The next What's hot and what's not - you decide!
Hi All
What a busy week it's been - although lots of people have been down to Chelsea, the GW team has been busy preparing an action-packed show for next week. If you've always wanted to know what the top ten bee plants are or how to build a garden path, then do tune in next Friday! Of course we will also have all the regular features and additions.
With a gap in the schedule this week we're giving you the chance to decide what's hot and what's not in your gardens. Why not use our Flickr group to share images of your hot topics - some of which may even be featured on the show!
Also thank you all for the responses to last week's what's hot and what's not blog entry. Please see answers to several questions you've all asked
P00tles_magnet we can only apologise for the confusion over Flickr, but yes you are on the right Flickr group and it has now been updated. Thanks for pointing this out to us!
SuperFrooty you mentioned you are having trouble with ants. Ants in the compost are usually a sign that it the compost is too dry. Turning the compost and watering it will usually do the trick - as well as giving you better compost. If ants are a persistent menace, try moving the heap to a different location and growing mint nearby -it's a good ant-repeller.
Snowballgreen don't despair! There are plenty of shining examples of municipal planting amongst the more mundane. Telford has wonderful wildflower roundabouts that were featured in the programme last year; Todmorden has an amazing edible planting programme; there are hardy tropicals in Torquay... Councils are increasingly willing to think outside the box, especially as the kind of traditional schemes you describe are not only expensive but tend to have a large carbon footprint. Don't be afraid to ask for change - although it's important to recognise the historical and cultural value of some of these schemes.
LaurencePull you expressed your concern with Joe using a spray can to mark out the shape of the lawn. The spray in question was simply a marker spray - not a pesticide. Similar markers are very widely used throughout the country to mark out sports pitches and construction projects. They're not expensive and we do recycle all recyclable containers after use. We could have used sand as an alternative, but it wouldn't have shown up as well on screen.
That's all for now,
Enjoy your gardening weekend
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~23~RS~)
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We live in Cholet, Maine-et-Loire, ie South of the Loire, in a SSW facing, very sheltered garden. We do have a few frosts a year but have never had more than an inch of snow in 10yrs. The former owners built a concret, metre-cube compost box that is now full of nicely rotting compost. The intention is to plant a bamboo - we're in love with the black one but have read that it can grow to 8mts which seems enormous! Any advice you could pass on? eg should we cut the compost with soil?? Is it possible to check the height?
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Hello,
I have been following the blogs. A lot of talk is ongoing about the new show and what people think has been going downhill. What I worry about is the change on the website. These days, you are directed to the home website of gardenersworld on BBC.com but the only thing (seems to me) you can do there is rewatch the last show. And then I get this nice message that I am out of the area and, sorry, no luck for me. I am looking for the wonderful thing called "plants featured on the show". This always saved me from scribbling like a maniac whil trying to catch whatever Carol, Tony or Alys are saying. But now, I will have to revert back to good old pen and paper, two sets of eares and eyes to catch everything from the show. Maybe this feature is still there, but it is certainly well hidden. Please help? One last comment : GW team, keep going, don't get trampled down by all the bad comments, keep your vision. In my country, the only gardening programme we have, looks more like a ten minute advertisement for weed-killer, slug-pellets, liquid feeder or some other sponsored stuff. So I am there every Friday, watching the team and getting inspiration.
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We live in between farmland and woodland and the garden is often visited by rabbits and deer. For me what's hot this week are the covers I made to protect my vegetables. In the Autumn Toby made some cloches with polythene covers to protect vegetables during the winter. we made three, adapting them slightly to cover our newly built raised vegetable beds. In March we replaced the polythene with netting. What a success! The crops are protected from the deer, rabbits and our own cats and pet ducks. We also receive many admiring comments from passers-by using the adjacent footpath. I wonder how many other GW viewers have converted their cloches for summer use?
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What's not hot? Pyracanthea.
I must admit, it isn't the way they look that isn't hot. In fact, the ones in my garden never fail to impress me with their seemingly infinite amounts of small powdery white flowers which bees flock too from all around. Then again it gives us a huge display of berries in the Autumn.
The thing that I REALLY hate is the smell! It's just awful. The scent reminds me of cat wee!
The stench aside, it looks amazing, attracts loads of bees and birds and makes an amazing security hedge.
Ending this pretty conflicted. I have a love/hate relationship with my Pyracanthea? =O
Posted a picture of Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ayeffen/3567411749/ Will add to group now.
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whats hot, planting vegatbles and flowers together. marigolds and carrots are a good combination, the smell of the marigolds blocks the smell of the carrot so no carrot fly.
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Whats really hot at the moment is my Johnsons blue geranium - it looks absolutely stunning.
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Go native! try lots of dame's violets with persicaria (pink bistort! or polygonum)behind it some deep red astrantias at the side and johnson's blue geranium will give the most amazing show with wonderful scent for weeks and weeks (slug and snail proof too as these are native plants) oh and for a summer special treat try achillae (yellow) plus blue clary looks fab together and star attractions wild chicory (fantastic bright blue ) at the back of the border with some echiums too (the native ones are an amazing deep blue/pinkish tinges) the bees love them and it just about makes up for the snails having eaten all the delphiniums....and pink and white campion too make brilliant herbaceous border plants!
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How about the next 'What's hot and what's not?' being a vote?
Is Gardeners' World hot or not?
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Yuccas! are hot - i have been very sadly excited by the most wonderful tall red spikey flowers which have appeared from my 2 yuccas this year they have always been outside in pots and were grown from a friends cutting - i have no idea what they even are (photos attached would love to know if anyone can tell me :)) makes getting pricked in the bottom every time i weed near them worth it !!!!! thanks Louise, Derbyshire
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39578471@N02/?saved=1
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oops sorry new to this try again http://www.flickr.com/photos/39578471@N02/3638481982/in/pool-bbcgardenersworld
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