Petersham Nurseries in Richmond are running a ‘How to’ gardening workshop on Spring Staking. Set within the very beautiful, private garden of Petersham House; head gardener Lucy Boyd offers a practical demonstration on staking. A rare opportunity to step foot inside the gates of Petersham House garden and pick up the secrets of what makes its borders flourish throughout the growing season. A simple but invaluable technique, staking is a centuries old tradition. Much favoured by gardeners, it lends support to tall plants like sweet peas, hollyhocks and delphiniums and climbing vegetables including tomatoes, beans and peas. Within the 150″ long running double border of Petersham House garden, expert gardeners Lucy Boyd and Rosie Bines will demonstrate how to use coppiced hazel to stake a variety of garden plants and to create simple structures which will create stunning visual features.

Combining the practical with the creative, you will learn how to build nests out of pea sticks to support Oriental poppies; structures for sweet peas and bean pole wigwams for your beans to scramble up. They will also offer their own top tips on how best to hide visible supports - allowing the plants to take centre stage - and why it is preferable to use biodegradable twine.
This seasonal workshop aims to demonstrate how to create a beautiful mid-summer garden, bursting with colour and structure.
Petersham House is the private home of Petersham Nurseries’ owners, Frncesco & Gael Boglione. Ticket price:  £65.00 includes tea/coffee on arrival, a light lunch of homemade soup & sandwiches after the workshop, plus a bundle of peasticks to take away. www.petershamnurseries.com

If you haven’t autumn sown your sweet peas you can play catch-up by ordering some sweet pea plants from Unwin’s,  a company justly famous for breeding award-winning varieties for over 100 years.  Choose from the Cutflower Collection, the Showbench Collection or the Super Fragrant Collection, each of 36 plants in 6 varieties for £10.95 or save money with their 25 Mixed Sweet Pea Plants  for £7.45  or £6.95 for 2 packs or more.  www.unwins.co.uk

In the greenhouse: I’ve sown Hungarian razing rye green manure in the border where the tomatoes grew in their growbags - that should improve the fertility and texture of the soil so that I can sow early salads.  The benches are filling up with pots of seedlings including broad beans, sweet peas, winter salads and hardy annuals.

The Matucana sweet peas are at their peak. One of the oldest surviving varieties, its fragrance is unrivalled.

Matucana Sweet Peas

This Phlox - I think it is ‘Eventide’ - does surprisingly well in a shady area.

Eventide

The lovely hydrangea ‘Ayesha’ has florets more like lilac blooms than hydrangeas.
Myrtle was a traditional flower in Victorian wedding bouquets. I’m gradually pruning off the lower branches of this multi-stemmed shrub to reveal the lovely cinnamon-coloured bark.

Ayesha and Myrtle

The white Agapanthus are at their best outlined against dark foliage
Despite the very cold winter, the dahlias I left in the ground have al survived and are now in full bloom. Our free-draining, sandy soil does have some benefits!

White Agapanthus and Dahlias