I wonder if I’m being a bit too ambitious with all of the unusual plants that I’m taking on this year? First the hanging raspberry (which has admittedly keeled over as promised but has yet to produce any fruiting fronds), and now this, a climbing strawberry. I’m trying the perennial “Mount Everest” climbing strawberry plant. […]
Read MoreOne of the problems with plugs (rather than growing herbs and plants from seed) is that even once transplanted, they are sometimes quite sparse and patchy in their new home. In my herbal vertical garden planters some of the plants, parsley and thyme for example, have really taken off and have spread wonderfully to fill […]
Read MoreHarvest has been rather sparse thus far, still just herbs. But I’m very pleased with it, being able to pop outside with herb scissors whenever I’m cooking is so satisfying. I keep on forgetting to photograph my harvest though. Will you believe me if I tell you I’ve had multiple bunches of flat parsley and […]
Read MoreWhen gardening with a toddler you’ve got to consider various factors that maybe wouldn’t apply were you just trying to grow edible food for adults. You have to consider planting as much variety as you can, planting things that all look very different so that he learns to harvest various different crops, and also what […]
Read MoreA while ago, toddler GarlicBoy and I sowed some carrot and beetroot seeds in one of our shadier raised beds. I have to admit, I have been seriously worried about them. I had to cover the seeds with a cloche tunnel because the cats kept lying on the raised bed but I think that stopped […]
Read MorePretty unimpressive before planting You know the old saying “too good to be true”? Well I think I may have fallen for the marketing hype on some raspberry plants to replace my old Raspberry canes. They claim to be trailing or tumbling canes that you can grow in hanging baskets. This makes me suspicious in the […]
Read MoreI sometimes wonder if people with an allotment or vegetable beds in their garden face the same complications that I do when it comes to deciding what to plant where. Even if I’d been growing my own plants from seed rather than cheating and didn’t have to wait for the plug plants to be shipped […]
Read MoreMy urban garden harvest so far in 2017 has mainly comprised of herbs. This is perhaps unsurprising when you consider that it’s very early April, in London and that the climate in the UK is pretty inhospitable at this point in the year. I’m actually not at all unhappy with this, as I love to […]
Read MoreYears ago I decided to install a homemade drip-feed system of soda bottles to water my pots and raised beds. But having filled the one nearest to my beloved plum tree yesterday, I noticed this morning that the water level hadn’t dropped. The culprit was the lid of the old water bottle I was using. […]
Read MoreBefore After (poor seedlings…) As predicted when I sowed seeds into my only propagator with my two year old GarlicBoy, some of the smaller ones (in this case, French Marigolds) did get spread around a bit. So given that here at Garlic Towers, we like to see hard-working seeds succeed, we had to thin them […]
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London to Land Girl 