Planting 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 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 […]
Read MoreI 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 […]
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London to Land Girl 