Ask me Anything
What's on your Gardening Mind today?
Hello everyone, wherever you are
and from our regular Show Us Your Plots Sunday feature on the Chat, it’s evident that you really are all over the world - we had posts from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland , Hawaii, California, Texas and Australia this week, and I can’t tell you just how happy that makes me. Please do join in on this chat if you have a moment - I launch a new one every Sunday, and you can add your photo at any time. Once I’ve started the Show Us Your Plots subject thread (thread means conversation or chat, basically), you can then take part by tapping on the speech bubbles either on the page here or the Chat icon on the Substack app.
And then it’s super-easy to upload the photo - simply tap the little photo icon at the bottom of your screen and it will ask you to upload. But if you have any questions, just let me know.
So, it’s time for this week’s Ask Me Anything - What’s on Your Gardening Mind?
As I say every time, no garden-related question is too silly:
You might have a question about when to prune, how to store your bulbs, how to choose a gardening course … anything. Many of these questions and answers will then expand into bigger features in our How to Garden section, so it’s an endless and joyous circle of information sharing!
Just like in last week’s Substack’s AMA, I’m going to be trying my hardest to reply to your questions about the gardening world. How to learn to garden, what to plant, how to grow stuff and why even bother, questions about sowing seeds and planting bulbs (it’s not too late by the way, garden design ideas, planting design, careers in gardening, and the world of show gardens if you’ve ever heard of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Basically, ANYTHING to do with gardens and gardening. And if you joined in Tuesday’s Show Garden Update on Zoom, you may have questions about that too…
Just before we start, many of you have been asking about soil, seeds, and for simple places planting ideas: you can find features on these in our How to Garden section. We look at soil and compost here:
Get the soil right and your plants will be happy. Imagine living on a diet of processed food. Chances are you’ll survive, but you won’t be operating as well as if you were including fresh fruit and vegetables regularly. The soil is the same. Deprive it, starve it and neglect it and your plants won’t thank you.
And we chat about essential garden tools and sowing seeds here:
When you open the seed packet, there’ll probably be over a hundred or so in there, which you really don’t want to use all at once, plus they’ll tip out if you empty them directly into the soil. So instead, pour a few into the palm of your hand, and then sprinkle them along. Not too generously, but don’t worry if they seem close together in the ground; they almost certainly will be too close and when the shoots come up, you can tackle the dreaded thinning-out. This task is actually easy to do, although psychologically hard for softies.
We’ve also had questions on how to design parts of gardens or even whole gardens, small and large. I’d suggest joining in on our Small Garden Design course which is running again this year, starting soon!
Right, and now it’s over to you!
Click the Leave a Comment button and Ask me Anything. And remember, you can also comment on each other’s comments if you’d like to.
I can't wait hear what’s on your Gardening Mind: