Welcome to a new year of gardening, looking forward to our gardening calender this year we are getting involved in a number of local community and action groups focusing on improving local lives.

This year we are working with our local allotment holders who are testing our new products, as with Manchester University www.manchester.ac.uk/  , giving us feedback and in return we are working on an initiative for are local growers to feed the local community. This year Grobox will be thinking further how we should all try to help, support our local communities with time, knowledge or just by giving feedback , if you feel you can help just think,  ’How  ? What would  improve your local living areas?’ contact the relevant groups by email / phone. Through working together we can improve our  lives and the lives of others, so if you have grown too many Broad Beans in your vegetable garden, give some seedlings away to your neighbour, local school or community group.  Finally I will be updating you on how I am getting on with my beekeeping exams through the British Beekeeping Association www.bbka.org.uk

Hope you are well and having a lovely week. It is going to be my last newsletter this year so I wish you a wonderful Chanukah, Christmas, New Year & beyond.  I feel that 2011 has been an wonderful year which has brought up lots of experiences and growing challences  for many, however, make a note of all the things you have  learned this year and then 2012 will be easier.  This is a good opportunity to  clear  out our stuff  in our gardens – starting 2012 with a fresh clean start so let’s take this  as a positive

When everything turns to gold, this is one of my favourite colours in the winter season, to make your garden’s Autumn Glory continue into a Winter Gold Rush through the colder months. Beech that is, these are great hedging plants or specimen trees as they bring wonderful colour to your lives and garden.. You can grow your beech as hedging or respond well to clipping and over time can be developed into archways or tunnels or even topiary like shapes. A real advantage of these plants are that they can be bought cheaply as bare rooted specimens and planted throughout the winter months.  I plant my climbers around the base of my beech so the act as a climbing frame to wind their flowers through the branches to add colour and interest throughout the growing season.

Looking at the increased sales in 2011 of Pest and Slug controls it seems we really are motivated in our gardens to protect our plants, one method I use is to use grit as a mulch on the top of my pots and around the base of my tender plants. This method is effective  both conserving water and protecting from pests, also keeping soil temperatures a little warmer.

Here at GroBox HQ we have BEEn fantastic by becoming members of the British Bee keeping Association and beginning our BEE keeping exams, we will keep you updated.

Here on GroBox Hill, we have planted our winter flower garden in our pots and borders and planted violas and pansies on top. This gives us added interest in the winter months as the chionodoxa, muscari, snowdrops and bluebells grow through the plants, giving depth to the design.

Here at GroBox HQ we have had a great success with our new products, The Children’s garden has sold out again, the Wildflower GroMat has hit record sales with the Lawn following a close second.  We have been running in the Bupa Great North Run 2011, so thank you for all who supported us and raised money for our designated charities, we also are running in the Chester Marathon in October 2011.

Looking at our garden in September,

Although summer seems to have escaped us this year, frosts will soon be upon us so produce must be harvested and gathered before it is touched by frosts or it will not store well. When fruit is picked allow it to retain a good portion of the stem. On to the Flower Garden you can now cut the leaves, branches and foliage for displays inside the house.

My flowers which have performed well are our Begonias, Crocosmia Lucifer, and Nasturtiums all important for that vibrant red we need in our borders as our daylight fades. These should be a must for us all next year.

My  Fruit Garden is full of Victoria Plums, Conference Pears, Apples and Loganberries, so one job to be getting down to this weekend if you would like fruit in either a pot or border is to start shopping around to find the best prices on your trees.

So swiftly on to our gardeners diary,

Jobs for this weekend

Fruit

• Prune plums,
• Plant summer strawberries

Lawns

• Top dress with a fertiliser
• Throw lawn seed on the waterlogged bare patches

Borders

• Summer Flowering shrubs should be pruned
• Wildflower seed mixtures sown in the border

Hedges

• Pruned and plant any gaps

Wildlife

• Put up nesting boxes, bat boxes and repair bird tables

Have a fantastic week in your garden

GroBox has been proud to launch the Children’s Butterfly garden this year, we have been planting with our local schoolchildren. We planted Children’s garden, Wildflower garden, Vegetables and Herbs with out little growers.

It was a fabulous experience and the local press came too! So let’s hope our little growers  continue their passion to become lifelong gardeners and make the world a greener place.

We have also created a beautiful Scented English Wildflower garden, this allows our native butterflies and bees to be able to pollinate our beautiful countryside and keep our hedgerows and meadows fabululous for future generations. 

We have planted our Summer Vegetable gardens and now enjoying, spinach, radish and the peas are rambling up the broadbeans, they are all in full flower so we are just waiting for the fowers to turn into fruit to enjoy on the kitchen table.

The beautiful spring days are really keeping us busy in the garden this week, on top of all our weeding and sowing we can now add watering to the mix as our rainfall has either been a continuous downfall or nonexistent. This inconsistency in watering leaves our borders lawns and pots still rather dry for the time of year. Large downfalls on dry lawns gives rise to flooding and the much needed water running off down to lower ground. As I was on my travels a number of our local golf courses were certainly looking rather waterlogged last week as the hard compacted ground was not allowing the water to drain through. So a job for all of us this week is to keep forking those lawns for aeration, hoeing the borders and keeping your pots soil moist.

Sadly an unwelcome pest was found this week in my garden, the lily beetle, and this horror had managed to overwinter in my soil despite the recent prolonged, cleansing frost. The lily beetle has a gigantic appetite for any of our plants from the lily family that is a whopping 240 genera and 4640 species of herbs with rhizomes or bulbs with a few trees and shrubs. So if you grow alliums, agapanthus, lilies, tulips, colchicum, to name a few look out for the bright red beetle hiding among its leaves and remove in a way most appropriate to your lifestyle. My pest has now gone but I know that there is more hiding in my pots so I will be vigilant and keep a keen eye on them. Another pest to hit my tomatoes this week is the greenfly, greenfly are amazing creatures as they give birth to thousands of live young in a day, so an infestation really does take no time at all, so out with the homemade mix of washing up liquid and water spray to create a soft soap liquid to keep the pests in check.

A number of new gardening initiatives have started this week; one of them, ‘Make your garden flutter’ is a drive to get more butterflies in our garden. The reality is that there are 59 resident species of that remain in Britain and three quarters are in decline, which is why in association with butterfly conservation I will show you how easy it is to attract butterflies into the garden. Loss of habitat remains the primary source for this decline, which means if you can plant a pot or window box you can make a difference in preserving these beautiful species.

So here are six simple steps to butterfly heaven.

1. Butterflies love heavily scented flowers so plant, Sedum spectabile, and Verbena bonariensis.
2. Plant shrubs and small tress around the edge of your garden with climbers such as common honeysuckle. This provides shelter and protection.
3. Try to get as many plants flowering all through the year, from early spring with daffodils to late autumn, with Buddleia davidii ‘ Harlequin’ as a favourite as it gives them the fuel needed to keep them airborne.
4. Try to remove caterpillars in the garden and not destroy them as they do turn into beautiful butterflies.
5. Trim and prune your borders to let more sunlight in, butterflies love borders in full sun.
6. Plant as many flowers as possible. They attract the butterflies and add colour to your garden.

If you follow these steps you will be rewarded by a visit from 22 species of butterfly.

If you require more information on this, I have a free booklet I will send you, just send your name and address with a SAE to Jayne at the advertiser and you will have your flowerbeds all of a flutter.

Gardeners Diary

Sow Asparagus pea in your pots now, this wonderful vegetable has scarlet flowers and wonderful winged pod with an asparagus pea flavour; it really does give your kitchen table an extra dimension and a talking point.

Choose a sheltered moist soil, plant 8inch apart and support growth with fallen silver birch stems (twiggy pea sticks) pick the pods in late summer…

Keep pond crystal clear with bundles of barley straw, buy from the pet shop and fill a pair of fishnet tights. This encourages good bacteria and stops the water turning green.

Keep your eye out for frosts, the clear blue skies do mean cooler nights so protect tender shoots and young seedlings with horticultural fleece.

Wonderful Spring Sunshine is lighting up our gardens and giving us lighter nights to get out and potter in our gardens/ yards and open spaces. If you feel a little lacking of inspiration, take a walk through your local community gardens, parks, woods and look at the fantastic flower displays. In our woodland gardens the alliums are emerging and the smell of wild garlic is almost intoxicating. Chionodoxa, Muscari, Daffodils are looking amazing with their splashes of the seasons colour..

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. It is always a good idea to test the ph of your soil so you can identify what range of plants and vegetables you can grow. Our soils always benefit from a mulch and fertiliser this time of year, horse, cow, sheep manure are wonderful fertilisers as they add both nutrients and improve the soils structure. Mushroom compost is great on acid soils as it lowers the acidity as it is an alkaline fertiliser (lime rich).  Once you have identified your soil type, try to grow some of your favourite’s plants this year from seed. Seed catalogues are abundant at present so make yourself a nice cup of tea and pen and paper in hand write down your favourites, veg, flowers and herbs. Look at comparing prices and try to get the best deal for your seeds, it really is the most cost effective way to grow. My favourites for this year are Cyrinthe major ‘purperescens’ and Nigella (love in a mist), the vegetables I will be growing are Broadbeans ‘the Sutton’, ruby chard, and pumpkins to start this week.  Please let me know your favourites I would love to share your stories…

Kitchen Garden

Protect your GroBox Cabbages from the hungry birds by netting. Order your Spring Vegetable Groboxes.  Plant fruit tree and bushes, lift leeks and parsnips and put them into a corner in garden compost when the ground freezes hard and covers with snow. Winter prune bush apples and pears. Continue to weed and winter dig clay soil to break up for the spring. Plant Rhubarb crowns, cover your planting borders with polythene or bin bags to warm up the soil ready to plant early crops.

Flower Garden

Brush snow off trees and shrubs  if it threatens to damage them. Otherwise leave them for insulation. Sweep up fallen leaves and use as a mulch in your borders, cover Alpines that rot in wet conditions, Winter prune shrubs, Plant trees and shrubs, move shrubs that are in the wrong position. Protect tender plants by putting them under shrubs, back of borders, sheds, against fences.

Don’t worry about the snow it acts as a great duvet insulating our plants, our main problem is the frost, so protect by wrapping with horticultural fleece.

As you all know, GroBox holds the patent on biodegradable planting products, which is a wonderful opportunity for a UK manufacturer. So we buy all your waste paper, card, board, remix it add a few secret ingredients to create our GroBoxes and now GroMats.  So to add to our family our GroMat garden range is one we are so proud of, we launched the Lawn GroMat this summer with a test of a few thousand pieces and they sold out in weeks, now on the back of the Lawn’s success we have the English Scented Wildflower GroMat. Simply roll out your GroMat 3 metres by 0.5 metres and 60,000 seeds, water and watch it grow, how fantastic is that. We have ethically sourced all our wonderful native wildflower varieties, and in connection with Plant life we have focused on protecting our British Butterflies and Bees in our gardens. So go on BEE fantastic, grow your own Wildflower meadow and watch the wonderful varieties of flowers add colour interest and form in your garden, and you will be doing your bit to help nature survive the battle against urbanisation.