This year, HRH The Prince of Wales visited the Ideal Home Show and I went down to London to meet him. We held a VIP reception to celebrate the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year competition, where he was introduced to the tutors and student winners from Chichester College.
The competition is run in association with his charity, the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, which promotes the values of sustainable living and development through an array of projects and education programmes.
Prince Charles spoke to the students individually about their garden creation, and he was keen to know what they would go on to do in the industry when they left college.
He also noted the importance of teaching horticulture and encouraging more young people into the gardening industry.
It was wonderful to see the students’ hard work recognised, and to see them so encouraged to go on to undoubtedly fantastic careers in horticulture.
Students from Chichester College were awarded a gold medal and the Best at Show award by the judges for their ‘Refreshing the Pallet’ garden. It saw them crowned the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year at the awards ceremony on the Ideal Home Show Super Theatre.
Potatoes are a brilliant crop for beginner gardeners and practised vegetable growers alike. Get your own potato crop in the ground this year to start enjoying home-grown spuds!
Potatoes grow from special seed tubers instead of seeds. Buy them from your local garden centre – they have been cleared of disease and bred to produce strong, viable plants.
Types of potato
There are three types of potatoes, earlies, second earlies and maincrops. The names refer to the time they are harvested.
Earlies are the easiest to grow and take up the least space in your garden. But the other two are simple crops and will give you loads of potatoes.
When to plant potatoes
Potato crops need different planting times depending on the exact variety, but here is a rough guide.
Earlies – plant in late March.
Second earlies – plant in early to mid-April.
Maincrop – plant in mid to late April.
How to chit potatoes
You’ll need to prepare the tubers before planting by chitting them. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult! They need to sprout before they go in the ground.
Stand them rose end up (that’s the end with the most eyes) in an old eggbox on a cool, well-lit windowsill. The eyes will sprout naturally, and the tubers are ready to plant when they are about 2.5cm long.
How to plant potatoes
Potatoes grow best in sunny spots that are not prone to frost. Dig a narrow trench about 13cm deep and line it with peat-free compost, general fertiliser or even grass clippings.
Space the seed tubers about 30cm apart for earlies, 38cm for second earlies and maincrop. If you’re growing in rows, leave 60-90cm between them and plant with the shoots facing towards the surface.
Handle the tubers carefully – the shoots can be quite brittle. Press over the soil and let nature do her work.
TIP: If you’re really short of space, plant two potato tubers in a large, well-drained container (at least 30cm wide and deep).
Growing potatoes
Remember, it is vital when the shoots begin to emerge from the earth to keep them as far away from the tubers as possible.
Bank up the earth over the emerging shoots, forcing them to grow up and away towards the light. Repeat until the shoots and ensuing leaves are well removed from the tuber.
Once the potatoes have begun to grow underground, your plants will need lots of water. If you have a dry spell, water regularly or your spuds will be stunted.
How to harvest potatoes
fresh organic potatoes in the field
Early varieties should be ready to harvest from June. I lift mine when I see the flowers. With earlies you can simply dig up and eat.
Second earlies and maincrop will stay in the ground a bit longer and need a bit more attention.
Two weeks before you want to lift them, cut off the growth at ground level. This gives their skins more time to toughen up.
Harvest second earlies in July and August, and maincrop varieties from late August to early October.
Harvesting is easy with a fork – just tease them out, being careful not to spike them. Now you’re ready for some home-made chips!
Orchids are wild, delicate and exotic, but they also make surprisingly good houseplants. In fact, they are one of the most popular houseplants in Britain today. They make excellent presents and are widely available – many supermarkets sell them.
Varieties
There are many different types of orchid, with a huge variety of shapes and flower colours.
The most common is phalaenopsis – a beautiful plant. They are known as moth orchids because the flowers grow on arching stems, making it appear as if a group of moths are flying away from the stems.
Another variety is cymbidium, which are marvellous orchids with strong, structured flower heads. Or try dendrobiums, which bear flowers almost the whole way up the stem. They also flower for a long period of time.
Orchids have a very long flowering season, but often people don’t get to enjoy them for long. Treat them wrong and they might only last a month or two. Treat them right and they will flower for months, year after year.
Pots and Containers
Some orchids you buy come in clear plastic containers and have green roots. This is because orchids are epiphytes, meaning they grow non-parasitically on another plant. In the wild they grow on the sides of trees. Because they are not in soil, the roots have evolved to contain chlorophyll so they can photosynthesise just like leaves.
The best thing to do with these types of orchid is to keep it in a clear container like glass or plastic and never put a pot cover on it. The roots need to be exposed to the light to photosynthesise.
Flower and Plant, Beautiful White Phalaenopsis or Doritaenopsis Orchid Flower Streak For Garden Decor.
Obviously you should never let them dry out, but don’t let them become waterlogged either. In the wild, orchids cling to rocks or trees and avoid stagnant water like the plague. If you leave them sitting in water, they’ll die.
Use a spoonful or two of tepid water a week to keep them moist. They also love having water in the air, so a bathroom or kitchen shelf or windowsill with high humidity will make a great home.
Shade and temperature
Orchids hate having too much direct sunlight. A semi-shady east or west-facing windowsill is ideal, especially in the summer. If it’s too bright you risk burning the leaves, but if it’s too dark you won’t get flowers.
Temperature wise, a constant 19C is fine. Avoid putting orchids too close to radiators or letting the temperature fluctuate wildly. If you keep their conditions stable, they can focus on producing beautiful flowers.
Pruning and yellowing
Yes, you can prune them. When the last bloom fades, snip off the flower spike to just above the bud, an inch or so below the last flower. That will help a new shoot to form, bringing with it plenty of new flowers. The odd drop of fertiliser will also help keep your plant vibrant.
Watch out for yellow leaves. Older leaves will naturally turn yellow and can be removed. But any yellowing in young leaves is a sign of stress – too much light, over-watering or very low temperatures. If you have this, you can stop watering and move your orchid to somewhere it has the right conditions, and it should recover.
peat-free Compost and food
Orchids need a special peat-free compost which contains more bark than soil. You can also buy special orchid food. This is important to help them generate enough energy to send up flower spikes.
