Growing Potatoes: 'Earthing Up'

In a previous blog we encouraged you to try 'chitting' - how are you getting on?  Here's how the official Haxnicks potato planter is doing - not bad, but we are sure you can do better, especially with this next piece of advice:

Tip: 'Earthing Up'
In terms of your Haxnicks Potato Patio Planter - this is the process of adding more soil around the stems of your potato plant to encourage the plants to produce more tubers.  Simply keep adding compost as the plants grow!

If you would like to win £100 and other Haxnicks goodies simply by growing potatoes - check out our Great Potato Gold Rush Competition.

Learn more about using Potato Patio Planters here

Don't forget to keep watering your Potatoes and let us know how you get on!

Grow Cucumbers in your own back yard!

In this months Gardener's World Magazine, there were a few of our products used in an article on outdoor cucumber growing.

Did you spot our aqua coloured Pots Naturally and fleece Easy Tunnel? 

Here are some more products to help you with your cucumber growing, whether sowing/planting outdoors, along the ground as suggested in GW, or climbing varieties inside the greenhouse...

GROWING OUTSIDE (trailing varieties): 


Victorian Bell Cloche

These fantastic plastic cloches are perfect for plants that belong to the plant family Cucurbitaceae, (which includes cucumbers, squashes and melons.) as they thrive in humid conditions.  The cloches make sure the young plants are protected from frost, and the ventilation shaft at the top helps prevent wilting/scorching.  Beware of using these in summer, as it may become too hot - use Net Easy Tunnels in order to provide shade and protection from hungry garden visitors.

GROWING INSIDE (climbing varieties):

3 and 6 Cane Patio Planters

Used with bamboo canes and CaneToppers, these planters are fantastic for tender climbing Curcurbits, and easy to move.  Use either long or short bamboo canes, depending on the height you wish your climbing cucumbers to reach.

Tomato Patio Planter

Our Tomato Patio Planters (in red, left) come with an attractive metal frame that allows tomatoes and cucumbers to grow within the structure giving continuous support throughout the plants life. TIP: Grow your climbing vegetables to the top of the growing frame and then cut off the tip, allowing the plant to concentrate it's efforts within the frame, giving you a bushier plant.

Soft Tie 

This ingenious invention can be used for many things - in this case, Soft Tie can be used to secure the stems of your cucumbers up vertical supports (such as bamboo).    The wire inside is coated in rubber - it's tough but won't damage your plants and so is ideal for securing the plant as it grows.

Good luck - and please send us your pictures of your cucumbers growing in Haxnicks products, we would love to see them and will post them up on this web site for all to see!

Dave Chappell & Haxnicks at the Lakeside Garden Centre

Robbie Cumming, Marketing/PR writes:

Spending the day at Lakeside in Warminster was invaluable to me and hopefully for some of the customers I spoke to.  The day started fairly slowly, but by the end I had a non-stop flow of families stopping by my Potato Patio Planter demonstration and asking all kinds of questions!

Luckily, Champion Grower, RHS Gold Medallist and past Gardener's World presenter Dave 'Taffy Tatties' Chappell was on hand to help!

Mr Chappell about to be showered in praise and/or compost from Robbie's Planter!

Mr Chappell is quite a character as some of you will know.  He travels the width and breadth of the country giving talks about growing and showing spuds, whilst entertaining everyone with his awful jokes.  I can say this as I know he won't be reading our blog, preferring the written letter to 'anti-social nit-twerping'!  So please, no one tell him!

If you would like to visit Lakeside Garden Centre (they do a cracking bacon and brie panini) you'll find them on the A350 just outside of Crockerton near Warminster in Wiltshire.  Call on 01985 217 413 for more information.

If you would like to contact Dave Chappell and perhaps invite him to your garden centre, school or gardening club you can call him on 01291 420 048.  Or why not write to him : Mr D Chappell, Taffy Tattie, 42 Caldicot Road, Rogiet NP26 3SE.  I don't think he has a Facebook page or Twitter account though!

Haxnicks Long Fruit Cage

Amateur Gardening Magazine is a definite Haxnicks' fave with all of us here, and with offices in Poole, Dorset - not too far away either.
However, we had a real shock when leafing through a recent issue...

Gardening editor Kris Collins with our fruit cage sawn in half!!

Ok, on closer inspection, we noticed that he hadn't butchered our beloved long fruit cage, only created a brand new 6m one from the 3m long original!  Our cages are incredibly versatile, lightweight and easy to manipulate, and Kris has proved this brilliantly.


So that made us think - what can you make with yours?  Read the instructions that are included for ideas, and then send in photos of your creations.  You're guaranteed to appear in our customer's photos album, and you may even win a prize!


Send images to lovetogrow@haxnicks.co.uk

Bamboo Fruit Cages available now in most garden centres and online!

Growing Strawberries with Pippa Greenwood and a Kitchen Garden Cloche

Pippa's done it again and we can't thank her enough... in her segment 'Pippa's Growing Tips' in Gardeners World Magazine theres a lovely photo not of Madeleine Cardozo (author of Down to Earth) this time, but of Pippa herself with a Haxnicks Kitchen Garden Cloche.

Now we're not saying this is the only possible cloche available to help protect young fruit and vegetable plants in the garden, but it is convenient with an elegant handle.  Also Pippa does note that Fleece or Cloches can be used and we assume that to mean Tunnels - of which we have plenty!

We recommend you visit Pippa Greenwood's website for dozens of tips and tricks about grow your own veg.  Her Books, Blog, Articles and even the Ask Pippa service are all listed here - please do take a look - http://www.pippagreenwood.com.

Recently Haxnicks have had some excellent coverage in the press and we hope you the customers are able to get the results you want, we're always delighted to hear your successes and failures (not too many we hope).

Remember, if your local garden centre doesn't stock the items featured, visit our shop to order online, or call 0845 241 1555 to speak to one of the members of our friendly sales team.

Lila Das Gupta - Using Rootrainers for Runner Beans

It was only a small segment - but it meant a lot to us.  When we see our products in one of Britains most popular and trusted Garden Magazines we do feel we must be getting something right.

In the March Issue of BBC Gardeners World Magazine (also it's 20th Anniversary Edition), Haxnicks were mentions for Pots Naturally - our biodegradable pots, Victorian Bell Cloches (Helen Riches' article), Kitchen Garden Cloche (Pippa Greenwood's Growing Tips) and Rootrainers.

The 'Step by Step' segment was about sowing Runner Beans and although you can usually just plant Runner Beans in ordinary pots, Lila recommended using Deep Rootrainers because these have the added benefit of encouraging the roots to grow downwards. We would note they also allow extremely easy planting out as the book like Rootrainers can be opened and the plug removed without damage to the roots - something that cannot be said for ordinary cell trays.

Here is the article in full, click to enlarge, or read more of Lila Das Gupta's articles online.

Most Garden Centres stock Haxnicks Rootrainers and a we have a list of stockists available, alternatively you can buy online.  However, we appreciate your feedback - have Rootrainers helped you?  Do they make a difference?  Let us know and leave us a comment, and why not send a picture of your results - we have a seperate section for customer's photographs - click here to see them.

Biodegradeable Bamboo and Rice pots!

It seemed to us when Gardens World Magazine thought what shall we write about? they thought of Haxnicks.  Okay that's not entirely true... but out of 200 pages no less than 4 of our products were brilliantly featured.  I think that means you'll be reading about Haxnicks every 50 pages!

Our Pots Naturally are very popular with the Gardeners World team due to their being made from biodegradable Bamboo and all round eco-friendliness.

The Bamboo pulp and rice husks used last about 2 or 3 years, depending on their use, they can be added to your compost heap at the end of their life where they will completely breakdown after about 6 months.

Interestingly enough Which? Gardening Magazine tested our Pots Naturally range amongst a host of other and revealed that they did indeed live up to our claims.

So thank you Gardeners World Magazine - we recommend you do subscribe to this fine publication that likes to talk about Haxnicks and if you want us to pass any feedback directly to Gardeners World Magazine let us know and write a comment.