Why we started the Intelligent Garden I first started gardening as a research student working on how plants grow. Then we bought a small holding in Shropshire for a while before we discovered computers and marketing. 20 years later we started selling plants on-line.
Expansion meant we needed premises - so we acquired a nursery with 2 acres of glasshouse and started growing organic vegetables again. By September 2008 we had our soil association certification and had started selling biological controls online.
Talking to people on farmer's markets I sense a real hunger for people to garden and produce their own food. And a real interest in local and pesticide free produce.
So we created the Intelligent Garden ito help you get the most from your garden by offering the knowledge, products and advice you need to work effectively with nature to release the intelligence in your garden.
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Reg Office The Glasshouses, Fletching Common, BN84JJ
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 The Glasshouses Garden In The Intelligent Garden, Science works with Nature to create a space that gladdens the heart and lifts the soul.
If you want better vegetables, a natural environment or to learn to work with nature in a practical way - you’ve come home to the right place. You’ll discover how plants grow, what they need and how to make your garden into that vibrant outdoor space you want.
You can enjoy some of our favourite gardens via pictures and videos with the odd recipe to delight the inner man. So join us on this exciting adventure. You can contact us on 0845 094 0407 or 01825 724282 - Dr Alan Rae – Fletching Glasshouses – 2011
I’ve been working for some time now on a project to send a “garden in a box” to refugee camps in the Sahara with Martin Dewhurst. It’s called New Dawn Rovers.
One of the big issues is that there’s a very limited amount of rainfall there and providing shade and adequate moisture will be one of the big challenges. So we’ve been studying some of the approaches the Permaculture boys have used in greening deserts in other parts of the world, most notably in Jordan.
As I’ve been reading up about this I’ve become increasingly interested in the permaculture approach and while we’re not ready to apply it to the nursery at this stage, I’ve come to the conclusion that we should build a forest garden area between our house and the open field. We’ve got a certain amount of remade ground from putting in the rainwater reservoirs for the nursery (which in itself involved removing a row of Apple Trees.
So the plan is to replace these and try and build a stacked tract of ground that has fruit trees embedded in fruit bushes with a ground cover of comfrey, sweet potatoes, legumes and some leaf vegetables.
The area is about 45 m long (east –west) and about 20 m wide at one end and 12 m wide at the other. It already contains a plum Tree, a Mulberry, 3 blackcurrant bushes and a couple of crowns of rhubarb. Just outside the area next to the house is a Fig.
My aim is to grow Damsons, Apples Plums, Quince and Apricots – mostly as bushes but a couple as half standards with blackcurrant, gooseberry and raspberry in between and some good ground cover. It needs to be scalloped to make use of the sun and it needs to become self fertilising and self mulching. Finally it needs to be protected from deer which are endemic as we are about 10 miles south of Ashdown Forest here.
Most of the area is under grass apart from the bit of made ground left over from the pool.
We’re going to have to do this in stages as it will take quite a lot of effort and planning. We already have a certain amount of boundary fence in place but we have quite a bit of willow ready to turn into hedges and to lay at the back. Since we have about another six weeks left to make hardwood cuttings, I’m minded to get on with that and ordering the fruit trees first.
Here’s a couple of pictures of the site before we start.
 View across the site to South West showing Mulberry Tree I’ll keep you up to date as we progress.
As we go into the second week in January the weather remains mild – a complete contrast to the snows of the last two years.
If it carries on like this and we don’t get a cold snap then all kinds of things will happen.
Plants that rely on vernalisation and a certain number of cold degree days are going to be thrown out of sync. The alstromeria in the glass houses are still flowering – usually they need a cold snap to take them down to the ground.
Then we are likely to have a higher than usual pest complement in the early spring. We still have flies both in the house and in the packhouse which is unheard of at this time of year. They’re the small ones but even so. So you can probably count on the slugs and bugs getting a head start this year.
However it’s great to enjoy the signs of Spring at Wakehurst place which is just up the road from us here.
Here are a couple of pictures of early buds and flowers taken last thing yesterday afternoon.
 January BudsJanuary Flowers
 January Flowers
Some interesting advice from Monty Don on the Christmas Gardener’s World this week
1) Get the annuals out, cut back the perennials and apply a 3 inch mulch of compost.
2) Get new fruit trees in – dig a shallow but wide hole and use the fork to loosen the bottom. Don’t put compost in the hole – other wise the roots will stay in the hole and not go looking for food. In any case make sure that the graft is about 2-3″ above the eventual ground level. and stake the tree for its first 3 years. However The Intelligent Garden recommends you use a pair of old tights to tie it to the stake – guarantees a bit of movement in the wind without damaging the stem.
3) Divide and move tired, old Rhubarb. The newer, more vigorous growth is on the outside so focus on getting some good strong pieces. Then plant them out with some compost. You will need to be doing this now as you’ll want it to kick in in March/April.
That should keep you out of mischief. We were really interested in what he had to say as we’re planning a woodland garden round the house to incorporate some permaculture ideas so we’ll let you know how we get on.
Now the leaves are off the trees, it’s time to take hardwood cuttings
It’s an easy and reliable method for propagating deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers. The “season” lasts from now until late winter.
So now that the plants are dormant, you can get on with it but it’s a good idea to avoid periods of severe frost. The best time is just after leaf fall or just before bud-burst in spring.
The cuttings can generally be forgotten about until the following year, as the cut surface undergoes a period of callusing over the winter from which roots will develop in the spring.
How to do it
You can either grow them on outdoors in the ground in a trench or you can grow them on in containers .Some, dogwoods for example will benefit from protection with cloches or coldframe.
Hardwood cuttings grown on outdoors
- Select vigorous healthy shoots from this year’s growth.
- Remove the soft tip growth.
- Cut into sections 15-30cm (6-12in) long, cutting cleanly above a bud at the top, with a sloping cut to shed water and as a reminder which end is the top.
- Cut straight across at the base below a bud or pair of buds and dip the lower cut end into rooting powder or Root!t gel.
- Prepare a trench outdoors in a sheltered site with well-drained soil.
- Dig in a bucketful of garden compost or other organic matter every square metre or yard and put a layer of sand into the base..
- Put the cuttings into the ground or pot with two-thirds below the surface.The roots will form along the stem. A few buds remain above the ground to allow the plant to grow away in spring.
- Where a single stemmed plant is aimed for, such as Populus or gooseberry, leave only one bud above ground.
- Put the cuttings in at 10-15cm (4-6in) spacing with 40cm (16in) between trenches.
- Keep an eye on the trenches for frosts and firm up afterwards if necessary.
- Leave them there until next autumn to make sure they get established through dry periods next summer
If you have only a few plants then put them into containers of gritty potting medium and keep them in an unheated greenhouse until next autumn making sure they don’t dry out.
Alternatively you can over winter plants like Cornus and Laburnum in pots and then plant them out as above in the spring into a trench firming the soil round the cuttings.
This technique will work for
- Most deciduous shrubs like Abelia, Deutzia, Buddleja (butterfly bush), Cornus (dogwood), Forsythia, Philadelphus (mock orange) Ribes (flowering currant), Rosa (rose), and Symphoricarpos and viburnums.
- Climbers like: Vitis (vines), Lonicera (honeysuckle), Jasminum, and Parthenocissus.
- Fruit, including: gooseberries, black, red and white currants as well as fig and mulberry.
- Trees, including: Platanus (plane), Populus (poplars) and Salix (willow)
Finally now is the time to take evergreen cuttings like Cotoneaster, Ilex (holly), Ligustrum (privet), Skimmia. But treat these like semi-ripe cuttings as we discussed a couple of posts ago..
The most interesting presentation of the lot was one on the 3 stages of GM from Professor Sir David Baulcombe. I’ve tended to be a GM sceptic as it has appeared that the amount of spraying hasn’t gone down on the round-up ready strand, yields haven’t gone up, farmers have become more dependent and the companies that produce these products have created a monoculture with the IP owned by them which is bad for food security on both counts. However the Professor’s extremely interesting talk identified 3 stages of GM and provided light instead of the usual heat [...]
Those of you who follow Gardener’s World may remember that Monty Don was warning you about these last week. If you don’t nobble them now they’ll keep on chomping away at your plants and their roots all through the winter so that by the spring they’ll be feeling sorry for themselves. [...]
You cut below a bud horizontally. For best results cut with scissors or secateurs first to seal the cut and again with a really sharp knife just before you pot it. This cut is square. At the top end you either include the apical leaves and between 2 and 4 nodes depending on the plant or you make a sloping cut above a bud. You keep the cuttings moist until its time to pot them. Then you seal the bottom with Root!t Gel which contains auxins and then keep them moist and sheltered over the winter. [...]
Best of all he tells you in explicit detail how to turn a lawn into potatoes by spreading cardboard round the dripline of a handy tree and covering it in compost. Put the potatoes in, follow up with beans over the winter and bodge in some rasp canes the following autumn and your on your way to your very own forest garden. [...]
I can honestly report that on this year’s lot there’s been a pitch invasion of docks and at the back where the swimming pool came out 18 months ago it’s stiff with clover. Both of these happy events have been organised by nature with no input from me at all. So while I’ve been on holiday I’ve been avidly reading David Bell’s book the permaculture garden and am busily planning a forest garden round the house for a permanent supply of fruit. [...]
Part of the trick with growing things commercially is that you always need to have something to sell. So for us we expect to have a good crop of peppers and aubergines and squash over the next couple of months with about half a dozen beds of sweet potatoes coming through. However our main focus is on providing a succession of chard and spinach that will take us through to Christmas. [...]
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