Archive for February, 2014


PicPost: Kitchen Garden of the Future?

Old School Gardener

Sophie Hudson's avatarThe Forget-me-Not Cultivation Blog

Found this really interesting video on spacing crops, so thought Id share it.

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canwefeedtheworld's avatarOne Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?

weforum-logo.db90160d8175c5a08cdf6c621e387d18 At the World Economic Forum , held in Davos in January 2014, experts on food security, Ellen Kullman, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of DuPont; Michel M. Liès, Group Chief Executive Officer, Swiss Re; Shenggen Fan, Director-General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj ( Farmers’ Forum India ) and Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria came together to discuss how we can produce enough healthy food for everyone.

Moderator, Rajiv J. Shah, Administrator, US Agency for International Development (USAID), began the discussion by stating that the global population is at 7 billion, 850 million of which don’t get enough to eat. By 2050 the population will rise to over 9 billion and we need to find ways of producing sufficient food for this enlarged population whilst also coping with environmental changes. Every economy that has…

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Met Office Press Office's avatarOfficial blog of the Met Office news team

As we have seen over recent weeks and months, observations for the UK are essential to put recent weather into context and to detect variations and possible long-term trends in UK climate. So, when the Met Office quotes “the wettest on record” what does that mean?

Station records
All our time-series of rainfall come from observations made by rain gauges and their length is determined by how long the recording stations have been open.

Stations with long records are a very important part of the UK’s weather station network. These time series provide an accurate picture of rainfall for that particular location, provided there are no significant changes in instrument type or station exposure. One of the longest in the UK is the weather station at Oxford Radcliffe Observatory, which holds nearly 250 years of rainfall observations from 1767 to the present day and is maintained by Oxford University…

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Rosa rugosa 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup'- shrub rose growing at Old School Garden

Rosa rugosa ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’- a shrub rose growing at Old School Garden

What an appropriate question for St. Valentine’s Day, from Minah Petaly of Lincoln:

‘I’ve heard that old roses and shrub roses only flower once a year and that shrub roses would be too big for a small garden like mine. And what would you suggest I grow to get large, decorative hips (no sniggering please)?’

Ha, ha, Minah! It’s true that all the old garden roses will flower once a year but there are some notable exceptions: most Bourbons, the hybrid perpetuals and China roses. This is also true of the wild (species) roses, however, a high proportion of modern shrub roses raised during the last 100 years are recurrent flowerers.

As to size, it’s by no means true that all shrub roses are too large for small gardens. Some of the modern ones developed in the past century will reach only 1.2m (4′) high or less. And the varieties ‘Yesterday’, ‘Frank Naylor’, and ‘Saga’ could also be added to these.

R.'Yesterday'

R.’Yesterday’

Of the older roses, most of the Gallicas and China roses grow within this limit too, as do a few examples from other groups. Particularly suitable for smaller gardens are the alba roses like ‘Felicite Parmentier’ and ‘Konigin von Danemarck’ while the species or wild rose ‘Canary Bird’ (pause for a chant of ‘Come on you Yellows’- the canaries is the nickname of Norwich City F.C.), can be kept to a moderate height if grown as a standard.

Looking at hips (!), for their sheer size and redness, pick members of the rugosa family that have single flowers, such as ‘Frau Dagmar Hartopp’, R. rugosa alba, and ‘Scabrosa’. Another good one, growing here in Old School Garden is ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’. As they are recurrent flowerers, the hips from the first flush of flowers appear with later blooms.

A hip on Rosa rugosa

A hip on Rosa rugosa

Many of the wild (species) roses have hips in varying colours from red through to orange and yellow, and some even black. R. roxburghii has prickly hips resembling the fruit of the Horse Chestnut (conkers), while those of R.pomifera resemble large red gooseberries. Perhaps the most spectacular hips are those of R. moyesii and its various hybrids; they are bottle-shaped, bright red and each may be up to 50mm long. To continue with the footballing (soccer) theme, this is perhaps one for Manchester United supporters – both on grounds of colour and name!

Old School Gardener

How to Build a Propagation Bench

How to build a propagation bench

Instructions on how to create your own solar – heated bench for propagating seeds and cuttings and looking after seedlings.

Old School Gardener

rhubarb-growing-l_A2Rhubarb Ted

‘I knew a funny little man

His name was Rhubarb Ted;

They called him that because he wore

Rhubarb on his head.

I’d grown so used to this strange sight,

The cause I did not seek;

But then one day to my surprise,

I saw he wore a leek.

I asked him if he’d please explain,

And let me know the reason;

He said, ‘I’m wearing leek because

Rhubarb’s out of season!’

Ann O’Connor

Specifier Review's avatarArchitecture, Design & Innovation

Mobilane, the leading supplier of living wall systems and green screens has launched an irrigation-free living wall which is an upgraded version of its popular Live Panel that requires minimal maintenance.

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Live Panel 2 is suitable to cover large external walls or interior spaces and is based on exactly the same principle as Live Picture – a product it launched in 2013, which is a framed arrangement of plants designed for small indoor spaces.   The Live Panel 2 system uses a tank watering system which is refilled usually no more than once per week, depending on the size of the wall.  It is much quicker to install and costs less to maintain making Live Panel 2 being one of the most cost effective living walls on the market.

“Interest in our irrigation free wall has already begun” said Sean Farrell Director of Mobilane “The fact that we have a…

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Flooding- How Permacuture Design can help

from-bottom-of-garden.jpg

An interesting article about one person’s experience of ‘extreme weather events’ and how permaculture design helped to redesign a garden and home. Click on the title for the weblink to the article.

You might also be interested in the series of articles I wrote about Gardening and Climate Change last year- have a look in the ‘Four Seasons in One Day’ category of articles in the right hand column.

Old School Gardener

Sophie Hudson's avatarThe Forget-me-Not Cultivation Blog

I know, February – it’s so cold and grey.

There appears to be mud and bare branches every where.  But don’t despair.  Below are 20 plants you can sow from seed in February that will make you feel like Spring is here now.

February is actually a really good month to begin setting your garden, patio, and balcony up ready for the new growing season.  So ignore the wind, the rain and snow (what snow!), and instead gather your tools.

February is a month when all seeds bought/saved need to be sown indoors only.

It’s not warm enough outside to leave the little seeds fighting for warmth when there isn’t a lot going around.  Instead you can start your garden off indoors and once the plants have germinated and grown they can be moved and planted outside.

By sowing a month early (assuming you take March to be the month…

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