-
The Joys of June
I’ve finally come down off cloud nine after my brief appearance on Gardeners World at the beginning of the month. I think I’m now at the end of all the teasing about wanting my autograph! What strange weather we’ve been having. No wonder us Brits never stop talking about it! The coldest rainiest May followed by a super hot dry June – until now….. The flower borders are loving this hot spell especially the roses, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen looking so good As for the veg garden’s all over the place, some things doing well – like the rhubarb. All that rain followed by this warm sunshine…
-
Gardening on an Ice-Age Glacier
Garden transformation Part 14 – Soil, rocks and pebbles Before moving here I’d only had one other garden, it had beautiful black soil that your spade just sunk into, it was black gold. On moving to our new garden however, we discovered that the soil is almost 50% stone. Not only does your spade not go in, but neither does your fork! The only way to dig our soil is with a mattock or a pick. Even when you’ve loosened it, trying to get your shovel in is still a challenge as it hits numerous rocks and pebbles. After hubby breaking the wooden handles on our existing pick and my…
-
The White garden
Garden transformation Part 13 – Flowers at last! When I first started gardening, all my favourite flowers were white. Although as like many newbie gardeners, I initially relied on other gardeners giving me free plants that they had split. These were of course made up of all colours and I soon came to appreciate the importance of colour in the garden. Now I can’t imagine the garden without the areas of bright contrasting colours. I certainly wouldn’t have contemplated a white garden unless I had space for both. You get so much inspiration from other gardeners and when the late Christopher Lloyd started appearing regularly on Gardeners World from his…
-
Gardeners World, an inspiration!
What an absolute thrill to have appeared on Gardeners World, albeit very briefly. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would appear on my favourite TV programme. I’ve watched pretty much every episode for the last thirty years, back to when the late, great Geoff Hamilton was presenting, from Barnsdale. I’d just got my first garden and I knew nothing. My dad had been a very keen gardener, growing all his own veg, but sadly he’d died when I was a young teenager. Geoff took me, metaphorically by the hand, and guided me every week in his gentle, down to earth way, in the art of gardening. The…
-
Snowing in June?
Or just willow seeds floating on the breeze. Our beautiful blue sky’s last weekend have been full of drifting white clouds of what looked like snow. But with temperatures in the 20’s that would be unlikely! It’s willow tree seeds inside their fluffy white parachutes. For three days our skies have been full of it. We notice it every year, but this time there has been so much more than usual. My sister came over for lunch, and as we all sat in the garden it floated around us. Unfortunately this included landing in our food. We all commented that it looked like snow flurries, but rather than melt, it…
-
Dreaming of a pond
Garden transformation Part 12 – My first pond I’ve always felt incredibly grateful for the childhood I had. Growing up in Cheshire meant lots of ponds and ditches. There is a wonderful site Cheshire Wildlife Trust telling you all about ponds and wildlife in Cheshire. They do a lot of good work to try and protect Cheshire wildlife. I was a child that liked water very much. Even when my dad was washing his car, I’d be there trying to dam the water to stop it reaching the grid. My love of ponds really started though at primary school. When we were seven the wonderful teacher we had, was a…
-
The Fruit trees
Garden transformation Part 11 – The Fruit Trees Buying a property with a 160ft long south facing boundary, it was just asking for a wall to be built and fruit planted along it. Luckily I am a self-taught amateur bricky, married to an excellent labourer. We started building the ‘great wall’ as it’s become jokingly known, in May 2014 and it wasn’t completed until October 2016 – other priorities in our new garden, bad backs and appendicitis got in the way! Who wants to climb a ladder to pick an Apple? I love the idea of an orchard, it sounds so idyllic, but it’s only really an option if you have…
-
Greenhouse – Take two
Garden transformation Part 10 – The Greenhouses We’d both longed for a greenhouse for years, we considered building a bespoke one to fit our tiny veg patch, but by then we’d pretty much decided to move. We moved in summer 2013 and set about turning our new garden into a kitchen garden. April 2014 – Greenhouse number one In spring 2014, we ordered our very first greenhouse. This was our joint birthday present that year, and put it together with great excitement. We had planned for the food growing area to be close to the house, so we would be able to clearly see the greenhouse. With this in mind we…
-
The Holly and The Ivy
Garden transformation Part 9 – Tackling the holly hedge The 8ft high, 80ft long holly hedge, on the right hand side of the garden. Starts at the old sandstone wall by the bamboo bed, and carries on down to the walnut tree. It had got completely out of hand, in places it was at least 10ft wide and so spindly inside. November 2013 Three months after moving to our new overgrown garden, we left the other jobs and finally set about tackling the mammoth hedge. We had read that holly should not be cut until November, so we had waited – it wasn’t as if we’d got nothing else to do!…
-
Biological slug control, after a G&T
If you garden organically, then nematodes are really the only option if you want to kill slugs. Slug pellets are an absolute no no, as they are poison. They contaminate your soil and can lead to the deaths of beneficial predators of slugs like, hedgehogs, birds, frogs, or even worms. They can also cause harm to your pets. The RSPB offer advise on different methods for deterring slugs. Using Nematodes Firstly order Nemaslug, it should take two to three days to arrive. When it arrives, start by making yourself a nice Gin & Tonic. You need to have more than one to use up all of the tonic. Put the…
