Gifts for Gardeners

gardeners gift set

We are constantly receiving emails of gift ideas for gardening lovers. Its not as easy as you think to find the ideal present for someone that loves their garden more than anything in the world. What I would suggest to people is to think outside of the box but not too far. Many garden centres and online stores sell wonderful gift packages for gardeners. Take here for example where you have pre-packaged gifts for gardeners that any gardener would love, cherish or use. I suppose they are the three main things you should always bear in mind. Will this person love cherish or use their gift. Does it relate to gardening and am I paying a reasonable price for it. Gnerally youy will find most gardening products are cheaper online anyway, even with delivery costs and most reputable garden centres will deliver your spade or garden gnome within 2 working days. I always think the trwel, flask and bag sets are a great gift. What gardener would not love something like that? 

A lot of garden Centres now place a lot of emphasis on their gift range and can offer you everything from hat boxes to crystals, figurines and glasswear. You are spoilt for choice really.

Grow Your Own

Grow your own

PlantforLife and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) have teamed up with celebrity plantsman, Chris Collins to champion the next phase of ‘grow your own’ gardening by educating people with simple tips on how easy it is to plant and grow fruit trees and berries in containers or a small space in the garden.

Your local Garden Centre should now be featuring heavily on grow your own tools, skills and passing on offers that will entice you into Growing your own vegetables. Grow your own is not a new craze, it is simply that growing your own has become far cheaper in recent years and is now cheaper than buying in any high street supermarket.
Make sure that you have the best tools to grow your own and make gardening easier by talking to your local garden centre and asking for their advice. Poplar Tree Garden Centre offer advice via email, telephone or in person in their store and you can buy many Grow your own items online which will give you everything you need to get gowing and thrive.

Spring is here.Time to start gardening

Spring is probably the busiest season in the garden. Plants are waking up, mulch needs to be removed, winter clean-up has to be done, and all before you can start planting this year’s garden.

If you have large clumps of herbaceous perennials it’s a good time to divide and replant them, as this will increase their vigour and provide spare plants for your garden. Use two forks back to back to split the clumps and water generously after replanting.

Start the growing season off right by filling your gardens with cool season flowers and vegetables. Some of these plants are hardier than we are and can be planted outdoors even before the threat of frost is past. Others may need a bit of coddling to begin with, but cool spring weather is when they shine, so don’t miss out by waiting too long to plant them

You can get a great range if seeds or plants online at places such as here:
garden centre online

Happy spring gardening

Create a Wildlife habitat in your Garden

wildlife

A detailed study of biodiversity in town and city gardens has found that they offer a vital refuge for animals and plants ? provided that those responsible for their upkeep are not too fastidious as gardeners.

It has also found that many of the preconceptions about wildlife gardening are not true. Small gardens are just as good as big gardens at attracting wildlife, suburban gardens are not always better than city gardens and non-native plants are not always harmful to native insects and birds.

Britain’s 16 million gardens are a haven for hundreds of species of animals and plants that would find it impossible to survive on intensively farmed land, said Ken Thompson of Sheffield University.

“Gardens are amazingly diverse even compared to natural habitats that are good for wildlife. Gardens are more interesting on a small scale because they are so variable. All the wildlife responds to these variables,” Dr Thompson said.

“Compared with an equivalent area of modern intensive farming, gardens are much, much better in terms of everything you measure, whether it is spiders, bugs or birds,” he said.

“It sounds heretical, but from a biodiversity perspective most farmland would be improved by having a housing estate built on it,” he told the British Science Festival.

Dr Thompson was involved in the first detailed study of the wildlife inhabiting British gardens when he and his colleagues surveyed 61 gardens in Sheffield between 1999 and 2002. They found an “astonishingly diverse” array of flora and fauna.

They also identified a range of simple measures that improved a garden’s habitability for wildlife. “The top thing is to grow more big shrubs, trees and hedges,” Dr Thompson said.

“These massively increase the volume of vegetation in your garden and a lot of vegetation means a lot of places to live and a lot of stuff to eat,” he said.

“Don’t be too tidy: don’t be in a hurry to clear up everything when the garden stops flowering. Just leave a bit of stuff lying around.

“There’s a mistaken belief that wildlife gardening is something special, something different, something odd and that a wildlife garden needs to be untidy, messy and not something you’d be proud of, but that’s not true,” Dr Thompson said.

The best gardens for wildlife needn’t cost lots of money, and many of the “wildlife” products sold in garden centres are unnecessary, he said.
“Decking is a disaster. One of the findings of the Sheffield study was the very clear relationship between hard surfaces of any sort and less wildlife. It doesn’t matter what it is ? as long as it’s hard, it’s bad,” he added.

How to get a more natural garden

*Plant large shrubs and let them grow big. Shrubs and trees produce more vegetation where wildlife can live and eat.

*Allow at least some flowers to turn to seed and the lawn to grow tall. Don’t be in a hurry to clear up fallen leaves.

*Create a pond for insects, frogs and toads. Think before stocking it with fish which will eat insect eggs and larvae.

*Don’t illuminate your garden at night with bright lights. This will disturb many nocturnal creatures, such as moths.

*Create a compost heap ? they are miniature nature reserves in themselves. Compost also enriches the soil

Where can I buy Trees & Shrubs?

where to buy trees

Trees are vital to the future of our planet as they soak up carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I want to encourage everyone to think about where and how they can plant trees – they are beautiful and easy to look after as long as you choose the right tree for the right soil and position.

Consult the tree experts who will guide you in the right direction and help you to appreciate the huge choice available.Use these sites to find out more and contact them for expert advice:

Poplar Tree Garden Centre supply plants and trees to the UK market and will be only too happy to give advice on which trees or plants will best suit your needs.

www.poplartreegardencentre.co.uk
www.brambledown.com

Brighten up your home with a planter

There is nothing quite as effective and appealing as adding the perfect garden planters to your decorating scheme, both indoors and out. You not only transform drab and boring areas of your home or garden into elegant and charming aesthetically pleasing focal pointswith colourful shrubs, but container gardens can be functional as well as beautiful. Planters make it possible for anyone, even apartment and flat dwellers, to experience the joy of gardening and provide the opportunity to cultivate and produce a favorite herb, a fresh tomato, runner beans, and a host of other delightful and colorful plants, flowers, shrubs, and even trees.

You only need to take a drive around your local town to see that people all over are taking advantage of the low prices garden centres are carging for all different kinds of planters. Once only found adourning the pathways of stately homes and grand buildings, the growth of online garden centres has dramatically reduced the cost and significantly increased the availabilty of planters.

A simple planter can be just as appealing as an expensive grand one if it is decorated carefully and constructively. Colourful plants for the autumn flower border include antirrhinum, stock, pansy, viola, chrysanthemum, calendula, cineraria and marguerite daisies. It is easy to source all of these plants from your local garden centre. It is often beneficial to ask the staff in your local garden centre for advice. They will be able to offer suggestions on advice and what will best suit your requirements.

Ethical Consumer Report Published Online

Copy of Report Published Online in 2008

Gardeners’ Delight?

Depending on how you use it, your garden, if you have one, can play a small but important role in making a positive environmental contribution, whether by leaving wild areas to encourage wildlife or ‘growing your own’ to reduce food miles and chemical pesticide use. Sales of vegetable seeds now exceed those of flowers(1) showing that people are moving away from seeing their gardens purely in terms of aesthetic value.

christmas gifts

Katy Brown looks at the UK’s biggest garden centre retail chains and discovers that whilst progress on environmental issues is blooming, not everything is so rosy.

Many people already know how to be a ‘greener gardener’ by avoiding peat compost and making your own, steering clear of chemical pesticides, using water butts to save water, buying organic seeds and other products, creating wildlife spaces and even starting to think about techniques such as permaculture. However, few consider ethical issues beyond this, such as workers’ rights or who owns their local garden centre. With gardening becoming increasingly popular, and people prepared to spend more and more money on it, there has been a lot of growth in the sector and financial interest as a result. Private investment firms, and even supermarkets, have been buying up garden centre chains like hungry caterpillars. Here we examine general issues in the sector, company environmental policies and corporate ethical profile. As you can see from the brand table and corporate profiles, many seemingly benign garden centre companies with good environmental policies are owned by firms with less than clean ethical records.

Habitat destruction

Two major environmental issues surrounding garden centres are that of peat and timber use, and as a result, the larger garden centres in particular have received a lot of attention from campaign groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. This has led to more than half of the companies we looked at now having positive policies on these issues.

Peat

Lowland raised peat bog is a priority habitat under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the EU Habitats Directive. As well as supporting rich biodiversity, peat bogs are also an important carbon sink. Peat bogs have reduced in size and quality over recent years, mainly due to the extraction of peat for use as a growing medium, although peat is also used as a fuel, for domestic use and in Irish and Russian power stations.(2) The UK Habitat Action Plan for lowland raised bogs has set a target, endorsed by the government, for reducing the use of peat in both professional and amateur sectors so that they are 90% peat free by 2010.(3) The table shows which of the companies have policies on peat. With the exception of Squires, all of these policies explicitly state that they aim to meet this target. As part of Most of the companies in this report have been criticised at some point for sourcing wood products from non-certified sources. Along with selling peat compost, this accounts for them all receiving a mark in the Habitats and Resources column on our main table. In recent years the sourcing of wood products from Indonesia has been highlighted by Greenpeace, which claims that illegal and destructive logging of Indonesian rainforests has driven endangered species to extinction. Many of the companies on the table have, in the past, sourced non-certified wood from Indonesia, where 88% of logging is illegal(4) All but three of the companies covered on the main table have wood sourcing policies in place and it is very encouraging that these policies, as can also be seen from the environmental policies table overleaf, are being well-implemented already, rather than being merely based on future targets.

*This refers to garden centre-specific products, mainly ceasing the sale of patio heaters, but in B&Q’s case it also refers to the fact that the company has recently signed a 3 year partnership with BioRegional to become a 1 Planet Living company. Part of this involves increasing locally sourced products, e.g. B&Q currently sells locally sourced BioRegional Charcoal.

Workers’ Rights?

Campaigning on garden centres has tended to focus on environmental impacts, with workers’ rights issues largely being ignored. However, this does not mean that these issues don’t exist. In fact the lack of attention means that, as can be seen from the table, most companies don’t have anything credible in place in terms of supply chain policies to address these problems.

One example of an industry associated with workers’ rights problems is natural stone production. A recent report by SOMO on improving working conditions at Chinese natural stone companies visited a number of quarries and factories and identified serious health and safety problems. The work is heavy, often dusty and potentially dangerous by nature. In some areas there is a high risk of silicosis, an often fatal occupational disease caused by the accumulation of invisible particles of quartz in the lungs. Workers don’t usually receive health and safety training to help minimise the risks. Protective equipment such as gloves, face masks and earplugs are rarely provided and regular cleaning to reduce dust levels isn’t considered important. Safety nets, to protect workers from falling stones in quarries, aren’t always used, and workers are often not provided with the appropriate equipment with which to move heavier stones.

Many companies don’t provide written employment contracts. The work is often paid on a piece-rate basis. Most companies operate seven days a week, apart from in ‘low periods’, typically 2-3 times a year, when migrant workers go home. Workers do not have a weekly day of rest, and overtime is a regular feature at many companies. Wages are not particularly low, the main complaint of workers is that overtime is not paid at a higher premium. However, many Chinese companies made it clear that for improvements to be monitored and implemented, foreign buyers, as well as local governments, have an important role to play.

Wyevale was still in the process of developing its supply chain policies at the time of writing, hence it receiving a worst rating, but interestingly is a member of the UK Quarry Working Group, the objective of which is ‘to develop a set of labour and environmental standards that UK-based companies would expect to find in the quarries in their global supply chain.’ None of the other companies covered appeared to be doing anything to address this issue in particular.

Human Rights

China is the biggest stone producer and the second biggest stone exporter in the world (after Italy). Many other garden products are sourced from China and the Far East – a long way to transport anything but especially these often heavy goods. China has been heavily criticised by campaigners for its poor track record on human rights and the country is on ECRA’s oppressive regimes list.

Two of the companies on the Burma campaign’s ‘dirty list’ make garden furniture, Britannic Garden Furniture Ltd and Scansia, so this is certainly something to look out for when shopping for such items, although we have not discovered any of the companies in this report selling Burmese products. Wyevale has been criticised for selling Burmese wood products in the past but has since stated that it would remove Burmese wood products from sale.(6) Poplar Tree Garden Centre responded immediately by removing all such items.

Plants not Pets

Many of the companies we looked at received a mark in the animal rights column for selling animals. According to campaign group Animal Aid, selling pets in a garden centre environment encourages impulse purchases. People see ‘cute’ animals and buy them on the spur of the moment, without thinking of the long-term needs of the animals and the long-term responsibility that caring for an animal brings. The novelty of the new arrival soon wears off when it is recognised that he or she requires constant cleaning, attention and potentially expensive veterinary care. This frequently results in neglect, with animals forced to live in dirty or cramped conditions, often with no company from humans or their own kind. Many such unwanted animals end up at rescue centres, where there are thousands more already in need of good homes, meanwhile some garden centres continue to sell animals that have been purpose-bred for the pet trade. Ending the sale of live animals would not mean the closure of their pet departments, as they could continue to sell food and accessories. Rather than contributing to the cycle of animals being bred, bought and abandoned, garden centres should encourage people to adopt a companion animal from a local rescue centre.(7)

Both Focus and Wyevale have responded positively to campaigning by Animal Aid and have adopted policies of not selling pets (Wyevale receives a mark in the animal rights column due to the activities of its parent company). B&Q, Wickes, Poplar Tree Garden Centre and Homebase do not sell animals (Homebase receives marks in this column for other reasons). Klondyke, Strikes, Squires, Notcutts and Dobbies all sell animals. Animal Aid has called for supporters of its ‘Plants not Pets’ campaign to organise protests at garden centres which still sell pets.

Garden Consumerism

For those who love their gardens it can be easy to get carried away with buying things for them e.g. furniture and ornaments. As with any other items such as clothes and household products, it may be worth asking yourself whether you need it before you buy it. Many things can be used as containers for plants and many garden centres, including Squires, run pot re-use schemes, reducing the need to buy new. Wyevale offers pot recycling in some centres and Dobbies intends to do so, but this refers to recycling rather than re-use. You can make your own ornaments, containers and even furniture from old wood and other ‘waste products’. As for plants – growing your own from seed is best as this reduces transportation and means you can ensure you aren’t buying plants grown in a peat-based medium. And remember – looks aren’t everything – a less manicured garden can be better for wildlife.

Support Your Local Independent Garden Centre

There are thousands of independent garden centres in the UK, far too many to rate in this report. This does not mean that they are not a better buy than the companies recommended here. In fact independent ownership avoids many of the criticisms on the table which result from complex parent company groups. Supporting an independent business also keeps money in the local economy and you are more likely to find locally sourced products as they are more likely to have relationships with local suppliers. Remember to look out for FSC wood, peat-free compost and other environmentally innovative products. If none are stocked then encourage them to do so – you could even give them a copy of this report to raise awareness of the issues. The Garden Centre Association website has a search function allowing you to find your nearest independent garden centre or phone 01993 871000 .

Price Comparison

We conducted a price comparison for a simple garden spade by taking the cheapest and most expensive from the companies covered and averaging them. The table is ordered from cheapest to most expensive.

It should be borne in mind however, that for some products, including those such as garden tools, buying the cheapest is often a false economy. Lower price can mean lower quality with products not lasting as long meaning you have to buy a new one sooner, which as well as costing money wastes the earth’s precious resources.

Links

• Garden Organic (formerly HDRA), the UK’s leading organic growing charity, dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food: www.gardenorganic.org.uk, Garden Organic Ryton, Coventry, Warwickshire, CV8 3LG, 024 7630 3517 enquiry@gardenorganic.org.uk
• Vegan Organic Network, promotes vegan-organics, a system of cultivation that avoids artificial chemicals and sprays, livestock manures and animal remains from slaughter houses: www.veganorganic.net, ‘Anandavan’ 58 High Lane, Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester M21 9DZ
• The Permaculture Association, an educational charity which helps people use permaculture in their everyday lives to improve their quality of life and the environment around them. www.permaculture.org.uk, BCM Permaculture Association, London, WC1N 3XX, 0845 4581805, office@permaculture.org.uk
• Garden Centre Association, www.gca.org.uk, Leafield Technical Centre, Leafield, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29 9EF, 01993 871000, info@gca.org.uk

References

1 www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/22/food.gardens 2 www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A715637 3 The value of peat, Roger Meade, Senior Peatland Adviser, English Nature (undated) 4 ENDS magazine, Issue 35 June 2003 6 ENDS Report 363 April 2005 7 www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_pets/ALL/1547// 8 www.oisat.org/control_methods/natural_enemies/predators/hoverfly.htmlPAN Germany 9 CSR Asia Weekly:Vol 3 week 49, 5 May 2007 10 Hazards:99, July/September 2007, 23 November 2007 11 Advocates for Animals:April 2005, 28 April 2005 12 New York Times, May 1st 2008 13 War on Want communications and reports:Profiting from the Occupation: corporate complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people 14 Amnesty International:Human Rights & Business Pages: Forced Labour, February 2006 15 Dave Powell, BUAV 16 Kingfisher AR 2007 17 Labour Research, August 2004.

Best Buys as of July/August 2008

As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.

A local independent garden centre close to you may well be the best option.
Of the companies on the table, Wickes (0845 279 9898) comes out top of the company table. It is one of the only two companies to get a best rating for environmental reporting and has a good working wood sourcing policy in place.
Squires (01252 356860, centres in the South of England only) also scores well, and unlike the other companies with the same score, has a range of environmental policies in place.
Although not as high scoring, B&Q (0845 609 6688 ) is best in terms of its environmental policies.

Line your hanging Baskets and Wall Troughs

trough liner

It is vitally important to line your hanging baskets or planters, especially wall troughs. The trouble is choosing which liner to use. Coconut Liners are the all natural way to line and plant your hanging baskets and wall troughs.  The liners are constructed of coconut fibers and held together with a tree sap adhesive, no glues or plastics involved, and preformed to fit a number of shapes and sizes.  The Coconut Liners allow the soil to maintain moisture without the threat of over watering, which can cause root decay.  Most importantly, Coconut Liners help keep our planet green.

Expert Gardening Advice

garden

Follow me on my journey through gardening life. Everything you couuld wish to know from a gardening blog such as when to plant your spring flowering bulbs, how to make a hanging basket, how to keep animals out of your flower beds and so much more. Not only will my gardening blog be full of wonderful tips, but it will hopefully be fun and make you want to pick up a shovel and get into the garden. There is no better way to do that than by reading how to make the best of your garden through my blog and then head down the garden centre for everything you need to make your garden look wonderful.

Laying Turf The Easy Way

Many people ask me how to lay turf.The key to successfully laying turf is using the right tools and planning carefully.

The best times to lay turf are between March-June and September-November.

Prior to the selected turfing contractor doing the job have a good look at the area in which the turf will be situated.

When planning where to lay the turf try and leave a border near fences and walls as it is hard to cut the lawn there.

Is it a jungle? Weeds will need treating several weeks before the lawn is laid with a good biodegradable weedkiller. One that will kill the root as well as the leaves such as Roundup or Tumbleweed. I know from experience that thistles in particular are a real pain when it comes to coming through the turf. Before the lawn is down you have an opportunity to get rid of them – take it! Or else you will be continuously standing on them with your bare feet as you admire your garden on a cool summers evening. Not the best thing. Have a look on the product label to see when it will be safe to lay the turf after the ground has been treated. If in doubt ask at your local garden centre.

Ground preparation for turf

Is it a building site? Your contractor should make sure that any rubble is raked off the surface of the ground prior to any turf being laid. Loose stones and building rubble will prevent the turves roots from making contact with the soil and could make the turf die in patches.

The topsoil should then be thoroughly rotivated down to about the first 6 inches to aerate it properly. It is then raked level and gently treaded down (not whacked with a spade as I have seen on Rogue Traders!)

Turf arrives!

Your contractor will probably have ordered 5% more turf than needed, this is normal and should be included in the quote as this excess will be lost when then lawn is laid and trimmed.

Apart from exceptional circumstances the turf should arrive the same day it is to be laid. From the moment it is dug up on the ‘turf farm‘ until 4 weeks after it is laid in your garden there is a constant battle to keep it moist enough. Failure to do means it will suffer and may die. Therefore, sitting rolled up on your drive or in the back of a truck all night is bad. If its impossible to lay the turf on the same day then it should be rolled out on your driveway (not your prepared surface) and watered to keep it moist.

Laying the turf

Start by laying the first turf down the longest straight edge. Butt and fold the neighbouring turf next to it knowing that there will be some shrinkage and if you try and stretch the turfing at this stage you will end up with some gaps when it is bedded in.

The turf should be firmly but carefully tapped down using the back of a spade to ensure that the roots and the soil are in good contact.

If there is an obvious dip in the profile add or remove soil as necessary.

Avoid using odd small sections of turf near the edges of the lawn as these will dry out faster than you can water them and probably die.

After laying the first row, place a plank on the turf and use it to carry the next row of turf to the bare areas of soil. Do not walk on the turf or soil whilst you are laying it as it can be damaged.

Stagger the joints of the turf whilst laying; as you see bricks in a wall.

Once finished the edges can be trimmed. The correct tool being a half-moon spade.

During the first four weeks the lawn should be watered constantly. The first watering should soak the cultivated layer of top soil the turf is laid on. This is very important, as until the root system binds with the soil the turf will lose moisture at an alarming rate and can die quite rapidly if abused.

Avoid excessive walking on the turf especially at the early stages and after about two weeks give the lawn its first cut. Use Turf tracks wherever possible to minimise damage to the turf. Try and cut about one quarter of the length of the grass during each trim at this stage, progressively taking more off as the lawn matures. Just think that a grass plant partly lives via photosynthesis through its blade and chopping all of that off will severely injure or kill the plant and hence your lawn. At best it will go a very unattractive yellow for a few days. A sign that you need to get the lawnmower out more often.

Regular cutting of the grass also tends to reduce the number of weeds that grow in the lawn. Also, take note that trimming a little and often, combined with a Lawn Fertiliser. applied twice a year is the difference between having something that looks like a park football pitch and a bowling green.

Finding safe, clean and easy passage in the garden is not always easy! With the Garden Track, it is possible to create an instant, robust and weatherproof walkway in seconds. The Garden Track consists of 24 panels, connected by sturdy link pins, to create a 3 metre long path. It allows for easy passage over muddy terrain or gravel, while the snaking action adapts easily to uneven ground. The Garden Track is particularly useful at preventing lawn damage caused by regular and repeated foot traffic. Examples can be found in routes to and from vegetable beds, compost bins and washing lines. The Garden Track will also be of real use to campers and caravanners, as well as offering a useful access solution to wheelchair users, when negotiating problem surfaces such as wet ground and gravel. One time, self assembly is required but this takes a matter of minutes and no tools are required. Once assembled, the unit packs flat for easy storage. Each Garden Track can be extended to provide a longer pathway using the additional link pins provided. Each Garden Track panel is made from recycled polypropylene, while the link clips are in nylon. Dimensions – 303cm (l) x 39cm (w) x 2cm (h)