Weekly catch up with garden and propagation

This week in the Garden

with Malin

Last week we hosted our biennial Beth Chatto Symposium, with the theme Connections Through Time. The whole team at Beth’s worked really hard and were there from start to finish. We had a brilliant time listening to interesting talks and panel discussions and meeting with old and new friends in the industry.

After a tough summer, extremely dry and hot - where both plants and us gardeners have struggled, it was a lovely boost to meet up with people facing similar challenges and discuss how we can change our practices moving forward.

I was lucky enough to be on a panel with Lina Liubertaitė, Laura McArthur and Shereen Chung Blake, where we discussed the future of gardening and gardeners, challenges and opportunities going forwards.

Thursday and Friday were spent in the lecture hall at Essex university, with a lovely garden party at Beth’s on Thursday evening. On Saturday we had talks and workshops all around the garden, and the gardeners gave tours throughout the day, where we talked about how we’ve gardened in the drought this summer. Ironically, we had our first significant rainfall since middle of June - 12mm recorded!

Being back in the garden this week we can almost see how the plants have taken a sigh of relief and the lawns are magically shooting new green grass in what looked completely brown just a week ago. We’re crossing our fingers for more rain - our trees and shrubs really need it!

Other jobs for the week have included planning the autumn ahead, looking at gaps and plants that have given up in the drought, and thinking about replacements. As soon as we get some proper rain and the ground softens, we want to be ready to plant!

This week in propagation

with Rob

We're all still downloading and decompressing in the growing department, after an absolutely incredible symposium. We loved meeting so many of you. And, I'd personally like to thank everyone who attended my Biological Control talk who didn't jeer and throw tomatoes at me. I also passed my RHS Level 2 this week, so I'm walking on cloud nine!

Annie and I have been out and about gathering plants for the Horniman Plant Fair this Saturday. Annie, Richard and myself will be there on the day so please come and say hi! You can buy some plants too, if you like!

Richard started off the week propagating Chrysogonum virginianum, which Steve speaks fondly of, 'A modest plant seldom seen, but deserving more attention due to its long flowering season. Bright yellow star-shaped flowers are set in every stem joint of the low sprawling plant' Certainly a must have for those shady parts of the garden!

Emily and Jess have been collecting seed from Euonymus europaeus, known commonly as the spindle tree, although you might have heard it called prick timber, prickwood or pegwood, which I think are much more fun names. A deciduous shrub which likes to spread out, it will grow to about 3 metres. Wait for those fruits and berries for a gorgeous splash of colour. Em and Jess used sand in their hands to remove the flesh and get to the goods within. Genius!

Finally, it's with tears in my eyes as I write this, (my hayfever is playing up.) That we say farewell to Olly. Olz has been ourstanding this summer, helping out in a variety of areas, but mostly with Richard on the stockbeds. His work has been invaluable and he will be missed greatly. We wish Olly the very best as he heads off to college, and the extremely bright future which awaits ahead.