The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes · The Weekending Show

Crab apples & plover

·33 min·2 clips

About 550 golden plovers and 250 lapwings were on the Aln estuary mud at high tide.

1. The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes focuses on November planting and winter bird movement. 2. Carl Steinson hosts with Tom Pattinson on garden jobs and Tom Cadwallander on bird observations, and both matter because they supply the practical tips and field reports. 3. The episode asks how bare-root planting, seasonal plants, and autumn birdlife can give a garden and a listener a better start to winter. 4. Tom Pattinson says bare-root planting suits vegetables, fruit, ornamentals, and woody hardy perennial plants with no soil on the roots. 5. He contrasts pot-grown apple trees at about £35 to £50 with bare-rooted apple trees at about £20 to £30. 6. He says bare-root roses and fruit trees should go straight into a bucket of water for several hours or overnight before planting. 7. He advises digging a hole twice the depth and twice the width of the root system and adding compost or well-rotted manure. 8. He says the compost should be watered before the plant goes in, not left on the soil where wind and air can dry the roots. 9. He recommends a mulch after planting to keep in moisture and retain winter warmth. 10. Tom Cadwallander describes an old John Downey crab apple tree that was in his garden when he moved in in 1989. 11. He says the tree had been threatened by disease and decline, yet this year it produced the best crop he has ever known. 12. He says the crab apples are tiny and red and that the tree was festooned with fruit. 13. He reports that blackbirds fed on softened crab apples on the lawn and also hung under the smallest branches to eat more. 14. He says he has seen waxwings on that tree before, and that this year’s crop left him wondering whether they would return. 15. Tom Pattinson recommends garden-centre plants such as euphorbia, cyclamen, phalaenopsis orchids, hippeastrum, and azaleas. 16. He warns that poinsettia, which he identifies as euphorbia, has a white sap that can irritate skin. 17. He explains that cyclamen can be dried off after flowering, stored, and restarted from the corm in late summer or early autumn. 18. The birding section at the Aln estuary includes about 550 golden plovers, 250 lapwings, a peregrine, and a little bunting seen along the cycle track. 19. Gardeners who like seasonal planting, winter birdwatching, and practical allotment-style advice. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly structured interview format with little birding interest.

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