From the Archive

Garden Talk

What to grow:

As the clocks have gone forward, it feels like we’ve won an extra hour of sunlight. For the green fingered, this means an extra 60 whole minutes planning, pottering and planting in the garden.

I’ve spent the last few months prepping, drafting my garden plans and scouring seed catalogues for this very moment. Now we can see summer just around the corner, I’m beyond excited and I’m celebrating in the most appropriate way – by planting Cornflower seeds!

How to grow:

Cornflower seeds can be grown outdoors from March and April, before coming in to flower in early June through to August.

First off, choose the spot where you would them to grow, they can be grown in large pots, or directly in the ground. For the purpose of this piece, I will be sowing directly into the ground, but the same rules apply.

White and Yellow Flowers. Photo courtesy Cecilia Cran

Cornflowers like well-drained soil, a sheltered spot and lots of sunshine, so choose a space that gets lots of natural light and warmth from the sun and where plants won’t have to battle wind.

Seeds can be sown around 1cm deep and 8cm apart – as the plants grow, they spread, so need space. When you sow too close together, plants will have to compete for nutrients, water and light and you can end up with smaller plants and less vibrant flowers. They don’t like to be over watered, so water them in well at the start, then after this water them around once a week if there’s been no rainfall.

There are a huge number of varieties to choose from, I tend to go for Centaurea Cyanus ‘Polka Dot Mix’, which produces a wonderful mix of white, pink and blue flowers.

Dandelion. Photo courtesy Cecilia Cran

Green escape:

You may have heard the slightly uncomfortable statistic that when you’re in London, you’re never more than three metres away from a rodent. I’m not sure if that is true or who even took the time to work it out… but what I do know to be true is that at the moment, it feels like everywhere I go; I am never more than a few steps away from beautiful, bright, sunshiney daffodils. 

Tall, small, yellow, orange, white even! They are out in full bloom and I can’t get enough of them. So this month, rather than suggest one good green spot, I encourage you to go daff hunting. Some of my favourite green spaces in the borough that have particularly good crops this year include: The Olympic Park Stratford, West Ham Park, Central Park, Stratford Park and Memorial Recreation Ground. They’re beautiful, little beacons of light, beckoning in summer.


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