Well what a difference a week makes. The cold snap has finally arrived making the garden look amazing when the sun is out with the frost outlining each and every leaf and twig. Even in the depths of Winter the garden is still a thing of beauty.

Although it looks pretty, the cold can make things very tough for wildlife. Food is scarce and water sources can be frozen over. We can help by ensuring that we leave some fresh water out & food for birds that are often still fairly active at this time of year. Carries got some really good offers on at the moment to help you keep down the costs of keeping those feathered tummies full.

As I’m certainly not going to get out gardening at the moment I’m doing a bit of forward planning for the fruit and veggie garden. As with many of you my life is generally pretty hectic so I want reliable crops that will give me a good yield without taking up too much of my free time and that I’ll actually use.

Currants and Gooseberries are always easy – Many of the modern varieties are bred to be  disease resistant so I’ll be doing a bit of research on those as I also want the best flavour – Information is always easy to get on-line or I can always go and rack one of our Plant managers brains - they’re a pretty knowledgeable bunch! I research varieties every year when buying for the centres but as it’s impossible to remember everything I need to gem up a bit again. I’ll be looking at the veggie seeds this week when I’m in the Garden Centres so I’ll let you know what I decide on next week.

Plants and Plans

Allthough we should be enjoying the emerging spring plants now, as a gardener you never stop planning ahead to prepare the next seasons plants and plans. Over the next few weeks the little plugs of summer bedding plants will start to become available to plant for growing on ready to go outside in the early summer. They’re much easier to get going than seed as they already have sturdy little root sytems but you still get the satisfaction of growing the plants on yourself.

All you need is some low nutrient potting on compost such as John Innes No2, some cell trays a little larger then the plugs you are buying and a warm, light place to grow them in. As they grow gradually pot them on into larger cells and richer compost, then into individual pots and then into their final spot outdoors where they’ll be the envy of all your neighbours when they burst into flower!

I’m excited to see the summer flowering bulbs coming in. They come in dried out in packs at this time of year and are so easy to plant in a few months time once the soil has warmed up. I just love the bright colours! I’m thinking of buying some really bright Dahlias to put in pots for some impact outside on the area we’re intending on decking for summer Barbeques. I can see them now... Blooming away without needing constant attention, just good compost, regular water, a splash of feed now and again and the odd dead-heading session – A lot of flower for very little effort.

Scent In The Garden

The beautiful but chilly weather we had at the week-end got many of you out and about and thinking gardens. It was lovely to see lots of customers in the centres especially as we have some really lovely plants in at the moment. The primroses we grow on the nursery are really starting to flower their socks off. My favourites are the ‘Heritage’ and ‘Woodland Walk’ varieties. ‘Heritage’ is the classic spring yellow primrose that lasts for years if lifted and divided every so often and kept it moist all year round. ’Woodland Walk’ a really pretty pink variety which seems to be nearly as tough. Both look great planted en mass in the garden but if you only have room for pots they’ll do well there too. Deadhead regularly and they will flower for months.

It’s a great time for scent in the garden. Its thought that shrubs flowering this early in the year use scent to attract insects. They certainly attract gardeners as many are very highly perfumed indeed. The best, in my opinion, are...

Sarcococca (or Winter Box) an evergreen with tiny white flowers and a big fragrance. Viburnum x bodnatense. ‘Dawn’ is the most common form with Pink flowers on bare stems. Look out for ‘Charles Lamont’ which has whiter flowers than ‘Dawn’ and is more unusual with good Autumn colour.

Hamamelis (or Witch Hazel) With bright yellow, orange or red sweet smelling flowers on bare stems. Witch Hazels also have spectacular Autumn colour which gives them another season of interest.

Seed Potatoes

We’ve put the tinsel away in the Garden Centres & its now time to get back to what we do best... Gardening!

We’ve taken the first deliveries of seed potatoes which always means spring is on its way to me. I have just moved into a new home and have a garden of my own to play with for the first time in a few years. It needs a lot of work but to get me started I’m going to buy a few earlies to plant in potato gro-bags in March so I can move them about easily until we have the garden sorted later in the year. I can then re-use the compost after I’ve harvested them to enrich the soil in my lovely new veggie beds.

Christmas Is Finally Here!

For us buyers it’s a hectic time of year getting prepared for our busiest season in the spring but we still have to see how the current season’s stock is performing and of course that involves trying some things out. Carrie came into the office on Monday morning very excited about her new Chestnut roaster, she is responsible for buying the winter fuels and other fiery accessories we sell in the Garden centres and having an open fire at home of course makes her a true expert... I think she really needs to get out more, but then I am a bit jealous, she really had chestnuts roasting on an open fire!

We are now all counting down to the end of the week, but this years office Christmas lunch will be extra special. Two of our longest serving ladies are retiring, they’ve put in 27 years between them and we also have an engagement and a pregnancy to celebrate... Happy times!

Well this will be the last blog from me this year, we’d all like to wish you a great holiday and all the best for 2012...

Forest Products

We are getting busier and busier as Christmas gets closer, we are still finding some lovely products for you for those last minute gifts. At John Browns we have just taken delivery of some great children’s books by a local author from Verwood. It has been awarded the silver certificate of excellence from a pre-school magazine and positively encourages children to eat veggies.

My brother is a real pain to buy for but is a bit of a foodie so I’m going to make him up a little selection pack of jams and relishes from the Forest Products range that we keep in all of our centres. They are a Dorset company and top of my list is the most divine sweet garlic pickle with nigella seed, apparently the spicy tomato and caramelised onion chutney is amazing too so I might have to keep that for myself!

We have been offered some beautiful bulb planters which we are offering at less then half the recommended selling price – I love the ceramic ones so guess what the ladies

in my family will be getting on the 25^th? After that little lot I will have finished the present buying, not sure when I’ll have time to wrap it all up though...

Christmas Open Evenings

Our Christmas open evenings have gone down a storm with lots of you visiting which makes it so enjoyable for us. If you haven’t been to one yet the last is tonight (Tuesday 6^th December) at John Browns, see you there where I’ll be doing the mulled wine & minced pies duty with the girls – although the mulled wine has been re-christened at Cadnam. One very sweet little boy was a bit confused as to why his mum wanted ‘Mouldy wine’!

Landford Garden Centre has now been invaded by our building team – Toni our Plant area manager is going to have her work cut out keeping them in line whilst they re-build her Plant Area - it’ll be interesting to see the progress over the next few months. We’re so excited to see what the new area will look like when it’s finished and to get it restocked, we’re already preparing our shopping lists!

This week we have had some truly stunning Orchids into our houseplant areas for Christmas. My favourites are the Cymbidiums which have impressive strappy foliage with large spikes of flower in rich colours. Surprisingly easy to keep, they need a little more water than the moth orchids (Phalaenopsis). Flowering for a good few weeks they still look handsome once the flowers go over.

Christmas Trees and Poinsettia




Quality Christmas Trees Now In At All Our Garden Centres!!



Well it’s really starting to feel very festive now at Golden Acres. The weathers finally got colder, I heard the first Christmas tunes on the radio over the week-end and we’ve taken the first deliveries of our Christmas trees! We pride ourselves on sourcing the best quality trees with the lushest growth. Each tree is unwrapped on delivery so that we can check every single one for quality, a lovely job that leaves you smelling all Christmassy. We’ve also held the first of our Christmas open evenings which are always a joy, a real family affair with great atmosphere. We have bell ringers and choirs to entertain and complimentary mulled wine and mince pies that won’t fail to warm you.

Our beautiful Poinsettia

The obvious plant for this week is Poinsettias. We source these from family run nursery in Wiltshire and they really are the best we can find, the plants are chosen for their strong healthy growth and really rich vivid colours – The guys at our Cadnam centre were so proud of theirs they sent us some photos to show you!

Poinsettias will last you a good couple of months if you don’t let them catch a chill – so keep them out of draughty areas, away from doors and windows – give them a reasonable amount of light, keep them moist but not wet and don’t forget to feed them regularly.

Get Planning!

On the damper, darker days when you can’t get out into the garden theres still much planning to do for next year. Its a great opportunity to stay in the warm researching new plants you may want to try next year deciding which ones didn’t work for you, what to replace them with and to plan what look you’re going for in your planted containers or in an area that needs a make-over. We do the same in the Garden centres. Planning what plants to stock, which ones will be popular next year, which ones didn’t perform well and what displays we can create to help inspire you. The next few months are busy busy as we see suppliers to source the best quality and most exciting new items for you, plan promotions to save you money, train and learn to keep the advice we give you up to date and struggle to control ourselves as we get rather passionate about the products we sell and it is so exciting when you find something special!

Roses

The next few months are not always the best for spending time outside but there is still much enjoyment to be had on the sunnier days getting outside to tidy up dead foliage and leaves, preparing the soil and replenishing nutrients for the next season with a light fork over and a good thick mulch of a quality soil impover such as manure or garden compost that will ensure your plants grow strong and healthy next year. It’s also a great time to plant hardier stuff such as shrubs, roses, fruit and trees giving them time to establish themselves for the coming year. The fresh air and some light exercise outdoors also does wonders for the soul.

It’s a great time to plant roses. Availabilty is best now when the new season’s stock is just becoming available. Roses are usually field grown and cannot be lifted until they go dormant when the weather gets cooler. They are then potted for you to take away easily and to keep them tip-top until they get back into the ground or a larger container.