Seasons Greetings

The Reckless team are working hard to try and re-launch the site in time for the New Year so watch out for that. Cumbria has had its fair share of rain this last couple of months and it is really distressing to see the sodden ground as bad as it is. No doubt we will have lost quite a few plants in the garden by the end of the winter.

It was heartbreaking to see so many people flooded and we can only hope that they get their lives back together again as soon as possible. Our thoughts go out to them and our good wishes.

We congratulate our garden expert Martin Fish who has taken over from Roger Brownbridge as Show Director of the Harrogate Flower Show. Martin will be taking over from the Spring 2010 show onwards. Martin is well known for his writing for various gardening magazines, broadcasting and the popular flower show Roadshows. He says: "I have a hard act to follow, everyone knows and respects Roger for his professionalism as a show organiser. I just hope I can follow in his footsteps."

We all wish Martin well in his new position and every success for the future. He has kindly agreed to continue answering your garden queries on the Recklessgardener website when we are up and running again.

Because of the wet ground it has been difficult to get the garden cut back for the winter here but we have now just about managed. Typical Reckless I left the cutting back too late this year because there was still so much colour in the garden in November. Now I know why we should always do the cutting back by the end of the autumn. I won't leave it again.

All that remains on this post is for me to wish you all happy Christmas and a good 2010 with lots of happy and successful gardening.

Reckless website

Sadly, for the 5th time this year the Reckless Gardener website has been hacked into. We are really fed up with this because we do not seem to be able to block these attacks despite careful protection management.

The website is run on a not-for-profit basis and simply for the enjoyment of other gardeners. However, every time we suffer one of these attacks we have to deal with the malicious code and then rebuild the site and check every one of thousands of pages. This takes considerable time and effort and with such a small team it is becoming daunting.

We have reluctantly decided to take the site off-line until after Christmas to give us time to consider another strategy for dealing with these increasing cyber attacks. We apologise to all our loyal followers (nearly half a million monthly) and we do hope that we will be able to resume in the new year.

The blog will continue to be updated and we will continue book reviews on the blog, so please do keep checking us out.

If we can overcome the problems and resume the site I will let everyone know via the blog.

Autumn leaves

Autumn is now well upon us and there are some wonderful shades of browns, russets and reds in Cumbria just now. The leaves are dropping however and I suspect it will not be long before allthese lovely colours are lost to us.

Apparently this blog is one of Dobies favourites, so I am quite honoured to be included in their list. I often wonder if there is anyone out there who actually reads it but they must do otherwise Dobies would not know of its existence. So thanks for that chaps, much appreciated.

Following the success of the Big Lunch, the Eden Project have launched The Big Bulb Plant. They have teamed up with the Netherlands Flower Bulb Info. Centre and are encouraging us all to plant our spring bulbs before the end of November. They want communities to get involved as well as individuals. More information on www.thebigbulbplant.com

Congratulations to Martin Fish who takes over as Show Director of the Harrogate Flower Shows from Roger Brownbridge. Roger was a tower of strength over his 15 years as show director and has increased attendances by 35%. We wish him well in the future.

Martin, who takes over from the Spring Harrogate Show in 2010 realises its a hard act to follow but knowing Martin as I do I feel sure he will take the show on from strength to strength and build well on Roger's foundations. Martin is a well known writer for various magazines and is a regular broadcaster. We wish him well in his new venture.

Talking about the Harrogate Show, this autumn saw 34,000 visitors basking in wonderful autumn sunshine. Attendance numbers were up on last year and exhibitors saw an increase in spending throughout the show. For the veggies amongst us you may be interested to know that the Heaviest Onion Comp was won by Peter Glazebrook, third time winner, with an onion weighing in at 14lbs. 10oz. Just big enough for a good stew for the boy scouts camp I would think!

My picture this posting is of a lovely country cottage in the Trough of Bowland which I came across when I went to see a stage of the Cycle of Britain race recently. Picture postcard perfect - I just had to take a snap and thanks to the owner who gave me permission.

winter reading beckons

As autumn marches on and thoughts of the pre-winter tidy-up are ever present it is good to realise that with winter comes the opportunity to catch up on all those gardening books we have been wanting to read but were too busy for during the summer.

One really delightful little book, published this month, is A Countrywoman's Notes by Rosemary Verey. Rosemary was one of England's most celebrated garden designers and writers. She created gardens for Elton John and the Prince of Wales. In her 'notes' she celebrates the intimacies of a rural world in an idyllic Cotswolds setting but with an eye to modern existence and an appreciation of progress. This informative and entertaining small volume contains engravings by contemporary artists and a personal forward by Prince Charles. Each chapter captures the atmosphere of successive months in her own entertaining and inspirational style.

Ursula Buchan, who writes regularly for the Spectator and Daily Telegraph, is another writer who never fails to entertain. In 'Back to the Garden'. she presents us with a collection of her garden writings, enabling us to appreciate some of the ways in which gardening intrigues, enriches and fascinates her and us. Ursula has a wonderful witty style of writing and this book will entertain us from the agonies of entering the village flower show to the joy of the 'Evelyn' rose. Whether she is discussing lawn-mower maintenance or the discovery that there is more to flower arranging than just putting them in a pretty vase, she touches the nerve of every dedicated gardener who will be able to share her experiences.

Both books are published by Frances Lincoln Ltd., and will make excellent Christmas presents for the gardener in your life.

Did I hear someone say heatwave?

The heatwave, which really did not materialise at all in the UK this summer, save for a couple of very hot odd days here and there, is now well and truly beyond probabilities. We might yet get a dry autumn but on the evidence of the last couple of weeks I doubt this. We have had so much rain in Cumbria that the conservatory is turning green to match the rest of the garden.

I have mentioned before that sometimes I get quite unusual books coming across my desk and last week was no exception. 'The one-straw Revolution" by the late Masanobu Fukuoka, is a small little green book which has been re-issued from the original of 1978. Translated from Japanese, it is a manifesto about farming, eating and the limits of human knowledge and presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food today.

Probably years ahead of its time in 1978, The One-Straw Revolution has been called the "Zen of the art of farming" but most people who know it already just refer to it as 'The little green book'. It is a spiritual menoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects his deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. Certainly a must for all those guerrilla gardeners out there or the kitchen gardener who is dedicated to slow food cooking. Published by Frances Lincoln Limited its priced at £9.99.

One of the downsides of the rain is the inability to get out in the garden and do some weeding. The onset of autumn together with the excessive wet has certainly hastened the demise of a lot of perennials and it will soon be time to cut them all back. My astrantia plants have suffered considerably which is sad because you can often bet on them lasting right through October and beyond if you are lucky. The roses are still holding their own although the blackspot has made some of them look sorry specimens.

I mentioned in my last blog that Chesters Walled Garden is having to close - this beautiful garden in Northumbria, close to Hadrians Wall, will be a big loss to the area. Susie White, who runs the garden, is urging visitors to go over and see the garden in the next few weeks as the last time to see the garden in all its autumnal glory. This is really a sad situation - I can honestly say that Chesters was one of the nicest walled gardens I have ever seen. We can only hope that Susie can find somewhere else to locate her lovely and interesting plants.

This and That

Sorry it has been a while since I last did a blog but the weeks have flown and the diary has been fairly hectic.

I recently received an email from a group of profesionals who arrange garden tours around Italy. If you are thinking of planning a visit to see Italy's wonderful gardens or thinking of taking a group you might be interested in what they have to offer. Clalys will arrange accommodation, transport in Italy and entry fees and their tours include some of the most wonderful gardens including Mortella Garden, the Campania Region Garden Tour and Sorrento and Capri (with a visit to some really beautiful villas and gardens). They also offer tours in other parts of Europe. Log onto their website for more information: www.clalys.com/en/index.html

The lovely gardens at the Caserta Royal Palace are pictured above courtesy of Clalys.

Several of our readers are carrying out a trial of some new loppers for Wilkinsons, so look out for their feedback in the coming weeks. We will also be taking a look at gardeners' aches and pains, which we all get after a summer of gardening, and some remedies and helpful hints to prevent strains and injury.

Coming up also some recipes using roses! Yes that is not a misprint, Atul Kochhar will be telling us how to use his latest ingredient, Roses, to make recipes with a culinary twist, while PlantforLife's Chris Collins, will be explaining how to care for our roses.

The weather during July and August did not produce the continued heat-wave we were all expecting and certainly there has been no shortage of water! So no worries about drought then this year. What the autumn will turn out to be like is certainly in the lap of the Gods, but perhaps we may get an Indian Summer and be able to stay out and enjoy our gardens just that bit longer.

I was sad to learn from the current issue of Gardening Which? (September 2009) that Gardener and author Susie White, who runs Chesters Walled Garden in Northumberland, is having to close the garden in May 2010. Reckless visited Chesters last year and we were most impressed with this beautiful organic garden. Hopefully, Susie can find a new home for her National Collections of thyme, sanguisorba and origanum and that she finds fresh inspiration from a new challenge. Our best wishes to her anyway.

Also in the September edition you will find new spring bulbs to whet your apetite and also a feature on what's the best way to create a lawn? Turf v seed.

clemat-is or cle-matis

A certain frisson seems to have invaded The Times this week - an argument has broken out over the correct spelling of Wisteria. With the government in meltdown, an ongoing credit crunch and very little signs, as yet, of the prolonged hot summer we were promised, I would have thought people would have more to worry about.

I have noticed, in a very long journalistic career, that people get exercised over such things. Personally, I have always spelt it Wisteria and said it the same way, but The Times style guru says it should be Wistaria. So I looked up Plant Names Simplified, which was first written in 1931, to see what they said. Sure enough they have Wisteria, so named after Casper Wistar, "sometimes, but not originally spelt Wistaria." Well that seems pretty clear. Not to be in any doubt I then checked the RHS A-Z Enclyclopedia of Garden Plants. They also used Wisteria but put the spelling Wistaria underneath, while referring to the plant as Wisteria in the text. So there, Reckless has spoken!

We all pronounce garden species in different ways as well, often more to do with regional accent than anything. Clematis is one of the most common, where one can say clem-atis or clemat-is. Neither is wrong, and everyone knows what you are talking about.

During that lovely brief sunny spell we had recently, I popped into Sizergh Castle gardens. They were really lovely and the acers a treat to see. I have reproduced a photo here so you can enjoy the flavour of them as well.

The latest edition of Which? Gardening takes a look at sweet peas - they have trialled 30 varieties to see which will bring the most perfume to the garden. Research found that some of the showiest sweet peas had little or no scent at all. There is also a section on new plants and an item on lunchbox cucumbers! Plus three top jobs for June and a report on whether or not it is possible to grow Asian style herbs in a wet, dull UK summer.

Finally, there seems to be an awful lot of greenfly about this summer, far more than usual, so don't forget to encourage those ladybirds into the garden and if you are or want to be organic, then just use finger and thumb and squash them off!