Is BBC's "Gardeners' World" worth watching?

It seems that the BBC is changing its flagship gardening programme “Gardeners’ World” again; after the non gardening hierarchy tried to make it into a young professional’s fashionable gardeners’  “Top Gear”.  This left the stalwart serious gardeners resorting to their traditional bolt hole of: “Gardeners’ Question Time” on Radio Four.  Even this has changed out of all recognition since Professor Alan Gemmell, Fred Loads and Bill Sowerbutts left the programme.  Just their names conjure an image of hot summer Sunday afternoons with insects buzzing in a tranquil English country garden.
For many of us in the baby boom generation the epitome of the great iconic garden programme presenter was Percy Thrower… Although, Geoffrey Hamilton was a worthy successor.  However, now the senses are bludgeoned by the Jeremy Clarksonised, let’s mess about a bit and not take this seriously, presenters.   Well they have discovered that the committed amateur gardener takes it a little more seriously and  have been voting with their feet. 
We want good down to earth, Percy Thrower type sensible advice because we actually get our hands dirty in the allotment and the garden.  We touch the Earth literally.  We don’t dibble dabble around like Margo Leadbetter snipping a bit here and there.  I don’t want to watch presenters dance about buying a garden for loads of money and setting it up in less than three days before some poor member of the public comes back to find his back garden vandalized in the interests of television ratings rather than to produce a long lasting; earth enhancing; beautiful garden.   
You do not need any skill to buy a garden. You do not need a lot of skill to “set it up”.  You need a lot of skill to create a garden and then maintain it for tens of years. Great gardens are not designed they evolve out of a landscape.  ‘Gardener's World’ seems to be for plant people that can spend thousands of pounds on their gardens. I can't and I don’t want to.  When they advise us to go into Wilko or Netto where we will find the cheapest seeds and plants then I will sit up and take more notice. 

If you give people the impression that a garden can be created and maintained without effort, just dabbling about here and there, then we will continually get the happy, clappy gardeners that take on allotments and leave them high in weeds. Gardeners’ World encourages people to get an allotment, pay for it, then disappear without trace, while some poor soul, left on the waiting list for years, with a genuine enthusiasm has to work very hard to turn the plot around.
What we need is a programme that shows us how to get dirt under the fingernails.  Gardening and allotmenteering are hard committed work. We need something like:  
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B07CCD2F921A8F08
If Claire, an amateur, can do it so well then why can’t highly paid professional programme producers do it?
As Claire shows us, one of the delights of gardening is to see just how much you can get for very little.
Anyone can grow if enough money is thrown at it. I need a programme that will show me how to get maximum yields with the least financial input; how to develop a garden to produce the most stunning results; how to nurture the soil, propagate and maintain beauty.  I don't need patronizing. I just need to know the best way to grow carrots.  I do not want to know how to keep garden center profits high.
There are more than enough new techniques: such as the use of aspirin, mychorrhiza, charcoal, companion planting, natural pest control and organic v inorganic methods, that would easily interest both the experienced and inexperienced amateur gardener.  Pippa Greenwood once berated me for using soft soap as an insecticide.  Why couldn’t you have talked about that on Gardeners’ World?  That is interesting. You just need to look on the gardening internet forums and blogs to find out what amateur gardeners are interested in.  

Warmer temperatures today.

With the warmer temperatures, I have eventually been able to move the black currants to their new home.  They have all had inoculated carcoal and mychorrhizal fungi put at the bottom of the planting hole in my attempt to produce Terra preta soil.  Black currents are very hungry plants and need a lot of nutrients.  I hope that this will give them a good start.  I had moved some of the primula yesterday because they were going to be in the way of the black currant row.  I am going to move the others tomorrow.

The retaining slabs alongside the blackberry bushes needed sorting out.  They had begun to lean over and were never right after the land drain was put in by the contractor.  I use upended slabs to keep my raised beds from overflowing onto the trackway.  I took out four of the 2' by 2' slabs and dug out a trench so that I could make sure that they were upright.  I know that I should have used a bubble but I decided I could do it by eye.  I am not so sure now and when I do the others I will use the spirit level.

The sweet pea seedlings are looking decidedly dejected.  Not sure what to do with them but I will leave them alone until the warmer weather.  If they do not seem to be recovering from the very cold weather, then I will sow some more but not until March time.

Only harvested carrots today.  I was going to dig up some parsnips as well but we have two at home now anyway.  Think when you are planting parsnips Tone, you will never eat more than one row.    Make sure that you thin the carrots and use them before the very cold weather (Or store them where the very cold frosts cannot get at them.)

I am going to select some of the vegetable seeds for  this year and record them here so that I know what I was sown this year (2011)

Although a lot of my potatoes have rotted because of the very cold weather, I think that I will continue with Kestrel.  It is a good second early potato and is very resistant to many potato pests and diseases.  My first early will be Epicure.

American land cress
Apple mint (already planted)
Bay (already planted)
Beetroot 'Boltardy'
Brussels Sprout 'Trafalgar'
Broad Bean (already planted)
Broccoli 'Red Arrow'
Blackberry 'Adrienne'
Blackcurrant (various already planted)
Blueberry (already planted)  Fashion accessory but I was given it so I will try it. 
Cabbage 'Stonehead' or 'Golden Acre'
Calabrese 'Green Sprouting'
Cauliflower (winter)  
Carrot Flyaway
Chamomile
Chicory 'Variegata Di Castelfranco'
Comfrey (already planted)
Courgette Parador
Cucumber Burpless Tasty Green.
Fennel Florence
French climbing bean 'Cobra'
Garlic (already planted)
Gooseberry 'Xania'
Grape (already planted)
Jerusalem artichoke (already planted)
Leek 'Musselburgh Improved'
Lemon Balm (already planted)
Lettuce 'Webb's Wonderful'
Mizuna
Okra 'Pure Luck'
Onion 'Ailisa Craig' (planted in seed tray 4/01/11)
Pea Early Onward
Parsnip 'White Gem'
Plum 'Victoria' (already planted)
Pumpkin 'Big Max'
Radish 'Cherry Belle'
Rocket 
Runner Bean 'Aintree'
Runner Bean 'Red Rum'
Rhubarb 'Champagne' (already planted)
Rhubarb Chard
Salsify
Scorzonera
Spinach 'Medania'
Squash
Strawberries 'Cambridge' mainly (already planted )
Swede 'Marian'
Sweet  Cicerly (already planted)
Sweetcorn 'Two's Sweeter'
Tomato (not sure which variety yet)
Thyme (already planted)

I would like to try some Oca but 'The Real Seed Catalogue'  has sold out. Might try a Yacon though.

Now for some more thoughts...

Lots of the remedies recommended by “organic” gardeners have unpleasant chemicals in them. I am worried that any chemical that you use will alter the population of soil organisms and cause more problems than it solves.
I’m sure that pyrethrum and derris are going to be banned if they are not already but these have dosage rates on the bottle and have been tested to some degree.
I have never used nettle tea as an insecticide but I would suggest that it would not damage your health because we eat it in similar concentrations in nettle soup and tea. As at least two common butterflies eat the leaves I cannot believe that it has any insecticide properties.

If plants are grown as healthily as possible then you are less likely to get disease and pests
 
I would rather use natural remedies like nematode worms, Bacillus thuringiensis, mycorrhizal fungi, and such like. Put up a few bird boxes around the allotment to encourage insect eating birds. Encourage hedgehogs and toads. Try to work with nature rather than battle against it. I know that the pristine allotment with regimented rows of beautiful vegetables is the ideal of all allotment holders but you will never achieve it, so get over it and accept what you’ve got. It will still be a lot healthier than vegetables sold in  shops.

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Organic%20superiority.pdf

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Compost%20tea.pdf

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/magazine%20pdfs/CompostTea.pdf

Blackcurrant bushes

Moving the blackcurrants is not a difficult job.  It is just a little time consuming.  They are relatively shallow rooted plants and taking them out is fairly simple.


I just cut around them with a spade and then go under them to lever them out.  I was replanting about 6 feet away so there was no long distance to transport them.  Getting blackcurrants in a straight line is a bit difficult because they are such big bushes.  I used the garden line but also two sighting sticks at the ends of the row.  The currant line is a little wonky but it will do for me.


Each of the planting holes had inoculated charcoal and mychorrhizal fungi scattered into it before the plants went in.  As the soil was returned to the hole, I shook the plants to make sure the soil was falling right up to the roots.  I think there was a little big bud mite (Cecidophyopsis ribis) on some of the branches so I took these off with secateurs. 

Black currants need a good mulch. January 2012

The blackcurrants mulched with horse manure
and the strawberries with straw. March 2012

I moved five primula that were growing in the same area using the charcoal and mychorrhiza.  These were moved because I have to redo the retaining slabs along this bed.  All I have to do is straighten them a little because they were never right after the land drain was put in by the contractors.  I wish they had contacted me before they did it because I would have done it myself, if they had given me the materials.


The spring is not flowing down the side of the allotment any more, however water is still bubbling out in the corner of the brassicae bed and where it disappears after that I don't know.  Just so long as the water does not flow onto my allotment, I will be happy. 


Still, that is by the by.  The primula were moved and I just had time to dig one more hole before the lack of light and freezing wind forced me to go home.


Monday 19th January


I have eventually moved all the blackcurrant bushes.[:D][:D][:D]


It's amazing what a few frost free days can achieve.  9 bushes and I think 9 varieties but I am not sure because I have lost the labels.  I just planted the best fruiting ones.

I did not cut the black currants back too severely this year because I cut out a lot last year. I take off as much of the dark brown wood as I can. The bushes will fruit on the new light coloured wood and I try to encourage sprouting from as low down as I can. Sometimes, if you cut out all the old wood, you are taking off the new wood as well so some has to be left to get a crop. I also take off any wood that has big bud (Cecidophyopsis ribis) on it. I did not get as much big bud this year as last. Maybe that's another one for the cold weather.

Now I have to decide what to do with the 3 bushes I do not want.


I like to bury things so they will probably go at the bottom of a trench.  It is amazing how much soil they have around their roots and this has left quite a hole in the new bed.  I will double dig this area using the compost, weed turfs and last years lawn mowings in the bottom of the trench.  Before that though, I will cut up the old blackcurrents and put them at the bottom.  I hope that this will raise this area up to the level of the rest of the bed.

Onion seed planted.

For the first time ever, I think, I washed all my pots and seed trays in the autumn.  I got given quite a few and these were washed as well.  I only washed them with a strong detergent and warm water so I don't think that there are any unwanted chemicals lingering in the recesses of the trays.  

There is some debate about whether washing pots is a necessity.  If you are growing seriously then the cleaner and more hygienic you can make your pots, trays and greenhouse the better.  As we are usually using sterilized compost nowadays, there is little prospect of infection from the soil.  However, there is a possibility of bad bacteria, fungi and viruses building up on unwashed trays, pots and greenhouses.  If there is time and I am inclined then I wash pots.  It is always best to use a hand brush on dry pots first and only when most of the compost has been brushed off to wash them in soapy water.  

Washing the trays removed the problem of bringing dirty, pest infested trays into the house.  I could easily justify taking inside the pristine, onion tray, which was also in a transparent plastic bag. 

I used a large 23 x 35 cm tray and filled it with New Horizons peat free compost.  There is still some doubt whether peat free composts are as good as the peat composts.  I find that germination using New Horizons is relatively good especially compared with other peat free composts.

After filling, I tap the side of the tray to make sure that the compost is fairly compacted inside the tray and then use a plant pot to firm the surface.  I planted all the onion seed as thinly as possible covering them with a little sieved compost.  This was then firmed down with the bottom of a plant pot.  

I gave the seed a good watering and left the tray to drain in the greenhouse before placing it into the transparent plastic bag and bringing it into the house.  It now sits on a west facing window sill.   

Some people suggest that you put seeds in the airing cupboard next to the water tank.  If you still have an airing cupboard with a hot water tank, I think that it is too warm in there and seeds germinate and grow so quickly that they usually end up long and drawn out.  Not the best start for a plant’s life.   Seed usually needs warmth to germinate but after that they become much hardier and can be put into relatively cooler temperatures. I will put mine into the cold greenhouse until they are big enough to transplant and then they will be put into “cell” seed tray inserts.   As New Horizons is a multipurpose compost I will use this to transplant as well. 

Took Some Photographs of the Allotment Today

The allotment always looks untidy in January.

The ground was frosted and covered with a sprinkling of snow so I did not move any more of the blackcurrants.  I got some leaves and lawn mowings and filled up one of my bins with them. I put weed turfs on top of that.         

The bins are made from old pallets which are wired together with fencing wire.  I took two bins down so that I could putup my new shed  but I am going to make some new bins at the end of the comfrey bed.


There is a lot said about making compost.  I find that heaping anything that was once alive into a big pile and leaving for six months to a year breaks down into fairly good compost and even if it doesn't it can be buried relatively deeply and left to its own devices. I am not one for fussing about compost. 

This is one of my charcoal bins with charcoal marinating in comfrey and worm tea. There is also some sugar molasses, and some blood fish and bone in this bin.  I have used almost all of the charcoal in the other bin.  The lid is kept on so that the bins do not fill with rain water and overflow.

This is my comfrey bed.  The plants don't look too good at the moment but in the summer they can grow up to 1.5 metres.  The comfrey is harvested and put into the big green bins. 
Comfrey is as tough as old boots.  It will certainly come back in the spring.  Mine has died down and is difficult to make out at the moment.  I tried digging between the rows and started to dig up roots.  Not to worry though because I just planted them again.  They might not come but I have sufficient anyway. 
A bit of frost and snow will not hurt comfrey.



As the comfrey rots down, I run off the liquid into a small tub and put it into the charcoal dustbin. It looks a bit untidy because I had to move the dustbins.  Someone had pushed them over while I was on holiday but I have still been able to refil one of them with comfrey tea etc.

I use a water butt to make comfrey tea but I am not adding water at the moment. I have 5 rows of comfrey and two rows of nettles - grown properly with weeding and hoeing. I am now using sweet cicerly as well. It all makes a very good liquid fertilizer. I water it down in the watering can but it does not seem to affect the plants adversely if you use quite a concentrated liquid. I think that you are wasting it if you use it too concentrated. Looks just like Tomorite to me.

They say that nettles are high in nitrogen and comfrey is high in potassium. Compared with what though? I think we are talking about very small amounts of nutrient but that is all that most vegetables seem to need. Nettle and Comfrey have more nutrient than farmyard manure but farmyard manure has very little nutrient  so there does not need to be much more to be better. I think that the adding of both comfrey liquid and farmyard manure to the soil have greater effects than just adding artificial nutrient. They encourage soil organisms, which may form symbiotic associations with plant roots or at least provide further nutrients or nutrients in a form that the plants can use.

 5 rows of strawberries.  This half of the strawberry bed has marinaded charcoal and the other half of the bed does not.  I put the charcoal in the planting holes.  We shall see if Terra preta works with strawberries.
Several rows of broad beans behind the strawberries seem to be surviving the very cold weather.  The strawberries were planted during September and the broad beans during October 2010.


This is where the Kestrel potatoes are going this year.  The horse manure will be spread about and dug in as I plant the potatoes.  Half the potatoes will have inoculated charcoal and half will not.  I will also plant some earlies as well. There are still two half rows of carrots, two and a half rows of parsnips and several beetroot still surviving in this bed.  I will need  to clear it by March this year. 


This is the onion bed.  The garlic is in already and showing through. I have not dug this area because it had potatoes on last year.  I have just levelled it out a little so that I can plant the onions and leeks.  I will be covering both the onions and the leeks either with cloches or enviromesh to protect them from the leek miner fly, Phytomyza gymnostoma.  This fly was first detected in Wolverhampton and I have had it on my allotment since 2000 if not earlier.  I thought it was onion eel worm but I can grow very good leeks if I cover them which indicates this is an air borne rather than a soil borne infestation.  It comes to something when you have to cover leeks and onions.

I think that I added a little bit too much brush wood to this soil  It is three spits down though. I will be planting the cordon sweet peas and the runner beans in this bed. 








This will be the brassicae bed this year. I am attempting to move the black currant bushes to a more convenient position but it keeps on snowing.  I will endeavour to persevere. I am planting the blackcurrants with inoculated charcoal and mychorrhizal fungi. I don't really want to, however, I will plant half with charcoal and half without just to see if charcoal affects the cropping of blackcurrants.

The purple sprouting broccolli has been knocked about by the snow and frost but it is very hardy and I expect it to recover.  There are some winter cauliflowers behind them that are surviving well.  They are covered with netting to keep the pigeons off them.  Sprouts are behing them.

I am surprised that the bay tree has survived but it gets hardier the older it gets. 

I have picked a lot of the brussel sprouts.  The variety I have left were much smaller than the Trafalgar so I will not plant them this year. Needless to say I have forgotten what they are called.