It's never too soon to start Christmas shopping!

This summer has been the season of the sewing machine - conveniently coinciding with numerous damp days and a tediously long period of post-viral malaise. I’ve had the sewing machine for fifteen years but have never really got to grips with it. However, with the help of YouTube clips, advice from skilled friends, and assistance from a very helpful family of monkeys, I’ve conjured up a few bits and bobs, made mostly from preloved shirts and jeans, procured from local charity shops.

If there are any designs here that take your fancy, drop me a line on emily@rangeborders.co.uk to see if they are still available, or let me know your requests and colour preferences, and I will dive into my shirt stash to see what I can put together. I can also advise you on how to pay, and calculate postage and packing, if you aren’t local to South Manchester.

Bright tote bag

Brightly colloured, nine-patch quilted tote bag with internal zipped pocket. Approx dimensions - 33cm across top opening, height 26cm, base 12cm x 20cm.

£34 (+P&P)

Denim and shirt shoulder bag - Purple - RESERVED

Shoulder bag in purple and black denims with panels in purple cotton shirts. Internal phone pocket with clip to secure keys. Approximate dimensions - 22cm across the top, height 22cm, depth at base 10cm.

£28 (+P&P)

Denim and shirt shoulder bag - Blue

Shoulder bag in traditional denims and blue patterned shirts. Internal phone pocket with clip to secure keys. Approximate dimensions - 22cm across the top, height 22cm, depth at base 10cm.

£28 (+P&P)

Denim tote bag:

Preloved jeans fashioned into a patchwork tote with a single shoulder strap. Includes an internal phone pocket and a clip to secure keys. Approx dimensions - 37cm across top opening; height 24cm; base; 22cm x 12cm.

£34 (+P&P)

Zipped Pouches:

Quilted, striped, boxy pouches in varying sizes up to approx 20cm in length.

£12 (+P&P)

Pencil cases:

With contrasting coloured lining:

Striped - £10 (+P&P)

Contrasting corner (to match lining) - £8 (+P&P)

Large tote:

Quilted, patchwork tote. Includes a zipped internal pocket, a smaller phone pocket and a clip to secure keys.

Approx dimensions - 38cm across the top, height 34cm, depth at base 12cm.

Get in touch if you’d like something similar to be made up with different colours.

£36 (+P&P)

Large zipped tote

Quilted, patchwork tote with zip across the top. Includes a zipped internal pocket, a smaller phone pocket and a clip to secure keys.

Approx dimensions - 38cm across the top, height 34cm, depth at base 12cm.

Get in touch if you’d like something similar to be made up with different colours.

£38 (+P&P)

Winter pruning of established fruit bushes

What?

This post describes the pruning of established fruit bushes, which generally refers to bushes that are four or more years old. Younger bushes will need more specific pruing and training, which is known as 'formative' pruning.

Why?

If fruit bushes are left unpruned, they will become less productive; aim to keep bushes in an open shape so fruiting stems are not crowded and competing for light. Well-spaced stems are also easier to harvest, and less likely to succumb to disease.

When?

Prune every winter when bushes are dormant, ideally late February / early March, just before the bushes come into bud; the vigourous new growth in spring helps the pruned areas to heal quickly. The new buds are more visible to see at this time, so it's easier to judge where the outward facing buds are positioned.

How?

In general, gooseberries and red and white currant bushes fruit best on stems that are two or three years old. Blackcurrants fruit best from stems that are one or two years old. Other fruit-specific pruning techniques are covered below, but there are some generic points that are relevant to all these types of fruit bushes;

• Use clean, sharp tools - secateurs for thin stems, or loppers or even a pruning saw for larger, older woody stems;

• Don't remove any more than one-third of the bush;

• Remove dead, diseased or damaged stems from their base (the ‘three D’s’;

• Remove (also from the base) any stems that are crossing, rubbing, crowding or growing into the centre of the bush;

• Prune down to an outward facing bud.

Gooseberries

• Wear a good pair of thorn-proof gardening gloves;

• Remove any side-shoots from the main, short, central stem, and any low, weak drooping branches that might drag on the soil or break under the weight of fruit;

• On older, well-established bushes, after removing the 'three D's'and crossing stems (see above), remove one or two of the oldest, woody stems by cutting them at the base;

• Identify last year's newest growth (it will be a paler colour than the rest of the stem), and shorten this by a third;

• Cut back other side shoots to three or four buds.

Red and white currants

• Aim for no more than ten well-spaced main stems, so fruit can ripen more easily;

• Remove the lowest branches that may drag on the soil, then one or two of the oldest, least productive main stems;

• Prune shoots growing from the main branches to one or two buds, but retain any shoots that could serve as replacent main branches.

Blackcurrants

• Pruning older, established blackcurrant bushes couldn't be easier. Aim to achieve six to ten main stems per bush;

• Cut out up to a third of the older, darker, woodier stems. This may require a pruning saw;

• Cut side-shoots off remaining stems.

After pruning all of your fruit bushes, clear weeds from the base of each plant and apply a layer of well-rotted farmyard manure as a mulch, leaving a couple of inches of space around the main stem so the mulch doesn't rot it.

Pruning established apple and pear trees

I have reluctantly surfaced from my January hibernation, and this is one of my first jobs for the new year, whilst these trees are dormant. Don’t be scared - the general aim is to remove older, unproductive material, in order to stimulate new growth.

Key pruning tips;

• Choose a still, dry day, to help restrict any potential spread of disease (Manchester in February? Ha ha ha... why do you think I'm inside writing this today?);

• Start by removing crossing / rubbing branches, and those that are dead, diseased and damaged. Don't forget that fourth 'd', which is 'damned nuisance', such as those that catch in the mower or scalp you when you're hanging out the washing;

• Remove selected branches from the crown to reduce crowding, and to make sure there is plenty of space for air to circulate and light to penetrate;

• Cut selected branches back to the trunk or a main junction, just beyond the branch’s ‘collar’, using a step- or under-cutting technique to prevent tearing;

• Stand back frequently, to view the tree and ensure you are achieving the desired goblet-type shape, with well spaced branches;

• Shorten the previous year's growth coming from each of the main branches by about a quarter, cutting to just above an outward facing bud;

• Don't remove more than a fifth of the tree’s material in one season.

How to manage water shoots:

It's tempting to be enthusiastic when pruning, but in healthy trees, the removal of any more than a fifth is likely to result in the growth of vigorous but unproductive upright stems known as watershoots. These can over-crowd the canopy of the tree but can be controlled as follows:

Year One:

• In the first winter after the appearance of watershoots, remove any growing from the trunk or main branches directly at their base;

• Prune out half of the remaining watershoots by cutting at the base, leaving the rest evenly spaced;

• Cut off the top 10cm of each remaining watershoot to encourage branching;

Year Two:

• In the following winter, remove half of the watershoots retained last year, by cutting at the base;

• Prune the remaining shoots down to just above an outward facing bud;

Year Three:

• In the third winter, continue trimming strong shoots to outward facing buds or side-shoots;

• Keep checking for and removing other watershoots from the older branches;

• Once fruit buds start to appear on the two/three year old shoots, revert back to routine, regulated winter pruning techniques.

When you are manoeuvring your ladder and tools around, be careful not to knock off any of those precious flower / fruit buds. They’re going to flower in not-too-long, and it’s one of my favourite sights of spring!

What's in the Box?

Santa's come early this year, boys and girls. The tenderly topiarised Buxus sempervirens of the northwest have received the unwelcome of gift of... box blight.

What is box blight?

Box blight is a fungal disease affecting common box (Buxus sempervirens) and is caused by two similar types of fungi called Calonectria pseudonaviculata and C. henricotiae. Leaves of affected plants exhibit black and brown streaks. They then turn completely brown, die and fall, resulting in bare patches and die-back. The box blight fungi are most active in moist, warm conditions so its increasing prevalence may well be attributed to warmer, wetter summers due to climate change The fungal spores survive in the soil and spread in water, through rain-splash and potentially via animals.

How can outbreaks be controlled?

If plants are not too badly afflicted, cut out affected material. Clear away all fallen leaves at the centre and base of the plant and destroy. Don't compost as the fungal spores can survive for up to six years in leaf litter. Exercise good garden hygiene by cleaning and sterilising all cutting equiptment carefully. Plants are not affected at the roots, so if you have caught the outbreak early, there is no reason to dig out affected plants as new growth may well be healthy.

Do not trim or prune plants on wet or windy days, as this increases the chance of spores spreading. Do not trim plants too frequently, as this stimulates new growth and more compact foliage, which also facilitates the spread of spores. Prune branches out of the heart of the plant to open up its structure and promote air circulation; increased airflow reduces the humidity of the conditions within the plant.

During the growing season, feed plants after cutting back, to stimulate healthy new growth. Use a balanced or potassium rich feed. Avoid feeds high in nitrogen as this stimulates new soft growth, which is more susceptible to pest and diseases. Water plants at the base, not overhead, and water in the mornings, not at night, so periods of higher humidity are shorter. Clear old mulch at the base of the plant, and replace with new, to prevent reinfection from water splash on old spores.

In addition to blight, Buxus sempervirens is susceptible to a range of pests and diseases; Volutella blight, box rust, box red spider mite, and Box Caterpillar (below), to name a few.

If you are still intent on planting new box plants in your garden, there are a few ways in which you can reduce the risks of box blight and other infections;

• Grow new plants from cuttings taken from healthy parent plants in your garden;

• Buy plants from reputable nurseries and isolate them in quarantine for a month, to see if there is any evidence of disease that may have been surpressed by fungicides at the nursery;

• Plant box in open, dry locations that are not susceptible to poor airflow or high humidity;

• Space plants at least 40cm apart, to minimise spread between plants.

What are the alternatives to Box?

As box blight becomes more prevalent, selecting a different species altogether would seem to me to be the best management approach. There are a number of good alternatives to Box, which have compact, evergreen foliage and are suitable for topiarising but have less susceptibility to pests and diseases. If starting out from scratch, it’s well worth considering the various alternatives. Here are a few;

• Ilex crenata 'Buxifolia' - a good, slow growing alternative that is perfect for kerbside locations as it has good pollution tolerance;

• Lonicera nitida - fast-growing but extremely robust and easy to maintain. Suitable in partial shade.

• Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Golf ball' - slow growing, and easy to clip to and keep in a ball shape.

Pittosporum tenuifolium

Everlasting tulips? We can but try.

September draws to a close, and despite the school term being well under way, I'm still slightly cold turkey after my holiday abroad. On the bright side, the advantage of running one's own (very small) business is that you don't return to an email inbox groaning with a four digit number of unread messages. I am, however, always sucked in by the seductive messages from numerous and various bulb companies imploring me to order quickly whilst stocks last.

The non-perennial nature of cultivated tulips frustrates me, and has, to date, prevented me bothering to replace those that I planted during the first couple of autumns in our current house. As a consequence, the garden has a real gap in colour between the daffodils finishing and the alliums kicking off, and tulips are really the best solution for plugging it. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to visit the Keukenhof Tulip Garden in the Netherlands, and although it was towards the end of the season, there was still plenty there to remind me that tulips are just, well, fab, and I really want them back in my garden again.

Wild tulips tend to be small, modest, and are native to central Asia, the Caucasus region; places such as Turkey, Jordan, Afganistan and Kurdistan. Their natural climate is very cold winters and hot, dry summers. They are unsuited to our damp, mild winters and increasingly wet summers. The majority of cultivated tulip bulbs sold today are marketed for their impressive, showy blooms, and are really intended to support the cut flower industry, or to be treated as annual bedding; after flowering once, you're supposed to lift them and banish them to the compost heap.

I'm an extremely lazy gardener and loath the waste associated with annual bedding plants. In my opinion, repetitive planting and lifting efforts should be kept to a minimum, and the chances of repeat flowering maximised. But how? There are three key ways that can help to optimise repeat flowering;

Select a more perennial species;

Botanical or 'species' varieties of tulip multiply or 'naturalise' each year, if left to go to seed after flowering. They tend to be dainty, delicate, about 10-15cm in height, but hardy and long-lasting. They are particularly well-suited to rockeries and gravel gardens. Species or botanical tulip varieties include Tulipa turkestanica, Tulipa hageri, Tulipa saxatilis and Tulipa sylvestris.

Kaufmanniana and Greigii tulips are mostly red or yellow, sometimes with two-tone petals, and often have mottled or striped foliage. They are early flowerers and, although taller than the species tulips, are close to their Turkish ancestors so flower relatively reliably, year after year. Sizing up, cultivated Fosteriana tulips, such as 'Emperor' and 'Purissima' also remain close to their Central Asian ancestors, and perennialise fairly well.

Darwin hybrid tulips are a cross between single late tulips and early emperor tulips and are the classic cultivated tulip height and shape. If planted correctly, they should give two or three years' of repeat flowering. They also have the added advantage of being tolerant of partial shade.

Viridiflora tulips have green petals, green petal-edges, or green flames or strips on their petals. This additional chlorophyll enables tham to optimise photosythesis and ensure that the bulbs are sufficiciently replenished during the flowering season to perennialise going forward. Viridiflora varieties to look up include; Tulipa 'Artist', Tulip 'China Town', Tulipa 'Esperanto' and Tulipa 'Spring Green'.

Plant your tulips correctly;

• Tulips like fertile, well-drained soil that is neutral or mildly acidic, and receives at least six hours of sunlight a day;

• Plant in November or early December;

• Plant bulbs deeply, at least four-times the depth of the bulb itself, but ideally 25-30 cm. This prevents any offsets or bulbils forming, putting up foliage and robbing the parent bulb of nutrients;

• Planting deeply also provides protection from frosts, reduces the chances of squirrels lifting the bulbs, and gives you the option to plant shallow-rooted annuals on top of them, in the summer.

• If your soil is heavy clay, it may be waterlogged at the required planting depth, and your tulips may perennialise best in raised beds;

• Add some grit at the bottom of each planting hole, to assist with drainage;

• Fertilise your bulbs at planting time with bulb fertiliser, and add mycorrhizae to the soil, to assist root growth and development.

• Cover newly planted areas with chicken wire to deter the squirrels, until the soil settles.

Continue to care for your tulips both during and after flowering;

• Apply fertiliser or compost in the spring, just as they stop blooming;

• Leave species tulips to set seed and naturalise;

• Don't cut Darwin, Fosteriana or Viridiflora tulips to put in vases or bouquets; remove dead heads but leave the foliage and stems for at least six weeks. The photosynthesis of the residual leaves will help replenish the bulb for next year's blooms;

• Make sure bulbs don't get too much moisture in the summer; ideally plant the bulbs in areas that don't need additional watering during the summer season.

Gardening Jobs for June

My new year's resolution to blog more frequently lasted all but three months (I blame covid...). Now we're in to 'peak garden' season, there's even less opportunity or desire to sit at the computer. If you don't manage to do anything else, here are three must-dos, to start off with:

Water! April was a veritable drought, and although we had a stormy, showery May, we now seem to be heading in to a heatwave. Pots and growbags dry out quickly so water frequently, and prioritise plants that are less well established (under a year) in the rest of the garden. Damp-down (water) the greenhouse floor, to prevent temperatures getting too high inside.

Weed! There doesn't seem much point in using precious water to benefit the weeds, so you may as well get them out too.

Feed! Use a high-potassium tomato feed once a week when watering potted plants and flowers, and greenhouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines.

Tomato blossom

Shrubs and flowering plants

• Plant out dahlias that have been started in the greenhouse;

• Prune old stems out of early flowering shrubs such as wiegela and Exochorda. This stimulates new growth which can then mature in time to support next year's blooms;

• Dead-head and tie-in roses;

• Sow nasturtium seeds in any gaps in beds and borders, as a cheaper and more sustainable alternative than buying trays of bedding plants from the garden centre;

• Look out for any hellebore seedlings around mature plants, and pot them up to plant elsewhere, in the autumn.

Hellebore seedling

Fruit and veg

• It's now a fairly safe bet that the risk of frost has past, so gradually harden-off (acclimatise) tender edibles raised indoors, such as courgettes. Start by putting them out for a few hours on a dull day, and then transplant them to their final growing position when fully hardened off;

• Thin out apples and pears on trees, to ensure a better, less stressed crop in the autumn;

• Shorten new growth on gooseberries, redcurrants and white currants;

• Sow salad leaves at fortnightly intervals, for a continuous supply throughout the season.

Shorten new growth on gooseberries

Gardening for wildlife

• Keep ponds topped up, and make sure there are suitably located stones and logs so frogs and toads have easy access;

• Change water in birdbaths regularly, to prevent the build-up of water-borne pathogens.

• Learn to tolerate a few aphids; they are a great food source for small birds and beneficial predatory insects. Larger infestations can be removed with your fingers or a blast from the hose.

And finally, why not indulge yourself by just leaving the mowing? Or at least leaving sections uncut. It's great for wildlife. and also avoids a crispy, brown, parched lawn, in the event of further drought.

Mental Health Awareness week 2022 - Gardening for mental health

I first wrote this blog post for World Mental Health Day in 2019, around the start of my change in career to gardening. This coming week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and I’m sure I will see the usual wealth of material floating around on social media, extolling the benefits of gardening for improving health and wellbeing. Even three years later, I still hold firm to everything I wrote back then, but perhaps with the addition of a little jog, once or twice a week, if energy levels and physical fitness permit...

Over the last few years, a number of people, on hearing that I’d made quite a radical career change have asked if I’d always wanted to become a gardener.  The honest answer to that question is, ‘No’.  My main reason for taking up and pursuing gardening is that it offers me everything I need to keep happy and healthy; fresh air, exercise, better control over the amount of work I do, and flexibility over when I do it; opportunities to keep learning, pay close attention to nature and the seasons, and to work both alone and with others.

When I was diagnosed with my first episode of depression in early 2017, a relative leant me Mark Williams’ and Danny Penman’s book ‘Mindfulness; A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World’. Mindfulness is a bit of a buzz word these days, but there is a growing body of research demonstrating the success of mindfulness techniques for treating depression. 

However, aside from the fact that at the time, I was struggling to make sense of any printed material, I just couldn’t get the Williams and Penman approach to work for me.  Eating raisins or cleaning my teeth in a mindful way just wasn’t doing it for me; I was too desperate to accelerate the evening routine so I could get into bed.  I don’t think I managed to get past the second chapter.

Gardening, on the other hand, provides the best setting for completely engaging with every one of your senses.  You can take your gloves off and feel the coolness of the soil; touch glossy leaves, velvety petals or mistakenly grasp a bramble; I love the smell of the garden after long awaited rain; lavender, roses, and I can never walk past my lemon balm without giving the foliage a rub and a sniff. 

There are always sounds to check-in with, from birds, buzzing insects and chattering squirrels to passing traffic and even diggers and dumper-trucks, if it happens to be my volunteering day at RHS Bridgewater.  My edible garden is still in its infancy, but I was pleased with the carrots this year, and am hoping that the new currant bushes will be sufficiently established to give me a good crop next year.

And once I’m out in the garden, there’s no restless scrolling through social media on my phone; I don’t even bother answering calls since I know that by the time I have wrestled off my gloves and found which pocket the phone is in, it will have gone to voicemail.  This is exactly how it should be, and I now know that engaging all my senses with the garden is my own personal key to staying healthy.

Gardening jobs for March

The weather forecast for the coming weekend in my part of the world looks stunning, so a great opportunity to be catching up on garden jobs whilst also getting some Vitamin D on board. Here's a few suggestions for this month's to-do list.

Shrubs and flowering plants

• Finish pruning the roses; prune bush roses down to an outward facing bud to around 30cm from the ground, and dead-head shrub roses, remove weaker stems and thin over-crowded areas;

• Prune later-flowering clematis (those in 'Groups 2 and 3') to just above a healthy pair of buds, about 50cm above the ground;

• Mulch bare soil in beds and borders with 5-8cm layer of mulch, to retain moisture and supress weed growth;

• Cut dogwood down to just above two or three leaf buds from the ground, to encourage the growth of new bright coloured stems;

• Prune climbers - winter jasmine after flowering; honeysuckles and ivies can also withstand a hard prune;

• Divide and replant congested clumps of summer-flowering perennials, and relocate and replant any evergreen shrubs that need moving;

• Dead-head daffodils and lift, divide and replant clumps snowdrops.

Fruit, veg and herbs

• Prune woody herbs such as sage and lavender to above 2-3 cm of last year's growth;

• Divide and replant clumps of chives, lovage and mint;

• Plant out any potted-up strawberry runners from last year;

• Finish pruning fruit trees and bushes.

Gardening alongside nature

• Remove nets and grids from over ponds, or if uncovered, dredge out any fallen leaves and twigs to prevent the water from turning stagnant. The frogs will be on their way to spawn soon!

• Plant hardy annuals such as cornflowers, corn marigolds, poppies etc - identify a sunny area for a wildfower meadow, to attract pollinators;

• Plant comfrey to use for making natural fertiliser. It's also a good, fast-growing ground cover and the bees absolutely love it.