B Brooks is the Managing Director and a Course Director at the English Gardening School, based at London’s Chelsea Physic Garden. Former students include Cleve West, Butter Wakefield, Rachel de Thame, Joe Swift and Manoj Malde, and the list goes on! Like many eminent gardeners, B's career began in a completely different field, and she began her transition to gardening 15 years ago at the English Gardening School. In this episode, Dan & Julia find out why B made the change and how she became one of the most prominent figures in garden design. Listen for advice on how to design your own garden, and elevate your gardening skills to a new level.

Jobs for the fortnight

1. Bring forced bulbs into warm, bright light to encourage flowering over Christmas and New Year.
2. Plant garlic this month; you need a cold snap to force the cloves to divide and grow.
3. Clean, sharpen and oil tools ready for the seasons ahead. Use white vinegar to remove surface rust; if that doesn’t remove it all, use a Crean Mate rust and sap eraser.
4. Don’t walk on lawns if they are frozen; you will snap the blades and cause damage. Wait for the temperature to rise before stepping out.
5. Continue to prune apples and pears. Use attractive prunings in Christmas arrangements to produce support for other flowers.
6. Make festive decorations and gather pine cones, etc., for the Christmas table. Pine cones can be encouraged to open by warming them gently in an oven.
7. Keep houseplants in a light, warm room; hold off on watering too much, and stop feeding until spring. Watch out for aphids, which can spread like wildfire in the right conditions.
8. If you are bringing a cut Christmas tree into the house, make sure you keep the base of the trunk in water.
9. Try to stop pond water from freezing by floating a ball in the water. Whatever you do, don’t attempt to break the ice manually as the impact can disturb pond life.
10. Prune grape vines, remove last year’s growth, leaving approximately 4 of the most vigorous canes, then prune these back to 15 buds per cane. Vines benefit from a hard cut. Using anvil secateurs will make this repetitive job much more bearable.

Website links:

• Dan Cooper Garden
• Dan's advice on choosing a real Christmas tree
• Parker's Patch
• The English Gardening School
• BB Garden Design

Expertly produced by Scott Kennett at Red Lighthouse Local

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