Here is a list of my favourite gardens that evoke summer scents, cream teas on the lawns and the best home made cakes.

• Dorothy Clive Garden Staffordshire, Intimate and formal garden in North Staffordshire with a variety of landscape features, including a woodland garden, an alpine scree, a damp garden and …
  www.dorothyclivegarden.co.uk/
• Abbotsbury Gardens, Dorset. A paradise of subtropical plants, Many Huge trees, including unusual and tender specimens.
• Ness Botanic gardens : Multi-award winning garden with breathtaking views across to the River Dee. Visitor Centre with Four Seasons café, gift shop, plant sales, seasonal events:
• www.nessgardens.org.uk/

“There’s simply no better place to be in Summer than in your own garden. A great mass of young foliage and flower will fill your days with colour and perfume and you’ll come in at twilight with a heart full of joy and satisfaction.” Says the late Geoff Hamilton whom sums up our feelings entirely, so we have compiled a Gardener’s Diary for you to get out and make the most of your precious time in the garden.

Vegetables

Peas and Beans should be tied in on canes and watered well in dry weather.

Salad Crops should be sown every 3 weeks to ensure leaves throughout the summer.

Potatoes planted in early march should be ready to harvest, otherwise keep building soil up around the stem (earthing up) to ensure a heavy crop and water well.

Tomatoes should be tied in to Bamboo canes and watered well.

Fertilize all crops with an organic fertiliser ( I use seaweed)

GroBox News

It really is great to finally know that movement is being made to withdraw the use of Peat in our Horticultural supplies, it is a campaign I have believed in from the start with Geoff Hamilton. Geoff  was incredible pioneer in gardening by focusing us all to get back to basics with gardening. Use our general waste household materials in the garden as planters, pots and watering devices. He reused waste water in his garden in Barnsdale and built beautiful structures from waste hard landscape materials that now is so fashionable.Sadly in the 80’s when excess was so in vogue Geoff’s ideas seemed a little strange, but with all good practices they are the ones that stand the test of time. Sadly Geoff cannot be with us today to witness our Green Revolution but he will so proud of us all reusing our toilet roll tubes as planting pots and using old sponges in our pots, hanging baskets and planters to hold on to water.

We at Grobox use an organic planting medium in our GroBoxes that help save our beautiful landscape from the mining of peat.

Wishing you all a very a Happy New Year.

Looking over the white landscape it really is hard to believe that this week temperatures will plummet to minus 7/8.this cold really does cleanse the garden from pest and disease. The main problem of permafrost in the soil is that the soil water is cut off to the plants, this puts extra stress on the weaker plants in the garden and we can just hope that they will survive. In the horticultural industry soft fruit growers spray their plants with fine mists of water throughout the day and night to protect them from frost. Straw or horticultural fleece can ensure the plant stays insulated and soil warming cables ensure the soil water is available to feed the plants, this is used on allotments and for growers who want to protect their breeding stock.

The frosting of snow really does show our trees and shrubs as wonderful architectural specimens. I always try to take as many photographs of my garden in the winter as it acts as a starting point when I try to redesign my borders. Whilst it is a hard winter in the garden there are still many jobs to be done, paths need regularly gritting, hedges need to be smartened up with a clip and leaves can be collected. The soil can be turned over and if you have any large lumps of clay these exposed to the frost will break up the clay and create lovely soil. Clay soil is one of the most nutrient rich soils for our plants and its great water holding properties allow us to grow a wonderful range of plants.

Remember there is one advantage to all this cleansing, the slug population is diminishing as we blog.

Happy Gardening