Amateur Gardening 29-Jan-2022

“I am very sad to have to report the recent passing of our much-respected columnist Peter Seabrook, from a heart attack, aged 86. Peter’s column graced the pages of AG for over 35 years and in that time he helped generations of amatuers to become better, more informed growers. Peter devoted his life to the promotion of gardening as a health-giving, environmentally beneficial hobby. He was a ceaseless campaigner who had the courage and integrity to stand up for what he believed in, regardless of popularist opinions. Chelsea will never be the same without his displays in the Great Pavilion, and RHS Hyde Hall will be the poorer for his passing — both should create a memorial. I have lost a friend and mentor who cannot be replaced. Goodbye, dear…

AS gardeners, we are the guardians of our little plots and if we view that as a microcosm of the greater whole, we can see ourselves as what Alan Titchmarsh calls ‘guardians of the planet’. Sadly the planet is facing a tough time and while we might feel helpless in the face of the wider climate emergency, we can take ownership of our gardens and local area, and make small but important changes there. Put together, the UK’s gardens take up an area roughly the size of Norfolk. That’s a lot of land that can be used for the good. Key environmental concerns are carbon emissions, single-use plastic and the devastating loss of habitats and the creatures that live there. We can all do our bit to help reverse all these trends from…

AS gardeners, we want to do our best for the planet and one way of doing this is to remove or reduce the use of peat from our growing process. Ancient peat bogs are marvellous carbon sinks, capturing and absorbing climate-damaging carbon and acting as unique habitats for many rare and endangered plants and animals. These bogs take millennia to form, but minutes to destroy when the peat is harvested for fuel and cultivation, and when this happens, all the trapped carbon is released. So it is right to stop the use of peat when gardening and we applaud moves by the Government and the industry to take steps in this direction. However, we add a caveat, as anecdotal evidence from some of our readers has alerted us to the fact that while all…

THE Government has launched a wide-ranging consultation aiming to ban peat products by 2024 – and the views of AG readers will play an important role in deciding the way forward. The consultation, which runs until March 18 2022, covers everything from banning the extraction and imports of peat products, to implementing point-of-sale tariffs in garden centres. Other issues include, controversially, potential exemptions for scientific purposes with a maximum amount of peat harvesting allowed to prevent exploitation. Further research will also be carried out into the quality and global impacts of peat alternatives including coir, wool, wood fibre and sphagnum moss, which is faster growing than traditional peat bog moss. Commitment to ban peat The consultation is being led by Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and…

FOR me, one of the delights of gardening is being able to ‘sample your wares’ in summer as you go about your tasks. A mixture of summer and autumn-fruiting raspberries grow successfully up our sunny garden fence, and I feel extremely fortunate (and not a little naughty) as I pick a few here and there to fuel my pottering. They are relatively young plants, but last year provided a generous supply of juicy berries from June right through until late in the autumn. Our summer canes were cut back immediately after they had fruited, and the healthy, new canes were tied up in anticipation of this year’s harvest. The first weeks of the new year are when the autumn-fruiting canes are pruned and the ground mulched, as this creates enough space for vigorous new…

I RECKON we have around a month or so left before trees and shrubs start to develop their springtime fuzz of green and it is too late to take hardwood cuttings. Time is of the essence, so I have spent some time this week taking cuttings from our blackcurrant bushes. They are easy to propagate and blackcurrants are such a versatile and delicious fruit you can never have too many. You can take hardwood cuttings of most deciduous trees and shrubs now, when they are dormant. They can be rooted in pots or in a trench in a sheltered part of the garden. The main requirement is patience, as they will take up to a year to develop roots and be ready to be potted on again next autumn. The young plants can then…