Pete Clayton with his apple picker. Picture by Peter Boam.
GARDENINGI WAS pulled in all directions by entries in my gardening competition.
There was a goodly response from inventive Islanders sending in tremendous tips in the quest to win a prize worth almost £80.
But it came down to a choice of two for the top prize of a Supersize Allotment Value Seed Selection from seedsman D. T. Brown.
I was torn between the variety and inventiveness of Pete Clayton’s cheap and recycled items and Digby Curtis’s simple, effective gardening aid he has evolved over the years.
I finally plumped for Digby’s versatile garden frame — so simple but very effective.
He says: "You start with a simple 6ft by 3ft frame (preferably treated against rot) using good old Hurst’s metal right-angle brackets at each corner and reinforced by some 45 degree corner strips. Then you stretch a length of 3ft width chicken wire across it and staple it on.
"A collection of these can be used for numerous jobs around the garden. You can put them together as a portable rabbit fence around your cabbages etc, stretching netting over the top against pigeons.
"Bamboo poles pushed into the ground and string does the job. Four together makes a very strong square around a raised bed for example. One of the frames can be used as a gate to facilitate access for weeding and such like.
"You can add windbreak material for great protection against the elements, even helping against frost. I find this particularly good for early broad beans, stopping the wind-curling you get with runner beans. This can also make shade for lettuce later in the year.
"You can tilt two together at 45 degrees and make a giant cloche by laying a strip of polythene over them.
"They can, of course, make a portable chicken run too. The list is endless. And they stack together tidily when not needed," said Digby.
The D. T. Brown collection should arrive in a matter of days, Digby.
Digby’s entry was just one very simple, good, idea. A string of good ’uns came from 73-year-old retired mechanical engineer Pete Clayton.
Pete, from West View Road, Cowes, took the trouble to come into the office and explain his recycled gardening aids.
The first was a gadget he made up to make it easier to plant bulbs in grass. You twist and push and, on removal, the earth plug is ejected.
His second invention was a hinged plastic bottle used as a propagator while the third was a wire brush on the end of a 6ft handle to clear moss from block paving — easy and super-efficient, said Pete.
His fourth gadget was the bottom half of a plastic bottle — again used as a propagator — and his fifth was a variation on a tool I have seen before. A plastic milk bottle is cut and fixed to a 6ft handle to harvest apples that are just too high to reach. Pete describes it as 'highly efficient’.
I have a very nice surprise consolation prize for Pete. He won’t need gadget number five in his tool kit at harvest time either. It should arrive in the post by the end of the month. I hope you like it.
Janet Carr came up with one of the best tips I have started to employ more and more in recent years.
I used it last year with parsnips, which can be tricky to germinate and need a fair bit of space between plants, but not as much as patchy germination sometime provides.
She says: "When I was a new gardener, I just thought you grew seeds and planted out the results — and never thought this did not apply to all seeds."
So Janet’s tip is to sow a patch of, say, beetroot and instead of throwing away the thinnings, transplant them to where you want them.
"One packet does hundreds," she said.
This tip was from Angy Bryant, from Alverstone Road, Apse Heath: "I’d like to enter your vegetable seed competition by passing on my favourite tip for all tomato growers.
"When you’ve tasted a lovely tomato in a salad or sandwich, and you wish to grow that variety for yourself, just squeeze the pips from the tomato onto a sheet of kitchen paper and leave them to dry in the sun or sunny windowsill.
"When dry fold up and place in an envelope in your seed tin. Then, come early February, lay the unfolded sheet of kitchen paper in the bottom of a seed tray with the seeds facing upwards. Cover with compost, water sparingly and keep on a warm windowsill .
"In a few days you should see signs of your very own tomato seedlings pushing up through the soil — simples!"
A really good, practical, gardening tip came from Malcolm Jones, whose patch is at Noke Common.
The Parkhurst gardener is a great fan of one of the best gardening ideas for those who like their plots in bite-size, easily manageable, bits.
I’m currently dividing off one of my allotment plots with boards in a similar way to Malcolm.
As he pointed out: "I turned my garden into plots of different sizes and seeded paths which run all around them.
"At any time of the year I can weed, dig over, mulch without actually stepping on the soil.
"Each plot is edged with boards, so the soil doesn’t go onto the grass, so it has made life a lot easier."
One entry that won for humour came from 'Baaa-ley’s Flock’.
The entry certainly didn’t follow the crowd, like the flock of sheep, it came from.
Barley Gould, from Lugley Street, Newport, wanted to win the seeds so he could grow lots of swedes, parsnips and cabbage for his woolly chums in his own flock, to encourage them to produce lots of wool.
So he penned the entry in their name. Barley points to wool being a great slug repellant, mulch and frost protector.
For those without their own flock, he points to a product called Slug Gone, slug pellets manufactured from the fleece of sheep.
The pellets quickly re-hydrate and the prickly quality that causes them to mat together on the animal irritates slugs, which go in search of easier munching elsewhere.
The Small Shepherds Club newsletter that Barley enclosed informs me they used to be called Slug Buggers. Wonder why they changed the name?
• See www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk