Weeding the Web

Which? Gardening annoy Soil Association with results of research

Ouch! The latest Which? Gardening magazine crashed through the letterbox yesterday, having blazed a trail in the day's newspapers.

In a two-year research project, Which? found home-grown organic produce to be no more nutritious or tasty than non-organic. In some cases it came off distinctly worse.

Here we go again.

Interested parties have leapt to defend organic. According to the Daily Mail, the Soil Association has branded the research "irresponsible". Actually, a quick look at the Soil Association's press release shows that it's not the research per se that it deems irresponsible, but the use of pesticides that have been implicated in the rapid decline of the bee population and the use of metaldehyde.

Much is made of the result that tasters preferred the non-organic tomatoes, but several thoughts come to mind. Taste is affected by the soil in which a plant is grown, and by the water and feed it receives...

Pleasing society

This weekend I bought twenty-five seed potatoes, a bottle of Armillatox, 400g of shallot bulbs and 5lbs of bird seed, and still had change from a tenner.  How come? Because my local horticultural society runs a shop with very advantageous prices. Membership costs £3 a year, so, given that small packets of seed potatoes at the local garden centre cost around £3 each, I'm quids in already.

Horticultural societies are much overlooked by people starting out in gardening. Perhaps it's because they picture turgid lectures on growing orchids, and fussy, cloth-capped fellows entering the produce show.

Gardening on a pittance at Buckingham Palace?

Quite a stir arose last week over Buckingham Palace's need for a new gardener. The Daily Telegraph concentrated on the eco emphasis of the job, with an article describing the handling of garden waste, taken pretty much verbatim from the Monarchy's official website.

As you might expect, The Daily Mail takes a slightly snide view, by concentrating on the salary. The job description can be found in their article. They're not alone in being exercised by this. Over at the Landscape Juice Network, members felt £15000 a year to be particularly tight-fisted.

Hanging baskets for spring

Last August I wrote about Dr Foster's Plant Containers, designed by Alan Larwood. Well, Alan has been in touch recently, given my remarks about his website, to let me know that it's been updated and now contains much more information.

It certainly looks a lot better and is easier to navigate but, more to the point, has some lovely pictures of his hanging baskets planted up. They've even won a prize: Mrs Frances Beeton won silver from Bury [St Edmunds] in Bloom competition with hanging baskets trailing into Alan's two-tier planters.

And no, it's not too early to think about Spring baskets. Pansies, primroses, tete-a-tete daffodils and ivy all combine to make a spirit-lifting display. And the daffodils can easily be replaced when they fade, as long as you've planted them in the top. Have a browse round his site for more baskets planted in other seasons. 

You never know where life will lead.  Alan has recently gained his US patent while doing a nice line in hanging baskets for his local shops. And there's a chap who just wanted to please his wife!

My personal favourite is his suggestion of planting a basket with nothing but violas, which if put in now should flourish until May, and only cost a pittance.

A Pressing Event for the Garden

When I said I’d be back in the New Year, I didn’t envisage returning as late as February but, after an extended break the season (and I with it) has bounced back into action with the Garden Press Event last week.

Essentially it’s a fair to which journalists and broadcasters are invited, where companies set out their wares (literally) in order to introduce themselves and their products to the media, with the hope of some decent media coverage in the coming year.

Personally I love it, but wonder if anyone actually manages to get round to every stall. I certainly didn’t, though, like last year, I arrived in time for the opening at 10.30, and finally staggered out just before it closed at 4.30, while weary stallholders were closing down and visitors had noticeably thinned out.

Big machinery was in greater evidence this year. Ryobi, there last year and who kindly gave me a mug, hadn’t returned, but Honda was showing for the first time, joined by Bosch, Husqvarna and Flymo.

Vertical gardening is still in its ascendancy, with all sorts of solutions for raising plants from the ground, either by attaching them to your wall, as with Treebox, planting pockets new to Crocus, and Blooming Cones from Best4Garden, or in freestanding equipment such as Vertigro.

The environment is obviously still a major selling point, and just about every item made of plastic has at least some element of recycled plastic within it, while transportation has been reduced in a number of cases. Nether Wallop Trading have brought back their production from Lithuania, while others, such as Flower Tower, have considered manufacturing in China but decided against it on the grounds of shipping costs, as well as concerns over ever-rising prices, reliability and quality.

Strikingly, everyone whom I asked was manufacturing in Britain, and considered it a point of pride. Combine this with numerous recent articles about Chinese inflation - including this one from the Financial Times in which Merryn Somerset Webb observes, “These days, if you don’t take the price you are given on the spot, it goes up in 24 hours,” - and you have to wonder if Chinese dominance over manufacturing will continue.

Those of us in the know now arrive at the Event with something on wheels. I certainly felt foolish, wheeling an obviously empty suitcase over Vauxhall Bridge that morning, but, come evening, heavily loaded with brochures, pamphlets and the occasional sample (not as plentiful as last year) I was extremely relieved to have something to take the strain.

The highlight of the day for me, however, was spotting a free chair at lunch (you have to move fast) and finding myself next to writer and presenter Nigel Colborn, who now writes for the Daily Mail every Saturday, is every bit as charming as his blog, SilverTreeDaze, and who has been smitten by Twitter.