The Garden
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Gardening with Cats – The Original Stars of Gardeners World
Come Outside! The first cat we had would scratch at the back door, we’d open it and he’d just stand there meowing. We’d say are you coming in or not? – because our cats obviously understand English (when it suits them). We’d shut the door and five minutes later we’d have the whole thing again. It took us quite some time to realise that he didn’t want to come in, he wanted us to come out into the garden – because we clearly don’t understand cat talk! He wasn’t really a lap-cat, but he seemed to love us being outside with him. When we were gardening, he was never far…
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Chilli Explosion
The greenhouse looks like a colourful chilli explosion, ranging from yellow, through orange to red. For years now I’ve only grown two varieties of chilli, Habareros and Jalapeño. Two years ago, I fancied a change and swapped my ‘Jalapeño’ for ‘Havana Gold’ a similar heat chilli. I can’t say I’ve been thrilled by them; they seem to go squidgy on the plant quite quickly. And they are the same colour as the hot Habanero, meaning they make the same-coloured sauce. Potentially a very dangerous situation! So, I will definitely be going back to Jalapeños next year. The garden apprentice has discovered his new favourite curry uses Naga chillies, so I…
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The Greenhouse – My Happy Place
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The Big Lavender Chop
The Lavender path along the greenhouse has had a seriously big chop this year. I’m not sure how this story is going to end, and I guess I won’t know fully until next year! To keep your lavender looking good for as long as possible, it’s really important to trim it every year. It needs to be done as soon as the flowers have gone over, this is usually early September. It’s also important to not trim it too late in the year. It needs time to put on new growth and for this soft new growth to harden up, giving it protection through the winter. The most important rule…
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Wildflowers – My New Border
It’s wonderful that wildflowers and wildflower meadows are being appreciated again, and so many people are planting a version of them in their own gardens. At the same time it’s really sad to know how many have been lost over the last few decades. Again it’s the gardeners of the country that are helping by growing these insect friendly plants again! I’ve loved wildflowers ever since walks with my auntie as a little girl, when she used to teach me the names. Even the cultivated varieties of flowers that I choose tend to be the more natural looking ones. When I was designing our garden, the vegetable growing area and…
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Food from Flowers – With help from our little friends
Have you ever stopped to notice the flowers that become our food? A lot are small, some are insignificant, but others are as beautiful and spectacular as any ornamental flowers we grow. Fortunately, however small and plain they are, the insects that pollinate them don’t miss them. They busily fly from one flower to another, getting their reward of nectar and pollen, unwittingly pollinating the plants. The big majority of our food is reliant on our busy, buzzy, little friends doing this service for us. As they pass pollen from one flower to another they fertilise the plant and so allowing it to produce seeds. As with everything in life…
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Mid-summer – Full Borders and lots to Harvest
One of the things I love about mid-summer are the flower borders full to bursting! They’re simply packed out and filled with colour. But even more importantly, it’s the most productive time in the kitchen garden. The food side of the garden is by far the most time consuming, it doesn’t stop with just growing your own food. At this time of year it’s a constant job picking the fruit and veg, then more importantly preserving the excesses that you can’t eat straight away. The Greenhouse In the greenhouse the gherkins have been going mad for a few weeks now. The best way to preserve these is to pickle them.…
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Gardening in a Heatwave – Too much Watering!
Gardening in a heatwave means gardening early and lots of watering. Watering is not my favourite job in the garden at the best of time, but especially not the amount I had to do at the beginning of last week! As we saw temperatures reach over 40C, the highest this country has ever experienced, it was a particularly big job. At it’s peak I was watering twice a day, and despite this some of the plants were still wilting in the mid-day heat. The beetroot leaves were looking like we were all feeling, wilted! I really thought the poor old Ligularia ‘Desdemona’ was done for, but amazingly she perked up…
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Growing Dahlias – Why have I never grown Dahlias before?
I think the main reason I’ve never grown dahlias before, is because they are a tender plant. Meaning, they more than likely wouldn’t survive the low temperatures out in the border. Once the foliage has all died down, you need to lift the tubers out of the ground, dry them out and put them somewhere frost free for the winter. To me this is a bit of a faff. As far as the ornamental side of the garden goes I prefer hardy perennials, bulbs, and shrubs. Things that once planted, just look after themselves. The other reason I was put off dahlias was thinking of them as a show plant.…
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Longest Day, Midsummer’s Day & Summer Solstice
As we left all of the Summer Solstice celebrations behind last week, we appear to have left the mini heatwave behind too. It has been lovely having some proper summer weather, allowing us to get outside more. As usual it broke before the weekend which is a shame for all the workers. Although as a gardener I’ve almost been doing a rain-dance, as the garden’s got drier and drier! It’s been crying out for a drink and watering had become a daily job. Even plants in the border were wilting and in need of an occasional soaking. The pond was also getting really low and as I’d put two new…
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The Madness of May!
May is the month when the garden seems to explode. Not only do new flowers appear everyday, but more appear during the day! When I go and open the greenhouse every morning, I have a mooch around. By the time I’m out there at lunchtime, more flowers have opened. The growing rate at this time of year is incredible! I keep toying with putting a time-lapse camera on the tomato plants. They seem to grow from hour to hour! The Edible Garden Crops we are already eating Breakfast has been zinged up now with the start of the rhubarb harvest. We simply stew it in it’s own juices, then eat…
