West Yorkshire Melons

A quest to discover the best method of growing melons in the North of England.

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  A poster of Suttons Melons, I can only find ‘Hero of Lockinge’ still in existence (though only just hanging on!).

I have been fortunate to have some previous success (and a couple of failures) when trying to grow melons. The successes came when I worked at the Horizon Centre and in all truth I planted them, watered them, fed them, the usual routine without really trying and understanding the conditions the required. I have been wanting to try for a while and after re-watching the fabulous Victorian Kitchen Garden I decided to really try and grow them.

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  Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’

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  Cantaloupe Melon

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  In the Horizon Centre greenhouses

After spending lots of time trying to reasearch the best techniques and requirements melons liked in the UK I decided to add this to the blog, mainly because there isn’t much info at all. The best I have found is from Bob Flowerdew’s website :

http://bobflowerdew.com/melons-and-watermelons

I have also found the RHS Growing Fruit by Harry Baker an excellent and very thorough book to have for all fruit but by far the most detailed for melon growing. I have been following the advice to the ‘T’ in my greenhouse this year (2020).

Its worth pointing out at this stage that the only melons that can be realistically be grown (as far as my research takes me) are cantaloupes (musk) – the netted and ribbed types and the early watermelons and always under cover: greenhouse, polytunnel or cold frame.

I admit to not spending a great deal of time looking at watermelons at this stage but I believe if you are going to attempt these you want to be looking at the earlier modern and F1 varieties. The success I had previously was with ‘Sugar Baby’ which was grown in a growbag, on greenhouse staging, two plants to a grow bag. They produced two small melons on one plant and one larger on the other.

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  Heirloom Melon ‘Hero of Lockinge’. Bred at Lockinge Park estate in Oxfordshire.

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  ‘Hero of Lockinge’ in The Melon by Amy Goldman

I cause myself some problems here because I am very much into growing, preserving and saving the seeds from heirloom varieties of anything edible. This is a problem because the more modern and F1 melons are bred for colder shorter climates than where melons traditionally grow, which means your chances of success are higher, but…

I wanted to grow the old types, those that are in danger of being lost, those which you dont see on the stands in garden centres, they hold romance and I am sold on the stories, as well as how important it is to preserve our history and genetic food diversity.

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  Blenheim Orange

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  Green Nutmeg

So, armed with the RHS Growing Fruit book over the winter I set plans in action. I have previously bought seeds of ‘Green Nutmeg’ from Pennard Plants and ‘Blenheim Orange’, another Victorian variety bred in Oxfordshire, at Blenheim Palace. I had space for three in my glasshouse at home, two of one, one of the other, all planned out in good time.

But then… I read the accompanying book The Victorian Kitchen Garden where they grew ‘Blenheim Orange’ and ‘Hero of Lockinge’ so off I went in search of ‘Hero of Lockinge’ and I could find it…. nowhere, the internet ran dry. In a final attempt I searched twitter, nothing, then facebook… and I came across the Heirloom Cucurbits group, full of brilliant pumpkin, squash and melon growers, specialising in the old rare types. I joined, made a post about ‘Hero of Lockinge’ and in no time some seeds were flying over from Spain during lockdown (the supplier was a lovely guy who grows and preserves many old seeds, especially melons, he is on Instagram – semillas_la_peba) with the promise of regular growing advice. Now I had a serious dilemma. This being that melons cross pollinate easily, which means seed from a grown melon wont come true, unless you only grow one variety or protect them from cross pollinating. With seed being so scarce, the variety at risk of becoming extinct and my, well frankly obsession for heirlooms, do I grow just all ‘Hero of Lockinge’ to try and gain some of my own seed? All the winter plans in tatters?

Well, in my wisdom (or madness) and quest to save the seed, I chose, for better or worse to grow all ‘Hero of Lockinge’. Then, I thought, what about the polytunnel at work? So I decided to grow ‘Blenheim Orange’ and ‘Annas’ which was a variety I was kindly given by a Thomas Etty Seeds.

April 2020

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  Germinating melon seeds in using the wet paper towel method.

Mid to late April is usually when I start my seeds indoors for planting out in the garden late May/Early June (we are usually frost free here from the last week in May here) and for my greenhouse plantings – mainly tomatoes and chillis previously.

I was given a tip to start melon seeds using the wet paper towel method and it worked exceptionally well. I usually germinate in steralised pots in peat free compost in my heated propagator. With the wet paper towel method you line a container with paper towel in the bottom and get it fully damp, but not soaking, place the seeds on, another damp paper towel on top, put on a lid (or clingfilm if you dont have one) and put in the heated propagator. If you dont have a propagator you could put it on top of a radiator or on a sunny windowsill. When the seeds have germinated to the stage in the picture above gently take them out and place them just under the surface of some compost in a pot and gently cover. Place back in the propagator or warm place until they have emerged from the compost.

Once they have germinated this is the first vulnerable stage for melons, and let’s acknowledge this now, they are very temperamental plants to grow, is when they have their seed leaves and early true leaves. They are vulnerable to cold drafts and cold nights as well as the stem becoming wet and rotting – this is one of the most common failures of melons. To combat this took the melons out of the propagator during the day and then back in at night. If they are left in the heated propagator they can become etiolated (or leggy) at this stage quickly. I then moved on to moving to them to the greenhouse in sunny weather, then back to heated propagator and then just into the house when they had outgrown the propagator. I watered from the top of the pot, avoiding getting water near the stem at all costs, in fact, the compost remained visibly dry near the stem throughout their time in the pots.

May 2020

The excellent spring weather of consistent sunny warm days and above 12c nights continued through the start of May with the soil warming up and growth across the garden coming into full flow. However, I have been here before, you get lulled in that summer has arrived and the frost has gone and on the 15th of May it hadn’t. Potatoes were frosted overnight. Fortunately I had delayed planting anything tender, inside or outside the greenhouse. By the 20th of May the long term forecast had night temperatures over 10c into June (take note of 10c being important, we’ll come to that later). By June, in this area of the North, the risk of frost has gone. It was time to plant.

I decided to follow the RHS method from the book of planting directly into the greenhouse soil, but on mounds to help heat the soil and improve drainage (as per the RHS advice). The soil was a mix of old turf loam, well rotted manure (about a 1/4) and some slow release fertiliser in the form of chicken manure pellets. I formed the mounds around pots of the same size so that I could drop the plants in. I went to all this trouble to overcome another major cause of melon growing failure, root transplant shock. This is when melons react badly to root disturbance and simply collapse and die. I waited until the plants had four true leaves so that they would have filled the pots with roots but before becoming root bound. I wanted this to happen so that the soil would not collapse and expose the roots when I was planting in their final positions. It is also important to have the level of the compost in the pot to be 2.5cm (1 inch) above the level of the soil in the final position. This is to make sure that any water does not sit near the stem, avoiding the danger of any future stem rot.

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  Ground prepared for melon planting

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  Planted and dusted with yellow sulphur

I made a video on how I plant my cucurbits to prevent stem rot and root disturbance shock.

So nervous I was about the risk of transplant shock and the fact that I had taken on these rare seedlings that I planted one and left it four days to make sure my technique was right before committing to planting the other two. It was, so they were planted with no issues. The second melon growing hurdle successfully completed.

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  Blenheim Orange in Polytunnel

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  Melons in Polytunnel

A week or so later I planted out two ‘Annas’ and one ‘Blenheim Orange’ seedling in the polytunnel. As the tunnel does not have beds to plant in I went for large black pots (approximately 30cm wide) which I had and I raised plants up on mounds in the middle of each pot. In all truth they had probably stayed in their small pots too long and were looking a bit nutrient deficient. I was also struggling for compost due to lockdown so the pots were filled with compost made from mainly bark chippings which was available on site. Hardly ideal, but what was there to lose?

Throughout the rest of May the weather continued very favourably and consistently and they all started to put on some nice growth going into June.

June 2020

The weather continued into early June but towards the end started to change, become unsettled, duller and cooler. Oh! Another potential challenge.

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  Hero of Lockinge

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  Female melon flower

The greenhouse ‘Hero of Lockinge’ were looking great, about 4ft tall and fulll of male and female flowers with new ones coming daily. At this stage it is worth talking about how melons flower and fruit. All melons produced male and female flowers separately on the same plant (they are called monoecious and include all of the cucurbits: cucumbers, squash, watermelon, pumpkin and courgette) so pollen needs to be transferred from the male flower to the female flower (the one with the immature fruit behind it). In nature and when grown outside insects carry out this procedure for us but under cover this can be an issue so it is advisable to open the doors during the day as much as possible. However, all the curcubits are promiscuous and happily within their genius, which is no good for saving seeds as they might not come true. It is the main reason I grew only ‘Hero of Lockinge’ in the greenhouse so I knew that any fruit would produce true seed. Pollination can be helped and controlled though hand pollination, which can be done by using a small brush and taking pollen from the male flower and brushing it on the female flower parts. The preferred method of melon growers it seems is to remove the male flower, pull off the petals and rub in the male flower onto the female one.

Here is an excellent video on how to hand pollinate melons.

Everything was going well, all to plan, lots of flowers, some pollination going on and then, you remember I mentioned the weather? Too good to be true? Sadly it was. We hit the an unsettled spell at the end of June and into July. When I say unsettled, I mean, wet, overcast and cold, very cold for July. There were several sub 10c nights in a row. At the time, I didn’t realise the impact of this. In July, I did.

July 2020

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The damage the period of cold started to show when the heat of July resumed. The melons in the greenhouse started to wilt in the midday sun. Now, this is not uncommon for the cucurtbit family, particularly earlier in the summer as the big leaves lose water quicker than they can take it up with their roots as the plants grow so fast. However, these were established plants. What appears to have happened is that the cold soil (below 10c) caused the roots to rot, then, when the heat came back the roots did not match the top growth.

The major issue came shortly afterwards. As you can see from the pictures the fruit had started to set and grow, then suddenly it stopped, they turned yellow and fell off. This is what they do with many fruits which have not been pollinated, these had been, the plant was aborting them (and flowers) due to stress.

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  Hero of Lockinge – July fruit set

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July continued hot a sunny, plus 30c days in the greenhouse being a regular occurrence. The plants started to recover, less wilting and then, towards the end of the month started to flower again. What would August bring?

August 2020

I was away from the garden, both home and work for the first two weeks of August, my neighbour and mum kindly providing the care for all my plants.

I returned to find something interesting and exciting.

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  August fruit set

From the new round of flowers a fruit had set on one of the plants. It started swelling quickly and as we continued throughout August it was looking good. Ideally, the fruit would be coming into ripeness this month, not swelling rapidly. I was hoping September would be kind with the weather and give it a chance to come to fruition. Unfortunately, the end of August had different ideas. We dropped back into another unsettled cool period, back to low overnight temperatures and given the previous problems this had caused I had to try and prevent the root rot.

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  Water bottles as heat sinks

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  Hero of Lockinge fist size

Having read some Bob Flowerdew posts on his melon growing he puts bottles of water in his cold frames. The idea being that the sun heats them up during the day and they slowly release that heat into the soil overnight. It was worth a go, anything was worth a go!

September 2020

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September was a lovely month weather wise. Steady sun and heat. I love the light in September, the lower light casts lovely shadows and a golden glow, despite it being inescapable that summer is slipping away, rather quickly.

The pictures show ‘Hero of Locking’ netted for support. It was doing well but always fighting against the lost of light and subsequent night time temperatures. I even resorted to hot water bottles on some nights past the middle of the month, but it was all too late. Time, light and heat were against me and the melons.

I was close, so close, but ‘Hero of Lockinge’ 2020 did not come to fruition. But, this year, in my first real year of melon growing, I learnt a lot and got me thinking on what the problems were and how to overcome them in future. Once the disappointment is over, that is a significant part of gardening – learning.

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  The ‘Hero of Lockinge’ that so nearly made it.

Work Polytunnel Update

As mentioned early in the post I decided to grow some heirloom melons in my work Polytunnel. Two ‘Blenheim Orange’ and two ‘Annas’.

The ‘Blenheim Orange’ was much shorter and earlier branching in habit and produced many more flowers and set a lot of fruit (five on one plant, which I decided to thin to three). In total four, one of which was lost and another did not ripen in time.

‘Annas’ grew much taller and quicker. A main stem with a few side shoots. A lot less flowers but three fruits set across two plants. One of them did not ripen in time.

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  ‘Annas’

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  ‘Blenheim Orange’

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  ‘Annas’

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  Ripe ‘Annas’

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  ‘Blenheim Orange’

One major problem I had with the polytunnel plants is irrecugular watering. I was not there everyday, mainly every other day, particularly this year which was so disrupted by Covid and the students being away during lockdown. This caused one of the ‘Blenheim Orange’ to split badly, to the point it needed to be removed and composted. Some of the other displayed some cracking, where I was lucky. I need to rectify this next year.

To try and keep the soil in the pots warm as we entered September I bubble wrapped them.

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Conclusion and 2021 Plans

Without going over in too much detail mentioned in the above posts what I have learnt:

• Melons require heat at the roots and below 10c and they can start to rot.
• Growing in mounds of soil in the greenhouse, whilst entertaining to set up, does not ensure adequate warmth to the roots.
• I need a plan to keep the roots/plants warm in erratic cold spells.
• Growing melons in Yorkshire, is definitely achievable with a few tweeks.

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Plan to improve chances of success next year:

• Obtain and grow some of the earlier heirloom varieties, such as Petit Gris de Rennes, Minnesota Midget, Noir des Carmes, Early Frame Prescott etc.
• I bought The Melon book by Amy Goldman, which is not cheap, which includes some useful tips on growing, not so much under cover, but their requirements such as a pH between 6-6.5 in order to take up the nutrients it needs (I will play around with either a mix of bought compost and added ericaceous compost or adding sulphur to bought compost to achieve this). It’s also very useful for determining the early and mid-season varities.
• The book also includes good info on the use of black plastic mulch/row covers to keep the soil warm and warm the soil before planting. I might try this outside.
• I also did a re-watch of the Victorian Kitchen Garden and re-read the book during lockdown. There they always grew melons on raised metal racks to reduce soil cooling and improve drainage. So I built a rack for the greenhouse, which also came in handy for drying onions (see picture above). I am going to raise them up further with another row of breeze blocks.
• I am also going to use grow bags on the raised mesh. The grow bag should replicate the black plastic mulch described above. Looking back at my earlier successes with melon and watermelon I grew them in grow bags on the greenhouse staging.
• I am tempted to plant them out a little earlier (mid-may) in the greenhouse and protect them should there be a late very cold spell (such as a frost). With the grow bags I can actually put hot water bottles on the plastic and keep the roots warm over night. I also picked up a cheap paraffin heater from gumtree.
• I am going to grow a range of melons in my home greenhouse and polytunnel at work.

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Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’ previously grown in growbags on greenhouse staging.

I also found some excellent videos from someone who grows melons outdoors in Canada in shorter climate than myself. This one shows his protection set up for earlier in the year.

I have also been holding back on buying every heirloom early fruiting melon seed I see but I came across but I did end up adding ‘Cantalun’ melon from The Heritage Seed Library.

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Let’s see what 2021 brings……………

The Horizon Centre

A Seven Year Itch

I meant to write this last year but the delay has not been for any emotional reluctance, it really has just been a case of finding the time.

The Garden at the Horizon Centre in Summer

I worked at the Horizon Centre, South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust’s specialist learning disability service, for seven years, between 2009 and 2016. My role was a stand alone position, as the Horticultural Practitioner, charged with maintaining and running a therapy garden whilst also delivering sessions to adults with learning disabilities who had been referred to the service. The service was based on the Trust’s Fieldhead site, just outside Wakefield town centre in West Yorkshire along with other specialist services, such as Elderly, low secure mental health service and the medium secure Newton Lodge unit.At this stage it is worth glancing back to the history of learning disability and mental health services and their use of horticulture in the Wakefield area to appreciate it in context.

Stanley Royd Hospital – The replacement Fieldhead Hospital is located where the long lines of sheds are at the top middle of the picture.

When the change in mental health provision changed and the movement to more community living scenarios began the new Fieldhead hospital was built. It consisted of a series of ‘villas’ where people lived. During this time people started to go outside, sit in the garden, start to garden near the building and then developed into a large scale garden as the benefits to the people living there became evident. This existed and developed for many years until another change in the way people with disabilities and mental health issues should live and be treated came into play. At this point the governmental decision was that people should live and have a presence in the community (this is a debate for other, more expert professionals than myself). With this change the villas were demolished and people moved into the community. These were replaced with the specialist services, such as the Horizon Centre, where people would stay (should they be in crisis) or be referred to attend day appointments as specialist assessment or treatment. Staff had witnessed and valued the benefits horticulture had provided to the service users and this led to a garden being a significant inclusion in the plans for the new building.

Looking over the Horizon Centre garden on a winter’s afternoon.

I started the role in July 2009. The position had been vacant for approximately 18 months and the garden still in it’s infancy, though all of the hard landscaping and buildings had already been decided/were in place. The greenhouses being moved over from the previous villa garden, which was situated just in front of the tree line on the horizon.

The team at the Horizon Centre was multi-disciplinary, including physio’s, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, therapy assistants and myself. The aim was that when a situation in some live changed, such as behaviour, moving out of parents care into supported living, then they would be referred to the Horizon centre for specialist input. This information would lead to a report and recommendations that Social Services would then put into place.

The first summer in one of the greenhouses.

Over the course of seven years I worked with a wide range of people with learning disabilities helping them discover horticulture, improve their horticulture skills and interest or improve their social skills through horticulture (I do accept that not everyone likes physically gardening!). I run individual and group sessions and this set up allowed people, once confident with myself, staff, the environment could often then be exposed, in a structured way to a group and eventually entirely integrated in it. In a lot of cases the aim was to establish friendships which could be transferred to community services. The ultimate aim was that people would come to our service and leave to engage better in local services and be able to lead an improved life in their own community. There was no fixed time limit for each person, which was an excellent way to approach such treatment as no two people are the same.

The greenhouse the last summer.

Chilli harvest including Fatalli and Bhut Jolokia

Over the years I was involved in many activities and grew many different things, which was mainly dictated by the service users. We grew a wide range of chillis, aubergines, traditional and heirloom tomatoes (some people just know ‘Alisa Craig’ and ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and wont go near a yellow tomato), watermelons, cantaloupe melons, a variety of soft fruit, traditional outside vegetables as well as a range of annual and perennial flowers.

Myself and the Trust’s other horticultural therapy professional, Tony Howden, at Newton Lodge set up a service helping other staff to utilise the benefits of using horticulture as an activity with the service users they worked with. The aim was to understand what horticultural activities were being carried out across the Trust and to improve people’s understanding and providing them with skills and confidence to carry out horticulture tasks, such as propagation techniques. We also assisted them to attain funding for various projects.

In 2013 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to travel to Canada and the USA to study and compare the development of horticultural therapy as a profession. More information and the subsequent report of those findings can be found at my sister blog: The Travelling HT

At the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Sadly, in June 2015 the Trust announced it was undergoing a ‘Transformation’ of the learning disability service. This involved removing the community based part of the service from the Horizon Centre, leaving the remaining inpatient service. The community service becoming more flexible and remote, working across the district. This meant that my post was redundant, resulting in the loss of specialised horticultural therapy for people with learning disabilities. This was a long and frustrating process, culminating eighteen months later with my redundancy in October 2016.

The biggest cabbages I have ever been involved in growing, sweetcorn and peaches in the polytunnel.

I am not bitter, I don’t hold a grudge, things change and move on. Nor was I naïve. Working in such a field, as a lone practitioner, you are aware (though not worth dwelling on) that such a post could be at the whim of a manager during a re-structure.

On reflection, once the dust had settled, the main frustration lies in the lack of understanding from higher level management on the benefits of horticulture and how cost effective such a service can be. There was no discussion with myself about what the service offered, how many people attended or what they outcomes were. This is a shame, because, despite all of the research carried out on and the increased publicity of horticultural therapy it had still not resonated or be valued by management in the health care sector. It is not right to suggest that this approach of one Trust is typical of all but it is a worrying situation in a time where the aim is for personalised budgets, personalised healthcare and a movement away from traditional pharmaceutical treatment (where possible).

There is no longer specialist horticulture input in the learning disability service. While horticulture continues and must do in all services aimed at improving people’s health and quality of life it cannot be overlooked the importance of professional input. My time there has come and gone and life moves on but a fundamental understanding of horticulture, a group of people and how to adapt activities is essential in order to ensure a safe, inviting, stimulating space with a range of activities in which the benefits of horticulture can be fully exploited.

Sheffield Botanical Gardens

On Friday morning (21st) I made the short trip down the M1 to Sheffield Botanical Garden. It was my first visit, I have no idea why, but it wont be my last.

It was brought back to life thanks to a Heritage Lottery grant and great work from the Friends of Sheffield Botanical Gardens, which was founded in 1983. A major part of this restoration was the Joseph Paxton Pavilion, a long glasshouse depicting different climates around the World, such as New Zealand, South Africa, Central America and the Mediterranean.

The garden was designed in Victorian style and the bedding schemes demonstrate the style at the time. A display of vivid colours from the newly brought in plants from around the World. I do concede they may not be to everyone’s taste, in fact, the colour clashes cause me some discomfort.

In the middle of the garden, is the rock and water garden, which takes a little bit of finding, which is part of it’s charm. It feels a million miles from anywhere and is well planted and a good respite. Worth spending the time looking for it.

I was particularly taken by this pair of eucalyptus trees. The white one is a real gem. I need to find out the variety.

The gardens are easy to find, are FREE to enter and you can park on the road outside for free after 9:30. No excuses!

Sheffield Botanical Gardens website: http://www.sbg.org.uk/

The friends of group is on twitter and volunteer on a Wednesday mornings. @FOBSheffield

Madeira’s Gardens

I thought it might be nice to share some information about a recent trip I had to Madeira and some of the gardens that I visited in and around the capital, Funchal.

Madeira, situated a little north of the Canary Islands has a sub-tropical climate so is much greener than the main Canary Islands. It has long been famed for it’s lush growth and ability to grow a huge variety of plants.

Jardim Botanico

Also know as the Madeira Botanical Garden. It was opened to the public in 1960 after previously being part of William Reid’s (founder of Reid’s Hotel) estate.

You can get to the garden via public bus but the most common way is by cable car ride from a station located a short walk from the Monte cable car station (the main cable car that you see leaving Funchal by the coast). You can buy a combined ticket for both cable cars and entrance to the garden at the Funchal cable car station.

The garden is steep, as is everything in Madeira, but in this case, particularly the entrance it is very steep and set over various terraces as you walk down the garden. Plan in a couple of breaks for the walk back up!

It is mainly famous for its dense bedding garden and fabulous views over the bay of Funchal. However there is a lot more to it and the cactus garden is notable, as is the tea house.

Monte Palace Tropical Garden

Situated right next to the Monte cable car station and worth doing in the same trip as Jardim Botanico before heading back into Funchal via a ride on the famous basket sleds.

First of all, it is huge, 70,000 sq metres and is terraced into the hillside. Again, you enter at the top and leave at the top. Easier going down that back up. It is an exotic garden with a far east feel to the bulk of it. It was first opened to the public in 1991 and was created by Jose Berado who was influenced by a trip to Japan and China.

Madeira is very proud of this garden and it is one of the main garden’s to visit on the ‘list’ along with the Jardim Botanico. At times I found it a bit overwhelming, so vast, so much planting, so much lush vegetation, so many ponds and so many Koi. I don’t for one minute say that is a bad thing, maybe it is one of those gardens you need to take more time over, or maybe, if possible, to visit more than once.

It is the most expensive of Madeira’s gardens to visit at 10 euros, plus factor in the cost of the cable car  and potentially the wicker basket trip down towards Funchal (30 euros for two) and it is an expensive day out, but you need to see it, savor it and have an opinion on it.

Quinta Viglia

Situated just up Avenue Do Infante, behind Santa Catarina park, heading towards the hotel district from the centre of Funchal is the garden of Quinta Viglia. It is the home of the President of the Regional Government and if he is not is residence then the garden gates are open and the public can visit for free.

A tiny chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows was founded on this site and in 1662 and the chapel has been incorporated into the presidential buildings. The gardens were remade between 1979 and 1982 and are maintained by staff from Jardim Botanico

It is the best free garden I have ever visited and a must if you go to Madeira. It is only small but is a great representation of a Madeiran garden and is so well kept and preserved. It also appears under-visited (I think I have been three times now and each time it feels quite private, which is a pleasant experience) and at the end of the garden a great terrace offers some stunning views over the harbour and bay of Funchal, even when it is raining (the subtropical climate means it does sometimes rain in Madeira.

Santa Catarina Public Park

A genuinely fantastic public park situated just on the rise of Avenue Do Infante out of Funchal. It offers amazing views of the bay and the municipal planting beds are filled with house plants from back home, amarylis, spider plants etc. In April, the stocks and calendular were in full blood like an English summers day.

As with Quinta Viglia (above) it is free to visit, (you can cash this in as an off-set for the price it cost you to visit Jardim Botanico and Monte Palace Garden, or visit them more than once).

When the sun comes out so do all the lizards which dawn the volcanic rock walls that flank the garden. 

Bradford Works and NorthCliffe (NEET)

Last month I visited Catherine Russell, who runs Bradford Works. This project was set up by Shipley College who work in partnership with local organisations to deliver horticultural projects in the local area. It is a not-for-profit social enterprise supporting the development of local unemployed people into work through grounds maintenance and landscape management contracts.

Bradford works is now well established and has responsibility for many local greenspace areas, including places Bradford Council used to maintain but can no longer do so due to budget cuts.

They work closely with another social enterprise in the Shipley area, Northcliffe Environmental Enterprises Team (NEET). Also a charity, NEET is located at Northcliffe Nurseries. Starting out as “a couple of allotments and a polytunnel” the project has grown to occupy a huge site containing; large scale heated propagation house, commercial size polytunnels, a garden centre, cafe, wildlife garden, outdoor classroom (which is used by local school groups) and a wood workshop.

Making full use of these facilities NEET provides real work opportunities for in a genuine work setting for people with learning disabilities. People attending the project do so through their support packages and making use of self-directed budgets they choose to attend NEET, leading to a great demand for the service, which is surely the best measure of success.

Whether it sits comfortably or not we are currently in challenging and changing times in regards to our traditional health care, social care, educational and local authority services. What I witnessed at these services was how small organisations can find a role in providing these services to a high standard whilst understanding, including and offering opportunities to the people who are traditionally regarded as the most vulnerable in society.

Also worth noting is that before I returned I had a great lunch, in fact the best meal I have had out in a long time, at Saltaire Canteen Pay What You Feel (#PWYF) cafe in Saltaire. Using food items that supermarkets would have thrown away they create some great meals. There is no printed menu, as it changes depending on what ingredients they have available. Drinks are priced, in order to cover stock replacement, but for the meals you a given an envelope in which you pay what you feel the meal was worth or what you can afford. I fully recommend it. http://saltairecanteen.co.uk/

Bradford Works: http://divabradford.org.uk/organisation.aspx?ID=2713

NEET: http://northcliffepeopleandplants.org/

Tomato ‘Montserrat’ – A New Favourite? I think so…

Tomato ‘Montserrat’

I know, I know, in my last post about Heirloom Tomatoes I declared my undying love for ‘Brandywine’ as my continued favourite (after growing it for the first time last year and confirming it this year), but then I encountered ‘Montserrat’. We grew this variety for the first time at South West Yorkshire’s NHS Horizon Centre Therapy Garden. must admit I knew nothing about it until it grew. The seeds were given to me, saved from their own crop, so I did not even have the seed packet to go on. I was a little dubious when I cut it open when it resembled more of a pepper than a tomato.

Tomato ‘Montserrat’

But the flavour, oh dear me the flavour, it is the sweetest large tomato I have ever encountered. It roasted really well in the oven and then I put it with some gnocchi. Traditionally everyone goes for ‘San Marzano’ as the pasta sauce tomato, but I have never had any great success with them. ‘Montserrat’ is the best pasta sauce tomato I have had. You wont pick up another jar of pasta sauce from supermarket.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Selection of Tomatoes grown at Horizon Centre

Just a short post, but the tomatoes this year have been very interesting and very very nice.

At the Horizon Centre therapy garden we have got eight different tomatoes growing in the two glasshouses. All of them are different varieties. A couple we have grown before, ‘Sungold’ being one of them. If you have never grown ‘Sungold’ and you like sweet cherry tomatoes this is the one for you. It is the sweetest I have ever grown and tasted. I can’t remember coming across it at all until a few years ago but all the major seed suppliers now sell it. It should be noted that it is not a Heirloom variety (which I do appreciate does not fit in with the post title, but while I was here I thought I should mention it).

Tomato ‘Rainbow’s End’

The main purpose of this post was to inform you all of my new favourite tomato. I am not a fan of the ubiquitous cherry red in boxed salads, in fact, I can’t say that I like them at all raw. Last year, in my home garden I grew a few of the beefsteak varieties. This was mainly because I brought a few seeds back with me from America and Canada and a lot of the ones I saw that I had not seen before were of the beefsteak variety, such as ‘Great White’, ‘Rainbow’s End’ and ‘Mortgage Lifter’. I was very pleasantly surprised by ‘Great White’, they looked spectacular, their flowers were really pretty ‘double’ looking and most importantly the flavour was great, with a really thick and juicy flesh. Not sour at all.

Tomato ‘Great White’

Therefore, this year we added ‘Rainbow’s End’, ‘Great White’, ‘Ox Heart’ and ‘Brandywine’. All of these are Heirloom varieties, so we can keep the seed and grow them again, which, at the moment, I would like to do.

‘Brandywine’ has been my favourite so far. A lovely tomato. The best I have ever tasted. Perfect flesh for slicing, huge fruits, juicy with plenty of flavour and excellent on a bit of bread with just salt and pepper (fresh basil doesn’t do it any harm either). You can see from the photo below why supermarkets don’t go for them as they don’t have the traditional “shelf appeal”, though that is quite sad.

Tomato ‘Brandywine’

I can definitely recommend ‘Beefsteak’ and ‘Great White’ and ill update you with information about ‘Mallorquin’, ‘Mortgage Lifter’ and a couple others as we get to them. We are very much enjoying them at the moment. Just looking at them is worthwhile and peoples’ reaction to the size and look is great. They often do not realise that tomatoes have a variety of shape, sizes and colour. Tasting them is the best bit though.

‘Therapeutic Horticulture: Horticulture as a Medical Treatment’ – The Report

I have been meaning to do this for a while, in fact, I have been meaning to update the blog for a while. Not to dwell on what I should and shouldn’t have done, but here is the report I completed examining horticultural therapy practice between the UK and North America. It was funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

If all works as planned, it should be available to download and read by clicking on the link below, which will open the report as a PDF file.

Therapeutic Horticulture – Horticulture as a Medical Treatment

Horticultural Therapy at Pennine Camphill Community

In December 2014 I was invited to visit Pennine Camphill Community and its garden by Garden Manager James Lee and Transition Officer Anita Hepple.

Pennine Camphill Community is part of the wider Camphill Movement. The Camphill Movement aims to create community settings where children, young people and adults, many with learning disabilities, can live, learn and work together in an atmosphere of mutual co-operation, care and respect.

The Camphill movement is inspired from ideas of Rudolf Steiner (Austrian philosopher and social reformer) and developed by Karl König, the founder of Camphill.  It is based on the spiritual uniqueness of each person, regardless of their differences.

Pennine is a specialist college providing further education and support for young people who have learning difficulties. As their name suggests, Pennine is more than just a college, it is a community. “Many aspects of life at Pennine revolve around the five households which provide a home life for residential students and work and training opportunities for day students. Day students join one of the houses where they have lunch sharing some of the daily household activities.  Each house has a different character, depending on the blend of people living in the household at any one time.” (taken from their website: http://www.pennine.org.uk/)

Pennine is located in the village of Chapelthorpe, between Wakefield and Barnsley in West Yorkshire and surrounded by nearly 50 acres of farmland and grassland which is home cattle, sheep and pigs and bees. As well as horticulture they offer a range of therapeutic and educational activities, such as weavery, woodwork, basket weaving, pottery as well as ‘tools for self reliance’ where students refurbish tools. Pennine’s approach aims to stimulate creativity and allow students to build a sense of achievement and develop self-confidence and self-esteem.

The vegetable and fruit gardens cover 3 acres and consist of four very large vegetable beds, an agricultural sized polytunnel which is adjacent to a series of accessible raised beds made from railway sleepers. The garden also includes two new greenhouses which are interlinked by a connecting door which allows one area to be insulated and heated in winter. They also have access to an indoor work and storage facilties on the ground floor of the craft hub.

Similar to the traditional Victorian walled kitchen garden the fruit, vegetables and salads are taken to the five on-site houses daily to produce seasonal healthy meals for the day students and house residents. This provides a clear end product for the students growing the produce. They also preserve the produce by freezing and creating items such as passata which are stored for winter use.

The organisation is always on the look out for community projects to be involved in which not only provides a change of scenary for the students but increases the profile of Pennine, the work they do and builds positive ties with the local community, projects such as growing sapling trees for the Friends of Newmillerdam who manage a local woodland.

In order to help to manage such a large site, and is the case with many horticultural therapy projects, the Camphill Community utilises local and live-in volunteers. The live-in volunteers, called co-workers, stay on site for a year and help to run the houses and learning activities. Currently James has volunteer from Colombia and South Korea who help with the garden projects.

To find out more about Pennine Camphill Community please visit: http://www.pennine.org.uk/

You can also follow Pennine Camphill Community on Twitter: @penniner

More excellent videos documenting the work being carried out at Pennine can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4vE43fV4KLJjPjREv6DR2Q

You can find how to apply for a student place please visit: http://www.pennine.org.uk/college/applications.php or phone our Admissions Secretary on 01924 255281.

To find out how to volunteer at Pennine please visit: http://www.pennine.org.uk/volunteering/index.php

To find out more Friends of Newmillerdam please visit: http://www.wdco.org/site/Friends-of-Newmillerdam-Country-Park/

 

USA and Canada – All The Gardens

I have just posted this on my sister blog http://www.thetravellinght.wordpress.com but thought that it was worth posting on here too.

Here is a video which takes you through all of the gardens, in order, from my Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Included is at least one picture from each stop with the names and places included.

If you require any further information about my project or the places I visited, please message me.