The Shrewd Gardener

Felco Secateurs

Selecting secateurs is always a tricky business so over the years I’ve tried out quite a few different types.

I’ve found that Felco make some of the best there are and it’s always worth paying just a little bit more. I use the model shown here and they are up to most of the pruning jobs around the garden.

There are two types of secateur. Bypass (shown here) and Anvil. For general purpose use I always go for the bypass type as they are less sensitive to the twisting that occurs when you are pruning.

Felco Secateurs l125 Model 4 Standard

The chances are that your garden has been left unattended over the chilly winter. My own garden hasn’t had much attention since late November/early December when Christmas was looming large and so there were plenty of other distractions. The wet, snowy winter that set in at the beginning of the new year has slowed down to the start of the work this year. On the positive side the pest numbers should have been reduced by the harsh weather.

The garden will be starting to come to life and the birds may be nesting by now. Snowdrops and crocuses will be flowering and the daffodils will be well on the way. In a few short weeks they’ll be in flower in time for Easter.

We’re now approaching the Spring tidy season so it’s time to call your favourite gardening company or get out there yourself and do some work. However if the ground is sodden, as much of the London clay is at the moment, then wait a week or so for it to dry out. The worst thing on a soggy lawn is to trample it, the clay compacts and forms a pan and any further water just pools or runs off.

The jobs you’ll have on the list will be amongst the following…
* Trim down any overgrown shrubs. Very overgrown shrubs should be reduced in volume by a half and others should be taken back by a third.
* Mulch the garden with well rotted manure. This ensures that the plants will receive a steady supply of nutrients over the year. Additionally the moisture retention of the soil is improved by the addition of organic matter and the layer on top slows down the rate of evaporation.
* Prune the Winter Jasmine when the flowers have faded.
* It’s not too late to install a small wildlife pond and if you’re lucky you might even get a few frogs. Perfect for natural slug control.
* Plant any Summer flowering bulbs and plant the Hardy Annual seeds you want to see this year.
* Prune roses to give them plenty of time to put on lots of new growth for those lovely flowers.
* If the lawn is well drained and dry then you can mow it on a high setting. If not then wait for a week and check.
* Plant out Strawberry runners.

There are loads more jobs you can do but an urban garden will have a different set of problems to a rural space.

Have fun and think ahead to the Summer when planting. There’s plenty you can do and be inspired by the idea of a beautiful scented, colourful space to spend time in.

Just found this amazing image of the UK blanketed in frost and snow.

We don’t get this kind of weather that often in the UK (I’ve heard 1963 and 1982 mentioned) so it is a bit of a novelty. It’s obviously a novelty my local council who seem to have on gritting lorry zooming around ineffectually at 40mph.

With any luck this weather will sort out some of the pests that have been getting a free rein over the warm Spring and Summer times recently. And so much for my blogging about November being so warm, it was a mild Autumn but now we have a bitter Winter to contend with.

I’m browsing the Earth Observatory pages at NASA, sparked off by another Twitter user.

I thought this image of a fuel fire in Puerto Rico which happened in October 2009 was interesting. It shows the area affected by the incident which in the picture is about 140km long by 15km wide.

Fire at Fuel Storage Facility in Puerto Rico.

Here is a quick quiz for Christmas time. See how well you do.

Was the trip to Copenhagen worthwhile for all the nations that took part?

Well, yes it was. Kyoto was a beginning, a start on the path towards working out some solutions to the problems caused by man made pollution. In Copenhagen the aim was to go further and include everybody in the collective responsibility for dealing with the results of the industrialisation of the planet.

Should we have expected a deal to emerge from the Copenhagen Summit?

Optimistically, yes. It would have been marvellous to have got a deal sewn up to manage emissions and pollution and know that the world was sorting it all out.
Realistically, not really. As with all meetings, big or small, the agendas of the parties involved will all need to be accounted before if any progress is to be made. Compromises have to be struck and delegates must report back to the people they work for.

In the end though the meeting ended in a civilised way and there are bound to be more meetings in the future. The opportunity for the small countries to state their case is important as is the fact that the larger nations are acknowledging that something must be done.

There is a conspiracy going on here, a real one. It is about resolving the issues related to anthropogenic global warming and mitigating some of its effects.

A few years ago I worked for a wonderful charity called the Disabled Living Foundation (DLF) which amongst many, many other things maintains a database of equipment for people with disabilities.  Actually the name of the charity is a bit misleading because they deal with just about every age group and the issues around overcoming physical problems that may be encountered in day to day life.

Amongst its many categories of equipment there is a section on gardening which includes listings of items that the DLF knows about that may be of use to keen gardeners.  These range from long handled tools to raised beds to  robotic mowers.  It is possible to go and see some of these tools at their Equipment Display Centre or you may call the helpline and speak to the knowledgeable advisors there.

So, if you are keen on gardening and have a disability or maybe you’re not as sprightly or dextrous as you used to be it’s probably worth giving the Disabled Living Foundation a call.  They may be able to guide you towards the right piece of equipment or ’signpost’ a service that can assist you in getting more out of your garden and gaining more satisfaction in your leisure time.

My words: The mission of the DLF is to provide independent impartial advice and information on aids for daily living.  There is a brilliant Equipment Demonstration Centre packed with a wide range of equipment for viewing by the public (by appointment) . Occupational Therapists often train there or may need to visit familiarise themselves with how best to use an item of equipment.

Some Links:

Twitter DLF Disabled Living Foundation Further Reading (Amazon)

OK, maybe ‘gripped’ is a bit strong but I was glad of my scarf and gloves this morning when I dropped the kids at school. The ponds were frozen in the local park and the water fowl were seen to be skating around.

I a temperate climate such as in the UK we get used to frost and it has several useful functions. For example; killing off a range of pests that given the chance will breed and multiply nxt year. This isn’t to be underestimated as the effects of a mild winter can be devastating.

Cricket infestations can be a problem in some parts of the US (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20030325/ai_n11382783/) and so mild weather can have difficult consequences.

I’ve seen lots of plants touched by the frost this morning including nasturtiums, artichokes, cabbages and other tender plants. Of course if you’re growing Brussels Sprouts you will be delighted as they are generally left on the stalks until the first frost.

The big question now is, will there be snow in time for Christmas. My kids will be checking regularly.

Check out this helpful online article by the New Scientist which cleanly debunks the top 50 of 100 ‘reasons’ why ‘Global Warming is natural’ published in the Daily Express recently.  As a casual reader it can be very difficult to make up your mind what to think about the climate debate. Newspapers always set themselves up  as authoritative sources of information but it’s also important to check the background of your authority figure.  I’m not suggesting you get into conspiracy theories or any of that craziness but balance out the sources of information you are using.

The fact is that the debate is now an illusion. There is a great deal of good science, let’s ignore ‘Climate Gate’ and the like, and plenty of proper scientific debate has already occurred.

50 reasons why global warming isn’t natural – Short Sharp Science – New Scientist.

I’ve just fixed an issue with my blog. Being such a clever bod, I assumed wrongly as it turned out, that I would have instant mastery over Wordpress.

As a result I dropped the code for Google Analytics into my site templates and watched the results roll in. Then it stopped and it then took me a little while to work out why… the reason was that I had upgraded to the latest version thus wiping out my changes to the code. I guess the clue should have been when Google Webmaster Tools asked me to re-verify but I was busy, mind on other things, and didn’t analyse the problem in the way I would at work.

The moral of the story then is this – when blogging with Wordpress use the plugins to add functions. There is a plugin for just about anything you can think of and many for services you have never even heard of.

I’m all sorted now and just a bit less blase!