Two Good Gardeners

In the first episode of the new series of Two Good Gardeners, Dan and Julia debate whether it's worth saving your own seeds and throw a spotlight on wool, the secret ingredient our gardens have been crying out for. Julia shares her top tips for growing lemongrass to fill your kitchen with oriental flavours, and Dan waxes lyrical about hostas, the foliage plant we'd all love to love if slugs and snails didn't love them more! As always, your hosts round off with a list of things to do in your garden over the next fortnight and news of where you can find or hear them next.

Jobs for your garden this fortnight:

1. Plant out hardened-off sweet peas.
2. Deadhead daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs.
3. Put in supports for perennials and climbers before they get too large.
4. Lift and divide hostas and other perennials you’d like more of.
5. Protect fruit blossoms from late frosts.
6. Feed citrus with summer feed.
7. Plant out second-early potatoes.
8. Sow carrots, beetroot, chard, spinach, salads, radish & peas.
9. Watch out for box moth caterpillars and treat them if necessary.
10. Ventilate greenhouses on sunny days.

Website links:

• Dan Cooper Garden
• Parker's Patch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the final episode of this series, Dan and Julia share tips for adapting your garden to cope with hotter, drier summers. Julia offers advice on getting your plot holiday-ready, and Dan showcases a product that can act as a mulch, fertiliser and slug deterrent. This episode's drought-proof 'top of the crops' is the stately artichoke, and Dan chooses salvias as his sun-loving 'pick of the bunch'.

Your hosts return in late summer / early autumn for Series 2 and would love to hear about any topics you'd like to be featured.

Want to know more? Here are this episode's show notes:

• Dan's guide to creating a drought-tolerant garden
• Dan's guide to preparing your garden for the summer holidays
• Dan's guide to watering wisely

Julia's recommended artichoke varieties: 'Green Globe', 'Purple Globe', 'Romanesco'.

Note that cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) are a close relative of the artichoke (Cynara scolymus). Cardoons are grown for their edible stalks rather than their flowers. The cardoon is much more cold-tolerant as well.

Dan's recommended salvia varieties: 'Hot Lips' - red and white; 'Nachtvlinder' - inky purple; 'Royal Bumble - bright red; 'Trellisick Creamy Yellow'; 'Jemima's Gem' - cerise; 'Amistad' - purple; 'Blue Suede Shoes' - dusky pale blue; 'Amante' - pink.

Jobs to do in your garden this fortnight:

1. Find someone to water your garden if you plan a holiday this month or next.
2. Sow salad leaves, turnips, French beans, spring cabbages, chicory, kohlrabi, dill, coriander and parsley.
3. Take Cuttings of hydrangeas, lavender, rosemary, salvias, penstemon, mint, thyme and sage.
4. Plant autumn-flowering bulbs such as colchicums, autumn crocuses, cyclamen and nerines.
5. Prune early spring flowering shrubs, rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias, conifers, plums, cherries, damsons and wisteria.
6. Harvest courgettes, calabrese, French beans, Swiss chard, lettuce, mint, parsley, radish, beetroot, carrots, spinach, spring cabbage, spring onion, garlic, onions, globe artichokes, strawberries, raspberries and loganberries.
7. Pick sweet peas, roses, zinnias, cosmos, gladioli, dahlias, lilies, carnations and pinks.
8. Buy reduced perennials in your local garden centre - trim back, plant out and water thoroughly to encourage lush new growth. Stock up on plant food.
9. Enjoy a stroll around the garden or a moment on your balcony after sundown.
10. Visit open gardens across the country, especially those with herbaceous borders. The RHS holds shows at Hampton Court and Tatton Park in Cheshire this month.

Website links:

• Dan Cooper Garden
• Parker's Patch
• Alitex Modern Victorian Greenhouses
• Middleton Nurseries - salvia specialists
• Dyson's Nurseries - salvia specialists

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Julia discuss how to spot and deal with common summertime pests, including cabbage white butterflies, red spider mites and asparagus beetles. Julia gets stuck into salads, explaining how to grow a succession of lush leaves throughout the year. Dan recalls happy memories of Dame Edna Everage and her wonderful gladies, sharing tips on how to grow these fabulous flowers without all the stiffness and formality they've become known for.

1. Lettuce 'Black Seeded Simpson'.
2. Lettuce (Little Gem) ‘Delight’.
3. Lettuce 'Cocarde' - very attractive arrowhead leaf green-tinged red. Good for spring, summer and autumn growing.
4. Lettuce 'Salad Bowl' - both green and red, RHS recommended.
5. Lettuce 'Lollo Rosso'.
6. Lettuce 'Butterhead'.
7. Lettuce 'Winter Density' - good for cooler months.
8. Wild rocket - hardy and the best flavour.

1. G. papilio ‘Ruby’ - just delicious - the colour of crushed blackberries.
2. G. communis subsp. byzantinus - Mediterranean but naturalised in the UK.
3. G. murielae - the Abyssinian gladiolus - very late flowering and needs baking in a sunny spot, but the flowers are deliciously fragrant.
4. G. ‘Sancerre’ - pure white.
5. G. ‘Shaka Zulu' - deep, deep purple.
6. The ‘Flevo’ varieties, such as G. 'Flevo Cool' and G. 'Flevo Laguna' are perfect for small gardens and growing in pots.

• Dan will be at Gilbert White’s House in Selborne near Petersfield for their 30th Annual Unusual Plants Fair on June 17th and 18th , ready to supply visitors with any last-minute Father’s Day Gifts.
• Alitex is hosting an open morning on 16th June 9 am - 4 pm, at Torberry Farm, near Petersfield. To book a visit, use this link.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for our first-ever outside broadcast from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. We celebrate Alitex's Best Trade Stand award and discover how Julia was involved in making it happen. We share our show highlights and reveal some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to deliver the world's most prestigious flower show.

Please note that batteries for charging your phone can be hired for £3 for every 30 minutes, not every hour, as Dan states.

Should we do more outside broadcasts? Would you like us to report from other RHS shows and garden events? We'd love to receive your feedback.

Finally, leaving us a rating and a review will help us to reach other gardening enthusiasts like you. Happy gardening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 5 has a Chelsea Flower Show flavour. Dan & Julia debate the value of a ticket to the world's most prestigious horticultural event and explain how to administer the Chelsea chop to flowering perennials and herbs. Crisp, crunchy radishes are Julia's pick of the crop, and Dan breaks a self-imposed rule by celebrating deciduous azaleas, a plant that doesn't thrive in his chalky soil.

For Dan & Julia's complete guide to surviving Chelsea, click here.

For more advice on administering the Chelsea chop, click here, and you'll find the perfect pair of shears to do it with here.

1. Yarrow - Achillea
2. Dyer's chamomile - Anthemis tinctoria
3. Aster
4. Bell flower - Campanula
5. Coneflower - Echinacea
6. Joe Pye weed - Eupatorium
7. Blanket flower - Gaillardia
8. Sneezeweed - Helenium
9. Perennial sunflowers - Helianthus
10. Candytuft - Iberis
11. Shasta daisy - Leucanthemum × superbum
12. Purple loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria
13. Bergamot - Monarda didyma
14. Catmint - Nepeta
15. Penstemon
16. Garden phlox - Phlox paniculata
17. Black-eyed Susan - Rudbeckia
18. Stonecrop - Sedum telephium (now Hylotelephium telephium)
19. Golden rod - Solidago
20. Culver's root - Veronicastrum
21. Chives - Allium schoenoprasum

1. FIREBALL
2. GIBRALTAR
3. GOLD TOPAZ
4. IRENE KOSTER
5. KLONDYKE
6. STRAWBERRY ICE

Julia will be at Nomad Books in Fulham on Saturday, 13th May, running a workshop and signing copies of her book. You'll also find her on the Alitex stand (MA 336) on the Chelsea Flower Show's Main Avenue on and off between the 23rd and 28th of May.

Dan will be at Salthrop House, Wroughton, near Swindon, this Sunday, 14th May, 11 am - 4 pm and at the American Museum & Gardens in Bath on Sunday, 21st May, with Rare Plant Fairs. He takes his tea strong with milk, and no sugar, if you want to treat him to a cuppa!

Alitex will be at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival from 11th -14th May, showcasing the Mottisfont greenhouse from the National Trust range. Then, they will be at RHS Chelsea Flower Show with their 'Good Life' inspired exhibit, styled by our very own Julia!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.