Gardening
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Down the garden path in November 2009
Saga Magazine's Houses and Gardens Editor, Tiffany Daneff, presents her pick of the best garden events and products for November 2009
Win £100 for your gardening tip!
All you keen gardeners out there must have a wealth of expertise which we want to share at Saga Magazine. Be it pruning, planting or propagating, we'd love to know any tried-and-tested tricks, tips and hints - either ones that you have devised or that have been handed down to you. Do you have a neat way of staking that saves time and looks brilliant; an original form of pest control; a great way to solve problem lawns - or perhaps you have devised a planting combination for that tricky shade under a tree? Whatever it is, if it's about gardening, we'd like to know. We will publish the best - clearly attributed to you with your name - next year. PLUS there's £100 each for the six most unique, unusual and useful tips. Send your ideas to editor@saga.co.uk with 'gardening tips' in the subject field.
Or write to: Gardening tips, Saga Magazine, Enbrook Park, Sandgate, Kent, CT20 3SE.
Winter walks
I haven't been there but I very much like the sound of the new winter garden that's just opened at Dunham Massey near Altrincham in Cheshire. Roy Lancaster has worked with the head gardener Damian Harris and his team of five to pick 700 species that will bring light and life when everything else is dormant. There are witch hazels from the Kent National Collection holder Chris Lane (find out more about these beautifully scented trees from the feature in Saga Magazine this month on another collection holder, Pat Edwards), a snowdrop walk with more than 2,000 single and double galanthus. If you go in early Spring you'll catch some of the 200,000 bulbs planted in a series of colour themed meadows: one is yellow with crocus, narcissi and iris, another will come up in shades of blue from mass plantings of chionodoxa and scilla. Almost my favourite thing about this garden is the fact that it was planted after repeated requests from visitors who longed to be able to walk here in winter.
The Winter Garden at Dunham Massey, a National Trust property, is open daily from 11am-4pm or dusk. The garden is closed on Christmas Day and on 25 November. Dunham Massey. Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 4SJ Telephone: 0161 941 1025.
Christmas shopping
Don't forget Sunday, 29th November is the Chelsea Physic Garden Christmas Fair. There's loads to browse and buy from cakes to Christmas wreaths plus entertainers (so bring grandchildren) and mulled wine and mince pies. The stalls are in the heated marquee but you can wander round the garden where winter highlights include fruiting grapefruit, Australian Banksias and fruiting pomegranate plants. Visit www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk for admission prices, times and other details. Stalls include:
- Jewellery
- Toys
- Hand-made woollies
- Children's clothing
- Cashmere scarves
- Gloves, bags, shoes
- Foodstuffs, confectionery and much more
- Great Attractions for Children - including hands-on craft activities
Pick 'n' mix sweet peas
Every year we grow a few sweet peas up a wigwam, a few as there's just not enough space for more. Though I’d have them if I could. Of all the scents, the sweet pea is the best. I was talking the other day to Mark Rowland, who used to grow only for the cut flower trade but ten years ago launched his Owl's Acre Sweet Pea catalogue for ordinary gardeners. He offers a really inspiring selection from the longer, stronger stemmed Spencer varieties; annuals (try Lathyrus belinensis in a container. It's immune to mildew) and perennials. Then there's Winter Sunshine (their exclusive new early-flowering strain which is ideal for cutting) as well as plenty of old fashioned, highly-scented favourites from the deep blue Lord Nelson (bred in 1907) to Cupani, the original maroon and violet bicolour from 1699. Just so many possibilites. You’d want another few lifetimes to try them all. Visit www.sweetpea-seed.com for more information.
Designing with plants
Piet Oudolf, the Dutch designer, with a genius for natural-looking planting using lots of grasses and perennials, is a typical man. His whole ethos, it dawned on me when visiting him years ago in Holland, is to avoid housework. Choose carefully and you can have plants that will look good every season - no dead heading, no fussing about snipping this and that in to shape. Just let them have their heads and only cut these off when spring comes. It’s a great philosophy even if it works better in cold dry Dutch winters than soggy British ones. And it does rely on true plantsmanship. Knowing what will grow where and with what. I find his work hugely inspiring, though not always easily translated into a small back garden. But this new book, written with our own Noel Kingsbury, who is always at the forefront of natural planting design and plant ecology, is probably the best guide you can buy to recreating the Oudolf look at home. It's out on 3rd November at £16.99 from Conran Octopus.
Buy this book at a discount from Saga Books.
Are you a keen photographer?
Time's running out for entries to this years International Garden Photographer of the Year. The competition is open to everyone, amateur or professional, with £5000 to win and a Royal Photographic Society gold medal. And once the winners have been announced, all entrants can request a personal critique of their work by the judges, a panel of expert garden photographers! There are seven different categories and, over the years, the work has covered everything from detailed close ups of raindrops on petals to wide angled impressionistic portraits. But hurry, the closing date is 30th November. Find out more from www.igpoty.com. The best of last year's entries work are on show at Wakehurst Place, Surrey until 14th February (www.kew.org).
Pruning tips
And, finally, a quick mention to any keen gardeners searching for the authoritative word on pruning trees. The classic work by George E. Brown (1917-1980), assistant curator at Kew, has just been updated by Tony Kirkham, Head of the Arboretum and Horticultural Services at Kew and republished. It's a serious guide, not one of your photo-led jobs, but this is the one for enthusiasts. The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown, Second edition revised and expanded by Tony Kirkham is published by Timber Press, at £14.99. Buy the book at a discount from Saga Books.
Details and prices correct at the time of publication in November 2009. For up-to-date prices and information, please check individual suppliers or venues.
