Are you an avid gardener, but would like to know more about gardening, plants and horticulture? Would you like to meet people who share your interest in gardening? If so, you may be interested in becoming a MASTER GARDENER.

What is a MASTER GARDENER? Master Gardeners are individuals who have an interest in horticulture, have taken the Master Gardener training offered by the extension service and share their time and expertise with other gardeners. It is the acquisition of knowledge, their skill in gardening and giving back to the community that distinguishes a Master Gardener from other gardeners.

The purpose of the Iowa Master Gardener Program is to provide unbiased, scientific-based horticultural information to the citizens of Iowa through the volunteer efforts of Master Gardeners. Master Gardeners are residents of a community who take an active interest in horticulture. They receive training in horticulture through the ISU Extension. In return for their training, Master Gardeners volunteer in extension horticulture programs and projects, which enhance the community.

The requirements to become a Master Gardener include a $150 fee to cover the cost of educational materials and a commitment to do 40 hours of extension service. Individuals receive instruction in a wide range of horticulture and related areas: houseplants, herbaceous ornamentals, turf grass, vegetables, woody landscape plants, plant propagation, fruits, soils, wildlife management, pesticide safety, integrated pest management, plant pathology, entomology and garden design.

Training will be offered for Benton County this spring. Training sessions last for three hours and are held once a week. You would also be expected to attend one Saturday on-campus session. The instructors are state and local extension specialists as well as knowledgeable, local gardeners. After completion of the training program, individuals become Master Gardener Interns. They are promoted to the title of Master Gardener upon completion of their 40-hour service commitment. Master Gardeners can remain active members in following years by attending six or more hours of in-service education and contributing twelve or more hours of community service.

Training for the Spring 2012 Master Gardener class is being offered jointly by the Benton and Black Hawk County Extension Offices in January, February and March on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm. If you are interested in becoming an Iowa Master Gardener, contact the Benton County Extension Office at phone: 319-472-4739 for an application or to find out more information. Applications will be accepted until December 20 and interviews will be scheduled later in December to select participants for classes that begin in January.

Read the rest of this entry »

"I don't like weeding, but it's got to get done," Tommie Jones said philosophically, yanking unwanted sprouts from a row of onions at The Arc's Vintage Garden Farm at Loyola and Joseph streets Uptown. Alexis Nick, in a wide straw hat and gardening gloves, has another point of view. "One of my very best, favorite jobs is weeding," she said, kneeling by a pepper plant several rows away.

It was a warm fall day, and the pair were tending the organic garden at Arc, a nonprofit agency that supports people with intellectual disabilities. In the shadow of the Wolfe Center, a former estate occupying a city block, the garden takes up less than one-eighth of an acre, according to farm manager Kasey Mitchell. But it's bursting with orderly rows of bushy pepper plants, arugula, collards and kale. Wandering over compost piles are bright flowers, planted to attract beneficial insects such as wasps, which prey upon caterpillars, and honeybees.

The garden is among three small farms operated by Arc where adults with disabilities hold jobs raising vegetables and flowers. Ikeyona House, 27, comes in from her home in eastern New Orleans every day to rake, water and weed. As sweat rolled down her face, she said she'd rather work indoors, but she's become something of an expert in the garden, showing Jones and fellow worker Frederick Bowie, 26, where to find tools they need. The workers are taken by van from farm to farm, Mitchell said.

The produce can be found on the tables of local restaurants Herbsaint and Cochon and is sold at the American Can Co. farmer's market on Thursday afternoons, Mitchell said. The flowers also find their way to diners' tables, in sunny bouquets of cosmos, zinnias and lemongrass arranged by worker Nick.
"After Hurricane Katrina, we decided to go as green and healthy with everything as we could," said Nicole Blair, director of Arc Enterprises. Adults with disabilities are given information on health and wellness and assistance in living healthy lifestyles, she said. The other businesses Arc runs include Vintage Garden Kitchen, which delivers healthy soups to local homes and restaurants. There's also the Mardi Gras bead recycling business and a "green" janitorial service.

Jobs in the garden pay minimum wage, helping adults with disabilities make ends meet. "It's about reaching independence, not only in financial ability but to create a life," Blair said.

"We don't really have much of a budget," Mitchell said. But the farm program, which includes larger plots in Metairie and Chalmette, is moving toward paying for itself. Half a pound of freshly picked arugula, for instance, sells for $5 at the farmers market. Last year the Uptown farm harvested and sold several hundred pounds of the spicy salad greens, Mitchell said. The money goes into salaries, equipment and seeds. Arc makes up the shortfall, but the deficit is narrowing, he said.

Mitchell, 41, has been with Arc for two years. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo., working on his uncle's farm. In college he studied biology, environmental science and painting, and later worked with farmers in India for three years.

Sustainable, organic microfarming is a rapidly growing niche in the age of industrial food production, Mitchell said. Vintage Garden Farm uses no chemical fertilizers. One corner of the garden is covered in legumes that draw nitrogen out of the atmosphere and fix it in the soil to restore the nutrient. When Mitchell is ready to plant the corner, the legume plants will be chopped up and folded back into the soil to provide additional organic material.

As the program grows, Mitchell hopes to expand his workforce. There are seven workers now, including five who have intellectual disabilities and two supervisory staffers. Jones, 28, was a janitor before Hurricane Katrina. He was also 50 pounds heavier, he said. Watering, raking, harvesting and, yes, weeding have slimmed him down. His favorite job? "I like flipping compost," he said. "I don't like the way it smells, but I like flipping it."

Read the rest of this entry »

Just what the ABC needs, another gardening series. Fortunately, this is different – more travelogue than plant show – with world famous gardener Monty Don (hence the first part of the title) heading off to Italy to show us some of the most magnificent backyards you'll ever see (and there's the last part). First up is Rome, where he visits various villas, mansions and castles. They're all pretty good but the highlight is a look at the Papal Gardens, a series of carefully crafted stages that have been centuries in the making. A must for anyone interested in seeing what can be done with a reasonably sized plot, millions of dollars and a few thousand dedicated staff.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently caught up with Mike Leigh’s rather splendid film Happy Go Lucky. In one scene, the incurably cheerful heroine Poppy, with her younger sister Suzy and best friend Zoe, visits her other sister Helen. The trip is not a success. Helen is pregnant and the owner of a husband, a suburban semi, a pension plan and a mortgage, all of which alienate her from her single, free-spirited visitors. Just to make sure we get the message, Helen is also in danger of becoming interested in gardening, indicated by her pride in her new roses and busy lizzies.

Leigh is being both heavy-handed and lazy here, but in truth he’s only following an ancient literary tradition. For centuries, one of the surest ways of signalling that a character is a bit of a twerp has been to make him (usually him) a gardener. The keener the gardener, the bigger the twerp. Jane Austen didn’t start this, but in Pride and Prejudice she enthusiastically promoted the idea. Mr Collins, one of literature’s great bores and idiots, is only tolerable as a husband for Elizabeth Bennet’s friend Charlotte because he spends most of his time in the garden.

“To work in his garden was one of his most respectable pleasures, and Elizabeth admired the command of countenance with which Charlotte talked of the healthfulness of the exercise, and owned she encouraged it as much as possible.”

Another tradition is that keen gardeners bore audiences rigid with their enthusiasm. Again, Mr Collins is typical. “Here, leading the way through every walk and cross walk, and scarcely allowing them an interval to utter the praises he asked for, every view was pointed out with a minuteness which left beauty entirely behind.”

Gardening scarcely features in Anthony Powell’s masterpiece A Dance to the Music of Time, but it can hardly be a coincidence that Kenneth Widmerpool – surely a candidate for the most obnoxious individual in 20th-century English fiction – is the only character in the entire 12-volume sequence with any horticultural connection.

Powell gives other reasons to dislike Widmerpool, but you know he will come to a bad end when you discover that his father’s business was the supply of liquid manure to the gentry. In The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford describes with relish the “herbaceous enthusiasms” of Sir Leicester Kroesig, the epitome of herbaceousness, the quintessence of smug dullness.

The dreadful Rosemary and Thyme detective series on ITV was rightly criticised as being hopelessly unrealistic, with two middle-aged ladies tripping over another dead body behind the rose bushes every week. But what did you expect? Rosemary (Pam Ferris) and Laura (Felicity Kendal) are gardeners. Everyone knows gardening isn’t a serious occupation, so we know this is just Midsomer Murders with horse manure.

How did gardeners come to occupy this peculiar position, somewhere between vicars and traffic wardens? It’s all the more surprising when you consider that attitudes to gardening and gardeners in children’s literature are generally positive. No one will forget quickly the redemptive power of gardening in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Several of the books my children loved when they were young had gardening themes: The Enormous Turnip, Peter Rabbit, Jam by Margaret Mahy, and the best of them all, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But it seems that when it’s time to put away childish things, gardening – although far from childish – goes with them.

Gardening has also found itself on the unfashionable side in some of society’s great debates, including youth v age (like classical music, gardening is something you take up when you’re too old for Glastonbury and motorcycles) and class – the gardening classes, whether the owners of flat hats, racing pigeons and whippets, of suburban semis, or of Blandings Castle, have never been trendy.

Gardening has never been cool; can you picture George Clooney deadheading his dahlias? I didn’t think so. Aside from some mild one-upmanship, gardening is not really a competitive activity, which makes it frivolous in the eyes of men, who are generally far more competitive than women.

It’s also hard to make gardening even slightly perilous. “Down these mean streets a man must go” is fair enough, but “mean allotments” or “mean herbaceous borders” doesn’t have quite the same ring.
Gardeners are among the most laid-back, generous, serene and, above all, tolerant people you could hope to meet. In other words, as far as it’s possible to get from homicide detectives, terrorists, gangsters and fighter pilots, and certainly not people brimming with potential for dramatic tension.

So, if the narrative demands a character who is inoffensive, dull, and maybe a bit soft in the head, gardening is the obvious solution for the lazy author. Here’s a challenge to all you aspiring novelists: there’s room out there for a genre-busting protagonist; a secret agent or detective who, on his (or her) day off, is locked in a life-and-death struggle with vine weevil.

Read the rest of this entry »

The gardening trend that is currently sweeping the country – nay, let’s say sweeping a good portion of the gardening world, a trend that has many of us totally mesmerized -- is vertical gardening . At first glance, I was enchanted, intrigued, and fascinated by it. Now, after viewing many more vertical “garden” walls, the best I can admit to …I embrace the concept, but am only half-heartedly drawn to their implementation with open arms as I once was.

Why?

Because many people with a blank back fence or wall are jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the system or the long-term significance of the project.

Living tapestries

You may be familiar with Patrick Blanc’s amazing vertical garden system known as Le Mur Vegetal, which allows both plants and architecture to live in harmony with each other. For those who aren’t, Blanc is the French botanist who, for the past decade or so, has been transforming vertical urban outside walls, mostly in Europe and Australia, into intricate living tapestries that include hundreds of species of plants of a complexity and scale never before realized.

Probably best known for his dramatic, yet gorgeous, living wall on the Musee du Quai Branly  in France, Blanc devised an ingenious three-part system, consisting of a PVC layer, felt, and metal frame, which replicates the habitat of plant communities that thrive on wet vertical rock surfaces in nature the world over.

But the underlying secret to Blanc’s system is well-thought-out hydroponics. As fascinating as his technology is, it’s the visual aesthetics that capture and captivate the imagination. At the very least, Blanc has redefined the meaning of “garden wall.”

While his system is “soilless” and financially out of reach of most of us, many of the other green-wall systems available to gardeners and landscapers today involve some soil, be it suspended in bags or held in bracketed cubbyholes of some sort.

Maintenance requirements not met

Take a garden I saw this summer. Well-planned and beautiful, it was a kaleidoscope of healthy colorful plants that lifted your spirits as soon as you saw it. Well, at least until you reached the back fence!

That’s where the impact of the garden deteriorated. There, three tiers of a black felt-based vertical gardening system were hung horizontally across the fence. Filled to the brim in bulging pockets of soil (and black felt exposed all around them), were numerous different succulents, painfully struggling for survival.

These plants, which are hardy here and typically thrive in the ground even with benign neglect, were, when suspended in felt against the south-facing wall, in need of constant watering in order to cope with the heat and wind of a Midwest summer. Unfortunately, their needs weren’t met – and the whole effect was awful.

Google "vertical gardens" and you will come up with tons of DIY ideas and pictures of beautiful living wall, vertical gardens. But as to information on irrigation, plant choices, weather, and site considerations and the cultural requirements of plants? Not so much!

And therein lies the problem. Done correctly by knowledgeable landscapers or gardeners, the effect is awesome. Conceived by people who don’t understand the systems, plant species choices, or proper cultural requirements, the end result is appalling, to say the least.

And it’s not always the fault of the system.

A shining example

The folks at Ball Horticulture Co. in West Chicago, Ill., got it right. (Unfortunately, Ball is open to the public only once a year during The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Check its website for schedules.)

Read the rest of this entry »

The folks at the Dunwoody Nature Center are going native on us.  They have announced that the Nature Center will henceforth be a “living lab” for the use of native plants.  According to their press release, “The theme of native plants will be included in the curriculum for children’s classes, adult training events, summer camps and other aspects of the Dunwoody Nature Center’s work.  Community events, festivals, plant sales and fundraising efforts will also focus on themes of native plants.”

As one who toils in the soils at the Dunwoody Nature Center, I can’t help but applaud this effort.  The Nature Center and Master Gardeners have been using native plants almost exclusively for many years.  The new twist is that we will use the gardens, and future plantings, as demonstration sites for anyone visiting the Nature Center.  Visitors will be able to see how native plants can be used effectively in the landscape.  Visitors, especially kids, will learn about how native plants and our wildlife coexist to their mutual benefit in a sustainable and attractive native landscape.  This is a good thing.  It lays down a basis for us and our children to learn new ways of doing things, both in the garden and in the wild.   The Dunwoody Nature Center should be commended for taking a leadership role with this step.
The concern about what is happening with native plants in our area results from a couple of major factors.

We are all familiar with the sprawling nature of Atlanta.  Gainesville, Canton, Woodstock and other once distant towns are now centers of suburban development.  The resultant loss of habitat for plants, trees, birds, and wildlife has been devastating.  Thousands upon thousands of acres of natural habitat have been turned into homes, roads and commercial development. This leads to the loss of food resources for native wildlife.  

Poor developmental planning and ill-designed drainage systems damage water resources with runoff and flooding.  Roads, traffic and concentrations of people upset feeding and breeding patterns for birds, critters and even the insects and microbes that form the bottom layers of the natural food chain.  
In addition to our loss of vast acres of natural habitat, we have seen the introduction of hundreds of species of non-native plants.  Just as bulldozers can destroy the naturally balanced habitat so can the introduction and spread of non-native species of plants.  

Landscaping for homes and businesses has brought in many, many non-native plants. We are all familiar with the horrors of kudzu. It replaces, takes over and drives out native plants in a most dramatic fashion. But it is not always that dramatic.

The same thing is happening on a much more subtle scale with the massive use of non-native ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers at house after house in our expanding number of subdivisions.
I know that I have had to rethink my own approaches to selecting plants for my own gardens.  While there is certainly room for the judicious use of non-native species, we need to foster an interest and a willingness to look first to our great wealth of native Georgia plants to decorate our homes and businesses.  

The Native Plant Initiative at the Dunwoody Nature Center is a most positive step in that direction.  It will demonstrate how native plants, wildflowers, trees and shrubs can enhance our homes and our community while helping to restore and preserve a better balance of our natural, native resources.
Garden-wise, you just can’t do much better than that.  So, come on over and watch us “go native” at the Dunwoody Nature Center.

Read the rest of this entry »

I first visited Russia earlier this year when I went to Moscow for the International Spring Garden Show — it was snowing, of course. The road from the airport was jam-packed and it took a couple of hours to get to the show venue. My late arrival left me only 20 minutes or so to judge the best small garden of the Russian House & Garden magazine exhibits, before a grand dinner and prize presentation.

Each of the show gardens was dedicated to a gardening celebrity and was supposed to represent some aspect of their character. However, since I knew none of the celebs, this concept passed me by.
I also failed to spot any evidence of spring — I had thought the show would be full of narcissus and hyacinths. Instead, there was lots of artificial cherry blossom and great, bloated hydrangeas.

There were stands and stands of very good garden furniture, and a whole adjoining hall full of saunas, barbecues and outdoor kitchens — all waiting for summer – and an oligarch to buy them, no doubt.
But the primary reason for my visit was to hold a masterclass in garden design with an interpreter. My audience — about 200 strong – seemed terribly enthusiastic about English cottage gardens, which I couldn’t quite reconcile with all those saunas and pizza ovens. Many attendees owned suburban homes, but typically they had a vast birch or pine forest backdrop to work against. The difference in scale and planting style is just too great for a cottage garden to work.

In fact, there is very little in the way of good modern design to guide the owner of a small garden in Russia. The contemporary examples I saw were Victorian in spirit – with left over bits of grass, fussy paths and no sense of a broad sweep.

I revisited the show gardens, which set me thinking about them. I kept on at my students about wanting to perceive something Russian in their designs. What did I mean, they asked?
I explained that, although I’d seen an exhibit which was the essence of Finland, and another of Japan, there was nothing in the show at which I could exclaim: “Ah – Russia!”

I have been trying to analyse for myself what a modern Russian suburban garden would look like. Setting aside the pre-Revolutionary fondness for classicism, there was an extraordinary burst of modernity in Russia from the end of the 19th century, and then after 1917 in art, architecture, music and dance.
But there has been little sign of this since, certainly in outdoor design. It is interesting to speculate that Russian design could have taken this direction – or that a new generation may be about to rediscover modernity.

New shoots
I also spent some time this year in St Petersburg, giving master classes and doing assessments of young professional designers’ work. On my last trip in October I became aware of the growing interest in pre-Revolutionary culture and historic gardens in particular – I was shown some exciting restoration work at the Summer Garden of Peter the Great who founded the city in the 17th century, on the Gulf of Finland.
The restoration is a huge project which opens next spring. French in style, with lime allées, new marble fountains and statuary, aviaries and conservatories, it reflects the grand aristocratic tradition of a class who spoke French, and looked to the court of Versailles as inspiration.

I also saw two 18th century gardens, designed in the English style. These more rugged landscapes dotted with temples were instantly recognisable, but planted with birch, conifers and willow rather than oak and beech.

The first of these, also about to be restored, was Mon Repos at Vyburg, two hours’ drive north of St Petersburg, in an area that was once part of Finland. In the morning mist the garden seemed almost more Japanese in style than English – but lovely. I also went to Pavlovsk Palace on the outskirts of St Petersburg, the former Russian Imperial residence, which was magnificent. Outside there was more rolling English-style parkland, very handsome indeed.

The students I was teaching had come from across Russia. The scale of the country is enormous – almost outside my comprehension. Some were local of course, but five came from Siberia, one from Vladivostock, another from the Caucasus. One told me he lived much nearer to the US than to St Petersburg, across (I think) 13 time zones. However, I reminded them (and myself) that for garden designers the common denominator wherever they work is people – and how they live outdoors.

There are some comparable environments that young designers can look to for inspiration. The crippling Russian winters are not so different from those in Canada – or indeed Chicago, a centre of modern architecture and native planting design. And in St Petersburg I did see some local gardens with large layouts, often on boggy ground and surrounding elegant minimalist new country homes. Some designers are producing calm, sophisticated layouts with excellent ground shaping.

And they are using native plants at last – white poplar, willow, silver leafed cornus and grey eleagnus. These all tend to be set against a backdrop of native birch and pine forest, which often dictates the scale with which Russian gardeners have to work. These new country gardens are not particularly floriferous and definitely not “cottage” but are lovely in an understated, calm way.

So my first impressions were wrong. Young Russian designers are creating a new Russian style, and caring for the older tradition as well. Glasnost in the garden at last, could one say?

Read the rest of this entry »

Long, dark days and chilly weather needn’t dampen a gardener’s spirits. Just because winter is approaching doesn’t mean you have to hide inside and yearn for spring. Go back to school: Take advantage of all the workshops, classes and outings geared toward central Ohio’s nature lovers.

Columbus’ Metro Parks and many other groups have programs for children and adults alike, said Char Steelman, public gardens manager at Inniswood Metro Gardens in Westerville. The park organizes programs on everything from container gardening to animal pollination, and it organizes volunteers to help with the Audubon Society’s Christmas bird count.

Through these sorts of events, “You can be part of something greater, and you can learn so much more about what you’re already doing in the garden.”The list of classes and workshops is always growing, but here are some planned events. For other ideas, check the websites of parks, plant nurseries, craft and arts centers ,and more.

Holiday cheer
The Ohio State University Extension-Licking County in Newark will offer “Christmas Decor From the Garden,” in which participants learn how to harvest items from their landscape then turn them into holiday decorations, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The class, which costs $25, includes a cooking lesson. For more information, call 740-670-5315.

Baker’s Village Garden Center in Powell is holding trim-a-tree classes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Participants will learn how to incorporate color trends into their Christmas decorations, how to decorate a mantel, and how to make your Christmas tree look like a designer showpiece. The class costs $15. Call 614-889-9407.

The OSU Extension-Clark County in Springfield will teach how to make a wreath or table decoration from live greenery, holly, boxwood and berries from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 3. The class costs $45 and includes lunch. Call 937-521-3860.

The Franklin Park Conservatory will offer two holiday-themed workshops on Dec. 3: “Make Your Own Winter Centerpiece” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and “Make Your Own Winter Wreath” from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Both classes will teach how to choose and use natural plant materials and holiday decorations to complete the project. The cost is $70 to $80, or $63 to $72 for members. Call 614-645-5923.

Nature exploration
Becoming better acquainted with Ohio’s plants and animals can be a fun winter pursuit.

To learn more about the birds arriving at your feeder this winter, attend one of the many free bird-watching events in central Ohio, such as the backyard birding class from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 26 at Blendon Woods Metro Park in Westerville (visit www.metroparks.net to register and see a full list of events).

The Greater Mohican Audubon Society hosts bird-watching walks at the Secrest Arboretum in Wooster. The next walk is from 9 to 11 a.m. Feb. 11. Visit www.secrest. osu. Blacklick Woods Metro Park in Reynoldsburg will offer a free wildlife watch program from 8 to 10 a.m. Nov. 26. Participants can sip coffee at the nature center and look out the windows for wildlife.

If you’re ready to learn more about plants, sign up for the central Ohio Perennial School, offered annually by the OSU Extension-Clark County in Springfield, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 1. The class costs $50 and includes lectures by perennials experts. Call 937-521-3860.

Inniswood Garden Society in Westerville will host a series of garden lectures and workshops on Feb. 18 and 25. Call 614-895-6216.

The Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will offer two courses — how to identify tropical plants and how to start your own school or community garden — from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dec. 3. The cost is $20, or $15 for members. Call 614-645-5923.

Garden arts
Nature lovers can turn that passion into tangible works of art with the help of workshops led by central Ohio artisans.

Metalworkers Tom and Linda Bland help people craft metal garden sculptures at their workshop in Mount Vernon, offering daylong sculpture workshops on how to make sun, moon or dragonfly trellises, metal butterflies and garden gates. Workshops costing $225 to $350 are offered on Saturdays from January to May. Visit www.hammersongfarm.com for more information.

Shutterbugs can participate in a free “Photoprowl” at Blendon Woods Metro Park in Westerville at 9 a.m. Saturday. You can meet other photographers at the nature center and head out on the trails looking for photogenic flora and fauna. Visit www.metroparks.net.

Or you can make a handblown glass flower at Glass Axis, 1341 Norton Ave., Suite B. In the “first experience” pulled-glass flower-making class, beginners learn how to use tools to turn hot glass into ornate flowers. The class costs $50, and will be offered from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday and 1 to 4 p.m. next Sunday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Vine is standing in a cramped greenhouse surveying his vegetables with paternal pleasure, as his assistant Lou bustles in the background with tiny clippers. “This lot is worth £1,500, believe it or not,” he tells me, passing a hand over the tops of the tiny cress and cabbage plants – just a small part of the kitchen garden that the horticultural consultant has created at Lucknam Park hotel near Bath. Outside, more than 30 varieties of fruit and vegetables jostle for space in the eight raised beds that cover almost every inch of the estate’s snug Victorian walled garden.

Until last year, Vine had a successful business supplying baby salads and vegetables to the restaurant trade, employing 15 staff to maintain his three acres of Wiltshire greenhouses every day of the year. “With plants,” he says, “there’s no such thing as a bank holiday.” Friends were already urging him to slow down when what he describes as the “challenging economic situation” hit, prompting many of his customers into the arms of larger-scale operations. Vine, a notorious perfectionist – “I give Lou hell, I really do” – was not prepared to change his working methods.

Instead, after being approached by Hywel Jones, head chef at Lucknam Park’s Michelin-starred restaurant, he decided to sell up and invest in a labour of love, creating a bespoke garden to supply Jones’ kitchen. “This has always been a dream of Hywel’s,” he tells me during a tour of the raised beds outside, “things can be with him two minutes after picking – that’s proper fast food!”

As he hops from plant to plant, proffering a taste of this and a sniff of that, it is clear how much the garden stimulates Vine. “The amount of care and attention that goes into, say, the micro herbs is equal to what these guys do in the kitchen,” he says. “It’s not just a job, it’s creating something unique for chefs who work very, very hard.” His lovingly nurtured produce might end up in a simple risotto of garden vegetables in the hotel brasserie, or garnishing a slow-cooked sirloin of local beef in the restaurant – both menus suggest the kitchen is eager to make the most of its new larder.

Vine plays with produce at home, so he can persuade the kitchen to experiment with things such as bolted fennel, “which any decent gardener would chuck out,” he chuckles. “But then, most gardeners don’t work with Michelin-starred chefs – it makes me want to try harder.” In an effort to better understand “what presses their buttons”, he has even spent time working in a number of the kitchens he has supplied, including a “nerve-wracking” stint at the pass at Maze under Jason Atherton.

“I’ve spent 20 years developing a reputation for the finest produce,” he says firmly, “and I couldn’t give a second-rate product to any of the chefs I’ve worked with – I’d lose heart.” All of his gardens are tended by hand. Automated greenhouses are “horrifying – there’s no skill there. Well, there is in knowing how to programme the computer I suppose.”

This approach means he is in the garden seven days a week, watering, sowing and netting, rescuing infant radishes from unexpected sunshine and getting to the ripe fruit before the birds do. Somehow, he finds time each week to share his skills with local schoolchildren, and inmates in an open prison. “It’s very good for the soul, gardening,” he muses. “You’ve got to pass the knowledge on.”

Vine, who is self-taught, was once master of his own organic farm, but after it folded in the harsh financial climate of the 1980s he found himself working in a factory. Around that time he became friendly with the head chef at King Hussein of Jordan’s British residence, who was looking for someone to supply the kitchen with fruit and vegetables, a challenge Vine could not resist. “It was trial and error for the first 18 months,” he recalls, doing night shifts to pay the bills, working all day in the garden, and then driving three evenings a week to London with deliveries to the few restaurants he had persuaded to take the remainder of his produce. “I’ve killed an awful lot of plants over the years, believe me, but it’s all about pushing each one to the limit, finding out what it can do.”

In this pesticide-free zone, the gardener is not the only one destroying crops: Vine almost proudly points out a bed of savoy cabbages with a caterpillar problem – “the chefs don’t use the outer leaves anyway,” he shrugs, “and why does man have the God-given right to control everything?” A greater emphasis on sustainability, he believes, is vital for the health of the restaurant industry. “[It] can’t go on in the way it always has, it’s just not sensible. People say to me, that piddly little garden, what difference is that going to make to global warming – but it makes all the difference.” He pauses. “And pretty soon, I don’t think it’s going to be optional.”

Once he has trained up Lou to manage the garden at Lucknam Park, he will help other chefs to realise the same “fast food” dream. “Now’s a good time to do something else, because everything in the garden is slowing down – relax, maybe have a day off,” he says. “Although first, I’ve got a chef to see in Ireland ...”

Read the rest of this entry »

What person does not want to make gardening easier, yet aesthetically pleasing? Our recent excessively hot, dry summers and colder winters have motivated my search for plants that will survive both extremes with minimum care. One plant that meet the criteria is the wild fall aster (Aster oblongifolius) sometimes called "Aromatic American" or "Prairie Aster." Throughout summer, this long-lived, incredible performer sports fine, beautifully textured foliage and in late fall, bursts forth with an explosion of lavender, yellow-centered, daisy-like flowers. It is a native of Texas, as well as several other states.

Low-care plants
One way to ease your work in the garden is to grow low-care plants, like the aster. They do not need to be over watered or over fertilized and prefer full sun or light shade and good drainage. It is a water-wise choice for rock gardens or xeriscaping. To encourage fuller blooms and a more compact mounding habit, simply cut them back by a third around July 1.

Further consolidate gardening chores by grouping plants with the same moisture, nutrient and light requirements. Some companion plants for the aster are Mexican mint marigold, Copper Canyon daisy, Mexican bush sage, marigolds, white purple trailing lantana or Philippine violets.

Late-blooming perennial
The Texas native aster is one of our toughest and latest blooming perennials and will extend color in your landscape into late autumn. Because perennials return from the same root stock each year, they are a favorite choice of the frugal and informed gardener. In my earlier gardening days, I thought that when a plant died back, it should be dug up and replaced. I didn't know that a plant by any other name might be a perennial and would happily return the following season.

When cutting back perennials and mulching for the winter season, it is a good idea to place a marker on the spots so you will not inadvertently dig them up in a burst of spring enthusiasm. Adding a heavier layer of mulch on top of them in late fall will hold the soil's natural warmth and help preserve most perennials, even throughout the coldest winters. In a mild winter, the native aster may not have to be cut back at all.

Ubiquitous, prolific blooms
Aster is the Latin word for star, and its prolific daisy-like blooms mimic that definition. In medieval times, asters were believed to repel snakes. I haven't tested them for that quality; however, I have not, to date, encountered a snake among my asters. A popular hybrid is the Michaelmas Daisy, named in honor of St. Michael's birthday which falls on the 29th of September and coincides with its peak bloom time. The native aster located in the butterfly garden of the Victoria Educational Gardens burst into bloom on Oct. 12.

There are about 250 species worldwide including six native Texas perennial asters that are hard to tell apart. Because the wild fall aster is not commonly stocked by most garden centers, you are most likely to find them in a nursery that specializes in native plants or wildflowers.

If you are lucky enough to have a friend who has them, perhaps they will share some with you when they divide their plants in the spring.

Maintaining healthy plants
Regular division of asters will keep them healthy and resistant to disease although they have few pest or disease problems. It colonizes by rhizomes, but is easily contained. The foliage is attractive, but can almost be overlooked until blooms appear making it a good filler plant.

It is a favorite nectar source for bees, small to medium-sized butterflies, and skippers that arrive in late autumn. Propagation is best accomplished by cuttings or division.

Visit VEG to see them
To see the wild fall aster in a garden setting, visit the Victoria Educational Gardens across from the tower at Victoria Regional Airport. Two native asters are located in the butterfly garden just inside the entry gate and additional specimens grow in the International garden.

If you have not yet visited VEG, it is worth a short drive to see these beautifully-maintained grounds filled with hundreds of demonstration plants that can inspire your own landscape design.

Read the rest of this entry »