All I want for Christmas this year is more time in the garden. Oh the pleasure that can be found in the idle pottering about of a summer evening, or the power harvesting of an autumn morning after the school run. I revert to childlike status, begging my family for “Just five more minutes” as […]
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I am known, amongst those of my close acquaintance, for occasionally over-reaching myself. I’ve always felt that if I’m going to hit a brick wall in any of my endeavours, I’ll do it at a run. Some of the time this attitude has served me well but horticulturally it’s becoming something of a problem. My […]
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We tend to focus on practical (read: food producing) parts of our smallholding when prioritising projects. But one thing I did want to do when we moved in was to fence off the back garden and paddocks from the front. This wasn’t just to make it more secure for the children and various pets that […]
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In the spirit of trying to do as much as we can around our little homestead ourselves, we had a good crack at the main flowerbeds in the front garden. This is a slight change of pace for us as we’ve focussed mainly on practical projects thus far, chicken-proofing the paddock for them to free […]
Read MoreMy tiny front garden has always been a problem, not least because it’s been paved over and used as a driveway. Parking in London is a problem, and so having our own driveway does make life much easier. I’ve planted bulbs and wildflowers in large troughs lining the driveway and finally moved the birdfeeder from […]
Read MoreI have decided to be charitable. Even though the caterpillars decimated my gooseberries and kiwi last year, I am continuing with my attempts to lure butterflies and bees to the garden. The small trellis pots that I had last year were broken by the gales that we experienced this winter and so I’ve replaced them […]
Read MoreI don’t blog much about my front garden, although I have replanted it recently (more details soon) but today I was able to snatch a couple of minutes for a quick project where the GarlicBaby agreed to play in his travel cot. The Scandis have some very good ideas, chief amongst them swaddling a baby […]
Read MoreA while back I asked our neighbour (the King Of Ivy) to please trim the Buddleia in his front garden as it was starting to invade our space and to cut out all of the light to our sitting room. I was slightly aghast to come home yesterday and find that he’d hired someone to […]
Read More…The trick? Divided areas. The GarlicCats are much loved members of the family and, as such, we’re eager for them to share our little outdoor patch behind the house. However, I don’t believe that any home is complete without cut flowers and although most of the garden is going to be devoted to edibles, it’s […]
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London to Land Girl 