Month: March 2024

Propagator fire warning

/ karen / 4 Comments

I try to pass on any cautionary tales I think might be useful for gardeners.

A friend told me about her propagator catching fire causing flames 2ft high and damaging her kitchen. So I’m passing on her story in case it proves useful to any readers.

Judith Boston is a keen and experienced gardener who opens her garden in Leicestershire for the National Garden Scheme.

Wild flowers in Judith’s garden .

Here is her story, in her own words.

The propagator was one of two placed on an old picnic table in the dining part of the kitchen- the picnic table had a plastic coating. During the afternoon I noticed a peculiar smell which intensified during the afternoon. In conversation with my husband, we decided that it was the scent from the narcissi, which were on the kitchen table and had been sent from the Isles of Scilly from my daughter for Mothering Sunday. We have a long association with St. Martin’s IOS and these flowers come from there and so have special significance. However, they do have a strong scent. I did comment that they smelled a little like burning. Note to self to be more curious with peculiar smells- not flowers but burning electrical components!

I then went to my Parish Council meeting and on return sat in the sitting room before going to bed. At 9.50pm the smoke alarm went off and we both hurried into the kitchen to find the propagator alight with 2 feet high flames. The floor was also on fire. We opened the back door and my husband carried the tray with the propagator on it out and placed it on the grass, having disconnected it. I hosed it down and put out the fire on the floor. The fumes from the burning plastic were intense. 

We have a smoke alarm and a circuit breaker. The smoke alarm worked very well. The circuit breaker didn’t trigger, but because of the suspected nature of the fault, may not have done. If the wires burn through one at a time, there isn’t a sufficient connection between them to trigger a break- so it wouldn’t necessarily have gone off.

We were very fortunate that we were in at the time. If we had been out, the fire would have taken hold. I have switched off my other propagator and placed the seed trays on a windowsill.

The propagator was from my late father, an excellent, keen gardener. He passed away 8 years ago, so it was old! However, I’ve never had problems before, it was in good condition (seemingly) and was very low heat. It was a large propagator. I’m unsure of the make.

I have been gardening for at least 40 years, my father was a keen gardener, my grandfather was a professional gardener- it’s in the blood. I’ve never had a problem like this before. I’m not sure how you check a propagator for safety- maybe a PAT test, which isn’t done in domestic properties.

The propagator was a write off . Nothing could be salvaged- the pots were beyond repair. Nothing had germinated, maybe due to the increasingly high temperatures. I growing HHA flower seeds- cosmos, scabious, lobelia and others.

Note to self: Follow your nose, be curious around unusual smells and keep your eyes open.

We were lucky. The kitchen needs redecorating, the fumes and plastic particles were all over the house and took many hours of cleaning, but we are alive and well, the house is still standing and our garden is open for NGS on 12th May, with or without my home grown plants!

Judith Boston lives in rural Leicestershire in Carlton.  Here are some photos of her garden. Please visit and support the NGS whenever you can.

Judith’s flower-filled garden features raised beds, bee-friendly plants herbs and vegetables.
Forget me nots and tulips with emerging geraniums, summer perennials and ferns.
Many wild flowers grow here. Oxeye daisies, cornflowers, foxgloves and teasels.
The garden features lovely mature trees, including willow and silver birch.
Blue cornflower, corn marigolds and poppies.
A lovely flower-filled archway framing the view to the pretty potting shed.

An electrician commented that the incident highlights the value of smoke alarms which allows people to escape from properties before fires manage to take hold. Regularly check your smoke alarms are still working and change batteries frequently. And always have an escape plan in case of fires. Work out how you would manage to escape if fire broke out in your home. And tell everyone who lives in the property and anyone visiting. It’s not a subject we discuss very often, but could be a life-saver.

Thank you for reading my blog. You are among 1,000 readers a week. I’m very grateful for all your support. Please leave a message and sign up for e mail notifications for future blog posts. Thank you.

Gardeners’ World Live – two free tickets to give away.

/ karen / 17 Comments
The Watchmaker’s Garden.

I’m always looking for ways to help readers. Each year the organisers of Gardeners’ World Live offer two tickets to give away in a prize draw. Please leave your name in the comments box below to be included in the random prize draw. Please read the terms and conditions they have supplied.

Canalside Garden.

Tickets are non-refundable, non-exchangeable and non-transferable, and do not include travel, accommodation or expenses. There is no cash alternative.
Details of giveaway and prize correct at time of print. Ticket terms and
conditions apply:

https://www.immediatelive.com/ticket-terms-and-conditions/

Please note that parking is not included in the prize.

Lovely setting for a garden room.

The organisers will not be issuing paper tickets.
Approximately two weeks before the event, winners will be emailed a link to register online. They will receive tickets by email.

Lovely recycled items in Frances Tophill’s show garden.

Organisers are offering a pair of standard adult tickets for BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC Birmingham for a ticket giveaway/competition. Tickets will be valid for Sunday 16th June, 9.00am entry. RRP £56.00 per pair.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at past gardens at the show. GW Live is a favourite of mine. I love the marquee with specialist nurseries selling and displaying every kind of plant possible. And there’s plenty of ideas to copy for planting and design.

The prize draw will end on Sunday 14th April at 6pm. Thank you for reading my blog. Let me know what you think about my posts and if you have any horticultural questions of any kind, please let me know. I’m happy to help!

If you like, follow the blog and sign up for e mail notifications for further posts.

I wrote about GWLive here:

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/14/bbc-gardeners-world-live/

And here:

https://bramblegarden.com/2021/08/25/bbc-gardeners-world-live-show-2021/

Nick Hamilton’s grow-your-own vegetables hints and top tips.

/ karen / 4 Comments

While visiting Barnsdale Gardens for the winter walk-and-talk, I had a chance to peek into the impressive kitchen gardens. Not only are the gardens beautiful, but they are highly productive too. They are gardened organically. Plants are put in closely together, and there are many little pathways meaning a lot of the work can be undertaken without stepping on the soil. Nick is a very good teacher. He explains everything in an easy to understand way with a lot of patience and humour.

Photo: Steve Hamilton

Nick shared with me his advice and list of ‘top five’ winter vegetables:

Brussels sprouts – Generally eaten over the Christmas period, but if you grow your own then you could harvest this vegetable from August to at least March. As a child, I remember them as having a bit of a bitter, old socks taste, but those days are well and truly gone with the modern varieties being sweet and flavoursome. In order to get the continuity of cropping to give the longest harvest period I only need to grow two varieties, ‘Nelson’ and ‘Red Ball’.

Kale – A well-known superfood that not only gives us something to eat but, if you select the right variety, a very beautiful and interesting addition to the ornamental winter garden. I like to grow a variety called ‘Redbor’, which is widely available, but I do not grow it in the veg plot, preferring instead to move it around my ornamental borders. The reason I do this is because ‘Redbor’ has the most wonderfully deep coloured, red leaves that enhance in colour with the colder winter temperature, but then are elevated to another level during frosty weather.

Chard – A hardy, leafy leaf beet this is an excellent substitute for spinach. I have been bought up to try and eke out the most from everything in a garden, so choosing a variety that gives ornamental interest as well as excellent production is an absolute bonus. Such a variety is Chard ‘Bright Lights’, which comes up as a mixture of different colours of leaves in shades of yellow, green and red, all with a prominent white mid-rib.

Jerusalem Artichoke – What a fantastic winter veg to grow! I love it not just because it is adaptable in the kitchen but also because it is a tuber that is perfectly hardy, so can be left in the ground all winter and dug up as and when required. I grow a variety called Fuseau because it is less knobbly than others, so easier to peel. It does like to spread, so I control it by growing mine in containers that I sink into the ground and then lift when needed.

Leeks – I can’t imagine a winter without leeks adorning the culinary delights that appear from my kitchen. This year I have grown the varieties ‘Winner’, ‘Pandora’ and ‘Jolant’, which will give me a continuous harvest from August until April. Something my taste buds and stomach are very grateful for. We do have a couple of problems to deal with however, which is why we grow them, from sowing until the end of the crop, under an insect-proof netting to prevent attack by leek moth and/or Allium leaf miner.

Photos credit Steve Hamilton

Barnsdale Gardens is Britain’s largest collection of individually designed gardens based in the East Midlands.  There are 38 gardens on show including the beautiful kitchen gardens. Courses run throughout the year on growing and planting fruit, flowers and vegetables, and there’s also courses on pruning and maintenance. See the website for opening times and course details. I’ve signed up for the newsletter which means I get all the news first and can plan my visits when there are special events happening.

I wrote about a Barnsdale’s winter gardens walk and talk here:

https://bramblegarden.com/2024/02/28/a-winter-walk-around-barnsdale-gardens/

What vegetables are you planning to grow?

I’m loving my white-stemmed chard and white kale. Here’s some I’m harvesting now, having sown the seeds in summer and planted them in a cold frame and unheated poly tunnel. They overwinter as small plants and start growing after Christmas. You can just see two eggs in the basket too. The hens have started to lay again! A sure sign that spring is well and truly on the way. Hurray!

Sweet, tasty, and pretty too!

Willow Weaving Course at TASK Academy

/ karen / 22 Comments

For 20 years I’ve worked alongside skilled willow weavers. I’ve watched them create fences around the gardens I’ve designed. Clematis and roses climb through woven tripods and willow animals ‘scamper’ across the lawns. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at weaving, but never had the chance. I wouldn’t have dared to interfere with their work. We are all on a deadline to complete the gardens. Time is money, and my job is to set out the plants and try to keep ahead of everyone planting them! This week though, I’ve finally managed to get my hands on some willow and have a go! I attended a one-day taster day for land-based skills at TASK Academy in Worcestershire.

Our project was to make a small woven cone out of year-old willow that had been soaked for four days. I loved the contrast between the red and yellow willow.

Our teacher Mel Bastier holding the willow cone I made.

Mel Bastier explained the basics and showed us how to make a small woven structure which could be used as a bird feeder. I decided to use it for floristry. I’m always trying to find new ways of displaying flowers without using florists’ foam.

First we fed willow through holes in a base form which held the willow in place for us to work on. The base form would be much larger for plant supports, but it’s the same principle.

We wove more willow in and out of the uprights until we had made a collar. Then more willow was twisted up to the tip to secure the structure. Finally we added a handle. Mine was quite long as I wanted to hang the cone on my farm gates and amongst the orchard trees.

At home, I collected some moss from under the apple trees. I wrapped it around a jam jar and secured it with garden twine, kokedama style.

The moss makes a natural ‘nest’ for a flower posy. You’d never know there was a jam jar inside.

I pushed the jam jar into the top of the cone and filled it with cold fresh water. Then I wandered around the garden collecting the last of the snowdrops, (if you pull them, they have long stems) the first daffodils, hellebores and primroses.

I stood the flower arrangement on the potting shed windowsill to add some hazel catkins. The flowering cherry just opening is Japanese cherry, Prunus Kojo No-Mai.

Hellebores are seedlings of five plants bought from Ashwood Nurseries. I must have nearly 100 plants around the garden, all offspring of plants purchased 10 years ago.

Although it’s not as showy as the rest, I love this small pink hellebore with its lime green markings.

Daffodils came from Taylors Bulbs. Good strong varieties that come back into flower reliably each year.

I’m very pleased with my willow cone. I loved making it. It’s a very calming thing to do, learning a new skill, among friends, with kind and patient teachers. Mel made the willow crown sculpture at RHS Wisley for the King’s coronation, and she’s also made many structures for flower shows and private gardens.

I would love to return to TASK to make some plant supports like these.

I must admit I fell in love with this hare. Maybe, in time, I might be able to make something similar! If I do, it will be all thanks to Mel and the team at TASK.

TASK Academy is run by award winning landscaper Rupert Keys. If you’ve looked on in wonder at the lovely greenhouse owned by Frances Tophill on Gardeners World, Rupert and his team made it! Frances won Platinum and Best in Show for her garden at BBC Gardeners World Live in 2022 and Rupert built the garden and created the greenhouse out of recycled window frames. I lost count of how many awards he’d won to be honest. Safe to say, he knows what he’s talking about and has the experience.

TASK run land-based courses for the landscaping industry and also for anyone wanting to learn how to create dry stone walls, learn garden design, bricklaying and willow weaving.

I can wholeheartedly recommend them. I loved learning something new and found the team very kind and encouraging. Experts who can also teach with patience and understanding. A perfect day that I’ll always treasure.

Find out more at https://www.taskacademy.co.uk/

Thank you also to Emma Mason PR for inviting me along!

Have you recently attended any courses of any kind and learned a new skill? Let me know how you got on!

Also see Common Farm Flowers for floristry courses where I learned how to make my jam-jar posies and bouquets and grow cut flowers all year round.

See Cathy’s In A Vase on Monday here :

https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/category/gardens/in-a-vase-on-monday/