Monarda ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ in one of the borders at Old School Garden, sitting well alongside a young Gleditsia triacanthos and Lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’
Hailing from North America, and otherwise known as ‘Bergamot’, Monarda like sun, but will grow in dappled shade too, but plants established in partial shade or filtered sun have higher incidences of rapid horizontal spread and flower less. Their natural habitats are the dry prairie and also woodlands, so they vary in their soil requirements from those that like a dry soil to those liking moisture – all need moisture retentive soil though and if the soil is too dry they are prone to mildew, as they are here in Old School Garden. It can also tolerate clay soil. The incidence of powdery mildew can be reduced by allowing good air movement between plants, ensuring the soil does not dry out, removing diseased leaves and stems to destroy the overwintering stage of the fungus and choosing mildew-resistant cultivars. Fungicides or horticultural oils can also be used to control powdery mildew.
Monarda ‘Gardenview Scarlet’ 
Monarda ‘Squaw’
Generally, propagation occurs by hardwood and softwood cuttings, root cuttings, layering, and division. The latter, quite frequently, is the most popular method out of necessity: on soil that stays moist, plants can spread fairly quickly so the plant should be divided every 3 to 5 years to reduce spread, keep the central core of the plant healthy, preclude root rot, and improve air circulation about the foliage.
The flowers are a delight, arranged in whorls, rather like sage. They are tubular, with 2 lips, an upper one that is hooded and a lower one that spreads and they often come with coloured bracts. The plant is long flowering, from mid to late summer, and blooms almost continuously if deadheaded periodically. The blooms make excellent cut flowers, both fresh and dried.
Wasp on a Monarda punctata
Being attractive to bees and butterflies it is a good plant for wildlife gardens, though only Bumble Bees can gain direct access, honey bees and other insects getting in only after something larger has made holes! Because of oils present in its roots it is sometimes used as a companion plant around small vegetable crops susceptible to subterranean pests. Bee balm is considered a good plant to grow with tomatoes, ostensibly improving both plant health and tomato flavour.
Ranging in height from 20–90 cm (8–35 in), Monarda have an equal spread. The stems are distinctive, in that they are square in profile, and taller varieties often require staking. The slender and long-tapering (lanceolate) leaves are not particularly striking to look at but are aromatic and are a definite reminder of ‘Earl Grey’ Tea, which is flavoured with Bergamot and the leaves are sometimes picked for pot pourri. Slugs can attack new growth in the spring but the genus is low in allergens.
Most hybrids are derived from Monarda didyma or M. fistulosa.There are over 50 commercial cultivars and hybrids, ranging in colour from post – box red to pure white to deep blue, but these plants tend to be smaller than wild species, and have often been developed to combat climatic or pest conditions. Other hybrids have been developed to produce essential oils for food, flavouring, or medicine. The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (AGM):
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Monarda citriodora (‘Horse Mint’)
Sources and further information:
‘The Monarda Speaks’- blog article
Monarda citriodora (Horse Mint)- video from Texas
Monarda and powdery mildew resistance- University of Chicago study
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The blackbirds nesting among the vine in the Courtyard Garden at Old School Garden- picture by Gabbie Joyce and Paul Young
As you can imagine, the last few weeks have been very busy on several gardening fronts. I guess the most significant event was our first garden opening last week, which I’ve done a separate article about. This was great fun and I was very pleased with the way the garden looked and the many positive comments from the 70+ visitors. We raised over £300 too which will be going to three local ‘good causes’.
One of these is ‘Master Gardener’, where I continue to offer my voluntary advice and help to those starting to grow their own food. Gabbie, the local co-ordinator, has come up with the idea of using the money we raised as a special fund to be tapped into by Norfolk Master Gardeners to purchase small items to help their households, groups and other new growers- I’ll tell you more about this in due course. I’ve attended a few events recently and had fun talking with a range of people about their food growing experiences and maybe even helped to recruit a few new households. The latest event was the ‘Destination Aylsham’ Fun Day yesterday, which I helped out at with fellow Master Composter Sally Wilson- Town and co-ordinator David Hawkyard. Well over 70 people came over to discuss composting and ‘growing your own’, though my period at the stall seemed to coincide with the quieter, ‘wind down’ phase towards the end. Still, no matter, we seem to have promoted composting and food growing to a few more people – and I managed to sell some plants and produce too!
Some produce for sale at Aylsham ‘Fun Day’ 
The compost game 
Master Gardener and Composter stand at the ‘Fun Day’
I’ve done my last session this academic year at Cawston Primary School, where we had great fun harvesting potatoes, broad beans and a few onions. In truth, with the exception of the Broad Beans, these were harvested a little too soon, because this was the last opportunity for the children to garden before their holidays which begin on Thursday. Still, the potatoes were of a good size and a reasonable quantity and will be used in the school kitchen this week along with the beans and some of my donated home grown produce (we’ve had some enormous Calabrese and Cauliflowers lately). The children also continued to dig out the old compost bins so that we can make a new start there in the Autumn. However, it’s disappointing that we’ve not been able to keep on top of the weeding in the bog garden around the wildlife pond (which is also looking extremely dry), as many weeds have now set seed, so that will be an added problem for us in the Autumn, when hopefully the soil will be damper and weeding easier. However, the Outdoor Learning Co-ordinator , Sharon, tells me that the pond has been a real winner with the children and has yielded examples of a wide range of insect and other wildlife.
The gardens at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum are struggling in the sun and heat, but the planting and care taken earlier in the year by myself and other volunteer gardeners seem to be paying off. The rambling rose ‘Rambling Rector’ in the Wildife Garden looks particularly splendid as it covers the arbour and adjoining wall, where I and my friend Steve spent an hour or two pruning and tying in last autumn.
‘Rambling Rector’ over the arbour at Gressenhall 
..and over the adjacent wall
At home, Old School Garden is also struggling in the heat, and evening watering sessions of hand held spray and sprinkler have lasted a good few hours in recent weeks – and still many new plantings are wilting! Anyway, the long borders are looking great, though with a few gaps after shearing back the oriental poppies. I’m hoping that my strategically placed pots of tender perennials and plantings of annuals will soon plug these and the overall show will reach a crescendo in a few weeks time. The kitchen garden has proved to be very productive to date, though we continue to get problems with pests such as pigeons and to a lesser extent blackbirds and aphids. I’ve noticed a few Cabbage White butterflies recently, but hopefully with my planting of Nasturtiums and netting of my Brassicas, we’ll not be too badly affected by their hungry green caterpillars! So far we’ve had crops of :
Potatoes – though I had to lift many of these a bit early as blight had started to affect them
Calabrese -huge heads from the F1 variety ‘Beaumont’
Cauiliflowers- though a few heads were ‘blown’ as we couldn’t keep up with the supply!
Mange Tout – despite early pigeon attacks!
Celery – too much to cope with!
Carrots – a reasonable first crop though many were twisted and misshapen, possibly a combination of too rich and stony soil
Lettucs – a few varieties from the garden have tasted good along with some ‘cut and come again’ varieties in pots.
Tomatoes – just a few of the smaller, golden variety to date, but plenty on the plants in the greenhouse, ready for swelling and ripening.
Courgettes – the start of what promises to be a bumper year, especially as my friend Steve has given me four ‘Patty Pan’ plants to go with the two green varieties he’d already supplied!
Strawberries- you remember I’d started the process of relocating the strawberry bed? Well the new plants seem to have taken well, though, as youd’ expect I didn’t let them flower or fruit this first year, but the old plants I left hoping for ‘one more year’ of fruit were a disaster. Very few fruits and what there were the blackbirds, slugs and mould seem to have taken. So for the first time in many years I actually bought two punnets of strawberries!
Raspberries – these are coming on well and we’ve enjoyed a few days supply so far, though the pigeons, despite my various ‘bird scarers’, seem to be enjoying themselves and breaking off the fruiting stems as they use them like ladder to go up and down the canes!
Garlic – most now harvested but some along with the onions are just drying out before storing
Broad Beans – a good crop of a rosy pink variety, though when cooked their attractive colour seems to turn a rather dull grey, but they taste just fine!
Gooseberries- first bush harvested , two red varieties to come this weekend
Blackcurrants- two bushes harvested and a lot frozen, with one more to come shortly
Later today, I’ll be sowing some further crops of Lettuce, Mange Tout, Carrots and Cabbage as well as some Pansies I got from the Royal Norfolk Show and which should provide us with some autumn and winter colour. That’s if it is not too hot of course.
Other posts in this series:
Dear Walter…. letter from Old School Garden 21st June 2013
Dear Walter….letter from Old School Garden, 20th May 2013
Dear Walter….letter from Old School Garden, 18th April May 2013
Dear Walter….letter from Old School Garden, 11th March 2013
Dear Walter… letter from Old School Garden: 15th February 2013
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Some days you just come across gems that are so utterly unexpected. I wonder how Jason Richardson came up with the idea to attach contact microphones directly to slides, swings and springriders and then get percussive with the metal, composite wood and plastic.
Is Leeton, Australia’s playground symphony a first? I would hazard a guess that Richardson is defining a niche of playful, minimalist music. Reminiscent of Steve Reich, I love the inventiveness, the audacity and the fun.
The work was screened recently in outdoor locations including Leeton’s Mountford Park as part of the town’s centenary celebrations. It will be part of the Burning Seed Festival (Australia’s Burning Man) in October.
If you’re not in Australia, or can’t get there for the show, there’s another excerpt of the video on Playgroundology FB, or you can watch and listen to the full 28 minute video version here.
Can’t…
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by Yves Cummings
‘Friend or foe?’
As part of the ‘Master Composter’ project providing advice to families and groups about using green waste to make compost and enrich their soil, I’ve recently been sent a useful factsheet about organic pest and disease control. And pest control – specifically pigeons and blackbirds – is presently keeping me well exercised in the garden! More positively, I don’t seem to have had much of a problem with either slugs and snails, aphids or caterpillars – so far. A harsh winter and dry spell may be part of the answer. Anyway, I thought I’d share the basics of this factsheet with you (plus a few thoughts of my own).
Too much fertiliser and your plants will be soft and sappy – providing a lovely lunch for pests and encouraging you to spray to deal with them. Not good practice. Better to feed your soil with a ‘wholefood’ diet of garden compost and leaf mould rather than those ‘fast food’ fertilisers designed to feed the plant and not the soil.
Choose varieties of plant that can withstand the attack of pests and disease; e.g. blight resistant potatoes such as ‘Remarka’ and Sarpo’ and root aphid resistant lettuces like ‘Milan’.
Leaf mould – a great way to improve your soil
Focusing on the veggy garden, crop rotation is an essential technique to build soil fertility and controlling the build up of pests and diseases. Divide your veg into at least four groups (those in the same or similar families and having similar feeding habits) that stay together each year, but move onto another part of the garden every spring.
Keeping pests out of your crops and off your choice plants is probably the most effective way of reducing if not preventing damage. There is a range of different barriers and scarers suited to different types of crop or plant:
A beer trap will entice slugs
Beers traps for slugs do work. Codling and Plum moth traps hung from apple trees and other ‘sticky’ traps can also be effective, using a pheromone stuck to a sticky base which attracts male insects and gets them stuck in the glue. Greasebands painted around the trunks of apple trees in autumn will prevent the wingless female winter moth from climbing up the tree to mate. Sticky glue is also useful for glasshouse staging if you have a problem with ants. Sticky yellow bits of card hung up in greenhouses can help reduce the white fly population.
These are your best friends when it comes to controlling pests in your garden. Planting simple annuals among the veg (e.g. Marigolds, Californian poppies), will attract a wealth of beneficial insects like ladybirds and hoverflies which will gobble up your aphids. I’ve put some marigolds alongside my tomatoes in the greenhouse for this reason and also planted Nasturtiums which can attract cabbage white butterflies as a diversion away from my Brassicas.You can also plant a few native shrubs and herbaceous perennials (e.g. hazel and hardy geraniums), create a pond, leave a small pile of logs in the corner of the garden or create a ‘bug hotel’ and feed the birds throughout the winter. There are other ‘biological controls’ that you can buy to deal w ith specific problems- little packets of some of the bugs for use in the greenhouse as well as nematodes that can attack some of the more troublesome pests. Any or all of these will keep enough wildlife in your garden to eat literally thousands of pests and their eggs!
‘Bishybarnabee’ – or a ladybird- will eat loads of aphids at one sitting
Think ‘clean cut’. If you’re removing a dead or diseased branch from a tree (e.g one with coral spot), make sure you cut into healthy wood and always wash your tools in boiling water or wipe them with surgical spirit afterwards. Scrub out pots and give your greenhouse a good scrub every winter to get rid of over wintering pests. Maximise air circulation by correct pruning of plants and leaving just a little more space between plants will help control fungal diseases, though his needs to be balanced of course against closer planting to keep weeds under control! Controlling powdery mildew in Roses is something that benefits from greater air circulation, for instance. Finally, and most importantly, be vigilant and check your plants regularly so that any pests and diseases don’t get a foothold. For example, start checking the centre of any Gooseberry bushes in April for Sawfly eggs and larvae. Also be wary of accepting gifts of onion and cabbage plants, as they may well carry onion white rot or clubroot respectively!
Source: Master Composter Manual Factsheet 4, Jojo Norris, Garden Organic 2013
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Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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