The internet is burgeoning with information of every possible kind, while seed companies and nurseries entice you into falling for something, anything. And, let’s not forget all those writers and broadcasters. So, with the new gardening year upon us, how can you tiptoe through this maze of information?
I believe gardening tips should pass three tests. Is the advice from a reliable source? Is it up to date, taking into account recent research? And is the information suitable for where you live?
Google makes life easy. At the click of a mouse you can browse the sum of human knowledge, but sift with care. You can generally trust sites such as the RHS, Garden Organic and the BBC, but be more careful with lesser-known sources.
We’re often drawn to the experiences of others in blogs, but again, tread cautiously. One tip I came across was especially enlightening: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Garden centres and mail order firms are often more helpful than that, but they don’t want you to leave without using your credit card.
We writers and broadcasters do our best, even if we don’t always agree with each other, but our advice must be up to date. Modern research often modifies or even throws a couthy old method out the window.
Take planting up a container, for example. As I wrote here in 2013, research showed the traditional technique of layering the bottom of a pot with broken crocks was wrong. It impedes, not helps, drainage. By 2015, Monty Don and others started recommending alternatives.
And should you double dig? A hundred years ago, one writer said "the town garden should be deeply dug and well manured, if not annually, at least every two years". And this treatment should even be meted out to herbaceous borders. Everything but trees and shrubs should be howked out and replanted after the big dig.
Although I’ve never run amok in the flower border, I was certainly brought up with double digging etched in my soul. It's laborious and back-breaking but very satisfying. The latest research by soil scientists, however, demonstrates that this cultivation disrupts the complex soil ecology and should be avoided where possible.
In our defence, garden writers can only offer general advice. Even so, homegrown tips will be more relevant for you than UK-wide advice. I always advise opting for quick-growing veg crops because plants have a lot of work to do during a short growing season. This makes successional sowing more challenging, so late-maturing sprouts and leeks rarely perform as well as early ones.
As a general rule, you need a hot, sunny summer to grow tomatoes outdoors, whatever you hear from south of Hadrian’s Wall, and you haven’t a hope with slow-maturing beefsteak tomatoes.
And our feeble sun shines just as weakly in the flower garden. Although honeysuckles are fairly hardy, varieties such as Lonicera etrusca Superba need more sun than we get here. And you should be choosy with camellias. C x williamsii won’t let you down, but you’ll be hard-pressed to squeeze a flower out of a C japonica.
The sun isn’t everything. Geography and altitude are critical so there are no hard and fast rules for the whole country. Japanese maple, Acer japonica, tolerates "mild" midwinter cold, but can’t handle severe or late winter frosts and biting east winds.
The experts can help, but you need to know your own area and tailor advice to your particular garden. Will a plant get enough sun or shade, and, if relevant, can it tolerate salt? If you need a reference book, try Garden Plants for Scotland, co-written by my predecessor in these pages, Raoul Curtis-Machin, and Ray Cox.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here