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Jim Gardiner

Jim Gardiner Director of Horticulture RHS Garden Wisley

Jim Gardiner is the recently appointed Director of Horticulture for the Royal Horticultural Society and has previously been Curator and Chief Curator based at Wisley for over twenty years. Before that he was Curator at the Hillier Gardens and Arboretum. His primary interest is in woody plants, in particular Magnolias on which he has written two books, “Magnolias, their Care and Cultivation” and “Magnolias, A Gardener’s Guide”.

  • Date Joined: 12 Jul 2007

Recent Comments

Getting ready to Grow Your Own Veg

Posted by Jim Gardiner on 02 Apr 2008 at 04:05 PM

A couple of weeks ago we set about preparing to sow our 3m x 3m plots in the Model Vegetable Garden.  Last year, our Grow Your Own Veg campaign proved immensely popular, especially with the supporting book by Carol Klein and BBC series, as well as our own on-line micro-site and garden activities. 

For 2008 we are doing even more, as this year we have two plots; one for traditional British vegetables and one for oriental veg.  Once the weather warms up a bit our patio area in the Model Veg Garden will be planted up on a Mediterranean theme.  In part this is to tie in with Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this year, where we will have a British, Oriental and Mediterranean Fruit and Veg Garden designed by Chelsea Gold Medal winner Michael Balston. 

On 17th March senior gardener Richard White was assisted by 2nd year trainee Jonathan Taylor in making the final preparations to the seed bed, including raking the soil to a fine tilth, marking out the plot and sowing the seeds. 

Have a look at our plans.  You’ll see we have two different crops allocated to each area, so when the first is harvested we know what we’re going to grow afterwards, making sure we grow a different ‘type’ of crop.  Find out more about how to grow vegetables on our http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/index.asp

 

 

Our The RHS Grow Your Own Veg campaign is sponsored by NS&I.

Comments

Anne Robert My Urban Farm dot Com said:

Great idea: I am posting about in on my blog today ( www.MyUrbanFarm.com)- This is exactly what the new  / ipod blackberry generation needs : easy to implement GYO projects with the support the great RHS videos!

 Love your blog

on 05 Apr 2008 at 03:37 PM

Phot's-Moll said:

I find these tiny plots really inspiring. I hope to make my allotment just as productive!

on 05 Apr 2008 at 09:33 PM

Paul G said:

Jim, these look even better than usual.  I must get over to see them

on 21 Apr 2008 at 11:01 AM