Garden Centre

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Spring bulbs and London’s new vegetable gardens

My hellebores are doing wonderfully, again, and this year I have the best display of snowdrops I’ve ever had in the garden, but once again the crocus are rubbishy: small clumps of purple crocus, one or two white and mauve striped ones sitting in miserable isolation and no yellow ones at all.

I’m certain the squirrels dig them up and eat them and that they prefer the yellow ones. I’ve tried dipping the bulbs in paraffin and that doesn’t deter them, and I’ve tried planting the bulbs under wire mesh and the pesky rats-with-attitude simply dig up the whole mesh and steal all the bulbs in one fell swoop. And while I’m all for live and let live, I’m not in the business of providing expensive crocus bulbs every year just to feed squirrels!

Speaking of which, London Mayor Boris Johnson has had a good idea (I suspect Boris would call it a ‘wheeze’) which could change the face of London, and the health of some Londoners, and I’ve been following it since it was announced just a few days after he was voted into office. Along with Rosie Boycott, chair of London Food, he’s pledged to find 2012 new places to grow food in London by 2012 – get it?

Anyway, it all went quiet for a while, apart from the rumbles about allotments being concreted over to make space for stadiums, and then, this week, good news! British Waterways has come on board with the scheme – they manage canals and other waterways throughout the UK and will be looking to build community gardens and allotments beside their watery responsibilities – which is great news all round. Apparently 14 groups have signed up to the Capital Growth scheme, including a very big and privately owned residential garden in Morden which is going to have volunteers working on it and sharing in the harvest.

Wonderful. As long as they don’t have too many squirrels helping themselves too!

Labels: Boris Johnson, hellebores, snowdrops, spring crocus, squirrels

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:59 AM 0 Comments

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