Take-away ideas from RHS Hampton Court, rain, rabbits and some unusual soft fruits.
This week I look back at my highlights from RHS Hampton Court, and discuss some of the more unusual soft fruits you can grow in your garden.
First, I have to mention the weather – sorry, but it is climate change garden… Its been very wet, like much of the country. Here in South Somerset, we have seen 80mm / 3in of rain since Friday, and at its peak rain was falling at 7.2mm an hour. The beds have been refreshed, which is good as my heavy clay soil was beginning to reveal a few cracks and my water butts and tanks are full. So a few pluses…. but I really would like to see a few sunny days.
The slugs have been back in action. My poor overwintered dahlias are still struggling to make headway against the onslaught and I even caught a cheeky slug munching one of the highest leaves of my climbing French bean – that’s at least a metre off the ground …. There is no stopping them this year and I am running out of ideas. I hoe the soil surface around susceptible plants so the ground is not too smooth, but rough and friable, and I am constantly fluffing up the Strulch in a bid to make it a less appealing route. I am just hoping the plants can hang in until they have toughened up and are less desirable.
And to add to my woes a baby rabbit has been visiting the garden. The dogs gave it a good chase the other day and it escaped by squeezing through the railings in the gate – I though the gaps were too narrow but obviously not, so some secondary mesh is to be fixed.
And talking of rabbits. I had a near miss with a dead rabbit. Walking through the gate to our fields, I disturbed a young buzzard who promptly took off and managed to drop its prey which landed with a thud at my feet. It’s just as well I am not squeamish, and don’t worry, I didn’t take a photo.
Five take away ideas from RHS Hampton Court
So, to RHS Hampton Court. I visited on Thursday and was incredibly lucky with the weather, it being the only dry day of the week. The sun shone and the festival looked lovely. Compared with recent years, I felt it was very colourful, with vibrant displays. I particularly liked the small pocket plantings which were showcasing climate resilient ideas. Later in the day, I gave a talk on ‘Five steps to a more resilient garden and allotment’ which went down well and fair few books were purchased. A big thanks to the RHS for the invite to speak.
My take away ideas:
1. My favourite had to be the Edible Garden at Berkeley Castle because of the choice of edibles. I don’t recall seeing medlars and pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana) being featured in display gardens before. So, I was really pleased to see them in this garden, along with oysterleaf (Mertensia maritima) which is a trailing plant with grey/green leaves and small blue flowers. I can thoroughly recommend visiting Berkeley Castle on the Severn, where the kitchen garden is delightful.
Pineapple guava is a really easy shrub to grow. Its a hardy, evergreen with attractive edible red flowers and produces small, green edible fruits. I have two planted in a sunny border, sheltered behind by a hornbeam hedge. But I have yet to see a fruit. I have grown oysterleaf to many years. I find getting it to overwinter can be tricky, but once its away in spring it produces trailing stems and lots of attractive, small bell shaped flowers that are visited by bees. It’s favoured by chefs because of its taste, but I find it more of an oily, fishy taste than one of oysters though!
2. Another simple idea from these pocket plantings was this bundle of twigs. It was on the Our Forgotten Neighbours: Growing Resilience with Food Forests. By bundling the twigs in a leather strap, it looks designed, but is still functional as a minibeast habitat. And look carefully at the plants around it – such a varied mix – wild strawberry, amaranth, fennel, kale, and tree spinach plus there’s a corten steel container packed more edibles.
Just remember that the pretty tree spinach with its magenta tinged leaves is a vigorous plant that will quick reach one to two metres in height, even if you keep picking it. It produces a copious amount of seed, so you will never have to sow it again! I would attach the same caveat to amaranth!!
3. There was more corten steel on the Britain in Bloom 60th Anniversary garden. I liked the freestanding container full of water that’s so important for attracting more wildlife into a garden. The tropical planting behind was fun too, with the rich colours of the bananas Musa ‘Ever Red’ and Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’
4. If you are looking for some new veg to grow next year, have a look at the offering of Joy and Michael Michaud of Sea Spring Seeds. Their small display was packed with ideas. They are based near Chesil Beach in Dorset and for many years focused on growing chilli, creating the Dorset Naga. But recently, they have expanded their vegetable seed list which now includes traditional, as well as exotic and unusual options. All the seeds they sell have been trialled and assessed at their nursery. If you want to know more, they are running tours of the nursery in August. Abbotsbury Subtopical Gardens are just down the road so you could do both on the same day.
5. And finally, I loved the allotment garden created by Year Two of Bagshot Infant School which won Best Allotment Garden. Here’s a few ideas from their plot, including the pallet herb garden and the watercress tank. All the plants were grown by the children under the guidance of governor, Steve Barker - its a brilliant example of how children can be introduced to growing at an early stage in life - their allotment at the school is accessible to children with special needs and disability. They make chutneys and jams from their produce which they sell to raise money to buy seeds plus they have solar panels to pump water, upcycled pallets, recycled containers and bricks – so inspiring. I really wish more schools could have the funding to set up gardening / growing spaces.
Some unusual soft fruits
We’re well into the soft fruit season now. I have harvested the red and black currants and my gooseberries. But I have also been harvesting two of the more unusual soft fruits - boysenberry and tayberry. Both are hybrids of the blackberry.
Tayberry This blackberry x raspberry hybrid produces large, aromatic cone-shaped fruits that are delicious. Getting its name from the River Tay in Scotland, this berry was bred during the 1970s. It likes a sunny aspect with well drained soil. The fruits are harvested in July. Despite its tasty fruits, it has not proved to be a commercially viable fruit as they are difficult to pick. There is a wonderful tayberry plant on our allotments, tended by allotmenteer Robert Nevitt. Robert says: “I grow my tayberry on horizontal wires spaced about a foot apart and stretched between six foot high posts. Once established the new canes easily grow to fill the full eight-foot span and I remove the old canes as soon as the berries have finished in early August and tie in the new canes which have been loosely tied to a vertical post while they grow. I usually give it a mulch of compost or manure in the spring and sometimes a home-brewed comfrey feed. The berries freeze well and are excellent for making jam as they have a higher acidity and pectin level compared to blackberries”. Excellent advice that I have been following.
Boysenberry This is a cross between the blackberry, raspberry and loganberry. It’s a hardy plant that can be grown in a variety of soils, producing oblong red-purple fruits. I find the fruit can be a bit tart and more like a blackberry than a loganberry, but still tasty. My young boysenberry, planted last autumn, has produced a good crop and I am growing it on a similar set of wires to the tayberry.
There are other hybrids. I have heard good things about the sunberry, which is a cross between a raspberry and blackberry with the flavour of a loganberry. I am interested by the fact it has a long cropping season but I have not grown it yet. Has anybody grown the sunberry?
London Permaculture Festival
I had a super day at the Festival. There was so much to see, talks to listen to and plants & books to buy. I gave a talk on Creating a Resilient Garden which proved to be very popular with around 120 people squeezing into the room to listen. So thank you everybody who took the time to come. It is a great day so look out for it next year!
Happy gardening
Sally
Coming up
Last week I attended a photography course at Damson Farm with the brilliant photographer Eva Nemeth (@:eva_nemeth) so I will be writing about this next week. Here is a sneak preview of the wonderful kitchen garden [OK, taken on my phone, but I was using my DSLR too!]
Talks
Talk 23 July Sally is giving a talk to Wedmore Garden Club
Talk 13 September Talk by Sally at Yeo Valley Gardens, Organic September Celebrations, nr Bristol - you can book a ticket via the Yeo Valley website
Talk 21 September Sally is speaking to the Somerset Hardy Perennial Society, West Monkton, nr Taunton
Sally and Kim give talks on a wide range of topics. Please get in touch if you would like to arrange a talk or webinar. You can also arrange group visits to Sally’s experimental garden.