With the countdown clock showing only 49 days, the 2010 RHS Chelsea Flower Show is rapidly approaching – and Harrod Horticultural will be there to give our customers and other interested parties a chance to see our products, including a fruit cage, timber raised beds and Sneeboer tools, live and close up!

All roads lead to the Royal Hospital in Chelsea on Tuesday May 25th as the 88th RHS Chelsea Flower Show to be held at that prestigious venue kicks off in earnest. We’ve secured a prime location at 38 Pavilion Way, right alongside the huge, white, main pavilion, and we’re hard at work right now creating a stand and display to be proud of.

Included in our design is a Decorative Heavy Duty Steel Fruit Cage, which originally made its public debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show back in 2007; examples of our FSC accredited timber raised beds (allotment, standard and superior versions will all be on show) and some brand new, exclusive Sneeboer tools will also be launched at the show.

We’ve also got some experts on hand to give you the very best garden advice from their chosen field. No one knows more about Sneeboer tools than the man who makes them, and Jaap Sneeboer – the third generation of the Dutch family to run the business first established by his grandfather – will be on hand to discuss new additions to the range along with existing designs.

You can also quiz garden pest control expert Julian Ives on what’s been munching your marigolds, chomping your cabbages and tasting your tomatoes and he’ll guide you through the new Natural Choice range of organic pest control products at the same time.

Our customers tell us they enjoy being able to touch, feel and really appreciate the work which goes into many of our products and we’ll have the new Manger Raised Bed Planters, Raised Bed Tables and a Ladder Vegetable Garden – amongst others - for you to admire at close quarters.

Don’t delay though – tickets are already moving fast with one day already a complete sell-out! You can purchase tickets from the RHS online and don’t forget – fight your way through the crowds and make 38 Pavilion Way your first port of call!

You might already be aware that garden pest control expert Julian Ives has teamed up with us to help launch our Natural Choice range of organic garden pest control products and solutions – I’d imagine it’s the topic of conversation down at the allotments – but you might not know of the expert help he can offer you at the click of a button.

With his impressive background in commercial biological pest control, Julian is the man to answer all those garden pest control questions and queries which are causing furrowed brows in kitchen gardens and vegetable plots across the country, and he’s already put his extensive knowledge to good use as our example below shows.


Sent in by Sue Tindal, it concerns the problems she’s having with an unknown pest that’s got a taste for one of her bay trees.

Sue writes;
I wonder if you could identify the pest that is eating one of the two bay trees next to my front door. On one of them the leaves have big chunks eaten. Back in the summer I noticed the odd leaf curled up and once I saw a rather large insect I don't normally see on it. The other tree is 2m away and fine. They are both about 8 years old and potted. I feed them each summer with a slow release feed. Lots of leaves are affected and I'm picking the worst off as it’s unsightly.

Bit of a tricky one for most of us, but not Julian! Here’s his reply;
This could be one of the following two;
Tortrix Moth: this moth lays eggs that develop into caterpillars that wrap leaves around themselves. The caterpillars eat large irregular holes in leaves. If it is Tortrix moth, it can be difficult to treat as the leaf wrapped around the caterpillar gives it some protection from sprays. If you can get to the caterpillar (which won’t be there at this of year) try the Insect Killer Spray containing Pyrethrum. The other option is to pick off the leaves with caterpillars in them.
Vine Weevil: if the damage on the leaves is along the edges of the leaf in a half mooned shape, this is vine weevil damage. Did you see a black beetle like insect? The adults eat the leaves, the larvae eat the roots. Treat the compost in the pots with Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer Nematodes in the spring. They are watered into the compost and will kill the vine weevil larvae.

We’ll be featuring further questions and expert replies from Julian at regular intervals – and who knows, the next one could be from you!

Planting organic seed potatoes and harvesting armfuls of delicious fresh tubers is often the route into gardening and home vegetable growing in particular for many novice gardeners – and although we’ve got a bit more experience than that, we still enjoy the anticipation of digging up a real bumper yield of spuds!

So what is it that makes growing seed potatoes so accessible? For a start, you don’t need a vegetable plot. You don’t need an allotment. In fact, you don’t even need a garden as potatoes can be grown in a plethora of planting bags ,tubs and containers in the smallest space imaginable! Patios, balconies, courtyards, roof terraces – they can all easily support a potato planting bag or three! Ok, so yields from a potato planting bag aren’t likely to challenge those you’d expect from a vegetable plot or allotment but you’ll still be pleasantly surprised at the amount of spuds you can get from 3 or 5 seed potatoes – the average amount you can plant in a bag, tub or container.

Growing potatoes is cost effective too. Organic seed potato tubers cost next to nothing and as we’ve already discovered, a little goes a long way. The same can be said of Potato Planting Bags, Spud Tubs, Airpot Potato Towers and Potato Barrels and don’t forget, these containers will last years so are a sound investment.

Actually growing the seed potatoes isn’t exactly rocket science either and if you’re using planting bags or containers, you’ve got even more control over your crop. Early plantings can be started off in a greenhouse or under cover for a welcome head start on open ground crops and as long as you give the swelling spuds plenty of water, earth up regularly and provide them with a good splash of potato fertiliser, they’re odds-on to reward you well!

So now you appetite’s been well and truly whetted, where can you get hold of your seed potatoes and planting bags? We can help with that; as we said before, we’ve got a bit of gardening experience behind us and that’s why we’ve put together - in one place - all the stuff you’ll need to grow your own seed potatoes. Our Organic Seed Potatoes and Planting Bags Offer is going down a real storm; consisting of 15 organic seed potato tubers and three durable and hard-wearing potato planting bags, it’s the best way we can think of to get into potato growing and vegetable gardening in general.

We even provide planting, growing and harvesting instructions (downloadable PDF version, 0.5MB) and have experts on hand in the unlikely event of things going wrong!

And when you discover we’ve got specially formulated potato fertiliser and more watering devices you can shake a stick at, there’s really only one place to shop for your spuds!

Often regarded as the ornamental flower garden, kitchen garden or vegetable patch nerve centre, the greenhouse can easily get cluttered, disorganised and generally become a mess without the provision of greenhouse staging – and that kind of chaos is bad news for gardeners but good news for pests!

Greenhouse staging gives you the space – both storage and growing – to keep the greenhouse in a tidy and ordered state; and a clean, organised greenhouse is not the kind of place the vast majority of garden pests will want to hang out. But before you invest in a set of greenhouse staging, how do you know it’s going to do the job?

Horror stories of greenhouse staging collapsing or leaning over precariously, Tower of Pisa-like, when stocked full of seedlings and equipment abound at allotments and kitchen gardens across the country. There are plenty of weak, poorly designed and manufactured low budget greenhouse staging units on the market but if you want to avoid a costly staging-based disaster then there’s only one place to shop!

We’ve spent a great deal of time researching the greenhouse staging market, and about the same duration in thoroughly testing our design. Our greenhouse staging has been put through its paces at Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden and although our customers were more than satisfied with the build quality and strength of our staging units, there was one outstanding question we still hadn’t answered – what weight will it hold?

Perhaps it’s not key to a successful unit – our customers would probably place strength, value for money, rigidity and ease of assembly above load-bearing on any staging attribute tick list – we thought we’d find out, and the result of our testing was amazing!

We plucked one of our two-tier, 173cm (5’8”) greenhouse staging units off the shelf, put it together and started to load it up with bags of compost. Two bags per module (the 173cm long unit consists of three modules) became three, then the lower tier came into play until finally...we ran out of compost! But that’s not before we calculated that each module was supporting a heavyweight 77kg of compost, far in excess of any ‘normal’ greenhouse load.

When you admire this impressive feat of staging strength, and throw in the other high specification details below, it’s not hard to understand that we’re justifiably proud of our greenhouse staging – and, as we said, if you want an incredibly strong yet lightweight, durable, anti-corrosive, reassuringly rigid, top quality staging unit for your greenhouse, then you’ve come to the right place!

Here are those vital greenhouse staging statistics;
* Available in single tier, two tier and three tier versions
* Designed and manufactured in house
* Constructed from 1.6mm gauge aluminium
* 10 year framework guarantee
* Complete with extra thick top level bracing for increased rigidity
* Supplied with 25mm deep, double folded and safety edged aluminium trays
* Available in a wide range of lengths and widths

Want more info? Visit our greenhouse staging product pages and feel the quality!

It’s not just gardeners who venture out to the allotment, kitchen garden or vegetable plot when the weather warms up; there’s a crowd of undesirable garden pests who awaken from their winter slumber and they’re in a hungry mood!

You’ll find slug eggs are hatching, the warmth in the greenhouse is enticing out red spider mites and aphids are beginning to wing their way in from winter host plants – and they’ve all got a taste for the seedlings and young plants you’ve been carefully nurturing.

There’s no denying that spring is arguably the busiest time down at the allotment or in the kitchen garden and vegetable patch so it’s hardly surprising that you take your eye off the pest control ball briefly. Problem is, that could lead to all sorts of problems should pests manage to get a foothold in the garden or greenhouse - never has the ‘prevention is better than cure' phrase rang truer – so a little reminder of what you could and should be doing in the garden pest-wise would be priceless.

And that’s where we come in! Our new pest control expert Julian Ives has been instrumental in producing a monthly programme of garden pest control advice, delivered straight to your inbox! The e-newsletters are packed full of information on the pests you can expect to drop in to visit, which organic pest control solutions from our Natural Choice range are ,most appropriate and even advice on netting and fleece crop protection measures. As the information will arrive with you each month, you can be sure it’s bang up to date and relevant to what’s happening, pest-wise, in your garden right now!

You can see a taster of a previous monthly pest buster e-newsletter above and if you’d like to receive a copy regularly – and don’t forget you can unsubscribe at any time at the press of a button – just click here.

Hot on the heels of our announcement that pest control guru Julian Ives has joined the Harrod Horticultural team is the publication of a little book which is sure to get plenty of use in the kitchen garden, down at the allotment and in the vegetable patch this season – our Little Book of Pests.


Dubbed ‘the little book that’s a big help’, the 24-page guide features all the common garden pests you’re likely to encounter, what damage they can cause to your plants and most importantly, which one of our Natural Choice pest control products will prove most effective.

The pest guide – already a favourite with many of our customers – is almost a complete A-Z of the most likely garden pests you’ll encounter as it covers Aphids right through to Whitefly, throws light on the subject of biological pest control and explains which organic pest control solution is best suited to each season.

Julian’s been heavily involved with the production of the invaluable ‘Little Book of Pests’ and the introduction of our Natural Choice range has enabled many gardeners to take early preventative action against the inevitable pest invasions.

How do you get your hands on a copy? You can go for the quick option and download a version of the Little Book of Pests (downloadable PDF version file size 2.65MB) or if you’d like us to post you a copy – and we’re sure you’ll find a place for it in your potting or allotment shed – just click on the image below.

You can’t over-estimate what a major garden problem slugs are and for years, gardeners have tried all sorts of tricks, traps and techniques to protect their plants from these premier league pests – and now, in the shape of Nemaslug Slug Killer, they may have found the answer...

It’s all thanks to a microscopic worm – or nematode – which goes by the name of phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita and has an unhealthy fascination for all things slug. These allies of the gardener are present naturally in the soil and do their fair share of slug killing under normal conditions, but when you apply the millions more contained in a pack of Nemaslug, it’s like unleashing a party of kids into McDonalds – and a hungry party at that!

Applying Nemaslug couldn’t be easier and if you garden on a large scale or just don’t have the time for anything too complicated, you’ve come to the right place. Nemaslug is simply mixed up in a watering can and watered onto your allotment, raised beds and border soil (a coarse rose gives the best results), preferably on a dull, overcast day with little wind. Keep the soil moist beforehand and for up to a fortnight after application, don’t use until the soil temperature is in excess of 5ºC (typically from March to November) and that’s just about you done – now the only thing left to do is let nature take its course!

The nematodes will actively seek out the slugs in the soil – and this is where things get a bit gory so you might want to skip this bit – enter their body through any cavity or pore opening and spread a bacterium which stops the slug from feeding. Not surprisingly, the slug doesn’t last long without food and dies under the soil – no messy emptying of traps or collecting carcasses with Nemaslug – and the nematodes breed inside the dead slug, releasing millions more hungry worms with the same thing on their mind.

You can expect six weeks of peace once Nemaslug Slug Killer has been applied; this is length of time the nematodes feed for before their numbers die back to the original status quo, but Nemaslug repeat treatments at six-weekly intervals will give you almost total slug control and a garden to be proud of!

Let’s recap; Nemaslug Slug Killer is natural, it’s easy to apply, can be used from spring right through to autumn and you don’t have to go around picking up dead slugs. Are there any drawbacks? Well, no not really, as you can add the following qualities to the burgeoning Nemaslug CV;
• Totally organic
• Harmless to children, pets wildlife and the gardener
• Impossible to overdose
• Plants can be harvested, washed and eaten minutes after application
• No poisonous chemicals passed on through food chain
• Can be applied to larger beds and borders with a hosepipe feeder

And there you have it! Finally, it’s just possible gardeners may have found a way to knock slugs of the top of the RHS Annual Garden Pest List – and it’s all thanks to Nemaslug Slug Killer!

Fruit Cages are proving to be very popular additions to the garden as grow your fruit and vegetable enthusiasts come round to the idea that you can actually harvest some of the crops you grow if you protect them from birds and other pests with a taste for something sweet in the garden.

We've got a great viewpoint on this increase in popularity as we both design and manufacture fruit and vegetable cages; from the smallest ground-hugging strawberry cage right up to the most ornate decorative walk-in fruit cage, as used at the RHS gardens in Wisley, no less.

But it's not only the framework we supply; oh no, we can provide and offer advice on a huge range of netting with which to cover your cage - from the finest grade insect mesh netting which excludes even the smallest of beetles, right up to an 8cm (3") square anti-pigeon mesh for airborne winter raids.

Which brings me nicely onto winter, and the relationship between fruit cages and snowfall. These two have never been the best of friends and the recent heavy snow which blanketed the country (with the exception of the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, to the disappointment of many children!) has brought home just how much of a problem snow can be.

Below, you'll find a couple of pictures which aptly illustrate the varying strength of our cages. We've featured a walk-in decorative cage - designed to withstand snowfall and doing just that - and a vegetable cage, which really should be taken down and stored for the winter and at the very least the roof netting should have been removed.

We're always offering winter advice along the lines of remove your roof netting from your cage and leave it open. The recent exceptional snowfall has brought home the importance of removing the netting as even our anti-pigeon netting - which until now has been well capable of allowing snow to fall through - struggled with the sheer volume of 2009/2010 white stuff.

But onto those images we promised. Firstly, a decorative steel fruit cage of the walk-in variety - courtesy of Clare Bevan - located in deepest Surrey. These cages are designed to withstand snowfall due in the main to their sweeping rooflines and incredibly strong steel framework, as you can see...

And then, thanks to Molly Stewart, the Build-a-Ball vegetable cage - covered with 7mm butterfly netting, which should really be tucked up in a shed somewhere and not braving the winter wastelands of Gloucestershire - again, as you can see...

I'm sure you'll agree these dramatic images certainly demonstrate the difference between the durability of fruit cages and we're indebted to both Clare and Molly for providing us with these pictures.

We're also sure that he recent cold snap gave rise to plenty of other wintery photographic opportunities in the garden and we'd love to see your images; mail them to me and I'll set up a gallery!