Ahh, Christmas, or as the P.C. brigade would have it, winter festival, is upon us again. The season when it is too cold and too dark to go outside so instead of sitting in watching Top Gear repeats and making excuses for not playing football with the
Autumn brings some wonderful imagery with the early morning half light and the sugar frosting on the fading leaves of our native trees and shrubs. On the plot, autumn fruiting raspberries with their ruby coloured berries and the softening yellow of the
It struck me rather suddenly the other morning, whilst picking through soil on my plot for weeds.I was half listening to a radio programme whilst pulling tough grass roots from an overgrown bed when it sank into my subconscious.I, as probably many others,
Everything is starting to look barren now as crops are harvested and beds cleared ready for overwintering. Some will spend the next few months under a blanket composted manure, some will be sown with green manure and some left to gather weeds or hold
As the productivity on the plot slows to almost a full stop, we can take the time to look a bit beyond the daily or weekly dirty fingers work and do some digging of the cerebral kind.I have been clearing the ground, emptying beds and composting the remaining
As the days grow ever darker and the sun becomes a stranger and the rain beats harder on the old shed roof, I have to make some hard decisions.
Don’t panic, but I have some team selection news. The broad beans will be cut back and the French beans increased
Time will soon come to think about putting the garden to bed and plan for next spring. There is still much to do before we can rest though. Overwintering crops, such as Spring Cabbage and Parsnips, will need to be checked for damage before the cold wet
It's foraging time, hedgerow season and the start of the real bramble frenzy. When you wander country lanes that rarely see a foot for eleven months of the year, armed with hooked walking stick and Tupperware box( other airtight plastic containers are
They say things go round in cycles.What goes around comes around and if you stand and wait long enough, flares will be fashionable again.Well, I don't know who ' they ' are or why they like cycling in flares, considering the risks of chain and denim incidents,
The summer has had its share of critics again this year, mainly due to the short periods of sun before the rains came to spoil the sunbathers fun. For the gardener, it has been almost perfect though. Prolonged dry hot weather puts a strain on the roots
Well, I'd probably estimated at about eight really. Who, what and where's the remote control I hear you cry. I am talking about my three sisters bed.That idea I touched on some months ago which is inspired by the Iroquois Indians. I planted out my sweetcorn,
The garden should be a festival of colour right now,with blooms of every shade overflowing from beds,borders and hanging baskets. I say should as nature can be fickle and by the time this goes to press we could be in a new ice age or hiding indoors for
It has been a bit of an eventful couple of weeks,not only for me but also for the garden.
My responsibilities as a father and as a businessman have corresponded with my local business support work resulting in more evenings away than home.
Normally,
There has never been a better time
to make the change and start to grow your own. There is a global groundswell
turning lawns into vegetable beds and borders into fruit cages. This is not like
the self sufficiency fad that came from the popularity
There have been widespread floods across the south west this last fortnight. I mention that not because I like reporting the weather but simply because it’s been frustratingly hard to spot the evidence of any water falling in my locality.
I had promised