Gardening: A community sharing event, jobs for the week and top tips for rhubarb

Called Seedy Sunday, the event has been organised by Fiona Murphy, learning support assistant and art technician at Grainville School, who was inspired by a similar scheme that has been running in Brighton for some years.

  • Prune large-flowered clematis
  • In mild areas, prune roses, removing dead, diseased and dying stems
  • Trim back winter-flowering jasmine when it has finished flowering
  • Top-dress or repot pot-grown camellias when the flowers are finished
  • Check all supports on wall-trained fruit trees or bushes before the new season’s growth starts in earnest
  • Put cloches in position to warm the soil for early sowings of vegetables next month
  • Sow under glass slow-maturing bedding plants such as African marigolds, petunias, lobelia and antirrhinums
  • Prune autumn-fruiting raspberry canes[/breakout]

Admission is free to Seedy Sunday and, as the name suggests, the main event revolves around people taking along their surplus seeds to swap.

There are many other gardening and growing-related activities, talks and demonstrations taking place on the day.

Fiona, who had just returned from a seed swap in Brighton – where the event has been held for 14 years and now attracts more than 3,000 people – said: ‘The idea started in Canada in 1989 when a woman wanted to design a garden based on the original 18th-century version and she couldn’t get hold of some of the plants and seeds, so she started searching for heritage seeds.

That’s how it began, and it’s all over the world now.

The Jersey seed swap will be held on much the same lines as the Brighton event and will feature similar activities.

‘The main part is the seed swap, which is for those who grow their own flowers or veg,’ said Fiona. ‘But you don’t even have to have seeds to swap – all we ask is for a donation towards the seeds. We’re keeping it to seeds, although we have accepted raspberry canes this time, but not anything else.

Jersey Royal potato kits will be available

‘There’s the idea that you are preserving heritage seeds and unusual varieties, maybe seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation but are no longer in commercial use. Sometimes you go to the garden centre and if you’re interested in heritage seeds you’ll get a selection of maybe ten, but there are many, many others that are available if you can get hold of them.’

The seed-swapping process is simple: just sort a reasonable number of seeds into envelopes, label which seeds they are and the date when they were saved, hand over your packets and you’ll receive a ticket for each one, which you exchange for the seeds you want.

‘As well as the seed swap, there are plenty of other activities related to gardening,’added Fiona. ‘We’ve got Heritage Jersey Apple Trees, who will have one-year-old and two-year-old trees to sell of original varieties that we have locally. They will be mainly cider apples, but they will have a few eating apples as well.

‘There’s also the Greenhouse Project, a local company that grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers who will be selling their tomato sauce and ketchup. And there’s Kali-Ma raw and organic chocolates, knife sharpener Philip Johnson who will give advice on looking after garden tools, Ocean Harvest with Paddy Keaney and his vraic products, the Jersey branch of the National Vegetable Society, who will be offering advice and demonstrating how to grow carrots in containers, and beekeeper Peter Mitchell, who will tell us all about his work.

‘We’ll also be selling potato-growing kits containing Jersey Royals, and James Ransom will give advice on sowing seeds.

‘To get the children involved, there’s a Kiddies’ Corner where they can sit down and just read a book, or try some mobile-making activities, or make some seed art, to get them involved as well. It’s a real family event.’

All proceeds of Seedy Sunday will go to Acorn Enterprises. It takes place next Sunday, 22 February, at Grainville School hall from 10.30 am to 2 pm.

Fiona will be grateful to anyone who can lend a hand – please call her on 07797 859191, or visit the Seedy Sunday Jersey Facebook page.

And if you are a grower and have any surplus seed or potato seed to donate, it will be gratefully received.

Contact Fiona on the number above.

Francis Le Quesne

Francis Le Quesne, proprietor of Le Quesne’s Garden Centre, answers your horticultural questions

Q: If I sow foxglove seeds now, will they flower this summer?

A: No. Digitalis (foxgloves) are bi-annuals, as are delphiniums and lupins. Seeds sown now will make nice leafy plants that flower the following year.

Q: I want to make a Japanese-style corner in my garden and I’m not sure how to go about it. Can you help?

A: Depending on size I would put down weed-stop material and cover this with gravel. Arrange a few groups of large stones or boulders, then maybe three or four large plants, planted through the weed-stop arranged around the stones. These could be Japanese maples of all descriptions; hostas; grasses and, if the budget allows, perhaps a ‘cloud tree’ (ilex crenata) trained into a bonsai shape. Finish off perhaps with a stone Japanese lantern. The boulders could be painted with old milk or stale yoghurt, as this will encourage mosses to grow and complete the effect.

Q: I saw a lovely poppy last year in a friend’s garden. I think it had something to do with ladybirds – maybe it attracted them? I would like to grow some, too – is it the right time?

To force young rhubarb stalks, cover the crowns with a pot or bucket

IF you are growing rhubarb and fancy harvesting some a little earlier than normal, place a rhubarb forcer or upturned bucket or dustbin over one of your well-established crowns now.

The combination of darkness and warmth will help to produce the sticks earlier and should ensure that they are tender.

IT is getting to that point in the gardening year when the words ‘organic matter’ appear in the month-by-month guide books.

No doubt, organics do matter and are supposed to feature most of the time, especially now when we keen veggie growers are getting ready for the seed sowing and planting of spring. Advice seems to vary, though, on what counts as ‘good’ organic matter and what you should do with it.

For my money, the best in show is plain old manure. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it comes in bags or from a friend with a horse – the important thing is that it’s properly rotted down. Fresh horse’s d’oeuvres won’t do at all and will ‘burn’ any plant life.

If your manure is of a suitable vintage, it will do a splendid job getting things growing, although it’s sensible to fork it through a week or so before you want to plant so that the nutrients have a chance to work their way in. It’s probably a good idea to prepare the soil in any case, to give any rough clods time to break down into an enviable smooth tilth.

Of course if you’ve been diligent over the winter and applied a mulch of vraic, all you need do now is fork it in and nature will do the rest. Otherwise, a sprinkling of seaweed extract won’t go amiss to balance things out and pep up anything that has been growing over the winter.

If your soil is anything like mine, it’s probably a bit sticky and heavy going. Spent grow bags, if you have any left over from last summer, are useful to break it up a bit and make the earth easier to work, or you might be lucky enough to find a commercial grower with some to spare.

I have also used the soil improver available from the green waste site at Bellozanne, but to be honest it has not been much of a success. I had a devil of a job getting things to grow in that patch for some time after. I can’t be sure that the improver was the culprit, but there’s no telling what people might inadvertently drop into those skips.

Apologies if I sound like an anorak, but I’m almost looking forward to emptying out the contents of my own compost bins this weekend, if the weather holds. It doesn’t take long to warm up if you keep on the go and once the compost is properly sorted out there’s usually a rich seam at the bottom for lining any dug-over trenches.

Historian Frank Falle

THE next meeting of the Jersey Gardening Club takes place on Tuesday 17 February at St Lawrence Parish Hall.

The guest speaker will be the chairman of the history section of the Société Jersiaise, Frank Falle, who is known for his research into and enthusiasm for the Island’s Viking past.

He will give a talk on ’tilling the land in Jersey – our Viking origins’.

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