n u i u l ! To advertise in the classified section call 020 7150 5155 October 2023 GardenersWorld.com 151 Marketplace Nursery Rediscover the romance of the rose... Norfolk NR17 1AY www.classicroses.co.uk 01953 454707 Rosa ‘Blush Noisette’ Mail Order Specialist Plants Gardening is a fantastic hobby, helping to boost mental health and spiritual wellbeing; so now is the time to get out into the garden to discover and enjoy the beauty of nature and we at Peter Beales are aiming to help you achieve that. We feel that every garden deserves a rose and every rose from our extensive world leading collection is of the finest quality, carefully selected and hand cultivated to the highest of standards here in East Anglia. With over 800 varieties available, we are positive you’ll find the perfect roses for your garden. Scan me to browse b e a u tif u l r o s e s !
3 4 2 1 †This offer is only open to new UK Direct Debit customers subscribing to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. The closing date for this offer is 19 October 2023. The offer is £24.50 every 6 issues; your subscription will continue at a rate of £24.50 every 6 issues. The Gardening Book by Monty Don is subject to availability and will be mailed from 26 October 2023. We reserve the right to fulfil all subsequent orders with a product of equal value. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery, but we will endeavour to fulfil orders at the earliest opportunity. You may cancel at any time and receive a full refund on any outstanding issues by contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may also be required. Prices are discounted from the full UK subscription price and include P&P. Standard UK subscription price: £77.25 / Europe and Republic of Ireland: €118 / Rest of the World: US$166 / USA and Canada: US$143.88 / Australia and New Zealand: A$180. *UK calls will cost the same as other standard fixed line numbers (starting 01 or 02) and are included as part of any inclusive or free minutes allowances (if offered by your phone tariff). Outside of free call packages call charges from mobile phones will cost between 3p and 55p per minute. For overseas subscriptions, call +44 (0) 1604 973731. Please visit buysubscriptions. com/contact for customer service opening hours. Call 03330 162123* and quote code GWSP1023 Visit buysubscriptions.com/GWSP1023 2 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE Offer ends 19 October 2023 Exclusive money-saving offers plus competitions, discounts and free seeds Subscriber events and opportunities to meet the magazine’s experts GardenersWorld.com Premium to access special subscriber-only content on GardenersWorld.com FREE delivery direct to their door Your friend can experience more as a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Club member with: SUBSCRIPTION OFFER 152 GardenersWorld.com October 2023 Gift a subscription to and they’ll receive 6 issues PLUS a copy of Monty Don’s The Gardening Book for £24.50† BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Receive a copy of Monty Don’s new book
October 2023 GardenersWorld.com 153 PHOTOS: SARAH CUTTLE; PAUL DEBOIS; NEIL HEPWORTH; JASON INGRAM PLUS… Winter greenhouse wonders ◼ Force bulbs for Christmas ◼ Savour homegrown ◼ Save £££s with bare roots NEXTmonth... November issue on sale 19October Give your soil some TLC and crack home composting – ADAM shows you how Boost borders now for the best display next year – follow ALAN’s easy guide MONTY shares his house plant wisdom, for cacti, big leaves and much more NICK shows how to take root cuttings to create lots of new plants Tidy bamboo and keep it in check with FRANCES’ expert advice Refresh your AUTUMN POTS and plan ahead for a spring display Meet our eight worthy winners and cast your vote in the People’s Choice award Get inspiration and top tips on how to create the garden of your dreams Read what Alan and our other expert judges think makes a winning garden BEST reader gardens Hill-top retreat Japanese oasis Perennial haven Balcony idyll
October 2023 PHOTOS: JASON INGRAM ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS MADDEN ILLUSTRATION Tales from Now, I know that for most working folk the gardening jobs have to be caught up with at the weekend and that power tools make the going easier – and quicker – but why do even the electric ones have to be so noisy? We have mowers and strimmers and chainsaws and hedgetrimmers and leaf blowers. I know it’s unrealistic of me to ask you to replace your lawnmower with a small flock of sheep and to pick up a rake rather than a leaf blower but… well, you get my drift. The grass-cutting alternative is, of course, to invest in one of those battery-powered robot mowers that creeps about like an oversized tortoise, grazing constantly on your turf so that it never grows more than an inch high. There are environmental advantages in terms of a lowering of air and noise pollution, but they don’t produce stripes, and I love my stripes, as long as they’re created between Monday and Saturday – never on a Sunday. And yet I am a realist. I recognise the fact that there will always be someone who wants to mow their lawn/cut their hedge/blow their leaves/saw their logs on The Lord’s Day, regardless of their religious beliefs. I am no evangelist, just a simple soul who appreciates a bit of peace and quiet on what used to be regarded as the first day of the week. So, if you must power your way through Sunday, please do so between the hours of 9am and 6pm, so that I can sip my early morning tea in silence and enjoy my sundowner to the accompaniment of the blackbird, rather than the Black & Decker. Thank you. Sunday is a day for enjoying the garden in peace and quiet, says Alan, without the buzz, hum and drone of power tools experience a bit of peace and quiet – or at least as near to peace and quiet as it’s possible to experience in this jet-powered age. That is an added benefit – aside from reduced pollution – of electricpowered tools, though even these emit an insistent hum that I can do without on a Sunday. I want to listen to the birds singing, and hear the wind rustling the leaves of the horse chestnut across the garden, the splash of a duck landing on our wildlife pond, the cluck of a moorhen darting across the lily pads and the laughter of grandchildren who are, in the words of PG Wodehouse, “probably breaking things”. (I do my grandchildren a disservice in the interests of reminding you of the works of the finest comic writer Britain has ever produced.) Granted, all of the above might be interrupted by the insistent drone of an aircraft or a motorbike setting itself the challenge of ascending the steep lane outside our house at speed, but these are minor and infrequent irritations. Perhaps in this age of mobile phones, when it’s rare to come across anyone perambulating the streets of town and city without a pair of earphones bunged into their aural orifices, the natural sounds of the earth have been superseded by a man-made cacophony. Am I really in a minority of not wanting music or news bulletins drummed into my head 24/7 as I bimble about my lawns and flowerbeds? “The sounds of the earth are like music,” wrote Oscar Hammerstein II in Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’ – that glorious song from Oklahoma! That may well be the case, but it appears that not many folk are tuning into the sounds of the earth nowadays. And finally... I want to listen to the birds singing, the splash of a duck landing on our pond, the cluck of a moorhen darting across the lily pads What do you think is the rarest thing in your garden? A special snowdrop? A mature pockethandkerchief tree? Neither, I reckon. It’s clear to me that the rarest thing in any garden is… silence. It appears to be the one commodity that money can’t buy. A stately home close to us came up for sale a few years ago. A wealthy billionaire arrived in his helicopter to take a look. He landed it on the lawn beside the impressive Palladian-fronted property – all pillars and pilasters, dating from the 18th century, and surrounded by several hundred acres of farmland and woodland. He switched off his helicopter engines, disembarked the craft and listened. He could hear the not-too-distant hum of the M3. He boarded his helicopter and took off, never to return. I was reminded of this tale in the summer when I was asked to suggest an acceptable ‘start’ and ‘stop’ time for powered garden machinery on a Sunday. I worried that I would sound holier-than-thou when I explained that I never use power tools on a Sunday, believing profoundly that there should be at least one day in the week when we could go out into our gardens and 154 GardenersWorld.com
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