The weather boffins have told all the newspapers we aren’t going to get a winter this year. How can this be? It is right there on the calendar. Winter follows autumn and is that cold miserable few months that makes us long for sunny days. It just wouldn’t be the same without it. So how can this be? The boffins told the newspapers that this … Continue reading What? No winter?
And I wasn’t ready for it. I had my eye out for it, as everywhere south of us had snow. We never get snow, but I don’t know if I should be happy about this or not. I’ve never had the opportunity to build a snowman in my back yard and it seems like it would be a fun thing to do. The boffins had … Continue reading It can’t be a frost outside, winter is still three days away!
Early last spring I picked up some raw shelled peanuts from the baking section. I’d done it before so I was kind of excited. I wasn’t going to bake with them, I was going to grow them. I love growing peanuts, because they are such a fabulous talking point in my garden. Visitors are often quite astonished that not only, this is how they grow, … Continue reading I grew peanuts! How cool is that?
We have just one week before the unavoidable happens. We slip into ‘that’ season. The one where nothing much grows. It is so easy to sit back and do nothing and let this season wash over like some kind of horticultural hibernation. But where we are, we are blessed enough for mild weather. Having said that mild can still be cold. Well, cold for us. … Continue reading Winter can be deceptive
I have been kidding myself with the misguided theory that so long as there are tomatoes in the garden then there is still a claim to summer. But the tomatoes have been a little manky of late, so I pulled them out. You can watch this incredibly sad occasion here: Come again soon – I’ve been doing some thinking, mostly because it is too cold … Continue reading It’s not tomato weather anymore
My latest big thing is cover crops. In the past I was a fair weather gardener and once I got tired of zucchini or picking tomatoes became a hassle I would just stop gardening and walk away. Although to give myself a bit of credit here the crops had entered the end of season manky stage where they were lacking the same degree of quality … Continue reading How do you dig in your cover crops?
I’m not a great florist, largely due to the fact I’m a terrible flower grower. My flower garden experiment this year has been ‘interesting’ for want of a flattering word that doesn’t exaggerate too much. The three biggest flaws in my plans were: I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. The difference between growing flowers and growing vegetables is like speaking … Continue reading Did you know carrot tops were once the height of fashion?
This is such a fun project and great to get the kids involved and wonderful if you don’t have a lot of space and don’t mind a bit of shabby chic when growing your food. This could be the new black – growing food in a sack! This Mother’s Day among all the indulgent gifts, burnt toast and warm tea, spare a thought for some … Continue reading How and why you should grow a Gunny Sack Garden
