Weeding the Web

Beat the deadline at the Heritage Seed Library

While seed catalogues continue to pour through the door, or crash out of magazines just as we reach the till in Smiths, one is already running up against its “sell-by” date; the deadline for ordering seeds from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL) is 5th March and fast approaching.

My ankles were black and blue last year after I’d soundly kicked myself for missing the deadline and depriving myself of the regulation six packets which are allowed as part of the membership of the HSL.

Theirs is my favourite catalogue, particularly strong on tomatoes, and the only source I know of a good variety of climbing peas (why anyone wants to grow anything else in a domestic garden is a mystery to me).

If you don’t belong to the Heritage Seed Library, it’s not too late to join to take advantage of this year’s seed quota.

Passing the Hours at Morville Dower House

The problem with going away to visit a distant garden is that you’re hostage to the weather. Which is why, last May, my husband and I found ourselves soaking up water like sponges as we took in the gardens of Morville Dower House in a downpour.

Morville is a very special place, despite the vagaries of Shropshire weather. Created by Dr Katherine Swift over twenty years, it marries the history of gardening with the history of the people who lived there, taking you through different historical periods and recognising different influences. Here’s what she says about it:

“Although the garden is divided into separate areas by high hedges, it is less a succession of garden ’rooms’, each leading into the next in an orderly sequence, than like a medieval church, with nave, transepts and aisles, choir and apse, little side-chapels and chantries, glimpsed sideways through arches and arcades in an ever-shifting perspective. There’s a transparency about it—the way an overture before an opera introduces all the themes that will be elaborated later—yet it retains its secrets, its ability to surprise.”

Sharpen your lawnmower blades for Spring

Lawns in recent warm winters haven’t taken much time off. At least this year’s icy interlude stopped the grass growing.

While it’s resting, how about taking the opportunity to sharpen the lawnmower blades? This calm and sensible ten-minute video shows how to dismantle the blade, sharpen it with either a file, drill attachment or a bench-grinder, and finally balance it before re-attaching.

Bramley apples: a very British taste

While the commercial world is pushing love and gearing up to pink—hearts, ribbons, cards for St Valentine’s Day—others are pushing something completely different. This week is, in the ways of marketing, Bramley Apple Week.

Now, Bramleys are a British staple with a noble history. But according the website of the Bramley Apple Information Service (of course there’s one) they are exclusive to Britain. How weird. Surely a few people in the States grow them?

My socks are safe at last

It’s the sort of thing I say I’ll never buy and then am really glad I did.

Last week saw the Garden Press Event 2010, a gathering of around sixty companies, showing off their wares to garden designers and various media writers, journalists and presenters.

Old hands use it to meet friends, liaise with editors and, no doubt, focus tightly on their particular interests. Others, like me (or perhaps just me?) bounce from stand to stand like an enthusiastic puppy.

Old hands stroll out with a few items of interest. Others (er, me) stagger out under the weight of brochures, price lists, press releases and samples. So burdened was I that the ten-minute walk to Vauxhall station was out of the question; I had to take a taxi.

My purchase? Well, I’m not the only person to think them really useful. One of the organisers told the stallholders that they’d never sell them (the show being about marketing, not selling), but by the time I swung by half an hour before closing, most of the stock had gone.

Christine Walkden - Gardeners' World material

When I posted about HF Holidays' Garden Tours last week, I mentioned Christine Walkden — gardener, author, lecturer and presenter — who leads a couple of the HF Holidays Garden Tours this year.

Christine’s a busy woman and you can catch up with her activities on her website, where there are details of her courses at Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex, (last year she received a Gold Award from the Association of Colleges for Further Education) her Evening with Christine Walkden theatre tours around Britain, and TV and radio appearances.