Mrs Seven Storeys Up

Recently their was a conversation on Anne Warehams ThinkinGardens site, about community gardens and why we do or dont get involved with them etc If youd like to read the thread it is here and its worth a look at. In my comment I mention a lady who I call Mrs Seven Storeys Up, mainly because that was my overriding memory of my first meeting with her.
Me "hello"
Mrs SSU "No point me being here I live seven storeys up"
Me "Well Im glad to see you. Shall we see what we might get doing today?"
Mrs SSU "We can but theres no point, I live seven storeys up"
And so the morning went on. Tea was drunk, cake was consumed, overwintered crops removed and the soil prepared and if Im honest, I never expected to see that lady at a gardening group again.

So the following week when Mrs Seven Storeys Up arrived again I decided to see how I could engage and find out a bit more about her, other than the fact she lived seven storeys up. So we disappeared into the potting shed whilst the rest of the community group did other tasks and we talked about what she might like to grow.
"Potatoes?" I asked
"Yes please-its a pain having to drag them to the seventh floor when you need enough for 6 people. At least the garden is closer than the supermarket"

6 people? So out the reality came. 5 kids, seven storeys up, from the age of 3 to 14. 4 boys, 1 girl. No outdoor space for any of them to run around in and no Dad to be seen for miles around. Little or no chance of moving without uprooting all the kids from schools and no money to move and do up a property anyway. Seemingly no way that life could change.

And yet every week Mrs Seven Storeys Up arrived at our little community group and got really stuck in. She bought a notebook and recorded everything we did. She asked pertinent questions about all sorrts of stuff that made me realise there was a lot of homework going on.
"Ive got a teeny balcony I never use as Im terrified the kids might fall off it but I could grow pots of blueberries-where do I get ericaceous soil from?"
"Those patio nectarines-do they really stay that small?"
"How do I get an allotment?"

The last one definitely got my attention in a way that made me start to wonder just how much this was actually life changing. So I took Mrs Seven Storeys Up through getting an allotment. And we got her one. And the community group went along and helped her clear it whilst we cleaned out her shed and collected a second hand polytunnel for her that was free on Gumtree.

And Mrs Seven Storeys Up started to grow. And not only started but just didnt stop. Constant texts asking if it was ok to sow this now, would it be wise to wait to sow that, could this go straight in the ground....... It was incredible. And not only that but her entire family started to work on the plot, from the tinies to the older kids, and her parents, all growing food and spending time together productively and more importantly happily as a cohesive unit.

Now some might say this all sounds a tad patronising and a bit oh my hasnt she done well. In reality what has actually happened is that the empowerment of growing food has changed this familys life in a way that is outstanding. When Mrs Seven Storeys Up first arrived at our community group she had been asked to come along by her GP who was treating her for depression following the horrors of post natal depression, and she was at the point of not being able to cope. For weeks the children went to grandparents at the weekend to give her a break from what must have been the monotony of every day life, coping alone in a city with 5 kids and very little support. In her mind there was no way out and this was just how it was going to be for ever.

When I wrote the piece on ThinkinGardens I rang Mrs Seven Storeys Up and said what I had written and asked if it was ok. To which the answer was "Yes, of course. It might make someone else do the same. You should write summat on that blog thing you do. You should do that more." And more general nagging.....
"So what," I asked, "has gardening done that has changed your life?"
"Its made me realise if I can grow a carrot in this bleedin clay, I can rule the world if I want to"
"Really?" I asked, slightly tearfully
"Yes. If I can feed my kids without having to buy rubbish veg and fruit from the supermarket, and look after chickens and have a part share in a pig( of which I knew nothing until this conversation so we may have veered off point for a moment) I can do anything. Oh and by the way Ive taken on the allotment next door that was empty and Im having a jam and chutney stand next week at the school-I bet I can make some money out of this you know"
Little known to me until recently but there is also an RHS course being taken, ("can I borrow your RHS 2 notes?") and a food hygiene certificate been taken in order that chutney and jam begin to be a viable option.

So to all the doubters about community gardens and their worth, remember Mrs Seven Storeys Up. She and many like her, up and down the country, are changing their lives by growing food and empowering themselves to change their lives.  Community gardens are extraordinary places where extraordinary things happen.

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Indoor Gardening Part I

All most all of the topics we have discussed earlier is on Outdoor gardening. This is our first initiative towards indoor gardening.  We are hopeful that you will like this as well. If you have any suggestions please put them in the comment box.

Now a day’s most of us live in apartments where there is no extra space or even balconies to practice gardening outdoor. So the only choice we are left with to do it indoor. Even if you have outdoor gardens, adding some plants indoor will definitely add a sense of life to your house. Though it is true you can not grow all the plants indoor, but there are so many of them which you can try your hands on.

But before planting indoors, you really need to understand the light condition in your room. Most of the plants requires direct sunlight (check out our earlier article about sunlight and its impact on plantation: SUN OR NO SUN) but the amount of can vary tremendously from plant to plant. Some plants even can thrive in absence of direct sunlight. But how much light is the least requirement for growing a plant? There is a saying that if you cannot read a book due to darkness the place is also not suitable for growing a plant.

So before start planting indoors, you need to first understand about some geography. If your room is south facing; you will receive the maximum amount of direct sunlight. Whereas if your room is north facing you will receive bright light but the chances are that there will be lack of direct sunlight. East and west facing rooms receives morning and evening sunlight respectively. Now according to your room position choose the plant which is best for the location.

You also need to select the variety of the plant carefully, unlike outdoor gardening; the growing space inside a house can be limited. Some plants can be toxic if ingested. So in case you have pets or toddlers it is sensible to avoid those plants. Some plants have sharp edged leaves which can hurt so if you have already decide to plant those pick a spot where there will be very less traffic.

Use the soil mix which can drain easily. Watering your indoor plants can be very tricky. As there are lack of direct sunlight in most of the cases the last thing you can do is to drown them in water. There is no hard and fast rule for this. But the plants which stay in direct sunlight will require frequent watering than those which are not. You have to experiment a bit to find a proper watering schedule.

Some indoor plants require much more humidity than others; these plants are a good choice to place in the bathrooms.

One of the important parts of practicing good indoor gardening is to prune regularly to keep it in proper shape. We have discussed a bit of pruning in our article about Bonsai. If you want to know more click hereto check the article.

We will discuss more in our following articles about indoor gardening and other gardening related activities. Please let us know what you think about this article. Your constant feedback keeps us going.

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Transcript of Bowood Talk!!

This is a direct transcript of the talk I gave at Toby Bucklands Garden Festival at Bowood House on Friday 5th June!!

Bowood Garden Festival -Food Security, Sustainability and the Value of Urban and Allotment Soils

We live in a pretty scary world.

We live in a world where our food supply relies on finite resources from the point of sowing through to harvest and then distribution until it’s final delivery into stores.

This summer we were threatened with food shortages not because of scarcity of seed or freak weather, but because there was concern that we didn’t have sufficient HGV drivers for the distribution systems to keep up with demand.

We live in a world where if a child is asked where an apple comes from the answer is as likely to be Tesco as a tree and when you ask the child who answers with Tesco but where did it come from before then the answer could be, and has been, a lorry. Where children look at you incredulously when you ask where meat comes from as the connection between livestock and food is, in some cases, completely lost.

In 1996 The World Food Summit defined food security as existing ….

“When all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food, to maintain a healthy and active life.”

And yet even in the UK  we have people going hungry, relying on food banks whilst on the other hand we throw away a third of the food we produce before it even gets to a store, and often simply because it has been labelled incorrectly, or it has been deemed ugly or unfit for purpose.

In the UK we have used the same 38% of land since the I industrial revolution to grow our food on. Our population has grown tenfold in that time and the only way we have managed to grow such increased yields on that same amount of land is by relying on the petrochemical industry to provide inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides whilst paying little or no attention to the health and well being of the soils on which they are relying for their crops. it is interesting to note in that time space too we have almost used up the finite resources that it took the earth 200million years to make. A frightening statistic if ever there was one.

In fact in 2014 the University of Sheffield published research that shows that there are only 100 harvests left in some of the soils we rely on to produce our food. Following this the Soil Association have recently published a report that says that we are globally losing 30 football pitches of fertile soil every minute.

So how do we address this? 2015 is International Year of Soils and surely we are addressing this as a nation as a priority……. How do we ensure that we have accessibility to fresh, healthy and sustainably produced food heading into a future where we know that oil is no longer finite resource and that our soils are slowly dying. And what of this word sustainable? What does that really mean, loved and overused as it is by corporations worldwide. What is sustainable food?

If you go home and Google Sustainable Food the sites that come up at the top of the page are all from Syngenta, Monsanto and Bayer, those huge petro chemical companies that agriculture has come to rely on. But truly sustainable food is food that allows us to be food secure.

Sutainable food is accessible.

It is food that is nutritious.

It’s food that keeps us healthy in body and mind.

And it is food that is grown in a way that cares for the world in which it is grown through good methods of agriculture that insist on earth care alongside food growing.

Moving forwards, in a world where the finite resources we have come to rely on are going to become less accessible and more expensive this means relying on local food where possible and supporting local growers. 

And allotments have a vital place in this.

iN 1943 there were nearly one and a half million allotments in the UK and those plots provided 10% of food needed to keep the nation fed, albeit in the difficult circumstances of WW2. Today, according to thE national Society of Allotment Holders and Leisure Growers we have around 330,000 plots, with waiting lists of 93,000. Much of the historic allotment land has been sold off for development but much of it is still there, unused, by the side of railways, being grazed by ponies or simply just sitting there, waiting.

A report was published in 2014 by the University of Sheffield proving that allotment land is significantly healthier than our traditional agricultural soils. In Leicester soil samples were taken from 27 plots across 15 sites in the city, alongside soils from parks, gardens and agricultural land in the area.Amongst the properties tested were carbon levels, nitrogen levels and the ration between carbon and nitrogen which are all signals to show the amount and the quality of organic matter in the soil. The results were quite remarkable.

Compared with the local arable soil the allotment soils has 32% more organic carbon, 36% higher carbon to nitrogen ratios and were significantly less compacted. 

All of this was put down to allotment holders using sustainable soil management techniques, with 95% of the allotment holders composting waste matter created from their plots in order to feed their soils. 

As allotment holders we understand the importance of feeding our soils and the healthy glow it gives us as we barrow around a couple of tons of rotted manure each winter.

We also understand the need to look after pollinators.

To cover the soil with green manures when they lie fallow to stop those pesky weeds using all the nutrition we have worked so hard to fill our plots with.

On our urban plots, across our cities nationwide, farmers regularly bring large deliveries of their waste into the city to feed our soils from the peri-urban surroundings of the city.

So to increase food sustainability and security should we be looking to using those urban soils that traditionally have been used by allotment holders? Should we encourage allotment holders to grow more? Or should we increase the amount of food grown in our cities by allowing local small producers to access allotment land that isn’t being used for whatever reasons. 

We certainly ought to be encouraging allotment use as well as community food growing projects in our urban and peri urban areas, reuniting people with lost skills, skills that could be far more important heading into the future but which are being lost as our connection to food is lost.

But we also should be safeguarding this land. With the majority of Grade 1 soils being in areas that are floodplains these soils may become what is needed to feed us and yet as it stands, road and house building always seems to be more important than food growing land, often with cities making little effort to find alternatives to putting these high grade soil assets under tarmac, losing them forever. Only a change in policy to protect these soils will change this and this is vital if all the allotment sites under threat across the UK are anything to go by. These pockets of valuable land, our heritage and part of what could be the story of creating a sustainable and secure food system need to be shouted about and change demanded.

To quote Nigel Dunnett, Professor of Planting Design and Vegetation Technology at the University of Sheffield, 

“We need to dramatically rethink our approach to urban growing and use the little space we have as efficiently as possible. Cities must become places of food production”

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Root Pruning in Bonsai tree Essential Part of Bonsai Tree Care

This article is the second part of my article titled Pruning in bonsai where i have discussed different types of pruning which are essential part of a bonsai tree care.

Roots are important to any plant and specially to a bonsai tree. It is the part of the plant which is not visible to eyes in normal circumstances but plays the most important role in plants survival. So when you its your turn to prune roots you should be very careful. I would try to explain the process of Root pruning by answering these following questions:

Why should I prune the roots?

The basic purpose of root pruning is the same as that of the branch pruning. As in case of branch pruning (where small branches starts to develop in place of regular sized ones), Pruning of roots stimulates growths of more smaller roots which are crucial for the look and survival of the plant.

Tap root is vital to the plants which grow in nature. It acts as an anchor for the plant. But in case of bonsai trees this root has very little importance. Here the support is provided form outside (Read wiring in bonsai for details).

Also, the presence of thick root inhibits growth of any other smaller sized roots and thus lead to sparse branches with little foliage. So root pruning is absolutely necessary for the aesthetic look of the plant. It is an integral part of making the bonsai style.

How often to do?

The frequency of pruning is not fixed for every plant. It varies upon the variety and species. Some plants grow very slowly and dont need pruning that often whereas others need it quite a few time in a year as they grow vigorously.

The frequency is also related to pot size and the environment. Smaller the pot more frequent is the pruning.

When to do it?

Before starting root pruning you should consider this. Pruning does hurt water intake capabilities of the plant. So it must be done at a time when the stress on the plant is less; like during the period of quiescence (for tropical plants) or at the time of early spring.

Growth of roots doesnt depend on light. Rather It is only dependent on soil temperature and supply of nutrients in the soil.

How to do it?

Once you understand the concept of root pruning the rest of the bonsai tree care will seem very easy to you.
First you need to know about the equipment. For pruning roots, use a root hook. It is a single tined tool and is probably the best way to untangle the roots with minimal damage. If you dont want to buy it you can prepare it in home too.

You need to let off most of the thick roots and concentrate on the smaller and hairy roots. They are the essential for plants survival. Bonsai plants require a very shallow root system when compared with other container plants.

Sometimes, especially for a beginner it seems impossible to shift the plant directly into a bonsai pot. This is okay. You can do it step by step. By lowering the depth of the pot over time. Start small and you will progress to severe pruning once you gain confidence.

Dont get tempted to put water into the root ball to remove soil. It might work for some species but for most of them it cause more damage to the finer roots than cleaning the soil.

Hope you like the article. Share your thought with us.

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Bus v BMV Soil Part 1

Last Wednesday Planning Group B voted in favour of the bus route that will see a bus only road take out 60% of my allotment site, half of Feed Bristol, Avon Wildlife Trusts award winning community food growing project and Stoke Park, the last Thomas Wright designed landscape that is still in one piece in the country.

The soils in this area are known as Bristols Blue Finger, a finger shaped piece of Best and Most Versatile soil that stretches out of Bristol along either side of the M32, out into South Gloucestershire. These soils are special not just because they are incredibly fertile, but they also withstand the vagaries of both flood and drought, which heading into a future where we are not sure of the effects of climate change, will be vital to ensure we can produce local food for local people. Historically this land was Bristols Market Garden, supplying fruit and vegetables to the city seasonally. 

The planning committee meeting was what can only be described as disappointing. It became obvious as the process began that no matter how many people stood up and spoke passionately about saving this land, the allotments, Feed Bristol and Stoke Park, complaining that consultation had been minimal and hadnt engaged with groups who are on the statutory list of consultees, let alone the allotment holders themselves, that this was not about communities or saving local food production, but was about money and corporate greed. It was about moving the population from their homes to a few large areas of trading and business in South Gloucestershire, and then back again at the end of the day, something that puts well used bus routes that run now, at risk. The chair of the committee at one point even laughed at how he had been on the planning committee that passed permission for the M32, which not only covered acres of BMV soils in the 1960s but also split the city in two, in a way that can never be changed. The councillors on the committee were bullied and harangued, told funding would be gone if the consent wasnt passed and to say the chair was patronising and rude would be kind.

I was appalled, and I know I was not alone. 

Of course what is needed is for BMV land to be given policies that surround it to stop this kind of development. What is vital to remember is that less than 3% of the UKs soils are BMV so a policy stopping development on it would leave 97%+ of soils left. There is a strategy document written by Defra that states that by 2030 BMV soils will be immensely challenging to develop but that is still just strategy. This needs changing at local and national levels.

But what also must be looked at is why we have to move people around the city to work in often low paid jobs, when we should be working on local jobs for local people, as well as how the decisions made by the citys councillors should show the concerns of the people of the city. There has been much discussion of the facts that this route doesnt serve any hospitals, or any of East Bristol, which is desperate for decent, affordable bus services.

So what next? There are 19+ groups, including The Blue Finger Alliance, Alliance Against Metrobus and the Civic Society, continuing the fight against this dreadful decision. There is also a letter from the National Allotment Holders Assoc stating that the land set aside the replace the allotments is of poorer quality than the plots are on now, a fact that breaks the Allotment Act of 1925 which says if allotments are to be moved it must be to equivalent or better soils. There is talk of direct action and protest. But whatever happens it is a sad day when a committee decides that whilst being European Green Capital in 2015 it is a good idea to concrete over BMV soils to serve big business.

It seems independent Bristol has a long way to go. 

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British Flowers The Chelsea 2015 Edition Part 2

"Seasonality. 

Its a word we know, and most of us understand but in a world where we can pretty much get anything at any time if the year, its hard to remember that the vast majority of things that are grown, are only available for a limited time in the year. Its somewhat bizarre that strawberries can be bought at Christmas and asparagus at any other time than mid May to June is little short of sacrilege, and yet they are both pretty much available all year round. 

But if youve eaten strawberries at Christmas, youll know they pale into nothingness in comparison to the deep sunfilled sweetness of a strawberry picked and eaten in mid summer. They lack taste, fragrance and their texture is usually too hard or too soft but theyre strawberries out of season and so they are bought,with little thought of how they arrived or from where.

So what does this have to do with flowers or RHS Chelsea? 

Well every year the floral marquee at RHS Chelsea is filled with the most spectacular displays from our amazing nurseries and growers from all across the UK. There are everything from stunning narcissi, to tulips and hyacinths and alliums-all plants and flowers you would expect to see within a six week window at either end of the show week. There is always a strawberry display that you can smell long before you can see it. The bulb companies show off their spring and early summer flowerers whilst the larger nurseries show what they have new for the year ahead. Its an amazing, inspiring, fragrant pavilion that you know youre entering by the fanfare of scents and colours that meet you as you enter, and I for one have been rendered speechless by the beauty of the exhibits on more than one occasion. It can be emotional, particularly when you understand the pressure these growers put onto themselves to produce the perfect bloom, the perfect plant. 

At a nursery I formerly worked at we called it the Chelsea dance. Plants being taken from sun, to shade, from heat to cool and back again, often all in the space of a day,to ensure they were in perfect condition for the day they finally went to the show ground. Working 18-20 hour days in the run up to the show is normal and a culmination of months of preparation and specialist growing. As a grower its exciting and challenging and although the pressure was huge, and everyone says thats my last year, never again, if Im honest I miss it. 

The RHS proudly announced last year that 95% of the Chelsea Floral Marquee was British grown. The pedants among us might have said why not 100% but there are a few stands where clearly there are going to be some foreign grown plants, such as the quite incredible South African and Carribean stands that are so inspirational and educational. 

So with all this being really at the heart of what the Floral Marquee is about, beautifully, mainly seasonal, British produced plants that speak of our horticultural heritage, you would hope that the foral displays produced by Interflora who are bringing us a stand that by design is about the Britishness of garden parties, drinking tea and presumably being surrounded by quintessentially British gardens, would want to support the British flower industry as it rises like a Phoenix from its own ashes, reinventing itself all across the country, and bringing us those perfect early summer blooms. Sweet Williams, one of the British flower growers staples, beautiful scented pinks, Larkspur, Ammi, Geums, Sweet Peas......the list goes on, are all available here and now. 

But instead they chose to try to source Paeonias, Roses, Stocks and Allium Gadiator from UK growers whilst sourcing what else was needed from Holland, but failed to check these would be available or, and more importantly, order the plants with plenty of warning so that the Chelsea Dance could begin. The reality of the stand is that less than 20% was ever going to be British grown and today I estimate that it is far, far less than that. If Marks and Spencer could see that they would need to work with UK growers last year so that their paeonias were ready in time for the show, how on earth did Interflora not look to do the same?  To check that there was a large scale producer of English roses as cut blooms might have been wise, not to mention ensuring that the required Allium variety was grown commercially, and its horrifying to be in the knowledge that this was never done. No Chelsea gardens planting is set in stone until the day it is finished for this reason precisely and to take into account that things go wrong, so why would the designers involved with the Interflora stand not have used that thinking as they were designing? 

And sadly the answer is a lack of understanding or care for seasonality. An expectation that they can have what they want, when they want it, regardless of the cost to the environment or the industry which they are snubbing. Hinting that they felt let down by the UK industry when they actually hadnt even engaged with them, but just gone through a wholesaler, is far from being acceptable but the saddest part is their lack of understanding of the business in which they are set and its dependence on the seasons and the way it regularly reinvents itself when needed due to the vagaries of the British weather and the pressures of the market. And so they will present a stand tomorrow with un scented Carnations from South Anerica whilst next to them are Whetmans Pinks with their stunning display that not only looks like English summer but smells of it too, bringing true seasonality and excellent nurserymanship to the Floral Marquee.

Our British flower industry is blooming, but it needs support from the people who are at the centre of the flower industry as well as from us all. Yes British grown flowers tend to be dearer but they are also beautifully grown by people who are passionate about what they do and long for the recognition they deserve. Often they are grown in places where the environment is being nurtured as closely as the flowers, free of chemicals and by growers who understand the importance of keeping our soils healthy and full of life. These people dont see growing as a job but a lifestyle choice, a way of supporting themselves as they support the land. Going into an uncertain future would you rather spend a fiver on a bunch of garish flowers from the supermarket that are chemically treated and have travelled thousands of air miles or save that money for a monthly treat from a grower at your local farmers market or an online florist? And having read this morning that the huge Dutch greenhouses produce blooms that have a higher carbon footprint than flowers imported from Kenya, can anyone happily buy these chemically produced blooms? 

Interflora could be at the forefront of showing how flowers can be bought seasonally and still be beautiful and bespoke. Théy could encourage their franchisees to buy British blooms where possible and to highlight them as a premium range where possible. Théy could be producing seasonal bouquets of British flowers , encouraging florists to become engaged with the industry that so many assume are behind them, whilst demanding that the Dutch lower that carbon footprint. They could be running a range of organically grown blooms and highlighting the reasons why they are a premium range. And for certain they should be saying to anyone who buys from them that sometimes substitutions need to be made because to guarantee a rose in February really in the UK. Is like guaranteeing strawberries at Christmas-a sad lack of understanding of seasonality and proof that we think if we want something we should be able to have it whatever the cost. 

Part 3 will follow.........

Proof British flowers are available all year-these received from Common Farm Flowers in January!! 

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