As anyone with even the slightest interest
in plants will tell you, gardening requires a certain amount of patience, not
to mention practice, and persistence - as instant results are seldom achieved.
Planning for the future, looking out for
the best examples and persisting through adversity with clear ideals in mind,
is the well-trodden path to success for many - but not necessarily one for
instant yield.
The joys of getting back to basics and
revelling in the simple pleasures of life, such as witnessing the miracle of
growing plants from seed and harvesting your own vegetables, couldn't have come
at a better time.
Setting aside a few hours at the weekend to
rifle through the freshly-stocked seed department of your local garden centre,
or pouring over the latest seed catalogue, packed with exciting introductions, is
a sure-fire way to set your heart racing with the options of every description open
to gardener's fingertips.
Go for a less frenetic pace of life and fill
your weekend with relaxing hobbies - a wholesome contrast to the rest of the
week. Discover your organic gardener
within, with a new and deliciously exciting seed collection from ‘Duchy
Originals', offering exclusive organic vegetable and herb seeds for the
discerning vegetable grower. Created by
HRH the Prince of Wales in 1990, ‘Duchy Originals' has successfully championed
the clear advantages of organic farming, helping protect and regenerate our countryside
and wildlife with positive effect.
With a selection of 51 mouth-watering
varieties, all certified organic by the Soil Association and helpful culinary
suggestions included on each environmentally-friendly packet, there has never
been a better time to take care of your family's health.
Selected for outstanding garden
performance, yield and flavour, the Royal Horticultural Society's ‘Grow Your
Own' vegetable collection has something to offer gardeners of all abilities,
both young and old. Of the 57 vegetable
varieties on offer, each has been carefully chosen with harvestable success in
mind, helping lower the family's weekly shopping bill and increase health and well-being.
Sample ‘The Taste of Italy' with Vita
Sementi's range of 60 typically Italian varieties, selected for their
popularity, flavour, and ability to grow well in the UK's climate. Bring a touch of the Mediterranean and
Italian living to your kitchen with traditional culinary recipes and authentic
aromatic varieties. Varieties such as ‘Basilico
Genovese' basil with its legendary flavour, essential for authentic ‘Caprese'
tomato salad and reassuringly easy to grow on the kitchen windowsill - or
delight your dinner guests with hard to find ‘Fagioli Nani Splendido' borlotto
beans, bulging with red-streaked seeds within their magnificent cream-splashed
pods.
Sow for the future with ‘The Kew
Collection' backed by the botanical expertise of Kew Gardens. An outstanding range of distinctive hand
selected varieties all benefitting from the wealth of skill and knowledge found
at one of the world's foremost botanic gardens.
Or randomly scatter soothing drifts of
colour with
Nigella ‘Moody Blues', an
exquisite Love-in-a-Mist in cooling shades of blue. Easy to grow and ideal for cottage garden planting,
‘Moody Blues' also makes a dramatic cut flower with attractive bloated seed
pods as the flowers fade.
Indulge in the first red flowering
Rudbeckia - the aptly named
‘Cherry Brandy', that's easy to grow
from seed. Robust plants give outstanding
garden performance, producing a mass of rich velvety, cherry-coloured blooms
all summer long. This new and exclusive
variety is hailed as a triumph over heat, drought and poor soils - particularly
stunning when dotted in drifts amongst grasses or in borders, or can be planted
in spacious containers to create a feature plant on the patio or terrace.
So reclaim your weekends and dispense with
worthless chores - sow the seeds of change for a garden of timeless pleasures.
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE GARDEN GATE...
There are few climbers better for covering
a pergola or rambling unchecked through structures and trees than
Wisteria, but when intended to neatly
cover walls and fences, they definitely benefit from the discipline of
twice-yearly pruning.
- By February, it's easy to
distinguish between plump flower buds and pointed extension growth, simply by
their shape, simplifying matters for further reducing growth previously shortened
back in August.
-
Cut back shoots to within
2.5cm-5cm of older wood, creating open stumpy spurs and encouraging freer
flowering every spring.
-
Finally, restrict the amount of
leafy growth each summer, allowing better air circulation and letting light
reach the base of new shoots - the flowering wood of the future.
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