A Gardener’s Diary

Gardeners in present day Britain are experiencing a fairly new phenomenon: a preoccupation with size which has got to competition level. It’s become an unusual way to pay off the mortgage, when a 500lb pumpkin may take the efforts of half a dozen men to get it into the truck and take it to the horticultural show.  A very keen gardener in Britain grows giant leeks (his world-record leek weighed in at 13lb 9ozs), giant onions, giant squashes, and tomatoes.   He puts down 15 tons of farmyard manure onto his pumpkin beds alone, and you might just wonder why someone who is to all intents and purposes as sane as you or I goes to all the trouble. It might have to do with the fact that nowadays in Britain of the 21st century, gardeners can win up to a thousand pounds for being judged top of the class in the local show. Naturally you are not going to find any of these monsters on sale at the local equivalent of Nigel’s supermarket, but it must be very satisfying to the ego to produce the world’s biggest pumpkin as long as you are not forced to eat it. Imagine trying to get it into a supermarket trolley.

It is surprising just how many plants survive and flourish along our narrow coastal strip, and I believe that when you plant right against the sea shore you are going to experience trouble.

Certainly there are plants which show sensitivity to salt-laden air, but you’d be surprised how few there are. Give your plants just a little protection from direct exposure and see the difference it makes.  Plant to the landward side of a wall or well-established trees or even a trellis, and you’ll be surprised the difference it makes when the sea breeze is deflected just a little.

When I was a boy there was always a great deal of uncertainty about the quality of the seed that one was able to buy. It was not that seedsmen deliberately set out to cheat you, but there was a large gap in the knowledge about just what were the right conditions in which seed should be stored. You could buy a packet of seed sold in good faith and find that most, if not all of it, would not germinate. Since those days a lot of very bright people have influenced the harvesting and packaging of the seeds we buy. Most of it is hermetically sealed and will last for ages if you don’t break the seal, and germination is generally excellent once you get round to sowing the seed.

Packets come with very clear instructions, and even those gardeners with only a modest idea are likely to be pleased with their apparent skills. Problems only begin when you have opened the packet and have seed left over.  Most seedsmen give you a little more than you actually need, and expect you to sow all that you have bought.  You, of course, may not wish to do so, in which case just folding the top of the packet over and putting it into a cupboard  may not be the thing to do.   My suggestion in these cases is to close up the packet as quickly as possible, put it into a small plastic bag and then put that into the lower part of the fridge. Then give it away to a friend as soon as you can.  They’ll appreciate getting their hands on good seed.

Finally, don’t forget to clean and oil your garden tools and put them away tidily, and may your God go with wherever you are in this great country of ours. I am at present in a very cold and frosty England.  It is Sunday morning and I am missing my adopted home so much. So until next

Sunday…