Get wild, get recycling, get gardening...

The Exeter Wild City project, a five year initiative to encourage wildlife in the city, is launching a brand new competition for 2011. The aim is to challenge local schools to turn unwanted waste items into wildlife-friendly garden habitats. The Salvage Garden competition is sponsored by St Bridget Nurseries and Sutton Seeds and runs until June 2011 when the winning school will be announced.

The school with the best garden will receive a behind the scenes to St Bridget Nurseries for one class of pupils. The winners will also receive a plant per student to take away with them. All entries will be photographed and displayed at Plantsmans Café at St Bridget Nurseries, Old Rydon Lane in the autumn.

Paul Martin from Devon Wildlife Trust is organising the competition. Paul said: “Schools are already very active at recycling and we wanted to combine that enthusiasm with a creative challenge that would benefit wildlife, even in schools where green space is limited. Elsewhere we’ve seen people use baths, toilets, wheel barrows and all manner of things. I can’t wait to see what the students in Exeter come up with!” Schools in Exeter will be receiving further information and a packet of seeds to help get them started, courtesy of Sutton Seeds and for inspiration and advice can visit St Bridget Nurseries, who have been challenged to create their own Salvage Garden. Tammy Falloon, Marketing Manager for St Bridget’s said: “This is such a brilliant initiative. It brings together gardening, wildlife, education and environmental practices - plus it’s fun! We can’t wait to see what the children come up with and hope their families get involved at home too”. For more information about the competition or how your school could be involved in the Exeter Wild City project contact Paul Martin on 01392 279244.

The two St Bridget Garden Centres will also be getting into the spirit of the competition and are having a personal competition between the two sites! The photo here shows the garden at Clyst St Mary (which you can go and see EX5 1AE). We'll be highlighting some key parts to the display over the coming days so you can take part at home.

Hamamelis (Witch Hazel) Fragrant Flowers

Hamamelis is a winter-flowering shrub, commonly known as witch hazel. Its fragrance and spidery flowers in yellow, orange and reds make it a must for the winter garden.

They give a spectacular show on their bare stems through out January and February.They prefer Acid to neutral soil, plant in an open sunny position to avoid the plant becoming straggly in shady positions.

St Bridget Nurseries have a lovely selection of Polyanthus and Primroses in bud and flower now, why not select a few and make a cheery display in you greenhouse or conservatory .

Colours vary yellow, blues,pink, reds and white make a lovely display to brighten your windowsill in these dark January days.

St Bridgets now have pots of Snowdrops (Galanthus) for sale .Cheer up your winter garden and plant a few pots around the garden and they will naturalise and come up and flower in years to come.

With all the rain that we have had recently, the soil is to wet to do much to it but there are plants that love the wet ground.They will thrive in soil that others just won't grow in.

Examples of these are Astilbes, Some varieties of Iris, Ligularia and Primulas.

Most will die down to virtually nothing during the winter months, so need very little attention, just a tidy up and cut down the dead foliage to keep things tidy and in spring they will spring back into life and give you colour in that wet part of the garden that you thought nothing will ever grow successfully.

Astilbes give lovely colourful spikes of flower in June, July in various shades of pink , red and whites.

In the press...
St Bridget's very own marketing manager was in the local press this weekend. Check out the article for some great January gardening tips...

A shrub for winter interest
Garrya Elliptica

An evergreen shrub with dark green, leathery leaves, in the depth of winter, long grey-green catkins that can festoon the whole shrub make an interesting talking point in the garden. Useful in shade against walls, but suitable for the larger garden. The beautiful catkins are borne in late winter through early spring and if knocked will dispatch masses of pollen into the air.
This shrub will tolerate hard pruning if it gets to large so a useful shrub for the larger garden.
Available from St Bridget Nurseries garden centres