Editor's Intro...
I love autumn in the veg garden. True it is sad that the garden is starting to wind down, but there is still a lot to do so that there remains a real buzz about the place.
News
RHS Garden Tour at Middlethorpe Hall & Spa
31 August 2010
Join a harvesting and storing masterclass on Saturday 11 September 2010 and treat yourself to a stay in a luxury hotel.
Make some room at home for The BIG Donation!
31 August 2010
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is encouraging people to donate BIG to their local Furniture & Electrical Store this September as part of the nation’s biggest ever stock appeal – The BIG Donation.
Action packed Countryside Live
28 August 2010
Archery and alpacas are two of the new attractions which visitors to the 2010 Countryside Live event can enjoy. In addition, a new competition to find Yorkshire’s most talented show jumper makes its debut* as part of the line up for the region’s popular hands on experience of rural life.
Other News
- Chris Beardshaw supports call to support plant diversity
- Celebrate late summer at The RHS Garden Wisley Flower Show
- £10,000 bonus for Breast Cancer Campaign from the de Jager pink flower bulbs campaign
- The Botanic Garden is the place to bee
- Open gardens website
- West Dean goes Totally Tomatoes!
- Dahlia regalia
- Parasite threatens many of Britain’s best-loved birds
- Prisoners go out into the garden
- Future of magnificent garden secured
Competitions
Peat-free perfection
CLOSING DATE: Friday, 8th October 2010
To grow great plants you need a great compost. Now Rolawn, Britain's leading supplier of top-quality turf and topsoils, have entered the compost market with their own tried and tested growing medium.
Bigger bulbs for better blooms
CLOSING DATE: Friday, 8th October 2010
De Jager's new autumn catalogue boasts over 620 spring bulbs, including 64 new varieties and reintroductions. Bigger bulbs perform better, and since 1868, de Jager has supplied only top-size, top-quality bulbs.
Music to your ears
CLOSING DATE: Friday, 8th October 2010
A multi-purpose solar-powered radio, mobile phone charger, LED flashlight and bottle opener - it's everything the roving allotmenteer needs in one package (except possibly a trowel). Available in vibrant green or orange, Etón's Scorpion is ruggedly built for the great outdoors. Its built-in rechargeable battery can be powered by the hand-crank dynamo, solar panel or DC adaptor.
Other Competitions
Features
Back to basics: Broad beans
2 September 2010
It’s time to sow broad beans – one of our most valuable and easy to grow hardy crops. Joe Maiden takes you through the simple steps you’ll need to follow to grow great crops for harvesting from May to October next year.
Back to basics with peas
5 August 2010
As a small boy, the highlight of a summer’s day for Joe Maiden was to walk with his father to the allotment where he would pick Joe a handful of peas to shell and eat fresh. Follow Joe’s advice now and you need never be without home-grown peas on your plot.
Apple family favourites
1 July 2010
Bob Flowerdew takes a look at the apple family, which also includes pears and some less familiar, but noteworthy cousins, the quinces and medlars.
Blogs
Fruit picking on Wimbledon Common by Helen Babbs
30 August 2010
Let’s begin with blackberries. A couple of weekends ago we scootered from north London way out west to Wimbledon Common and picked berries in the hot late afternoon sun. Later we stewed them with some bramley apples and brown sugar into a violent purple broth that was tangy on the tongue and stained lips a faint, inky blue.
Know your poison by Naomi Slade
24 August 2010
With a long-standing interest in plant toxicity and botany in general, and regularly fielding questions about this from friends and acquaintances I was pleased to receive a copy of Elisabeth A Dauncey’s new Poisonous Plants book, published by KewCurrent Issue: October 2010
• Pick up a pumpkin and bring in the harvests
• Meet a future generation of allotment gardeners
• Preserve your home-grown produce
• Visit the UK's best vegetable plots both big and small
• 10 free* strawberry plants for every reader
• Win £1600 worth of prizes to give away in this issue
• Save up to £49 with our reader offers
• What do Jamie Oliver, Boris Johnson, Joe swift and Raymond Blanc have in common?
PLUS: Make your own cider... Forage for fruit... Grow a taste of Italy... Chickens... Great veg from raised beds... Your gardening questions answered... Latest news...
*just pay p&p
PLUS:
• Next issue on sale: November issue on sale: 1st October 2010
Another great value 108-page issue, packed with down-to-earth advice for your plot