Hello again and welcome to February. The soil building focus continues. So far I have not managed as much winter gardening work as I would have hoped because of the incessant rain, it isn’t good to stamp about on wet soil because it gets compacted. It is wise to think about soil as a living thing – which it is. On the few dry days I have pruned two fruit trees and redistributed soil piles made of upside-down turves, and as the…
Hello again in 2021. There is colour to be found, sparingly, in winter as the big picture shows – the brightly coloured twigs of Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’. Remember last month when I focused on getting started with building a soil? This time I am thinking about a useful second step on the same road. For me there is nothing better to counteract Lockdown ennui than building something, however small, for the future. | What benefit to be gained from a…
Plant of the month| Trees for small gardens| Below is my garden’s Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) with it’s crinkled, dark and interesting leaves that make for strong impact in a green space. I have trained it to go along the fence for some seven years or so now and not without difficulty as it is programmed to reach for the sky and grow directly upwards. I am not taken with the very dark, dense tree that would be the natural growing habit…
You Must See This | At the Allotment | As the sweet corn plants developed, seemingly healthily and robustly, first I saw one, then more and in the group I had sown of sixteen corn seeds about one-third seemed to be oddly affected. I did a bit of research. I had never worried about F1 seeds – apart from the issue that such seeds in developing countries would, by needing to be re-purchased every year, possibly put an insupportable burden on struggling…
Big picture” this month is my Geranium x oxanium ‘Wargrave Pink’. I have two areas of this easy to care for and all round excellent plant that fills the low-down areas of my garden with colour and keeps the weeds at bay although it is the only Geranium I currently have. This is an old cultivar, from around 1850, and is a real garden stalwart. I only realised just how useful it is when a couple of weeks ago, talking with a…
Hi Everyone – welcome back, first of the month and here we are again. The “big picture” this month is of a couple of roses that are just about to open from my garden – and I’ll add a few more. June is the rose month and I did plan this year to go to a rose garden and see lots more but life hasn’t gone back to normal yet – I’m still limited to supermarket, pharmacy and allotment for exercise….
Hi Everyone! I always thought that the folk saying of this month’s title referred to there being a danger from frost until the month of May had passed. Not so, the word “clout” that has been in use since the 15th century, apparently not only means a blow to the head but also used to mean clothing. This bit of folk wisdom then is telling us not to discard our winter clothes until May has passed. Wisdom indeed – after a…
Happy New Year to everyone and welcome back to the blog after the festivities. The big picture this month is of the Levens Hall topiary garden with a dusting of snow – picture courtesy of Chris Crowder and the gardening team there – more of this later. In my blog you will usually find me looking for solutions to gardening problems, both vegetable and ornamental, based on my garden and allotment plot and ten years of running a gardening…
Hello again south east London readers in this the horticultural dormant season as our year draws to a close. My focus this month will be a solution to replacing the use of chemicals in the garden plus a visit to the newly refurbished Beckenham Place Park – the Mansion house pictured above is now host to numerous activities – more about this later. All gardeners know this is the time of year when the bulk of the work is done…