Gardening

The Bees Knees

December 1, 2022 by beautifybalham

When thinking about the word pollinator we tend to think of the fuzzy bumblebee, so it is amazing to realise that there are 1,500 species of insect pollinator in the UK including, not only the much loved bumblebee, but butterflies, moths, flies and beetles. Excitingly birds, bats and even monkeys are important pollinators in the rest of the world! But back to the streets of Balham…

We are lucky to live in a city that is almost 50% green space – nevertheless we can and should do more to support our threatened pollinators. Urban environments can even be seen as a refuge for biodiversity from intensively farmed agricultural landscapes.

If you want to make a difference, here are three easy steps to supporting local pollinators:

Don’t use any pesticides;
Grow plants with simple flower shapes;
Aim for flowers all through the year.

Don’t use any pesticides

Insect populations have declined massively, and many put the blame on pollution through pesticide use. The best tactic is to not use them at all and garden organically.

Grow plants with simple flower shapes

Flower shapes evolved naturally to help encourage visits by pollinators. After all, the plants need pollinators to help them set seed. However, plant breeding by people has created more complex flower shapes, which are beautiful to the human eye but poorly adapted to pollinators. Avoid double and semi-double flowers to keep your pollinators happy.

Aim for flowers all through the year

The climate crisis is making our weather more unpredictable. We need to make sure that there is food available for pollinators at all times of the year in case unseasonable warmth brings hibernating insects out super early in the year, so we need to do a bit more planning for our planting schemes. Spring and summer are relatively easy seasons to keep the nectar flowing through lots of flowers, although there are some extra pollinator friendly plants I have listed below.

The plants listed here are great for nectar and pollen – but don’t forget that pollinators, just like humans, also need somewhere to live and raise their offspring.

Winter:

Hellebores
Snowdrops
Sweet box
Mahonia
Winter honeysuckle

Spring:

Catmint
Lungwort
Geranium species
Any of the flowering fruit trees like apple, plum and pear
Dandelion
Forget-me-not
Rosemary

Summer:
Oh my goodness – so many to choose from!
Just remember to keep flower shapes simple and avoid double and semi double. Some of the best are:

Lavender
Echium
Verbena bonariensis
Thyme
Oregano
Night scented stock (especially good for moths)

Autumn:

Asters
Japanese anemone
Simple (not double) dahlias
Common Ivy (also a great habitat provider)
Autumn flowering salvias
Ice plant (Sedum)

Following the three steps should bring a wealth of pollinators to your patch of space, no matter how small, and you will have made a difference. Happy pollinator spotting!

Hazel Norman – Chief Executive of the British Ecological Society – written in a personal capacity

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The Triangle Garden at Chestnut Grove

October 7, 2022 by beautifybalham

Armed with forks and trowels and wearing Beautify Balham hi-vis vests, together we are going to continue the wonderful work started by local residents Richard, Charlie and Brendan. This garden is on land that no one seems to own, but has been adopted for many years and admired by passers by.

Sadly Richard died, and Charlie and Brendan have hung up their gardening gloves, but they generously asked Beautify Balham to continue their good work.

Justine and Jean from Beautify Balham decided it would be a good idea for children to be involved so asked the local schools. Mark Peters, Deputy Head from Hornsby House School responded.

Each Thursday from 3.45-4.30pm until daylight diminishes, we are going to tidy up and replant this mature garden that just needs a little TLC and some more plants to fill the gaps.

If anyone has bulbs or plants to give to this worthy cause, or could support with a donation to make towards the upkeep, please contact us at hello@beautifybalham.org or donate via PayPal using the form here.

Watch this space & enjoy the cleaning up and greening up of another corner of Balham!

– Jean Millar and The Beautify Balham Team

If you want to write to us and have your own blog post & thoughts placed on this website to help others, please reach out to us via our Contact Us page!

Balham in Bloom 2022

June 26, 2022 by beautifybalham

Beautify Balham held the presentation of prizes for our Balham in Bloom 2022 runners up and winners on Saturday 25th June 2022 on Bedford Hill Place.

We attracted lots of interest from the passers-by who were drawn by our eye-catching gazebo and high-vis vests! Children were interested by our planters, and seemed to get excited about gardening. We even gave them seeds to take the fun back home!

This event was arranged to celebrate the hard work from our Balham in Bloom 2022 entrants – who demonstrated passion and creativity in their award winning gardening spaces!

We again enlisted the help of professional gardeners Cheryle Morison, Wayne Amiel, and Gareth James to help judge who showed the best amateur gardening efforts in the local area.

At 14:30 we started announcing our awards for the Balham in Bloom 2022 competition. Our successful runners up and winners received Balham in Bloom 2022 certificates, and prizes generously donated by local businesses.

The winners all seemed delighted, and it was great seeing gardening enthusiasts and those fond of Balham connect after an amazing day!

Thank you to all logo designers, competition entrants, business partners, ceremony attendees, volunteers and committee members for making Balham in Bloom 2022 such a success!

We hope to see even more support and interest in next year’s Balham in Bloom competition!

If you are interested in participating in a future Balham in Bloom, you can register today!
If you want to help Beautify Balham on one of our litter picks or other events, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hello@beautifybalham.org.

– The Beautify Balham Team

If you want to write to us and have your own blog post & thoughts placed on this website to help others, please reach out to us via our Contact Us page!

Pollution Busting Plants for Front Gardens

June 16, 2022 by beautifybalham

No matter how small your front garden is, with careful planning you can make it a beautiful and pollution-busting space.

A front garden full of plants is a home, and provides food, for wildlife. Plants do have a hard time with pollution since the leaves need to ‘breathe’ – which means that anything that limits that exchange, such as airborne gasses or if the pores are blocked by dust and grime, will limit their potential.

Balham Front Garden with Grasses and Olive Trees

To create structure: think about a hedge and a tree – both good defences for pollution. However small your garden is, good choices for trees are Amelanchier Lamarckii with their white blossom in spring, followed by black berries and good colour in autumn.

Cordon and espalier trees are space saving too, and offer screening. Stepover Apples take up very little space, as do Crab Apple trees. Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticle’ – an ornamental pear – is an exceptionally good tree for small urban gardens, with its upright, narrow shape, and branches that are smothered with white blossom early in spring. The leaves turn a vibrant red and purple in the autumn before falling and, some years, the tree will produce small inedible brown fruits. It does best in moist but well-draining soil, and in full sun.

Small urban gardens look good with topiary. Box is the choice of many London gardens, although it can succumb to box blight and box tree caterpillar. It responds well to being trimmed, and thrives in the shade and most well-drained soils (chalk, loam or sand). It’s excellent for growing in containers, as topiary, and for training as feature plants.

Yew Ilex Crenata and Lonicera Nitida are excellent alternatives, and are not as slow growing as people think. Yew offers all round greenery with red berries in the autumn. Choisya is also a good alternative as a hedge with its white flowers and glossy green leaves. Pittisporum too makes a great hedge, especially the Variegata, as its leaves add interest.

Walls and fences can be clad in small urban gardens. Trachelospermum ‘Jasminoides’ is evergreen with white scented flowers in the summer and is suited to the warmer micro climates of an urban garden.

Euphorbia Characias is great for front gardens as it is evergreen and architectural, offers year-round structure, and has striking acid yellow flowers which team up well with spring tulips.

Urban gardens need hardworking perennial plants – such as hardy geraniums which flower for a long time, do well in the sun or shade, and go well with many other plants. For a contemporary look, ornamental grasses tick the box. They look good for months and don’t take up much space.

One of the hardest looks to get right is the wild flower meadow with plants flowering everywhere. Instead: opt for defined flower beds, straight lines and solid planting. Structure works well in winter too. The easiest way to do this is with a clear path and big pots on either side of the front door.

– Kirsten and the Beautify Balham Team

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No Dig Vegetable Beds

April 29, 2022 by beautifybalham

Not many of us relish the idea of digging a bed in our garden or plot. No matter how big or small a patch we want to create, it’s a back aching task! But there is good news… and it’s called a ‘no dig bed’! It’s good for the environment, and it’s particularly handy when you want to create a vegetable patch.

So why is not digging up the ground better for the environment? Firstly you are keeping carbon in the soil by not digging it up. Also because it has not been disturbed you will not need to water it as much, as the moisture is held better, and you are then saving on water resources.

There are a few ways of going about it and you should consider what your specific needs are, but below is an outline of how it works that should work for most situations.

Firstly, you need to create a border for your vegetable patch. Typically, people use bricks, planks of wood or old railway sleepers. Some people don’t even bother with a hard border.

Next you need to line the bottom of the patch with cardboard. This kills weeds off by starving them of light. No need to dig, just lay the cardboard on the ground. Keeping the ground undisturbed protects the carbon-based microscopic life that keep the soil healthy. Eventually the vegetable crop roots will reach down and access the nutrients.

Next pour some compost or soil on top of the cardboard. Ideally building the bed up with at least 10cm of compost on top of the cardboard.

Pull apart the soil and place your plants or seeds and that, as they say, is that!

No dig beds can be an easier way to get into gardening, and help preserve your lawns by leaving soil undisturbed. Share your no dig bed experiences with us using the hashtag #BeautifyBalham!

– Fintan and the Beautify Balham Team

Sources:
_{https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-garden-revolution/on-demand/71997-004
https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/a30609738/no-dig-gardening/
https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/the-advantages-of-no-dig-gardening/
https://www.kebur.co.uk/sleepers-garden-landscaping/
https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-shovel-296232/
https://www.lovethegarden.com/uk-en/article/how-create-vegetable-garden}

If you want to write to us and have your own blog post & thoughts placed on this website to help others, please reach out to us via our Contact Us page!

Summer Flowering Bulbs and Annual Seeds

March 2, 2022 by beautifybalham

March is the harbinger of spring.

We notice signs of life in our flower beds, tree pits and on the commons. Snowdrops first (see some beautiful examples of snowdrops growing in RHS Gardens here), then winter aconites, anemones, celandines, daffodils, crocuses, bluebells, and finally the tulips. But if, like me, you enjoy a successful spring garden before it all goes rather quiet, you may need some help on how to bridge this next season into summer (as I often do)!

The answer is to plant summer flowering bulbs, and also the very versatile and
economical annuals sown as seeds. Make the most of what you have. As Clare Gogerty writes in the Observer Gardening Special, ‘Limited outside space needn‘t stop you growing an impressive display of flowers and edibles’, so think creative and get growing!

Summer bulbs such as agapanthus, begonias, gladioli, dahlias, crocosmia, lilies and ranunculus all put on a good show. Most of them enjoy the sun at some part of the day, but they can be planted in pots to move around the garden, or placed on a balcony.

As Balham in Bloom takes place in late June, here are some other tips to get your
gardens, hanging baskets and window boxes blooming in time for the event:

Sow some wildflower seeds – which are readily available online or in garden centres. Seeds that are easy, and which children will enjoy planting, are candy tuft, nasturtium, marigolds and cosmos. These can grow quite tall, so allow room if they are in open ground. Love-in-the
mist (Nigella) and poppies are easy too, and give a great splash of colour just when you need it. Seed catalogues are in abundance now, and can be found in the local shops in Balham and Tooting: Poundshops, Wilkos, Lidl and Aldi. They all stock seeds that are cheap and easy to grow. You can also read about some more unusual seeds in Capital Gardens’ latest blog post (and visit them at Neal’s Nurseries)!

Window boxes sown with wildflower seeds!

Cosmos with a bee! — Window boxes sown with wildflower seeds!

Vegetable seeds are also readily available, and exciting too – including runner and
dwarf beans, courgettes, radishes, lettuces, ‘cut and come again’ salad
leaves, spring onions, tomatoes and chillies. Planted together with flowering plants they make a really good show, and are edible as a bonus! SimplySeed.co.uk has a great selection of vegetable seeds available.

So, get the soil ready by digging over, add extra compost (peat-free!) and some gravel for drainage if you can. Sow according to the instructions on the packet and wait. Keep watered if dry, and place on a sunny window sill to start them off or in a propagator if you have one. Label them or get the children to make their own labels and decorate them (wooden lolly sticks and plant labels are better than plastic)! Try to recycle old plant pots rather than buying new ones, or use empty containers that you are throwing out with a few drainage holes in the base. Enjoy being creative and foster the love of gardening with your children so they will grow up respecting nature and know how their food is grown.

Once you’ve cultivated some beautiful plants, enter Balham in Bloom 2022 with your front gardens, communal gardens, window boxes or hanging baskets! Last entries are on Sunday 29th May, for the presentation which takes place on Saturday 25th June. You can visit https://beautifybalham.org/balham-in-bloom/ for more information. It’s free to enter!
Please send any queries to hello@beautifybalham.org and we will be happy to answer them.

– Jean Millar and the Beautify Balham Team

If you want to write to us and have your own blog post & thoughts placed on this website to help others, please reach out to us via our Contact Us page!