Following the high standard of Crickhowell Open Gardens, I thought I’d let all you enthusiastic gardeners know that WalesOnline are currently running a ‘Welsh Garden of the Year’ competition.
Whatever the size and style of your garden, if it’s gorgeous, formal or quirky, just upload 2 pictures of your garden and a few sentences on why your garden is special to you and your entry will be put forward to a public vote. Entries close at 4pm on Thursday 30th June.
The prize for the Welsh garden that gets the most votes wins garden furniture by Kettler from John Lewis up to the value of £500.
Go here for more details and to enter.
The only competition my own garden would be winning at the moment is for the tallest nettle or longest bramble. I am trying to console myself with the fact that I will eventually be rewarded with blackberries and that my nettles are benefitting numerous butterflies as their larvae feed in large groups hidden in silken tents at the top of the nettle stems. And soon the huge quantity of seed produced will provide a food source for the seed eating birds.
Nettles seeds are also apparently very good for combating fatigue (perhaps the birds already know that!) and can be harvested when the little flower threads (covered in fluffy green pompoms) droops heavily towards the stem. The seeds will be fat, fluffy and vivid green. Do not harvest if the seeds are brown, when you can still see little flowers on the threads or when the threads are still sticking straight out.
Simply remove the whole string of seeds and leave to dry. Once the seeds are dry you will probably need to put them through a sieve to get out any leaf or bug bits. Once you have a nice pile of bright green Nettle seeds, jar them up and keep them in a dark, cool place. They can last for several years.
You can just take anywhere from a pinch to a tsp. of seeds and chew them up really well, then swallow, as a good tonic and energy boost or add them to smoothies.
In my quest to learn more about biodynamic gardening, I read that if you dig a hole and bury nettles before they set seed, then leave for 12 months, the resulting ‘compost’ is fabulous – and also one of the biodynamic preparations, 504, is a nettle spray that is great against aphids.
My problem is that I have just about found enough time to read about it all but not enough time to do any of it yet!
And nettles are also taking care of us gardeners apparently, as the nettle sting is supposed to prevent arthritis – so the more you get stung the longer you will be able to garden for! And of course, the more time you spend gardening the more likely you are to get stung … and so on.
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