Tag Archives: gardening

Grow Your Own. On Spuds and Broad Beans: Better Late than Never

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

Is the season at last starting to catch-up? If you’d asked me that a week ago, I’d have probably said yes. Now I’m not so sure, as I sit at my desk, with the south-westerly wind howling around the rafters. … Continue reading →

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Forget the Nuclear Winter: It’s a Nuclear Spring!

Posted on May 3, 2013 by

I was planning to write a nice considered blog about planting potatoes and broad beans – both jobs that I would normally do in mid- or late March – but it has been such a late season. The trouble with … Continue reading →

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At Last: Late Spring Flowers

Posted on April 27, 2013 by

Lambing has finished and yesterday we gave the last batch their protective inoculations before releasing them from the barn and out to pasture. They still have open access to the shelter of the barn, should they need it, but they … Continue reading →

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In the deep mid-spring

Posted on March 11, 2013 by

These last few days have been as cold and unpleasant as any I’ve experienced. Three days ago we had 19mm of rain, so the garden flooded. The following night it froze hard, so heaven knows what damage was done to … Continue reading →

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Grow Your Own: Part 3, Chitting Seed Potatoes

Posted on January 23, 2013 by

Outside the snow has been lying on the garden for at least a week. So yesterday I took the four-wheel-drive into the local town to buy seed potatoes. In the past I’ve bought them through catalogues, but these rarely guarantee … Continue reading →

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Grow Your Own: Part 2, Digging

Posted on December 21, 2012 by

The world of vegetable gardening is, as they say in the press ‘sharply divided’ into two schools of thought: to dig, or not to dig. I’m a life-long digger and am not about to change, unless, that is, I hurt … Continue reading →

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Creating Fort Knox, a.k.a. My Vegetable Garden

Posted on December 7, 2012 by

One morning bright and early during the winter before last, I was heading towards the barn to release the chickens, and check for eggs.  Overnight there had been a sharp frost, so I decided to take the gravel path along … Continue reading →

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Late Autumn Colour

Posted on November 23, 2012 by

God, what a boring title! It’s the sort of thing you read in bad gardening magazines and the article then tells you how to grow the plants that the nursery trade is desperately trying to get rid of before the … Continue reading →

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The Autumn Clear-Out

Posted on November 22, 2012 by

Houses have their spring cleans, gardens their autumn clear-out. Personally, I don’t go over-board  on my autumn clear-out too early, because if you dead-head everything in the borders, the poor garden birds are denied their seed larder for the winter. … Continue reading →

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Design and Country Gardens

Posted on October 19, 2012 by

Is it just me, or are modern designed gardens almost always urban in style and feel?  Some resemble stage sets more than places in the real world. Walking around the ‘gardens’ at Chelsea, I soon crave the sight of flies … Continue reading →

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