Norfolk School of Gardening on the value of volunteers

Yes, we are hugely grateful to the small team of volunteers who faithfully turn up each week and help us sow seeds, weed, cut back, tidy up, and generally keep the garden going.

We honestly couldn’t do what we do without them.

But this week we have also been looking at the really strong performers in the garden and realising that so many of them are volunteer plants.

Mouse midnight feast (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) Self-seeders from last year or even several years ago.

They don’t always turn up in the most convenient place, often right on the edge of a bed, in a path, or even in a bed where they are really not welcome.

But this year some of the self-seeded annuals are so much more robust and advanced than their recently sown relations.

Take Cosmos, for example.

We sowed several varieties this spring and had some very patchy germination, but we planted out strong plants a couple of months ago.

A few of them are in flower but nothing like as enthusiastically as usual.

Bixley borders late August (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) And some of them are yet to grow beyond a couple of feet, with little sign of buds.

Meanwhile, not far away, there is a huge plant of Cosmos ‘Sensation Pinkie’ (I think), right on the edge of a bed and completely covered with flowers.

At the base, the stalk is more than 2cm thick, and the whole plant is more than 1.5m high and over 1m wide.

All that from a single seed which drifted there from a nearby plant last year, survived the winter, germinated and somehow evaded early weeding.

I can’t say this with any scientific certainty, but it seems to me that what this seed needed was to be in the ground early and to get plenty of moisture in those first weeks to get established.

After that, it has fended for itself and somehow flourished, despite the heat and drought which seem to have held back this year’s sowings.

The same goes for several varieties of Nicotiana, some annual grasses as well as perennials Verbena bonariensis, Verbena ‘Bampton’ (see below) and Gaura.

It makes me think that it would be worth scattering some of the ripe seed from these plants in the coming weeks in places where we would really welcome them next year.

The bumper tomato harvest is carrying on, but this week we have discovered that we are sharing it with the local mice community.

Volunteer Verbena Bampton and Gaura (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) Each morning there are fresh teeth marks, tiny and very neat, on a couple of the ripest fruit.

I have to admit that, in this case, we have more than enough to share!

These are some of the first courses next term which have spaces available.

Let us know if you’d like to join us:· Introduction to Garden Design – 11th September

· Certificate in Practical Horticulture – 12th September

· Advanced Practical Gardening – 17th September

· Plants for Free – 24th September

· Border Renovation – 1st October

Verbena officinalis var. grandiflora ‘Bampton’ (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) Plant of the Week

Verbena officinalis var.

grandiflora ‘Bampton’ is a beautiful cultivar which bears small purple-pink flowers held on spikes at the tops of tall, elegant, wiry stems.

The foliage is a lovely purple-green, with an almost metallic sheen.

It thrives on sunny, often lime-rich soils and is a magnet for pollinators like bees, moths and butterflies.

Try growing it as part of a mixed herbaceous border, or as a part of a sunny gravel garden.

For best results, grow in full sun, in moist, well-drained soil.

Leave the old stems and seedheads on for winter interest and for a little gentle self-seeding, then cut right back in early spring as the new shoots are emerging.