Wealden Times | WT203 | January 2019 | Interiors supplement inside
Wealden Times - The lifestyle magazine for the Weald
Wealden Times - The lifestyle magazine for the Weald
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The finest of British<br />
Country Outbuildings<br />
From Passmores - Est 1909<br />
The ideal home for your<br />
daily run around or classic car<br />
OAK FRONTED<br />
CARRIAGE HOUSES<br />
AND STAND ALONE<br />
TIMBER GARAGES<br />
View our picture gallery on line<br />
for ideas and inspiration.<br />
Excellent range and service.<br />
HIGH STREET, STROOD<br />
ROCHESTER, KENT ME2 4DR<br />
Est 1909<br />
Tel: 01634 290033<br />
For further information visit : www.passmores.co.uk<br />
PassmoresWT171.indd 1 11/04/2016 10:53<br />
Garden Perfection<br />
City Escapes provide domestic & commercial garden solutions<br />
Garden<br />
scratch, perhaps an otherwise expensive crop that is hard<br />
to find in the shops, a weird and wonderful blue potato,<br />
or deliciously unusual variety of kale. Who wouldn’t want<br />
to grow a tomato called ‘Black Krim’, or a leek named<br />
‘Gladiator’? Last year I grew a fantastic variety of Swiss<br />
chard called ‘Pink Flamingo’ which had shocking pink<br />
stems. Nobody wanted to eat any, but I was extraordinarily<br />
proud of the plants and they looked gorgeous.<br />
One of the other great things about growing<br />
vegetables from seed is that most of them are annuals,<br />
so are raring to grow and will germinate almost as<br />
soon as you open the packet. If you buy F1 hybrids,<br />
they have been bred to be reliable and uniform - to do<br />
exactly what it says they’ll do on back of the pack.<br />
On the other hand, heritage or heirloom varieties are<br />
those that have been bred down through the generations<br />
for their unique characteristics. These are more likely<br />
to have been cultivated for their flavour and may look<br />
less tidy and regular, but will probably taste amazing.<br />
You can also collect the seeds of heirloom veg to sow<br />
again next year. Do not bother to collect the offspring<br />
of F1 types though, because the next generation will<br />
revert back to another previous, less desirable strain.<br />
It’s still too early and too cold to start sowing much<br />
this month, but we can be making plans (it’s what<br />
keeps me going in these cold, dark days). Let’s stay in<br />
the warm, peruse the sumptuous seed catalogues and<br />
dream of the spring. It will be here before we know it.<br />
Pick of the catalogues:<br />
Chiltern Seeds chilternseeds.co.uk - great for both flowers<br />
and vegetables.<br />
Sarah Raven sarahraven.com - wonderful, inspirational<br />
pictures and colour schemes.<br />
Special Plants specialplants.net - some unusual varieties and<br />
lots of good information from an expert.<br />
Kings Seeds kingsseeds.com - a good selection of vegetable<br />
seeds and great value.<br />
Seeds of Italy seedsofitaly.com - very generous quantities and<br />
some lovely varieties.<br />
Contact Jo for details of her courses and workshops:<br />
01233 861149 hornbrookmanor.co.uk<br />
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Regular Maintenance<br />
Design & Construction<br />
Small one off works<br />
Turf care management<br />
Problem area Solutions<br />
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Seasonal Bedding plant displays<br />
Approved pesticide/<br />
herbicides operators<br />
Habitat Management<br />
RHS qualified gardeners<br />
Tel: 01435 868211 | M: 07831 302107 | E: gardensmanager@gmail.com<br />
www.cityescapes.co.uk<br />
Home-collected seed<br />
wealdentimes.co.uk<br />
146<br />
CityEscapesWT187.indd 1 16/08/2017 15:53
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