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The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens
Jermyns Lane
Romsey
Hampshire
SO51 0QA
Tel: 01794 369317/318

Carol Klein and Roy Lancaster visit the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens to explore Hypericums. The Hillier Gardens feature an arboretum and pinetum with meadows. They also have winter, bog and heather gardens, making it a place to visit all year round except Christmas and Boxing Day. The link below has opening times and other useful information.聽

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94 Marsh Lane Allotments
Marsh Lane
Tottenham
London聽 N17 OHY聽

Tel: 07903 211715

Joe Swift discovered a secret garden on a North London allotment site unlike any seen before. Created by Chris Achilleos, 94 Marsh Lane is a private place to relax in and escape to but it鈥檚 also a garden for sharing. Chris loves to share his space and the fruit it produces with friends, family and the allotment community around his unique plot.聽

You can visit Chris鈥檚 allotment as part of the NGS Yellow Book openings on Sunday 10th August between 2pm and 6pm. Chris also accepts visitors by appointment. To find out more follow the link below.聽

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Throughout the year, keep an eye out for maturing seeds. When collecting seeds, look for healthy, strong plants and avoid harvesting from those聽showing signs of weakness or disease.

Find mature seeds which come away from the seed pod relatively easily and collect individual seeds or whole flower heads. Place seeds or flower heads in paper bags and write the plant name or description on it; labelling is the most important thing to do at this point.

Take your cue from nature and sow seed directly now or completely dry them, before storing and sowing next year. To dry seeds, place them in a bag of muslin in a jar or rice -聽the rice will absorb any excess moisture.

When the seeds are completely dry, place them in an air-tight food storage container in the fridge. This is also good place for storing for shop brought seeds which will stay viable for longer than if exposed to temperature extremes and moisture.

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Compost should be made from a balance of green and brown material. Green material聽is anything with fresh green growth, lawn clippings or vegetable matter that breaks down quickly. Brown material includes shredded twigs and other woody material but also cardboard and meadow cuttings (the fibrous long grass of a meadow takes a lot longer to compost than bright green, fresh lawn mowings).

Too much green material and the compost will start to become aneorobic and smell unpleasant. The material in the heap will be very wet and will turn to sludge. Too much brown material聽and the compost will stop decomposing; it will feel cold and take a long time to break down.

If you have too much of one type of material, just add more of the other to the mix and聽fork it over.聽By balancing and mixing the聽ingredients you should be able to rectify the compost mix and eventually you will have lovely, crumbly, compost that smells good.

(www.rhs.org.uk)

The lush green leaves of mint are starting to get old now and the plants are flowering. To make sure you still have some mint for use in the kitchen, cut back flowered plants in sections, leaving a little still growing. As the cut section starts to regrow, cut back the other section. Reducing mint now will reinvigorate the plant and give you fresh green leaves right into autumn.聽

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Winter brassicas, such as January King cabbages, should be planted out now. When planting, firm the soil around the roots and finish by protecting them from birds and cabbage white butterflies by using a net. 聽Brassicas are hungry plants and so will need to follow beans or peas in your rotation. The widest spacing for winter cabbages is around 50cm (20inches) apart, but if you don鈥檛 have a lot of room, smaller spacings will simply give you smaller heads.

(www.rhs.org.uk)

When watering your garden, resist using a sprinkler and use a hose or watering can to drench roots directly. If you do have to use a sprinkler then make sure you do so at night or when it鈥檚 cooler so you don鈥檛 lose too much through evaporation.

As you water, give plants a really good soak; it鈥檚 better to give plants a long soak once a week than a sprinkle every day.聽

(www.rhs.org.uk)