What’s on

Smiling sunflowers for National Children’s Gardening week!

Grow your own smiling sunflower!

Shopping list

Instructions

  1. Fill your small pots with compost.
  2. Plant a seed in each pot and give it a watering. Put your pot onto a window sill and water it once the seed sprouts so the compost stays damp.
  3. As your sunflower grows, tie the stem of the sunflower loosely to the bamboo cane with your garden string to support your plants.
  4. Once the frosty weather is over (usually mid-May), dig a hole in your garden for your sunflower. Ideally dig it next to a wall or fence that gets lots of sun.
  5. Squeeze your sunflower and the compost it’s growing in out of your pot, and plant it in the hole you’ve dug. Put a bamboo cane next to your sunflower, and give your sunflower a good watering.
  6. As your sunflower grows, make sure you tie the stem to the bamboo cane loosely with garden string. Try tying it using a ‘figure-of-eight’ knot as this will reduce any rubbing on the stem.
  7. When your sunflower appears, gently tease out the seed heads to make a fantastic sunny smiling face.
  8. Send us a picture !

National Children’s Gardening Week – 25 May to 2 June

Planted Pants to Grow in the garden!

Shopping list

Instructions:

  1. Find a spot in the garden where you want to plant your trousers.
  2. Tie the legs of the trousers into knots so that compost can’t come out of the bottom of the trouser legs.
  3. Push the bamboo canes into the belt hoops around the trouser waist, and tie them there with string. You’ll need to tie in at least three or four canes for each pair of trousers.
  4. Push the bamboo canes into the ground so your trousers are standing up.
  5. Now fill your trousers with the compost to just an inch or two below the waist.
  6. Give the trousers a good watering. If the compost settles and no longer comes close to the waist, top up the trousers with some more compost.
  7. Now you can plant the waist of your trousers with your seeds or plants. If you pick some tumbling plants they’ll trail down the legs.
  8. Try cutting some openings into the trouser legs and putting seeds or plants into the holes for a fun ripped jeans look!

Have fun!

RHS Chelsea Flower Show – Helping Children Grow

The excitement of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 will soon be upon us and we are so excited about the new plants that will feature on its Discovery Zone exhibit ‘Helping Children Grow’.

The exhibit promotes National Children’s Gardening Week which takes place between 25 May – 2 June 2019 and is supported by National Garden Gift Vouchers. Working with National Children’s Gardening Week Ambassador Chris Collins the exhibit features fun and inspiring projects such as edible planters, a pizza wheel, runner bean tipis and a wildlife hotel.

Alongside the plants required for the projects there will be three new plants which will be put forward for the RHS Chelsea 2019 Plant of the Year Award. These are:

Nepeta Neptune bred by Kees Jan Kraan and entered by Thompson & Morgan.
This brand new selection of Catmint has a compact upright habit of just 30cm. It is ideal for borders and patio pots. This low maintenance perennial is hardy down to -25ºC and will flower from June to September. Its flowers are mauve blue with beautiful dark blue spots.

Ajuga Princess Nadia bred by Nadia Plants and entered by Thompson & Morgan.
Ajuga tenorii ‘Princess Nadia’ brings together the best variegated foliage and flower spikes of the genus. A controlled creeping habit, true hardiness, and evergreen foliage offers a wide range of garden uses and year-round interest. This truly is a plant for all seasons.

Apple Eden bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and entered by Frank P Matthews.
The first of its kind, Eden is a non-browning commercial and garden apple. Delicious for fresh eating and cooking, it has a whole host of uses including cooking down to a snow-white puree that is sweet, so no additional sugar is needed. It is easy to grow and disease resistant.

These are fantastic plants to encourage children into gardening and we can’t wait to see the winning one!

Rewilding Event

We’re delighted to be holding our annual rewilding event between 27-28 April. Dalgety Bay community woodland group will be here along with Eats Rosyth on the Saturday.  Edible And Tasty Spaces (EATS) is a project which is now in its third year in across Fife.  EATS are unfenced public spaces which are planted with fruit, vegetable and flowers. People are able to ‘help themselves’ to ripe produce or the food is harvested and given to community groups.  It’s a fantastic community initiative and one which we whole-heartedly support.  EATS will be here between 12pm and 3pm on Saturday. 

On Sunday 28th, we will have Heather our resident bee keeper, horticulturist and lecturer at the SRUC.  Heather has worked with bees for years and will be happy to take any questions.  She’ll be here from 12pm on Sunday.

As usual we will have some special offers on items including a variety of herbacious perennials to help you attract wildlife back into your garden.

June –Dalgety Bay Gala

June –Dalgety Bay Gala

Gardening Scotland takes place this year from 31 May to 2 June.

Gardening Scotland takes place this year from 31 May to 2 June.  We’re delighted to be attending and look forward to catching up with some familiar faces.  It’s a great weekend to celebrate all things gardening.

May – Container gardening & Gardening Scotland.

May – Container gardening & Gardening Scotland.

April – Trellis, Bees and re-wilding

April – Trellis, Bees and re-wilding

RSPB – 30-31 March.

March – RSPB – 30-31 March. The RSPB will be visiting The Plant Market to discuss birdcare throughout the year.

2-3 March.  Grow Your Own weekend.

The team will be on hand to advise you on how to get the best out of growing  your own.  We’re also lucky enough to have the team from EATS Rosyth coming along as well.