Rare Plant Fair: London Temple

Last week, I happened to be enjoying an ice-cold beer in a beer garden (I forget where – this could be due to the beer!), when my mobile phone started to ring. It was none other than Charles, a.k.a. Grumblemouse, who through the wonder of Social Media, has become a firm friend and passionate partner in plant crime! He informed me that there was a rare plant fair being held at the Inner Temple Gardens at the weekend and suggested that we check it out.

Well, needing no second invitation, I agreed; keen not only at the opportunity to purchase some rare plants, but also to see what a garden fair in the very heart of London would look like. So, today I braved the blistering sun (no mean feat for men of the bald community) and ventured into Waterloo by train and then onwards by foot, taking in the South Bank, Waterloo Bridge and Victoria Embankment before arriving at Temple.

Once arrived, I met up with Charles and we proceeded to enter the Inner Temple Gardens. What met us was an incredible sight – a radiant lawn in the middle of stunning London architecture, with stalls and tables dotted everywhere, packed with rare flora and fauna. I readily admit; it was strange to have a country-like plant fair in the very middle of London – at the end of the lawn were four lanes of traffic and the river Thames! Nonetheless, the setting was idyllic and rather grand.


In the end, I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Tony Marden. He runs Shady Plants, a small nursery based in Gloucestershire , specialising in arisaemas, amorphaphallus and other aroids and indeed, it was the rather spectacular Ariseaema Tortuosum that caught my eye and got me chatting with him. Tony caught the arisaema obsession about seven years ago after buying an 'empty' pot at a flower show and has been growing them ever since!

Well, inspired by Tony's friendly chat and advice, I decided to purchase two of these magnificent plants for myself:


As you can see, one is slightly behind the other, so I plan to enjoy watching this grow and unfurl over the coming few days!

Had I not been so light in wallet this weekend, I would have invested in a great many more plants for the flat. The rare plant fair was a thoroughly enjoyable affair, with friendly gardeners and growers more than happy to offer advice, tips and help. Although London Gardeners have now missed the boat this year (in hindsight, I should have written about this prior to the event), the rare plant fair is being held all around the country over the coming months. Visit the website to see if it's coming to an area near you – I wholly recommend it.

The Grey Skies of London?

I was on my way to a rare plant fair in central London earlier today (write-up tomorrow) and paused to take this picture on the South Bank. Beautiful.

Vegetable Progress: One Month On...

It has now been a little over a month since I arrived in Richmond and started gardening on the London Vegetable Garden allotment. This weekend was fantastic for visible progress and along with the potatoes and carrots, the runner beans and onions are now shooting up as well. If I can keep the slugs and snails at bay, it looks like it could be a very good year for the London Vegetable Garden!

More New Arrivals!

A few weeks back, I posted a blog about Rocket Gardens, the company that grows baby vegetable plants down in west Cornwall and then posts these to you to pot out in window boxes, in pots on the balcony, in the garden or down at the allotment – perfect for urban gardeners. I received an email from the company the other day saying that their plants were taking a little longer this year, due to the frosts we've continued having. Nevertheless, the plants are on their way and will be here shortly, which should make for some fervent activity down on the London Vegetable Garden allotment!

In the meantime however, I am growing cucumbers, courgettes, two varieties of tomato and basil, all from seeds, in pots dotted on various windowsills around the flat. I am supplanting these home-grown efforts with organic baby plants purchased from the local garden centre in Sheen.

Now, yesterday I purchased:

1 x 'Roma' tomato plant (I will end up with around seven different varieties of tomato I hope!) 1 x 'Pondo' pea plant – which when teased apart, contained EIGHT separate plants! 1 x sweet orange pepper 1 x sweet red pepper 'Enorma F1' 1 x Chilli 'Peppino F1'

Aside from the peas, which have gone in next to the potatoes like so:


These have all been potted in the raised bed with netting firmly erected around them. The plants I purchased a fortnight ago have all settled in extremely well, so I'm hoping that these do the same!

Mollusc Menaces – Time To Slug It Out...

With Britain basking in truly glorious warmth and sunshine this weekend, a full day down at the London Vegetable Garden allotment was inevitable – and much needed as it transpired. Whilst the Concrete Jungle is full of fag-ends, litter and pollution, the real jungle of an urban allotment is teeming with all sorts of hazards – hazards that like to eat!



As you can see from the pictures above (you can enlarge them by clicking on them), my plants have all been visited by mollusc menaces this week, including some baby runner bean shoots that have just sprouted. This situation clearly needs to be dealt with (especially once I start growing salad leaves!), so I set to and headed back to the local garden centre to see what I could pick up.

In the garden shop, there was a wide range of slug pellets; however, I am keen to keep the London Vegetable Garden organic and chemical-free. Every week, I'm still visited by the robin who picks off the worms I dig up, so I'm keen to avoid harming him and others like him. Mind you, come back and see how I feel when they're pecking up all of my strawberries!

I ended up purchasing some netting and erecting this around one of my raised beds to start off with:



I'm not sure how much of a deterrent this will prove to be, but for the while, it's a start. I've posted a question about slugs on the Urban Gardeners website, so I'm hoping to pool knowledge from there – and here – that will help me defeat these perennial pests! My girlfriend has said that eggshells are supposed to be a good deterrent, as is salt – has anyone had experience of these, or indeed, anything else that may help?

I look forward to hearing your tips!

Do you have any tips on beating slugs organically? Please leave your comments on this blog post, or alternatively, in the forum on the Urban Gardeners website – a new social network for urban gardeners to come together and share tips, advice and support.

Organic Overtures: Howard Goodall's 'The Seasons'

There's no doubt that the days are now really drawing out, with sun-soaked evenings giving urban gardeners nationwide an extra few hours each day to amble on the allotment, brush up on the balcony or potter on the patio. The season is unquestionably changing, with the flourish of springtime blooms and activity now making way for the warm climes of the British summer – perfect for growing plenty of vegetables!

As well as observing the changing seasons on the London Vegetable Garden allotment, I've also been keeping up with ITV's fascinating 'The Seasons' programme. In this four part series for ITV1, everyone’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, goes back to his roots to find out how our changing seasons affect everything around us. The series reveals the profound and far-reaching impact that each season has on our wildlife and landscape, and how they shape the way we all live.

Accompanying this great programme is an incredible original soundtrack from award-winning composer, Howard Goodall, inspired by none other than the seasons themselves. Describing the background to his new composition, Goodall says, “Several composers over the centuries have responded musically to the idea of the changing seasons, most notably Vivaldi, Haydn, Spohr, Verdi, Glazunov and Tchaikovsky, but I believe I am the first composer to create my Seasons suite over the period of a year in the respective seasons themselves. I would like to take credit for this approach, but in all honesty the season-by-season time-scale was dictated by the filming schedule of the series.”

I was very kindly sent a copy of the album to review and can honestly say that Goodall's compositions are superb, chronicling each of the seasons so delicately and beautifully with haunting string compositions layered into sweeping arrangements. For those that have enjoyed watching The Seasons on ITV1 so far, or even for fans of classical music in general, Howard Goodall's sublime soundtrack presents the perfect accompaniment to gardening, be it on the balcony, down the allotment or in the back garden.

You can purchase The Seasons album on Amazon by clicking here.

The Seasons is on ITV1 every Sunday night until May 30th, from 7:00 – 8:00PM.

City dwelling does not mean a limited landscape...

For too long now, gardening has been perceived as a genteel pursuit enjoyed solely by members of Middle England’s bourgeoisie, or retirees with sweeping expanses of garden. Whilst this is, to a certain degree, very much the case, there also exists a grass-roots community of passionate, youthful, urban gardeners keen to shake off the shackles of stereotypical perception.

Up and down the length and breadth of the country, there exist thousands of avid urban gardeners, transforming tiny back gardens, patios, balconies and windowsills into thriving urban oases, from balcony blooms to crops in pots.

Urban Gardeners is a unique social network set up exclusively for this growing community as a place to come together, share experiences, offer advice and seek support. Gardening is an art – one of the most instinctive things in human nature – and this network aims to celebrate this fine art and shake off the elitist image that for so long, has blighted this humble pursuit.

Welcome to a different kind of gardening.

Welcome to Urban Gardeners.

Urban gardeners is a brand NEW social network dedicated exlusively to urban gardeners and those keen to show that this noble art is not solely the preserve of old people! It replaces the London Gardeners' Network, which is being closed in July due to the introduction of extortionate fees. Please do visit it and get involved with this unique venture!