Gardening

Our aquatics section is now fully open for the summer, with a great range of fresh pond plants. These include marginals, deep water plants, water lilies and potted oxygenators.

We have also had our first delivery of pond fish for the season:
Goldfish
Sarasa Comets
Shubunkins
Albino Grass Carp
Long-nosed Sturgeon
Golden Orfe
Blue Orfe
Koi Carp

In addition our Water Gardening Shop is also fully stocked with a good range of pond pumps (including solar powered pumps), self-contained water features, filters, pond liner and underlay, fish food and much more.

The Water Gardening Shop is open every day 9am – 5pm, but if you require specialist advice on ponds please call us on 01835 830315 and ask to make an appointment with Stephen.

It’s been a very busy week with ornamental and fruit trees now in stock.

Look out for the delicious honey-scented Sarcococca, which is in flower just now and filling the air with it’s gorgeous perfume, and we also have 2 different varieties of Daphne, also smelling very sweet. Our Hamamelis (Witchhazels) are in bud and flower, and you can choose from 5 varieties – Rubin, Aphrodite, Arnold Promise, Pallida and Diane. We also have a handful of really bushy Camellias in stock, which are all bursting with buds and the promise of flamboyant flowers – Nikisi Kerin, Nuccio’s Pearl, Kick Off and Marie Williams are our current varieties.

Ornamental and Fruit Trees

With the new delivery we now have over 300 ornamental and fruit trees to choose from.

My favourites are:

• Acer tataricum Hot Wings – an very ornamental Maple with winged scarlet seeds in autumn
• Betula jaquemontii – one of the very best white stemmed birches
• Betula albosinensis China Rose – a birch with shiny copper peeling bark
• Cercidiphyllum japonicum – the Katsura tree, which has spectacular autumn foliage which smells of candyfloss
• Fagus sylvatica Midnight Feather – a weeping birch with feathery purple/black leaves
• Liquid amber – beautiful trees with Maple shaped leaves
• Malus – Crab apples. We have a choice of 10 different varieties, all with attractive autumn fruits
• Nyssa Red Rage – shiny dark green leaves that turn a fiery red in autumn
• Quince – these are the proper fruiting quinces, not the ornamental Japanese quince (Chaenomeles), and we have 3 different varieties – Meech’s Prolific, Serbian Gold, and Vranja
• Sorbus – Rowans, or Mountain Ash. 10 different varieties to choose from.

These are just my personal recommended trees – we have many more in stock, all suitable for growing in this area. They do sell quickly and it might be autumn before another batch comes in, so if you’d like anything reserving just call 01835 830315, or better still, come in and see the full range for yourself.

You can see some plant highlights on our Facebook page, by clicking here.

Are you dreaming of spring and planning for an abundant summer now that the snowdrops and aconites are brightening up the gloomy days?

It’s time to buy your vegetable seeds and we have a full range in stock, start by sowing leeks and onions now.

Why not try some new vegetable seeds for 2024 such as:

• Watercress
• Aubergine Pin Stripe (very attractive striped fruits and a compact growth habit)
• Spinach Colusa F1 (a smooth leaved spinach with high mildew resistance),
• Turnip Temari Mixed (an attractive mixture of red and white salad turnips),
• Edamame Bean Green Shell (a soya bean variety which is becoming very popular in the UK),
• Tomato Ruby Falls (deep red cocktail tomatoes),
• Tomato Honeymoon (incredible pink fruits and an explosion of flavour),
• Tomato Garnet (rich bronze fruits with good flavour).

Growing vegetables from seed is surprisingly easy, and of course very rewarding, being good for you physically and mentally. We have a good range of useful extras such as seed trays, labels and waterproof pens, and string lines to help get you started.

Green Manures

If you’re thinking about resting part of your vegetable plot (essential as crop rotation allows for nutrients to replenish) then you might want to consider sowing a green manure crop. These are plants that are grown on otherwise fallow land, and are then dug into the ground to increase nutrient content and to improve structure. Some green manures also have the advantage of producing flowers which are beneficial to pollinating insects. We have an improved range of varieties this year for you to choose from:

• Alfalfa
• Buckwheat
• Crimson Clover
• Field Beans
• Grazing Rye
• Mustard
• Phacelia (very pretty blue flowers, loved by bees)
• Trefoil
• White Clover
• Winter Tares
• Winter Mix
• Summer Mix

Sweet Peas

Sweet peas should be sown soon too and we have 28 varieties of sweet pea seeds.

We also have wildflower seeds available and 34 varieties of herb seeds.

Happy dreaming, planning and sowing.

Happy New Year to all and welcome to 2024 at Woodside Garden and Plant Centre. We have already started the changes for 2024, so have closed the Birdhouse Tearoom for a few days whilst we have a new floor put in and a redecorate completed. You will be able to see what it looks like at our Woodside Winter Warmer lunches, which start next week, at our Kailyard Lunch on 19th January or at our Burns Lunches.

With the turn of the year we always start looking forward to summer in the garden and look for those milestones that take us through the winter. January is marmalade-making time and our Seville oranges have already nearly sold out. Other early year highlights which will be in stock very soon are:

• Forced rhubarb from Yorkshire
• Seed potatoes
• Onion sets.

Those of you who are eagle-eyed might also have spotted bulbs coming up and even the first snowdrops in flower.

Big Garden Birdwatch

The Big Garden birdwatch takes place over the 26th to 28th January  – we have a good range of bird food and feeders, so you should have no problem stocking up to help the birds through the winter and enjoy watching them on your feeders.

Autumn is a good time to plant soft fruit bushes and our delivery has just arrived.

Planting conditions are perfect just now with the ground warm and moist, so why not make the most of the weather and use your time to plant soft fruit bushes? We source all our plants from a renowned Scottish grower, and always select varieties which should do well in the challenging climate that we experience here in the Scottish Borders.

Our  selection includes:
Blueberries – Blue Crop, Brigitta, Jersey and Hortblue Petite (a dwarf variety suitable for pots). Don’t forget that Blueberries enjoy acid conditions, so plant with ericaceous compost and feed with ericaceous fertiliser.

Blackberry – Merton Thornless

Blackcurrants – Ben Connan ( a very frost tolerant early variety) Ben Sarek (an early variety with compact growth suitable for smaller spaces) Ben Tirran ( a late variety) and Cassimma Black Marble ( NEW to Woodside and probably the largest fruiting blackcurrant of them all)

Redcurrant Jonkheer Van Tets – a strong growing, early cultivar with flavoursome fruits

Gooseberry Hinnonmaki Red and Hinnonmaki Green – both compact varieties suitable for pots or small spaces, and both with excellent mildew resistance

Jostaberry – a very vigorous thornless blackcurrant/ gooseberry hybrid.

Loganberry and Tayberry –  blackberry/ raspberry hybrids

Honeyberry  – Boreal Beauty, Boreal Beast and Boreal Blizzard – members of the edible honeysuckle family these tasty and nutritious fruits are very hardy and easy to grow. They do need a pollination partner though, so plant two different varieties for fruits.

Rhubarb – Traditional and reliable favourites Victoria and Glaskins Perpetual

Raspberries – three NEW potted varieties to choose from. Bundles of traditional raspberry varieties will become available later in the season

RASPBERRY Groovy 5L

A new patio raspberry that is ideal for growing in a pot on your patio – excellent as both a fruit producing producing and ornamental plant thanks to is dwarf habit and golden yellow foliage. A primocane variety which means it produces bountiful crops of large sweet red berries in the first year.

• Height & Spread: 150cm x 75cm
• Crops: July onwards

RASPBERRY Bonbonberry® Yummy® 5L

This new compact raspberry variety is exceptionally easy to grow and maintain. It is naturally dwarf, growing to just 50cm tall making it perfect for container planting on the terrace, balcony or patio. Bears bountiful crop of large sweet juicy red berries from July.  The canes are thorn-free, which makes for easy picking.  Yummy is a primocane variety which means that it bears fruit on the same years growth meaning that you’ll get fruit in the very first year!  Easy to maintain, requiring just a little prune to remove old canes once they are older than 18 months.  Plants should be planted in a patio pot 1 plant per 20 litre pot or 3 per 40 litre pot.

• Eventual height and spread: 50cm.
• Crops: July.

RASPBERRY Sweet Sunshine 5L
Sweet Sunshine’ is a breeding marvel, an extremely heavy cropping, compact, raspberry with deliciously plump and juicy fruits formed on short, thornless canes from June to August. Suitable for growing in large pots and perfect for small growing spaces and is a primocane variety

• Eventual height and spread 100cm x 50cm
• Crops: June to August

For all enquiries please pick up the phone and speak to us (or leave a message on the answerphone) on 01835 830315. Emails and messages on social media may get missed.

We are really pleased to announce the re-start of our evening meals at Woodside, which we brand as the Kailyaird.

Forthcoming dates are:
August 25th – see menu here
September 22nd
October 20th
November 17th (this will be a lunchtime to avoid you having to come out in the dark!)
December 15th – Special Festive Menu.

Unless indicated otherwise, all meals will be served at 7pm.

The menu for each will reflect the season. Once the menu is finalised it will be published as an event. Please book in advance with your menu choices by calling 01835 830315

This rain has been wonderful for our gardens, with the plants drinking it up and putting on lots of growth after a hot dry spell.

Now we have perfect planting conditions, it’s a good time to fill your garden with gorgeous hardy perennials.  We have lots of new plants this week to choose from including a beautiful selection from award-winning Howard Nurseries that have just arrived.

Here are some of my favourites – there are plenty more!
Actaea Chocoholic – this used to be called Cimicifuga and is a lovely tall dark leaved perennial with delicate looking flowers
Brunnera Dawson’s White – this is a really good variegated form, with blue flowers
Calamagrostis Karl Foerster & Overdam – two really nice varieties of grass, perfect for prairie planting schemes
Eryngium Jos Eijking – this is probably the best of the blue Sea Hollies, and is the one we grow here in our garden at Woodside and is much admired. Lovely to look at and irresistible to bees
Eupatorium Baby Joe – a compact form of Joe Pye Weed, with attractive purple flowers in late summer/autumn that are good for the butterflies
Geum Pink Petticoats & Totally Tangerine – two of the very best Geums, that have good strong colour, and flower for weeks throughout the summer.
Heleniums – fantastic late flowering perennials with daisy-like flowers, to give later interest in the garden. We have 4 varieties – Red Jewel, Wesergold, Moerheim Beauty and Short and Sassy
Persicaria – really good ground cover perennials that are easy to grow and have quite showy flowers too. We have four varieties of these – affinis Donald Lowndes, amplexicaulis Annes Choice, amplexicaulis Blackfield, and bistorta Superba
Sedum Herbstfreude – sometimes known as “Autumn Joy, this is probably the best of all the border Sedums, flowering quite late in the summer and persisting into autumn, providing a late food source for pollinating insects.

Other highlights

Look out too for packs of Lewisia and flowers for rockeries and alpine troughs, Rhodohypoxis in a variety of colours, Ophiopogon nigrescens (known as the “black grass” but not a grass at all – it’s actually a member of the lily family, and they’re just coming into flower now), Nemesias in three different colours and much, much more.

As you can tell, I’m very excited about our current range of plants and I very much recommend a visit to Woodside to fully appreciate the choice that we have. All our plants are container grown and can be planted all year round, and, as mentioned, planting conditions are now absolutely perfect with the warm weather and lovely rainfall.

Slugs

Remember that slugs like the rain too, so don’t forget to protect plants with slug pellets! We have a good range of eco-friendly slug pellets in the plant centre.

As usual, if you’d like anything reserved, to book a table in the tearoom, or have any questions, please call on 01835 830315. Emails and social media messages may go unanswered as none of us like computers – we much prefer plants!

Hopefully we’ve now seen the last of the very cold weather and our thoughts can turn to getting our garden ponds sorted out for the season.

Garden Ponds Department

Our garden pond department currently has a good stock of cold water pond fish including goldfish, comets, shubunkins, golden & blue orfe, koi, ghost koi and sturgeon, as well as a full range of fish food to keep them happy. We are getting deliveries of pond plants in weekly, including vital oxygenators, waterlilies, marginal, deepwater and bog plants. Our specialist aquatics shop is adjacent to our main plant shop and also has a good choice of pond pumps for fountains and water features, including solar powered pumps, filter boxes, pond nets, pond and fish treatments and pipe and pump fittings and accessories. We are also stockists of EPDM liner and underlay for all your pond products.

Specialist Advice and Landscaping Service

If you need specialist advice on all the technical stuff, it’s probably best to book an appointment with Stephen. If you need help building, installing, improving or maintaining your garden ponds or water feature, we now offer a landscaping service specialising in aquatics to help you out.

Please contact the shop on 01835 830315 if you would like to arrange for an estimate or to arrange an appointment at Woodside with Stephen.