In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
01.08.2023 - 14:49 / gardenerstips.co.uk / hortoris
Or more aptly what can gardeners do with their drinks and any remnants.
Tea leaves can be composted of course but they can also be put around Camellias as a mulch. This may seem a bit like cannibalism as the tea plant is part of the family Camellia sinensis. Comfrey leaves soaked and rotted down in water make a good cheap fertiliser suitable for flowers or fruit and other leaves such as nettles have similar attributes.
Milk is slightly acidic (lactic acid) and washing out your old bottles and use the water for a mild liquid manure of indoor plant.
Coffee grounds and cup remnants can go on the compost heap or be used around small succulent plants to deter snails.
A beer after a hard session in the garden can refresh the jaded gardener but can a drop or two help any plants. The yeast in beer may have some benefit and it is worth rinsing the bottle of can onto hollyhocks or climber. In the unlikely event there is any beer un-drunk it is well known that slugs glug beer and can drown in a beer trap.
When it comes to washing up after all that drink the soapy water can be used on the garden. Soda based cleaners are said to be good for use on brassicas.
Micturation or the production of urine is an inevitable byproduct of all that drinking. Human urine is rich in nitrogen and urea. Fresh urine can be used to water plants diluted 1:10. Alternatively add it to your compost heap to enhance its nutritional content.
Victorian musical hall artist Marie Lloyd had a famous song ‘She Sits Among The Cabbages and Peas’. To over come complaints from the moral police of the time she sang a new version ‘She Sits Among The Cabbages and Leeks’.
‘Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peasWith a pretty little peapot ‘tween her kneesShe’s a whiz at shelling
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
Now part of this garden is down to crazy paving the Qualcast grass box is needed less and can be put to a different use. It looks like a ‘unibarrow’ has got in on the act to make a feature planter for these pansies.
Ants can be an unsightly nuisance and inspire concern. However they do not directly damage plants but are more a sign that you have another pest problem.
A rock garden is a grand place to display your alpine plants. You can shade them with rocks, provide deep root runs and provide rain cover with perspex roofs
White is the second most useful colour in the garden after green. I am progressively increasing the number and variety of white and grey plants that I grow.
What can gardeners do in winter? The answer lies in the soil! but to old gardeners it is still ‘Beyond our Ken’. I often spent too long polishing my good intentions this includes planning to send my mower for servicing and sharpening’ a shame I do not plan to polish up my other important gardening implements.
Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.
Where would we be if there weren’t already numerous robots used in the gardening industry. Do you imagine there are thousands of Dutch gardeners pricking out the seedlings of the soon to be gaudy annuals on supermarket displays or thousands of Chinese coolies picking individual seeds for our packeted seed industry (well may be in this case).
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.
‘The Garden of Reading: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Short Fiction About Gardens and Gardeners’ edited by Michele Slung.
Your own rock garden does not have to be as large as that at Kew. You do not need to demonstrate every regional zone on the planet. Nor do you need specimen plants that grow in all the range of soil conditions and climates. Better to concentrate on doing one or two things well.