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Outdoor Wildlife Camera
Having spent eight years creating a garden to encourage wildlife, we decided to invest in an outdoor camera. We especially wanted to see who was visiting the pond, and the night time garden…. We decided on a Toguard H200 Hunting trail camera, with night vision. It was very easy to set up, just putting the batteries and a memory card in, and we were ready to go! I started off so enthusiastically, placing it in different positions around the pond. But I was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of material it was capturing, and didn’t feel I had time to look through it all. Summer is such a busy time…
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Crop Rotation
The main purpose for crop rotation is to prevent pests and diseases from building up to the point where they cause problems. Different crops are susceptible to different pests and diseases, so by moving them around the pests and disease specific for each group die off. The added benefit is that some vegetables actually deposit nutrients into the soil, to benefit the next group to be planted there. The best example of this is the Legume family (Peas & Beans), their roots deposit nitrogen into the soil. Some family groups grow harmoniously with others, known as companion planting. This has been shown to prevent some pests and also improve the…
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Late Autumn in the Garden – The big tidy-up
Late autumn is a strange season of conflicting emotions for me. To be honest it’s my least favourite time of the year. I know we have the spectacular colourful displays from the trees, as their leaves blaze with fiery reds, golds and coppers. And when they first drop to the ground, dry and crispy, I can’t resist the temptation to run through them kicking them up in the air. But once on the ground they become soggy and slimy! I find it rather depressing as the garden starts dying back and everywhere looks a mess! But it’s necessary! We all need a rest, even the garden. I’m much happier once…
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Early Autumn in the garden – Harvests, flowers & sunshine
Still feeling like summer These days, early autumn is indistinguishable from summer. In fact we regularly have better weather in early autumn than we do in mid-summer. The only real clue to the season is the shortening day length. Initially, hardly noticeable until we head into late autumn and the time change. It was so warm in September that our al fresco eating carried on well into mid-autumn – including some breakfasts! September is the month of bounty. Back in the days when we used to go on holiday, we’d come home to courgettes transformed into giant marrows. Which resulted in stuffed marrow and marrow chutney – we do hate…
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Finally Growing Angelica ‘Gigas’
I’ve lost count of how long I’ve been trying to grow Angelica ‘Gigas’. From when I first saw a picture of one, I knew I had to have it in the garden. I love tall plants anyway, and this statues plant can grow up to two and a half metres high. With its red stems and stunning dark plum-purple domed flower heads, it was an absolute must have! Angelica is a biennial plant, meaning it doesn’t flower in its first year. It puts its roots down, ready to flower the following year. Once it has flowered it dies completely, hopefully having set seeds to create next years plants. Take One…
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Super Simple Bean Salad with Mint & Thyme dressing
If you’ve ever grown climbing beans, then you’ll know that once they start producing, there’s no stopping them! So what do you do with all those beans? Well one thing you can make with the young tender beans is this delicious, quick and easy (5-10 minutes) bean salad. You don’t have to grow your own, it works just as well with shop bought beans. Why not give it a go! It makes a tasty accompaniment to a main meal. You can also eat it on its own, especially if you add a few chopped nuts, or some cheese (feta’s good) for extra protein. And some pasta or grains. It also…
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Beans – French, Runner & Borlotti
Growing beans in a pot Beans were the second crop I ever grew, after tomatoes. I only had the tiniest little veg area, so I grew some runner beans in Grans old dolly tub. I really don’t know what she’d have made of that! Now that we’ve moved house and created a kitchen garden, with six raised vegetable beds. I grow tulips in Granny’s old dolly tub, I even managed to find a matching one at the local auction house. Space to grow more beans Now having so much more space, I grow three types of climbing beans, French, Borlotti, and the good old ‘Runner’. I grow two varieties of…
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Tomatoes – My first crop
Tomatoes were the first edible plants I grew, which I’m sure is true of many gardeners. I’ve grown them from seed for more than 20 years now and February wouldn’t feel the same without the excitement of starting the tomatoes. Losing my dad as a teenager meant I lost all of his gardening knowledge, built up over so many generations. I still feel sad for all the gardening chats we would have had, as us gardeners do like to talk about our hobby. By the time I got into my mid-twenties, the gardening bug had got a hold of me. I knew so little and was desperate to learn more.…
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Rare White Sparrow
Although our beautiful little white sparrow is not albino, as he has dark eyes not pink. He is still a rare sight, as he has complete leucism (a hypopigmentary congenital disorder), meaning there is no pigment in his feathers. It is much more common to have partial leucism, which causes patches of white, known as ‘pied’ affect. White sparrow accepted into the flock The wonderful thing is, that the rest of the flock have accepted him, which is not always the case. Plentiful Sparrows in our Garden! Living in this part of North Wales, it is hard to imagine that house sparrow numbers are sadly plummeting countrywide. We are lucky…
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Time to bring the chillies in!
When we lived at our last house, we had no greenhouse, but we were desperate to grow chillies. We decided to have a go at growing them on the window sill. There was however a slight issue. The plants looked really healthy and were growing well, we just couldn’t understand why all these flowers weren’t producing fruit. Then it dawned on us, there were no insects in the house to pollinate them! We got one of my makeup brushes, and did a gentle dust on each flower. Eureka, fruit appeared! Keeping Chilli plants over winter All the guides talk about discarding the plants at the end of the season, and…
