Herbs are surely the easiest (and most cheer-inducing) things you can grow in a small urban space. They are so much hardier than anything else in pots and you can keep harvesting them for ages. I remember having a small tomato plant back at university. I had bought it at a market where the woman […]
Read MoreSo having sowed some more carrots to spread the harvest a little and divided up the last of my shadier raised beds, it occurred to me that I should fill the gaps and plant the last of the square foot plots I’ve marked out. I have chosen two of my favourite winter vegetables, parsnips and […]
Read MoreThe garden decked out in Easter colours ready for an egg hunt This is obviously enormously after the fact, but I was thinking the other day about all of the ways in which our garden makes us as a family happy. And one of the ways has to be how we basically use it as […]
Read MoreWay back in the mists of time (2014), I planted up my then brand new raised beds for the first time with a wide variety of expensive plants, all of which were doomed to die and be replaced within two years. All, except my Marjorie’s seedling plum tree. Since then I have loved it, I […]
Read MoreWall planters before I know that I bang on and on about having to use every last bit of space in my little garden and the truth of the matter is that it all really comes down to my desire for GarlicBoy to have some space to play. That manicured handkerchief sized bit of lawn […]
Read MoreCarrots have an inherent flaw in their space requirements. Yes, you can plant teeny “Paris market” spherical carrots, but if you want normal long rooted carrots the planting directions generally require about 30cm between the rows. So if, like me, you have a tiny urban garden with a paltry four raised beds, what are you […]
Read MorePlanting out seedlings, as long as they’re relatively robust, is something that even young children can get involved in. At two years old GarlicBoy already loves raking the soil smooth and watering it with his little watering can before using a dibbler to make holes and gently lower the seedlings inside and coving them with […]
Read MoreSetting everything out before we starts ensures the two year old is interested I always feel so brutal when I have to thin out seedlings and I really have to force myself to do it. I spur myself on with memories of the Great Garlic Failure of 2015 and try to remind myself that life […]
Read MoreEdible flowers are such beautiful and versatile food decorations. Begone, enormous nauseating piles of buttercream icing in weird colours. Never darken my doorstep again, boring shredded leaves. Shoo, silver balls, it is edible flowers from here on in. They’re also a really fun garnish to prepare. I make a traditional Simnel cake every year on […]
Read MoreI was rather surprised to see what looked like an outdoor hoover when visiting the house of a friend recently. “It is a hoover” she laughed when I asked what it was “to clean debris off the grass”. You see, she’d had that dreadful fake astroturf stuff installed and as it’s fake, things like leaves […]
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London to Land Girl 