My gardening view is one of arrivals, departures and some new products to trial with a competiton for you to win some Carbon Gold products.
This contest has now closed. The winner was Kayleigh Everett Philbrick.
My gardening view this month is one of change – some good and some forced upon me. I’m about to start clearing the site ready for my new greenhouse, and replacement compost bins are half-constructed. Less welcome change is the arrival of box moth caterpillar forcing a rethink about some planting.
The first sweet peas have appeared and I’ve already picked enough to fill several vases. We can smell them all over the house. For me, it’s a real sign of summer finally here. (You can read about how I grow sweet peas here.)
The other plant that is filling the main border with colour is Knautia macedonica ‘Melton Pastels’. I find this an easy, if somewhat over-exhuberant plant – it self-seeds all over the place and has even popped up in the lawn. However, the bees adore it and it’s easy to pull up where it’s not wanted.
The important thing is to keep deadheading both to prolong the flowering time and to stop it setting seed. You can have too much of a good thing.
As part of my bit to do something for wildlife, the grass under the old apple tree is being kept uncut even though No Mow May is long over. Uncut, that is, apart from a mower-wide strip all around the outer edge. Having shorter grass makes the long look deliberate and not as though you’ve forgotten to mow it.
And so to the poor box. There was a little damage from the box moth caterpillar last year but nothing like as bad as this season. I’ve heard from other gardeners in the area that it is everywhere this year.
I don’t grow much box, although there’s an ancient box tree in the boundary planting. Thankfully, that appears untouched.
What have been hit are the topiary box at either the end of the main path. Two may recover as there is a lot of untouched foliage and I’m going to cut them back hard. The box pictured is, I believe, beyond salvage.
It can be fought with a combination of pheromone traps and spraying, and the resident blue tits have been spotted picking off the caterpillars. However, it’s a time consuming and not always successful process so I think the box will be taken out.
What to replace it with has been occupying my thoughts. I need something evergreen to give some year-round structure. Currently, yew is the likely substitute.
Gardening Trials Latest
Elsewhere, my gardening view is one of continuing to try to improve the soil. The bed under the pleached hornbeam has been top dressed with SuperSoil, a new product from The Real Soil Company. (I was given a free sample to trial.)
Organic and peat-free, it’s a natural top soil that’s been enriched with plant-based ingredients. The firm says its “natural ‘boosters’ will stimulate quicker plant establishment and better resilience against pests and disease”.
Certainly, the plants under the hornbeam could do with a bit of help as they are competing against what are now quite established trees.
Of course, gardening as I do on sandy soil, drought is an ever-present threat. I have several water butts but sometimes do have to resort to watering cans filled from the tap.
Tap water isn’t ideal but something I’m trialling from PlantSurge is designed to improve it. (I was given a free kit to try out.) In simple terms, it uses a magnet to soften the water making it easier for plants to absorb nutrients.
As a result, trials have shown that using this magnetised water leads to more flowers and stronger plants. You can read more about it here.
Carbon Gold have also sent me some of their latest products to trial: Biochar Compost Rejuvenator and Biochar Houseplant Booster.
The compost rejuvenator puts goodness back into old, spent compost meaning you can reuse it rather than buying new. I’ve been adding it to the compost in pots that did have spring bulbs and are now being used for summer planting.
The houseplant product is designed to give old, established houseplants a bit of a lift by improving the soil they’re growing in. The firm also produces Biochar Tree Soil Improver to be used when planting trees and shrubs, or on established plants.
Both use biochar, made by heating organic matter without oxygen to produce a charcoal that’s high in carbon. You can read more about it here.
Competition to Win Carbon Gold Products
I have a prize of one tub each of Biochar Compost Rejuvenator, Biochar Houseplant Booster and Biochar Tree Soil Improver. There is no cash alternative.
To enter, please add a comment below this post saying how you would use the products. The closing date for entries is noon on Tuesday June 21, 2022. One entry per person. The winner will be drawn randomly from the entries and notified by email. If I do not get a repy by noon on Monday 27, a new winner will be drawn. Please, see the T&Cs below.
T&Cs One comment per person. This draw is open to UK residents only. This competition is promoted by The Chatty Gardener and is not open to employees of Carbon Gold or relatives of The Chatty Gardener. By posting a comment, The Chatty Gardener will have access to your email address. This will not be made public or used for anything other than to contact you, if you are the lucky winner. The results of the draw will be posted on The Chatty Gardener.
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If I were lucky to win I would use to rejuvenate the soil from my big pots which have had bulbs in for 2 years to boost annuals, plant an Amelanchier I bought for 50p In Dead plant section and scatter in my front garden which I grow plants for pollinators
Sounds like a great plan.
Anyone having box moth trouble I urge to look at ebts.org (European Boxwood and Topiary Society) website. Advice on moth and blight and a tracker map showing distribution of the moth to which you can add sightings.
Lots of useful advice available and links to companies who have suitable products.
Lynda
Thanks. Great advice.
I would like to try the Biochar Compost Rejuvenator as I have many pots. This would save me having to buy fresh bags of compost every year.
Anything that cuts down on the amount of compost we need to buy is a good thing.
I would love to try Biochar products (if I’m lucky to win them) on my houseplants. I hardly ever re-pot them (some have been growing in the same pot and soil for 20 years) and I just rely on liquid feed to keep them going. So it would be nice to try something new and natural. Also in the garden I rely on bark mulch decomposing and feeding my plants. The bark is under the gravel (I have my own system of using bark instead of plastic weed membrane under gravel). But it has been many years since I layed it out and the bark is long gone. It’s too time consuming to lift up all the gravel and re-lay the bark so I’m looking for alternatives to feed my trees and shrubs
My houseplants rarely get repotted either. I’m going to give them a boost with the biochar.
I’d use the tree soil improver for my peach tree and cherry tree. The soil improver to give my garden plants a boost to be able to reuse the soil again and again. Brilliant competition xx
I’m still mourning the loss of my cherry in last year’s late frosts. A replacement is planned for this autumn.
Sorry to hear that. I’ve had mine for about 5 years now and it’s doing well (it’s in a pot). The peach tree seems quite sad though 😢
It was sad. I’d had the tree about 25 years so it was quite big. Hope your peach survives.
I would use the product to enrich my new bed which I have planted 7 new fruit trees as a mini orchard
I love the idea of a mini orchard.