As the RHS has postponed the update to their qualifications until September 2022, the theory information on this blog should remain valid and useful for a bit longer, which is a good thing!
But as I don’t really have any updates on the theory side of things, I thought I would like to review some things that I have read or used, beginning with Garden Alchemy by Stephanie Rose of Garden Therapy.
Published in the USA, it has a retail price of £14.99 in the UK – pretty pricey for a slim book of about 1cm depth, although the paper feels of good quality and it is nicely printed with lots of photos.
The book itself covers a variety of hands-on things you can do to improve your garden environment. It starts with tests for your soil, using vinegar and baking soda (instead of a purchased pH kit) or making your own pH indicator solution using red cabbage. There are also a few pages about making your own seed bombs and seed mats – I imagine that the red cabbage pH tester and the seed bombs could be quite interesting things to do with children on a rainy day.
The book then has a section about different materials used in potting soils, together with recipes/ratios of these for different uses. There is also a similar section about fertilizers and additives, which were interesting but I don’t think I would ever use them because it would mean obtaining several different materials and storing them somewhere, and space is very much at a premium!
The part of the book (a couple of pages) which really interested me was on compost boosters. I had never really heard of Quick Return Composting and I would really like to try it. The thing about composting that always gets me, is that the experts tell you that the material will rot down and you will have compost in 3 or so months, but it has never been the case for me. I think that the compost bin I have is a bit small, so never really retains much heat (space restrictions again!) and although I turn it and add water etc, it can take a year or more to break down. I’m definitely going to go foraging for a few weeds to dry and add to the heap in the spring.
Overall, I think that Garden Alchemy is interesting and attractive as a book and it could be a very nice present to someone who is a keen gardener. Reading it made me think about different aspects of looking after a garden and to consider how things are done and what I could do differently or more of. The information in the book could probably be found online but I personally find books quite re-assuring, although the price was maybe more than I would have expected given the size of the book.
Gardening studies 