THANK goodness tulip bulbs are starting to peek through – and if you’re lucky, the recent blast of warmth got your daffs going.
But if you’re anything like me – it’s slightly embarrassing how bleak my outside space has been looking up until now. Too much bare soil and not enough plants does not a great garden make.
The author and broadcaster was awarded the CBE at Christmas[/caption]
Alan Titchmarsh, however, has got an easy and obvious answer.
And happily he’s shared it with Sun Gardening to get us all growing better – and a bit more thoughtfully – for the year ahead.
“The best way of bringing interest all year round, is to go to your local nursery or your local garden centre, once a month, every month of the year, and buy one or two hardy plants for the garden that are in flower when you go,” he told me.
“Instead of visiting once in May or June, when everybody goes and buys up everything and plants it and it looks lovely – if you go every month of the year and buy something in flower, you end up with a garden which has always got something interesting in it.
“It’s such an obvious thing to say, but it’s a lovely easy way of making sure that you always have colour in your garden.”
And as for jobs to do right now – he told me: “If you haven’t pruned your roses, now’s your last chance. Try and get it done now before shoots start to grow.
“Get your seeds in but also your blood, fish and bone, and mulch – that’s your key for now.
“Im such a fan of blood fish and bone – because it’s organic. It has to be broken down by soil bacteria before it’s capable of being absorbed by the plant.
And that means it feeds your soil bacteria as well as feeding your plants. And it keeps a living healthy soil, which is what we all need.”
You can buy Westland Blood Fish and Bone for just £4 from B&Q right now.
“Gardening responsibly, but still allowing yourself to enjoy yourself and your own predilections when it comes to gardening, as well as being environmentally and wildlife friendly – that’s what being a good gardener is now.
“What you want to encourage is biodiversity
“You want lots of flowers and lots of pollen, lots of nectar, and different kinds of habitats.
“When it comes to British wildflowers, you start with cowslips in March and grow through to September and then everything stops.
“But you need to grow a wider range of plants and flowers – for your own pleasure, but also because you’re encouraging diversity.
“Bees don’t mind where the flowers and plants they enjoy come from.
I’m a gardener and gardeners have for centuries collected plants. And I don’t see any point in apologising for it
Alan Titchmarsh
“They don’t know anything about country of origin.
“They just know whether or not they’ve got sustenance for them.
“I love British wildflowers. I’ve got a two-acre wildflower meadow. However, I also have a garden which has flowers from all over the world.”
WIN MALVERN SPRING FESTIVAL TICKETS
Alan will be appearing alongside Rachel de Thame, Adam Frost, Nicki Chapman, Frances Tophill and Raymond Blanc, to name but a few.
One Sun Reader can win a pair of RHS Malvern Spring Festival tickets for Friday May 9th, including front row tickets to see Alan Titchmarsh’s talk PLUS enjoy a cream tea in the Leaden Suite, having a change to meet, chat to, and get your show guide signed by Rachel De Thame.
To enter, visit www.thesun.co.uk/MALVERN or write to Sun Malvern Competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone.
UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 22.3.25 T&Cs apply.
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But when it comes to the topic of ‘horticultural appropriation’ – where you could get cancelled for having plants that were collected by ‘problematic’ collectors in times gone past, the Love Your Garden host said: “You can’t rewrite history. I’m sure quite a lot of gardens abroad have got plants and flowers that are British. It’s just not my way of thinking at all.
“I’m afraid I’m a gardener and gardeners have for centuries collected plants. And I don’t see any point in apologising for it. Because if you collect a plant and you redistribute it, you ensure its survival.
“If you’ve got a good plant that’s rare, give a bit away. Because then one day when yours pegs it, the one you gave away might still be alive.
“So the more of us that grow a variety of plants, the better it is for wildlife and the better it is for the diversity and biodiversity and the gene pool.
“Because with climate change and global warming, that’s the way in which we can future-proof our gardens.
“We need to have a wide range of plants that cope with varied conditions, rather than just sticking with the things which work well here.”
“What is important now, particularly, is biosecurity – that we don’t bring back plants from overseas and plant them in our gardens.
“You know, the old thing, take a cutting, put it in your sponge bag and bring it back. You can’t do that any more.
“Because we’re trying to keep at bay over a thousand different pathogens, pests and diseases at the moment that attack plants in mainland Europe that we have managed to keep out.
“ And it’s vitally important that any plants we do import are quarantined in the nurseries that import them for a good year. Then we know they’re pest and disease free – and then we can use them.”
Alan will be doing talks at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival – which runs from May 8 to 11. For more info visit www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/
Alan has also presented Ground Force, Love Your Weekend and Gardeners’ World.[/caption]
