NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVE

Jan/Feb 2008
Newsletter

Potato Day

Next Big Plant Thing

Gardening Resolutions

Avalon Prides Itself In Having Survived The Bear!

Looking Forward To Spring And Summer

NCCPG

One Further Date For Your Diaries

10 gardening jobs for Jan/Feb

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Buckingham
Garden Centre
Tingewick Road
Buckingham
MK18 4AE

Telephone:
01280 822133

Fax:
01280 815491

www.hedging.co.uk

For your interest we have an archive newsletter section.
Please note that any special offers and prices mentioned may not now be current.

Potato Day: 16th & 17th February

It does not seem possible that it is nearly time for Potato Day again.  For those of you not familiar with this event it is to demonstrate how many wonderful varieties of potatoes there are available to the amateur gardener and how it is possible to grow potatoes even if you do not have a garden. However, the more land you have available the better as the potato is such a variable crop with so many different types – flowery, waxy, all-rounders, chippers, bakers, boilers, mashers, white ones, red ones, golden ones and even black or blue ones!  Colin Randel from Thompson and Morgan, a national expert not only on potatoes but on many vegetables, and Bernard Stopps our local guru and long time show expert, will be with us during the weekend to answer your many questions and give talks. 
We are also planning games and competitions for the young and young at heart – a potato trail, potato printing and potato rolling and any other silly things we can come up with!  It should be fun for all the family but with the undercurrent of the serious business of promoting the British Potato in its many varied types.
There will be special promotions during the week-end to help you with different aspects of your garden - these to be announced during the week-end.

The Next Big Plant Thing...

We are offering some excellent value plant deals through January and February (or whilst stocks last) on a wide range of shrubs. We have our Hillier’s 3 for 2 offer, plus from mid-January a ‘Special Purchase’ range of 1-litre starter shrubs at £4.99 each, or any three for £12, so do watch out for the Early Bird offers in the plant area.

Gardening Resolutions

What are you like at making and keeping your New Year resolutions? Go on that diet, spend less on chocolate, join a gym or take up a new hobby to save you money? Well, this year why not take the plunge and follow our gardening resolutions for 2008?
They are in no particular order, but should make your number one hobby more fun, enjoyable, and err, well relaxing (honest!)

• Recycle more in 2008. Although most people already recycle, try to recycle even more by turning as much household rubbish as possible into valuable root-promoting compost.
• Do pay more attention to wildlife by continually providing fresh food, such as seed for birds as well as planting an area beneficial for attracting wildlife.
• Keep garden tools clean and tidy. Knock the dirt off after using them and give the metal surfaces a light coat of oil. Golden rule: always put tools back where they belong!
• You can all do this…. take a proactive position in composting. Turn over the compost heap once a month and check the moisture content. Those two simple steps will yield far better compost than some other methods.
• Go on, do a better job of sharing plants and produce with friends. When a friend or fellow gardener brings a new packet of seeds, some fresh produce or a plant cutting, reciprocate within a few days.
• Feed the mind and read more about gardening from books and magazines. Gardeners cannot get enough good information about gardening and don’t forget to attend our monthly talks if you can.
• Turn off the games console and spend more time gardening with children. They love it, and love being with you while you're doing it.
• Make sure you spend more time observing the garden rather than working in it. A casual stroll can actually improve the garden by identifying pests and disease problems before they get out of hand. Walking around also provides an opportunity to pick the perfect spot for a new shade tree or select a site for that new compost bin.
• Keep the garden clean, and this often involves taking time to tidy up rather than leaving tools around. It also means picking up stray toys and other objects that children and dogs leave around too!

Do you have any tried and tested gardening resolutions you have made, which have worked for you? Share them with us and the best one, in our opinion, will win a £10 Garden Voucher. To enter, e-mail your resolution to chris@hedging.co.uk, or drop us a line at the garden centre/ or leave it at customer services desk, marking your envelope/ postcard Garden Resolutions. Closing date is 9th February, 2008.

Avalon Prides Itself In Having Survived The Bear!

There is an unusual but true story behind the new outstanding variety of Peach, Avalon Pride.  It was a seedling found by a Miss Pride in woods alongside her property in Washington State, near Seattle. She noticed that it was free of peach leaf curl and she concluded it must be resistant to this common disease.  She, therefore, decided to propagate her own tree from this. Her tree was doing well until disaster struck when a large bear dug the tree up and totally wrecked it, but luckily she was able to propagate a further tree and move it to a bear free environment! Well that is the history of the tree which was the origin of this outstanding new variety, which represents the biggest advance in peach breeding for many years.

Looking Forward To Spring And Summer

The time of year has come when we look forward to the forthcoming year. Here at Buckingham Garden Centre we are gearing up ready for the exciting times ahead. We already have in a massive range of seed potatoes to suit all tastes and palates. In the month ahead we will also be putting out our range of summer flowering bulbs and in doing this we are striving to have the most comprehensive range in the area.

As the weather starts to improve and we begin to feel a bit of warmth on our backs, we will be introducing an exciting new range of furniture and barbecues, and we plan to have demonstration weekends to highlight the fun of outdoor living. We have also been making some big changes to our giftware department and over the coming months we will be stocking lots of new and unusual ranges to meet every occasion. The word Organic is very much in vogue this year so we will be introducing a large selection of organic feeds, weed-killers and insecticides to meet this demand. We are very keen to promote the benefits of going organic and home growing of vegetables and this is reflected in our ‘market garden’ which will soon be found nestled in the plantarea. Chris, our plant expert, is looking to offer a comprehensive range of fruit and vegetable plants and the lines we will be stocking in the shop will back this up.

NCCPG

By the time you receive this Newsletter we will have had a talk about the NCCPG (The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens) by Jim Rodda who is the chairman of the local Bucks, Berks and Oxon Group, so some of you will know all about it already – in which case skip the next part of the Newsletter!
The NCCPG was founded in 1978 to conserve, document, promote and make available Britain and Ireland’s rich diversity of garden plants for the benefit of everyone through horticulture, education and science.  A series of specific aims have been developed from the above including the following:

• To maintain a wide living genetic base for future plant development.
• To make uncommon plants available to gardeners by assisting and encouraging commercial nurseries to provide them.
• To provide advice on the properties, characteristics and cultivation of given plants under varying soil and climatic conditions.
• To assist nationally appointed authorities in the description, identification and classification of plants.

This is being implemented  by the voluntary work of over 650 National Plant Collections (NPCs) by private individuals, specialist nurseries, local authorities, botanical gardens and The National Trust. The aim of the National Plant Collection Scheme is to gather together in one place all the representatives of a particular group of plants that are still in cultivation. There are three functions for National Plant Collections these being:-

• To preserve stocks of threatened garden plants from total extinction.
• To make it possible for keen gardeners to obtain many interesting plants otherwise not available.
• To assist in scientific research, breeding programmes, and horticultural historical and artistic study.

One Further Date For Your Diaries

Looking ahead to June, when hopefully we will all be enjoying some summer sunshine, we will firstly have a talk by Gina Martin on Wednesday 11th June about Willow Weaving, then on the following Wednesday the 18th, Gina will be running a day course for those who want to get hands on experience on learning how to weave with willow. Gina is based in south Buckinghamshire and has much experience in the art of willow weaving and teaching this skill to others.  It should be an excellent day giving the participants the ability to create interesting structures in their own gardens.  This course will take place at the Garden Centre starting at 10.00 and will finish at about 4.00 and will include instruction, all materials, coffee and tea and a delicious lunch in our restaurant.  The cost for the day will be £20 per head and bookings can be taken immediately.  We can take a maximum of 20 candidates for the day, but if necessary we can book a second day a little later if we have too many applicants for the 18th.

And Finally...

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our loyal customers and we very much look forward to your continued support in the year ahead.

10 jobs for January/February

1. CHECK SHRUBS AND TREES We are having a lot of winds and these can easily loosen trees and shrubs in the ground, especially those planted recently. Check them and re-firm them into the soil if they have become loosened.
2. GROUNDWORK Now is a very good time to apply compost to the soil for the coming year's growing season. Dig it in well now and it will have partly rotted by the time you come to plant your vegetables. Remember, too, it's important not to grow the same vegetables on the same ground year in and year out. This will cause the build up of disease. At this time of year it's good to design a crop rotation plan.
3. LAWNS In dry, frost-free weather disperse worm casts on the lawn with a stiff brush. This stops them from being trodden down and invaded by perennial weeds.
4. COVER-UP In areas exposed to frost and chilling winds protect early flowering rhododendron and azalea buds with sacking or horticultural fleece; this can be removed during warmer spells. Likewise, cordylines may benefit from some attention to stop their leaves being blown around. Pull the leaves together and tie (loosely) using twine to secure them in periods of high wind chill or when the compost is frozen in the pots.
   When removing fleece after a frosty night, do make sure the frost has melted sufficiently otherwise it could be stuck to the plant and cause damage when removed.
5. TAKING STOCK The shortest days are best suited to armchair gardening, to planning and ordering seeds and plants. Give some thought to last year’s stock. Were all the plants successful and worthy of re-ordering? Make gardening catalogues your first read now.
6. UNDER COVER On warm, sunny days make sure that frames and greenhouses are well ventilated to prevent diseases such as botrytis (grey mould). You can make some early sowings of sweet peas from this month. Good highly scented varieties include; ‘America’, ‘Chatsworth’, ‘Elegant Ladies’ and ‘Heirloom Mixed’ (all Thompson & Morgan Seeds) and from Suttons Seeds, ‘Fragrant Skies’, ‘High Scent’ and ‘Spencer Special Mix’. According to The National Sweet Pea Society, for best results, use named varieties in good potting compost and do not overcrowd – plant 1 seed to a 3 inch (8cm) pot or 6 to 8 seeds to a 6 inch (15cm) pot. Place the pots in a cold frame or greenhouse and cover them with newspaper until the seeds have germinated. If you are planting in January or February your seedlings may need a little gentle heat to germinate. Make sure you stop the heat as soon as germination has occurred, otherwise your plants will get leggy.
7. TWELFTH NIGHT If your Christmas tree is still waiting to be disposed of then the council may provide a tree shredding service. Generally it can be recycled at your local Household Waste and Recycling Centre. If it is a tall tree, cut it down so that it will fit into a bin. If you have a green waste collection (green or brown bin depending on your local District service) it can be chopped up and placed in the bin (remember the lid needs to be shut for collection).
8. KINDEST CUT Winter prune wisteria to create a good framework; shorten side shoots back to 2 or 3 buds; this will keep the shrub confined and encourage flowering. It will be necessary to prune wisterias again in August to reduce vigorous growth. Don’t forget to apply a generous mulch around your climbing plants to help trap valuable moisture and to feed your plants on a regular basis over the coming months.
9. FLOWERS OF THE MONTH are the wonderful Helleborus species and varieties. They can create a real eye-catching display in any garden; just make sure they are planted somewhere they can be seen and enjoyed. Helleborus ‘Pink Beauty’ and ‘White Beauty’ are two highly-rated varieties, and excel at being incredibly floriferous. Both are priced at £7.99 for bushy plants in 3-litre pots.
10. BRIDGE THE GAP We have a fantastic range of potted spring bulbs in stock now, including snowdrops, winter aconites and narcissi amongst others. These are really useful if you have some spare gaps to be filled. Remember, as soon as snowdrop blooms have faded, then this is the best time to divide and increase your plants when they are ‘in the green’.

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