An open letter to Amateur Gardening magazine

Today it has been brought to my attention that Amateur Gardening magazine are about to publish a piece about my previous blog post, #shoutyhalfhour. Although I am pleased that the post is out there in the public eye and that people are obviously reading it and it is a talking point, the piece is possibly the laziest piece of journalism I have seen in a while. Firstly I need to point out that they have done nothing illegal by using quotes from the piece but what they have done is remove it from its context and so it looks as though all I am doing is criticizing when in fact the point of the post was to explain why and how the #shoutyhalfhour hashtag came about in the first place and why it has carried on.
I am not going to bang on about the piece, but I do wish to make some things clear. Yes I am a self confessed plant nut, but I am also a horticultural professional with many years experience as a nurserywoman, working on many wonderful projects which, I am lucky to say, have involved growing gardens for designers at RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court as well as many large, well known projects, including providing the plants for the Royal Wedding.
Equally yes, I am a Garden Blogger, but one from a professional horticultural background, and with concern for the industry that I am writing from within. An industry that is struggling to survive and to recruit young people into it, and one which deserves recognition and help from the garden media rather than reading sensationalisation of a blog post. I wonder how many Amateur Gardening readers are aware of the struggle of the trade and the fight many nursery people have every year to keep themselves afloat, whilst passionately believing in what they do. Or are aware of the quantity of plants that are bought in every year from abroad by the DIY superstores, whos pile them high and sell them cheap policies are killing anyone who has been a bedding specialist.
And finally, the post is not a scathing attack as Amateur Gardening have said in their piece, but is a well thought out piece of writing and if Amateur Gardening magazine had really done their homework they would have seen that Monty Don has posted a comment on the blog, in which he argues several points but says it is written "elegantly and with perceptive wit". Im pretty sure the presenter would not have commented if it had just been a rant, or aimed at him.
If Amateur Gardening Magazine have anything further to add to this, my email address is on my website, which is www.thephysicgarden.co.uk, rather than here, my blog, and I look forward to hearing from them. Sadly I assume that is unlikely.
Finally a word to all garden writers out there. Whether a professional or an amateur, writing should be excited, passionate and inspiring, whatever it is you are writing about. Writing should be from the heart and every time you post or publish something you should feel that you are putting yourself out there. Never hold back because it is that kind of passionate writing, be it in blog, book or magazine form, that the horticultural industry in this country needs from you and will inspire new and old gardeners alike to rethink their own passion for gardening and plants and why they feel that way about what they do.

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Aquafarm Review Day 4

I recently received the AquaFarm that I had ordered from Back To the Roots.  It took quite a long time for this to be shipped out, but it finally arrived.  I set it up almost immediately, and then remembered that I wanted to do a "how to" video for setting it up.  I was too eager, and forgot!

Anyway, heres a quick review.  Ive had it set up for 4 days.  The first beta fish that I put in the tank died after 2 days, so I got a second beta for the tank.  I cant say whether the first beta fish died because of the AquaFarm design, or if it was just an unhealthy fish.  Well see how this fishy does.

AquaFarm Review

AquaFarm Packaging

Sorry about the dark photo, but heres the AquaFarm!

You can see where the airline tubing for the air lift goes down into the fish tank.

It came with Lettuce, Basil, and Wheat Grass

It also came with de-chlorinating chemicals, beneficial bacteria, a fish-cleaning solution, and a tank cleaning supplement called Tidy Tank.

Overall, I think this is a pretty cool system, and I cant wait to see what it grows!

AquaFarms are available from Back To The Roots for $60.

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A Day Out at Swines Meadow Farm Nursery

A great display of Begonias At Swines Meadow

When I first joined Twitter one of the first people I started to follow wasd @rareplants, who runs the wonderful Swines Meadow Farm Nursery in Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, along with his wonderful wife Karan. In time I came to learn that behind the Twitter name is Colin Ward, a brilliant plantsman who quite honestly knows more about plants in his little finger than I do in my entire body.

Last weekend Colin held the second of his two plantfairs this year. Lots of nurseries reasonably close to Colin had stalls and there were some excellent plants for sale as blogged by @papaver. However, as a plantaddict I was far more interested to see what Colin had on offer as he seems to be a master in finding slightly different varieties from the norm and growing them amazingly, as with the display of Begonia above.

Swines Meadow has a great selection of Ginkgo varieties for sale

In the outdoor beds there are a fantastic selection of herbaceous plants and grasses alongside some amazing trees such as the Ginkgo above, and a spectacular variegated Liriodendron. There are also lots of fruit trees and an incredible selection of bamboos. All the plants, whether large or small, are beautifully presented and look healthy and amazingly fresh which has been a difficult thing to achieve in the dreadful season we have had this year.

Once inside the greenhouse that is open to visitors there is an incredible range of  plants which range from annuals to perennial Begonias and ferns, along side some less hardy plants such as Fuchsia arborescens, which will need to be brought in over the winter months.

The greenhouse full of great finds.

Colin and Karan propagate lots of the more unusual plants at the nursery, growing lots from seeds, cuttings and division. If you get the chance to visit the inner sanctum, where all the plants are brought on, you will find a treasure trove of wonderful and unusual plants. I came away with an Akebia pentaphylla, a very rare and unusual Akebia which is an incredible plant and which Colin has propagated from his own stock plant.

I could go on and on about the plants which are available at Swines Meadow but rather than bore you I would implore you to go and have a look at www.swinesmeadowfarmnursery.co.uk, where you will see the range of plants that are available. Mail order is available too!!

To finish your visit please go and look at the amazing garden that Colin and Karan have created as it not only gives ideas on how to integrate plants bought at the nursery into your garden, but is an amazing and beautiful space to just be in. So I will finish this post with a selection of photos taken in the garden on Sunday.

Finally, please look out for nursery folk such as Colin and Karan. Its very easy to go to your local garden centre and buy plants that have been imported through Holland  but unless we support our British nurserymen and women and buy British grown plants, we will lose these wonderful folk and their knowledge.

An enormous Tetrapanax Rex

Cornus contraversa Variegata or the Wedding Cake Tree

Paulonia tomentosa cut back to create the huge leaves

Huge caulms of Bamboo

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Fuels From Algae

In the spectrum of alternative fuel sources, biofuel made from algae is perhaps the most easily mocked. 

 How could the slimy green muck that grows in your aquarium and washes up on the beach be a future cornerstone of American energy independence? So when President Obama stood before the University of Miami recently and said algae could provide up to 17 percent of our transportation fuel, we wanted to know: Is he right? Heres what we found out:

In February, President Obama announced the Department of Energy would allocate $14 million in new funding to develop transportation fuels from algae. DOE is already supporting over 30 such projects, together worth $94 million.

CCRES SPIRULINA

project of 

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

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105 Gallon Apartment System Update

The system at my buddy Saqibs apartment is doing well.  Saqib was away for a week for work, so a roommate was feeding the fish.  We think that he overfed our tilapia, Zeus, because the water is filled with brown algae.  Ive read online that this algae is not really caused by sunlight, but rather by overfeeding the fish.  High nitrates also lead to this type of algae.  Well be feeding Zeus less from now on, and I plan to clean out the filter to make sure everything is nice and healthy.

Saqib added some small lights to the system, and the plants look to be doing well.  Well get those lights up on chains soon.  In another 2 weeks, well be switching to some ornamental fish for the tank, and at that point well clean the tank and hang the lights.  Hopefully, that will help keep the algae in control, and help with the veggie growth.

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Happy St Patricks Day!

Happy St Patricks Day!

 Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources

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Would you like to help

 

Join us as we tackle the tough questions raised by the ongoing environmental catastrophe like one in the Gulf of Mexico. Topics will include mitigation of the spill and the impending cleanup efforts; energy alternatives; policy and economics; as well as new technology that can help us build a self-reliantculture.

 This people care about the ocean. 

Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue Read full bio

Sylvia Earle, called “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress and “Hero for the Planet” by Time, is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer with a deep commitment to research through personal exploration. Earle’s work has been at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades. Earle has led more than 50 expeditions worldwide involving more than 6,000 hours underwater.

Philippe Cousteau, EarthEcho Read full bio

Philippe Cousteau is the son of Jan and Philippe Cousteau Sr., and the grandson of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. As a member of the legendary family, Philippe is continuing the work of his father through EarthEcho International, the non-profit organization he founded with his sister and mother and of which he serves as CEO. Philippe went diving into the Gulf oil spill, witnessing first hand the damage being done.

David Gallo, Woods Hole Institution Read full bio

Dave Gallo works to push the bounds of oceanic discovery. Active in undersea exploration, he was one of the first oceanographers to use a combination of manned submersibles and robots to map the ocean world with unprecedented clarity and detail. Gallo is now working with director James Cameron and other undersea experts on ideas to stop the oil spill.

Susan Shaw, Marine Environmental Research Institute
Read full bio

Dr. Susan Shaw is an internationally recognized marine toxicologist, author, explorer, and founder/director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute. Shaw is applying her expertise to the Gulf catastrophe by launching an independent, region-wide investigation of the toxic impacts of oil and dispersants on marine life and human health.

Andrew Sharpless, Oceana Read full bio

Andrew Sharpless is the CEO of Oceana, the world’s largest international nonprofit dedicated to ocean conservation. A graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the London School of Economics, Sharpless was one of the founding managers of RealNetworks, the Seattle-based pioneer in the field of online music and video play-back technology.

Wolcott Henry, Munson Foundation and Marine Photobank Read full bio

For over 20 years, Mr. Henry has been president of The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, a private foundation that supports marine conservation with an emphasis on fisheries management, marine protected areas, and coral reefs. In addition, Mr. Henry is an accomplished underwater photographer. As a contract photographer for the National Geographic Society, he has collaborated with Sylvia Earle.

Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute Read full bio

Amory Lovins is Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. For four decades he has worked in energy policy and related areas. Lovins worked professionally as an environmentalist in the 1970s and since then as an analyst of a “soft energy path” for the United States and other nations. Time magazine named Lovins as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Phil Radford, Greenpeace Read full bio

Phil Radford is the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. He has a background in grassroots organizing, campaign planning, and energy policy. As Grassroots Director, it was Phil’s vision and leadership that built Greenpeace’s $9 million Grassroots Program and our cutting edge online to on-the-ground organizing, as well as a robust student organizing and training program.

Carl Safina, Blue Ocean Institute Read full bio

Dr. Carl Safina is a prominent ecologist and marine conservationist and president of Blue Ocean Institute, an environmental organization based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He has also been a recreational fisherman since childhood. A winner of the prestigious Pew Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship, Safina has written five books.

Reid Detchon, UN Foundation Read full bio

Reid Detchon is Vice President for Energy and Climate at the United Nations Foundation. He is also the executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, a broad-based non-partisan public policy initiative supported by the UN Foundation that seeks to bring about change in U.S. energy policy to address critical challenges related to the production and use of energy.

Ronald Atlas, University of Louisville Read full bio

Dr. Ronald Atlas pioneered the field of bioremediation and showed that fertilizer application can hasten the rates of oil removal following oil spillages. He has worked on several major oil spills, including the Amoco Cadiz spill in Brittany, the IXTOC-1 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Exxon Valdez spill in the Gulf of Alaska, and the Kuwait oil spill following the first Gulf War.

Jigar Shah, Carbon War Room Read full bio

A renowned visionary committed to renewable energy, Jigar Shah launched SunEdison in 2003 based upon a business plan he developed in 1999. That plan became the basis of the SunEdison model: Simplify solar as a service. Shah was tapped by Virgin mogul Richard Branson to head up the Carbon War Room, which harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to implement market-driven solutions to climate change.

John Francis, Planetwalk, National Geographic Read full bio

In the early 1970s John Francis gave up using motorized vehicles after witnessing the devastating effects of an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. Soon afterwards he took an even more radical step: a vow of silence that lasted 17 years, during which he undertook a pilgrimage by foot across America on behalf of the environment and world peace, earning a Ph.D. in environmental studies along the way.

Darron Collins, World Wildlife Fund Read full bio

Dr. Darron Collins joined WWF in 2001. A cultural anthropologist and an expert in ethnobotany, Darron has designed and implemented human-centered conservation programs for WWF in Latin America, Russia, China and Mongolia. His most recent endeavors involve using creative media to share WWF’s work with new, influential audiences and use storytelling to drive conservation on the ground.

Mike Mendez, Sapphire Energy Read full bio

Mike Mendez has held a number of top industry positions at the forefront of the molecular biology revolution. In addition to serving as Director of Bioengineering at GenWay, Mr. Mendez was also associate director of Exploratory Research at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. There he established a new department that focused on novel platforms for over-expression, purification, and crystallization of membrane proteins.

Jackie Savitz, Oceana Read full bio

Jackie Savitz is Campaign Director and Senior Scientist for Oceana’s Pollution Campaigns. She has shaped and led campaigns and projects dealing with global warming pollution from ships, mercury contamination of fish, and cruise ship pollution among other issues. Savitz has a background in marine biology and environmental toxicology combined with more than fifteen years of policy analysis experience.

Jim Geringer, ESRI Read full bio

Jim Geringer was elected as Wyoming’s 30th governor in 1994 and completed his second term in January 2003. His advocacy for technology in government has centered on the end result of using technology to enhance citizen services. That advocacy has led Jim to join in a full-time capacity with Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) the top provider of geographic information systems software.

Lisa Margonelli, New America Foundation Read full bio

Lisa Margonelli writes about the global culture and economy of energy. Her book about the oil supply chain, Oil On the Brain: Petroleum’s Long Strange Trip to Your Tank, was published by Nan Talese/Doubleday in 2007. Recognized as one of the 25 Notable Books of 2007 by the American Library Association, Oil On the Brain also won a 2008 Northern California Book Award for general nonfiction.

Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network Read full bio

Mike Tidwell is founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and DC. He is also an author and filmmaker. Tidwell received the Audubon Naturalist Society’s prestigious “Conservation Award.”

Casey DeMoss Roberts, Gulf Restoration Network Read full bio

Casey DeMoss Roberts works to develop and implement water resource campaigns and advance GRN public policy positions through public education and mobilization, including organizing outreach events and workshops. Casey has worked on climate and energy related issues for several years with both national and regional groups.

Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla Motors Read full bio

Diarmuid joined Tesla in 2006, and currently serves as the Vice President of Business Development in which capacity he manages commercial relationships and all aspects of government affairs. Before joining Tesla, Diarmuid served as Chief of Staff for Political Military Affairs at the US State Department, where he was involved in policy and operational support to the U.S military in various theaters of operation.

Klaus Lackner, Columbia University Read full bio

Klaus Lackner is the Ewing Worzel Professor of Geophysics at Columbia University, where he is also the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, the Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, and a member of the Earth Institute faculty.
.

David Johnson, Institute of Maritime History Read full bio

David Johnson is a professor at American University, former director and board member of the Institute of Maritime History, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and documentation of archaeological remains related to maritime history. The IMH is currently working in the Gulf on mitigating the effects of the disaster on submerged cultural resources, namely underwater archaeological sites and historical shipwrecks.

Christen Lien, Violist and Composer Read full bio

Using guitar effects and a looping machine, classically trained violist Christen Lien performs original compositions on viola. Spontaneously creating then incorporating layers of live effects, Lien paints music with guitar effect pedals, live looping, melodic mixing and expressive performance. For TEDxOilSpill, Lien will debut a song inspired by her recent trip to the Gulf Coast, in response to the oil spill.

Elizabeth Coffman, Ted Hardin,
Long Distance Productions Read full bio

Elizabeth Coffman and Ted Hardin are filmmakers who have recorded the environmental crisis in southern Louisiana for the last seven years. Working with Louisiana poet Martha Serpas, their documentary, “Veins in the Gulf,” highlights the community of scientists, engineers and artists trying to save the productive bayou region.

Leroy Stick, @BPGlobalPR Read full bio

Leroy Stick is the pseudonymous humorist behind @BPGlobalPR, the Twitter account that has satirized BP’s statements to the public and in the process, given a way for those frustrated by the oil spill to vent their anger with humor. He has over 160,000 followers on Twitter and continues to spread satire in order to raise awareness to the actions of BP and those responding to the spill.

 Do you care? 

Join the conversation. 

Write your vision.

CCRES 

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