Celebrate National Gardening Week next week 15th – 21st April

National Gardening Week was launched by the RHS to get the Nation Growing.

The benefits of gardening are felt by people of all ages and abilities and from all backgrounds, gardens promote a sense of purpose, and an escape from daily routine as well as providing valuable habitat and food for our wildlife and insects and of course good, home-grown, healthy fruit and vegetables for our table.

Throughout next week there are lots of Gardening events across the country organised by communities and groups as well as the RHS have a look at the RHS website for events near where you live.

It has been said that Britain is a nation of gardeners and I couldn’t agree more so what better way to celebrate gardening by getting involved with community groups, young peoples organisations e.g. Cubs, Brownies and with Schools and share your passion, experience and knowledge of this truly amazing pastime.

Dust off your trowel, put on your warm wellies and a good pair of gardening gloves and get gardening.

Gill

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A Simple Guide to pressing Flowers and Leaves

Pressing flowers, leaves and grasses is easy and fun, follow some simple steps to get the best results, and then enjoy making pictures, cards and bookmarks. Pressing flowers is a great way to preserve flowers and can be done throughout the year to record the Seasons, why not stick them in your Wildlife and Nature Diary or a Scrapbook.

A Flower Press

Firstly, you will of course need a Flower Press!

Before beginning we advise that only flowers from the garden should be picked and pressed. It is against the Countryside Code to remove plants from the countryside and wild flowers should always be left for the enjoyment of everyone.

Garden flowers ready for pressing

1. When selecting flowers to press always choose those that are looking their best, and are clean.
2. Removing moisture is the key, so begin by collecting the flowers when they are dry. Wet flowers can go mouldy.
3. Press your flowers as soon as possible to avoid them drooping or wilting.
4. Lay the flowers flat face down on the blotting paper. Take care to arrange leaves and petals as you want them to appear when the flower is pressed, try pressing flowers on their side to get a different effect. 
5. Place another piece of blotting paper or flower preserving paper on the top.
6. Place the two pieces of paper between two pieces of cardboard.
7. Place the layers into a flower press as follows, cardboard, paper, flowers, paper and cardboard.
8. Depending on the press you may be able to fit in several layers like this.
9. Tighten the wing nuts and leave to dry for a few days, longer if you use large, thick flowers.
10. Alternatively place the flowers between sheets of blotting or flower preserving paper and place inside a large book such as the phone book and leave for a few days.  Be careful to use enough plain paper sheets to protect the books from staining.
11. Experiment with different types of flowers. Pansies and violas are particularly easy and tend to keep their colour well. 
12. Note if the flowers turn brown during pressing it may be because they are taking too long to dry out  

Stunning yellow pansies

Pressing flowers the traditional way can take time and lots of patience but if you want faster results flowers can be pressed and dried in the microwave. Repeat the process in the same way as above but if you use your flower press you will need to remove the wing nuts/bolts and secure the wooden boards with wide elastic bands 2 or 3 along each side, if you use a book check that it has no gold embossing and remove any staples. Place in the microwave for two minutes on medium heat, allow to cool then have a look at the flowers to see if they are dry if not return to the microwave for another minute and check again, keep repeating until the flowers are completely dry. This method may need a little experimentation.

Pressed flowers loose their colour if exposed to light so avoid direct sunlight or humid rooms when displaying them.

Love your environment

Gill

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Kids Christmas Gifts for Under £15

We love these kids Minibug houses, and they are are a great way to introduce children to the facinating world of wildlife.

Perfectly designed for children to use, the bug habitats have also been carefully constructed to provide perfect insect habitats too.

The MiniBug Ladybird Log is a natural habitat for ladybirds and other beneficial insects.  Constructed from solid FSC birch logs and oak, larch, or similar timber for durability, the Ladybird Log has a hollow central chamber that can be filled with natural material to provide insulation and security for the ladybirds inside. 

Intersecting the chamber are many holes drilled into the log at an upward angle, which allow the insects to reach the insulated and safe inner chamber. Ladybird Food/Attractant can be used with the tower if necessary and/or the tower may be used to release larvae with food source.

 

This Minibugs Bug Box  provides over-wintering habitats for insects such as solitary bees (non-aggressive garden pollinators).

Offering a variety of potential habitats, the top section is made of variable sized canes and the lower of bored solid timber.

 

 

The MiniBug Solitary Bee House is a natural habitat for non-swarming solitary bees.

Based upon the best selling solitary beehive and made from naturally durable FSC Cedar, this unique solitary bee house is specifically designed to attract non-swarming bees, which are gregarious and safe around children and pets.

 The bees are naturally attracted to holes in wood and the MiniBug Solitary Beehive provides habitat that has become harder to find in modern gardens

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Build Your Own Snowman!

Well we don’t have any snow outside yet so why not Build Your Own Snowman with this fun game.  It is great for children from 4 years upwards. 

Simply create your own personalised snowman, give him a name and print your picture out to keep!

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New Recycling Activity Centre is Perfect for School or Nursery Learning

We think this new Recycling Activity Centre is perfect for schools and nursery settings. 

Designed to encourage young children to be responsible for recycling themselves, the unit can be made an integral part of the nursery/classroom.

Each child can be encouraged to take responsibility for classroom recycling.  

Along the way they will learn about how rubbish and refuse can be recycled and made into useful everyday products. 

For all the details of how to order click here.

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Creamy Turnip Soup

If you sowed a crop of turnips during the summer, you may be looking forward to harvesting them over the next few weeks.  So we thought you may enjoy our recipe for creamy turnip soup.  Nutritious, delicious and just perfect for a cold autumn day. 

Ingredients

butter
2 large turnips, peeled and chopped
1 large onion peeled and chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1 litre of warm vegetable stock                                                                                                                                                                                       1 bay leaf
Freshly grate nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste
200 mls of single cream

Method

In a large casserole, melt the butter over a medium heat.

Add chopped turnips, onion and potato.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until onion is tender and translucent but not golden.

Add the vegetable stock, bay leaf and seasoning.

Simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat, remove the bay leaf and puree the soup mixture with a blender.

Stir in the cream and simmer gently for a few minutes, until warmed through. Do not boil.

Remove from the heat, serve and enjoy!

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The School Garden – Planning for the Summer Holidays

 

The School holidays are almost here – time to take time out, relax, eat ice cream, maybe go on holiday… But this can often be a tricky time for the school garden.  After the industrious activity during the summer term, crops can be left unpicked and unwatered as the weeds take hold and everything can get quite wild by the time the autumn term starts.

So to avoid garden chaos take a look at our Top Tips for Planning for the Summer Holidays. 

From practical gardening tips to planning advice there is checklist of all the things you need to be thinking about.

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Take a Look at the WOW – A Brilliant Wooden Observation Wormery

To get up close on the fascinating world of worms take a look at this brand new flat pack, no nails, no screws, no holes to dig Wooden Observation Wormery with its own built in observation panel.

Every WOW© Wooden Wormery comes with its own observation panel as standard, but for large groups to enjoy you can have two observation panels on different sides of the unit.

All you will need is lots of organic waste for the worms to wine and dine on like gluttons!  Worms like to wander from food sources to places that are clean and earthy, for breeding, and this unit is perfect as it is lovely and spacious.

The wooden construction keeps the environment at just the right temperature.  The insulating properties of wood will protect the worms from the ravages of sudden temperature changes at night and seasonally. 

Worms like and work best in darkness and excess light will burn their delicate skins. For this reason we provide a cover for the observation window.  When you want to take a look at all the munching and composting activity all you have to do is slide out the cover and catch the worms at work. See and note how the picture of decomposing organic waste changes from day to day and week to week.

We love this new WOW© Wooden Wormery – its perfect for worms and perfect for families and school groups to enjoy!

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May is the Perfect Time to Grow your own Runner Bean Wigwam

If you still have some spare growing space in your garden, May is the perfect time to grow a runner bean wigwam.   It makes an exciting space for imaginative play and is also cool and shady.

If you fancy giving it a go, take 8 garden canes, each around 2 m long and put into the ground in a semi circle.  Adjust the position of the canes to allow for a play space inside and a gap for the doorway.

Angle the canes inwards, and tie securly to form a tepee shape. 

Take some runner bean or sweet pea plants and sow two or three next to each cane.

Water regularly, and as the plants grow gently train them around the canes.

One tepee is big enough for two children to play in, so if you have the space and lots of children why not grow several.  And as the summer progresses the play den will produce lots of lovely flowers or beans as the plants grow!

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Read What Our Customers Say About Our Wooden Raised Beds

We had some recent feedback from a customer about our FSC wooden raised beds… read on to find out how they found them to use.  To view the full range click here.  

….We thought we would share with you some photographs – we purchased several of your Standard Raised Beds recently and they look really great in our garden!

We live on a modern estate and didn’t want to start digging up the grass to create a conventional vegetable patch, so we searched for some alternatives.

These photos go to show that you don’t need to have acres of land in order to start having your own home grown fresh produce. We even have three chickens as well.

Thank you very much for all your help and for recommending the Raised Beds – as you can see, our Lettuces and Strawberries are doing really well!

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