Lincolnshire Master Gardeners

Jun 2nd: Deeping Show

sharonsmith — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:49:44 +0000

Master Gardeners will be displaying a small stand beside a show garden to portray a ‘green garden’ using recycling and garden design with the planet in mind. The Master Gardener stand will show how growing your own is easy and satisfying even in a tiny space!

http://www.deepingshow.co.uk/

Mud and Earth

Alison McGrath — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:45:09 +0000

We’re well into May, and there’s still no end in sight to the rain. In the poly-tunnel my chitting potatoes are perfectly ready for planting, while a few are beginning to throw out long, spindly shoots that will be too fragile to plant if I leave them much longer. What should I do? Wait a little longer and risk losing my crop, or go against all the advice and dig waterlogged, heavy clay soil, risking soil compaction and a seriously aching back?
After a blessed day of light winds and no rain I decide to try digging and see how I get on. I have never worked this ground before and it is full of perennial weeds so, unfortunately, it needs rather more than the minimalist approach of a few holes dug to pop in the shriveling tubers. As the clouds pile up again behind me, I try to dig only those areas that are full of roots and to stand on as little of the ground as possible. Balancing on an old plank helps to distribute my weight, but requires some thought so as not to overreach and injure my back. Heavy clay rims my boots and, at times, I feel like a moonwalker as I move around the plot. At others I am more like a drunken skater, my boot treads slick with mud, skidding across the weed suppressing fabric that forms paths between the areas of swamp.

Sometimes I wonder, if I dropped a potato on the soil, would it just sink beneath the surface with a little slurp?
The clods that I need to turn are like great slabs of milk chocolate, criss-crossed with the bright yellow roots of stinging nettles, the white wriggles of creeping thistle root and the zebra stripes of couch grass. They are riddled with the worm holes that are essential to good drainage and, occasionally, a great, fat, purple worm slithers out and slinks across the surface in search of shelter. I try to break these clods up as little as possible, keeping the holes and worms while prising out the mass of fat roots. Every tiny length that I leave behind will grow into a whole new plant.
Eventually my trays are empty and all but the most shriveled and mouldy tubers are tucked up beneath their sodden blanket of mud. It’s time for a soak in an extremely hot bath in the hope that my back will forgive me for today’s workload.
What a contrast with my other plot across the village, which is now full of healthy little broad bean plants. Here I have well established raised beds and, although both sites have received the same rain, these plants sit in well-drained, perennial free, crumbly earth. They too were planted in the rain but all that was needed was a light hoeing and a mulch of home made compost. I spent a morning in full rain gear; head down with trowel in hand and the rain pattering on my hood. Weeding under the rhubarb I relived the days when I played with my dolls in shady green nooks like this. There’s a whole miniature world under a rhubarb leaf and I was so absorbed in the beauty of life at ground level and the rhythm of dig and plant that the heaviness of the rain passed me by completely. It wasn’t until I stood up and found the water pouring from my hood and across my face that it became clear just how heavy the rain had become. I arrived at my mother’s back door a sopping wet mess and was greeted by my sister with horror and a hot cup of coffee ‘We had no idea you were still out there!’ I didn’t care, I was dry and warm on the inside and now, as I watch the splatter of rain on my kitchen window, at least I know that it is watering my crops and there is the promise of broad bean pate in the weeks to come.

Battle of the Weeds!

carolinebattong — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:43:58 +0000

Well, weeds are my nemesis. I absolutely hate weeds. They drive me nuts and stop me getting on with what I like to think of as proper gardening. This last torrential six weeks of weather has driven my weeds to take on triffid like proportions. I swear that if I walk round the garden that I can see the damn things growing by the second. So this weekend the Battle of the Weeds began. Hand weeding bark and gravel paths, weeding around onions and trying to find the lettuce in the weed jungle has tried my patience to the limit and resulted in 15 60 litre bags of weeds being collected!

I should feel hugely satisfied as my veggie area is looking much improved and my onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, broad beans, coriander, calabrese etc are no longer fighting with fat hen, goose grass, couch grass, chickweed, dandelion and sheep sorrel!

You know I don’t feel like that because I know that they will be back! My only solace lies in seeing my ornamental borders looking the best that they have in three years. They have benefited from heavy mulching, chicken pellet dressing and buckets of rain and boy have they loved the conditions.

My seeds in the vegetable area however have been an unmitigated disaster. A salad bed protected by green netting has had a terrible germination rate for beetroot, lettuce, spring onion and pak choi. Our tomatoes and chilli’s grown indoors have hardly got any root on so we have gambled and planted them out in the greenhouse and polytunnel earlier than normal. They do already seem to be benefiting from the much higher temperatures so we are praying for no late heavy frost as they are still very delicate.

The thing about gardening is it is a bit of a gamble. You can think you’ve cracked the perfect routine for sowing and planting on your plot and then freak weather (or just a busy life!) can get in the way of the best laid plans. It is time to go back and remind myself of what gardening is all about…….a continuous learning and experimenting process that never allows you to rest on your laurels and encourages you (or forces you!) to remain creative and keep your mind active.

Dreams of Summer Fruit

Alison McGrath — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:39:39 +0000

At the bottom of the garden my gooseberry and redcurrant cordons stand like three verdant tridents, rising from a sea of soggy green lawn. Behind them, three blackcurrants raise their rain soaked branches to catch the drips from the overhanging lilac. This past month of rain and cold has called a halt to progress in many parts of the garden, but in this area it has come at the perfect time to swell the developing fruits.
There’s a chill wind from the north-east and my feet squelch through the overgrown grass as I carry out my regular inspection of the soft fruit bed. Over the past few years, green fly on the blackcurrants and sawfly on the gooseberries have been a major challenge. Last year the leaf buds had barely unfurled in the freezing March air before the army of tiny, green, sugar-secreting, chomping jaws arrived. The result was a sticky mass of twisted leaves and dropped blackcurrants on one side of the bed, and naked gooseberry branches on the other. The first year this happened the sawfly caterpillars stripped my two gooseberry bushes naked in an afternoon before moving onto the redcurrants. This year I am determined to catch them early and squish the blighters, whatever the weather. My decision to cordon the gooseberries in particular has paid off, not only does their two dimensional shape take up far less room, but I don’t have to thrust my arm into a vicious thorny bush to find either pests or fruit.
Checking for pests involves a close inspection of these bushes and reveals the unexpected beauty of their tiny flowers. The dark blackcurrant branches are swathed in festoons of miniature, frilly green bells, already swelling with the promise of cordials, crumbles and summer puddings. The redcurrant blossoms resemble diminutive clusters of green grapes when viewed from the distant kitchen, but face-to-face each grape is revealed as a perfect, five-petaled, emerald flower, enclosing five pin-point anthers. When the summer finally arrives, they will be transformed into clusters of glowing rubies, each fruit showing a single seed deep beneath its translucent skin. These beauties add a spark of colour to our fruit salads, perk up our gravies when added as jellies, and are a regular favourite accompaniment to steak when lightly cooked with cinnamon, brown sugar and chilli.
Beside the currants, the flowers of two gooseberry bushes promise a bumper harvest, despite the regular traumas of defoliation. The tiny fruits are already bulging and hairy; almost squid-like with their trailing, pink tentacle petals. I look forward to gooseberry and mint cordial, tarts, custards and fools. Each year these two plucky bushes fill our freezer with their hairy bounty and last year there was even enough over to make our first gooseberry wine. We sat mesmerized as the demi-johns bubbled away on our dining table and I discovered the potency of the brew when syphoning, or racking, the wine off into bottles. Each time I inadvertently let the wine drop below the level of the pipe I had to suck the other end to restore the flow and received another powerful mouthful. My technique has definitely improved since and I have learned a valuable lesson, not to rack my wines just before walking to school to pick up my daughter.

These fermented fruits of last summer are now squirreled away in the utility room, maturing for a year until their hairy successors are ripe for the picking. Until then I can warm myself with the dream of a balmy summer evening on the patio, enjoying redcurrant steak followed by a heavenly gooseberry and elderflower fool, all washed down with a glass of chilled Chateau McGrath 2011.

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June 30th: Reserve your place at the Masters Conference

philipturvil — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:30:25 +0000

Reserve your place at the National Masters Conference 2012 at Ryton Gardens.

We’re inviting volunteers from across the country to share top-tips for supporting communities to grow their own food and make lovely compost.

View the Masters Conference flyer (links opens PDF)

Read about the National Masters Conference 2011

NEW for Lincolnshire Master Gardeners

Please click here to reserve your place with co-ordinator Rick

We’ll then send you a booking form with details and for you to choose your workshop preferences. We’ll also be arranging shared transport to Ryton Gardens.

When? Saturday 30th June 2012.

Where? The beautiful Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire, home to the UK’s leading organic growing charity, Garden Organic.

What? Leading UK speakers, unique workshops, expert guides, and much more with over 200 volunteers expected. This is your conference. Please get in touch here to share your ideas.

Who? Master Gardeners, Master Composters, Compost Gurus, Gardening Champions, and any other volunteer involved in promoting gardening or composting

How much?

Places are FREE for Master Gardeners for the all day event including lunch and refreshments.

£44 + VAT for friends and family. £84 + VAT for CPD places.
Please contact us for exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities.

Come for the cake!

See photos from our National Masters conference 2011

Find out who won the Master Gardener Awards…

See latest news from Ryton Gardens

What else is Garden Organic doing…?

May: grow your own tips

philipturvil — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:22:39 +0000

Crops are confused this month. We’ve had a mild winter, sunny March, and wet April so far.

But May is the time for catching up with sowing seeds and planting out your favourite fruit and veg.

Remember there’s still time to prepare quick growing harvest for your ‘Big Jubilee Lunch’ on the 3rd June 2012.

Also crops for shared salads and BBQs for London 2012 celebrations… Please click here to read how Lincolnshire Master Gardeners are getting involved with the Games.

Seeds to sow in May

Sow these cold-hardy crops direct into your soil – or for more comfort if a little cold and wet, sow seeds in pots and trays instead. Tuck these away indoors or in a sheltered sunny corner to transplant later.

The following links open PDF growing instructions by Garden Organic:

Annual Spinach, Beetroot, Sprouting Broccoli, Pea, Radish, Rocket, Salad Onion, Pot Marigold, Parsnip, Lettuce, Carrot, Celery, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohl Rabi, (deep breath), Leaf Beet, Turnip, Swede, Spring and Summer Salad, and others…

You can also transplant energetic plants started off in March and April, moving them to their final growing space outdoors. This works well with Brussels Sprouts, Leek, Cauliflower, Calabrese, Summer Cabbage, and Sprouting Broccoli. Don’t worry if you haven’t sown these crops yet! There’s still time to sow and get large plants for transplanting in June or early July instead.

Nearly frost free…

There’s a collective horticultural rush during May. The South of England should be frost-free by the end of the month and soon after for the North and exposed sites.

So, now is the time to sow your cold-tender crops that like to be kept warm, such as Pumpkin and Squashes, Sweetcorn, Courgette and Marrow, French Bean, and Runner Bean. Start off these plants indoors on a clean, warm windowsill or in a greenhouse or polytunnel. Then plant outside after the last frost.

You can also move crops started off earlier in the year destined for a summer inside a greenhouse or polytunnel, moving your lovely Aubergine, Cucumber, Okra, Pepper, and Tomato. Although if growing these sensitive crops outdoors during summer, wait until after the last frost before transplanting.

Did you know that Garden Organic publishes a wondrous array of growing tips?

Click here to discover unusual crops (opens ‘Sowing New Seed’ project website)

Step by step growing activities…

What to do in the garden in May

Local growing blogs by volunteer Master Gardeners:
Warwickshire, North London, South London, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire

My First Household

sharonsmith — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:26:21 +0000

Today i went to meet my first household! I was a little nervous and double checked the website and my folder as to what I was to do.

I needn’t have worried, just filling in the registration together was a great way to start the conversation and find out what my household would like to achieve. I found out that she had wanted to grow some veg for quite a while, but just was so confused as to how or where to start. It really made me stop and think, I’ve always grown my own so it just seems second nature to me to put a seed in the soil and watch it grow into something tasty.

However, for someone who has never done that, seeing all these veg in the supermarket or in huge books is just a major fear overload. After a chat and a walk around the plot my householder was pretty excited and eager with the idea of just starting with one small bed to grow some easy lettuce and tomatoes this year and she even began to think ahead to maybe trying spuds next spring!
What a great start for a new Master Gardener!

Lovely Weather for Ducks

Alison McGrath — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:59:03 +0000

I am engaged in something of a losing battle in the playground at the moment, as every encounter with other parents seems to begin with another complaint about the ‘disgusting weather’. Isn’t it strange that the same people also like to complain about hosepipe bans? I’m not pretending that a fortnight of entertaining children through a decidedly soggy Easter holiday wasn’t hard going at times, but starting every day with a moan likes this does drag you down after a while. In response I have made a game of getting in first with ‘lovely weather for ducks’, or, ‘This’ll fill the reservoirs!’ Sometimes I even get a smile and a positive response.
It is seven years since I moved back to the UK from South Africa, but I still remember vividly the utter joy of waking in the middle of the night to hear the first heavy drops hitting the roof, after months and months of complete drought. We were usually woken moments before by a wave of cool, fragrant air; rain after drought has one of the most beautiful scents in the world. After months of dust and bronchitis, electric shocks from every metal surface and endless expanses of dead grass and brown veldt, we leapt out of bed to greet the return of water and life to our world. In church, we responded with prayers and hymns of thanksgiving. Each time another blistering summer day culminated in another rainstorm, my small son and I would rush outside and dance with delight and relief.
Here, on the Lincolnshire/Leicestershire border, our current drought is far less severe, and yet I still found myself rushing outside to listen to the echoing drip, drip, drip of the first rain for weeks hitting the dry bottom of the water butt. Yesterday I took advantage of a lull in the deluge to attach guttering to my shed for yet another butt. Every now and again the patter patter resumed and my screwdriver moved a little faster. I could see myself with rain pouring out of the incomplete guttering into my wellies and up my sleeves as I tried to snap the pieces together. The shed is in a tight corner at the apex of my triangular garden and I had to squeeze up against the sopping wet hedge to screw in the supporting brackets. My wellies were caked in mud and my coat was saturated by the time I had finished. The last task was to cut a hole in the bin lid for the down pipe, but the rain really set in five minutes too early. I squeezed under the eaves to find a tiny dry space so as not to electrocute myself while I made the last cuts, my body providing a vital barrier as I leant over the bin and finally finished the job. Electrical equipment packed away I dragged the bin to the bottom of the garden and rigged it up to the new downpipe, where the rainwater was already issuing in great spurts.
School was about to finish for the day so I flung everything through the kitchen door and jogged down the lane to the village school as I was. Thank goodness my daughter isn’t embarrassed by a mother who appears at the end of the day in muddy wellies and dripping coat. On this occasion I was one among many as a parade of muddy mummies, mostly towing soggy dogs, made their way to the village school. ‘Lovely weather for ducks!’

Mablethorpe Community Garden

rickaron — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:39:04 +0000

Mablethorpe Community Garden is the largest and most remote community garden in the Heath and Well-being programme. Roughly the size of a football pitch and with no access to running water, Master Gardeners Sue and Shirley demonstrate how powerful Master Gardeners can be to the success of a community garden.

Against the odds, with a somewhat difficult community to engage with (a residents own comment!), the two have worked wonders with little infrastructure. They have successfully encouraged numerous families into growing on the site, including two children from the travelling community. Community Payback have helped to dig the turf and have been wonderfully creative in bed designs – something that only a visit can enlighten!

Through hard work, networking and visible success they have been awarded a sum of money to help improve the site with a water butt, bench and various tools. They have been an inspiration and have between them clocked up over 100 volunteering hours in 12 months.

A panoramic view of Mablethorpe Community Garden - 2012

They have both constantly done over and above what I have asked or expected of my lovely Master Gardeners. Without these two wonderful personalities I doubt this site would have survived its first season.

Now is the time to start planting so expect to see a lot of activity down there. Feel free to pop down to the site on Enterprise Industrial Estate, Golf Road, any-time, however Master Gardeners Sue and Shirley are there most Thursday mornings between 10am and 12pm. If you live in or around Mablethorpe and would like 12 months free support and advice in growing food in your own garden, yard or balcony then contact us!

If you would like to know more about Mablethorpe Community Garden or would like to get involved contact Sue, Shirley, James or Rick here – contact us alternatively contact East Lindsey District Council

Mablethorpe Community Gardeners

Mablethorpe Community Garden - 2011

Master Gardener Sue with a few residentgardeners at Mablethorpe Community Garden - 2012

A delighted Mablethorpe resident in May 2011 at the start!

Graham Nichols: Case Study

rickaron — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:32:51 +0000

Graham is helping 9 registered households – plus a community garden and a community group as a Master Gardener in North Kesteven.

This translates as supporting 28 people including 12 under the age of 16 to learn to grow and eat more food.

Graham is very proactive in his approach, writing articles in local newsletters and parish magazines as well as emailing everyone in his workplace to raise awareness of the free advice he offers as a Master Gardener. The newsletters he writes reach up to 5000 people – a budding local celebrity gardener!

Graham kindly gave a talk and presentation to the new intake of Master Gardeners in March giving excellent advice to them about how to recruit households and manage their time. Thank you Graham.