Gardening in Aberdeenshire

Just watched Gardener's World.  I think it is only relevant to gardeners in the south  of Britain.  After our extremely low temperatures (still barely getting above 12 degrees here) and rain, rain, rain, I am only just seeing peas and broad beans peeking up.  To see sweet peas in flower and new potatoes being lifted, doesn't encourage me to keep viewing.  Get real!

This is really an old chestnut with the greatest respect-it is a matter of making adjustment to your own growing conditions-what do you want them to do?

-and after all you have Beechgrove- one more gardening programme than the rest of the country.

I'd just like them to be more aware and helpful to those of us who are growing in more adverse conditions.  Otherwise it just becomes very annoying to watch every Friday.

I know where your coming from Alisonfd I garden in the Highlands but enjoy gardeners world anyway. I watch Beechgrove too

If it's such 'an old chestnut' then why don't the production team make the programme more relevant to the rest of the country.  Beechgrove Garden is OK but they have a huge site with greenhouses, polytunnels, etc and those of us without those indulgences just want advice on growing the best produce that we can in difficult conditions.  (My biggest success this year is overwintering globe artichokes - well mulched and under fleece - but already three fruits showing - well chuffed).  Glad to hear some feedback, Wee Jenny!

 I buy gardening magazines and what you have to do as you read them you've to put your brain a month ahead. Just different gardening

I also find it quite frustrating at times and I am further south than MD. I would love to know how he got his dahlia to flower so early and I assumed that the Tithonias had been grown in a heated greenhouse.

I would expect him to have a couple of greenhouses to produce the quantity of plants that he grows but I feel for any newbie gardeners watching who think that you could produce those results in your garden without heat. This board is full of people struggling with this years weather conditions and that reassures  me. As you say Beechgrove seem to grow an awful lot in polytunnels and greenhouses, I will have to start saving up.

Read your thread then watched GW.

I''m in the NW and got a couple of things from this weeks GW, firstly I've garlic, planted last October and now I know it has rust, it will be coming up. On a positive note that make's room for other veg which is ready to plant out.

Secondly, I've plants coming to the end of their flowering season which can be dug up and taken out of the bed so the seedlings which I thought there wasn't room for can now be plant out.

 Monty's garden is huge compared to most, your need to think outside the box, take what's useful and enjoy the rest. 

Kate1123, I'm not a newbie gardener.  I've been gardening for over 40 years, but I get very frustrated seeing these TV programmes which appear to show what I know is impossible in northern areas without greenhouses or polytunnels, etc.  In a normal household setting (I have a medium sized garden with raised beds for veg and lots of lawn and flower/shrub areas) I'm only starting off the summer season and they are already way ahead. 

Weejenny, I agree with your month difference.  But it also makes our growing season so much shorter.  May to October becomes June to September.

Zoomer44, I try to think 'outside the box' - it's part of gardening in difficult conditions, but this weather makes it so much more difficult.  GW just doesn't seem to acknowledge this.

Alisonfd apologies I was not trying to imply you were a newbie gardener, I am the novice. I just find that there is a large gap between what I watch and what I can achieve. 

The size, variety and splendour of Monty's garden is staggering at times as with Carols too, but he's also been there +20 years and Carol has been at Glebe cottage +30 yrs. In all that time, soil improvement, landscaping and establishing plants have been key to their successes. Knowing their plot has helped them to understand what works and what doesn't. And one of the reasons I truly enjoy Monty's presentation on GW, is that he shares his failures too. If he's not some gardening genius who never gets it wrong, then I have hope that I may achieve something similar in my own garden.

Draw inspiration from the GW programs and tailor what they're doing to knowledge of your own plot. I live in Kent and yes things grow here in the summer, but that doesn't mean I don't meet challenges or watch some programs with very little relevance to my own garden. I've yet to add water, so the pond episode the other week was completely out of touch with me, yet I enjoyed it all the same, learning something along the way and enjoying the success of Monty's hard work that was shown last night. It doesn't mean I'm going straight off to dig a dirty great big pond in my garden, it wouldn't fit, but when the time comes for water, I can draw inspiration from what I saw.

As a side note, perhaps you are expecting too much from your veg if you grow them without protection so far north? I know not everyone can afford polytunnels but I'm not even bothering with outdoor tomatoes or peppers anymore and I live in the far south! blight gets mine every year!

I suspect growing veg in much of Scotland is a challenge that needs extra tricks like polytunnels, greenhouses or cloches or else a very restricted range of veggies.   I garden in central Belgium and have had to give up growing winter veg such as leeks, garlic, kale and other cabbages because the last 4 winters have seen them frozen to mush.    I have therefore rejigged my raised beds to make one large enough to protect with a polytunnel next winter.   It'll be a home made affair of posts and pipes and plastic sheeting.  If it works I may invest in a porper one.

No demo garden in the UK is going to be able to match the climate, soil and exposure of even half the rest of the country so you have to work on the basis that Monty's garden is probably 3 or 4 weeks behind Cornwall and 3 or 4 weeks ahead of Scotland but also know he can't get things through winter that grow happily on the west of Scotland with the warmth of the Gulf Stream to protect them..

Alison,

Surely it has to be accepted, without needing to be repeated every week, that gardening is a very different proposition in a country stretching 700 miles from N to S. After 40 years you must be an expert on gardening in Aberdeenshire. I'd second everything that Wintersong writes.

Joe

@ obelixx. I have a half allotment in Edinburgh. You're right, I use lots of fleece and  a poly tunnel. I'm lucky to have sheltered sunny site. I tend to start off lots things in modules and grow suitable varieties. Everything is late this year. I expect to get a glut of broad beans and peas, as my second sowings are catching up with my first.

OK, I'm new here and I have obviously repeated other posts.  I'll just keep my head down and hope the weather picks up.  Thanks for all the feedback - much appreciated.

Alison-don't take it to heart a lot of us are from the now-defunct BBC board and this was a repetitive topic that did get hammered to death and in retrospect I was a bit harsh with the "old chestnut" comment

Do join in on other discussions-most posters on here a really a friendly bunch- please share your experiences of gardening in Scoland with us southern softies

Thank you!  I'm very depressed with the awful weather here recently BUT I have got peas, broad beans, potatoes and lettuce coming up.  No sign of the carrots or spinach yet, fingers crossed.  Leek seedlings are doing nicely, too.  Even mowing has been difficult with so much rain.  And it's good that grasses are 'in' now because my flower /shrub beds are full of them!  (don't mention the weeds!)  I'm keen to partipitate on the forum and glean as much knowledge as I can and maybe give some advice.  My biggest achievement this year is to overwinter globe artichokes which are already showing three fruits.

So all a bit of a challenge then-mind you down here it isn't much different-things are just not moving-all we need is a bit of prolonged sunshine and we will he happy bunnies again.

Here are a couple of threads-feel free-

Over here is June in you Garden-the title is a giveaway

http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/the-potting-shed/june-in-your-garden/3638-9.html

and here-where we ramble on about anything from tv,food our adventures anything at all-

-http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/the-potting-shed/fork-handles/3533-62.html

join in

@ Gaffelbiter you say you have an allotment in Edinburgh? My mum has allotment also in Edinburgh, where abouts in Edin do you plot? maybe you are my mums neighbour!  @ Alisonfd,my mum in Edin always reckons  they are about  4 weeks behind compared to down south with gardening stuff. Im living and gardening in the outer hebrides and I reckon Im about 2 months behind with flowers and veg. But hey look at the extra light we get at night... Last night I was out in my garden in day light till 11.30pm and then light again at 2am.  No torches required here for slug patrol  !! Enjoy x

Miss B x 

Reckon we're about 6 weeks behind here.  If the weather was better we would also have the extra daylight, hopefully that'll happen soon.  Used to live in Fife (just north of Edinburgh) and gardened very successfuly.  But that was in the 1970s and the only problem was watering.  Used to water the garden with waste water from the bath or kitchen sink.