Last year one of the shrubs in my garden died, I have no idea what it was and can’t even remember what it looked like. Anyway, at the beginning of spring this year I managed to get it out of the ground. This was great in that it left enough room for all the foxgloves to spread their leaves, however, what I now realise is that it was actually supporting one of the small trees I have in the garden.

Don’t ask me what this tree is as I haven’t got a clue on that either, all I do know is that the trunk is not strong enough to support its branches and leaves. If I take it down or remove the branches then I leave my garden extremely exposed and overlooked and as much as I have very friendly neighbours I do like to have some privacy.

The solution to this is to stake it but at the moment this will mean trampling over a large number of flowers in order to get to it. I have tried tying it to the fence with garden twine which only works  until there is a gust of wind.

Interestingly I have just read that using a pair of old tights may help as they are soft and stretchy and much stronger than string. So it is now time to rifle through the drawers to find an old pair of said item and hope that this will help until the autumn arrives when I will be able to get to the back of the borders and stake the thing in properly.

Tony Milne, Product Development Consultant for Gardening Direct recently visited Thrive, a small national charity that uses gardening to change the lives of disabled people. 

Tony Milne writes; 

High winds and stormy clouds could not dampen the sunny atmosphere at this year’s annual Thrive Trunkwell Flower Show. 

Held at their headquarters at the Jeffrey Udall centre just outside Reading the Thrive open day appears to be a chance for those helped by Thrive to show off the results of their hard work. 

An atmosphere best described as subtle mix of Chelsea Flower show and a village fete made for a fantastic atmosphere. 

Gardening Direct donated a substantial quantity of vegetable seeds to Thrive last spring which have been distributed through the organisation and used to run a competition called ‘Bean Fest’ where participants had to find the most creative containers to grow their beans in.  

I had been asked to attend the annual open day on the 15th August act as one of the judging panel, I thought specifically for the Bean Fest competition but as it turned out I joined a panel (including Nicola Caruthers the Chief Executive of Thrive) given the pleasure of judging; the best chocolate and potato cake, the best flower arrangement in a tea cup and the best flower arrangement to represent the world cup! 

As with all judging the decisions were tough (particularly when they involve large quantities of chocolate cake) but final winners, runners up and highly commended awards were decided upon. In the chocolate cake competition I am afraid my very favourite could not be pronounced the winner because they had deviated (as it turned out with fantastic results) from the recipe so I had to settle for a ‘Highly Commended’. 

Nicola kindly took me and a number of other judges for a tour of the facilities. The original land and buildings were donated by Jeffery Udall who started the charity aimed at helping disabled and disenfranchised people through horticulture. This link with Horticulture is what makes this charity of such interest to Gardening Direct. With a range of buildings and over 120 acres plus a dedicated team of permanent staff and volunteers the site is designed to cater for the needs of an incredibly wide range of people. From ‘angry young men’ as Nicola describes their annual September intake of disenfranchised teenagers who are immediately set to work ‘digging’ for a few weeks to use up excess energy before a full educational programme is started to Alzheimer sufferers, and all forms of metal and physical disability. 

The range of activities is amazing. Activity is one thing but as we walked around the site the level of outright achievement is breathtaking. Each student is given a small raised bed in a walled courtyard at the beginning of the season and allowed to do with it as they see fit. The resulting range of mini gardens is amazing and ranges from pure vegetables to perennial herbaceous mixes and everything in between. In addition Thrive created its own garden for Chelsea this year and they are just finishing reinstalling it just outside one of the main buildings where all those using the centre can enjoy it. 

Having completed our tour I was delighted to be asked to present the prize to the winners of the Bean Fest competition. Hill View Farm made use of an old cement mixer to grow their beans in which looked fantastic and I imagine made the beans particularly easy to harvest. 

I suspect choosing the winner had been particularly difficult as some of the entries were truly creative. Notable for me was the Big Green Bean Latrine which featured an old toilet being used as a container! 

Gardening Direct are looking forward to working with Thrive in the future and wish them all the best in their work.

After days of promising, the rain storm has finally hit us here in the home counties. Unfortunately I don’t think it will help me much with the daily garden watering duties as the pots are so overflowing with flowers the rain wouldn’t have found a way in.

I spied my first tomato the other day and hope that there are many more to follow. A friend gave me some courgettes from her allotment the other day which were simply delicious and although my courgettes are very tiny I am getting too impatient and want them to be ready now. Must remember good things come to those who wait!

The flowers are of course looking spectacular. The wintunia is a stunning flower with hundreds of delicate purple flowers, the three small plug plants have completely filled the pot I put them in.

I seem to be ok at growing the flowers, however I am not sure what on earth I have done to my cauliflowers??

I am very pleased with the amount of wildlife I have visiting my garden this year. Of course I have the nuisance visitors that we all would rather not have, but despite eating my marigolds to an inch of their lives a quick relocation seems to have brought them back from the brink.

The bees have been plentiful, buzzing around the petunias and lavender is a very welcome sight.

My daughter was very impressed with our first crop of strawberries, and as usual I didn’t get a single taste.

I have just received my autumn catalogue and have enjoyed sitting in the garden mulling over the new varities and choosing what to have in the garden next spring. The new layout has made it so easy to work out what will work in my borders. The pansy mystic strawberry is definately on my list as are the snapdragon magic lanterns.

The garden is looking exceptional at the moment with splashes of pink everywhere. The cosmos sonata is such a delicate and pretty flower and looks good next to the Petunia Bicolour pot.

I have one concern though and hope it is not too much of a problem. This morning I went out to check on my runner beans and there are quite a few rust coloured dots on the leaves. I’m not sure if I should be worried or not, and if I should be worried what is the cause and what should I use to treat it?

The tomatoes are in need of a pinch out which I have to admit I am a bit daunted by. This is the first year I have had any real success with tomato plants so I am a bit unsure what to do. They are very tall but I’m not entirely sure where I need to cut them back to. My homework for the weekend is to find out and get cutting.