Rolawn
Topsoil Promotion Code

Rolawn Direct are offering a 10% discount on Rolawn Topsoil. Enter code topsoil10
to obtain the discount. Code is valid until 16th October 2012 and excludes Hallstone
Topsoil.

Rolawn Beds & Borders Topsoil (1m³ Bulk Bag – 1,000 litres approx volume when packed) £136.45
Rolawn Beds & Borders Topsoil is a fertile, organic rich, light and friable topsoil that contains a controlled release fertiliser and a unique water retentive agent.

Rolawn Vegetable & Fruit Topsoil (1m³ Bulk Bag – 1,000 litres approx volume when packed) £136.45
Rolawn Vegetable & Fruit Topsoil is a fertile, organic rich, friable topsoil. It is a consistent blend of topsoil derived from prime arable land and a consistent organic matter, which ensures consistent results. It does not contain manures which can be variable and in some instances, potentially harmful. For certain crops such as tomatoes and courgettes, which require a higher nitrogen supply, levels should be supplemented by the grower.

Rolawn Blended Loam Topsoil (1m³ Bulk Bag – 1,000 litres approx volume when packed) £127.03
Rolawn Blended Loam Topsoil is a high quality, fertile, environmentally friendly, organic rich multi-purpose top soil. It is a blend of Rolawn Screened Loam and a peat free soil conditioner. It is ideal for using in planting and landscaping where a quality outcome is essential. It is light, friable and easy to work, even in wet conditions. It is safe, of consistent high quality and analysed to BS3882:2007. Each tote bag contains up to 50% more product than 1 tonne of ordinary topsoil.

Rolawn Turf & Lawn Seeding Topsoil (0.73m³ Bulk Bag – 730 litres approx volume when packed) £122.75
Rolawn Turf & Lawn Seeding Topsoil is a free flowing friable topsoil formulated for use in conjunction with Rolawn turf to ensure early establishment. It provides a level surface and firm foundation required for laying turf or applying seed and is easy to spread, even when moist. It is also blended with Rolawn GroRight Lawn Establishment Fertiliser to help ensure a lawn gets off to the best possible start.

A sensory garden should be designed for maximum appeal to its audience. There are 5 senses so something for each

hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste

hearing – listening to wind chimes, or water or rustling leaves. Even the crunching of gravel underfoot can be heard.
sight – the easiest one I think – so many pretty plants to look at – foliage and all year round colour to consider though
touch – soft plants, spikey plants, scratchy plants (but consider some may cause irritation)
smell – herbs, lavender, roses,
taste – edible plants – tomatoes, herbs again, fruit and vegetables should all make a display for this section

A really juicy offer, just when you should be planning your autumn planting.
The ground is still warm (and wet!) so it is an ideal time to get things started before winter – crocus discount
When you start shopping you will need to enter code 9093 at the checkout.

Narcissus
‘Minnow’
weekend price
£1.19

Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’
weekend price
£3.99

Acer palmatum var. dissectum

weekend price
£14.39

Hydrangea paniculata
Diamant Rouge (‘Rendia’)
weekend price
£7.99

*Offer commences Friday 5th October at 9am and ends at midnight on Sunday October 7th. Offer code valid on all plants and bulbs, but excludes bouquets, gift vouchers and delivery charges. Only one voucher code can be used per order.

Download some free vegetable growing cards from Garden Organic (right click file save as)

Find out more on their site here:
Handy, quick-reference Growing Instruction Cards – all the information you need to start growing your own veg, fruit, herbs, edible flowers and green manures.
Download them FREE
How to use the cards PDF 243Kb
Glossary of growing terms PDF 2.2Mb
Full set of vegetable growing cards PDF 16Mb
A-Z of individual growing cards

Bee Keepers got a sugar ration during the war to enable them to help their bees through winter.

How we won the war is a TV series about different aspects of the war. World War II stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. In south-west England, Jules Hudson discovers how a nation of knitters kept our troops in the fight.

It’s as interesting as the War Time Farm which I believe next week will have a section about bees on it too!

It’s autumn and leaves are starting to change colour here. Soon they’ll be falling and then is the time to rake them all up. Get as many as you can. If you only have a few then a great technique is to empty them on to the lawn and mow them up. Empty the resulting grass/leaf mix into bags and leave to break down. Otherwise pile them into a heap or black bags and leave to rot down. Leaves take a while to break down so it’s not quick but it is a good organic material that’s worth collecting.
You can pile them thickly on the soil as a mulch.
Leafmold is a great soil covering for winter. The worms will pull it down into the soil where it will enrich the soil and create a better soil structure. it’s especially good for next years carrot and parnsip bed. This is because it encourages a very fine tilth which root vegetables need to grow well.
If you can ever find piles of old leaf mould you’ll discover just how amazing the stuff is. It’s like the best compost soil you’ll ever find. It’s great for growing all sorts of vegetables in. I managed to fill a couple of raised beds with it this year and have grown amazing onions, leeks, and spring onions. It’s given me great sized veggies too and they’ve grown better than ones in the ground!

If you are a kind neighbour then you might also find it’s good to rake up neighbours paths and drives if they are covered in leaves. This will provide you with extra leaves to rot down for next year. A quiet word with your other neighbours might get you bags of leaves dropped off.
You can’t have too much leaf mould. It’s fantastic stuff. Apply generously everywhere as a mulch if you have lots of it. Otherwise apply to a few places in a good layer.
You can compost leaves by having a leaf pile, a leaf wire bin, stuffing them in black bin bags, or by chopping with grass and leaving in bin bags again. Any of these techniques can be used – the mixing with grass cuttings with a mower should be the quickest way to something very usable though.

Picking some autumn raspberries and saw a curled leaf by the stem. On closer inspection it turned out to be a caterpillar.

This is a great news story – for all those kids who love gardening, or haven’t yet discovered they love gardening!

Pippa Greenwood launched Stewart Garden Schools campaign at Glee 2012

Grow your own specialist and regular broadcaster, Pippa Greenwood, appeared at Glee 2012 to launch the Stewart Garden Schools campaign.

Stewart Garden is the gardening products division of UK manufacturer, Stewart. The Schools campaign aims to inspire young children and their families to discover the benefits of growing plants, salads and vegetables and by helping 100 schools across the UK embrace gardening every year.

As part of the launch, Pippa Greenwood took part in a photocall at Glee, where she revealed the Stewart Garden Schools campaign logo for the first time. An opportunity also arose at Glee whereby Brother, the world wide electronics and manufacturing company, agreed to generously donate towards the campaign.

Stewart Garden Schools will be a far reaching campaign. A wide range of Stewart Garden products, including propagators, seed trays, plant pots, troughs and watering cans will be donated as part of the Stewart Garden Schools Growing Kit. Promotional materials for participating schools and garden centres will have also be produced. Children will receive a booklet produced by Pippa Greenwood, who is also providing three varieties of easy grow vegetables seeds.

Brother, first learnt of the ’Stewart Garden School Project’ while attending the Garden Leisure & Equipment Exhibition in September.

Mike Kelly, Head of Category – Identification at Brother “I had the opportunity to speak with both Pippa Greenwood and Nigel Thompson of Stewart about the initiative. The plants and vegetables grown by the school children need to be labelled and that’s where our product can add value. Consequently Brother have been happy to supply one of our GL100 garden labellers to each of the 100 schools involved in the project”

Throughout the coming year, Stewart Garden, together with representatives of participating garden centres will visit schools and create a shortlist of the top five. These five schools will receive a visit from Pippa Greenwood and the judges in July 2013. Pippa and the judging team will then nominate the winner. The winning school will receive £2,000 to be spent at their Stewart Garden Schools garden centre. The second and third placed schools will receive £1,500 and £750 respectively, also for purchases at their nominating garden centre.

Pippa Greenwood is one of Britain’s most popular gardening broadcasters. She has presented a number of television and radio programmes.

Stewart Garden and Pippa Greenwood work together to help consumers improve their understanding of growing fruit and vegetables at home and support retailers in this increasingly popular market sector.

Pippa has several regular writing commitments including BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and a monthly page in NFU Countryside Magazine. For eighteen years Pippa was the gardening columnist for The Mirror newspaper.

Weed fabric or not?

We had many different approaches to starting off brand new plots on our site
last year.

One was weedkiller. Repeated. Reasonably successful and they have straw mulch
on some weeds now but managed to get lots of beds planted up and grow crops.

Another was weedfabric and raised boxes. Very successful in terms of no weeds
coming up. Although when ground has been uncovered since (creating more boxes)
the weeds have shot up again.

Whatever you use has to suit:
your budget
your gardening style
your time committment.

There’s no point in using a gardening technique you don’t have time for or
can’t actually afford. If you have limited time then any techniques that
reduce the hours spent weeding or strimming areas on your plot has to be worth
looking at.

FREE Day Friday tomorrow! Explore the four RHS Gardens for free, Fri 5 October.

Just seen this on twitter!