Glee 2018 - Plastic reduction is top of the bill

My woolly hat is on and it’ll stay on now until late spring. I’ll need a new pair of steel toe capped work boots very soon too to tide me over the winter. It pays to plan ahead with boots and get the old leaking ones replaced before the wetter weather kicks in. 

There are other items of clothing to put on the list too, especially the hidden thermal clothing and waterproofs. It’ll make working outside more enjoyable and save the old joints from creaking. I’d much sooner be overdressed for gardening duties and shed a few layers as I warm up and put them back on again when the flask of tea comes out at break time.  

The growing season is quickly coming to a close now and I am starting to bring my tools in and give them a bit of maintenance and a good oiling. I’ll even be putting some Danish oil onto the wooden handles of my hoe (a Dutch one as coincidence would have it) as I think this will help preserve the wood for a long time, especially at the joints where they tend to rot. 

The small electric mower doesn’t really need any maintenance as it’s mainly all plastic. I just tend to clean the grass from under it and out of the wheels. I’m not quite ready to hang things up for the winter but it does no harm to just work through the long list nice and slowly.

Clearing out the polytunnel is a long way down the list as it’s still producing for me. Just this week I got a large bowl of chillies, a few pounds of delicious tomatoes and a handful of aubergines. The aubergines have been a great success and they are delicious fried up. I’ll be growing them again next year. 

Glee 2018

The annual Glee garden and outdoor living trade show in Birmingham signals the end of the growing year as it showcases products we will see on sale in the shops in 2019. This year, top of the list is plastic, peat and glyphosate reduction, one-stop shop suppliers, slug control, shrub replacement, lawn fixing, solar technology and heat-loving plants after this year’s warm summer.

One innovative new product is solar Bluetooth, which controls solar lights using a smartphone app, which automatically adjusts brightness to extend light functionality. Solar in-lit fencing panels are also available for a novelty item. 

Bamboo pots and trays are increasing in popularity. A more core product on display was the taupe plant pot - The new taupe-coloured pot is carbon black-free, recycled polypropylene that can be identified by near infrared (NIR) and consequently recycled through kerbside recycling schemes. This allows gardeners to dispose of pots to be recycled in a way that has not been possible before now. Car tyre stepping stones are also proving a popular choice

Glyphosate reduction was big news with the official launch of Evergreen's (formerly Scotts) glyphosate-free Roundup. With 98% of weedkiller sales being products containing glyphosate. They predicted market share for glyphosate-frees (usually acetic acid-based) to rise to anywhere between 2% to 20% of the market next year.

Slug killers Neudorff said it plans to release the first off-the-shelf slug killer nematode later this year, resolving issues with nematodes sent by post dying in the summer heat.

Peat reduction was led by Westland's new formulation New Horizon with Bio3. The Growing Media Association's Responsible Sourcing Scheme has begun trialling this month with Bord na Móna, Melcourt, Bulrush, Evergreen (Scotts) and Horticultural Coir, although the voluntary retail phase-out target of 2020 looks like it has gone by the wayside.

Bulb production has suffered this summer because of a lack of rain and a few favourites are in short supply.

Wildlife Bird baths sold well in 2018 because of the drought and companies such as Wildlife World has new launches aiming to feed that market.

Packaging

After 2018's anti-plastic campaigns, manufacturers have worked to reduce plastic packaging. For instance, Wildlife World has compostable cellulose inner packaging and biodegradable outer bags on its new hedgehog and bird food. It also has metal rather than plastic bird feeders for sale.

And finally to get you into the winter season - Christmas tree wholesale prices are up by €1.30 this year. The summer scorch scare has only hit newly planted trees so will make no impact this season. But retail prices are at their limit — any higher and more people will buy plastic trees.

Bulb Planting 2018

As growth slows down in the garden we can stand back and admire our achievements this year.

Shrub forms maturing, luscious bedding plant displays brightening up dull corners after being watered daily, the perfectly maintained veggie patch and the beautifully manicured lawn. 

OK, I’ll stop dreaming now.  At the beginning of the growing year that’s how we mostly expect the season to progress, keeping on top of things. 

If you are anything like me this only lasts a couple of weeks early on.  Next time I look at the garden its gone wild. Pea and bean supports have collapsed, I have courgettes the size of small Zeppelins and as tough as leather, the pots and containers now only support weeds as the bedding plants in pots have died from neglect and toppled over. The lawn edges are so long air traffic control should be notified.

It’s all good though and I’ll probably just leave everything until spring before I tidy as long as nothing flops onto the paths. There’s debate every year whether to clear up or leave dead plant growth and old seed heads. I tend to leave everything as I think it’s lovely to look at, holds the soil together and is a bit of a haven for overwintering insects and wildlife. It also means nature does most of the work, which is fine by me.

One job that can be done this time of year is to plant a few bulbs for next spring. Forward planning is probably one of the most challenging things I do in the garden as I’m generally a “live for today” sort of person who generally doesn’t plan much further than his next meal.

If you are organized then let’s take a look at what bulbs we can put in the ground now for a splash of spring colour. 

Plant Bulbs in Autumn for Spring Colour

Spring flowers popping up signals the rebirth of the garden and the start of a new growing season. Nothing lifts the spirits after a long, dark winter more than the sight of the first daffodils opening up.

Autumn is perfect for planting bulbs as the soil is still warm. This will allow them to develop their root system, which in turn allows them to flower in spring rather than summer.

September is the time for buying bulbs as a lot of them will be reduced because the garden centres need to clear them out fir winter stock.  October is the optimum time for daffodils; November for tulips. So this year we are well ahead of the game.

Top Tips

• When buying bulbs, reject any that are soft or showing signs of mould. Small bulbs may not flower in their first year.
• Bulbs should be planted in holes three to four times as deep as the bulb itself. So, for example, a 1in crocus bulb needs to be planted in a hole 3-4in deep.
• If you are not sure which way up a bulb should go, plant it on its side: its stem will find its own way up.
• Plant pots and window boxes with no more than two layers of bulbs to prevent the unsightly spectacle of later-flowering plants appearing through the dying foliage of earlier ones.

Once you’ve chosen a variety of bulbs that you like, plant them haphazardly in amongst your borders for a beautifully undone look come spring, or organise them neatly into a layered display for a more dazzling effect or put them in pots to plant out into the garden as they flower.

In Pots

Fill large plastic pots with your favourite bulbs and, just before they are about to flower, use them to plug holes in the border. Plastic pots can also be slipped inside more elegant terracotta ones and whipped out when the bulbs are over. I generally store the pots behind the shed to allow the foliage to die down.  This can be done year after year with a bit of top dressing and weed control.

Bulbs in Hedges

The dry conditions at the base of hedges make ideal growing conditions for many bulbs. Tulips will be very happy on the south-facing side of a hedge, and can be left undisturbed for years.  On the shady side of the hedge, encourage carpets of Anemone blanda  for a trouble free ground cover.

On their Own

Eighteenth-century gardeners planted tulips individually, the better to appreciate their beauty. Bulbs planted singly in small terracotta pots and placed in an ordered manner around the garden bring instant elegance and formality. Lily-flowered tulips, Fritillaria persica or large-flowered alliums give a simple minimalist display.

Veggies to Plant in Autumn

 Deadheading pelargoniums

The garden is very quiet.  We stopped feeding the birds a few weeks ago and they don’t hang around begging, they just fly to new pastures. The mice that accompanied the birds and picked up the leftover seed crumbs seem to have packed up and gone too, I haven’t seen one for ages. The same can’t be said for the neighbours though, I have heard a few complain they seem to be infested with the little fur balls. Fly my beauties, fly.

Deadheading annuals

Try as I might I never seem to get around to deadheading the annuals in containers. I’m sure if I did the display would last until the end of October. There’s just something a bit yukky about nipping the soggy petunia flowers from their stems and trying to flick them from your fingers. Geraniums are OK, I don’t mind pulling their old flower heads off and the plants certainly produce more flowers so they do get looked after a bit. The rest are left to their own devices for the year until the frost gets them.

Late Vegetable Planting

There is still time to plant late vegetables as the soil is still warm. Up until the end of October there is a good range that can be sown to supplement the leeks, parsnips and Brussels that will be maturing nicely.

Broad beans

Autumn-sown broad beans help to slow down nutrients leaching through otherwise fallow soil, which allows its structure to deteriorate. They are ready a good month earlier than those sown in April, and they don't get black fly. 

Asparagus

Asparagus varieties are now available for autumn planting, which helps them establish that bit quicker. You do wait for two years before you can cut them - or four in my case because I keep forgetting they are there (and the dog sits on the young shoots).

Peas and pea shoots

For a late spring crop, it's worth trying sowing seeds now. If you sow direct into the ground, plant them one inch deep and relatively closely at about one inch apart, to make up for a higher loss rate. I enjoy the pea shoots too and these grow well in a tunnel all winter.

Garlic

This is the easiest crop to grow. Plant the cloves individually to a depth of 2.5in deep on light soils and a lot less deep on heavy soils one inch below the surface. They will do well in planters too.

Onions, spring onions and shallots

There are quite a few varieties of onions from sets that can go in now. This is the easiest way to grow onions, and they can be harvested earlier on in the year.

Winter lettuce and Lambs lettuce

It is useful in that it does not need high light levels and tolerates low temperatures, and so can be sown up until the end of October outside; it can be picked until December or into the new year with some fleece or milder weather.

Spinach

I pick it younger and just wilt the leaves rather than ruin it with overcooking. The young leaves are great in salads, too. 

Spring cabbage

You can thin early plants for spring greens and leave the rest to heart up. Watch out for pigeons.

Don’t forget the Perennials

You might see some late perennials in gardens at this time of year. They have been waiting patiently to flourish giving us a last burst of colour.

Japanese anemones are always a favourite. Tall and bold, their simple flowers in shades from pink to white really celebrate the season.

Commonly called Ice Plants, the thick fleshy foliage of sedum varieties add interest throughout the year, from the moment it develops in spring. Their flowers come in eye-catching colours from pure white to pink and red, proving as attractive to us as they are bees and butterflies.

As well as flowering plants, don’t forget that many perennials form attractive seed heads too, and these can be enjoyed right through autumn and into winter.

Favourites include cone flowers (Echinacea and Rudbeckia), globe thistle (Echinops), sea holly (Eryngium), agapanthus, ornamental grasses, and bulbs like the Pineapple Lily (Eucomis).

Asters , Michaelmas Daisies  and Verbena  are also favourites.

Net Bags may Not be the Answer

Packaging is big business. 

The tide is turning though for the type of packaging we are familiar with, especially in supermarkets.  It’s now becoming apparent that you don’t need to package anything that has its own packaging, swedes (turnips), bananas coconuts, onions for example will cope quite well on their own without a layer of polythene holding them together.

I thought I’d do my bit highlighting the issue of excess packaging, not by painting a banner and scaring customers in supermarket doorways, but by taking the items to the checkout without a bag.  It was a bit messy I must confess and I did spend quite a while rummaging under shelving looking for onions that rolled from the conveyor belts.

I needed to be proactive so I have been tracking down alternative plastic free packaging for the veggies. You won’t be surprised to learn most vegetables were transported at one time by locally made hessian bags (you can still get some now if you look hard enough) but I wanted to find some pull string organic cotton bags large enough to hold a few pounds of oranges. I sourced a few items, 3 30x40 cm pull bags and a nifty string bag with long handles.

The first issue I have with this type of packaging is that you can’t buy the material or finished item locally. I bought them within a 200 mile radius but the material it was made from came from India, which is a whopping carbon footprint. 

That was the first stumbling block. The second issue I realised is that each bag weighs in at 40g. That’s 40g worth of bag that you are paying for at the checkout above and beyond the cost of the fruit and vegetables every time you shop. I was thinking of making some up to sell (along with the wax wrap cling film replacement) but I think these two flaws in my idea are enough to stop the innovation going mainstream.  I’m currently using the net bags to house my oversized courgettes (1 to a bag) so at least I’m getting my use out of them. I took my eye off the courgettes for just  a week and they grew to marrows.

Less Packaging

The only real answer is for supermarkets and suppliers to do away with packaging and if they must use a wrap, use a biodegradable one than can be thrown on the compost heap instead of needing to be sent away to a recycling centre. Remember “cellophane”?  Originally that was made from hemp, wood or cotton. That’s hopefully making a comeback so I don’t need to take my net bags to the checkout.

I also bought some bamboo and wheat fibre toothbrushes as a way of cutting out a bit more plastic in the house (only manufactured in China at present though – I’m sure we can find an irish alternative such as willow bark)). Along with plastic straws it won’t be long until plastic toothbrushes are a thing of the past.  Unlike the straws though, I doubt they will make toothbrushes out of stainless steel. Whose idea was that to make a straw from a rigid tube of steel?  Paper and wax were ideal and certainly less potential for an accident if you have children.

Red Pepper

I’ve harvested our first red pepper this week. There are a few green ones still on the plant to ripen but this one was glowing so brightly I actually though it was the label poking through the leaves. It went straight into a stir fry with the runner beans which are still producing well. It’s amazed me how sturdy the pepper, chilli and aubergine plants are as the dog has done her best to flatten everything. She fills her time either sitting on plants or digging around the stems so the plants fall over. I’ve found her in the montbretia so many times that she has managed to kill of a large area in the middle of the clump. I’d make a fortune if I could bottle whatever it is that kills them as they are a bit of a pest. I’ll have to make her bed in the nasturtiums to see if that keeps those down too. As we speak she is now sunbathing in the middle of the new perennial border. I had put bamboo sticks in the ground as a deterrent but she ate those first before making her nest.