Saturday 22 February 2014

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SHOW LONDON, SCRUM TO SEE THE EXHIBITS

FEBRUARY 21 and 22 - HORTICULTURAL SHOW IN CENTRAL LONDON

I went to the RHS London Plant and Design Show yesterday, which gave me the chance to spend more money, this time on two lots of potatoes, Sharps Express and Winston, both 'earlies'.
You can buy  a wide variety of seed potatoes at the show, including some unusual ones.

SKETCH OF THE HORTICULTURAL SHOW - BLACK PEN
Here is the sketch I made of the hall, sitting on the balcony at the end at the top of of steps.


RHS Plant and Design Show, February 21

You can see that there were crowds of people milling around, admiring the snowdrops, irises, begonia, bulbs, shrubs -  all the things which seem full of promise at this dark end of the winter. It was difficult to get close to the plants sometimes because of the eager crowds.

Everywhere I looked I saw people clutching carrier bags with their leafy purchases.  Yes, I succumbed to temptation as well.

LILY

I love lilies and I bought a bag of three lily bulbs from the stand of H. W. Hyde and Son, the Lily Experts.  The stall holder advised me that on my sandy, acid soil I should  plant Oriental lilies and I bought a little bag with three nice lily bulbs, of Speciosum alba; they look lovely in the illustration on the stall,  white with curled petals, and they have a scent.  They have to be planted soon, so hope the sun returns next week and dries the soil a bit.  The Asiatic lilies do not like acidic soil so I plant them in pots.  This year I bought some more Asiatic lilies at the Pound Shop, only £1 for three, so it will be interesting to see how they compare with the more expensive ones.
Lily and spider, London garden

Sunday 16 February 2014

GARDEN MUSEUM IN LAMBETH, LONDON - VISIT THE EXHIBITION 'FASHION AND GARDENS'

THE EXHIBITION AT THE GARDEN MUSEUM, LONDON SOUNDS GOOD


I have read about this exhibition, called FASHION AND GARDENS: SPRING/SUMMER - AUTUMN/WINTER.

WHERE IS THE GARDEN MUSEUM?  THIS IS WHAT THEIR WEBSITE SAYS

The Garden Museum, formerly known as the Museum of Garden History, is based in the deconsecrated parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth adjacent to Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the River Thames in London, located on Lambeth Road
The Garden Museum, London

Definitely will try to go along to the exhibition, it is on until 27 April this year (2014)

Below is a link to one of the articles I have read, written by Robin Lane Fox, who is one of my favourite garden writers.  He writes a column in the House & Home section of the Weekend Financial Times

Financial Times article about Fashion and Gardens, by Robin Lane Fox

The exhibition has been been assembled by curator Nicola Shulman, with support from Alexandra, her sister who is editor-in-chief of British Vogue.  If you follow the link above you will see there are some lovely colour reproductions of paintings of gardeners (female) from past centuries.

I like this comment by Robin Lane Fox in his article above: "Genuine gardeners are recognised by their rear cleavage, exposed when they bend over to attack chickeed".

I shall have to be careful what I show when I attack the chickweed, in future, but in the case of us lady gardeners, I fear it is the front cleavage we have to expose or not, as the case may be.

WHAT DO YOU WEAR IN THE GARDEN?

I guess most gardeners probably wear something fairly battered and tough.  Judging by what is to be seen on my allotment site, scruff in the order of the day.


One of my allotment friends shovels the muck


LADIES DO NOT DO SCRUFF

Remember the good old days?  I seem to recall that my mother did not wear scruffy clothes to garden, I have photos of her snipping off rose heads in a pretty cotton dress.  Maybe it is a modern custom to go gardening in ragged jeans and battered anoraks.  What do you think?

THE GARDEN YEAR OF 2014 ON THE ALLOTMENT

This is going to be the year when I photo or draw some of the best dressed gardeners!

Sunday 2 February 2014

GARDENING TO DO LIST IN FEBRUARY - ALLOTMENTS AND VEGETABLE GARDENS

Tidy the Shed!

GARDEN AND ALLOTMENT TO DO LIST FOR FEBRUARY?  I HATE TO DO LISTS!


Yes I make To Do lists myself, I am a great list-maker,  I have a collection of old notebooks littered with mouldering To Do lists which still need doing, from years back - sometimes I use the empty pages of old diaries. 

I also try MIND MAPS, thinking this would be the answer to my lack of time management, but they don't work either.
JANUARY CROCUS

TO DOS


You see I can never  make the supreme  effort to tick off all my To Dos, at any time of year, let alone in February. 

Garden writers love putting lists of what to do, in the media on or line, just to make us guilty, I guess.

There is a What to do this Week,  in The Sunday Times.  Today we are instructed to:

1 Start chitting potatoes (I think this is much too early, unless you like egg-boxes full of dusty potatoes littering up your living area).  I think outdoors in a greenhouse or shed is too cold.

2 Sow broad beans outside unless ground is too wet (well, it is)

3  Protect plants that 'pop up early' with fleece or an old sheet (should look very fetching in the back garden, this)
VEGETABLES WERE HERE!

ALAN TITCHMARSH, in Waitrose Weekend, suggests:

1 "Take time to make a potting tray now" (no, not potty, potting, as in plants)

2 Cover "rhubarb with a large tub or special rhubarb forcer" and insulate the outside the the 'forcer', which you previously insulated inside with straw or other material.

3. "Prune wisteria….check the support and repair as necessary"- good idea but you need to get the step ladder out, which is possibly in the shed which you have yet to tidy.

4 "Harvest Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsnips and turnips" (unfortunately I had some parsnips but they are now lost in wet soggy soil, and the pigeons are finishing off the sprouts, and the leeks, well they never really got going last autumn, so that lets me out of this particular To Do.

TIDY THE GARDEN SHED  !!!

The shed on the plot

Inside the shed shown above

I hate being told to tidy the shed, suggesting this is a good time of year to do it, as you are not very busy.  Of course everybody is very busy in February, just like at other times.  

Probably this is because you can catch up on stuff, stuff that never gets finished in the nice weather, like, well, in my case its looking for a very cheap and wonderful holiday bargain.  Or worrying about interest rates.

Or tidying the accumulation of newspaper cuttings about very cheap and wonderful holiday bargains, or equally wonderful recipes for delicious cheap meals.
Allotment shed to store everything

SHEDS

So I resolve every autumn to tidy the sheds, during the winter when I am not so busy.  Do I do this?  Not on your nelly.  The weather is cold, windy, wet and the days are dark.  Much nicer to stay in the warm.

FOUR SHEDS TO DO, 

TWO LITTLE ONES, TWO A BIT BIGGER
Allotment shed, tiny one


Little garden shed 


You may be surprised to see that a mess they are in.  Wait a moment, what does the inside of your shed look like in February?

Inside the striped shed for garden stuff only!


Are you one of those admirable people who wash out and stack all their empty flower pots and trays in the autumn?  Someone who clears out the overgrown plants in the pond, just when the water is freezing cold?  Who cleans and oils the handles of their spades and forks?  And washes down the glass in their greenhouse, so as to let in as much light as possible?   

Well, joint the club, I don't do these things either.

Please let me know about the state of YOUR shed this month.



The shed for everything