Let your love grow
Choose a gift for your gardening mum on Mother’s Day to show her how much you really care, says Hannah Stephenson
Whether she’s a practical tool type, wants to grow exotic plants, or would simply like a whiff of floral pampering, now’s the time to choose a gift for your gardening mum for Mother’s Day.
Here are some ideas to give you inspiration…
All tooled up
Sophie Conran spade and fork (£39.99 each, Burgon & Ball, burgonandball.com)
This sturdy new fork and spade designed by Sophie Conran, are slightly smaller and lighter than others, but no less robust. With heads made from mirrored polished stainless steel and the shaft from ash, they should last for years – and come with a 10-year guarantee.
Fiskars X-series Powergear Bypass Pruner (£34.99, Newgate Nurseries, newgatedirect.co.uk)
A new pair of secateurs should be just the job for spring pruning, and these new ones from Fiskars can cut through the toughest fresh twigs and bushes easily. With an ergonomic handle design, they should also make the job more comfortable.
Dressed for the part
Jonny’s Sister personalised gardening apron (£20, amazon. co.uk/handmade)
This beautiful personalised gardening apron will keep the mud off and hold all your mum’s knick-knacks, including secateurs, gardening string and plant labels, while she works.
Personalised pink leather gardening gloves (£49.99, Dobbies Garden Centres, dobbies.com/ gifts)
Handmade in the UK, these luxurious but robust leather and suede gloves will protect the hands of the most ardent gardener, and you can also have them personalised for your mum.
On the go
Ouwegaga Floral Airpods case cover (£9,99, amazon.co.uk)
For the mum who loves to listen to music or podcasts while she’s gardening, treat her to this pretty floral Airpods case cover, which comes with a keychain so she won’t lose it.
Personalised Hands Off ceramic travel mug (£19.99, Dobbies Garden Centres, dobbies.com/ gifts)
If your mum loves a cuppa on the go, get her this stylish ceramic travel mug inscribed with her name and her favourite drink.
Organisational help
Clouds and Currents Gardener’s seed storage box (£40, Not On The High Street, notonthehighstreet. com)
This pretty wooden box with your mum’s name inscribed on it should help her keep her seeds in order, so she’s not hunting for that elusive packet of veggies she’s been meaning to sow this spring. It comes with four wooden dividers: ‘Veg’, ‘Herbs’, ‘Flowers’ and one left blank for you to personalise yourself.
Mirrored plant markers (£17.99,
Gift ideas include a personalised gardening apron, above; pink leather gardening gloves, above left; a set of illustrated mugs, right
Getting Personal, gettingpersonal. co.uk)
Love this set of four mirrored plant markers available in gold, silver or bronze, which will not only help your mum remember what she’s planted, but also add pizzazz to any pot. They can be etched with a message, up to 20 characters, to make the gift really personal.
Wildlife themed
Myrte mug set (£19.99 – was £24.95, CJ Wildlife, birdfood.co.uk)
Bird-lovers should adore this set of five porcelain mugs featuring illustrations of birds including a kingfisher, a nuthatch, a great tit, crested tit and pair of long-tailed tits, by Dutch nature artist Myrte.
Squirrel Buster nut and nibble feeder (£49.99, rspb.org.uk)
However, if mum is fed up with shooing the squirrels away from her bird feeders, it’s time you splashed out on this allegedly 100% squirrel-proof feeder which is weighted so when pesky squirrels or fat pigeons jump on it, the metal shutters will come down to stop them from eating the peanuts and suet nibbles.
Simply scent-sational
Liberty Lavender drawer scents: Bird In The Hand (£18, RHS, shop. rhs.org.uk)
These delightful drawer scents made from a Liberty Tana Lawn fabric in the shape of birds will bring the heady fragrance of lavender from Provence into your mum’s linen cupboards. Scarlet Poppy Cologne Intense (£86 for 50ml, Jo Malone London, jomalone.co.uk)
This intense new fragrance is inspired by the poppy’s rich red blooms and enhanced by iris, barley and tonka bean, to make it every bit as sweet as your mum.
Planting the humble potato is the first milestone of spring on the allotment and it won’t be long before that happens. During the Second World War plotholders were expected to devote a third of their plot to potatoes.
However these days there are not many of us who would want to grow enough potatoes to keep a family going all the year round.
Most of us enjoy planting small quantities of a wide range of different varieties of potato.
This has the advantage of leaving the rest of our plot free for all the other delights such as soft fruit, peas and beans.
For the past few weeks, up and down the land, windowsills and spare bedrooms have been commandeered for chitting our chosen selections of tubers.
But knowing when we can start planting them is definitely weather dependent.
A minimum soil temperature of 8 to 10 degrees is best.
Chitting potatoes involves laying out the tubers in daylight in a frost-free place while they develop their little shoots.
It’s not essential and certainly not what farmers will be doing but it gives the tubers a head-start as they come out of dormancy while the ground is still warming up.
In good conditions, first early potatoes such as Swift and Rocket could be ready as soon as 90 days after planting.
Main crop potatoes will take about a month longer to come to maturity.
Old manuals on allotment gardening suggest some hard work digging trenches for potatoes but these days even the experts have a more relaxed attitude to how they should be planted.
In light sandy soil such as on my plot, it’s easy enough to dig holes between 5 and 10cm deep using a trowel.
Then it’s a case of popping each potato in its hole with the young green shoots upwards.
As the foliage emerges, you draw some soil up on each side.
This is variably described as earthing up, hilling up, or ridging.
A draw hoe is the ideal implement, but the back of a rake works well too.
The reason for doing this is to keep the growing tubers well covered from the light or they’ll turn green and inedible.
Growing early potatoes means keeping an eye out for frost. A clear, calm day could precede a night-time frost which would kill the emerging foliage.
The easiest way to protect them is to fling some fleece over them or earth them up.
Frost is not a total disaster as new shoots will grow but it will delay the harvest by several weeks.
First earlies such as Swift could be ready as soon as 90 days after planting