Horribly invasive grass that is hard to get rid of.
But does it have other uses? This page suggests Couch Grass does have health uses

“In Europe grass roots are used to make a popular drink to rid of impurities the blood. It had many uses in traditional medicine , especially for kidney ailments. The grass roots are aperient, antiphlogistic,demulcent, diuretic, emollient, lithontripic and tonic actions,is used treat some cases of urinary incompetence & as a worm expellent.”

Garden Partners is a scheme by Age Concern to help older people with gardens they can’t manage some help. There are lots of people keen to have a allotment or garden but they can’t because they rent a flat, or the queues for allotments are too long. This scheme in Wandsworth, Eastbourne and some other areas. It matches young people to older residents who need help in their garden.

Visit Age UK page for Wandsworth Garden Partners scheme here

Maybe we should all be having huge water barrels at home to save us using any tap water for watering the plants this summer. Rain water is better for plants too!

These whopper barrels are for sale at Ferndale Lodge

Rainwater Storage Tank £349.99
These unique and thoughtfully designed water storage tanks provide a massive 750 litre capacity – yet have a small, space-saving foot-print, allowing them to stand unobtrusively up against a wall where you might not have the room to stand a number of smaller water butts. Made from industrial quality polyethylene, with inset plastic connectors (one ¾” tap connector and two 1″ for interconnecting tanks or connecting to a down pipe), they come with plastic tap, metal retention bracket, hole saw and rubber grommet sealing ring. There is also a lower base level access point for drainage. Complete with Filter Collector, which collects and filters rainwater coming down your down pipe for the best possible tank water quality. The removal of leaves, dirt and debris (which carry on down the down pipe) reduces the risk of disease carry-over, minimises algae and eliminates sludge in your water tank. Fits all UK down pipes, square or round, from 65 to 100mm, and has a filter cartridge that is easily removed and cleaned. Once the tank is full the filter acts as the overflow outlet. Tank width 80cm (31½”); depth 60cm (23″); height 179cm (70″). Available in three colours: Green, Granite, Sandstone.

Read the rest of this entry »

For one day only
To celebrate Garden Re-Leaf day on Tuesday 13th March 2012 Rolawn Direct is offering customers a 5% discount on all orders with a further 5% of the order value being donated to Garden Re-Leaf.

To claim the discount and activate the donation you should enter the code RELEAF. The code is valid for one day only until midnight on Tuesday 13th March 2012.

Click here to visit Rolawn’s site for more information about this

This page reckons there are lots of things you can grow in the shady area of your garden.
Plenty of veg and some herbs, but not much fruit as that needs sun to ripen – there’s still some though! Well worth a look.

PR Officer for Plant Heritage
Part time

Need an interest in plants!

18 March 2012
Devon Spring Plant Fair – 18 March
Tavistock Pannier Market

Plants from specialist West Country nurseries
Event Location: Tavistock
Event Contact: Tim Ellis 01566 86641 Mark Wash (publicity) 01822 834680
Event Start Date: 18/03/2012 10:00
Event End Date: 18/03/2012 15:00
Entry Price: members free with card

info from plant heritage conservation society

For most trees you’re likely to be planting a single stake which comes up about 1/3 of the height of the tree (at planting not final height) will do. Put it in the hole before you put the tree in and then carefully put the tree in.

The purpose of a stake is to allow the roots to anchor fully into the ground. This can take a couple of years. It’s ok for the top part to sway in the wind.
Put the stake on the side of the tree of the prevailing wind (Which way the wind normally blows) so that when it’s windy the tree blows away from the stake but it should be held firm and not allowed to go past a certain amount.
You can buy special tree ties or use folded back pieces of gaffer tape as these are soft, strong and will last for the few years they need to.
You could also use plaited tights. Use a twisted loop to make it move less and be more secure.

You can also insert a piece of pipe to allow easy watering but for most people this is something they’re not going to bother doing in normal years.

Some people swear by two short stakes with a fastening between, but obviously you need two stakes per tree then.

Tree
stakes at Wickes

Garden Tree Stake – Size: 50mm x 2.4m
£5.99

Timber Garden Tree Stake 40mm x 1.8m
£3.43

Garden Tree Stake – Size: 90 x 1520mm
£7.99

Thompson & Morgan will sell you tree stakes when you order trees from them.

Tree Stake & Tie Pack – 1 pack £3.99
We can supply the necessary Stake and tie required when planting any of our fruit trees.Pack contains one 1½m (5 foot) treated timber stake and a plastic adjustable tie.PLEASE NOTE: These can only be ordered with trees, as they will be packed and sent together.

Beechgrove Garden will be back on TV on 29th March. New day –
Thursdays – and new channel – BBC2 Scotland. And don’t forget that
those south of the border who don’t have Sky or Freesat can watch it
on iPlayer.

There is a fantastic short series on BBC 2 at the moment called Bees, Butterflies and Blooms which is Sarah Raven’s attempt to get more pollinating insect friendly plants across the UK. It’s on iplayer at the moment and is well worth a watch.

in the second episode she visits Harrogate’s Britain in Bloom team and encourages them to plant beds with more biodiversity in. They plant a couple of beds up and the immense number of insects on these beds is impressive when there are none on the normal bedding displays.

Sarah also challenges the UK gardening industry, the Horticultural Trades Association and the Royal Horticultural Society to champion pollinating insects by launching a ‘pollinator-friendly’ logo at the Chelsea Flower Show. The logo and label would enable gardeners to identify the best plants for bees and butterflies throughout garden centres and nurseries in the UK.

And at home, Sarah meets expert garden naturalist Steve Head, and explores her own garden’s suitability for insect pollinators. Inspired by what she discovers, she develops a nectar garden – a mini oasis for pollinators.

The moth collector she had in the garden discovered an elephant hawk moth that was really pretty and one that looked like a twig.

Well worth a watch!

And Sarah Raven has several gardening books available: Sarah Raven’s books at Amazon