NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVE
Feb. 2009
Newsletter
Apple & Potato Weekend
Extra Gardening Talks
Plugs for planting
Barnsdale Gardens Visit
Homes for Birds
Bag a bargain
Time to Colour Your World
AOL Users
Good Cook Looking for Part-Time Work?
10 Gardening Tasks for February
More from Jan/Feb Newsletter
Winter Action Plan
Spuds 'r' Us!
Plant Area wins award
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Buckingham
Garden Centre
Tingewick Road
Buckingham
MK18 4AE
Telephone:
01280 822133
Fax:
01280 815491
www.hedging.co.uk
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Please note that any special offers and prices mentioned may not now be current.
  I hope you are not thoroughly bored with all the photographs of the snow which have been appearing in the press as we are about to send you two contrasting ones from here at the Garden Centre. The first ‘happy’ one shows how enterprising our staff can be. They were asked to try to clear the paths in the plants selling area to make it safe for any intrepid customers who might appear – the snow had to be put somewhere so why not have a bit of fun with it!
The second shows what damage the snow can do. On Monday morning we came in to find that span four of our multi-span tunnel had collapsed under the weight of the snow during the night. The metal hoops had just bent like soft spaghetti. More doom was to follow, as despite clearing as much snow off in the day as possible, a second bay collapsed on Tuesday night, we guess weakened by the first collapse and buffeted by the high winds in the night. We now have to wait until all the snow has melted to start work safely on rescuing plants, making the best that we can of a bad situation until rebuilding in the summer.
Apple & Potato Weekend
Despite the weather we decided to hold the Apple and Potato Weekend, although conditions in the car park were so hazardous first thing Saturday morning that we nearly closed the gates to the public. We tried to clear the ice but it had frozen so solid overnight that we were doing more harm than good with machinery. Customers arriving could see the danger and everyone drove and walked very carefully so no accidents happened.
The first of our long distance exhibitors to arrive was Colin Randell from Thompson & Morgan who had travelled from Bury St. Edmunds to be with us, then the Wilkinson Sword representative who came from near Southampton, so as they had reached us we were hopeful that most others would arrive, albeit a little late in some cases. Then much to our relief the shop started to fill with interested members of the public, many arriving with scion wood tucked under their arms. On Sunday in particular there was a real buzz of activity with the coffee shop keeping all the exhibitors and grafters supplied with hot coffee and tea so they could continue to talk virtually non-stop to people interested in vegetable planting, fruit tree grafting etc. Marcus and Andy from the Mid-Shires Orchard group grafted over 40 trees during the weekend and whilst grafting were able to talk about the work of the Orchard Group and, as a result, they have recruited more members. They were delighted to welcome the Chairwoman of the Northern Fruit Group who travelled all the way from Leeds for the event. She thoroughly enjoyed her visit and was very impressed with the event, and hopefully she will inspire members of her group to run a similar event next year. No doubt we will hear if she does.
There was considerable interest in potato growing and we can see from the way that sales of seed potatoes, shallots, onions and vegetable seeds are going that there will be a lot of people out there ‘growing their own’. In these days of economic gloom it makes sense to grow some vegetables as this will not only save money but will give much pleasure, satisfaction and gentle excercise. If you have particular varieties of seed potatoes you are wanting please do come in as soon as possible as supplies of some varieties are getting very low already and there will be no more available from the growers. There are still plentiful supplies of most varieties, so if you are not too fussy you do not need to rush in, as we should have a good selection for several more weeks.
One thing which became more and more obvious as the weekend progressed was the interest in grafting and being able to create a new tree from an old and failing tree. With this in mind we will be putting together grafting kits for next season and we will have a supply of rootstocks. As we have an expert at grafting trees on the staff we will be able to provide a grafting service as well.
As I write this newsletter there is still a covering of snow but hopefully this will soon melt and we will see the grass again, and some snowdrops and aconites will have appeared. If you want to visit gardens which have superb displays of snowdrops two reasonably local ones to consider are Coton Manor, Guilsborough in Northamptonshire, telephone 01604 740219, or Welford Park which is near Newbury in Berkshire, telephone 01488 608478. Do give them a ring to find out details of opening times etc. Also to save your back a mirror on a stick is useful for looking at snowdrops as it is when looking at hellebores!
 Extra Gardening Talks - Get cropping with Buckingham GC in 2009
Grow Your Own - Vegetable Starter: Part 1
Dates: Wednesday March 18th and Wednesday April 15 th
Grow Your Own - Fruit Starter: Part 2
Dates: Wednesday March 25th and Wednesday April 22nd
2009 is officially ‘Grow Your Own’ (GYO) Year and, together with the rest of the gardening industry, Buckingham Garden Centre is committed to giving our customers the best possible advice, information and practical tips on getting the most from their crops, whether it be home-grown vegetables or delicious fruit.
Back in 2007 we launched our very successful food cropping section, Buckingham’s Market Garden located in the plant area where our mail-order bare-root and catalologue range of plants are displayed in the winter. This dedicated section includes a polytunnel housing a wide range of vegetable plugs and potted plants (from March onwards), our extensive herb range (year-round) as well as potted and trained fruit trees and soft fruit bushes (year-round). Like last year, we plan to show customers how to grow crops with a model fruit and vegetable garden, in raised beds and containers as well as growing crops in traditional ‘allotment’ style rows.
To help you, we shall be offering a few talks to help set the scene and give practical advice for the new growing season ahead. The talk is split into two parts – one covering Vegetables and the other Fruit, and both will look at the basics as well as providing practical advice on many crops. We hope you can attend both and we’ve dated them so there’s just a week between, so if you have any additional questions you will not have long to wait to get them answered!
Chris Day will be your guide and speaker and as we will have strictly limited seat numbers available for each session, early booking is recommended. If demand outstrips supply further dates may be added. For those attending we will be suggesting a voluntary donation of £1.00 (or more if you are feeling generous!) to the Greenfingers Appeal – the charity of the gardening industry which is currently dedicated to the creation and improvement of the gardens at UK Children’s Hospices. The charity this year celebrates its 10th birthday and to celebrate this it is making extra efforts to raise more money for its very worthy cause.
Please note: These talks are open to everyone and are in addition to our well established monthy talks for Garden Club members. You can book at our Customer Service Desk, or call 01280 822133 for details.
Plugs for planting
 Despite the weather, we can now start to look forward to the spring as the young plug plants are now coming on stream to banish those winter blues. There have been a few changes to this year’s range, and the price has been adjusted to bring the Blue and Gold pots to the same retail price of 99p each (8 plants or more at 90p each). This is a drop on the 2008 price, so these plants offer even better value for money. The range consists of over 150 lines as well as popular colour themed collections (mixed, blues, pinks, red/yellows, foliage and white) and the KinderKidz Packs. These are priced at £7.20 per pack of 8 plants. All these plants need to be grown on in frost-free conditions.
A few newbies to look out for this season are Ipomoea ‘Blacky’, Impatiens ‘Fusion’, a couple of lovely Fuchsias ‘Blacky’ and ‘Blue Mirage’ and the impressive ‘New Century’ Geraniums.
The Plug-U-Grow range of young Pluglets is expected later this month and will include a wide range of vegetables and herbs as well as popular seasonal plants.
Barnsdale Gardens Visit 17th June 2009
We are now taking bookings for our Barnsdale Garden Visit on Wednesday 17th June. This popular Garden designed and made famous by the late and great Geoff Hamilton on BBC Gardeners’ World, contains a staggering 37 gardens over the 5-acre site in Rutland. As well as enjoying the gardens, we’ve arranged a special talk, ‘Barnsdale, The Television Years’, presented by Nick Hamilton, Geoff’s son. We do hope you can join us – numbers will be limited and the cost is £20 per person (inclusive of coach travel, admission to gardens and talk). To book a place please contact the Customer Service Desk, or telephone us on (01280) 822133.
Homes for Birds
If you want to increase the number of birds in your garden, now is the time to put up new nest boxes. You may have heard that National Nest Box Week, organised by the British Trust for Ornithology is the 14th to 21st February, but there is still time. However, for best results, you need to have the next boxes in situ before the birds start looking for new homes in the spring. We have a range of BTO approved bird houses on promotion, including basic robin or tit boxes at £3.99 (recommended price £5.99), ‘orchard’ nest boxes with slate effect roofs at £6.99 (recommended price £9.99) and the attractive painted Alpine nest boxes at £9.99 (recommended price £14.99). We have good stocks, but these offers must end when the promotional stock has been sold. We also have our usual wide range of other nest boxes, feeders and bird food.
Bag a bargain
 Do you want to make your garden more vertically effective this season? Utilise all that valuable air space to grow lovely climbers for both colour and fragrance; well you can as we running our popular 4 for £10 (£2.99 each) promotion on a massive range of climbing plants. These young 9cm potted plants will get away quickly and you should reap the rewards of strong growth and many will flower in the first season.
There are too many varieties to list here but the promotion includes the likes of evergreen Clematis, standard summer-flowering Clematis, Clematis montana, Garrya ellipica, Honeysuckles, Jasminiums including ‘Clotted Cream’, Sollya, Wisteria and a couple of varieties of Passiflora.
Time to Colour Your World
We’re delighted to have a new speaker on board for this season, Heather Donnelly. Heather is well-versed in the gardening world and has worked for many of the leading horticultural companies. Heather’s first talk, on Wednesday 11th March, 10.30am in our Talks Room, will be ‘The Use of Colour in the Garden’. The talk is free to Discount Card Holders and £1 for non-members. Seat numbers are limited, so please book early!
AOL/Talk talk Users
It has been brought to our notice by several customers who are users of AOL and Talktalk, that they are having problems either accessing our web site or ordering from our web site. This has been investigated and it appears that the problem is at their end not ours. We have contacted AOL several times about this but they have not responded at all. We have set up a page on our website with some suggestions that AOL users could try.
Good Cook Looking for Part-Time Work?
And finally we have a vacancy in our restaurant/coffee shop for a part-time chef to work every other weekend. This is a very pleasant job for a qualified cook just wanting a small amount of work. There would also be the occasional call to work longer hours to cover for holidays. It is a very friendly little restaurant offering good home cooked food. If you are interested or know someone who may be please contact us for an application form.
10 Gardening Tasks for February
- Dilute the sand/salt that may have built up around the base of your plants if your garden was exposed to the effect of recent road gritting. Once temperatures climb into double figures, bring out the hose-pipe and apply plenty of water to dilute any sand/grit debris which may be lying around your plants. Think about feeding and mulching your plants next month.
- Divide and replant clumps of snowdrops and aconites into twos and threes while still in full leaf and even in flower. Lift a clump at a time, pulling into small groups, and replanting in a slit made with a spade. There is no need to water. They should stand up in a few days.
- Spend a moment drawing garden layouts to assist with the planting through the coming year. Review garden notes about successes and failure in the garden and greenhouse – you should always make notes! Start broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants. Incorporate manure or compost into garden areas for soil improvement. Avoid working the soil when it is wet. Check dates on stored seed packets and remember that for foil packed seeds the ‘sow by’ date only applies if the foil pack is unopened. Sprout a few from each packet in a moist paper towel. Discard packets with poor results.
- Continue planting up lily bulbs in pots. Aim to plant about five bulbs per layer of the same variety in a 45cm (18in) container and set the bulbs in two layers. Terracotta pots are ideal, as their weight provides extra stability for the tall flower spikes that eventually develop.
- Prune large-flowered clematis. Those which flower early in the summer and again later, such as ‘Nelly Moser’ and ‘The President’, should be tidied up at high level, with thin or dead growth being removed, but hard cutting now would remove their first crop of flowers. Those like the deep purple ‘Jackmannii’ and ‘Niobe’, which flower only in late summer, should be cut hard down to knee height now, to make a completely new structure. Feed with a generous 10cm (4ins) layer of manure or well-rotted compost.
- On the vegetable plot and raised beds, now is a good time to cover over the recently thawed soil with plastic sheeting or old carpet to help warm it up prior to seed sowing and planting next month. Alternatively, set cloches (either tent or polytunnel) over the area you intend to warm up.
- Set dry begonia tubers shallowly in a tray of cool, moist seed and cutting compost hollow side upwards, to initiate root growth. They can be potted up individually later, in good rich compost when the roots have begun to grow and there are buds developing on the top of the tuber. A timely reminder: there are plenty of other summer flowering bulbs now on sale in the shop.
- Gradually encourage dormant fuchsias and pelargoniums into growth by a sparing application of water, given through the bottom of the pot by standing it in a saucer of water. As the buds and shoots begin to move, plants can then be pruned down low to a promising bud, or more gently shortened back.
- If you are going to do any pruning this month... don't prune plants that normally bloom in the spring (such as forsythia and mock orange) or you will lose any chance of flowering this year. Wait until after they have bloomed and make any necessary pruning cuts then.
- Protect early blossom on wall-trained fruit trees (apricots, figs, nectarines and peaches) against frost with horticultural fleece, netting, or paper. Serious growers use temporary wooden frames for the purpose, but a throw-over on cold nights will do just as well.
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