I love growing vegetables, it’s a truly wonderful, soul enriching experience to grow your own food! Sadly an increasing number of us are without the luxury of a garden or allotment and have nowhere to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers; while a great many others struggle to garden in small, often paved spaces, without any access to the soil.
I am sorry to say that 2018 was a terrible year for many of the daffodils grown in the UK. The daffodils that were grown for my 2018 Scented Daffodil Trial experienced snow at the end of March, at a time when many of my trialled daffodil cultivars were grown, some of my daffodils stood poised and ready, just thinking about blossoming and coming into flower.
Peatlands are extraordinary environments, which cover just 2-3% of the planet’s surface. These scarce ecosystems are also very fragile, they are dependent on sufficient moisture levels being available, and they require a slightly cooler temperature range to allow the necessary sphagnum moss, which slowly forms peat, to grow, flourish, and reproduce. Peat bogs can increase at a rate of one millimetre per year if the desired conditions are present.
There are many wild, beautiful, and fascinating areas of our planet that are diminishing due to human destruction. These precious natural areas require our protection urgently, before it’s too late and they are destroyed or lost altogether. There are relatively small areas of rainforests, peat bogs and peatlands remaining on our planet, yet these areas are continuing to be destroyed by humans.
I have found that peat free composts can vary enormously: from bags of compost filled with bark chips, which could be used as a mulch, but can’t be used as intended – as a compost to grow container plants or seedlings, right through to the other extreme – the finest quality composts, which are capable of producing prize and award winning plants, and of course, every compost in between these two polar opposites!
I treasure the joy I experience when I find the perfect gift for a special person. I hope to share this joy with you, by sharing the best products that I have tried and tested this year, to help you find superb presents for your loved ones this Christmas.
Gardening Society MembershipThere are many great local gardening societies who meet regularly across Surrey.
I love growing sweet peas! I hope to inspire and encourage you to grow your own sweet pea plants, so that you can experience these wonderful plants for yourself.
Sweet peas, also known by their botanical name of Lathyrus odoratus, are beautifully fragrant, hardy annuals. Throughout my ongoing Sweet Pea Trials, I work to provide my readers with a wealth of information to help you to learn how to grow the healthiest, most floriferous sweet pea plants, that will produce the earliest flowers, with the tallest flowering stems over the longest flowering period!
Fragrant daffodils deliver an uplifting joy and bring an unadulterated cheer into the spring garden; these scented daffodils can brighten your view and gladden your heart. Many daffodil cultivars are listed as being scented, but some daffodil cultivars are more perfumed and more pleasing than others.
In 2016, I decided to run a Scented Daffodil Trial, to showcase the most beautifully scented, long flowering daffodils.
Last summer, I ran a Peat Free Compost Trial to compare the different peat free composts available, and find out how well each of the composts performed growing dwarf French beans under the same conditions. In my trial, Dalefoot Composts Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salads, and Dalefoot Double Strength Wool Compost were the clear winners producing healthy plants with a great harvest.
I have always loved our natural world. I have always wished to protect every important habitat for plants, animals, and nature, all over the world. I am passionate about protecting the rainforests and the many other wonderful, precious environments and habitats that exist on Earth, including peat bogs. Peat bogs are amazing environments, covering just 2-3% of the planet’s surface.
Though I didn’t find 2016 to be a particularly successful year for growing Sweet Peas – the plants grown for my 2016 Sweet Pea Trial didn’t produce as many flowers as I had hoped, my love of Sweet Peas has not diminished in strength. I love Sweet Peas. I highly recommend that you experience growing these magnificent annual flowers.
The Sweet Peas I have grown for the 2016 Sweet Pea Trial, are also known by their botanical name of Lathyrus odoratus.
Most garden centres and nurseries have a section featuring some of the loveliest seasonal plants currently in flower or berry, potted up, ready to purchase and take home. These plants look at their best at the very moment you visit, and make a super gift, either for yourself or for a loved one.
If you’re looking to purchase a winter flowering plant and pot it up yourself to give as a Christmas present, maybe because you’re looking for a specific plant that’s a favourite of the recipient of your gift, or because you want to design and plant up your own container, it’s important to use a good quality growing media or compost.
