@Obelixx Thanks - I figured it wasn’t a complete disaster, but definitely surprised by how sandy I’ve managed to make things! I’ll be sure to add plenty of organic matter either nowish or in spring. I was thinking of getting some chicken manure, will definitely do so now
Best now. Just pile it on around any existing plants but not right up to the stems of shrubs and trees and then the worms will dig it in for you all winter. Top dress with pelleted chicken manure or similar next spring. Easy peasy.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I've learned quite a lot from Gardeners' World, it's a very good program. I also like watching Horttube with Jim Putnam (a landscaper) on YouTube, although that is all very U.S focused. GW should be on during winter too imo ... but I guess it's not as visually appealing as summer...
In an hour long programme they should be able to have regular (10minute)slots. One on back to basics which could then be combined to make complete dvd for newbies. Another slot could be more advanced techniques we got a brief glimpse of tree grafting with the apple manthe last week, but so quick difficult to follow and quite scary if you've never tried it before. That said GW do share a lot of info.on propagation methods.
I'd agree with you tessa. I think what's even more important is that there should be follow ups. For instance - a bit of grafting, as you mention. Show what the plant looks like after a month, then another month, and so on. Also showing what happens if they don't take - a few pointers to help prevent it, or indicators that it's not working etc. As I've said before - often that kind of hint or tip can be done in twenty or thirty seconds. B'grove can do several little items that way in the space of a minute or two.
James - I think you're right about the winter garden not being so visually appealing, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have programmes showing that, and showing various things that can be done. An ideal time to highlight gaps that could have new permanent planting, and suggesting which plants could suit. It's all very well doing that when everything's growing, but for newer gardeners, that can be hard to visualise. I'm not sure of the value of watching info online when it's from a completely different part of the world. I think that could be misleading for a lot of people.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Maybe it was just us but we gave up on " the apple guy" Hubby asked " is this the dullest "anoraky" guy you've ever seen?" He had to be "promted" from behind the camera and I found the close ups of him eating rather off-putting. Cue the FF button. I have to say, in over 40 years of gardening , I've never met one person who has grafted an apple tree. I'm not saying it's not interesting, but in the prime time gardening programme, it seemed a bit irrelevant to "most" gardeners. IMHO.
Does anyone remember that Gardener of teh Year competition when they had to do a graft? Amateur gardeners? Please! That said, BG seems able to show such stuff including propagating shrubs using moss balls wraped on stems which seems far more useful to me.
Tess, I don't think the GW producers have a plan. Wish they would, then they could spend half the time on regular techy/practical stuff with updates and follow up on progress and what next and leave the other half for seasonal, timely, reactive to events stuff and visits to other gardens to see what we can aspire to in our own plots.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
It would be a great help if they published some info from the programmes on the Net.
They say the names of plants, and gardens they visit so fast, that I often don't catch them, though I can sometimes work it out if I know them already (!) They don't tell you when /if you can visit either, and it is hard to remember everything you want to, until the end of the programme so that you can look things up.
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As I've said before - often that kind of hint or tip can be done in twenty or thirty seconds. B'grove can do several little items that way in the space of a minute or two.
James - I think you're right about the winter garden not being so visually appealing, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have programmes showing that, and showing various things that can be done. An ideal time to highlight gaps that could have new permanent planting, and suggesting which plants could suit. It's all very well doing that when everything's growing, but for newer gardeners, that can be hard to visualise.
I'm not sure of the value of watching info online when it's from a completely different part of the world. I think that could be misleading for a lot of people.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hubby asked " is this the dullest "anoraky" guy you've ever seen?" He had to be "promted" from behind the camera and I found the close ups of him eating rather off-putting. Cue the FF button.
I have to say, in over 40 years of gardening , I've never met one person who has grafted an apple tree. I'm not saying it's not interesting, but in the prime time gardening programme, it seemed a bit irrelevant to "most" gardeners. IMHO.
Tess, I don't think the GW producers have a plan. Wish they would, then they could spend half the time on regular techy/practical stuff with updates and follow up on progress and what next and leave the other half for seasonal, timely, reactive to events stuff and visits to other gardens to see what we can aspire to in our own plots.