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Kit out the kids for summer
If your children have already planted some seeds and look set to become budding gardeners, it's time to kit them out with some clothing and equipment to keep them going through the seasons.
If your children have already planted some seeds and look set to become budding gardeners, it's time to kit them out with some clothing and equipment to keep them going through the seasons.
Look in any garden centre and you will find an increasing range of products designed for young gardeners, from brightly coloured aprons and wellies to tools and gloves suitable for little hands.
Footwear is all important when your little ones are digging outdoors, but they need to be able to slip shoes on and off as they go in and out of the house.
Crocs have a new range out for kids - check out the Spiderman Cyman Crocs for boys, which should keep your child's feet cool and comfortable. The footbed conforms to the foot, creating a custom fit. They're priced from 21.95 - for stockists go to www.crocs.eu or phone the Netherlands office on 0031 703 030 441.)
If we're plagued with wet weather this summer, invest in a really good pair of wellies for your child, such as Young Hunter Wellies, which come with a cushioned footbed and reflective safety patches. (25.95, www.harrodhorticultural.com, 0845 402 5300).
Young children may benefit from a lightweight PVC raincoat from Yeo Minis in a range of fun colours and three different sizes (12.99, stockists 0121 504 2859).
Wilkinson Sword has a range of tools for both adults and children so you can work alongside each other when preparing an area of your garden. The Magic Garden kids tool set includes a shovel (5.99), garden rake (5.99), brush (5.99), leaf rake (5.99), cotton gloves (1.49) and watering can (4.99).
The head of each tool is made out of light, yet durable, rounded glass fibre and the shafts are made out of smooth wood with rounded tips so there are no sharp edges. Call 01656 655 595 for stockists.
Long handled tools are also available for little people. Check out the Yeo Minis range, made from lightweight aluminium shafts with extendable handles from 70cm to 90cm which can be adjusted to suit the height of each child. The handles also have large foam grips for added comfort. Prices start at 5.99, call 0121 504 2859 for stockists.
If your child is helping you to move compost or clippings, he or she may benefit from a hard-wearing wheelbarrow. A good one is the Haemmerlin children's metal wheelbarrow (stockists 01922 621 286) which, it must be stressed, is not a toy and is suitable for age four upwards. The only difference from the adult version is its size and the fact that it has a plastic wheel.
Invest in a hardwearing gardening apron to keep the mud off your kids' clothes. Try a waxed cotton apron made from water resistant waxed material lined in pink or powder blue (19.95, www.harrodhorticultural.com, 0845 402 5300).
And if they want some enjoyable and easy-to-follow reading, Growing Vegetables Is Fun is the first in a new series of Bookazines from Dennis Publishing. This guide, which includes 10 packets of seeds, will teach children everything they need to know about growing their own organic vegetables, It's packed with gardening activities and challenges, with illustrated tips from veg-growing cartoon children Danny and Lilly, and is divided into useful chapters on a range of gardening subjects such as growing from seed, composting, dealing with problems and pests and making friends with garden wildlife. Available in most supermarkets, W H Smith and Borders, Wyevale Garden Centres and online at www.growingisfun.co.uk, at 9.99.
:: CHELSEA UPDATE
If the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is anything to go by, then green is the new black and water is the must-have addition to any garden.
Foliage planting has dominated many of the show gardens this year at the expense of more vibrant, brighter colours, while white, burgundy and purple flowers created subtle contrasts without removing the air of calm from so many scenes.
I've never seen so much use of water as there was at this year's Chelsea, from bubbling glass cylinders in the urban gardens to elaborate pools in the main show gardens.
If gardeners take home any ideas from this year's event, they will no doubt be considering a water feature to provide the calming trickle of running water or a pond to reflect the light and mirror overhanging trees or shrubs.
Children have also been very much in the picture at this year's show, as exhibits such as The Marshalls Garden That Kids Really Want, designed as an organic playground which aims to encourage children to go outside and play, stirred up much interest.
Further efforts to encourage schools to develop a kitchen garden for growing, learning and eating was featured in Dorset Cereals Edible Playground in the courtyard garden category. This garden shows how a school could create a productive garden with salads, herbs and other produce in raised beds. It will certainly provide food for thought if we want future generations to take up the grow-your-own mantle.
Trends seem to be veering towards more symmetry - there was a lot of carefully manicured box hedging, much uniform planting and cylindrical and square water tanks made from various hard landscaping materials featured in a good number of gardens.
Chelsea this year still provided the innovative and the imaginative, but the average gardener would be able, at least, to recreate some of what the show had to offer - the predominantly green plantings including rodgersias, asarum, ferns and hostas could be easily recreated in shady, moist settings, while a plethera of burgundy heucheras provided a great contrast in many gardens and could be worked into many borders at home.
BEST OF THE BUNCH - Bacopa
This mat-forming tender perennial with long, spreading stems bearing white flowers in summer to early autumn, is always one of the mainstays of my hanging baskets because it's a great trailer and will withstand some shade. Most varieties are white, including B. 'Snowflake', and the first-ever double-flowered bacopa, B. 'Double White', although you can also get a purple type, Bacopa scopia 'Great Purple', which has masses of deep purple flowers and a compact rounded habit. Regular watering, feeding and deadheading will ensure continuous flowering throughout the season.
GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT - Asparagus
Asparagus is one of those vegetables that you have to be patient with if you want a good crop. Plant one-year-old crowns in March, 45cm (18in) apart, into rich, well-drained and well-manured soil and cover them with a couple of inches of soil.
Don't cut the spears the first year, but let them grow into mature plants and when they go brown at the end of the autumn, cut the leaves off at the base and build up the soil around the crowns.
Again, don't cut the spears in the second year, but in the third year you can crop them lightly for about a month, then from the fourth year onwards you can harvest the spears in May and June, using a long knife to sever them well below the soil surface.
Asparagus is delicious served steamed with Hollandaise sauce or cold in salads.
THREE WAYS TO... improve your compost
1. Add new material in layers 15cm (6in) deep, each capped with fresh soil or fresh manure to make it work properly. Top it off with a layer of soil.
2. If you have treated your grass with chemical weedkiller, compost it separately for at least six months.
3. Avoid woody materials like prunings or the stems of herbaceous plants, which take longer to decompose than other compost ingredients and will occupy the heap for longer.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
:: Over-sow areas where grass growth is very thin, raking the seed into the soil surface and covering with a fine sprinkling of compost.
:: Thin gooseberry fruits, using the crop for cooking. Remove every alternate fruit along stems, leaving more room for remaining ones to swell and develop.
:: Check for nesting birds before clipping hedges.
:: Lift and divide overcrowded clumps of daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs.
:: Shorten leaders and sideshoots on over-vigorous wall-trained apples and pears, to weaken their growth and so divert their energy to fruit production rather than shoot growth.
:: Ensure good air circulation in the greenhouse to reduce risk of botrytis, powdery mildew and downy mildew on grapes.
:: Harvest spring lettuce, spring cabbage, salad onions, salad leaves, beetroot and radishes as they mature. You can continue with successional sowing of salad crops, to ensure an even supply over the season.
:: Take cuttings of alpines.
:: Finish planting perennials, watering in with a liquid feed.
:: Pick off faded flowers from camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias.
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Weather for Bedford
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
