Wordless Wednesday

Eryngium yuccifolium

Review!! Rakes Progress-A Progressive Guide to Gardens, Plants, Flowers

A few weeks ago I was involved in a very interesting conversation on Twitter about this new gardening publication and it ended with being offered a review copy. So here are my thoughts.....



Rakes Progress reminds me of those magazines like The Face that sprang into our consciousnesses in the 80's and were publications that really informed a generation. They decided what and who was cool, and what and who was not, giving credence to styles, music and lifestyle that can only now be seen really in some of the lifestyle blogger and vloggers we see with millions of followers. It feels solid, printed on beautiful, thick paper, and full of not just interesting articles, of diverse subjects such as war gardens written by Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, to Yorkshire's Rhubabrb growers and a piece about Jake Hobson's Niwake,  but also wonderful photographs and pictures that are art rather than illustrations.

It's fair to say I am a fan. it's alternative, inspiring and exciting. I want to see what is in the next episode and am about to sign up to a subscription, making it the only magazine I will regularly read about gardens, because I have really given up on all those glossies that just are about chocolate box photography and articles that for me lack any inspiration. Occassionally I may buy one, but I want cutting edge and excitement and although I love a herbaceous border as much as the next person, the perfection of the images can be off putting if you are struggling to garden in an urban space that is also used for a million other purposes.

But I think I need to tell you, dear reader, about that Twitter conversation because the one thing that made me just a tad shouty was the price point which is £10 and my question was about how that is inclusive? Now I have to say at this point that this is a quarterly magazine so £40 per year is really only around £3.333 per month. My thoughts around this is that you still need that £10 to be available and if you are struggling to make ends meet is that ever going to be manageable? if you were a stuggling family does that £10 go on food or a stunning gardening publication?

Having said that I doubt that is the demographic that is being attracted here and for the hipsters, the young people working on food growing projects, for British Flower growers and florists, for those working on exciting aquaponics projects and looking at urban farming, as well as for those looking at new ways to garden as both amateur or professional I would suggest this is a must read. Having said that I wonder if in the future there will be more of a web presence, some of which of course could be behind a subscription, but some of which could be accessible to all and finally I wonder if the subscription could be paid monthly as £3.50 per month is far more manageable to many than a payment of £40.

What I would say is that there is a lot of talk about how garden media is stuck in a rut and not interested in cutting edge technologies, campaigning or the more political side of gardens and gardening. I believe that moving forwards, Rakes Progress could become the voice for all these things and more, making them exciting, challenging our perceptions and inspiring us to challenge ourselves.

Bristol Botanic Garden's Bee and Pollinator Festival

This weekend is the annual Bee and Pollinator Festival at Bristol Botanic Garden. It is a fabulous event that sees the garden full of bee keepers, demonstartion hives, local nuseries and seed sellers along with passionate people who all want to help and support our bees and other pollinators in the city and beyond. It has become one of the highlights of my Bristol year.

At this time of year the Botanic Garden is full of exciting and beautiful planting. The garden has so many different areas, many of which are used by Bristol University and others for teaching life sciences and, in particular, biology. The Chinese medicine garden is one of a kind with it's plants divided into areas of Chinese medicine and mirroring that area, the herb garden is also planted by the areas of the body that the plants are used for.

Other planting areas include a prehistoric garden fill of Cycads, monkey puzzles, tree ferns and several Wollemi pines, with an underplanting of mares tail, a brave and very beautiful planting, as well as areas full of Magnolias, an area where the plants are planted depending on what type of insect or animal pollinates them, and some very wonderful greenhouses!!

In September the beds outside the main building, which itself is steeped in history, are full of richly coloured flowering plants studded with plantings of exotic bananas and huge, towering ornamental maize. These beds are constantly buzzing with bees, wasps and hover flies and are a great backdrop for the local nurseries at the Pollination Festival, and their nectar rich offerings.

What has really excited me in the last two years is the Native American food bed, a rich cornucopia of edible goodies that includes a three sisters planting of squash, beans and corn, as well as chillies, tomatoes, tomatilloes and some excitiung and new crops to the UK such as Oca and custard apple. The bed is planted throughout with nasturtiums that link the whole space beautifully together and stop it from being a food growing bed and turn it into a beautiful and productive garden. Culturally beds like this excite me more than I can say because it is so important bioth culturally, but also with an ever changing climate, that we experiment with other traditions of food growing, and to see a botanic garden trialling this and changing it slightly from year to year fills me with hope. Surely this is what these soaces should begin to concentrate on, telling what has gone before but also looking at the future and how we will grow into the future.

Finally today, due mainly to the not so great weather, I popped into the tropical greenhouse. In the centre of this space is a large pond full of Victoria cruziana, the huge, tropical Amazonian waterlilies, as well as a collection of Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera with their enormous leaves and quite stunning blooms. At the moment there is also an Aristochlia gigantea regularly flowering with it's quite unlpleasant scent; quite a sight to see. There are also bananas including Musa acuminata with it's amazing bright pink flowers and Musa textiles which I am fortunate enough to have been given seeds of by Nick Wray, the curator of the garden, which are now growing well in my house. Below are a few photos of the tropical greenhouse, but before you get to them, please, if you visit Bristol, make an effort to get to this garden. It is run by the University of Bristol and a team of fiercely loyal volunteers who are always happy to chat about the garden and what they are working on and you will be supporting the garden to continue and move forwards.

Tree frog!! Sadly not a real one.

A beautiful dragonfly sculpture

The Sacred Lotus leaves are extraordinary.

A seed head fallen into the pond.

Finding my voice!!

It’s been a while since my last post and I have spent most of the summer beating myself up because of it.

Why could I find nothing to write about?

Particularly when there was so much going on in the world that I cared so desperately about, and had both opinions and fears about why these things were happening. A change of local government, Brexit, new Prime Ministers and the Labour Party in disarry all left me floundering and longing to speak and yet again and again words left me.

But everytime I turned the computer on I had no idea what to write and how to give it any sort of a positive spin and so, eventually I gave up, wondering if in fact it would be the end of the blog.

And then it hit me. I realised that all the negative stuff was just making me feel like my voice was unheard, and I understood suddenly the power of having a voice and feeling that that voice was heard, understood and mattered. 

But more powerfully than that it made me realise what it was like to feel you have no voice, no power. To feel that you can’t change your life. That the people who could help you aren’t interested in listening to your issues about housing, schools, access to healthy food…..the list is endless.

But more importantly, it made me realise that I am lucky to have a voice. To be asked and able to talk to groups both in Bristol and further afield about the work of Incredible Edible, about horticulture, plants, growing and food is an extraordinary priviledge and one I never take lightly. But also to have a readership on this blog, and others that I write for, that creates discussion and debate and means I am able to be a part of a global community of food activists, growers, horticulturists and horticuluralists, writers, and more who are prepared to listen and get involved with this world wide conversation.

And that made me think about this blog. What were it’s aims and how could I move it forwards, linking together all the aspects of my life and experience and share those with others? I haven’t made any major decisions on that just yet, but I do know that I am going to try to post more regularly and I hope share more of my experiences, both good and bad, and even those in the middle!

So watch this space and if you don’t see anything feel free to give me a fairly gentle nudge!

The Independent Plant Nurseries Guide!

Working on this project has been an honour. To work with 2 other such committed people to create a space where our local, independent nurseries can put themselves for free, and begin to make that community of nurseries that going forwards, we hope, will help to support each other is not only a pleasure but also a really humbling thing. 

It's also wonderful to be able to get out to people who regularly buy plants, want to support local growers but are struggling to find them, where they are and how to get in touch with them. Whilst people may want to buy local if you don't know where to go, it's a challenge for sure.

But for me it's far more than that. For years, both whilst working in the nursery industry, I've been aware of the challenges facing our growers. Gardening is so often seen as a spring and summer thing, and plant sales rely on good weather to such a degree that a bad spring or even an early Easter with poor weather, can completely ruin a nursery's financial projections for the year ahead, and mean the following winter is beyond difficult. We know we can't predict the weather or enable financial projections to be perfect, but what we can do is spread the word around the guide, bring on board new nurseries either found by us or our readers, and encourage interaction with the site by nurseries so we can really help to put a spotlight on all our wonderful British growers.

For sure the final push was poor Monty Don's comments on Gardeners World, but let's look beyond that oversight now. For years so many of us have thought and talked about what could be done, but the reality of that comment was the ignition of a positive flame that once lit refused to be put out. For that we should be grateful, and I certainly am. It enabled action, a thing that by now you'll know I'm quite fond of!!

So how can you support the project I hear you ask? Well, use the contact form on the site to send us your favourite local, independent growers names and details for a start!! We launched knowing we had huge gaps and slowly they are being filled. Spread the news far and wide and visit these amazing places, talk to the growers and let others know they exist. Share our posts on social media, linking to your favourite places. And spend your pennies locally, in your local economy!!

And finally, I must thank my co-contributors. Matt Currie has worked tirelessly at night and on weekends to first build and then populate the site. His commitment to this project is huge and unfailing, and we could never have come to this point without him. 

And then there is Sacha Hubbard, who has trawled through the Internet finding the details of the nurseries, emailing them and sending their info on for inclusion. Running the tea room at Hill House Nursery in Devon, supporting her husband Ray in the running of the nursery and doing the work on this must continue to be a constant juggle and I salute her determination.

And my roll? Well I'm the mouthy one, with the bit between my teeth not only about supporting our British growers and the industry I love, but also passionate about seeing local economies gain strength and saving our land based industries from the corporate power that threatens to overwhelm. 

And I also love a well grown, loved plant, that's been grown by someone I can speak to about it. So I unashamedly do not apologise for going on about the Independent British Nurseries Guide, either now or in the future.

Sometimes action speaks louder than a thousand words-let's hope this action help make change for the gardening community and the nurseries helping our gardens to become places of success and growth.

www.independentplantnurseriesguide.uk 

14 years on........

14 years ago I lost my mum.

Not for a few seconds in a crowd, but forever to that evil disease cancer. She went from well to gone in 3 months, giving neither her or us anything like enough time or warning to allow us to do anything during those weeks but live day to day, taking things as they came, shock by shock. In early May they gave her 12 weeks, but she was gone in less than 4.

The minute we knew the cancer was terminal we organised a trip to RHS Chelsea. She had always wanted to go, and somehow never had, and we were all determined that we would get her there, so we bought tickets for the Thursday and began to plan. And there was a lot of planning as we had no clue what her health would be like. We spoke to the ticket people and explained that there could be wheelchairs needed, and we knew not what else, and they calmly told us whatever was needed would be provided, presumably hearing my voice wobble continuously as I spoke.

It's funny what you do when someone is dying. It's like having a tiny baby and all thought of anything other than that person is almost gone. We lived our lives dashing up and down the A1, often for just a few hours and I remember one evening her becoming so excited as the Chelsea trailers began on the BBC. It was almost too much not to tell her but we didn't as the disappointment had she been too ill would have been dreadful. I remember leaving to do the 3 hour journey home thinking that at the very least we were going to get her there......

And then on May 16th it all went wrong. She suddenly became critically unwell, morphine began to be given and when, at 5 o'clock on that sunny afternoon I heard the phone ring, a voice of doom told me what it was. I remember Andy going to answer it saying it'll be a cold caller, and following him into the room seconds later to see him ashen, crying and just saying how terribly sorry he was. And that was it. She had gone. Aged 61 and with so much left to do.

It's funny how the world doesn't stop when somebody dies. It feels like it should. Like you should have the option to get off for a bit too. Looking back today I remember so much of the minutiae of the next few days and yet nothing. Nothing until finding out that the funeral would be the following Thursday. The day we were meant to be taking her to Chelsea. 

Fast forward a couple of years and the nursery I was working for decided to have a stand in the Floral Marquee, and we were all put on a rota to attend. I had never been up to this point but instead had watched plants I'd had a hand in growing from the comfort of the sofa after the run up which often saw crazy 18 hour days and the regular Chelsea Dance of moving plants about to ensure they were at their best on judging day so part of me was very excited as I desperately wanted to see the plants we'd grown in situ, but part of me was distraught. Going without Mum seemed the most disloyal thing I could do. 

I remember going to my then boss and saying all this, thinking he would think I was mad. He was determined I would go but changed the rota around so it wasn't the Thursday, but the Saturday and saying he was determined I would both go, enjoy it and come back with something. Which I did as Claire Austin who was next to us gave me a stunning Iris, which had become a huge clump in our last garden and I reckon could well be getting ready to flower right now. People were immensely kind and I remember my colleagues who obviously all knew how hard it was and yet were saying nothing, being extremely kind that day.

But Chelsea is upon us again. Social media is full of gardens being put in, the Floral Marquee going up and being populated by those amazing nurseries, with their sparkling array of stunning plants and flowers. With designers and landscapers starting to tell their narratives. And here that means an overwhelming sense of sadness has begun. Every year it is the hardest time, and every year I just want to pick up the phone and tell her my little part. But I can't. 

So every year since then I have been. I have gone to stand on nurseries stands and talk plants to lovely folk all day, or I have gone with my blogger/social media hat on, or a couple of times both. And I have taken photos, drunk in the gardens and the plants, met with other folk I know, but always with the thought that somehow I'm carrying her with me, enjoying it for us both. I have stood on Main Street gardens at 7am with the sun on my face knowing how proud she would be, and last year I stood in the pouring rain sobbing at the beauty that was Dan Pearson's garden knowing that she would have adored it. And also knowing there would be plans for unfeasibly large rocks balancing precariously once she got home.

But this year I won't be there. Refused a press pass and tickets all sold out, as the opening date gets closer, the stark reality is for the first time in 12 years I won't be walking around the site, feeling that she's with me. I won't be wandering what she might have thought of the detailing or the new nursery, or the ridiculously over priced fish and chips. 

Which all feels like the end of an era. It is only this minute, writing this, that I realise just how sad this is making me feel. Approaching the anniversary each year has been tempered by the  knowledge that the passion we both shared for plants, gardens and how they work both as structures and designs but also for people was about to have its moment and that I'd be there, almost reporting back, was somehow comforting. But weirdly that comfort blanket is gone and the pain feels far more raw, the anniversary far more challenging. 

Now some will say I'm after sympathy and a ticket but that couldn't be further from the truth. My diary for that week is chock full, my schedule madness, and I hadn't even really planned to write this. But sometimes we must go with the words that come. And sometimes the writing of the words is cathartic in itself. I feel calmer than when I began. 

I'm not sure how to end. I always try to have a positive end but the next few days I fear will be hard, stretching me and seeing me fight the overwhelming urge to hide and not give into the black dog who is always skulking about, waiting for a moment of weakness to pounce. But I will say this. 

Hold your loved ones tight, forget your differences and protect each other with fierce determination. 

Let them know you love them. 

Make sure you say everything you need to say. 

Living in a food desert......

There's so much talk about food deserts but mainly we hear it from large, deprived areas of cities in the US and there's often some debate about whether they exist here in the UK. Inevitably the situation is not as dire here as our cities are smaller, and it would be rare to have to drive for half an hour to buy an apple in a city, although in areas in the countryside not so rare. However I'm going to talk cities as that's my experience and where I'm working.

Any city, as Bristol does, that has 16 working food banks, obviously has people living in crisis and food poverty. However, food poverty isn't just related to food deserts and, sadly, with access to food banks being quite difficult to attain, it's also questionable as to whether everyone in food poverty can even get to that food when needed. Far from it for me to criticise the food banks as they do amazing work, but the system to get to that food is long and complicated, usually including doctors and/or social services, which often is uncomfortable or even impossible for people due to personal circumstances. 

People are often very surprised to hear of food banks in Bristol. With its reputation as a foodie city, and its status in 2015 as European Green Capital, its reputation is somewhat different to its reality. For sure Bristol is full of amazing restaurants and has an abundance of community supported agriculture projects, city farms and community gardens, but it also has areas where people struggle to access fresh and most importantly affordable food for themselves and their families. Little did I know when I moved out of the city centre, that this would be something I would find out about first hand.

Where I live, in South Bristol, unless you have a car, which I don't as I don't drive, the closest supermarket other than the convenience store at the garage or the corner shop that sells sugary snacks and noodles in pots but not a pint of milk, is over 2 miles away. For sure there are buses, but buses no longer have the place to put your shopping at the front, as it's been utilised for free newspapers, so it's really important only to carry onto the bus the amount you can hold within your seat area. The buses in our area are really well used and are often packed so more than 3/4 bags is impossible, and in reality 2 bags for life is your limit. I've seen drivers refuse people entry to the bus with more. 

For me this is hard. I want a diet full of fresh, locally grown where possible, food that's good for me. The reality of the supermarkets that are accessible by bus most easily is that they are fairly small stores and their range is limited. A lot of the food isn't ingredients, but ready meals, pizzas, and their vegetarian options are limited to say the very least! 

Fizzy pop, crisps, biscuits, pastries and cakes are given far, far more space than fruit, veg or fresh meat and fish, with all the offers on snacks rather than good food. But of course I have options and choice, and although it means being more organised, I am lucky that I can fairly easily access the Bristol food scene that we all know of, and that with an allotment and garden I can grow a lot of our food myself.

But what about those people with limited choices, or no choice at all? What about parents juggling jobs, often with unsociable hours, and often more than 2 in order to pay the bills? What about families with no car? Or even with a car, but with several jobs that car always being out with the working parent? What about single parents struggling on one income? All these people are time poor as well as living somewhere that has been designed as a dormer suburb, with little thought to the logistics of life. Over and again I attend community consultations about food where I hear the clear message that what the community wants is a supermarket. And over and over I see middle class choice not understanding need. For sure community shops, box schemes and deliveries from local suppliers are wonderful but for many they are just not affordable, or what they want. Many of us take for granted the ease of a supermarket, or the expectation of having weekends and evenings free, but for many families this just isn't the case.

I have an understanding of this, as my husband is a prison officer who specialises in mental health and suicide prevention in a hectic women's prison. He works long hours, and does a job where he can't just leave when it's his allotted time. He also works every other weekend. Due to his work, for obvious reasons, we don't live too close to his workplace, so he has to take the car as public transport simply doesn't exist. Family life for us has always meant juggling his work commitments around everything else that has to be done. Easy when you live in a small town with two supermarkets and nigh on impossible when you don't.

So what is the answer? Well the answer is design. The answer is to stop building housing estates without thinking about food provision and stopping the expectation that everyone has  use of a car to visit out of town supermarkets. 

But what's also  important is finding communities that are struggling and empowering them to help themselves by creating positivity around the issues and looking at exciting, engaging ways to get people to look at how they connect with food.

But, and here's the crux of the point, whilst our government is happy to give control of our food provision to the supermarkets, effectively giving them a green light to behave in any way they want, it is going to be people power that changes things. Generally food deserts in the UK appear because the big guns know that people will have to visit them, however hard it is to do so, because there is no option and once in through the doors, their clever marketing has you in its hold. We need to demand that this changes, through both urban planning, local and national government but most importantly through people power.....

And with that ladies and gentlemen, I say...... 

'Watch this space'

Guerilla gardening or good use of a lost poiece of land?