This week we’ve been looking at yet more new products at one of the largest trade shows of the year in Birmingham. Carrie and I were very excited to meet the very lovely James Wong who is launching a range of unusual edible plants with Suttons seeds called ‘Homegrown Revolution’. We had a long chat with him about the range and tried some of the fruits they had grown, we really liked the cuca-melons – a cross between a cucumber and a melon but really weren’t sure about the ‘Electric Daisies’ which although edible really make your tongue tingle, a bit like popping candy. But now we can say that James Wong made our tongues tingle! What a claim to fame. Our centres at Landford and West Parley will be stocking this range from February.

With the mild weather and still damp ground we have been struggling with weeds and looking at how fast our weed killers are whipping out so are you. There are many products on the market and it can be a bit confusing with which one to choose. If you have a look at our links page on the Golden Acres website and click on  ‘Love the Garden’ you’ll find lots of information and advice to help you get the right product. If you find talking to a person about your garden problems easier, be sure to pop in to any of our centres to talk to a fully trained member of staff who can give you plenty of plenty advice.

We’ve trialled a new variety of viola on the nursery, it’s called ‘Honeybee’ but I think it looks more like a Lion! Either way it’s a really gorgeous little flower.

This week I’ve been up to Manchester to a large plant show to see if there’s anything new and exciting. Amongst all the usual suspects I found a lovely new Mahonia called ‘Soft Caress’ Its a prickle free version of the old Victorian favourite that’s so useful for its evergreen structural presence, pretty and often scented yellow heads of flower and its easy to grow too.

We also looked at some new ranges for next years summer bedding and planted containers, we came away really inspired and with some really good ideas - we can’t wait to see what they look like and whether you think they’re as good as we do, but it’ll have to wait a few months!

It’s amazing how much things can change in a week... We have now got all of our spring flowering bulbs in and I am as usual finding it hard to resist going nuts with them! I have bought some alliums to go in our new borders in the back garden and some miniature ‘pipit’ daffodils for our little patch at the front. I’ll also use some of these in my autumn planted containers so that when they emerge in the spring I’ll get a different and more spring like look.

Along with the bulbs we now have our autumn and winter bedding plants in. Its worth getting these plants in now so that they have plenty of time to establish before the cold weather sets in – I always find they’ll flower much more reliably if planted good and early.

So what to put in my pots for the autumn and winter? We have a lovely selection of young foliage plants with different leave shapes and colours to add interest so I’ll use some of these for structure. I’ll then pop in some of my favourite Violas and some Cyclamen for colour – Over the winter I’ll ensure that I feed the pots regularly with a tomato food, this keeps the plants flowering and the growth nice and hard helping them to cope with the coldest winter days. Drainage is essential in winter planted containers, if the plants get too wet they’ll really suffer. I find it’s worth spending a bit extra on decent compost specifically for containers so that all my efforts aren’t wasted!

After the last blog lots of you wanted to know exactly what we planted in our fruit and vegetable patch. So here’s a list.

Leeks and Beetroot from ready grown seedling packs – These proved to be excellent value at £1.99 per pack. We were surprised at how many we got in each pack and ran out of the space we had allotted them.

Chard, baby carrots, radish and Lambs lettuce direct sown from seed as they should germinate easily in the current soil temperatures

Gooseberry ‘Hinnomaki Red’ great flavour, heavy cropper and very disease resistant – Some gooseberries are prone to mildew

Loganberry – Great flavour and will look ornamental trained along the fence

Jostaberry – I’ve never tried one of these; it’s a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry minus the prickles and sounds delicious.

These are all growing away well now. The mild temperatures and rain are making it perfect planting weather so I shall be out again in a few days getting my autumn tubs planted so they can establish before the cold weather descends...