In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta

As much as I love my greenhouse, its arrival also created a huge design problem in the garden, compounded by the oversized shed (where else do you keep 5 bikes?) and the obligatory trampoline.
Add to that the increasingly boxed-in feeling from neighbour’s extensions along the side and the end of the garden, and the whole space was beginning to feel more like a dockyard full of large, parked objects.  A neglected dockyard at that; I’ve been an allotment holder for several years and as anyone can tell you - it’s impossible to serve two mistresses at once.

How heartbreaking to look on to your own garden every day and feel that you don’t like what you see, specially when it was once a garden that gave you so much pleasure.
What to do?  I’ve designed gardens for friends before and have known exactly what to do, but when it comes to your own garden, I would always recommend getting help.

My knight in shining armour rode over on a bicycle:  luckily designer Cleve West (he of the Chelsea gold medals) lives in the same borough and could come the day after I phoned him.  For those who desire it, he offers a £200, one-off consultation, which is worth every penny and a very sound investment.
I explained what I thought was wrong and how I needed solutions that were economical, easy to execute and effective.  What he came up with, as you can see from phase one in the photograph, is something that has made me take pleasure in the garden again.

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The first question he asked was “how wedded are you to your lawn?”  This was music to my ears as I’d wanted to rip it up for a while but hadn’t found the courage – English gardens are supposed to have lawns!  Cleve measured out a 1 meter gravel path.  He also suggested screening off the trampoline and the back of the greenhouse so that the garden would be ‘framed’ again. (Enclosed gardens, framed gardens… all gardens need visual boundaries from which to work inwards).  We agreed on a simple screen design that I can make myself.  Next came the huge brick pillars on the left side of the garden.  I’d always seen them as a negative thing because I don’t like the bricks they are made of, Cleve suggested they gave the garden a lot of structure that should be echoed on the right side (one side of your garden should always be ‘talking to’ or addressing the other side of the garden in some way, either in structure , plants or both).  Some thin, columnar box (buxus sempervivens) between the raised beds on the opposite side would pick up on the pillars and echo them.   On the shady side of the garden I have two tree ferns (Dicksonia Antartica).  Should I get another much taller one to repeat the planting and provide interest with height?  Yes.  The smaller the garden, the more simple you must keep things.  Repetition brings things together.
Suddenly, thanks to Cleve’s advice – and a lot of hard work ripping up the lawn, I’m starting to look forward to a garden that’s in harmony again.

I have just finished reading “Old Herbaceous” by Reginald Arkell. It’s a charming book, published in 1950, about the life a head gardener from boyhood to old age. The seasons of his life are tracked along with those of the garden, and the mistress of the big house, who he serves till she leaves the house in her eighties. Highly recommended and amusing.

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In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta

I love the way that every hobby has particular kit associated with it that assumes cult status. Years ago, when I did a brief stint as a bicycle mechanic, everyone lusted after ‘double butted, curly lugged’ Reynold’s tubing on their frames.
Trawling round the internet looking for little stones for my cacti, I discover that cactus growers pine after BEF pots .

I’d never heard about them till a week ago, but of course, I immediately saw a need for them and am now becoming a bit of an expert.

• seroquel and snoring

The origins of BEF pots are lost in the mists of time: some say it stands for “British Engineering Foundry”. Philip Barker, who now produces them, thinks they may be the initials of the original owner from Billericay in Essex. (I would be very interested to hear from anyone who can fill me in on BEF’s origins, has any pictures of original designs or any of the moulds, some of which have never been found).
One thing is certain, they are particularly good for greenhouse growers because they are made of strong polypropylene plastic which has a high tolerance to UV rays and won’t split after a couple seasons.   In the past, they were used by professional growers because they were so durable – some greenhouse owners report having them for 30 years.
BEF pots are also beloved of cactus growers because they come in various sizes, including 2 inch square pots that are 2 inches deep, perfect for their hobby. ( I hear fuchsia fanciers are partial to them as well).
So here comes the bonding bit: you will see from this picture taken by Ian Nartowicz,  that as well as being practical in the greenhouse, BEF pots also have a pleasing roundness, solidity and simplicity which make them a bit of a design classic.  These are pots from a time when Britain still had a manufacturing industry and a tradition of honest, utilitarian design.

Picture by: Ian Nartowicz

The story of BEF pots also follows the sorry tale of so many British goods.  The company no longer exists but the manufacture was taken over by another supplier who seems to have ceased trading.  The licence for the pots subsequently passed to Philip Barker, a member of the BCSS, who found a manufacturer who would make them for him in small quantities.
He says:   “Before I acquired the moulds (sadly some have disappeared completely) they had been owned by at least two others. It was rumoured a few years ago that the pots would be lost for good because sales had become so low. I was given the opportunity to buy about two years ago and as a long time member of the BCSS wanted to keep these outstanding pots going as long as possible. There is simply nothing to compare to them anywhere. The pots have never had a mass market probably due to the high quality.”

I’ve just ordered a selection of sizes to see which ones suit my purposes best.  There is a corner of my greenhouse that will be forever BEF.
(For a list of sizes and prices e-mail Philip Barker philip@barker3832.freeserve.co.uk or Telephone  01942 256440 )

I am reading Asian Vegetables: A guide to growing fruit, vegetables and spices from the Indian sub-continent by Sally Cunningham. (Eco-Logic Books £14.99)  Sally is a professional gardener who has worked at Ryton Organic Gardens and Kew.  The growing instructions are excellent with information on how to buy these vegetables and tell if they are fresh as well.  There are a few quibbles though: the index of suppliers doesn’t tell you who sells what, so that’s another few sessions on Google. For the price, the book is rather cheaply produced – thin end papers and unimaginative design. I would like to have seen some recipes included too.  Still, if you want to grow South Asian Vegetables in your greenhouse this is a good place to start.  A companion book I also recommend is Monisha Bharadwaj’s invaluable ‘The Indian Kitchen’, which features individual ingredients used in Indian cooking - where they come from, their cultural significance and a couple of recipes to try.
Enjoy!

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In The Greenhouse with Lila Das Gupta

A few years back, there was an ad on TV for some sort of ready meal.  In the 10 minutes it took to ‘boil in the bag’, the woman was able to use the extra time to take up the cello, get as fit as Madonna or complete her Phd.

I thought about this the other day when I dashed into the greenhouse in the evening while the children were out at Brownies and Beavers.  On went the light and the radio and for a delicious half-hour I sieved some compost and planted up some hardy winter lettuce .   Monday night is guitar-lesson night, so back I went to sieve more compost and start off some broad beans .  Another night, the three of them piled into the greenhouse while the dinner cooked, to sow some mixed cacti seed we’d bought at Kew Gardens. (Yes, we are now into competitive cacti growing.)
All this leads me to conclude that my single biggest tip if you are getting a new greenhouse is: get your greenhouse wired up for lighting (and heating).

Although the nights are getting lighter, if you go out to work or have other things to do during the day, it makes such a difference to be able to garden exactly when you want to and use spare bits of time productively. That’s without mentioning the possibilities that greenhouses afford as a bolt-hole from domestic life.I never used to sieve my compost for seedlings, but now that I have a greenhouse I must admit that I do feel a bit more grown-up as a gardener.

Broad beans normally do well just being plonked in the ground, but my allotment site is so windy and exposed that starting them off beforehand gives them the extra push they need to put on good growth.  With an eye to saving on heating costs, I have set up my old, cheap plastic mini-greenhouse inside the glass one in order to have a “greenhouse within a greenhouse” for seedlings which have already germinated and don’t need to be in the propagator or on a heated mat.  I open the polythene sheeting on this plastic greenhouse first thing in the morning then close it again in the evening when the temperature drops.  Not only does this help to establish a micro-climate, it also gets

you into a good routine of visiting the greenhouse every day to keep on eye on things. So, I suppose my Golden rule No.2 would be: Get into the habit of going to the greenhouse when you get up in the morning and then again in the early evening.

Checking on carnivorous plants before school.

HOW TO SOW CACTI SEED

Cacti seed are not too difficult to germinate (whatever you read in books!).  They can be sown all year round in the greenhouse and have the advantage of giving you something interesting to look at every time you pay a visit.
Some of the seeds are minute - put them on a white piece of paper to see what you are doing, then try to pick up and dot each one about a centimetre from the other on the compost.  You can buy special cacti compost, or John Innes seed compost, which is sandy and free draining and works just as well.  Cacti seeds germinate at different rates, so it’s best to leave them all till they are about the size of two match-heads then pot them on in a small container. (Given that you may have around 40 plants from a packet, square pots fit neatly onto a tray and save space).

I am reading An Orchard Invisible, A Natural History of Seeds by Jonathan Silvertown (University of Chicago Press, to be Published in April 2009.) Prof. Silvertown is Professor of Ecology at the Open University.  If only more academics wrote like him - his style is lively and engaging rather than dry and impenetrable.  The book covers numbers of seeds, poisons, edible seeds, why some have lots of oil and others starch.  He also explains why the seed of a giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum), a tree which can weigh as much as six jumbo jets, weighs only a six thousandth of a gram.
I quote here from the uncorrected proof:
“… evolution cooked up something brand-new to serve the demands of life on land: an embryo in a box which we will call a seed.  In fact the box contains not just an embryo, but a food store placed there by mother, so a seed is really an embryo in a picnic basket.”

This book is a must for anyone who enjoys planting seeds.

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