Adam Pascoe a gardening journalist, whom has edited Gardeners world and Waitrose Gardeners magazine, a photographer, broadcaster, horticultural consultant and presenter! Travelled all the way via Zoom from Peterborough and gave some great advice of easier gardening….
Suggestions for geraniums: magnificum and Rozanne
Astrantia ‘Roma’
Helianthus Lemon Queen
Obedient plant ‘Rose bouquet’ – tall
Shasta daisy
Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’
For roses ‘The one and only’ is highly scented.
Belle du Jour is the Rose of the Year for 2021.
To attract wildlife in the garden, put nesting boxes on the north side of trees. Clean out used boxes every November as birds don’t use the same material twice. Boiling water is sufficient; no chemicals!
Log piles – if you want to move them, any time of year as it will disturb any wildlife there anyway. Try to move the soil under it if you can.
For companion planting: try Chives and poached egg plant.
To attract bees, astrantia.
For pots, alstroemeria inticancha sunshine
Hostas – to deter slugs and snails, check plants regularly and use copper tape round the pots.
Hosta Frances Williams is slug proof.
To stop plants in terracotta pots drying out, line the sides (or pot wall, not the base) with plastic, eg old compost bags.
For fragrance: Nemesia ‘Wisley vanilla’ in a pot by the door. Can go through winter if chopped down and brought in out of frost.
Mulch 3-4” deep in November.
For seeds, foxgloves should be sown fresh. Can be sown in pots.
Let coriander and watercress self seed.
Raised beds built with wood blocks for vegetables.
Grow baby salad in pots. Start the seeds in a green house and look to continuously plant up pots to get a stream of salad throughout the summer months.
Bury an empty pot next to cucumbers and other similar plants to that you can water into the pot so water gets deeper in the soil and therefore to the roots.
Seep hoses are also good for keeping the garden watered.
Tomato ‘Veranda Red’ is a bush tomato that can be grown in a basket or pot. It is disease resistant.
Plant tulip bulbs in aquatic baskets and then plant in garden so you can take up the whole basket after flowering and care for plants as they are dying down in that so you don’t have to leave them in the garden when they are dying down. Then the space can be re-used with new plants.
Tulip ‘Antoinette’ changes colour from yellow to pink.
Galtonia for August colour gap – plant the bulbs in the spring.
