Tag: horticulture

Schools celebrate success in RHS garden design competition

Bannockburn High School in Stirling and Duncanrig Secondary School in East Kilbride were named joint winners of the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) annual Green Plan It Challenge in Scotland at an awards ceremony at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh this week. Continue reading Schools celebrate success in RHS garden design competition

August garden plant of the month: Hebe

A late summer party in the garden: Hebe
Hebe (Speedwell Shrub) is the ideal plant for giving your garden and patio boost in the late summer. White, purple, pink, or lilac flowers instantly lend a fresh energy, and Hebe’s foliage varies in colour from pale green to dark green, and very pale grey. In the winter and spring some varieties even have claret leaves. Thanks to the somewhat random structure, the plant has a loose, natural look, and the clusters of flowers are very popular with butterflies and bees. Because Hebe is so versatile, it’s often used in beds and borders, rockeries or as pond planting, but it also works well as a container plant on the balcony or patio. Hebe is evergreen, bringing life to the garden throughout the year. 
Range
The Hebe range can be divided into two groups:
– The largest consists of generally hardy evergreen species with decorative foliage. The best-known are H. ‘Emerald Gem’ syn. Green Globe’, H. ochracea ‘James Sterling’, H. ‘Autumn Glory’, H. pimeloides, H. buxifolia, and H. pinguifolia.
– Completely different but also utterly Hebe is the H. andersonii group, also known as shrubby veronica. This flowers in late summer and autumn, and is particularly popular around 1 and 2 November (All Hallows – All Souls Day).
Hebe trivia
• Hebe travelled to Europe from New Zealand in 1835. The resultant cultivars are able to cope well with European winters thanks to crossbreeding.
• In Greek mythology Hebe, the goddess of youth, was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She was given as a bride to Hercules.
• Hebe can cope relatively well with salty air, making it an ideal plant for seaside gardens and balconies.
Origin 
Hebe grows wild in the southern hemisphere, particularly in New Zealand, but also in French Polynesia, the Falkland Islands and South America. There are around 30 species that are fairly tough: the plant grows both along the coast and in mountainous regions at considerable heights, although they do have smaller leaves there.
What to look for when buying
• Check the balance between pot size, plant diameter and number of buds, and ensure that the plant is free of pests and diseases.
• The plants are cultivated both outdoors and in greenhouses, depending on the species. Good growers ensure that a Hebe grown outdoors is also supplied in a clean pot.
• The larger the plant, the greater the decorative value and the easier Hebe is to look after.
• There should be no dry or dead parts on the plant at the time of purchase.
Care tips
• Hebe likes a sunny spot, and can even tolerate full sun, but will also thrive in partial shade.
• The plant prefers airy, humus-rich soil.
• Water must always be able to drain. The soil can be left to dry out a little between waterings.
• Give some plant food once a fortnight during flowering. Remove wilted flowers.
• Hebe is fairly hardy, but if there’s a hard frost it’s better to wrap the plant, particularly if it’s a container plant. Shrubby veronica prefers to overwinter in frost-free conditions.
• Cutting back after the winter keeps the Hebe attractive and strong.

May Garden plants of the Month: vegetable plants

A Vegetable patch with beautiful plants
Pick-your-own plants and kitchen gardens are incredibly popular, and vegetable plants often also look fantastic, so there’s a double benefit. On the one hand it’s a response to the growing interest in healthy, sustainable and vegetarian food, on the other hand it creates a decorative corner with productive green plants with produce which is good to grow and tasty to eat. May is a good month to plant vegetables in containers, pots or beds. 
Range
The vegetable plants in the selection for May all bear fruit. These include cucumber, bell pepper, chilli pepper, tomato, pumpkin and courgette. Most vegetable plants are supplied already bearing some edible fruit. There are climbing plants, bush forms and dwarf plants available, but also special consumer-oriented concepts such as Pluck, Snacker® Funfoods and Pick-&-Joy. Multiple varieties are available of all vegetables: different colours of chilli and bell pepper, tomatoes from Roma to vine, and cucumbers from snack-sized to giant. The pre-cultivated plants produce plenty of fruit over the summer period, and therefore offer the joy of picking and a real ‘ fresh experience’ throughout that time.
Vegetable plants trivia 
  • Are they vegetables or fruit? From a culinary and horticultural perspective the tomato, bell pepper, cucumber and chilli pepper are vegetables, although the odd purist will still maintain firmly that they are fruit.
  • Vegetable plants also do very well on the windowsill: they grow upwards, so they need little space.
  • Bell peppers contain twice as much vitamin C as oranges, and are also rich in vitamins E, B1 and B2.
  • The gherkin is closely related to the cucumber and can be grown in the same way.
Origin 
Bell and chilli peppers are so closely related that they bear the same name: Capsicum annuum. The bell pepper originates from South America, whilst the chilli pepper plant grows in India and South-East Asia.
The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a member of a large family which also includes the potato. Tomatoes are native to Central America. The ancestors of the Mayas and the Incas grew them.
The cucumber (Cucumus sativus) originates from India, where it has been cultivated for its fruit for over 3000 years. The plants came to Western Europe via the Mediterranean with the Romans.
What to look for when buying
  • When buying cucumber, bell pepper, tomato and chilli pepper plants particularly look for a fresh appearance and a good balance between plant and pot size.
  • Also important is the number of flowers from which fruit can be produced, and preferably some young fruit already present to make the vegetable plant more appealing for sale.
  • Many vegetable plants are grafted onto a rootstock which gives them a higher quality, more power and growing capacity, and makes them more resistant to disease.
  • The soil must be slightly damp. The leaves should not be drooping, damaged or yellow. The plant must also be free of snails and aphids.
  • Because vegetable plants need a lot of light, water and heat, a rapid turnover at the point of sale is important.
Care tips for consumers 
  • It’s best to plant a vegetable plant in a bed or in a more spacious pot or container after purchase so that it has room to grow and produce fruit optimally.
  • Vegetable plants prefer a sunny, sheltered spot out of the wind.
  • Canes, frames or netting help the vegetable climbers to grow upwards.
  • Regularly removing side shoots (runners) means that the plant invests its energy particularly in itself and its fruit.
  • All vegetable plants need a lot of water: the soil may not dry out, but preferably do not have the roots standing in water.
  • The plants grow rapidly and consume a lot of energy, so that plant food is required once a fortnight to keep their strength up.

Best in Show for Kevock Garden Plants

Graham Gunn, Manager of Kevock Garden Plants, near Edinburgh, with the trophy for Best in Show for horticultural displays at this week’s Harrogate Spring Flower Show (26 – 29 April 2018).

Lasswade nursery, Kevock Garden Plants, has won Best in Show for horticultural plant nursery displays at this week’s prestigious Harrogate Spring Flower Show. Top honours in the 2018 Harrogate Spring Flower Show Gardens has gone to Thirsk-based designers, Colour Your Garden. Continue reading Best in Show for Kevock Garden Plants

March garden plant of the month: Ivy

A touch mysterious and quietly ever-present: ivy (Hedera) is the big source of greenery that represents a stable element in the garden through all four seasons. This ground-covering or climbing foliage shrub is a hardy and evergreen. There’s a wide range of leaf colours, whilst all ivy species grow quickly and are easily trained, they can therefore be used to cover fences, wire fencing, summerhouses or walls. As groundcover, ivy gives weeds no chance, which makes it the most decorative fellow-gardener ever. 

Continue reading March garden plant of the month: Ivy

Saving Granton Castle’s Walled Garden and other stories

Hi folks,
A while since we have sent out any news, so a lot to impart as we have been busy!
Articles about ‘Granton’s Lost Garden’ now published, recent presentations have met with a good response which has been publicised on our wordpress page finding-grantons-lost-castle-garden Still time to fill in the ideas survey if you haven’t done already as it will be open until midsummer, the link can be found on the wordpress page.
The Friends Group have had two meetings recently with the developers who own the walled garden, the most recent of which was very positive in its outcomes. Is there a glimmer of hope for the future of the walled garden and its restoration? The Community Empowerment Act outlines many ideals we hope can allow our voices to be heard, the ‘last of Scotland’s lost gardens’ is too precious to develop for 17 luxury townhouses.
  • Council petition!!!, save_granton_castle_walled_garden open to sign by anyone resident in Edinburgh. We need 500 signatures to be heard again at the city chambers, but there is a strict time limit … so please sign and share with those you think may be interested.
NEAC plot June 2016
On a brighter note, recent seedfunding has allowed some practical gardening sessions to be run locally to help promote our Friends Group and actively involve local people and community groups in organic horticulture and community growing. Beautiful results for everyone to share, berry picking soon, North Edinburgh Arts centre plot (pictured above, Mondays from 1-2pm and West Pilton Community Garden on Fridays 10am -12 noon.
Hope to post details of our next Friends Group Meeting venue, date and time soon, likely to be the end of June. Please get in touch if you want to come along to any of the gardening workshops, meetings or have any questions.
Best wishes,
Kirsty Sutherland