Friday 27th September

A busy morning in the Garden House combining our regular Friday gardening activities with a charity coffee morning for Macmillan Nurses.
We managed a quick round of favourite trees which included:
Weeping pear - Pyrus salicifolia Pendula and  Judas tree - Cercis siliquastrum, Tulip tree, Acer, Rowan, Monkey puzzle, Oak, Silver Birch, Horse Chestnut, Amelanchia, Copper Beech, Indian Chestnut, Sambucus.....

Judas tree

Amelanchia lamarckii

Weeping pear

Leaves of Tulip tree

We looked at plants that are good in the garden now, particularly Asters and Heleniums which can be combined well with grasses such as Miscanthus nepalensis which has blooms of drooping flowerheads. There are many types of Miscanthus but they all have a white stripe down the middle of the leaf. They like lots of mulch and should be cut back in Feb/ March ( although be careful not to cut the new emerging growth). Heleniums are a genus of about 40 species in Asteraceae family, they are hardy perennials and can flower from June through to Nov. Good plants for  shady sites are Japanese anemones and we looked at a lovely semi double white - Anemone x hybrida 'Geante des Blanche'. They do need to be watered in well and root cuttings can be taken now from established plants.

Activities in the garden this week

Welcome back Ann

•  Sowing winter salad seeds - in the greenhouse in gutters and outside under cloches
• Mosaicing a step outside the greenhouse
• Cutting back Lychnis and Onopordum
• Pulling up Honesty plants, keeping the papery heads and collecting seeds
• Digging up onions, earthing up leeks to keep them white
• Cutting back box hedge on herb bed and pulling out some more Rosemary
• Sowing more hardy annual seeds - including Cerinthe and Dill

Ally & Catherine collecting Honesty

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Sara & Vicky completing the new Mosaic

Deborah organising the coffee morning

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Susan on plant sales

Remember bulb orders need to be in next week!

Friday 20th September

A warm and sunny morning in the Garden House and after introductions we had some time discussing plant names and plant families. Bridge explained that using Latin names for plants provides an international language for plant identification. We need to try and use the correct Latin plant name when writing labels.
The Latin names provide information about the origin of a plant or its form, colour or size.

The Latin name of a plant begins with the Genus (always with a capital letter) followed by the name of the species (always with a lower case letter).

For example Pat Smith's favourite plant from Bridge's garden is the oriental poppy 'Patty's plum'

The correct Latin name for this is Papaver orientale 'Patty's Plum'

Patty's Plum is the cultivar name and indicates that it is a cultivated variety  and should always be written with a capital letter and within single inverted commas.
It is part of the Papaveraceae family of plants - family names always end in aceae e.g the Rosaceae family   (the rose family) which is a medium sized plant family of 90+ genera including Alchemilla, Sorbus, Cotoneaster and Prunus (plums, cherries etc).

Activities in the garden this week:

• Hardy annual sowing - best to sow in modular trays with one seed in each cell and cover with vermiculite. Some general purpose composts may need to be sieved so compost is fine enough to enable the seeds to develop healthy roots. They will need to be kept in a greenhouse or cold frame over winter and when large enough potted on before planting out from March onwards.Sowing hardy annuals now gives you a head start next year but they can also be sown in the spring. Hardy annuals being sown now include Ammi majus, Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince', Agrostemma or corncockle and Orlaya grandiflora.  Sweet peas can also be sown now for next year - 2 seeds per pot.
• Pruning summer fruiting raspberries - cut back to the ground the old canes that have fruited and leave 3 or 4 of new canes which need to be tied in to supporting wire. Very tall growth on the new canes can be cut back a little.
• Hedge cutting - the hawthorn hedge needed quite a haircut
• Inspecting the wormery and sorting out the compost -always a popular job!
• Auricula inspection and re-potting
• Organising plant supports/staking/ seed collection and rose identification
• Bricklaying by the greenhouse

Book recommendation:

Chris Beardshaw -How does your garden grow

Hardy Plant society

Bridge recommended joining this group - there is a local Sussex branch and they run some good talks etc/ organise seed swaps and recommend nurseries. Check out their website http://www.hardy-plant.org.uk/

Garden recommendation from Catherine R:

Chateau de Miromesnil near Dieppe -a little chateau which has stunning kitchen garden. 

A busy morning in the Garden House

Mandy on compost duty

Melanie bricklaying and Nanette hedge cutting

Sue digging

Compost sieving and seed sowing

Friday 13th Sept 2013

Welcome to the first Friday gardening group of 2013/14

We are a new group with lots of different experience of gardening at home, on allotments, in Bridge's garden at the Garden House and some people garden professionally or as volunteers.

After sharing our experiences of gardening and our particular horticultural interests and gardening challenges we focused on weed identification. Bridge reminded us about need to be scrupulous about not putting weeds on compost heap as the heap does not get hot enough to kill weed seeds.

Weed ident:

• Bindweed- need to be especially careful as the roots can regenerate from even the smallest section and the roots are often very deep. Bindweed is very difficult to eradicate so just need to keep pulling out before it strangles other plants.
• Alkanet, (Anchusa) is a biennial and is part of boraginaceae family. It has leaves similar to foxgloves although you can tell them apart as foxglove leaves are smooth and alkanet's are hairy. It has small blue flowers and a big tap root. 
• Smooth sow thistle is a native annual weed, part of Asteraceae family. Usually has yellow flowers and can be fed to the chickens!
• Nipplewort, (Lapsana) - part of Asteraceae family - also an annual. It grows tall and erect with small yellow flowers
• Dog's mercury (Mecurialis perennis)- it has spear shaped green leaves on upright stems and is a perennial with creeping roots
• Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)- can be viewed as a weed. It is a biennial with fragrant yellow flowers. It has a rosette of leaves at the base which can look like a teasel.
• Euphorbia peplus or petty spurge is a very common annual weed and easy to yank out. It has milky sap and tiny bracts.
• Geum urbanum - not the lovely cultivated form of geum - it is part of rosaceae family and has thin stems.

Alkanet

Nipplewort

Petty spurge

Dog's mercury

Activities in the Garden House this week

• cutting back some of the cosmos in cut flower border
• collecting pelargoniums and feeding them in readiness for overwintering in the greenhouse
• clearing out some plants from greenhouse ready to sow salad leaves in gutters
• pruning raspberries
• cutting back the ivy 
• clearing vegetable bed outside greenhouse
• digging up large rosemary bush/ taking rosemary cuttings
• collecting seeds

Book recommendation:

'How to enjoy your weeds' by Audrey Wynne Hatfield

Gardens to visit :

We were asked to name our favourite garden that we had visited this year - here are just a few of the recommendations

Chelsea Physic Garden chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Gravetye www.gravetyemanor.co.uk

Le Jardin Plume www.lejardinplume.com

Derek Jarman's garden in Dungeness

Susan's Garden in Hove

The Gardens of Alcatraz alcatrazgardens.org

Rosemary Verey's garden in Cotswolds www.barnsleyhouse.com

East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden in Norfolk www.e-ruston-oldvicaragegardens.co.uk

Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden near  Dorking hannahpescharsculpture.com