Inconsiderate neighbours are irritating at the best of times. We have a couple of particularly bad ones. One of them rents his house out and has let the garden become so overgrown with ivy that the weeds actually reach underneath the foundations of our house! So when I wanted to put some small raised beds […]
Read MoreWhen we put a new kitchen into our last flat, one of the things I wanted to do was to make up for the lack of a garden. So I went to IKEA, bought about ten FINTORP racks and pots and had the workmen affix them to our tile splashbacks so that I could have […]
Read MoreBefore the canes My whole garden seems bent on telling me that I’ve started everything too late this year. The learning curve here is nothing if not steep. My six main raspberry canes in my raised beds have burst into life over the last month and so I thought it was probably about time that […]
Read MoreAs it was – stuffed with plants and seedlings As I’ve mentioned before, I do think that I was a bit naive in my seed sowing. I’ve ended up with an abundance of plants, certainly far too many for my poor little city garden and mini greenhouse to handle. So once again I’ve had to […]
Read MoreThe herbs awaiting transport We recently attended a wedding with a difference, thrown by some very artistic friends. The event was to be held in the beautiful English countryside. An intimate affair with fairy lights in the trees and a vegetarian bent. The invitation read “no gifts” but the couple wanted their friends to get […]
Read MoreA typical feature of the terraced Victorian houses in London is the side return. This is the name generally given to the narrow strip of garden running along the side of the building from the kitchen to the main part of the garden. It’s generally narrow and, between you and I, more than a bit […]
Read MoreI think that I made a couple of mistakes this year in my naivete and general gung-ho enthusiasm to get the garden up and running as fast as possible. 1. I planted far too many seeds. I ordered goodness knows how many packets of seeds and therefore ended up with so many seedlings that there’s […]
Read MoreGreenhouse being built (two days of my life!) With so little space in the garden, I thought that I’d have to forgo a greenhouse, which would mean a sad lack of tomatoes. Blight is so common that I didn’t want to risk growing tomatoes outside. Most of the small greenhouses I was looking at weren’t […]
Read MoreWhen you’re as limited in space as I am, sometimes up is the only way to grow. Vertical gardening, vertical planters or “green walls” have all become very popular over the last five or six years, as urban dwellers seek to grow food regardless of the size of their plot. From planters made of old […]
Read MoreDahlia “helping” I’ve posted before about how every inch of my garden has to work hard. I’ve installed shelving for pots of squashes, courgettes and peppers (and more!) along the only wall that had space. When you can’t grow out, you grow up! But the wall was just a bit wider than the shelving I […]
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London to Land Girl 