Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i BBC Gardeners' World

Join us… this September on a bespoke 7-day tour of the historic museums and gardens of the Netherlands – all in the company of GW’s David Hurrion. See p60 Learn… from the gardening experts with our GrowHow on-demand webinars from just £5. Visit GardenersWorld.com/grow-how Enjoy… the ultimate gardening day out at BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham from 15-18 June. Quote GWR7 for 15% off tickets*. Book before 8 June at bbcgardenersworldlive.com Listen out… for Monty Don, Sue Kent and Nick Bailey in our latest podcast series. New episodes are out every Thursday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and at GardenersWorld.com/podcast Subscribe now… and get your first three issues, plus our 2 for 1 Gardens entry card and guide, for just £5, then pay £27.60 every six issues thereafter. See p30 Keep up…

Majority of plants sold to be peat-free by 2027 Almost every plant you buy will be peat-free within four years, the UK Government has promised, as it announced it’s making most growers ditch peat by the end of 2026 – years earlier than previous deadlines. A ban on peat in bagged compost for amateur gardeners is set to take effect next year. Now professional growers are to be included, too, with an extra three years to allow plants currently growing in peat-based compost to work through the supply chain. Tiny plug plants and some with specialist needs will be exempt from the ban until 2030, and there are likely to be further ongoing exceptions for some plants deemed to be at risk by conservationists. The news has been greeted with…

15-18 June 2023 NEC Birmingham Inspiration | Expert advice | Shopping | Entertainment We can’t wait to bring together all the Show Gardens, Beautiful Borders, garden experts, nurseries, exhibitors and great features to inspire you this summer. Join us there and you’ll be sure to go home with a head full of ideas and arms full of plants and kit. Book your tickets today! See you there! Expert Advice Garden know-how is at your fingertips! Gain expertise from Monty Don, Frances Tophill, Adam Frost and more on the main Theatre and the drop-in Let’s Talk Plants Stage. Gardening sustainably Discover ideas aplenty to help you make sustainable choices in your garden, including a stunning take on gardening for the future from the headline Show Garden A Garden For a King,…

“The garden is a place to make happy memories – to eat, drink and laugh with our nearest and dearest” In my experience, a trouble shared might be a trouble dragged out until bedtime, but a garden shared is a garden enjoyed to the full. What is the point in putting in all that work if you can’t share the fruits of your labours with friends and family? The garden – especially in the summer months – is a place to make happy memories, to eat, drink and laugh with our nearest and dearest, who will hopefully admire our efforts and give us a rosy glow. Gardens that are created with company in mind are the ultimate shared pleasures. If a garden is designed from the outset to allow for…

NOW Barnsdale Gardens, on an eight-acre site in Rutland, were for many years the home of BBC Gardeners’ World. Before Monty’s Longmedow, Berryfields or even Alan’s Barleywood, Geoff Hamilton presented the show here from 1983, moving up from a smaller site. Made up of 38 individual gardens, the site sought to educate and inspire visitors, sharing its organic and peat-free principles, as it still does today. “Geoff decided to go peat-free 30 years ago,” explains his son Nick Hamilton, who has been running the garden since his father passed away 27 years ago. “He was far ahead of his time and understood the problem with the decimation of peat bogs. He promoted it vigorously without being rude to people.” The garden is also organic, and has been since Geoff’s time,…

Eating outside in the garden is one of the joys of summer and although cooking on a barbecue has been the traditional way to entertain outdoors, it’s now easy to create delicious pizza in your garden too, thanks to a thriving market in free-standing pizza ovens. Perfect for placing on top of a picnic table, portable pizza ovens are fuelled by wood, charcoal or gas. Authentic restaurant-cooked pizza has a flavour and look that’s impossible to replicate in a regular kitchen oven, but these compact steel ovens give the heat required to cook the best pizza, often twice the temperature of a regular oven, and take just 15-30 minutes to heat up. Flames roll across the roof on the inside of the oven to heat the stone, giving the crisp…

■ Lerato Umah-Shaylor is an award-winning chef, broadcaster and author of Africana: Treasured Recipes and Stories from Across the Continent (HQ, £22). Before we begin, let me first say that I am not your typical green-fingered grower who picks lush tomatoes from her garden and harvests rows of rhubarb and competitive giant squashes. I squeal at the sight of slugs and confess to having thrown out a beautiful flowerpot after spotting some kind of movement in the compost. I also don’t have the outdoor space to even consider becoming the next Monty Don. But as a lover of food, and not just any food but seasonal food that’s grown for maximum flavour, I have succumbed to the joys of growing my own indoors. I love vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. Most…

Packed by hand in paper bags ◼ Iris ‘Blue Note’ Deep-purple-to-blue flowers, one of the first to appear in the year. Height x Spread 20cm x 10cm Flowers Feb-Mar 20 bulbs RRP £4.80 NOW £4.08 ◼ Tulipa ‘Pink Star’ Peony-flowered tulip, with rosy pink and coppery-apricot petals. H x S 35cm x 10cm F Apr-May 10 bulbs RRP £5.90 NOW £5.02 ◼ Narcissus ‘Tickled Pinkeen’ Happy pastel-yellow and orange blooms, this is a great naturaliser. H x S 35cm x 15cm F Feb-Apr 5 bulbs RRP £3.75 NOW £3.19 ◼ Tulipa ‘Annika’ A natural-looking tulip, producing three or more flowers per bulb. H x S 15cm x 10cm F Mar-Apr 10 bulbs RRP £6.90 NOW £5.87 ◼ Fritillaria ‘Early Fantasy’ Apricot and sunset-orange tones on long, dark stems. H x S 80cm x 15cm F…

Keep watering plants in window boxes Window boxes are often narrow with little volume of compost, and when stuffed full of plants the roots draw up water more quickly and dry out much faster than in bigger pots. Check the compost dryness regularly with your finger and when watering, always direct the water into the compost rather than sprinkling the foliage. Drought-tolerant plants are the best choice for window boxes, but if a plant is struggling, lift it out and give it a bigger pot. The other plants will soon fill the gap. VISIT GardenersWorld.com/window-box for some creative window box ideas Turn and check compost Turn the compost heap to move the cool material on the outside into the middle to heat it all up. The heap gets hottest in…

Hardy osteospermums (also known as African daisies) thrive in hot, dry, neglected conditions, yet remain some of longest-flowering plants in the garden. This collection in contrasting shades will create a fabulous display, offering vibrant summer colour and weed-suppressing ground cover. Osteospermum ‘Tresco Purple’ Bold purple daisy flowers open every morning to greet the sun. Height x Spread 30cm x 50cm Flowers Jun-Sep O. ‘Snow Pixie’ A perfect contrast of clean, white petals and golden-yellow eye.  H x S 40cm x 90cm F Jun-Sep O. ‘Sennen Sunrise’ Pale-pink petals with dark-pink veins and white at the tips. H x S 25cm x 30cm F Jun-Oct ◼ 3 jumbo plugs of any one variety £10.99 £9.99 SAVE £1 SAVER COLLECTION ◼ 9 jumbo plugs (3 of each variety) £32.97 £14.99 SAVE £17.98 SAVE £17.98…

Beetroot seedlings need enough space to swell to a good size, so thin them out now. Put your fingers flat on the ground around the seedling you want to keep, to avoid disturbing the roots, then grip the nearby seedlings at the base and gently pull them out. Start by giving 5cm of space between seedlings, then repeat in a few week’s time, thinning to 10cm if you want bigger beets. The first thinnings can be washed and added to a salad while the second thinning will provide you with a crop of tender baby beets. Finish by watering the row after thinning. LOOK OUT FOR currant blister aphid These are found feeding on the sap of shoots and under leaves. They can be washed off but since the crop…

WORTH £30 Although summer is typically the time to look after your plants and prepare for harvests, there’s still plenty of seed sowing that can be done. In fact, it’s a great time to sow a range of different vegetables, including salads, legumes and roots such as turnips. Sow these FREE varieties outdoors now or save them for next year, and you’ll be rewarded with delicious homegrown crops. Bundle includes 10 seed varieties: For more offers and details on how to order, see opposite page Garden tools with 20% off and free postage • Darlac telescopic edging shears These telescopic edging shears are easy to use, incredibly lightweight, and perfect for trimming lawn edges. 1 pair of shears £39.95 £31.96 • Darlac take anywhere brass tap Provides a water source…

GET 20% OFF THE KEFIRKO RANGE FREE UK postage Kefirko Veggie Fermenter Jars are a great way of preserving and enhancing the nutrient content of the fruit and veg that you grow. The kit includes everything BENEFITS INCLUDE: Veggie Fermentation Kit, 848ml £29.99 ONLY £24 Kefirko offers a full range of fermentation products including vegetable fermenters, kefir and kombucha-making kits, sourdough starter kits, cheese makers and organic grains. Offer closes 31 August Free UK shipping on all orders See page 33 for your exclusive Subscriber discount code Terms & conditions: Offer closes 31 August 2023. This discount code cannot be used in conjunction with any other Kefirko offers/discounts. With this discount you get 20% off the entire range with no minimum purchase requirement. This offer…

SAVE £6 With fens like these The cottage garden at The Manor, Hemingford Grey, in Cambridgeshire, is filled with texture and colour. The vibrant frothy green of Alchemilla mollis provides a foil to bristling blue nigella, while the demure bells of campanula contrasts with big and blowsy peonies. Foxgloves and roses complete this Arcadian cottage garden scene, set to the gentle drone of insects among the blooms. ENTRY OFFER Garden: 2 for 1 £6, single reduced to £4. Under-15s free. Opening details at greenknowe.co.uk Offer not valid on 23 July or 10 September. Tudor rose Borders billowing with perennials and flowering shrubs await you at The Priest House and Gardens in West Sussex. Both beautiful and functional, the gardens feature over 170 traditional herbs. The house also boasts its fair share of history.…

WE USED ❶ Senecio candicans Angel Wings x 2 ❷ Oxalis triangularis x 3 ❸ Glechoma hederacea ‘Variegata’ x 3 ❹ Helichrysum petiolare ‘Goring Silver’ x 2 ❺ Chaenostoma Gulliver Snow x 4 ❻ Salvia ‘Amistad’ x 2 ❼ Petunia Lavender Sky x 3 ❽ Vintage tea crate 45cm x 35cm Charming and whimsical Soft, romantic planting combines well with an upcycled vintage container. The whimsical nepeta (Glechoma) creates a sense of playfulness, while bacopa (Chaenostoma) planted at the edge will trail and soften the edges of this old crate all summer. Silver is an essential characteristic of vintage and used here it plays on the interactions between light and dark. I plant the senecio first providing a backdrop for the delicate oxalis foliage. The petunia, whose colour fades out…

“If you let the garden grow up around you organically, you will tap into a looser, freer form of creativity” In 2013 we decided to transform the ‘old’ vegetable garden into a cottage garden. With its formality it is, perhaps, more like a potager. Perhaps I should call it the Cotager or Pottage Garden? But, by any name, the jumble of decorative and edible plants is absolutely true to the very British tradition of the cottage garden. Cottage gardens evolved around the homes of the rural poor, living in tied cottages with scraps of land where they could supplement their diets by growing some vegetables. Occasionally a flower was allowed to enter into this utilitarian mix, which clearly illustrates that you cannot bury the human spirit. What has filtered down…

Kyla La Grange and Dave Pearce, London “I really like bold colours. I’m big on foliage too – the shapes and the contrast in textures” Kyla and her partner Dave have made the most of a small back garden in North London by transforming it into a tropical-meets-woodland retreat. Kyla – who is a songwriter and musician – expanded on her knowledge of gardening in containers in a rented flat by adding structure and colour and giving the garden a focal point. Tucked at the bottom of the plot lies a secret mini woodland area just waiting to be explored, by insects, animals and humans alike. And right outside the back door is a welcoming colourful spot to relax and enjoy nature. What was the garden like when you moved…

You may spot… Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis Brightly coloured with a cheerful twittering song, the goldfinch has become much better at living in gardens in recent years, with Big Garden Birdwatch sightings increasing by 50 per cent in the last decade. It’s a pretty and unmistakable bird with a red crown, golden yellow back and bright yellow wings. Its fine bill makes it an expert seed eater and it will happily take niger seed and sunflower hearts. But if you grow dandelions, teasels and knapweeds you can feed them for free simply by letting them set seed. Nesting starts around June, later than other garden birds. They tend to nest in loose colonies, choosing dense hedges several metres from the ground. They have up to five chicks which are fed a…

Pick cut-and-come-again salad leaves from the outside, leaving the central part of the plant intact to keep it in growth. Taking just a few leaves from each plant and cutting the outer leaves carefully will lengthen the harvesting life of these plants and supply you with leaves for most of the summer. Pick the leaves just before you want to eat them. Once you have finished harvesting, pull out any weeds you may have found hiding among the outer leaves, then give the plants a good soak to let them recover. WATCH Get more tips at GardenersWorld.com/fruit-veg LOOK OUT FOR male flowers on cucumbers Look out for male flowers on cucumber plants and pinch them off to stop them pollinating the female flowers and making the fruits bitter. The male…

ACROSS 1 Roses often show signs of this widespread fungal disease (5,4) 7 Monk’s __ is one of many names for aconitum (4) 8 __ gardening rejects the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers (7) 9 Plant out __ veggies raised indoors, such as courgettes and sweetcorn (6) 11 Support tall, large-flowered dahlias by tying in the __ (5) 13 Common name for Eucalyptus pauciflora (4,3) 16 Althaea officinalis is better known as marsh __ (6) 18 Sweet, dark brown, oval fruits usually eaten dried (5) 19 The flowers and foliage of this early summer bloomer fill the air with rich fragrance (8) 20 Small woodland wildflower with pale yellow blooms (5) 22 The death of plant tissue (8) 23 Sidalcea ‘__ Heugh’ has silky mauve-pink flowers in June (5) DOWN 1…

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses”Maud Hart Lovelace STAR OF THE MONTH Lathyrus odoratus ‘Sunset’ Many good things have come to us from the southern Mediterranean: olive oil, pasta, mythology, summer holidays on Greek Islands, interesting cheeses and, of course, the sweet pea. What would summer be without the glory of the sweet pea? The scent is seductive, the colours enchanting and the overwhelming generosity of the plant will give you bundles of flowers every day: it is like having your own private horn of plenty in your garden. They can be a bit tricky, but lavish them with gifts of manure and fortnightly fertilisings and they will repay you in fragrant vase loads. If you want it to keep on blooming, pick the flowers every day…

Gardeners at home will always encounter pests and disease of some sort or another on the plants they choose to grow. Traditionally, chemical control such as the use of pesticides has been the first line of defence, but as attitudes have changed, so has the choice of control methods. The newer options for controlling pesticide have sometimes proven better, but also sometimes worse, as commercial growers have discovered in recent years. While in my own garden at home I prefer to keep chemical use of pesticides to a minimum, at the present there just aren’t good enough alternatives to pesticides suitable for large plant nurseries. “There aren’t good enough alternatives to pesticides suitable for large plant nurseries” Gardeners often ask why large nurseries need to use chemicals in the first…

Enjoy sowing your two FREE packets of seeds, worth £4.30, enclosed in your issue* this month. You’ll find lots of seed-sowing and plant-growing advice at GardenersWorld.com. And if you take out a magazine subscription, you also gain access to a range of Premium-only exclusives: ◼ Audio slideshows every month ◼ Monthly seed-sowing checklists ◼ Q&A videos with GW experts ◼ Sowalong podcasts, where GW team members share their seed-sowing stories. Pay just £5 for your first three issues, plus money-saving 2 for 1 Gardens entry card and guide, then pay only £27.60 every six issues thereafter. See page 30 for details. You can also follow our and other readers’ seed-sowing progress on GW’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and find out more at GardenersWorld.com/free-seeds-23 ◼ Share your seed-sowing pictures and videos…

PERFECT AUTUMN GETAWAY WHAT’S INCLUDED Six nights in four-star accommodation with bed and breakfast at the NH Hotel Amersfoort Return Eurostar from St Pancras, London to Rotterdam Centraal (economy class) Two evening dinners and two lunches Free entry to gardens, museums and attractions as per the itinerary Tour led by AssociateEditorDavidHurrion Known for its artistic heritage and picturesque canals, the Netherlands is a great country to visit. Join us on this tour to discover an array of wonderful gardens and museums – all in the company of GW Associate Editor, David Hurrion. ◼ WEDNESDAY 6 SEPT Travel from London to Rotterdam on Eurostar and transfer to NH Hotel Amersfoort. Enjoy a welcome drink, dinner and introductory talk from David Hurrion. ◼ THURSDAY 7 SEPT We begin with an early-morning visit to…

If you’ve been thinking about entering Gardens of the Year 2023, now is the time to share your hard work and creativity before the competition closes at midday on 12 June 2023. You never know, you could be one of our finalists! We’re looking for gardens from all over the UK – no plot is too big or too small. Whether you’re new to gardening with your first plot or have been gardening for years, we want to see your creations. Previous finalists have included flower-filled allotments, urban balconies and sprawling country gardens. We’ll pick eight winners who have made inspiring gardens full of personality and passion. Our expert judging panel (see right) features TV regulars Alan Titchmarsh and Arit Anderson, alongside award-winning garden designer Ann-Marie Powell, and joining the…

Growing your own food is one of the most rewarding activities you can do with children. Whether you have a small windowsill or acres of land, getting them involved helps them better understand and get enthused about where their own meals come from. We often grow plants together as a family and I enjoy getting the kids’ friends involved, too. I love that it gets them away from their screens, outside into the fresh air, and teaches them the importance and process of growing. As seeds germinate or when a plant is ready for harvest, you can see the excitement radiate from their faces. I also measure the crops to compare, for example, who has grown the longest carrot or tallest sunflower – adding the enjoyment of a little gentle…

“If you’re not busy outside gardening, what could be nicer than lighting up the barbecue for lazy gatherings with a few friends?” What a perfect month to spend in the garden. Hopefully all your hard work over the past months has paid off and you’ll be rewarded with broad beans, early strawberries and perhaps even some baby carrots and spring onions. I was inspired to start more vertical growing a few months ago (it hides how wobbly and in need of painting the fences are) and it’s both decorative and wonderful to lean in to pick fat bean pods, with hopefully a few apples swelling on the espaliered tree. There’s no sign of fruit from my vigorous balcony-transplanted passion flower, but I live in hope that it might yet produce…

It’s the height of summer. The days are at their longest, which means we have plenty of time to enjoy the garden, especially now that long-day response plants are being triggered into flowering. People often talk about a June flower gap – after the spring flowers have finished and before the late-summer blooms come into their own. As a rule, and if in doubt, pruning is usually best done immediately after flowering, so in the June gap there will be a few plants to cut back. We are now also completely free from the risk of frost and the sap has finished rising, so the likelihood of the plant bleeding is negligible. Stone fruits that cannot be cut in winter are now safe to prune, as the warm, drier weather…

What makes a dream garden? Is it one where the outlook is always filled with flowers? Where plants bloom endlessly, never needing deadheading; where rough winds never shake the darling buds of May and where rain falls gently between the hours of midnight and 5am, allowing the sun to peep through the clouds with the dawn and bathe us all in its glorious light? Probably not. I mean it all sounds idyllic but in reality I suspect such a Camelot-like state of affairs would rapidly pall due to its lack of variety. And yet, there are certain things that many gardeners dream about. A walled garden, for instance. We see it in our mind’s eye – all mellow brick, softened with the blossoming arms of espalier apples and pears. There…