General Jobs In May 2013
Make your garden wildlife friendly May is a great month in the garden. Everything wants to grow, so it’s a perfect time for sowing seeds to attract wildlife. A garden that is wildlife friendly is an essential part of organic gardening. It can be attractive to both you, and wild creatures. There is a range of Garden Organic factsheets that can help you give your garden a wildlife ‘makeover’. See our factsheets: Flowers for the wildlife garden Shrubs and climbers for the wildlife garden Trees for the wildlife garden Ladybirds Lacewings Online access to our organic factsheets is password-restricted to Garden Organic members. Find out about becoming a Garden Organic member here You can download the complete list of factsheets with order form (PDF document - 101Kb)

General Jobs In May 2013

Make your garden wildlife friendly

May is a great month in the garden. Everything wants to grow, so it’s a perfect time for sowing seeds to attract wildlife.
A garden that is wildlife friendly is an essential part of organic gardening. It can be attractive to both you, and wild creatures. There is a range of Garden Organic factsheets that can help you give your garden a wildlife ‘makeover’.
See our factsheets:

Online access to our organic factsheets is password-restricted to Garden Organic members.

Find out about becoming a Garden Organic member here

You can download the complete list of factsheets with order form (PDF document - 101Kb)

Look after our bees!

We need bees for pollination, and they need our gardens as feeding centres. Make sure you have masses of nectar-rich, bee-friendly plants this summer. Every corner of your garden should have a little patch where bees can feed.

Learn something new at Ryton Gardens

Wildlife Weekend and Compost Awareness Week

5 May 2013 - Ryton Gardens
This is a new family event raising the awareness of how to attract wildlife i...
Event details...

AGM and Members' Day 2013

11 May 2013 - Garden Organic
The 2013 Members’ Day, incorporating the Annual General Meeting and our annua...
Event details...

How to build an Earth Oven (2 day Course)

18 May 2013 - Ryton Gardens
Would you like to bake wonderful pizzas and bread in a wood-fired oven? Do y...
Course details...

Book in advance to be sure of a place on the following courses:

Water and Energy use in the Garden

20 Jun 2013 - Ryton Gardens
Course details...

Willow Basketry for Beginners

13 Jul 2013 - Ryton Gardens
This course has been designed to guide total beginners, step by step through each stage of the basket-making process.
Course details...

Attract beneficial creatures to your garden and allotment.

Poached Egg Plant

Sunflower

Grow flowers to provide pollen and nectar for insects such as hoverflies and lacewings. They in turn will produce pest-munching larvae – a fair exchange. Below is a list of easy-to-grow annuals, which both you, and the beneficial insects, can enjoy. Grow them all over the garden or allotment - to help keep flowers, fruit and vegetables pest-free.

Buckwheat Fagopyron esculentum
Californian poppy Eschscholtzia californica
Candytuft Iberis amara
Convolvulus, annual Convolvulus tricolor
Corn chamomile Anthemis arvensis
Corn marigold Chrysanthemum segetum
Cornflower Centaurea cyanus
Dill Anethum graveolens
French marigold Tagetes patula; Tagetes signata
Golden marguerite Anthemis tinctoria
Nemophila Nemophila spp
Phacelia Phacelia tanacetifolia
Poached egg plant Limnanthes douglasii
Pot marigold Calendula officinalis
Sunflower Helianthus annuus
Sweet alyssum Lobularia maritima

You can find seed of most of these flowers in the Organic Gardening Catalogue
See our organic factsheet Attracting Beneficial Insects for more ways to entice more predators – available in the members' area of this website (requires members' password).

Strategic slug control

Slugs can be a real pest, all around the garden. They reduce leaves to shreds, munch off rows of seedlings, and nip the growing tips out of French bean seedlings and much more. They also have their uses as processors of dead material, though it is difficult to appreciate them at times.
There is no single route to successful slug control. It is best to employ a range of strategies for best results. Our Slug and Snail control factsheet offers plenty of suggestions.

Organic Gardening "Do's"

Organic Gardening DOs and DON'Ts
For more detailed guidance on what is, and isn't organic, have a browse through the Garden Organic Guidelines


Bee on marjoram	Californian Poppy	Ladybird eating aphids	Phacelia

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