My side return is, by definition, narrow. And the raised beds that I have there (filled with garlic and rhubarb) are currently performing very nicely. I have eight varieties of garlic in there, and three of rhubarb. The side return is technically south facing but it’s so narrow that the sun hits it for about […]
Read MoreWarbled (badly) to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”At first I was afraid, I was petrifiedBrought home from RHS Wisley (that plant shop outside)And then I spent all winter long, feeling sorry for myselfIn the cloche I’d hide, feeling safer there insideI took my time, I will surviveFor a while there I looked […]
Read MoreLast month I mentioned that I’ve cleverly broken my foot (to be exact, I’ve sustained a Lisfranc fracture which is a horrible thing that takes months to recover from). This has been difficult enough in terms of looking after the GarlicBaby (who is starting to crawl – eek!) but at least there we’ve been able […]
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 MoreFirst it was my poor Brown Turkey fig tree, getting completely confused because I brought it into my warm dining room. Now it’s my poor garlic. Stupid weather. There’s a lot of pity in me for my poor garden. My garlic, dutifully planted on the shortest day of last year so that it could have […]
Read MoreDahlia checking the garlic bulbs pre-planting Garlic takes a good long time to mature and so traditionally it would be planted on the shortest day to give it enough time to grow big and strong in time for harvest on the longest day of the year. And so it was that on the 21st of […]
Read MoreThe number of things that I have really not been that efficient at in the garden continues to increase. It didn’t occur to me, when planting my rows of raspberries in my raised sleeper beds, to string up a proper wire frame. This has resulted in having to tie new lines, made of string, across […]
Read MoreThe Buckingham Tayberry is a lovely and vigorous plant. I erred on the side of caution when it came to planting up my soft fruit raised beds. I wanted to plant fruit that I love to eat, that would save us money and that I know tastes better fresh. So I went for a whole […]
Read MoreThe first plant when the trouble began When I decided to grow a couple of Japanese Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) plants in my tiny city garden, I was hoping for oodles of the sweet red berries, picked fresh from the bush in August. And the plant itself seemed so pretty, with bright red, unusual and hairy […]
Read MoreWhen planning the garden, one of the things that worried me most about planting in pots was how easily they dry out, especially on hot days. It’s not good for root structures to get completely parched as the plant stems start to collapse inwards. So my initial thought was to purchase a rainwater butt and […]
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London to Land Girl 