Congratulations to Gardening.co.uk member Sue Williams, who won a Red Letter Day Organic Gardening Experience with Bob Flowerdew, worth £99, for submitting a question in last year's organic gardening competition.
On the day, Sue met Bob Flowerdew, regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time (and the man who has successfully grown organic guavas in England) at Garden Organic Ryton in the Warwickshire countryside.
What Sue said
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| Competition winner: Susan Williams
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Well, I am back from my Red Letter Day experience with Bob Flowerdew. All I can say is that I enjoyed it immensely and I learned a lot. As we went for lunch, the unanimous verdict was that it would have been really good if we could have had the afternoon as well. Bob Flowerdew is just so knowledgable, and an immensely entertaining speaker.
There were 12 of us there – mainly middle-aged and mainly ladies – but as Bob Flowerdew said in one of his many irreverent comments: 'In every garden there is a head gardener and an under gardener, and the head gardener almost always wears skirts, while the under gardener is the slave labour!' – except in his house, where he is the head gardener...
Bob talked at some length about the origins of organic gardening, commenting that the Romans had banned excessive irrigation because it dilutes the nutrients in the soil. A lot of what he said was basic commonsense, such as looking around your neighbourhood to see what's growing, and only growing plants suited to your soil. Similarly, the soil in Scotland is not necessarily the same as that in Southeast England or to the west, and if you move house, he recommends you check out the conditions before spending hard-earned cash on plants that you liked in your old garden.
Bob, from his own experience, has little time for the advice given in gardening books and for garden-makeover programmes. He says these may look good on paper, but don't actually cover the practicalities of gardening – getting your hands dirty, different soils, or even how to cut grass. So much advice given in books is not necessarily commonsense and may not be right for us, he believes. And, he doesn't strive for the ideal look. 'Does it really matter if it is not perfect? If we are not growing to show and win prizes, the answer is NO!' he remarks. Below are just some of the many organic gardening tips I picked up on the day:
Buying and planting
Buy the best quality you can afford. For a good flower display, simply plant dozens of three or four varieties, rather than three or four of a dozen varieties.
Grow to eat
Get a fruit cage, as large as your garden will accommodate, and grow fruit trees and bushes rather than vegetables. 'If you eat rotten veg, you can die. If you eat rotten fruit, you will simply get drunk and have a hangover,' says Bob.
To make your own fruit cage, Kays of Cumbria (discount garden supplies) for the netting. Put up posts and stretch the netting across. Make sure it is the right size, because if a bird can get its head through, it can get is body through – and don't forget a gate. Mix flowers with your fruit and veg, rather than the other way round.
Grow the black grape Vitis vinifera 'Boskoop Glory' (a black grape). It is reliable and delicious, says Bob. It can be grown outside, but in northern climes you may have to protect against late frosts, as with peaches and apricots.
Only grow what you will eat, but grow it well and, even though you may mock, encourage your plants. It has been proven that plants that are talked to and encouraged will flourish, those that are cursed will die and those that are ignored will survive, but not flourish.
If you want to grow veg, grow four or five different ones, but not four or five varieties of the same one. If you spread the sowing over several days, you will get staggered crops. Bob quoted an old Chinese proverb: 'If you want strawberries, don't sow radishes.' Give some thought to your needs and dig, fertilise and measure up before you start. He recommends growing alpine strawberries under trees.
A tip given for planting strawberries and sweetcorn was to place a pilchard – yes, a common or garden tinned supermarket pilchard with the sauce and/or oils washed off – under each plant for natural blood, fish and bonemeal. Apparently, the Mexican Indians do this when planting sweetcorn.
Bob's advice regarding tomato growing was to chop off anything above the first truss, so that the plant will bush out rather than get leggy. 'Don't feed tomatoes,' he says. 'This will put the weight up but the harvest back, and do not overwater.
Composting
If you have a large enough garden or allotment, include three bins – one to use, one to ripen and one to fill. Build your own bin using wooden pallets, like Bob. In winter, he slots cardboard down the sides for extra warmth. Plastic bins may not get hot enough, says Bob.
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| Include three compost bins if you have the room
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To fill said bin, put weeds in by all means, but take off the seeds and roots. You can put weeds in a bucket of dirty water for a few days – this will kill them – and then throw the lot onto your pile. Ask your local greengrocer for any waste. This saves him getting rid of it and fills your bin.
Contrary to some advice, Bob recommends spreading thin layers of compost and topping each with a thin layer of soil and lime (unless treating ericaceous soil). When your bin is two-thirds full, dig it out, mix it up, then put everything back, top it off and leave to mature.
You can put both watery and dry material into your bin, including cotton, feather pillows, wool, old clothes (only natural fibres or you will have to remove the man-made fibres from your compost before using it in the garden.) Remove buttons and zips etc.
Lawns
Spread lime over your grass once a year. If you are using sharp sand, make sure it has not been sprayed and use John Innes compost, rather than topsoil, which usually has no nutrients.
Slug control
When growing potatoes, plant the variety 'Cara' in with your choice of potato, as slugs and snails love 'Cara' and will eat these, leaving your lunch or dinner alone. Similarly, plant 'Buffalo' onions, as slugs love them and will leave your other onions alone. His attitude is that there is no chemical treatment that does not have an equal, or better, natural equivalent.
Use nematodes to get rid of slugs – and when they have started to die, go around your garden, collect up all the dead slugs and drop them into a bucket of water. After a few days you can then use this water to water your plants, which has the effect of keeping live slugs away.
Reuse and recycle
Suggestions to save money include using old bicycle-wheel spokes (they bend easily) to pin down stuff in the garden, and bend to size to use as a measure – it's much easier having a piece of metal bent to size, than having to get out a tape each time.
Don't throw away blanketweed or duck weed, but use it instead to make a hanging-basket liner. Use an old hanging basket as a mould by turning it upside down. Press the weed over it to get the shape, and when it is dried, you have a basket liner than will hold the water. Similarly, use it as a mulch for pots.
Congratulations on winning the competition Sue, and thanks for the update.
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