Over the last seven years , my life as a Professional Gardener, my ever changing garden and courses attended have been the main topics of conversation on my personal blog.

However growing cut flowers and edible crops will be taking over, I talked about this in my last blog. But briefly the reasons are two fold :–

Firstly, I recently chose a collection of seeds for my niece to grow her first cut flower garden. Through doubling up the order I will be showing George how to sow and grow through my blog.

Secondly, I really enjoy growing small quantities of food for my family. Friends have been asking for advice as they would like to start growing edible crops this year, and they are not quite sure how to set about it. With this in mind, I will be sharing my greenhouse and veg patch activities through the coming seasons, and I would describe myself from the outset as a keen amateur veg grower,

  • Here’s
  • some
  • I
  • grew
  • in
  • 2019
  • 2019 was a great year for tomatoes, here’s hoping the same goes for 2020.

At this point I need to make a disclaimer. I am not sponsored by any of the seed companies which will be mentioned over the coming months, or my review of Clare Nolans book “In Bloom”. This is my own personal blog, which consists entirely of my own personal thoughts relating to horticulture, landscape and garden design and floristry. I very much hope as we work our way through the uncertainties of the coronavirus, you might like to join me, to grow your own cut flowers and veg.

As a Professional Gardener, and amateur grower I consider the following companies provide well priced seeds, of good germination rate and excellent cropping and flowering capacity, and this is the reason I choose to write about seeds bought from Thompson and Morgan, Chiltern, Higgeldy, and Sarah Raven seeds. My blog occasional features on the Thomspson and Morgan website, but this is non monetary arrangement.

.

OKAY, LETS GET READY TO GROW A GARDEN

( or at least a few flowers and veg)

The first thing I would like to say is “slow down and do some planning”

Before starting, you really should try to have some sort of plan, or idea of what you would like to do. Growing your own flowers and edible crops should be something that will bring you enjoyment, and promote a sense of achievement. Whatever you do, please don’t just head out into your garden and start digging over a vast amount of turf, before you even know what you want to do, or grow.

In the planning stage you really should think about

  • What, and how much you would like to grow,
  • Where are you going to site the new project.
  • What is the soil like ? it really needs to be cleared of annual and perennials weeds. In other years I would recommend improving the soil with leaf mould and incorporating well rotted manure, but we are in a virtual lockdown in the midst of Corona Virus. You will just have to make the best of what you already have. That may well involve, just having to work with your existing garden soil. Even if you cannot find a couple of bags of compost to get your seeds going in the first instance, do not give up, you can still grow your own, and I will help to find answers to your questions. Next week I will look at preparing my garden borders and veg patch, and identify weeds that really could do with coming out to make space for your crops and flowers.
  • What are the light levels like in your potential growing area ? If you have a shady place to grow in, it will be limiting, but it doesn’t mean you cannot grow. But there is no point in growing sun loving flowers and veg if you have dense shade. Most crops will tolerate some dappled shade, and all websites have growing instructions, soil and light requirements when you are looking for seeds.
  • Make a list of what you would like to have a go at growing

This year my edible list includes the following..

Salad, beetroot, carrots, courgettes,climbing french beans, potatoes, butternut squash, kale, brussels sprouts, broad beans, tomatoes,sweet peppers, chilli peppers , cucumbers,spinach and aubergines. Next week, my veg sowing chart will be on the blog. I intend to make my veg patch about 15-20m2 , to fit all this in,

Today is the 29th March 2020 and I am in no rush for planting any of my seeds. It is still not quite warm enough to sow directly in the soil, and my greenhouse is unheated, so I am going to start work on weeding out nettles in my proposed veg bed to make space.

So far only Tomato and Pepper seeds have been sown in the greenhouse. I am planning to start the majority of my sowing the second Sunday into April. This might sound a little specific, however two years ago I decided to make this “international greenhouse day” why not join me ?

  • Where will you get your seeds from ? At the moment this may be slightly trickier than you might think, with many websites experiencing very high demand, you may well just have to wait in an online queue for a while, just persevere.
  • If you cannot get the seed you really would like, ask friends, if they have spare, or wait until they have surplus seedlings. Try to restrain yourself from just buying random seed that is not on your list, you are highly unlikely to ever sow it.
  • Consider growing your flowers and veg in containers. You will have to water them more frequently than if the crop was in the ground. However by starting with a small project and being successful, it might then lead you to thinking about making more space for vegetables over the coming months, rather than having dug up half your garden space in an enthusiastic moment, and then realizing that there is actual quite alot of work to do, to get the ground ready for planting. Many of us have large plastic boxes for storing things in, why not convert a couple of these into grow boxes ? I grow quite a few of my crops this way – including courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes.
  • Plan to remind yourself that all of this takes time, you are not going to achieve instant crops. Salad can crop in 4 weeks but if you are thinking of leeks and brocolli, this takes months and months, Tomatoes will if sown now, be cropping in mid summer. Homegrown food is delicious, seriously there is nothing better, than a salad cut fresh from the garden.
  • Set a budget, how much do you have to spend on seeds, compost, tools that you might need.
  • Where do you intend to start your seeds off ? do you have a greenhouse ? or will it be a windowcill ? or a porch ? The main thing to remember is good light is needed after germination, to enable your seedlings to get off to a healthy start. Many veg seeds can be sown direct into the ground, I would read the packets for advice on this . Next weeks blog will include a plan of how I intend to grow my plants over the coming months, whether its a greenhouse start, or being sown straight into the ground.

ON THE SUBJECT OF FLOWERS…

I have already mentioned which vegetables I will be growing, so now onto some of my favourite flowers. I have dozens of packets of seeds to sow

Below are some of my favourite flowers, if they are of interest you might be able to find some of these to sow along with me. Please note all the flowers below were grown for my 2019 garden. They started off in my greenhouse in spring 2019, rather than being sown directly into the soil.

I would also recommend, that if this is a first time for growing flowers, choose ones that are described as easy to grow. Having said this I have just realized several packets I bought for my niece, are tiny seeds, that are a little bit fiddly to sow (apologies in advance George, but I will show you how )

Amaranthus – beautiful tassel shaped flower stem, tiny seeds, but so worth having a go.

Cosmos, a truly beautiful and very simple seed to sow, there is a huge selection of cultivars out there to choose from. Cosmos Xsensa, is an incredible colour combination of iridescent peach and raspberry. Cosmos Cupcake behind.

Any type of sunflower, this year I am trying all types of gorgeous colours, I always grow “Russian Giant” which generally reaches over 10 foot tall. With two of my gardening friends – Jan in Cornwall, and Jon who actually does live in Russia, we occasionally have a competition to see who can grow the tallest – I won last last time ! (not that I am competitive) The only slight problem with sunflowers is that mice love the seeds as a tasty snack. Before sowing I will gap up all the rodent sized holes in my greenhouse, as I have had entire trays of seeds demolished overnight in previous years. Once ready for growing outside, slugs and snails love them, but persevere with them, they are stunning.

  • SUNFLOWERS FOR 2020

Dahlias – These really are super simple to grow, I start them in early April, and they will be flowering from late July. I choose to grow Honka Dahlias from Sarah Raven Seeds and Black Beauty from Thompson and Morgan.

Rudbeckia Chim Chiminee, From Thomspon and Morgan last year. If I remember these were quite small seeds, but they had a great germination rate, and had incredible quill shaped petals. I am growing them again this year.

Any umbellifer type flower, they are a nectar haven for pollinating insects. This year I will be growing Ammi Majus and Daucus carota

Squirrel tail Grass – This image is a few years old. It is really simple to grow. Seed this year from Chiltern.

Nasturtiums, have big seeds and are very easy to grow. The flowers are stunning and edible (and so is the foliage). These were from Sarah Raven and Thomspon and Morgan seeds last year.

Helichrysum – Last year I grew Salmon Rose – from Sarah Raven. This year I have several varieties from Chiltern seeds to try out.

Tithonia rotundifolia Torch this was from Higgeldy seeds last year, I like to grow it every year. It is stunning, This is one for a border, rather than a container though.

I think we could all do with some extra colour on our plates and in our flower vases this coming summer. Why not join me as I intend to sow and grow my way through the Coronavirus in my Shropshire garden. Please feel free to call into the blog on a weekly basis. Next week I am hoping the weather will have warmed up slightly as I really want to get seed sowing, and I will be weeding my way through my border to make space for my new plants for this coming summer.

Seriously though, from now until late April, I do not sow seed straight into the ground, there are several reasons for this. Firstly Seed is relatively expensive. Secondly if you decided to sow all your lettuce seeds straight outside now, unless you had prepared the seed bed, and fleeced it over to start to help warm it up, there is the likelihood, that you would not be providing the ideal conditions for germination, and it would be really sad if your first attempt at growing, didn’t work out, how you quite imagined.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THIS WEEK

Try to find and buy seeds this week, and see if you can find any containers to start seeds off, and maybe to grow long term into. If you are thinking of digging up some space, do this sparingly. Try and find a small amount of compost to start your seeds off. If you cannot find any of these, do not give up, it is very early in the growing season, and there is plenty of time to find what you need.

AND FINALLY !

Last year, my neighbour Sue appeared with a book that she thought might interest me. Interest me ? it became a life changer when it came to learning about choosing and growing the best flowers, foliage and stems to grow for cutting conditioning and arranging for maximising vase life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

So whats so special about this book ? The styling and the entire subject matter is sublime. Every page is full of incredible detail, whether that is floral, horticultural or photographic. The author Clare Nolan was responsible for all of this. That is why this book is so special.

I spend my working life, as a gardener, the print colour of all the imagery is an exact match to my visual memory of plants I see throughout my working life. The quality of the chosen paper plus the imagery, makes this an outstanding publication.

Clare Nolan’s written word flows gently off every page, which provides an abundance of her expert knowledge. This ultimately provides every reader, no matter their level of knowledge or skill base on this subject huge enthusiasm and confidence than you to could achieve what Clare is explaining.

I know my copy will continue to be used for years, as I refer back to Clare’s expert knowledge and advice.

In Bloom is written by Clare Nolan, published in Great Britain in 2019 by Kyle Books. The ISBN no is 978 085783 305 1