cm of leafy stem is peeping above the surface. Using a garden fork, take some of the soil from between the rows and pile it up into a mound around the plant’s stems. If there isn’t enough soil in the bed to do this, you can use more compost. Repeat this every 2-3 weeks.
If you’re growing in bags or pots, add a 5cm layer of compost each time and stop when the container is nearly full.
Your harvest time will depend on what kind of potato you planted and when you planted them. As a general rule, first earlies are harvested from June to July, second earlies from July to August and maincrops from August to October.
To harvest earlies, wait until the flower buds drop, then dig them up when they’re about the size of a hen’s egg.
For maincrops, wait until the leaves turn yellow, then cut them down. Ten days later your potatoes should be ready, but be sure to leave them to dry (see below) before storing them.
To harvest your potatoes, dig up the whole plant (go carefully - you don’t want to slice through any with the spade) and gently tease the potatoes away from the roots - some will just fall off, so keep a basket or bucket handy!
First and second earlies are best eaten soon after harvesting, but maincrop potatoes can be stored for months in the right conditions. Here’s how:
If you’re not sure which potatoes are good to store, give the skin a rub with your finger. If the skin rubs off easily, you should use these potatoes fresh. If it doesn’t, the potatoes will be fine in storage.
Leave your potatoes in a dry place for a few days. This ‘cures’ them as well as letting the soil dry out so it can be brushed off easily.
Choose a storage place that’s dark, cool and dry with good ventilation (not the fridge as they’ll only last a couple of weeks there). You can use a paper bag or traditional hessian sack (not plastic) to keep them in, which will keep them dry and prevent rotting.
You won’t usually have any problems with your potatoes, but occasionally something goes wrong - knowledge is power, so here’s the low down on some of the possible issues and what you can do about them.
The gardener’s mortal enemy: ye shall know them by their slimy trails. Slugs can eat potato leaves and even the potatoes themselves, so if you spot them, make a barrier around your plants with copper wire, crushed eggshells or fine gravel, which they can’t easily cross. You can also remove them by hand or with a trowel and relocate them if you see any.
We’ve all had that hideous rotten potato in the bag. If you have a very wet growing season, this can be a problem, but it can be avoided by only using certified virus free potatoes, harvesting when the soil is just moist, not waterlogged, and storing your potatoes carefully as rot can strike at any stage.
Blight is a fungal disease that can strike in warm, wet summers. It starts as dark blotches on the leaves, which spread, causing the foliage and stems to shrivel and rot. The potatoes turn red-brown before a white, evil-smelling ooze covers them and it’s game over.
If you do spot blight, cut the foliage right down to the ground and leave the potatoes for three weeks. This should stop the infection travelling downwards to the crop, but unfortunately also stops the potatoes getting any bigger. Dispose of any infected plants in your black bin, not your compost heap.
You can avoid the risk of blight by growing earlies (which are harvested in early summer) or blight resistant maincrops such as Sarpo, Cara and Jazzy. Earthing up and keeping your potatoes properly spaced also helps.
Image source: Wikimedia.
You might have seen this on potatoes you’ve bought - although the scabby patches on the skins look unpleasant, they’re harmless and can be removed with peeling.
Scab tends to be worse in dry weather, so you can prevent it by keeping your plants well watered.
This is a disease that can affect the growth of your plants and make the potatoes rot. If your plant is infected you’ll see the stems turning yellow and the plants growing pathetically.
You can avoid blackleg by choosing resistant potato varieties like Charlotte or Pixie. If your plants are affected, destroy them and don’t grow potatoes in that spot for at least five years.
]]>That’s why winter is the perfect time to get the job done - you’re not going to dislodge any frogspawn, dragonfly hatchlings or other pondlife, and the plants have stopped flowering to go dormant for the winter. Here’s the full guide to what you need to do, plus our top winter pond plants.
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When pond plants get overcrowded or the pond has a lot of weeds, it can really affect the water quality, leading wildlife to pack up their bags and move elsewhere. Left alone, the water oxygen level will be insufficient for the animals and the sunlight isn’t going to be able to get through to the deep water. At this time of year you can also get dead leaves falling onto the pond surface. If these aren’t removed, they end up rotting at the bottom of the pond, releasing bacteria that the sunlight isn’t going to be able to kill off, and harming the animals.
To avoid this happening and keep your pond nice and habitable, here’s what to do.
I use a pond net to remove surface weeds like duckweed - you can get one of these from an aquatic shop or garden centre. Skim the surface gently with the net to avoid damaging your plants, then dump the weeds on the side of the pond for a day or two, so any animals on them can make their way back to the water easily. After this you can compost it.
An ordinary garden rake is good for removing submerged weeds (the tangled mess under the water). If you have a plastic pond liner, be really careful not to damage it, because the last thing you want is a leak.
At the same time as this, if you have deciduous trees or plants surrounding the pond, you’ll need to remove the dead leaves from the pond surface, or these will rot and muddy the water.
Well this is the job no-one wants to do! Grit your teeth and get that sludge out however, and you’ll be rewarded with a clearer pond with healthier plant growth and happier animals. Don't go mad - you need a thin layer of sludge on the bottom of the pond for plants to root in, but too much can end up polluting your water and making the resident creatures ill. Here’s how to clean it.
Hardy water lilies and similar floating plants need trimming back occasionally so they don’t block off all the sunlight to the pond. If yours are fairly new and were planted in pots, you can lift them out of the pond for easier pruning. If they’re more established (after around a year or two), leave them in situ and prune the top part of the plant like you would any perennial. Here’s how.
Marginals like irises and rushes look glorious in the summer but if yours are taking over (as my Yellow Flag irises tend to), they can now be divided or thinned out. Dragonflies love to perch on these tall plants, but there aren’t any around in winter, so we’re OK to cut back all of the dead leaves. Trim them down to the healthy foliage, so you’re removing all the brown or yellow bits, or to make it a bit neater, cut them all down to about 8cm above the water.
If you want to reduce the number of plants in your pond, you can do this by dividing. This means pulling them up or digging them out. They should come up quite easily since the soil is wet, but mature plants will take a bit more effort. Wear gloves for this job, because the sap of some plants can irritate your skin, and make sure you get all the bits of the plant out, or they’ll just regenerate. You really need to do this every three to five years. You can give away the spare plants or grow them somewhere else - they’re quite happy in a wet border too.
If there are any seed pods on there, you can just snip them off and store them in paper envelopes, then take them to your local seed swap or give them to Uncle Harold for Christmas.
Give your pondside plants the same treatment - prune down those that have died back and reduce any which have overgrown their space, especially trailing plants which could block up the pond if they’re left alone. Just give them a little trim a couple of times a year so there’s still enough foliage cover for when the young frogs and newts emerge in the summer, to give them somewhere to hide from predators.
If your pond is surrounded by deciduous trees, you might want to cover it over with a net through the autumn and winter, because you don’t want it to be full of dead leaves. If you have fish in the pond it’s a good idea to cover it with a fine mesh too, then you won’t be caught out by any herons coming to feed on them.
The short answer is you can’t. You can create a breathing hole though, by floating a ball at the edge of the pond, which will stop that small area from freezing over and allow the plants and animals to get a bit of light and air. I don’t usually have to bother doing this myself, as the neighbours’ kids have got a basketball hoop and their aim is terrible. This method works best if your pond is relatively clear of plants and the water can flow freely, but if it doesn't work for you, you could consider a floating pond heater.
If you're lucky enough to have hedgehogs visiting your garden, there’s a risk of them wandering into the pond and not being able to get out. Don’t ask me how I know... Two things you can do to prevent this are having a range of different levels in your pond, often called pond shelves - if your pond doesn’t have these you can add some large rocks to vary the water level - and place a ramp here so if they do fall in, they can get themselves out again. This can just be an old piece of wood, but make sure it isn’t too smooth for them to get their little claws into - you can improve the grip by nailing on a piece of chicken wire.
A pond pump keeps your pond water clean and oxygenated, but do you need to keep it going over winter? If you have fish in the pond, you should keep it running for their benefit, as it will help to stop the water from freezing. If not, then it’s really a matter of personal choice (and the size of your electric bill!).
If you do keep it switched on, and it’s a submerged pump, you should raise it up from the bottom of the pond and set it up at a higher level, to avoid different water temperatures mixing when the water gets colder, and traumatising your fish. If the pump is higher up, only the top part of the water will mix, leaving a warmer layer at the bottom for the fish to shelter from the cold.
Winter doesn't just have to be about cutting back - although most pond plants will die back over the winter, there are some brilliant evergreen pond plants you can add to your pond to keep it looking fresh and alive all year round - especially important if you can see it from your windows.
This useful oxygenating plant will help to keep your water clear throughout the year. It can be grown submerged under water or standing upright above the surface, providing a habitat for many different species.
Plant Equisetum hyemale around the edges of your pond for a striking display of upright, striped rushes. This luminous green accent plant is one of the best you can grow for dragonflies and damselflies.
A native pond plant that looks lovely even when it’s covered in snow, this sedge’s leaves sweep down from the stem in all directions and it has attractive seed heads in autumn and winter.
A high impact plant that doesn’t take up a lot of space, Corkscrew Rush’s bright green stems twist upwards in corkscrew clusters and can also be grown in shallow water or containers.
There’s not a lot of choice here (OK, there’s no choice) but what there is is pretty special! The only pond plant that flowers in winter is Water Hawthorn, a true year-round performer which makes a great addition to medium and large sized ponds. It's a floating plant with strongly scented white flowers that blooms right through the cold weather. When the pond freezes over the flowers will die off, but as soon as it thaws again, they'll come back.
Check out more pond advice from our expert growers.]]>Jump to:
If your bare root plant arrives without a lot of roots - you might wonder if it’ll grow properly. How much of a root system does it need? “To answer this,” says John, “we need to delve a little deeper into what happens to a tree during and after transplantation (digging it up and replanting it). So we need to think about the short-term (making sure it takes) and the longer term (setting it up for a long, productive life).” Take it away, John…
Our bare root plants and trees are grown from cuttings, meaning that the growers can take the best characteristics from existing plants (dwarfing growth, disease resistance etc) and reproduce these in the new plants. What has this got to do with roots, though?
“Cuttings regenerate roots very easily,” says John, “so they need very little root (if any at all) in order to establish successfully in a new site after transplantation. With the right planting conditions – darkness, moisture, decent soil structure and drainage, stability and the right nutrients, they will establish very quickly.”
John recommends picking a sheltered site with well draining, fertile soil for your tree, and adding plenty of compost to the planting hole. If the tree you’re planting is quite tall and slender or it’s in a breezier spot, it’s a good idea to support your young tree by staking it.
“The most important thing for the long-term health of your tree,” John explains, “is a stable root system.” The aim is to get roots heading out in all directions from the base of the tree so that no matter what direction the wind blows, the tree will be strong enough to withstand it. So does this mean the longer the roots the better?
“Not at all,” says John, “the easiest way to end up with a good root system is to cut the roots back to short stubs. If you have long roots all scrunched up in the planting hole, they’ll allow the tree too much freedom of movement in later years, which could lead to it being blown over in a gale.”
Short roots at the time of planting will grow straight out from the base of the tree, avoiding this scenario and making the tree much more weather resistant.
Need a hand with planting? Watch how John does it.
Your bare root tree or plant is dug fresh from the field to order, ensuring that it won’t dry out by the time it reaches your garden. Re-plant it as soon as you can, give it a good watering and those roots will spend the winter growing outwards to give you a strong tree right from the start. If the roots are too long when the tree is dug up, they’ll be shortened by our growers to ensure they grow as stable as possible.
Your tree is tougher than it looks - I mean let’s be real, right now it looks like a bundle of twigs, but it’ll soon take off. John grows them outdoors in fields to get them acclimatised to the worst that the British weather can fling at them, so unlike some cheaper bare roots you can buy, which are grown under cover and stored in warehouses, our trees have been training all their lives for this.
Find out why winter is the best time for planting.
If you’ve ordered two or more different tree varieties, you may notice a bit of variation in the size of the roots - why is this?
“Looking at the main species we grow,” John explains, “cherry rootstocks (on which almost all our fruiting and ornamental cherries are grafted), usually produce loads of fibrous roots. Next come apples and pears which normally produce an ‘acceptable’ amount of fibrous root. Which leaves plums. Plum rootstocks usually produce very little in the way of fibrous roots.”
You may think this means cherries grow more successfully than plums, but apparently it doesn’t make a difference.
“The vast majority still establish successfully,” John tells us, “one just needs a little more faith when planting them!”
The same applies to any tree species; fruit or ornamental. Phew.
The weather conditions they’re grown in can also determine the size of your tree’s roots.
“All of the bare root trees being dispatched in 2023 grew during the extremely hot, dry summer of 2022,” says John, “so in order to survive, the tree roots had to grow deep to find water. As a result they produced far fewer roots in the top layer of soil where there was no water, so the tree you receive this year is likely to have less root than normal, indeed in some cases it may only appear to have a severed “tap” root.”
Again, this won’t affect your tree’s chances of establishing successfully, as long as it’s planted into well-prepared soil and, if necessary, staked.
“And of course,” adds John, “should your tree not take, we do guarantee it.”
If your tree hasn’t taken by the time it reaches the next dormant season, we will gladly replace it. If you have any questions about your new plant, please do get in touch with us and one of our experts will be able to help.]]>We asked Jess Rose Young, head chef at Genco London and a champion of seasonal produce, to share some of her original apple recipes. They’ve been created to showcase her favourite British apple varieties but you can use whatever your tree provides.
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Makes 8-10 scones.
The best plants for the job are evergreen trees and shrubs - they’re traditional, look bright and fresh, and will last for weeks even in a warm room. You can also include some festive red tones with holly berries or crabapples, and add some dried seed heads and/or twisty twigs for texture. If you have a willow or hazel tree (or any bendy stems), you can also use these to construct the base of your wreath.
Some of the best plants are:
You don’t have to use all of these or indeed any - just use whatever you have available.
On a dry day, take your secateurs and your receptacle of choice into the garden and start cutting. To get rid of any lurking insects, give your foliage a shake before bringing it indoors.
If you don’t have a lot to harvest in your own garden, why not ask the neighbours or forage from your local woods or hedgerows?
Don’t spend £75 on a fancy wreath making experience - get your mates together, chuck some cinnamon in a bottle of microwaved own-brand red and do it yourself.
Come unstuck? Sherries all round and watch this demonstration from Kew Gardens:
UK Christmas waste statistics suggest a typical household generates over three black bags of packaging each Christmas. The good news is that you can avoid adding to this and impress your family with your mad crafting skills in one fell swoop, by making your own natural gift wrap. Simply buy a roll of brown paper from the post office (if yours is still open) and grab some garden twine from your shed. If you have kids, you can multitask even more by getting them to decorate the paper with potato prints.
Wrap your gifts in the brown paper (no sticky tape needed) and tie them with the twine. Then stick a bit of leylandii under the twine and the job’s a good ‘un. It’s not cheap and nasty, it’s on-trend Scandi. Pour yourself another sherry, you’ve earned it.
Tablescaping - or as it’s known in our house, covering up the gravy stain on Grandma’s table cloth - is a lovely way of bringing a touch of nature to your festive meals. The best part is that anything goes. If you’ve got a shallow tray (a baking tin or plant tray will do), simply line it with brown paper, add some candles or baubles and arrange your plant trimmings around them. This is quick, easy and infinitely changeable - nothing’s stuck down so you can change it if any of the plants starts to fade.
I also love that in this video, there seems to be no German translation for ‘Last Minute’. If you’re in the ’scaping zone, why not add place settings and tie foliage to the backs of your dining chairs? I reckon that deserves a sherry.
Please drink responsibly. www.drinkaware.co.uk.
For an extra sustainable Christmas, give food, drinks, experiences or plants as gifts - here’s our plant gift guide to inspire you!]]>Neighbours,
Everybody needs good neighbours
With a little understanding…
As living space gets smaller and our gardens take on more of a role as outdoor rooms, the need for a bit of personal space gets ever more important. A friendly wave each morning might go a long way, but it’s got nothing on a nine foot hedge.
Let’s be real, you don’t want to see what the neighbours are doing in their hot tub - or you don’t want the neighbours to see what you’re doing in the hot tub. Whichever side of the hot tub fence you’re on, privacy is a must. Plants can be used to screen out unwelcome sights and sounds too. Barking dog? Amateur trombone practice? Football crazy kids? Used well, plants can reduce the volume. Intrusive odours or pollution? They can help with that too! Read on to find out which are the best privacy plants you can grow.
Generally speaking, the best screening plants are evergreens. They tend to be fast growing but not hard to maintain and most importantly, look good all year round. But they’re not the only option - depending on your situation, a climber, shrub or deciduous tree could be the answer. Here are our growers’ top choices.
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When it comes to privacy, growing a hedge is a go-to option that’s hard to beat. Evergreens like Box, Yew and Privet grow rapidly and are dense and bushy, letting through little or nothing to offend the eyes. If you need a little less coverage, go for a deciduous hedge which will flower in spring (Forsythia, Deutzia) or summer (Mock Orange, Potentilla) and drop its leaves in late autumn or winter when your neighbour’s kids are less likely to be enjoying a three hour trampoline session anyway. As an added bonus if you want to discourage animals or intruders, Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Holly are sufficiently spiky.
Find out which hedges grow the fastest in our growers’ guide and then learn how to prune them.
If your garden or home is overlooked by just one window of your neighbour’s house, a single, well-placed tree will do the job. If the space to be filled is wide, go for a multi stem tree, but otherwise choose a single stemmed tree with a dense, bushy top that can be trimmed into an appropriate shape (not this) such as holly or oak.
A row of trees can also be a good alternative to a privacy hedge, allowing you to add screening at the top of a fence while still being able to plant in the border below it. Our growers recommend evergreen Yew or Portuguese Laurel, or deciduous Liquidambar or flagpole cherry blossoms for this job. They also mentioned pleached trees, which need a fair bit of work to establish and maintain, but look super stylish and create a solid, narrow barrier at the height of your choice.
If you’re planting your trees in a front garden to mask the traffic, you’ll be best off choosing a pollution tolerant species like a rowan or a black cherry plum. Bear in mind also that as a general guide, trees need to be around 1.8-2m tall to block a neighbour’s view into your house or garden.
Discover more fast growing trees for your garden.
Taller shrubs can be used to make an informal hedge, and are also useful if you have railings in your garden or a fence full of gaps or knotholes to cover. They’re also useful for screening on balconies, as a great many can be grown successfully in pots, such as Euonymus, Hydrangea, Viburnum and more.
Consider bamboo too - plant it in pots to create a narrow living screen as an alternative to a fence, but make sure you restrict the roots of running bamboo or the lack of privacy won’t be your only neighbour problem…
Check out the best evergreen shrubs and fast growing shrubs for your garden.
Climbing plants aren’t usually as dense as a shrub or tree, but woven through a chain link fence or screen, an evergreen climber like an ivy, star jasmine or honeysuckle can go a long way towards improving your personal space. Deciduous jasmine also provides a relatively dense coverage throughout the spring and summer, with the added bonus of being covered in little white flowers and with a fragrance strong enough to do battle with the barbecue fumes from over the fence.
Climbers are especially good for creating privacy on a balcony, and can be trained to cover railings or, with the help of wires or a trellis, a transparent glass panel. For maximum coverage, choose evergreens or woody deciduous climbers like wisteria (make sure your railings are strong enough to support it though, as this is one hardcore climber), grape vines or climbing roses.
For covering unsightly fences and muffling noise, pick a vigorous (grows like crazy) plant like a Virginia Creeper or a Fallopia.
Find out which climbing plants grow the quickest.
Hear me out - if you prune these regularly, they don’t have to be the nuclear option. If you’ve tried everything else and still can’t get any peace, or you just need a hedge as fast as possible, Leylandii are your friends. In the spirit of good neighbour relations (and not being cited in court cases) I am obliged to repeat, prune them regularly.
Explore more hedging options for your garden with our growers’ guides.
]]>And if you don’t have hanging baskets, all of these plant combinations look equally good in a window box, balcony planter or patio pot.
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If you’re starting your hanging basket from scratch, take a look at this guide, which shows you what you’ll need and how to plant up a new hanging basket.
If you’re taking down your old basket and giving it a seasonal revamp, here’s how to prepare it for your new winter plants.
Most hanging basket and container plants you tend to see over the winter are violas and pansies, but much as I love to see these cheerful little annual flowers, they only last one season before they have to be thrown away, which isn’t the most sustainable way to plant and is also kind of depressing.
To make your plants last throughout the winter (and for years to come), it’s best to use long-lived perennials and evergreens. They look more natural, don’t need as much maintenance (as they’re hardier) and save you work in the long run, as they’ll last for years. If you’re struggling to find a sunny spot for your basket, choose shade tolerant plants like ivy, heuchera and ferns.
To make your winter basket look well balanced and full of life, there are three types of plants you should aim to include.
Trailing plants are those that cascade downwards over the edge of your hanging basket. A hanging basket made up entirely of trailing plants can look really spectacular on its own, too.
To add height to your basket, plant 1-3 taller, upright plants in the middle of your arrangement that will grow above the rest. Alternatively, you could use a small climbing plant in this position, and train it upwards through the chains of the basket.
Often called ‘filler’ plants but I don’t think that does them justice! Plant the remaining space in your basket with lower growing plants that will create a middle layer of colour and interest, but don’t forget that these will spread out as they grow, so resist the temptation to plant too many - three or four is plenty.
Do they have to be flowers? Not at all! Foliage plants look beautiful in hanging baskets, especially those with variegated or unusual colouring like heuchera and ajuga.
Here are a few of our favourite combinations.
Although the delightful UK weather is no doubt providing enough water for the plants in your garden at this time of year, pots and hanging baskets are a different matter. Even diagonal rain doesn’t always get past the leaves of your potted plants to get right down to the roots, so even if the soil looks wet on top, you should check in case it’s not getting right down to the roots, where it’s needed. As a general rule, check and water your baskets at least twice a week throughout the winter. If you haven’t added any feed to the compost, you can also give your plants a weekly liquid feed for a bit of a boost.
Snip off any dead flowers or leaves to keep your basket looking fresh and tidy. Deadheading the finished flowers will also encourage the plant to produce more.
It’s especially important in winter weather to make sure the chains are strong enough for your hanging basket and the hook is secure so that it doesn’t fall down in strong winds. Try to hang it in a sheltered position where it will get as much sun as possible, and check it after strong winds or storms to make sure the soil hasn’t been eroded or the plants damaged.
As these plants are perennials, it’s likely that they’ll outgrow the basket at some point and start to look overcrowded or unhappy. If this happens, just remove one or two plants and replant them in another container or in a border to give the rest some growing space.
Loving your winter hanging baskets? Discover more winter flowering plants and trees to give your garden a complete seasonal revamp.]]>If you live on the coast, gardening can present some challenges including salt air, poor quality soil and cold sea winds. You’ll be glad to know, however, that all of these challenges can be overcome by using plants. A coastal garden is a great opportunity to grow native species which can be underwhelming when grown inland but are perfectly adapted to a coastal environment and thrive in exactly those conditions. Not all coastal locations are the same, of course - you’ll need different plants for a sheltered garden in Cornwall or an exposed site in Scotland. Depending on where you are, you’ll be able to grow plants that are the envy of your inland dwelling friends, whether that’s tropical palms or hardy flowering shrubs.
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Coastal gardens can suffer from cold winds blowing in from the sea, but don’t give up on the sun lounger just yet. Making a windbreak with resilient, flexible plants like phormiums, bamboo or cordylines (there’s a reason you see them everywhere at the seaside!) will reduce the north sea blast while retaining the relaxing sound of wind rustling through the leaves. You can plant any of these in pots, so they’re suitable for balconies and yards, too - group them close together to create more shelter. A hedge is a good long term option too, saving space, sheltering your plants (and seating area) from the wind and attracting wildlife. Hedges are much more durable (and better looking) than fences, which can blow down in a storm. Hedge plants suitable for coastal conditions include hawthorn, box, berberis, holly, salt cedar, sea buckthorn, willow and forsythia.
Coastal gardens are highly likely to have sandy soil. It’s light and easy to work with, but does tend to be low in nutrients and to dry out easily. Fortunately there are plenty of plants which will thrive in sandy soil, including lavender, hardy geranium, buddleja, eryngium (sea holly) and verbena - all of them colourful perennials which attract pollinators - and trees such as acer, birch, rowan and hawthorn (the RHS has a longer list). To expand your range of plants further, for example to grow vegetables, you can improve the soil by digging in lots of compost for goodness and fine gravel for drainage or growing in raised beds full of compost. It should be noted though, that root vegetables, onions and potatoes love a sandy soil, so as long as you water and feed them well, your crops will be very successful.
Top tip: don’t scrimp on the mulch - a top layer of grit, gravel or pebbles is the best way of keeping moisture in the ground, adding nutrients and preventing soil erosion.
Salt air can be drying and damaging to plants, affecting the way in which their cells absorb water. If you’re right next to the sea and your garden gets a lot of sea spray, you’ll need to pick salt tolerant plants (halophytes) that grow on beaches and dunes, such as Sea Kale, Thrift, Sea Buckthorn and Salt Cedar (if you have time for an internet wormhole, these are really fascinating plants!) Most coastal gardens are a little further back from the sea, which opens out your plant choices much more. Perennials that tolerate a moderate level of salt include sedum, gaillardia, aquilegia, nepeta, achillea, dianthus and campanula, while you have a wide choice of shrubs and trees including sumac, elder, hydrangea and cytisus as well as climbers such as ivy and virginia creeper.
As a side note, these are also very useful plants for roadside gardens which get sprayed with salt by the de-icing wagon in winter.
To enhance the natural look of your coastal garden, use landscaping materials that would be found on the beach, such as stone, pebbles, driftwood and shells (but I’m obliged to add, don’t nick these off the actual beach). Adding a patio pond and plenty of flowering plants will attract wildlife to your garden, and you can even add a bug hotel (or make a natural driftwood pile). Just add a striped deckchair or a hammock for maximum seaside vibes.
That’s one cold wind blowing off the North Sea! If you’re on the coast of Scotland, the outlying islands or the North East of England, you’ll have the most success with hardy plants that can endure low temperatures and biting winds, but that doesn’t mean functional and boring. Roses, hydrangeas, lavenders, osteospermum and low-growing erigeron all thrive in these areas, along with the salt and wind tolerant shrubs and trees mentioned above. There’s plenty of inspiration to be had, from Gertrude Jekyll’s walled garden at Lindisfarne Castle to this award winning family garden overlooking Buckie Harbour in Aberdeenshire.
If you’re gardening in the south of the UK, in places like Devon, Kent and Cornwall, the climate is generally considerably warmer and you’ll be able to grow more tropical plants. You’ll see lots of palms, tropical fruits and Mediterranean plants in this part of the country, including the South coast’s trademark Torbay Palms (cordylines). For real life inspiration, Derek Jarman’s garden at Dungeness is full of ideas for native planting while for full on jungle-style extravagance, check out Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan, which is also home to national collections of camellia and rhododendrons.
]]>If you’ve ever seen upended terracotta pots or buckets in an allotment or garden and wondered what was going on, the chances are that it was forced rhubarb. This technique (which simply involves covering the rhubarb plant with a pot or bucket) was discovered by happy accident in 1817, when a gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden discovered some forgotten rhubarb growing under a bucket which was taller, straighter and sweeter than the rest of the crop.
Under normal growing conditions, a rhubarb crown will start to sprout and grow new stalks in spring, but by keeping it warm and dark under a pot, you can make the plant put more energy into seeking out the light, meaning that it grows extra quickly and is ready months sooner - as early as February. Commercial rhubarb growers do this in large sheds, but it’s not hard to force rhubarb on a smaller scale in your own garden.
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Forced rhubarb stalks are more tender, sweet and thin than standard rhubarb, and tend to be a bright pink colour. This makes them look as well as taste extra special, and the forced stalks are a much sought after delicacy. Plus who doesn’t love getting fresh fruit* in February? You won’t get rhubarb until March at the very earliest under the usual conditions, and most isn’t ready until summer, so if you can get it in the winter when there’s very little other fruit around, why wouldn’t you?
* Except that it’s technically a vegetable. Weird.
Any kind of rhubarb can be forced, but you’ll get the best results from earlier cropping varieties. These include Timperley Early, Mira, Terrifically Tasty, Victoria, Sanvitos and Champagne.
*Traditional terracotta rhubarb forcing pots come in at upwards of £60 each - they’re decorative as well as useful, but if you want to save money, an old bucket does just as good a job. You can also use a dustbin, a compost bin or a reclaimed chimney pot.
Image source: Ian Capper.
You can start forcing your rhubarb between December and March, when the crown is dormant - most people start in December or January.
Forcing uses up a lot of the rhubarb plant’s energy, so you should only do this to it every other year. Planting two or more means that you can alternate the crowns being forced.
Most of the rhubarb bought in the UK is grown in a nine mile ‘triangle’ of Yorkshire, between Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield. These cities are famous for their forced rhubarb, with a tradition of growing the plants in large, dark wooden sheds that dates back to the 1870s.
Rhubarb appreciates the cold weather in Yorkshire, as well as the nitrogen-rich soil, and at one point there were over two hundred growers in the area! The rhubarb is still harvested the traditional way, by candlelight, and it’s said that it grows so quickly under these conditions that you can actually hear the cracks and squeaks of the stems as they grow.
In 2010, Yorkshire rhubarb was given PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status, meaning that any rhubarb claiming to be from the rhubarb triangle has to be the real deal. If you can get hold of some, don’t miss it - and if you get a chance, the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival each February is a rhubarbtastic day out.
Image source: Wikimedia.
Forced rhubarb is sweeter than rhubarb harvested in summer, so when using any recipe designed for standard rhubarb, you might want to reduce the sugar content.
Forcing your rhubarb means you can be enjoying this warm dessert classic while the weather’s still cold. Nigella Lawson calls it “the best rhubarb crumble in the world”!
Traditionally made with apples, tarte tatin is easy to make and looks impressive at a dinner party. Bright pink forced rhubarb just makes it even better!
Using forced rhubarb for this refreshing treat gives the drink an attractive pink colour. Mix it with elderflower tonic and garnish with a slice of orange for the best flavour.
Top image source: Flickr.
]]>Looking for planting inspiration to make your garden shine all year round? Every month we visit a garden which we think has nailed the best trends of the season, then report back with tips on which plants to use and how to recreate the look.
This month, we’re in Suffolk, exploring the picture perfect village of East Bergholt. You could be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a Constable painting as you take in the bucolic countryside here and there’s a reason for that - the artist was born here and painted over a hundred and eighty of the local sights, including Willy Lott’s house and Flatford Mill.
Just down the road, arboriculturalist Rupert Eley has been gardening at his family’s home of East Bergholt Place for twenty years. “The garden was laid out originally by my great grandfather,” he explains, “but the bit we're looking at now is all planted in the last twenty years.”
The beautifully kept gardens are home to a myriad of magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias and spring bulbs and East Bergholt Place also boasts the national collection of deciduous euonymus, with a hundred varieties to be admired.
But Rupert’s favourite season is autumn and it’s not hard to see why, as his garden is home to some of the most spectacular autumn tree colour we’ve ever seen.
“It’s a very special time of year,” he says, “we've been planting autumn colour for many years, and I always think that by doing that, you can enjoy your garden right up to the end of November. By the time the autumn colour finishes, we're only a month away from the shortest day so it just makes the winter that much shorter.”
As we crunched through the leaves, we asked Rupert to talk us through some of his favourites and explain what makes these autumn trees so special. We even picked up a few tips for successfully growing them, too…
“It's very easy to think that when one's talking about autumn colour,” says Rupert, “one is solely talking about leaf colour, but in the case of crabapples, they also have wonderful fruit.”
Crabapples are naturally small native trees that have huge benefits for garden wildlife, including the fruit, which stays on the branches right through winter to provide a vital food source for birds.
“They also have wonderful autumn colouring,” Rupert adds, “and what’s lovely about them in the spring is that they’re a mass of flowers so you get a wow in the spring and then a really good wow in the autumn as well.”
Crabapples vary in size and colour, with the smaller ones appealing more to birds and the larger ones being suitable for cooking jellies and jams.
Rupert stops in front of a huge, red-leaved Japanese maple tree. “Autumn wouldn’t be the same without the contribution from them,” he says, “this is an old tree and shows you what they can become with age.”
Acers are one of the most loved of garden trees, largely due to their vivid red or purple colour, but also because they’re naturally slow growing and can be kept to a small size, with many of them being suitable for container growing.
“They’re lovely light, airy trees,” Rupert continues, “and you don’t have to let them get as large as this. With pruning, they’ll be quite happy in a pot.”
Find your perfect acer tree with our simplified guide.
Is there anything not to love about rowan trees? They look delightful all year round and provide food and shelter to an astonishing number of British wildlife species. Not to mention they pretty much look after themselves after the first year or so after planting.
“I don’t know how one can really walk past a tree like that,” says Rupert, “it is just so lovely in fruit. They’re very good autumnal trees, with masses of fruit, then you’ve got these very fine, ferny leaves that then go red as well. Just a cracking plant for this time of year.”
Nine out of ten birds agree, with their numbers increasing at this time of year as other food sources become scarce. Rowan berries are a particular favourite with blackbirds, mistle thrushes, redstarts, redwings, song thrushes, fieldfares and waxwings, and the fruit will last all winter (or until the birds strip it bare).
There are so many varieties of rowan tree in different sizes and with red, orange, yellow or pink berries, that finding the perfect sorbus for your garden is a breeze.
East Bergholt Place holds the national collection of deciduous euonymus, and today we’re looking closely at two different types.
“Euonymus alatus is a very, very reliable autumn colouring shrub,” says Rupert. He’s not kidding, the crimson red colour on this is jaw dropping.
“It’s not too big, nice and open,” he goes on, “and you also get fruits on it, with little orange seeds.
In contrast, Euonymus europeus (spindle) still has green leaves, and it’s the fruit that makes it look so vibrant.
“It’s absolutely lovely,” says Rupert, “with these super pink fruits which then burst open to reveal the orange seeds inside. A very good shrub and not troublesome.”
So how do they get such fantastic colour from the autumn trees at East Bergholt? Rupert explains that it’s partly thanks to the growing conditions.
“In terms of the colouring plants, just in the East of England where we are, we do get some very good autumn colour,” he tells us, “because we get sunnier days and colder nights - all the things that one needs to bring it on. And the soil here is acidic, which is helpful!”
Rupert also gave us these helpful tips that work wherever you are:
“No doubt about it, autumn colour does make the winter considerably shorter and it's a very special time of year,” says Rupert.
If you’ve been inspired to grow your own autumn trees, take a look at The Place For Plants’ Instagram, then explore this collection of our growers’ best autumn plants and trees.]]>Jump to:
So you’ve got your lovely new balcony - a blank canvas ready to be filled with beautiful verdant life - but hold up a second! There are a few things you need to know before you start.
Your balcony, believe it or not, has its own microclimate. It’s more sheltered and gets more sun than a garden on the ground, so although this means you’ll have to water your plants more regularly, it also means you can grow less hardy plants outdoors, such as citrus trees, grapes, passion flowers, tomatoes and mediterranean herbs, with greater success. As a guide, Jason Williams (The Cloud Gardener) says that his eighteenth floor balcony is “about fifteen degrees warmer on a sunny day.”
Depending on the layout and position of your balcony, it could get windy up there. Make sure any pots you put on it (and especially on the railings) can’t blow away or fall to their doom like Die Hard for plants. You can make sure they stay put by drilling holes in your pots and fastening them to the railings with strong garden wire.
If you do get a lot of wind on your balcony, you can improve this by using screens of potted bamboo or tall grasses as a windbreak. A windy environment (especially salt winds like you find in seaside locations) can be very drying for your plants, so if this sounds like your balcony, you should consider plants that adapt well to a coastal environment, such as Sea Buckthorn, euonymus, acers, blackberries and wild roses.
It’s a good idea to take a look at your balcony to see how much weight it can take. Concrete or metal constructions will be able to take more than wooden balconies, for example, and those with a room underneath are sturdier than those attached to the side of a building. The last thing you want is your beautiful potted tree crashing through six floors of your neighbours’ balconies like an anvil in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Likewise, watch out when you’re watering anything on your railings - no-one wants an impromptu shower from the flat above when they’re trying to catch some sun.
If weight is an issue on your balcony, you’ll want to stick to lightweight plastic pots - or if you’d rather keep it plastic free, wooden planters or willow baskets are also good (but make sure they’re waterproof so they won’t rot). Your containers don’t need to be expensive - have a look around in alleyways and skips to see what you can upcycle into a plant pot. You can drill holes in them to provide drainage or to tie them to railings.
A block of flats isn’t the most obvious place you’d expect to find wildlife, but it’s surprising how many creatures will show up once you start planting. A balcony provides a safe space free from predators for birds, and any plant that has berries or seeds will bring them flocking. Some of the best are native trees with brightly coloured fruit like rowans and crabapples.
If you’re growing fruit and vegetables it’s especially important to attract pollinators including bees, butterflies, moths and beetles, which will help your plants to blossom and produce fruit. Their favourite plants are those with single, easily accessible flowers, including lavender, salvia, foxgloves and verbena (discover more here). Add a container pond or even just a saucer of water to give thirsty insects a drink too.
What can you plant on a balcony? Basically if it can go in a pot, you can grow it on a balcony. Bear in mind that if you’re looking out at this garden all year round, it’s a good idea to choose plants that will look lovely for as much of the year as possible - that means plenty of evergreens, plants with good autumn colour and choosing a selection of plants that flower at different times of year, so you can swap the pots around according to what’s in season. Tempting as it is, try not to overcrowd your balcony, as the sun needs to be able to reach all of them. These are some of our top choices for balconies - they’re compact, grow well in pots and provide plenty of interest, whether you’re looking for colour, scent, edible produce or wildlife appeal.
Climbing plants are a balcony classic, saving space and looking fantastic from your window as well as from the street. The best balcony climbers are those with a strong fragrance, so you can sit and enjoy it on a summer evening. Use your railings as a trellis - as your plants grow, they’ll provide you with more privacy and soften outside noise - but avoid very strong, woody or vigorous climbers like wisteria.
If you’re renting and not allowed to attach anything to the outer walls, avoid self-clinging climbers like ivy and choose plants like clematis, roses and honeysuckle, which will grow on a freestanding trellis, through railings or up an obelisk in a pot. Our climbing plant grower Mollie has more great ideas.
Compact, fragrant and edible, herbs might just be the ideal plants to grow on your balcony, especially if it’s south or west facing. You can use pots of different sizes and even hanging baskets to create an edible garden which will also give fragrance and visual appeal to your seating area. Grow the herbs you use the most and snip off a few fresh leaves whenever you need them. Annual and mediterranean herbs like basil, oregano and parsley will thrive on a balcony while perennial herbs such as rosemary, thyme and mint will stick around year after year. Perennial herbs are easy to divide or grow from cuttings too, giving you more plants for less outlay.
These long lasting flowering plants are a balcony essential - not only do they bring all the colour, but they’ll attract the bees to pollinate your edible crops. Grow a good selection of varieties that will attract different bee and butterfly species and which flower at different times of the year, then arrange them as you would a garden border, with low growing plants in front of taller varieties in an assortment of differently sized pots.
You can make a mini pond in even the smallest of containers - make sure you have a good mix of oxygenators, marginals and floating plants to keep the water clean and the pond looking beautiful. You can even add a floating solar fountain to bring the relaxing sound of moving water to your space.
There are lots of fruit and vegetable varieties specially bred for growing in small spaces and containers, and you’ve got an added advantage with the warmer, more sheltered growing conditions on a balcony. This means that sun loving crops like soft fruits, herbs, tomatoes, peppers and chillies do especially well. You could even add a slimline mini greenhouse to make the most of a sunny wall.
Whether it’s fruit trees or ornamentals you choose, there are plenty of dwarf and patio trees you can grow in pots on a balcony. As well as looking great and attracting wildlife, your trees can be a valuable source of shade in the summer as well as giving you more privacy from your near neighbours and softening traffic noise.
Since the RHS introduced balcony gardens as a show category at Chelsea, Hampton Court and Tatton Park, there’s been an explosion of interest in balcony gardening in the UK. There are some great planting ideas in these gardens from Chelsea 2023. For inspiration in situ (eighteen floors up) I love what Jason Williams (The Cloud Gardener) has done with this highrise haven in Manchester, especially the climbing plant arches and the container pond.
Similarly, this relaxing split level balcony in London has plenty of clever space saving features that could be applied to different balcony layouts.
There’s a well established tradition in countries like Spain and Italy for growing ‘hanging gardens’ from the balconies of apartment buildings, so if you love the Mediterranean style, there are plenty of great ideas to be had here.]]>Jump to:
Pruning your apple tree can be daunting if you’re not sure how to start, but it’s easier than you might think. “You don’t need to do much with them,” says our tree grower, John, “just a little bit of pruning once a year, which I think is more than worth the investment in time.” A light annual pruning session will help your tree to be more productive, reduce the risk of diseases and keep the tree at a comfortable height to pick from. You’ll also end up with a well shaped tree which fits nicely in the space available.
Apple trees should be pruned in the dormant season, between November and March, when the leaves have fallen and they’re not actively growing. Pruning at any other time of year could mean that you accidentally cut off fruit spurs or blossom, or even worse, could injure your tree and let in an infection. It’s best to pick a dry and frost-free day to do your pruning, as this will help the pruning cuts to heal faster.
Trained or restricted trees such as cordons, espaliers and fans will need a second pruning in summer to keep them looking neat - here’s how to do it.
Gather your tools before you start pruning, first making sure they’re clean and sharp. If your tree is tall enough that you have to reach above your head to prune it, you’ll also need a stepladder. You’ll need a pair of secateurs and for taller trees, some loppers or long handled pruners. If your apple tree is larger or more mature, you may need a pruning saw for the thicker branches. If you have more than one apple tree to prune, make sure your tools are sterilised between trees, to stop any infection spreading. You can do this by wiping them with a clean cloth dipped in disinfectant or rubbing alcohol.
Your apple tree from Roots will be at least two or three years old when you buy it, and has been professionally pruned by our growers to make sure it grows strong and well shaped. This means that you won’t need to do any pruning until the year after you plant it, when you should follow one of the methods below according to the age of your tree.
The winter after planting, you should firstly remove any dead, diseased or damaged branches. Then trim the new growth from the previous year at the end of the main branches by about a quarter. Be careful not to prune away any side shoots coming off the main branches (unless they’re overcrowded) as these are where the fruit spurs are and you don’t want to lose those!
Firstly, remove any branches or parts of branches that are dead, diseased or damaged. You should then take a look at the middle of the tree and prune out any branches or stems that are crossing over, growing inwards or otherwise crowding each other. By doing this, you’re aiming to create a nice open centre to the tree so that air and sunlight can flow freely through it, reaching all of the fruit when it grows. A good rule of thumb is leaving enough space between branches that a small bird could fly through them, and you should try to avoid cutting branches of more than 10-12cm diameter unless they’re in a poor condition, as this can unbalance the tree. Most apple trees are pruned into a goblet (wine glass) shape - you can also prune off low growing branches at the bottom of the trunk as these generally won’t get enough sunlight to be productive.
You should aim to prune no more than 10-20% of the branches from your tree in any one year. Mature trees (see below) may need a bit more. Your cuts should be clean (not jagged) and diagonal, and you should aim to cut above and sloping away from a bud.
If you’ve inherited an old apple tree that’s been neglected or isn’t in the best condition, you can improve its health (and appearance) by pruning. As trees age, they have less energy, so pruning them smaller can help the tree to direct its strength into producing blossom and fruit rather than growing new branches. You might also need to reduce the height of the tree to make it easier to pick from.
Don’t be tempted to do the job all at once - it’s better to renovate an old tree over two or three winters, taking off a little at a time - up to a third of the canopy (branches) is the most you should prune off in one session. Any more than this could weaken the tree and encourage it to put on a lot of weak new growth at the top (which you’ll just have to prune off next time).
A small but vital last step in pruning your apple tree is to leave a circle around the base.
Orchardist Victoria from NorthernLily says “it’s really important to keep the base of your tree well mulched and clear of grass and weeds. Create a doughnut shape around the base of the tree, leaving a small inner circle of bare earth and a larger circle of woodchip around that. This will keep moisture in and feed the tree as it rots.”
Training your apple tree into a shape such as an espalier, cordon or stepover can save space in your garden and make the tree healthier and more attractive. It does take more work (more pruning included) but the results are seriously impressive! If you’d like to have a go, follow our guides to espalier apple trees, stepover apples, fan trained apples and more.
]]>We’ve all been tempted by ‘economy’ packs of cheap plants and special offers out of season, but from bitter experience, these will turn up too small to survive, at the wrong time to plant and you’ll be disappointed. I’ve done this many times and ended up with about a third of the plants surviving, which made them poor value for money in the end.
Rescuing dead-ish plants from the garden centre’s reduced shelf sometimes yields the odd winner, but it’s a bit hit and miss. I’ve had a few successes with plants given away on local social media groups, but they often need some TLC and you’ll need to check for care instructions online or you could end up killing it or introducing an invasive species to your garden (I tend to plant them in pots until I’m sure!).
The best source of free plants that you know you can rely on is your own garden. Take cuttings, divide your established perennials and collect seeds from plants that have flowered and you’ll be able to fill your garden several times over - or trade with friends to get new varieties. If you have a local plant and seed swap, you could take them there - or even sell them!
Here are our top three ways of making your plants go further and getting new ones for free.
After a few years in the ground, your perennial plants might be looking overgrown or getting too big for their space - the time has come to divide and conquer! Dividing simply means digging up your plant and dividing it into two or more plants by separating the clump of roots.
For most plants, which bloom in summer, dividing should be done in spring (March-May) before flowering or autumn (September-November) after flowering. Spring flowering plants (such as Irises) are best divided in summer (June-August).
Image source: Flickr.
The right way of dividing depends on the kind of root system your plant has, with different methods for fibrous roots, woody crowns and corms. All of these are covered in detail in our plant dividing guide.
Dividing means that you’ll not only make more space for your original plant (which will show its appreciation by producing more flowers and new foliage) but you’ll also get at least one new plant which can be potted up or used to fill a space in another part of the garden. If you’ve divided it in autumn the new plant may look underwhelming, but rest assured it will put on new growth and burst into life in the spring.
Perennial plants with a clump forming habit are the best for dividing. These include ajuga, agapanthus, crocosmia, delphinium, eryngium, euphorbia, hardy geranium, hellebore, heuchera, hosta, iris, ornamental grasses, primula (primrose), rudbeckia, salvia, sedum and verbena.
Taking cuttings is a great way of sharing your plants with other gardeners, as well as being a good insurance policy against bad weather. It involves cutting off a part of an established plant, then giving it the right conditions to develop its own roots and grow into a new plant.
The three main types of cuttings are softwood, hardwood and semi ripe - these refer to the time of year you take the cutting and the age of the stem, and are all proven to have a good success rate.
The best time to take any kind of cutting is in the morning, when the plants are full of moisture.
If you’re taking cuttings from succulents or cacti, the method is different - you’ll need to leave them a few days to callous over before rooting them, or they’ll take in too much water and rot.
Most plants can be propagated by cuttings. Some of the easiest and most successful include:
If you have tender perennials which are at risk of dying over winter, taking cuttings makes sure that you always have new ones to plant out in spring, and that you never really lose a plant to frost.
Seed collecting is the easiest way to get more plants - and it’s even easier if you leave your plants to do it themselves by self seeding. However, if you want your new plants in a particular place or to share them with friends, you’ll need to do that yourself. The best time to do this is in late summer or autumn, when the seed heads have dried out a bit and it’s easier to detach the seeds.
It’s best to sow your seeds within a year, starting them off in small pots, trays or coir pellets indoors in early spring, and planting them outdoors in your chosen spot once the new plants are big enough.
Simply put, if you can see the seeds, you can save them! Perennials including allium, poppy, astrantia, cosmos, zinnia, sweet pea, scabious, aquilegia, foxglove, hollyhock and lupin are all good for saving seed.
There are also plenty of vegetables with collectable seeds too, but be aware that any variety labelled ‘F1’ won’t necessarily produce plants with the same characteristics as the previous ones, as they’re bred for results in one year’s plants only - you’re best off saving seeds from open pollinated varieties. Beans and peas are the easiest to save - simply let the pods dry out and save the dried beans. Seeds from squashes and cucurbits (cucumbers, courgettes and similar) are pretty simple too - you can just put them aside when you cook the vegetables - and tomato seed can also be saved with a little effort. With most vegetable plants, like brassicas and carrots, you’ll have to let them bolt and produce flowers before you can collect seeds from them.
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Cherry blossoms are a symbolic flower of the spring, a time for new beginnings, as well as the fleeting nature of life. As the blossoms last for only a few weeks, they are seen as a symbol of the fleeting but joyful nature of life. Hanami encourages us to find joy in the present moment and to observe what is happening around us in nature. They also symbolise peace and friendship, with cherry blossom trees being given as gifts on diplomatic visits to other countries.
Hanami is a tradition dating back more than a thousand years to the Heian period (794-1185), in which people gather beneath the sakura trees with friends and family to eat, drink and observe the beauty of the sakura blossom. Originally the cherry blossom season signalled the start of the rice planting season, and so people made offerings to the gods of the Shinto faith, who were believed to live in the trees.
Japanese literature reflects the lasting importance of the flower, with a royal hanami party depicted in the 11th century Tale of Genji and cherry blossoms featuring heavily in the poems of Hoshi and Basho.
Since medieval times, cherry blossoms have also been associated with the military, symbolising the brief but glorious lives of soldiers. An old proverb which states that the best blossom is the cherry blossom; the best man is the warrior has endured from the time of the Samurai to the Second World War, when bomber planes were given the name ‘Cherry Blossoms’.
Since the end of the war, Japan has given thousands of cherry blossom trees as gifts to other nations as a symbol of lasting peace, and as the cherry trees have spread throughout the world, so has the hanami tradition.
Hanami season today is a time for friends, family and colleagues to get together beneath the cherries for parties, barbecues, drinks and reunions. Popular parks in cities like Tokyo and Kyoto are crowded with people enjoying the blossoms, and special pink drinks, snacks and bento boxes are made for the occasion. Everything seems to be cherry blossom flavoured, and sakura tea is a popular choice - this is made from pickled cherry blossoms and is traditionally served at weddings and other celebrations. The trees at night are strung with fairy lights, and parties go on even when night falls - after all, since the season is so short, why not make the most of it?
Here in the UK there are plenty of places to celebrate hanami season. There are cherry blossom festivals up and down the UK from Alnwick Garden in Northumberland to Brogdale in Kent and many other places for sakura spotting from National Trust gardens to suburban streets. There are no rules, so why not throw your own hanami party?
Get inspired - see what we found when we visited Durham’s Sakura Friendship Garden.
Japan is home to over two hundred varieties of cherry blossom tree, and as you’d expect, there are many ancient and beautiful examples throughout the country - here are a few of the best trees and where to see them.
You’ll find this 2km canalside walk in Kyoto, lined on either side by hundreds of cherry blossom trees. It’s named after the philosopher Nishida KItaro, who would walk here daily on his commute to and from Kyoto University, and is now one of Kyoto’s top hanami spots.
Kyoto is also the home of Gion no Yozakura or the Weeping Cherry of Gion, which can be seen in Maruyama Park. It’s over twelve metres tall and around a century old. Its name in Japanese means ‘night time cherry tree’ - naturally it’s illuminated at night throughout the hanami season!
Probably Japan’s most famous Hanami destination, the town of Yoshino is surrounded by over 30,000 cherry blossom trees which grow on the Kii mountains. On Mount Yoshino itself, you’ll find an enormous weeping sakura tree which is lit up at night - why not try it with your own?
Miharu is the home of the huge weeping pink cherry tree known as Takizakura, or the Waterfall Cherry Tree. It’s over a thousand years old, and its sweeping branches are now propped up with wooden supports. Takizakura was declared a national monument in 1922.
Ishiwari-zakura, the Stone Splitting Cherry Tree, started life as a seedling in a tiny crack in a boulder, then grew and grew until it split the boulder in half. This four hundred year old tree, which can be seen in Morioka, could teach us all a thing or two about persistence!
Image source: Flickr.
With trees available in every size and shape, it’s easy to bring the beauty of cherry blossom to your own garden and start your own hanami tradition. These are a few of our favourites:
Tai-Haku is a classic white cherry blossom tree like those you’ll find in Japanese parks. It grows to 5x5m, making it ideal for medium to large gardens as a feature tree - and it’s big enough to sit under. Like all cherry blossoms, Tai-Haku also has stunning autumn foliage.
Award winning Pink Perfection has some of the best flowers you’ll see in spring, with large clusters of rose pink, fluffy double flowers covering every branch. At 4x4m it’s a nice compact size with a huge impact.
Weeping Yoshino is the perfect choice for a smaller garden, growing to just 2.5m tall. It makes a sensational centrepiece for a front garden or border, with snow white blossom and an elegantly weeping shape.
Want that in pink? Kiku-shidare is a beautifully compact tree with fluffy pompom-like pink blossoms, which can be grown in a bed, border or large pot.
These tall, slender cherry blossom trees are a clever way of packing more flowers into a small space. Amanogawa is just 1m wide and brings big sakura energy to even the tightest spot. They’re also perfect for creating a tall hedge or row of trees.
Missing hanami season already? Bring back the blossom with Autummnalis, the cherry blossom that flowers from November to March. The flowers emerge white in late autumn and take on a pink blush as they mature - they also have a wonderful fragrance.
Find the perfect cherry blossom for your garden with our four step guide.]]>Jump to:
Deciduous trees go dormant in late autumn, which means that they stop actively growing and take a rest until the spring. During this time they can be safely dug up from the field as ‘bare roots’ and replanted in your garden without causing any distress to the tree. Bare roots are only available at this time of the year, and planting them now gives the tree a big advantage in terms of establishing itself, as it’s not growing foliage or flowers and can put all of its energy into developing a healthy root system.
Trees that have been grown and sent to you in pots can be planted at any time of the year, with two provisos:
Planting your potted tree in winter is a good move, as you won’t have to water it regularly (thanks to the UK weather) and there are fewer pests doing the rounds. Your tree will be able to establish a nice healthy root system before breaking into new growth in spring.
If evergreens don’t go dormant, can you get them as bare roots? The surprising answer is yes. Although evergreen trees don’t go fully dormant, they do slow down their growth despite keeping their leaves. This means that you can replant these trees without harming them - and provided the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged, winter is a great time to do this.
If your tree arrives when the ground is frozen over or waterlogged, what should you do?
First of all, don’t worry. Your tree will be absolutely fine for up to a week kept in its packaging and stored in an unheated shed, garage or conservatory as long as there’s no frost or damp in there (once they’re in the ground, frost isn’t a problem).
If the ground is still unsuitable for planting after a week, you’ll have to heel in your tree to stop the roots drying out. This means planting it in a temporary position until you’re able to move it to its permanent spot. Here’s how.
If it’s a really bleak midwinter and you can’t find a patch of ground to heel in, you can keep your tree in a bucket of soil or compost instead. Make sure you cover all of the roots, firm it in well and keep the compost moist but well drained. Store it in a sheltered place outdoors until it can be moved to its final position.
The sooner you can move your tree into its final position the better, so that it can start putting down roots ready for spring. Your tree will be fine in its trench/compost, but should be permanently planted before April, when it will come out of dormancy - you don’t want to miss that bare root phase, as planting while it’s dormant will give your tree a flying start.
The ground has finally warmed up/dried out and it’s time to plant. Here’s how to un-heel your tree.
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In the wild (for example on an Italian mountainside), fig trees can grow to 6-9m high, at a steady rate of 30 cm per year. However most of the varieties popularly grown in the UK are much more compact than this, with the favourite variety Brown Turkey growing to a far more manageable 3m high by 2m wide. It’s still a good idea to prune it though - as well as keeping it well shaped, you’ll encourage new branches to grow and stimulate the production of fruit. If left to its own devices, the tree will put more energy into leafy growth, rather than producing good quality figs. Pruning also allows you to check your tree’s health and act on any damage or disease you find by trimming out the affected parts before they become a problem.
Image source: Wikimedia.
The main time to prune figs is in summer, when you can trim them lightly into shape.
You should also give them a quick tidy up in winter, to remove any dead, diseased or crossing branches.
Fig trees are one of those species that bleed a lot of sap. This can mean infections getting into the cuts, weakening the tree or even killing it. To avoid this, they should never be pruned in spring, when the level of sap is at its highest.
You’ll need a pair of sharp secateurs and for taller trees, some loppers or long handled pruners. If your fig tree is larger or more mature, you may need a pruning saw for the thicker branches. It’s very important for all your equipment to be cleaned between trees, to prevent the spread of disease. You can do this with a clean cloth dipped in disinfectant or rubbing alcohol.
Fig tree sap can irritate your skin, so make sure to wear gardening gloves or gauntlets. If you start at the bottom of the tree and work your way up, there’ll be less chance of sap dripping on you.
Most fig trees in the UK are grown in pots as standards or half standards (a tall clear stem with a crown of branches on top). Figs are usually trained as free-standing small bushes, with a short trunk topped with a crown of branches, or as standards, with a taller, clear stem. They can also be grown as multi-stemmed shrubs branching from the base. The method below is the same for both of these types of fig.
When the tree is dormant, between November and March, is the best time to prune - our experts do the job in February, on a dry day with no frost.
What you’re looking to do here is get rid of any damaged, weak, diseased or crossing branches, to create a nice open, airy framework for your tree. Prune these branches down to about 2.5cm from the trunk, to encourage healthy new ones to grow, and try to avoid removing any stems with fruitlets (tiny figs!) at the ends. Crowded branches can be removed completely, as you don’t want those coming back!
June is the best time for your summer pruning, leaving plenty of time for the tree to form the following year’s fruits before the weather gets too cold.
To prune in summer, trim back the new shoots to 5-6 leaves long. What you’re doing here is opening up the crown of the tree to let plenty of sun and air through, as well as encouraging the tree to branch evenly and devote its energy to growing those all important fruits.
You should also remove any large figs that haven’t ripened by mid-autumn - they won’t do it this late in the season. The tiny, pea-shaped fruitlets at the tips of the branches are the ones you want to keep, as these are the beginning of next year’s crop.
Fig trees work really well as fans - this means training them against a wall with a support network of wires in a flattened fan shape. This saves space in your garden as well as improving the tree’s health by allowing more air and light to the branches, as well as space for larger fruit to develop. Find out how to do this with our step by step fan training guide.
If your tree is older or very overgrown, you can prune it back harder, but be aware that you might not get much of a fruit crop the following year. Prune back the branches that have grown too long to about 5-8cm to encourage healthy new growth; any crossing or overcrowded branches in the centre can be removed completely.
For more expert fig tree advice, check out our Fig Tree Growing Guide.]]>Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.
Adam Smith
Home is where the garden is, right? It’s the place where you relax, entertain, get fresh air and exercise, and grow your own food. Not to mention it benefits the whole neighbourhood by encouraging wildlife to live in the area.
But what if, like almost forty percent of us in the UK today, your home is rented? That presents some challenges to the keen gardener. Mainly that if you plant anything in the ground, you may not be able to take it with you and that can be a bit of a gut-punch when you’ve nurtured it and watched it grow, not to mention the money you spent on it. However, with a bit of creativity and this handy rental garden guide, there are lots of ways to get your dream garden, even if it’s not attached to your dream house…
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Before you make plans, it’s worth talking to the landlord/lady/agency to check what you’re allowed to do with the garden - or not. Some enlightened souls will be glad you want to look after the place and let you garden to your heart’s content. Others… not so much. Here are some persuasive points to try:
Not allowed to alter the garden, but you’ve already signed that contract? Don’t get mad, get gardening. These small acts of green resistance will satisfy the most epic of gardening urges while sticking it to The Man/Woman/Agency.
Choose wisely and your plants will grow quickly so you get the benefit of them, and you’ll be able to take them with you when you go. Here are some more plant characteristics to look out for when you’re planning your rented garden:
Some plants don’t like to be moved once they’re planted, including roses, magnolia and cistus, asparagus, rhubarb and artichokes as well as most trees. The RHS advises against moving any plants that have been growing for five years or more, but they do have some really useful advice for moving those you can, in the best way possible.
A self clinging climber will attach itself very firmly to any permanent structure in its way, whether that’s your fence or your landlord’s shed - and suckering climbers like ivy are difficult to remove from walls. These characteristics make them hard to take with you when you leave. The best kind of climbers for rented gardens are more compact varieties which need to be tied in to their supports (so you can untie them eventually) and deciduous varieties which can be moved more easily while they’re dormant in the winter.
Annual flowers really brighten up a garden, are ideal for pots and hanging baskets and last for just one season - the downside is that they’re expensive and take a lot of watering and feeding. For a similar outlay you could grow some annual vegetables like climbing beans or courgettes, which also have colourful flowers, but give you food too, along with other useful annuals such as wildflowers to attract pollinators or companion plants which act as natural pest control for your food plants.
Stick to dwarf varieties of trees, compact climbers and shrubs and you’ll be able to grow them successfully in movable containers. Even if you plant them in the ground, it will be easier to relocate them as they’re smaller (and you won’t have to dig, dig, dig the whole day through). Just check the eventual height and spread measurements on your chosen plant’s page.
Deciduous plants go dormant from late autumn to early spring, meaning that they stop actively growing. If you need to move a plant that’s in the ground, this is the best time to do it as you can transport it without a pot. Make sure you don’t damage any of the roots when digging up your plant, and do this as late as possible so you can plant it in its new home as soon as possible.
Herbs are the perfect choice for a rented garden. Group several pots of herbs together on a patio or in a yard and they’ll do three jobs at once by looking great, smelling even greater and giving you food. You’ll have to replant annual herbs like basil and coriander each year, but perennials (or hardy herbs) like rosemary, mint and thyme will keep going in their pots year after year.
Growing a cutting garden is a great way to brighten up not only your rented garden but your magnolia-painted, picture-hooks-forbidden interiors too. My top pick is dahlias, as not only are they off-the-scale gorgeous, but the more flowers you cut, the more the plant produces. What’s more, you can dig up the tuber after it’s finished flowering and relocate it easily.
Gardening in containers is the obvious solution to your rental garden dilemmas, but forget any ideas you might have about sorry looking ceramic donkeys full of begonias. We’re talking much, much more than that! There are lots of surprising things you can grow in pots, and with the rise in renting, growers are increasingly breeding dwarf trees and compact plants that don’t need a lot of space or support. Pick the biggest pots you can carry and fill them full of dwarf trees, fruit bushes, patio roses, climbers - the sky’s the limit.
Our resident allotmenteer Zoe recommends arranging your potted plants in the same way you would a border, by layering them in order of height with taller pots and plants at the back of your sightlines and smaller ones at the front. You can use plant stands or even just bricks/paving slabs to achieve this effect.
My top tip would be to stand your largest pots on those wooden plant trolleys with wheels on, so that they’re easier to move when they’re full of soil and a massive blueberry bush.
If you’re on a tight budget (and who isn’t?) you can upcycle pretty much anything into a plant pot. Buckets, sinks, old drawers, bins, welly boots, toilets - go skip diving (with the owner’s permission, I’m obliged to say) and see what you can find.
Pots are a wonderful way to rejuvenate a badly maintained or ‘low maintenance’ garden, AKA wildlife free zone. Just cover up that cracked concrete or faded astroturf with as many pots as you can stack on it, and if there’s any space left, outdoor rugs are good at hiding horrible surfaces.
Come the revolution, they’ll be the first against the wall. Climbing plants obviously, what did you think I meant? Vertical gardening is a huge win for small or awkwardly shaped spaces.
Many climbers can be grown in pots, including clematis (check that the one you choose is suitable for a pot), jasmine, honeysuckle, passifora and patio roses. Add a freestanding trellis or obelisk to the pot, or attach a trellis to your fence and take it down when you move.
Plant pots with hooks or over-the-rail planters are available in many places, and are a great way of quickly brightening up your fence or balcony. They don’t have to cost a lot - you can make your own from tin cans or large yogurt/ice cream pots by punching holes in the bottom for drainage and attaching them to your fence with strong garden wire. You can also create a living wall comparatively cheaply by using a wall mounted plant hanger with pockets.
A shady or overlooked outdoor area like a yard can be tricky to grow in. Choose plants that don’t need a lot of sun, such as brunnera, foxglove, dicentra and hardy geranium, and make sure to use the lovely blank canvas of the walls to grow a shade tolerant climber like ivy, jasmine or honeysuckle. Have a look at woodland perennials too - they’re used to shadier conditions so they’ll thrive in pots or raised beds in your yard. Foliage plants like hostas, ferns and grasses will soften the angular edges of walls to bring a relaxing forest vibe to your space, while evergreen heucheras can be used in pots, hanging baskets or borders for a splash of colour all year round.
Renting isn’t cheap, but growing your own fruit and vegetables is a great way to save money. This is one of the plant types you can feel good about growing in open ground, as most of them will be harvested and dug out within a few months. Make sure you plant vegetables that will crop before you move - as a general guide, spring planting varieties will be ready by September and usually well before, while autumn planting vegetables will mature for picking the following spring. If you can’t wait that long, go for quick growing crops like spinach, kale and other leafy greens, salads, peas and beans - or grow in pots.
There are lots of vegetables that can be successfully grown in pots - tomatoes, kale, lettuce, green beans, peas, peppers and chillies, spring onions and herbs - and of course potatoes can be grown in sacks or large containers too.
Make sure you choose compact, mini or dwarf varieties of vegetables: bush or ‘tumbling’ tomatoes rather than cordons, dwarf beans rather than anything with a name close to ‘enormous’ or ‘colossal’; babyleaf lettuce and chantonnay carrots. Avoid anything that needs a very large space to grow, such as pumpkins or sweetcorn, or perennials such as asparagus, chard and rhubarb which don’t like to be moved.
Choose large, deep containers at least 30cm deep and wide and site them in a sunny position like a patio or a balcony. Stacking pots are also a great option to save space, and plants like cherry tomatoes and small chillies can be grown in hanging baskets.
Plant some flowers in pots nearby to attract bees, who will pollinate your crops. Bear in mind also that plants in pots need watering and feeding more often than those in the ground. On the upside, they’re easier to protect from pests and cold weather, and you don’t have to worry about soil quality if you’re using compost.
If you stick to growing annual vegetables, there’s no reason why your gardening should leave a trace. In my old rental there was a border that had been filled in with gravel which had ‘raised bed’ written all over it. I removed the gravel into rubble sacks, replaced it with compost and blocked it in with bricks, then grew tomatoes and beans. When I moved out, I took the compost with me and put back the gravel. Nothing to see here…
If you can’t grow vegetables in your garden, why not grow them somewhere else?
The traditional way to get an allotment is to rent one from your local council, but they tend to have a long waiting list. Keep an eye out for allotments on private land too - I’ve seen allotments offered on spare land in schools and on farms recently.
Community gardening has really taken off in recent years, with local groups taking over waste land plots of all sizes and volunteers usually more than welcome. The arrangement is usually that volunteers work in the garden or orchard on set days, then harvest and eat a share of the produce. If there isn’t a community garden near you, why not start your own? It’s a great way to meet people in your new neighbourhood.
You don’t need a stately home to enjoy water in your garden - a patio pond can still provide the calming look and sound of moving water, especially if you add a solar fountain. Build your pond in a pot and use plants that won’t grow too large, like dwarf waterlilies, smaller rushes and naturally compact oxygenating grasses. Wildlife including butterflies, birds and dragonflies will love it, bringing more life to your garden and helping to pollinate your food plants.
Temporary doesn’t have to mean throwaway, or environmentally suspect. You certainly don’t have to swerve composting or collecting rainwater, as there are freestanding water butts and compost bins that you can buy cheaply from your council - or look on your local free stuff group. You can even make your own water butt by connecting a rainwater diverter to a pipe (ask first) and channelling it into an old oil drum or dustbin. You can always shovel all that lovely compost into sacks and take it with you when you go, or give it away to benefit other gardeners.
One of the problems you sometimes get in a rented place, especially a flat, is the lack of privacy. Living in close proximity to neighbours can be noisy too, but plants can help you mitigate this. Tall ornamental grasses can help to soften noise with their gentle rustling and swaying, while planting bamboo in containers will give you a quick growing living screen for a balcony or street-facing courtyard. Trees in pots are another excellent option.
No outdoor space at all? Don’t despair. If you have a windowsill or two, there’s still a lot you can grow. Many vegetables and flowers do very well in pots indoors, and herb gardens were practically made for windowsills, especially the kitchen one - how much more convenient can it get? When you’ve covered those in planters, why not dive into the gardening nerd wormhole that is hydroponic gardening and grow herbs on your kitchen counter or lettuce on your desk?
As I found in one flat, growing climbing plants (green beans!) can also save on blinds by obscuring your windows while still letting in light. Houseplants don’t have to be restricted to pots on the windowsill - check out James Wong’s flat full of plants for inspiration - they can stand on the floor in large containers, on plant stands or in plant hangers suspended from hooks. Provided you have enough light, you can grow citrus trees and bushy plants like pineapple guava indoors in pots or train kiwi and passionfruit vines around the ceiling.
Hamilton was talking about legacy, but tenancy is close, right? You may feel downhearted at not being able to plant anything too permanent or too large as you won’t be able to take it with you, but if you do have to leave your plants behind, you can soften the blow by taking cuttings from your own or any pre-existing plants, collecting seeds and digging up your bulbs and tubers.
If all else fails, take photos! Even if you can’t take them with you, you can be sure that the time you’ve spent nurturing those plants has made you a better gardener and raised the odds of you succeeding with the same plant in future. It will also:
Nothing you plant is ever truly left behind.
For more ideas, check out our features on urban gardening, trees for small spaces and growing vegetables in pots.]]>They attract wildlife, keep out intruders, reduce noise and pollution, provide privacy and look beautiful - there’s no downside at all to growing a hedge! Oh wait - the pruning. It can seem a little daunting, especially if you trim your hedges as infrequently as I do so that it turns into a big job when I eventually get around to it. But pruning is well worth the effort, making your hedge stronger, healthier and easier to manage - an asset to your garden as opposed to something the council writes to you about (whistles innocently). I asked our hedge plant growers about the best time to cut hedges back, the safest and easiest ways of hedge cutting and vitally, when to cut hedges to avoid nesting birds.
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The best time for hedge pruning is from spring to late summer, but as this coincides with the nesting season, you’re going to have to be very vigilant. The RSPB recommends that you do your hedge trimming outside of these times, but as some birds nest earlier or later than others, you should still make a thorough examination of the hedge before you start, and down tools if you find an active nest. If anyone continues to cut a hedge containing an active nest, they’re liable for prosecution under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. If you have a flowering hedge, wait until it’s finished flowering for the year before you start to prune. Two or three light trims over the season are considered better for your hedge than one massive session, but you won’t have to trim your hedge at all over winter, as deciduous hedges will be dormant and even the evergreens will slow down.
Depending on the size and shape of your hedge and how much pruning it needs, you may need:
These small pruners are good for trimming individual branches and thicker stems on plants such as laurel or others with large leaves and a less dense framework. The precision work, in short!
The next step up - these are good for small hedges and reaching into corners. If you’re just using these rather than a hedge trimmer, they’ll do a pretty good job but my advice would be to get a lightweight pair with the most comfortable grip you can find, as it’s a long and repetitive job. For taller hedges, you can get telescopic shears for reaching above your head.
These electric tools can be corded or cordless, and you can also find battery powered versions. If your hedge is a long way from your plug socket, you’ll need to use an extension lead with your corded trimmer. They’re great for very large expanses of hedge, but they’re a bit riskier due to the fast moving blades, so you need to go slowly and take care. You shouldn’t use them above head height - if your hedge is taller than you are, think about investing in some long reach or telescopic trimmers. If using a corded version, always be aware of where the cord is so you don’t cut through it, and for extra safety, always use a circuit breaker.
Fancy getting creative with your hedges? If you want to cut them into interesting shapes, you need specialist topiary shears, which are smaller and lighter than standard hedge shears (like a large pair of scissors) and can be operated with one hand for better control.
For clearing up the trimmings afterwards!
It’s a good idea to mark out the line or shape of your hedge before you start cutting - you can use a garden line (make your own out of string tied between two canes) or a spirit level. You may also want to mark the height you want your hedge to be - this should be a height that you find easy to manage.
It’s easiest to cut your hedge one section at a time, working your way downwards rather than along the length. Cut the sides first, then the top part. If your hedge is very tall, you might need a ladder for this bit.
Go slow, standing back every so often to check you’re happy with how the hedge looks. If you can, make the bottom of the hedge a little wider than the top, to allow sunlight to reach all of it. Keep cutting until you’re happy with the shape and size. Less is more - you can always trim it again in a few weeks!).
Only do your pruning in dry weather to reduce the chance of your tools slipping - this is especially important if you’re using an electric trimmer. Wear heavy duty gloves or gauntlets, closed toe shoes and glasses if you have them.
If you’re using a ladder, step ladders are more stable - make sure they’re fully extended and standing on level ground. If you have to use a leaning ladder, get someone else to hold it steady.
Sweep or rake your hedge trimmings into a pile and gather them up to put into the green bin or compost heap. If you can’t easily bend down, you can use long handled leaf grabbers for this job. If you don’t have anywhere to dispose of them, you can throw the trimmings into a corner of the garden, where they’ll provide a useful habitat for insects before rotting down.
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What do you want your hedge to do? If you need privacy ASAP, go for fast growing evergreens like Privet or Leyland Cypress. Deciduous hedges offer less privacy as they’re not so dense and lose their leaves in autumn, but they can provide more year-round interest and offer an effective barrier if you choose thorny plants like hawthorn and blackthorn. Do you want flowers, edible fruit or wildlife appeal? A hedge can do all of this - take a look at our growers’ packs for every purpose if you’re unsure. You can even find plants that thrive in exposed coastal locations.
A hedge doesn’t have to be just one type of plant either - mixing and matching them for a looser, more informal hedge produces an attractive effect if visual appeal is high on your priority list. If you’re unsure what will work well in your garden, look around the neighbourhood and see what kinds of hedges are thriving in the local climate and soil.
If you’re planting in a double row, you’ll need to leave a lot more space for your hedge. Why a double row? There are several benefits: the hedge will be stronger because the wind will be able to blow through the gaps, it provides a denser habitat for wildlife and any noise or pollution reduction you’re aiming for will naturally be doubled. If you’re planting a deciduous or slow growing hedge, it will also look less bare in the autumn while it’s getting established. For a double row, we recommend using five to seven plants per metre for small plants (under 1.2m), three to five plants per metre for medium height plants (1.2m to 1.5m) and three plants per metre for tall plants (over 1.5m). You should leave about 40cm between the rows.
If you have an existing fence, planting a hedge against it is a great way of strengthening the fence while adding visual appeal and helping your garden wildlife at the same time. To make sure the hedge has space to grow, you’ll need to leave a space of about 75cm-1m between the fence and the hedge - this also goes for walls and railings.
First of all, you’ll need to prepare the soil. Look up how many plants you should use per metre (you can find this on each of our hedge plant pages) and make sure the strip of land you’ve chosen is long and wide enough. Once you’re happy with the size, remove any weeds and large stones from the ground and break it up with a spade or fork. If your soil is very sandy or stony, you can improve it by mixing in plenty of compost or well rotted manure. Similarly if you have a heavy clay soil, you can improve the drainage by mixing in gravel or perlite.
Now you’re ready to plant, it’s a good idea to use a gardening line - you can buy these, but they’re basically just two sticks with twine between them - to measure a straight line in the ground. Position the sticks at each side of your row, stretch the twine tightly to create a nice straight line and plant your hedge plants against it at equal intervals.
You can buy hedge plants as bare root or potted plants and each needs a slightly different method of planting. We’d advise you to buy bare roots for planting in autumn or winter (the best time of year) and potted plants in spring and summer (handy if you need to fill in a gap!).
Most hedge plants will come as bare roots. These are only available in the dormant season (November to March) and should be planted as soon as possible after you receive them. If that’s not possible, don’t worry - they will be fine for up to a week kept in a cold shed or garage but make sure the frost doesn’t get to them (once they’re in the ground, frost isn’t a problem). If you still can’t plant your hedge after a week, stand the roots in a bucket of water overnight so that they don’t dry out. You can also temporarily plant them in a large bucket of compost or soil and keep it in a sheltered place outdoors until they can be moved to their final position.
Before planting, soak the roots in a bucket of water for a minimum of two hours. Then when you’re ready, dig a hole approximately 40-60 cm deep and wide for each plant. Add some well rotted manure or garden compost. Position the plant upright in the centre of the hole, fill it in and firm down the soil well, then give it a good watering.
Unless the ground is very dry, frozen or waterlogged, you can plant potted hedge plants at any time of year. If the ground isn’t ready for planting, you can simply keep them in their pots until it improves. Before removing your plants from their pots, give them a good watering. Dig a hole 40-60cm wide and deep for each one - you can add well rotted manure or compost to improve the soil at this point. Remove each plant carefully from its pot and position in the centre of the hole, making sure you plant it so that the soil level is the same as it had in the pot. Fill in the soil and firm it down well before watering in.
Until your hedge has developed a strong root system (this will take about a year), you’ll need to water it regularly, especially in dry or windy weather. As it matures, it will develop some drought tolerance, but should still be watered in summer. Add some general purpose fertiliser when you plant, and again each spring.
You should also mulch the whole planted area with bark chips, compost or similar, to lock moisture in the young roots, protect them from very cold temperatures and keep weeds down - a layer of about 5-7cm is enough, but make sure you leave a space around the trunk or main stem, to allow air to circulate and prevent rot.
Keep checking on your new hedge plants throughout the winter - after a storm this is especially important, so that any damage can be seen straight away. Cold winds can damage or kill young roots, so make sure they’re well covered by mulch, and replace this if the wind blows it around. If your plants have shifted position due to wind or storms, just straighten them up again and firm down the soil around them really well.
]]>Looking for planting inspiration to make your garden shine all year round? Every month we visit a garden which we think has nailed the best trends of the season, then report back with tips on which plants to use and how to recreate the look. This month we’re at GROWE (Grass Roots Oldham Women Enterprise), a thriving community garden next to the Rochdale Canal in Greater Manchester, with its own organic fruit orchard - what better way to celebrate apple season?
Orchardist Victoria Holden runs the GROWE community orchard with the help of local community groups and volunteers. “This was a derelict site,” she told us, “covered in brambles, with rotten decking and polytunnels that needed recovering.” Looking around the perfectly tended site now, it’s hard to imagine. “We wanted to help create a community space that was inclusive,” says Victoria, “so that people from Oldham and Greater Manchester could get growing in a way that’s fun, exciting and accessible to everybody.”
All of the redevelopment work was done by volunteers and local companies giving their time for free - as you walk around the one acre site, there’s a surprise around every corner - paddleboarders getting ready for a litter picking mission on the canal or a squirrel darting out of a compost bin with a sunflower head in its paws. As well as the polytunnels, there are herb and vegetable beds, a woodland area, two wildlife ponds and a therapy cabin as well as the beginnings of a tree nursery. Victoria’s organisation, Northern Lily, runs horticulture workshops - in a recent session they taught people how to graft rootstocks, resulting in a hundred new heritage apple trees for planting here and at other sites. “I want to show people the diversity of fruit out here,” she says, “because we’re growing in a changing climate and we need to discover which varieties will succeed and which won’t.”
Incredibly, all of this has been done IN A YEAR. It’s an eye opening example of what can be done when everyone in a community comes together to build something for the common good.
GROWE is all about breaking down barriers to self sufficiency. Victoria points out the vegetable plants labelled in three languages and tells us “there’s been a real cultural exchange of ideas, especially from the Global South communities, and we’ve all learned so much.” The vibrant callaloo plants catch my eye, with their long purple flowers. They’re full of seeds which are known as amaranth and used as a heritage grain, while the leaves are used in Caribbean dishes and cooked like spinach. There are cassava, okra, loofah, sweet potato, African maize and even banana plants - everything that local people want to eat.
Everything is kept as low-cost and accessible as possible, so all their chilli seeds were donated by a local company and workshops show people how to propagate seeds in takeaway boxes and grow potatoes in carrier bags. We’re scribbling down ideas as we go!
The orchard at GROWE is home to twenty four different fruit varieties in neat lines of mature apple, pear, plum and cherry trees. A beautiful sixty year old cooking apple tree is known as The Mother, from which many other trees have been grafted, and a seat has been built around the trunk so that people can sit in its shade (and today it comes in handy for dodging the rain!). We asked Victoria to tell us more about some of her favourite trees.
“This is a heritage variety that every Victorian would have in their garden,” Victoria says, “and it tolerates wet and windy conditions, so it’s perfect for growing here in the North West.” She picks a beautiful golden russet apple from the tree and takes a bite. “It’s got that sweet, perfumey, almost nutty flavour.” Egremonts are a true dual purpose apple, perfect for eating fresh or cooking.
“Your childhood packed lunch apple!” says Victoria. Instantly recognisable, this old favourite does what it says on the tin. It ripens to a golden yellow colour with a slight pink blush and has one of the best flavour profiles of any apple. What’s more, it’s really prolific, so you’ll get plenty of apples for cooking as well as your lunchbox. “It’s a good choice if you only have space for one tree,” Victoria adds, “because it crops so well.”
“My favourite pear,” says Victoria, and she’s not alone. Conference is not only the UK’s favourite pear, but the most popular fruit tree overall. “You’ll find it in the shops,” she says, “but it doesn’t taste like it does grown organically in your own back garden and picked straight off the tree.”
It’s easy to grow and tolerates less favourable conditions - “We’re in the North West of England,” says Victoria, “but this tree is going to be fine with whatever the North West weather chucks at it.”
This old French variety ripens early and it’s really easy to maintain. It’s plumper than a conference pear, with smooth, thin skin and a very sweet taste with hints of vanilla and cinnamon.
“The butterflies love them too,” says Victoria, “we get a lot here, so we leave any windfalls on the ground for them to enjoy.”
“You don’t need an orchard,” says Victoria, “you can grow a fruit tree in a pot. Apples and pears are perfect if you’ve not got much space,” she explains, “because they naturally grow into a nice cone shape.” Even better, a lot of apple, pear, cherry and plum varieties are now available in dwarf and patio sized versions that can be grown in even the smallest space.
Everything grown in the vegetable garden is chosen by the people who come here, and often that’s the stuff you can’t get easily or cheaply in the shops - beautiful and unusual herbs like purple shiso, summer savory, lemon balm, vietnamese coriander, borage and garlic chives.
I loved the idea of growing all the ingredients for your favourite dishes in one bed - here it was samosas, with fenugreek, coriander, potatoes, carrots and peas, but you could easily replicate the idea with your own favourites, for example a pizza bed with tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic or a stir fry bed with pak choi, spring onions, peppers and chillies.
As you enter the GROWE garden, your eye is drawn to the colourful cutting garden, with volunteers tending the dahlias, anemones, rudbeckia and verbena, all still looking fantastic in late September. In the summer, they held flower crown and bouquet workshops, which were extremely popular! You don’t need a lot of space to start your own cutting garden - simply choose flowers that you love and which go well together. Perennial plants like dahlias and cosmos are best, as these respond to their flowers being cut by growing more, meaning that you get to enjoy them inside and outside your home - and they last for years.
I can’t sign off without mentioning one of the star attractions at GROWE - the three resident pygmy goats, Bramble, Rusty and Coconut. They were crowdfunded and their luxe accommodation built by a local company for free. Into The Wild Creatives run goat therapy sessions with the tiny trio, as well as meet and greets where you can feed, groom and learn about the goats. They’re the friendliest little things, and love being stroked and cuddled.
I know we are - I’m definitely growing callaloo next year! If you live nearby, why not go along and see what’s growing? If that’s too far, you can still get involved in community growing wherever you are. Contact your local library or council to find out what opportunities there are near you - or start your own.
]]>If you just muttered what the heck? or snorted with laughter, you’re in the right place. Gardening jargon can be weird and downright baffling to anyone who didn’t grow up in a greenhouse or spends their working day hoeing and heeling in.
I surveyed everyone at Roots HQ to find out which gardening terms used to mystify them (and still do if we’re honest), then asked our growers to explain. So here it is, our definitive list of baffling garden terms and phrases.
Memorising these will enhance your gardening, make you sound like a horticultural expert and boost your success rate at speed dating events. (Two of these things are true.)
Jump to: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - J - L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - W.
Most plants are best planted in spring, but some are fine to go in the ground in autumn and stay in the soil over winter. When you see ‘autumn/spring planting’ on a plant, that tells you the best time to plant it.
Annual plants complete their life cycle within one growing season. Put simply, they do their thing for a bit and then they die. You have to replace them every year. They’re not coming back. Let them go.
Believe it or not, all soil is not equal. Some plants prefer acid soil and others alkaline, but most need something in the middle (neutral). That’s why you’ll see hardcore gardeners out testing their soil with pH testing kits. It’s actually kind of fun…
Bare roots are plants that are dug up and sent to you while they’re dormant. It means they don’t have a pot or any soil around the roots and also makes them cheaper to buy. Winner.
A plant that takes two years to complete its life cycle. So it grows in the first year, then flowers and sets seed in the second. A plant that plays the long game…
Maybe not what you’re thinking, this is a patch of boggy or waterlogged ground that’s made into a garden for plants that like that kind of thing. Often found at the edges of a pond or stream.
AKA gone to seed. This happens when herbs and vegetable plants go wild, producing flowers and seed heads before they should. It’s caused by a sudden cold spell or change in the weather, and can be prevented with regular watering and planting out later.
Some plants store their energy underground while they’re dormant, in a short, fleshy stem called a bulb. They’re usually globe shaped and you can buy them for planting in autumn or spring.
We’ve all seen them on trees in spring, but what are they? Catkins are flowers with long clusters of tiny petals or none at all. That’s because they’re pollinated by the wind so they don’t have to attract bees. Bees are not stupid, however, and still like to feed on them because they’re full of nectar.
A very alkaline soil that can be sandy or heavy. Certain plants, such as cherry blossom trees, will not grow well in it, but others, such as clematis and lavender, will.
This is something you do to seed potatoes to encourage them to grow lots of shoots. Put them in a tray in a cool, light place and watch them sprout - then plant them in the ground.
Image source: Flickr.
Ever broken your trowel trying to dig a hole? It might be clay soil. Wet and sticky in the summer, dry and cracked in the winter - most plants hate it so you’ll have to mix in some compost and grit.
These are plant covers, used to protect young plants from cold weather or pests. Traditionally they’re bell shaped and made of glass, but you can get plastic ones too or make them out of bottles.
These are plants used to help out other plants - whether that's by keeping pests away, improving the soil or attracting pollinators. They’re usually planted next to vegetable or fruit crops.
A bit like a cloche, this is a low wood or metal frame with a glass or plastic roof and sides, used to protect plants from pests and bad weather.
Compost is made from rotted organic matter (food waste, old leaves, straw etc.) and used to grow plants in pots or to improve the soil in the ground. You can buy it or make your own.
Cordons are plants (usually trees or vines) trained into a single main stem in order to save space in the garden.
This is a piece of a plant that is cut off and put into compost or rooting gel to form roots and create a new plant.
This is the kind of light you get in the woods, when it’s filtered through a leafy tree canopy, creating a ‘dappled’ effect on the ground. Woodland plants naturally thrive in this kind of light.
This means cutting or pinching off the heads of flowers that have finished blooming. It should be done regularly to encourage your plants to produce more flowers.
Deciduous plants are those which drop their leaves in autumn and grow new ones in the spring.
The joyous art of getting new plants for free, this means cutting a part of your plant off when it’s getting too big for its space and planting it elsewhere to make a new one.
We say that plants are dormant each year when they’re not in active growth. This usually takes place over the winter, from November to March.
Single flowers have one layer of petals surrounding an open centre, double flowers have several layers, often covering the centre of the flower and semi double flowers have more than one layer, but the centre of the flower is still visible (as illustrated here with cherry blossom).
This is done to plants like potatoes, celery and rhubarb in order to protect the growing stems, stop them going green, keep them stable or to blanch them (keep them white). It involves piling up soil around the base of the plant.
Ericaceous plants are those that love acid soil, such as rhododendrons, azaleas and blueberries. If your garden soil isn’t acidic, you will need to use ericaceous compost.
This is a space saving and highly aesthetic way of training a tree (usually a fruit tree) to grow horizontally against a wall or fence, with branches spaced apart like steps.
These are plants which keep their leaves all year round, often retaining their green colour. Semi evergreen means that in warmer areas your plant won’t lose its leaves, but in colder areas it may.
When we talk about feeding plants, we’re really talking about feeding (or fertilising) the soil so that it’s richer in nutrients that keep our plants healthy. Plant fertiliser can be a liquid, granules or powder and each plant has different feeding requirements.
This is a soil full of nutrients that will allow plants to grow healthily.
To firm in means to press down the soil around the base of a plant, usually when you’ve just planted it.
The first frost of the year is when the temperature first sinks below zero overnight. It usually signals the end of the growing season, when flowers stop blooming. Similarly, the last frost signals the start of the new season in spring, when temperatures are not expected to fall below zero until autumn, and you can plant out your new plants. The first frost is usually in October and the last in May, but it depends on what area you are in.
Plants come in different shapes, or forms, for example trees can be conical, vase shaped, spreading, round or pyramidal.
Some plants (not many) will grow in full shade, which means that they get very little, if any light. Ferns, euphorbia and hostas will grow in these conditions, although they do better with a little light.
Most fruit, vegetables and flowers grow best in full sun. This means that the plants are in a position where they get 6-8 hours of sunlight every day throughout the growing season (spring and summer).
We call plants garden ready when they’re big enough not to need any further potting on and are ready to be planted straight out into your garden or pots.
Grafting is a process where parts of two separate plants are joined together to produce a stronger plant. It involves the top part of one being grafted onto the stem (or rootstock) of another. The new plant created will have the best qualities of both.
We often advise you to add gravel to plant pots or to your soil to improve the drainage. Gravel is a mix of fine rounded stones that stops the soil getting too heavy and compacted, allowing more water to drain through it.
Groundcover plants are those which grow low down and close to the ground, spreading outwards. They help to keep out weeds and can be planted under trees, shrubs and taller perennials.
This is a plastic bag filled with compost which is used to grow plants, usually tomatoes. You cut holes in the top of it and plant directly into it. Grow bags are a useful way to grow in spaces without soil and can be more economical than buying containers, but can only be used once.
Image source: Mark Hilliary.
A plant’s habit is the way it grows. This can include clumping (forming clumps of foliage), climbing (growing upwards) or spreading (growing outwards).
This is a way of toughening up young plants before planting them outside, and involves putting them outdoors or into a cold greenhouse for increasing lengths of time, to get them used to colder temperatures gradually.
A plant’s hardiness level tells you what kind of temperatures it can tolerate without any harm to it. A fully hardy plant will be fine outdoors in any temperature and won’t need winter protection, whereas a half hardy plant will need to be brought indoors or protected over winter. You can find hardiness ratings on all our plant pages.
If you can’t plant your bare root plants in their final position straight away (for example, if the ground is frozen), you can heel them in. This means planting them temporarily in a soil trench or pot of compost until you’re ready to plant them permanently.
This is a perennial plant which dies back to ground level at the end of summer and grows back the following spring. A herbaceous border is a border full of plants of this kind.
It’s like a blanket for your plants. During the winter months, some tender plants will need protection from the cold, and we recommend covering or wrapping them with horticultural fleece. This usually comes on a roll and can be cut to size. Remove it when the weather warms up and save it for the following year.
Not to be confused with the chickpea-based dip, a humus rich soil is one that’s full of organic matter, including the rotted down remains of plants and animals. This enriches the soil, making it full of nutrients. Rather like the chickpea dip.
Who is John Innes, and why does he have such a compost monopoly? Turns out he isn’t a brand, he was the 19th century founder of a horticultural research institute. The composts named after him are soil-based recipes formulated for propagating seeds (1), potting on seedlings (2) and mature plants (3), with fertiliser content increasing from 1-3.
Loam soils are rich, fertile and the perfect balance of every soil type. Plants love it and so will you - if you’ve got this soil type, you should probably never move house.
Weird word, great concept. Mulching is the art of putting a layer of material on top of the soil around your plants in order to protect them from cold weather and weeds, and to improve their health. This can be anything from manure to bark chips, depending on the plant’s needs and what you want it to do.
Every plant needs a different combination of nutrients from the soil, so it’s important to check which are best for your plants. Most good soil or compost contains a good balance of nutrients, but if it doesn’t, or you want to give your plants a boost, you can add these with plant food. You might see letters like NPK on commercial plant food - here’s what that means.
All plants need a mixture of these, but some need more of one and less of another - you can check on your plant’s nutrient needs by looking them up on our website.
Overwintering plants means bringing them indoors for the winter, to prevent them being damaged by extreme weather. They can then be taken outside again when the weather warms up in spring. Tender plants like citrus trees will benefit from overwintering.
Many plants that don’t need full sun will grow well in partial shade, such as heucheras, foxgloves and aquilegia. Partial shade means the plants are in a position where they get about 4-6 hours of sunlight per day during the growing season.
These are plants that survive the winter and regrow the following spring, usually lasting for many years.
Perlite is a useful addition to compost when you’re planting new plants, as it’s great for improving the drainage so that newly developing roots don’t get waterlogged. It looks like little bits of polystyrene but it’s actually made from heated and expanded volcanic glass.
You’ll see this on our plant pages. It tells you how likely a plant is to suffer from pest or disease issues. Low resistance means that a plant will be badly affected unless you take care to prevent issues, while high resistance means that your plant will be practically bulletproof.
The pH level tells you how acid or alkaline your soil is, and therefore which plants will thrive in it.
The scale goes from 0 (most acidic) to 14 (most alkaline) so a pH level below 7 (neutral) is more acid and one above 7 is more alkaline.
This means taking a plant that’s been grown indoors and planting it outside, usually in the ground.
This means removing some of the growth from the top of a plant by pinching it between your fingers, for example pinching out small shoots on tomato plants, which keeps the plant compact and avoids too much leafy growth at the expense of the fruit.
Plug plants are young seedlings that need to be potted on for further growth before being planted in your garden.
Unless a fruit tree or plant is described as self fertile, it will need a pollination partner to produce fruit. This means another tree of the same species but a different variety. Each variety of tree has a different pollination group number which you can find on their page on our website. You’ll need to pair it with a variety that has a number one up or down from that. For example, a cherry tree in pollination group 3 will need a partner in group 2 or 4.
A pot bound plant is one which has no more room in its pot to grow. The roots will be tightly clumped together or spiralled round in the shape of the pot. It needs to be repotted in a larger pot or in the ground.
Image source: Flickr.
Which leads us to this. Potting on simply means taking your plant out of the pot it’s in and replanting it in a larger pot so that it can continue growing.
When you’ve grown a lot of vegetable or flower seeds in the same tray, they will start to look crowded as they get bigger. This is when you need to prick out - carefully removing them from their tray and planting them in individual pots so that they can continue growing.
Every plant needs to be pruned in a particular way at the right time of year to keep it growing healthily. This is where pruning groups come in - plants that have the same pruning needs are grouped together with a number so that you can look them up more easily and prune in the correct way.
Many flowering plants (for example wisteria) are said to have racemes. This means that they have clusters of flowers with each flower growing on a short stem.
A plant’s rootstock refers to the root system with part of the stem attached. Fruit trees are grafted onto rootstocks of different sizes in order to create a tree of a certain size or with certain qualities, and you can find this information on all of our fruit tree pages.
These are the long, thin shoots that plants such as strawberries send out when they’ve finished fruiting - it’s how they reproduce. You can cut them off and use them to grow new plants.
A sandy soil is very light, drains well and is easy to work with. However it tends to dry out quickly and nutrients wash out of it along with the water, so you may need to keep it topped up with plant feed more often, or mix in some compost.
A self fertile plant is one which produces fruit without a pollination partner. A lot of fruit trees now are bred to be self fertile, but they can still produce a bigger crop if teamed with another.
Self seeding plants like foxgloves and poppies spread by releasing their seeds to the wind and grow where they like! You’ll find them popping up in unexpected places in your garden, which is great if you’re aiming for a natural look (and yay, free plants!).
A shrub is a perennial plant with woody stems. It doesn’t die back in winter, but does put on new growth in the spring and so will need to be pruned.
The stamens are usually in the centre of a flower, and are the part of the plant which contains pollen. They’re the plant’s male reproductive organs and are made up of a stalk or filament, with anthers (the bit with the pollen on).
A standard is a tree (usually small, often potted) pruned to one single main straight trunk with no lower branches to a height of 1.8m and a rounded top. They sometimes look like lollipops. A half or mini standard is a shorter version of the same thing, with the trunk clear of branches between 1.2 and 1.5m.
Image source: Humphrey Bolton.
These are plants that would be damaged by frost or cold weather if you left them out unprotected over winter.
Plants in pots need a constant supply of soil nutrients, but once they’ve used up all the goodness in their soil, they’ll need top dressing. This means that about once a year, you should add a layer of new compost to the top of the pot, which will renew the soil’s nutrients and keep your plants growing healthily.
Topiary is the art of trimming trees, shrubs and hedges into shapes. You’ll mostly see geometric topiary - squares, balls and pyramids - in formal gardens, but spiral shaped trees are also popular and if you’re lucky you might find the odd peacock or reindeer.
We talk about plants like dahlias and potatoes having tubers - these are a bit like bulbs in the sense that they store the plant’s food or energy underground over the winter while they’re dormant. Tubers look like a thick, fleshy root or stem and can sometimes be lifted out of the ground to store over winter, then replanted in the spring to regrow.
Image source: F D Richards.
Into what, you may ask. It’s not that exciting. It simply means using a spade or a fork to churn the top layer of your soil in order to get air into it, break up any clumps and make sure the nutrients in it are evenly distributed.
This is a soil that allows water to drain through it without becoming waterlogged. If a soil is too full of water, the plants’ roots can rot, so it’s important to keep it well drained. You can mix in perlite, gravel or sand to improve a wet soil.
If a plant’s stems are hard, rigid and brown (like wood), we describe them as woody. Unlike herbaceous perennials, woody plants like shrubs and some herbs don’t die back over winter - their old stems stay on the plant and should be pruned out regularly to encourage new growth.
Did I miss any? If there’s anything else you need to know (please keep it gardening related) just get in touch and we’ll ask our experts.
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The kind of vine you choose makes all the difference - it needs to be a variety which is proven to succeed in our less temperate weather, and if you don’t get much of that in your part of the world, it may be best to grow them in a greenhouse or conservatory like I do. However, with a combination of warmer summers and hardier grape varieties being bred, outdoor grapevines are becoming a more common sight.
Generally speaking, the best grapes to grow in the UK are wine varieties, but there are a few dessert and dual purpose vines that will grow well outdoors in warm sunny places further south. Both types, however, can be grown in greenhouses and conservatories anywhere in the country, so if you have the space to grow under cover, anyone can sit under their own vine!
Oh and always choose a grafted or cutting grown grape vine (all of ours are), as they’ll grow better and produce fruit quicker than those grown from seed.
Which are the best choices? We asked our growers for their recommendations - pick any of these and you’ll be laughing. While plucking fresh grapes straight from the vine. Or drinking homebrew, either is good!
Probably the most reliable black dessert grape for growing indoors, Black Hamburgh is the famous vine that was planted at Hampton Court Palace by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in 1768, which is still producing an annual crop more than 230 years later. Safe to say it’s a good cropper then! Grow it in a large container or greenhouse bed.
Another vine with historical connections, Muscat of Alexandria originates in North Africa with Cleopatra reputed to have enjoyed wine made from its grapes. They’re golden in colour with a crisp, aromatic flavour and when grown in a really sunny spot undercover, will develop a rare sweetness.
Suffolk Red is an American variety that’s really taken off over here, with large bunches of red seedless grapes that can be eaten straight off the plant. It’s a compact vine which is good news for smaller spaces, and also has fantastic autumn colour. For the best results, grow it in an unheated greenhouse.
All of these varieties can also be grown outdoors in warm areas.
Perfect for beginners, this award winning, heavy cropping grape is easy to care for and considered one of the best tasting grapes you can grow here. Boskoop Glory is a deliciously sweet and rich blue-purple dessert grape which can grow to an impressive 10m high and 4m wide, and is one of the hardier varieties for outdoor positions.
Phoenix is our grower’s top choice for outdoors, as it’s not only hardier than most but has inbuilt resistance to diseases including the dreaded powdery mildew. For such a tough plant, it produces beautifully delicate fruit - big bunches of light green grapes that are delicious for eating but also good for wine making.
Pinot Noir, as you’d expect, makes exceptional wine. The grapes are also perfect for eating fresh, making this another versatile dual purpose vine. Grow it on a pergola for its cool, fresh foliage that turns red in autumn as well as the fruit, which ripens from late summer onwards.
You’ll also get great results outdoors from Crimson Seedless, Lakemont, Superior Seedless and Regent.
The grower laughed when I asked this question - the answer is all of them! The best to go for are those that don’t have a massive eventual height and spread, but any grapevine will thrive in a pot as long as it’s large enough - at least 45cm deep and wide is a good size.
Proper drainage is vital to avoid the vines becoming waterlogged, so make sure your pot has holes in the bottom and use a potting mix or compost of which a third is made up of grit. Plants in pots generally need watering and feeding more often, and grapes are no exception. Feed them a general purpose fertiliser every 1-2 weeks or use slow release granules less frequently.
And remember to keep them pruned to fit the space they’re growing in. The good news is this will be easier, as vines in pots tend to be less vigorous than those in the ground.
This one’s a little trickier - the best results for UK grown grapes tend to be from seeded varieties on the whole. However, if you’re growing outdoors in the south of the UK or growing indoors everywhere else, you should get decent results from these (although they may still produce seeds if the growing conditions are less than ideal).
Does what it says on the tin! One of the most popular seedless varieties, Superior Seedless is instantly recognisable as one of our most popular dessert grapes. Its bright green fruit tastes delicate, crisp and fresh and is a cheeseboard essential. Even better, it can be grown indoors or out.
Originally from California, vigorous Crimson Seedless is a great choice for indoors or a sunny place outside. It produces pink-red dessert grapes that keep well in the fridge and have a fresh, sweet flavour.
Autumn Royal Seedless is a nice compact vine which will turn your patio or conservatory into a leafy haven while keeping you supplied with some seriously good grapes. They’re purple-black with green-gold translucent flesh, ripening from September to October - and no seeds!
All grapevines have beautiful foliage - it’s so ornamental that you could be forgiven for forgetting about the fruit! Many of them also have such vivid autumn colour that they’re planted specifically for this purpose. Of course you will also get grapes from these varieties, so it’s a win-win situation however you peel it.
Vitis Brant’s bright green leaves form a cool canopy on a pergola or arch, but it’s in autumn that the show really starts and they turn a deep ruby red with green veining, resembling stained glass when the sun shines through them. Oh yes, the grapes. They’re blue-black, richly flavoured and grow in large bunches. Plant indoors or out.
Not sure why this is named after George IV/Prince Regent, as it’s infinitely more useful and has better taste. A true dual-purpose red grape that can be used for winemaking or eating, the autumn foliage is an eyecatching blend of rich burgundy, red and purple. Grow indoors or out.
The fruit of this heritage dessert grape doesn’t ripen until late October, so you may well get autumn colour and fruit at the same time - spectacular! The high quality purple grapes are juicy, sweet and delicious. Black Hamburgh is one to grow indoors in an unheated greenhouse or conservatory.
Before planting your new vine, make sure you have a good support system in place, using wires, trellis or a structure such as a strong arch or pergola to tie the stems to as they grow. After planting your vine, give it a good mulch with woodchip, manure or compost, and refresh this every year.
All grapevines are suitable for growing in a greenhouse or conservatory - if yours is of small to average size, make sure you choose a less vigorous variety, as some can grow very large.
Plant your vine in a large, deep container at the far end of the greenhouse and train the stems along the roof and walls with a network of wires. Grapevines need a lot of space between them - at least a metre - so plant only one unless your greenhouse is extra large.
Outdoor grapevines are a good option for warmer areas of the UK. Choose the warmest, most sheltered position in your garden - a sunny wall or pergola is best - and mix in plenty of compost or well rotted manure with the planting soil, which should be well draining as grapevines hate to be waterlogged.
This is considered the best way of growing grapes in the UK and has been a tried and trusted method for centuries. Plant your grapevine in the ground close to your greenhouse, then train its stems through a gap at the bottom or a window at the top of the structure. Your vine will benefit from rainwater (meaning less work for you) while also being protected from the cold.
For more growing tips from our fruit experts, check out our essential guide to growing grape vines.]]>A tree’s leaves provide nutrients for it to grow by converting sunlight into sugars via chlorophyll in their cells. When the seasons change and there’s not as much sunlight available, the tree starts to conserve energy by absorbing the green pigment (chlorophyll) from the leaves into its roots, and the other leaf pigments - yellow carotenes and red anthrocyanins - are revealed.
When the leaves are no longer functional, the tree sheds them to make way for new ones the following spring.
Sometimes this happens earlier in the season than you might expect, for a number of reasons.
Just as small children need more sleep than adults (although they often take some persuading on this point), your young tree needs to do some growing before its root system and energy reserve are as developed as those of a mature one. It simply needs a little time to grow and develop its energy reserves - this will start happening as soon as you plant it, and you should see the leaves turning later the following year.
Young trees are naturally more sensitive to temperature changes than established trees, especially if they’ve been carefully nurtured in a warm environment. Josh says “most plants, because they started the year in our glasshouse and because they are potted, go into autumn a lot earlier than plants planted in gardens.” Don’t worry - once your tree is in your garden and has a chance to toughen up, you should find that the leaves change later in the following year.
Some tree species naturally shed their leaves before others, so if your new tree is different from those already established in your garden, its leaves may start to drop before or after theirs.
Sometimes leaf fall happens earlier in the season than the previous year, and this is due to variations in the weather. For example in 2022 when there was very little rainfall in late summer, trees in the UK were widely reported to be changing colour and losing their leaves in August. What was happening was that the trees were conserving their limited food reserves by shedding their leaves, meaning they could concentrate their energy into their roots and branches. In a particularly cold year you might see more yellow leaves as low temperatures destroy chlorophyll (the green pigment in leaves). In a warm, dry autumn you’re more likely to see red leaves as chlorophyll production stops but anthocyanin (red pigment) production increases in these conditions.
Occasionally, leaves falling or yellowing can be a sign that something’s wrong with the tree. When they’re under stress in this way, trees can tactically shed some leaves in order to put all their energy into getting healthy again. Because our growers keep pesticide use to an absolute minimum, your plants may sometimes show the effects of the insects that make up part of the nursery ecosystem.
As you can see on this picture, there is some leaf damage from a leaf miner. Josh says “as a nursery we are trying to reduce our reliance on insecticides and fungicides, using integrated pest management. As these animals are beneficial to plants in general, we would absolutely avoid doing anything to harm them. Although the cut leaves may look unsightly, there is little to no effect on the tree’s general health.”
The same goes for marks on the leaves, as seen in this picture.
“At the end of summer,” Josh tells us, “the plants in the nursery start changing and going into their dormancy period. Leaves start to shut down their immune systems and small infections and fungi are able to infect the leaves. So as autumn colours appear, so do leaf spots and other blemishes on the leaf surface. All are natural and regularly happen every year throughout the UK.”
They may leave marks, but signs like these show that your plant has been grown in a healthy and natural way, with each part of the ecosystem playing its unique part in building up the plant’s immune system for the long term.
“We try to ensure all plants leaving the nursery are as healthy and disease free as possible,” says Josh, “we’re inspected by plant health to ensure any controlled diseases are not present on the nursery and we also carry out regular crop walks ourselves to pick up any issues before they become serious.”
Ultimately, says Josh, “Plants received in the autumn may not arrive full of life and may have marks and blemishes, but with deciduous plants we are lucky enough for them to rejuvenate themselves in the spring and start afresh.”
If you have any questions about your new plant, please do get in touch with us and one of our experts will be able to help.]]>