Veg Plotting

It's that time of the year again when there's the perfect excuse to pop into the garden for a break, a cuppa and to take part in the Big Butterfly Count . It's even better when your friend Jane Moore has written a book about them and invites you to join her where she works  to do the count there in the hotel's meadow. Of course mother nature conspired against us on Friday and produced the third hottest day of the year ever in the UK. As a result the butterflies decided to flutter off elsewhere with only the odd tired cabbage white or two plus a gatekeeper putting in a brief appearance during our time together. As you can see we retired to the gazebo instead to shelter from the heat and chat merrily away about the garden and all things butterfly. There was also time for a cuppa, where I spotted Jane's handy butterfly guide pinned to her notice board in the greenhouse. I also got the full tour of the hotel's three acre garden (you can also read Jane's guide h...

I've made a guest appearance this week on the Thompson & Morgan (T&M) blog with some of my top tips for allotment growing alongside regular Veg Plotting commenter Sue (yay!), plus a whole host of experienced allotmenteers. Those of you who read my National Gardening Week post last May may be a little surprised as I confessed then I no longer have an allotment. My response to T&M's questions apply to what I've been doing here at VP Gardens and show grow your own is feasible whether you have just a windowsill right through to a full-blown allotment. My update on progress since then is long overdue. In a nutshell I produced more in 2019 than many an allotment year despite the more restricted space. It's not been a perfect time owing to family circumstances, so I look forward to 2020's growing season confident even more progress can be made. Two of my key projects last year were to improve soil health and to increase my growing space with some ...

I recently completed Clive Nichols' Masterclass in Flower Photography, so it was great to have the opportunity to nab him for a quick interview at the same time. Over to you, Clive... Background  When did you take your first photo? What was it of?  My first photo was of one of my mates at University – in black and white – that must have been in 1982. Are you self-taught, or did you study photography in some way? Totally self taught – I learnt about shutter speeds and things like depth of field from a little book in the 1980’s produced by Kodak called ‘Take better pictures’. Now you're an acclaimed photographer, what advice would you give to your fledgling photographer self? Get up early to catch the amazing light at dawn. [NB Clive has been known to get up early and drive 200 miles to catch that light - Ed ] Who or what inspires you?  I am inspired by everything and anything – art, landscape, photography, design, fashion, sport. Getting tec...

Late October saw my latest trip to Evolution Plants , to take stock of the first year and to see what else has changed since May's visit . It was a very busy summer and autumn for us all so the timing was much later than originally planned. ** The visual clue above hints at more changes at the nursery. I usually go though the gate, but now visitors are asked to take the side path on arrival. But first I needed to take one of the standard photos I've taken for every visit; the view of the nursery from the gate. This time I poked my camera through a gap to get my desired shot. For once my arrival coincided with a beautifully sunny day, during that late unseasonal warmth you may remember we had in late October. A day which meant most of my time there was spent outside - yay! When Tom and I discussed this series of posts, we agreed it would be good if I got to know the whole team at Evolution Plants. It was great that at last I had the opportunity to talk at length t...

Jam jar posy of the flowers Our Flower Patch  schools can grow Our third and final chat with Our Flower Patch 's Cally Smart and Sara Wilman takes a look at their favourite flowers, plus they give us some ideas for planting tulips - the perfect job for now. The scrummy pictures are courtesy and copyright of Sara Wilman. What are your favourite cut flowers? Cally: I love tulips in myriad colours and grow lots for cutting. I never grow them in the garden borders because they can look messy, especially when they go over but growing them close together in trenches on the allotment gives me dozens of buckets early in the spring. I also grow a lot of dahlias in jewel colours for late summer and autumn colour. I adore ranunculus. Calendula is my favourite flower to sow from seed with children. It’s beautiful, easy to grow and so, so useful. It looks great in the vase with blue cornflowers, the edible petals look pretty in a salad and it has a history. My Victorian dairy farm...

Previously on VP's VIPs we learned how Cally Smart and Sara Wilman met then came up with the idea of Our Flower Patch . Today, they're going to tell us more about their business and how they are inspiring a new generation of  growers ... Describe how you work together. Do you have fixed roles? At first we worked together on everything, although Sara knows more about growing flowers for sale than Cally does and Cally had more hands-on gardening experience with school aged children. Over time we have taken on more specific roles. We meet together formally once a month to plan what is going to happen and discuss ideas and keep in touch via phone, text and social media, sometimes every day in the meantime. In general Sara is the website geek and photographer and Cally is the writer, though we bounce ideas off each other across our roles. We both make the most of social media, tweeting and retweeting things our audience will find interesting via @ourflowerpatch . We e...

Sara (left) and Cally of   Our Flower Patch Picture credit: Clare Green and Western Daily Press It gives me great pleasure to feature my latest VIPs -from Our Flower Patch , a joint venture between Cally Smart and Sara Wilman. I've known Cally for ages as she's one of my Local Vocal bloggers and I met Sara last year when she, Cally and I went on our Gardeners' Question Time adventure. Cally and Sara are keen supporters of the British Flowers movement and earlier this year launched Our Flower Patch . They're so excited and passionate about what they're doing, I've decided to divide our interview into three parts. I didn't want to cut out any of their enthusiasm and I'm sure what they have to say is of interest to many of you. So without further ado, here's how it all started... How did you meet? Cally:   Several years ago in a flower arranger's garden. We were at an event for women in business. Sara had started growing cut flowe...

Cleve West returns to RHS Chelsea this year and luckily I've had the opportunity to interview him before the build starts later this week. Cleve is well-known for his bold and successful designs and this year he's chosen to present a contemporary paradise garden for M&G, the show's sponsor. So no pressure then ;) In the introductory blurb I was given, Cleve says: "I was inspired by the idea that the ancient gardens of  Persia ,  Greece  and  Italy   still influence the way we create gardens today and I wanted to celebrate that in the  M&G   Garden . I also enjoy weaving a contemporary dynamic within what might be seen as a traditional context, it can bring a great energy to a garden. Paradise to me is any place where you can lose yourself and where, for a moment at least, time stands still, hopefully this garden will allow people the opportunity to do that.” Cleve at Horatio's Garden in 2012 Now, let's see what Cleve has to ...

I'm following Tom Mitchell and his exciting nursery, Evolution Plants in its first year of trading. Now read on... Unlike my previous visits, at last I've managed to visit Evolution Plants in bright sunshine. First impressions of the nursery are how much everything has stirred into life since my last visit. I'm a little early, so I take the opportunity to have a quick peek in some of the polytunnels and take some photos. The Trilliums are doing particularly well. I find Tom in the large potting shed cum office where his staff are busy propagating plants. We walk up to the other office and I start by asking about how things have progressed since my last visit. "We've been to lots more shows and these on the whole have been very successful, though I really need to clone myself, so that I can attend more of them and make sure customers' questions are answered. This can only get better as  time goes on as my staff are increasing their knowledge of the pl...

It seems my visits to Evolution Plants are destined to be wet and windy if October and last month are anything to go by. However, the lure of a new nursery, a plant hunter cum owner in the shape of Tom Mitchell, and all happening less than 10 miles away means I can't keep away. I'm delighted Tom's agreed to let me follow him and Evolution Plants in its first year of trading. You're welcome to join me too and you can add your questions (via comments, Twitter etc) to those I'll be asking over the following months. So, how has the nursery been faring over the wettest winter on record? Follow me... First impressions are that everything's remarkably intact. "We're reasonably sheltered here", Tom reassures me. Don't worry, this is the normal look to a nursery in February. For some reason I love seeing them at this time of year; their stripped down readiness for the coming season makes me excited about the months to come. Our talk turn...

Before meeting Sir David Attenborough: Kew's Herbarium was our HQ for the day. Here we're being shown how specimens are collected in the wild A few weeks ago I received an email out of the blue inviting me to Kew to meet Sir David Attenborough and to preview his new series Kingdom of Plants 3D , which starts tonight on Sky 3D (with a simulcast on Sky Atlantic HD). I sat there for 10 minutes emitting feeble cries of Wow! , until NAH asked me what on earth was the matter. Naturally he thought I was joking until I showed him the email. After all, the chance to meet a childhood hero, someone who's shaped the key choices I've made in my life doesn't happen everyday. The result of my day at Kew was published yesterday over on the Guardian Gardening Blog (welcome if you've come over from there), but of course I have a lot more to tell you about the day itself. One of the plants featured in the programme. Darwin predicted the orchid was pollinated by a ...