Sunday Supplement #2


Sunday Supplement is an occasional round up of the virtual and real here at VP Gardens. I'd like it to be a weekly event just like the best bits and reviews you get in the Sunday papers, but I'm not promising ;)

Web Watch

Carrying on from last week's fruitiness, my website of the week is Fruit Share: a simple but effective idea which matches potential fruit sharers of orchard fruit with fruit seekers in their area, or vice versa. The website was launched at RHS Tatton Park Show last year, and has been revamped for 2010. Seekers and Sharers aren't restricted to the UK: there's quite a few entries on the website from the USA at the moment. It's a global outreach aiming to provide a local community solution :)

Trending Topic
It has to be this week's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) because it will affect us all in lots of ways without any guarantee the 'nasty medicine' will work.

I'm particularly dismayed at the demise of CABE which was the lone quango voice lobbying the government for the quality open spaces our local communities deserve. As a result, I believe our open spaces will now be delivered solely on cheapest price. We desperately need to build on GreenSpace's business case showing in monetary terms the tangible benefits quality in our parks and other green spaces bring to our society. For example, if patients in hospital recover more quickly if they can see greenery from their bed, what savings does this mean for the NHS?

I'm also concerned how DEFRA's 30% funding cut may impact the management of our national nature reserves. At the moment it looks like many of them will go to organisations such as our local wildlife trusts, but with the expectation they'll be managed from existing funds. I'm anticipating more appeals for donations and volunteer help from my local Trust in the future.

I'm sure we'll see similar results when some of the current centralised responsibilities e.g. the running of the Olympic Park are devolved to local authorities. There'll be more appeals for help from us for these and other 'extras': from tidying up our parks to keeping places like Kew afloat. I also expect the National Lottery to have an increase in applications for key project funding such as major park restorations.

Whilst much of the news has been doom and gloom, I'm happy to report the charity GreenSpace is looking at ways to continue to deliver quality open spaces. They're arranging a conference in Manchester on 24th November entitled Power to the Parks. In The Bench (their email newsletter) they say:

GreenSpace is committed to providing support to, and lobbying on behalf of the parks and green space sector. Bringing the industry together, through our upcoming conference and the GreenLINK initiative, will allow us to evaluate the new political landscape and find a way forward together.
Looking at the conference programme, I'd say it's money well spent: Wiltshire and Chippenham Town Councils take note.

Link Love
Gardens Illustrated magazine has lots of packets of seed left over from their front cover giveaways. Send them a £1.50 SAE and you'll get around 60 packets (flower and vegetable seeds) in return :)

James gave a fantastically funny talk at Bath University Gardening Club last Tuesday, coping with the heckling from Derry Watkins (who corrected him on the pronunciation of Pelargonium sidoides, a plant she introduced to the UK) and a lady who thought one of his ponds was 'rather plonked' with wit and charm. He's already given his account of the proceedings and if you look carefully on there you can see me, Threadspider, Karen and Tim in the audience!

Blog Action

Comment of the Week: is from Gardeningbren, a welcome newcomer to Veg Plotting who added her comment to my Easy Apple Juice post. She said: I would think this would freeze very easily, as we used to do that with excess apple cider when we had an orchard. A much simpler idea than my suggested sterilised bottles, thank you :)
Keyword Search of Note is apple day local authority replace roundabout. Nope, I'm not quite sure what they're after either. It seems Google got a little confused too because it plumped for my A New Approach to Perennials post rather than anything I've written about Apple Day or roundabouts.
Back to Reality

Threadspider and I are planning a trip to The Botanic Nursery tomorrow as they're having an Aster event. I said to Terry's wife at Malvern Autumn Show that it's rather late in the season and she replied it's the only time they have when they're not getting ready for a show, so that's fair enough :)
I'm up to secret things in Bristol today, which I hope I can share with you shortly ;)

Time Out

The GNO film this week was Made in Dagenham. The verdict: very good - funny but thought provoking. Well worth seeing.

I'm reading John Cushnie's Hedge Man whilst listening to a tawny owl patrolling the stream at the side of the house. It's that time of year when they hoot at bedtime :)

The photo is of some rather garish heathers Karen and I found on our trip to Cirencester on Wednesday. The only question we have is Why?

This time last year I was showing you this rather wonderful pie chart, whilst in 2008, I was Monkeying Around.

Comments

  1. petoskystone24 October 2010 at 13:41

    fruit share sounds a wonderful idea. the p.r. spin that the rich are being hit harder than the poor (or greenspaces/nature) in the proposed budget cuts is so much nonsense. wishing greenspace well & good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Victoria Summerley24 October 2010 at 19:40

    Brilliant post, VP - lots of food for thought there.
    Haven't seen Made In Dagenham yet, but saw The Social Network in New York - brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Plant Mad Nige25 October 2010 at 07:40

    As ever, VP, an information packed, entertaining post. Thanks for the fruit sharing - a brilliant idea, since so much must get wasted, during glut times.

    As for the cuts - well, you can usually rely on elected representatives and civil servants to work tirelessly together cutting all the wrong things and leaving those which should be cut untouched. But this time everything seems to be going. I fear that wildlife conservation is in for a rough ride and urban parks and green spaces - always the 'poor relations' of local authority budgets - will get it in the neck again.

    As far as Kew is concerned, I'm afraid I'm one of the minority who thinks that it should never have been semi-privatised. I hate the way the world's premier botanic garden has had to prostitute itself to stay solvent. Perhaps I should do a post on that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP26 October 2010 at 10:40

    Petoskystone - I'm writing to my MP and local councils about it. I've already left a message on the CABE website.

    Victoria - thanks, I thought it was too long a post so it's good to know it's worth the read. The CSR stuff merits several posts alone. I had the opportunity to see a preview of The Social Network, but sadly couldn't go. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

    Nige - it's amazing how parks were one of the reasons why local authorities were born in the 1800s(that and sewage disposal) and now it's an almost forgotten part of their budget as far as most of us are concerned even though its demise affects everyone rich, poor, healthy or needy.

    Please do write one on Kew. I was horrified at how blatant the governmeent are in saying it could be even more commercialised to make up for the shortfall in funding >:/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janet/Plantaliscious27 October 2010 at 10:51

    Great post, but having already reached new levels of despair re the CSR and its implications, I have to admit to my overwhelming feeling on finishing reading was one of relief. For a while there I feared you were a fan of the garish heather display...

    (Word verification - galilly, which sounds as if it should be a real plant...)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Janet/Plantaliscious27 October 2010 at 11:44

    Me again - just found out that our Esteemed Government wants to sell of our forests... Lots of articles, including Guardian, and a campaign to stop this happening at 38 Degrees. Hope you don't mind me putting this in a comment on your blog, but you get rather more traffic than I do ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. VP27 October 2010 at 11:56

    Janet - thanks for both your comments. I think you've just solved my dilemma on how I was going to work this week's news re the forestry sell-off into this week's Sunday Supplement as I have quite a few candidates for the Trending Topic heading!

    I'd love a galilly - plant breeders and naming people take note ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Karen - An Artist's Garden28 October 2010 at 11:02

    Re the Heathers,

    WHY indeed - but I was so shocked to see someone actually buy one! As Dobbies have been selling them for a few years now I suspect that they must be "best sellers"
    (sigh)
    K
    PS I do like this Sunday supplement - great idea VP

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP28 October 2010 at 14:45

    Karen - Frank's Plants used to do them but have stopped this year. Looks like they might have gone out of fashion in Chippenham?

    Glad you like the Supplement :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. SteveC30 October 2010 at 18:02

    Thanks for the heads up about the free seeds, by the way. Mine arrived this morning. Lots of duplicates, but I'm sure I can find people to give those two, and several things that I would probably have bought next year anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  11. VP31 October 2010 at 14:55

    SteveC - welcome and thanks for coming back and telling me about what you got. It's nice to know when something I've written about gets acted upon :)

    ReplyDelete

New comments are not allowed.

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more