My Climate Change Garden » Seeds

Bake your lawn

Debbie — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:28:30 +0000

Finding ways to engage children in sustainability is a constant challenge but this looks like a brilliant idea to encourage kids to understand that bread can be grown from seed to sandwich.

On Monday 23 January, Real Bread Campaign ambassador and star of Channel 4′s The Fabulous Baker Brothers, Tom Herbert sows the Bake Your Lawn challenge for schools around Britain: grow your own loaf!

If you’re a teacher or work in a community youth group, read on for details of how to get hold of a handful of organic wheat and the free grassroots guide on how to grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/bake_your_lawn/

Veg growing season extends

Debbie — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:08:24 +0000

Allotments, kitchen gardens and veg patches in the UK now start their growing season earlier and finish much later . Even crops that are traditionally grown under cover can find themselves outside in the fresh air.Far more tomatoes crop reliably outdoors and melons too are coming out of the glasshouse.

Seed catalogues already provide kitchen gardeners with a lengthening range of tomato cultivars such as ‘Tornado’, ‘Roma VF’ and ‘Marmande’, and melons such as ‘Ogen’, ‘Sweetheart’ and ‘Galia’ to tempt them, plus there are are lots of chilis,sweet peppers, aubergines to choose from.

British plant breeders are selecting specifically for the warming UK conditions, and trialling cultivars sourced from milder climates to see how they perform in UK gardens. This gives an ever-expanding choice of a range of unusal crops. Who would have believed a few years ago that UK gardeners could grow sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) .

Vegetable suppliers

Seeds of Italy has more than 500 Mediterranean vegetables, many of them heirloom or regional cultivars new to the UK, and also supply fruit trees.
Thompson & Morgan has new aubergines and new blight-resistant potatoes – ‘Sarpo Axona’ and ‘Sarpo Mira’. The company also offers cuttings or ‘slips’ of three cultivars of sweet potato, and many ‘heritage’ tomatoes and chillies.
Tozer Seeds breeds specifically for UK conditions, and trial cultivars from the Mediterranean. They offer an increasingly large range of sweet corn, and have seen a huge increase in the popularity of their ever-widening range of chili peppers. Their new butternut squashes ‘Hunter’ and ‘Harrier’ were bred to ripen fully in UK conditions.

OUTDOOR RIPENING FIGS IN AUTUMN ARE COMMON IN UK GARDENS

Adapting veg plots to less water

The main priority is to retain winter and summer rainfall. Achieving a high organic matter content in garden soil is vital to help reduce evaporation .Conserving soil water, mulching, using garden compost, green composted waste, chipped bark or woven plastic landscape fabric, are also essential.

Using collected rainwater and even recycled household or ‘grey’ water has to become the norm. Rainwater can be stored, but grey water is best used immediately – see the water pages on this blog for more information http://www.myclimatechangegarden.com/blog/where-can-i-buy-a-rainwater-harvesting-system

iPad veg garden planner

Debbie — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:56:53 +0000

A new iPad App is launching soon to make planning your vegetable garden even more enjoyable – and easy!

Garden Plan Pro is the fastest way to plan a productive vegetable, herb or fruit garden and achieve your best ever harvest.

Designed by the makers of the award-winning garden planner, currently used by over 100,000 global gardeners with data from more then 6,500 weather stations in 20 countries.

Adapts to Your Location

Garden Plan Pro adapts to your local climate, giving recommended planting and harvesting dates for your area.

Simple to Use

With flexible drawing tools and an extensive database of plants and varieties, Garden Plan Pro makes it easy to design the perfect garden layout, rearrange plants and track progress.

Sign up for the launch at http://gardenplanpro.com/

Kew revives wild flower meadows

Debbie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:04:42 +0000

Forget planting a tree. If you really want to fight climate change and boost wildlife, it appears that you would be better off investing your money in protecting a local wild flower meadow.

To assist with this mission, Kew gardens today announced that they are launching a seed bank for native plant species that will help to protect and restore disappearing wildflower meadows in the UK.In an effort to restore the diversity of the past the ‘UK Native Seed Hub’ will collect rare specimens and help provide millions of seeds to horticulture companies, conservation groups and even gardeners.

Already temporary seed production beds in a walled nursery at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex are growing lowland meadow species like speedwell and harebell.

In the past efforts to introduce native species to new sites have hit problems because cutting and gathering hay from existing meadows only captures plants which are in seed at the time of mowing, while some species have proved hard to germinate.

The store will concentrate on plants like cuckoo flower or common knapweed that flower early or late in the season and are therefore neglected by many collectors.

The UK Native Seed Hub, an initiative from Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, will provide high-quality seeds and scientific advice to groups growing wildflower meadows across the UK. The hub will then go on to support the restoration of 40 other native habitats such as chalk grasslands and lowland heathland.

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank is the largest wild plant seed bank in the world and has conserved seed from 30,000 species across the globe. It also safeguards 90% of UK species in its vaults.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/

Spring is sprung!

Debbie — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:00:48 +0000

Its gardening time again!

Thousands of gardeners are stirring and millions of seeds are being planted.

Here are some specialist seed companies for inspiration:

Would love to know any YOU have discovered?

Buy seeds

Lettuce, aubergine and other Italian delights http://www.seedsofitaly.com/catalogue/4

Heirloom Tomatoeshttp://www.localharvest.org/store/heirloom-tomato-seeds.jsp - USA

Carrots http://www.simplyseed.co.uk/carrot-seeds/carrot-seeds-chatenay-red-core.html

Beans and brasicas http://www.realseeds.co.uk/beans.html

Unusual ideas http://www.suffolkherbs.com/kolist/1/SPROUTING+SEEDS

Organic seeds

http://www.tamarorganics.co.uk/pages/catalogue.php

http://www.terredesemences.com/

http://www.wildgardenseed.com/ – USA

http://www.organicseed.com/ USA

What to plant and when

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/vegetable-calendar.htm

Bombs of Seeds

Debbie — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:01:42 +0000

Lets not talk of war in Libya rather turn our attention to creating beauty in abandoned spaces by throwing flower bombs of seeds. Our planet is a precious organism that needs our help to survive and we need to wake up to this responsibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_bombing

Here are examples from Guerilla Gardening of the sorts of Seed bombs that are most effective.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggseedbombs.html

If you are inspired by this here are ideas for making your own seed bombs and an innovative company who sell their own design.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Seed-Bomb

http://www.protecttheplanet.co.uk/eco-friendly-presents-under-5-10/kabloom-seedbom-flower-grenades.html

Find out more about where to throw seed bombs and how effective they can be:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3347987/Garden-guerrillas-Seed-bombs.html

Spread peace with flowers!

Calling All International Gardeners!

Debbie — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:02:58 +0000

I am currently having some very interesting gardening experiences:

1. My kitchen window is still littered with seed packets.Every time I look into the garden it is cold, cloudy and miserable with a distinct lack of sunlight and warmth. Nothing tempts me outdoors to expose my beautiful tiny seedlings to the mixed delights of an English spring.

2. The number of US visitors to my site has just overtaken those from the UK .The increase is from California which enjoys a year round climate of sunshine and where I would certainly rather be at the moment.

Is my sub-conscious desire for sunshine transmitting itself via my blog?

Am I connecting to a warmer energy via my thought process?

Whatever the reason for this sudden American interest, I take any increase in international visitors as a positive sign that it really does not matter where you garden.

The important thing is for INTERNATIONAL GARDENERS to share information and experiences about how unpredictable weather patterns are affecting the seeds we plant and the plants we grow ALL OVER THE WORLD.

One example of sharing global experiences is knowing when the first or last frosts happen in your local area – vitally important for the success of my seeds if I finally decide to venture outdoors today and open some of those beautiful packets from my window sill:

To celebrate connections across the Northern Hemisphere, here are links to localised frost data for the UK & USA:

FROST DATES FOR AMERICA

http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

FROST DATES FOR UK

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/main/weather.asp

Saving Seeds for next Green Revolution

Debbie — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:48:16 +0000

“Suddenly plant breeding is sexy. In recent months, soaring prices of food, coupled with fears of runaway climate change, have brought calls for a renaissance in agricultural research — to boost crop yields and deliver new varieties that can stand the heat and drought of a greenhouse world.

The world needs a repeat of the advances made during the last green revolution a generation ago, which doubled global food output.”

Wise words from environmental journalist Fred Pearce in 2008 and even more important in 2011 ?

Read the full article at http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2065

Seedy Sussex Sunday

Debbie — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 11:28:06 +0000

On 6th February one of THE gardening events of the year takes place in Hove. Seedy Sunday runs from 10-4.30pm in Hove Centre in Norton Road and costs just £2.This quote from their web-site explains what it is all about:

“Seedy Sunday has blazed the trail for UK seed swaps over the past decade: it is the must-be-there event for seed swappers, conservers, developers and newcomers. It exudes innovation, creativity and common sense. It shows up the idiocy of draconian seed laws and the Gene Giants’ restrictive practices: in this warming world we need to exchange more diversity of uncontaminated plants to secure future food.

Seedy Sunday builds solidarity among all of us who respect our collective rights to save, sow, swap and sell seeds grown in our gardens and farms: it gives strength to seed law busters.”

Don’t miss it if you want a garden full of unusual and delectable flowers and produce this summer – see you there!

http://www.seedysunday.org/page_id__136_path__0p1p.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/25/seed-swaps-biodiversity-seedy-sunday

Ready to plant mats grow into gardens

Debbie — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:16:04 +0000

Just discovered this innovative garden product for those who want to grow their own but dont quite have the experience and knowledge just yet.

Constructed of burlap and a paper-like material made of plant fiber, Amber’s Garden Ready-to-Plant mats are designed to take the guesswork out of seed spacing, seed depth and when to plant.

http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/ambersgarden/

What a brilliant idea – looks like only available in USA for now – bet they will arrive in the uk soon!