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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…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 5 Spring 2021
March, April, May 2021 Who’d have thought this time last year, that twelve months on we’d be in a third National lockdown! Admittedly the second was only a mini break, but still! They always say “it’s a good job you don’t know what’s coming” and it’s true! The amazing news however, is how many people in the UK that have already been vaccinated. Something to be truly proud of. So here we are in spring again! Luckily nature and the seasons know nothing of a human pandemic and carry-on regardless. I do think most gardeners would pick spring as their favourite month, I certainly do. All the trees and plants…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 4 Winter 2020/21
December, January, February So here we are in winter, we’re now in a full blown second wave of Covid infection. With the pandemic showing no signs of abating. We’re facing another lockdown and gardening alone isn’t going to get me through this one! I guess I’m finally going to have to tackle that list of indoor jobs. Luckily the first vaccine has been given approval here in the UK, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. We all feel cautiously optimistic for next year. December is probably the quietest gardening month for me. A bit of mulching and tidying on the nicer days. Flicking through the seed…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 3 Autumn 2020
September, October, November Sadly three months after lockdown easing at the beginning of summer, the infection rates are climbing sharply. It’s hard not to fear the worst, that we are sliding headlong into a second wave. We knew the pandemic was far from over and we’d all resigned ourselves to this happening come the winter, but we certainly didn’t expect it so soon. Luckily the garden is still providing me with a refuge from all the bad news. And after such a fabulous weather year, it just carries on giving. The late flowers of the Heleniums, Asters and Rudbeckias, just to mention a few, are still providing lots of colour.…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 2 Summertime
June, July, August As the calendar clicked over into June, lockdown restrictions eased slightly. People in England were allowed to meet outside, up to a maximum of six. And here in Wales we could meet outside with one other household. This marked the point where you could see your friends and family in person again, as long as you stayed in the garden – which was fine with me! 1st June – Life in the pond So I start the summer period in the same place that I started the spring period, by the pond. This time though watching my newts. I’d been desperate for a wildlife pond for years,…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 1 Spring
March, April, May. As we progressed through March 2020, coronavirus was becoming more and more alarming. When Italy put their country into lockdown, followed by Spain, panic buying ramped up here. As everyone else clambered for toilet rolls, my biggest concern was, have I got enough compost? I knew that as long as I could garden I could cope with anything! On 23rd March 2020, Britain followed others into a nationwide lockdown. Like so many people I found myself stuck at home. I am not a keyworker and I can’t work from home. So there it was, an unspecified period of time off work, with nowhere to go. 24th March…
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Easy, Purple Sprouting Broccoli Soup
If you grow your own purple sprouting broccoli, you’ll know that once it starts producing, it can go a bit mad! With all that super flavoured broccoli you certainly don’t want it going to waste. Why not make a quick batch of soup. The soup only takes forty minutes from begging to end, with a twenty minute sit down in the middle – can’t be bad. Enjoy some for your lunch, then freeze the rest for another day. This recipe is the same as many others, it doesn’t require exact measurements. If you have more broccoli, use another onion. Purple Sprouting Broccoli – Around a dinner plate full when chopped…
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Building the raised vegetable beds
Garden transformation Part 3 – 2013-2014 In September 2013 a month after moving in, I started my garden plan. We’d already decided to build a 160ft long south facing wall (the Great Wall), which was going to set the tone for a walled kitchen garden. The centre piece was to be six brick built raised vegetable beds. I’ve never really understood why people put their veg patch as far away from the house as possible. I suppose the idea goes back to the days when you had staff to grow your vegetables and retrieve them for you. But back here in the 21st century! When you get home at night,…
