Where do the weeks go, it's scary how little time seems to have lapsed since last week. I'm in full on project mode in the garden, sorting out the glasshouse that I used to call my propagation house. It's still essentially a sideshow to moving the tunnel but it needs doing so I have somewhere…
Author: Jim Stephens
Six on Saturday – 29/8/2020
Almost the end of August, the year seems to have slipped through my fingers. I finally got around to dragging the roll of polythene out of the attic and measuring it; nowhere near big enough to re-sheet my tunnel. Yesterday I ordered a new sheet, and hot spot tape. I may have passed the point…
So what’s your problem? (and do you even have one?)
I've been using Melcourt Sylvagrow for a good few years. I was using it as a professional grower for several years before I retired in 2014 and I've been using it at home, pretty much to the exclusion of anything else, ever since. It's a peat free growing medium based on composted wood waste and…
Continue reading ➞ So what’s your problem? (and do you even have one?)
Six on Saturday – 22/8/2020
Hmmm, I seem to be in the WordPress block editor, so the outcome, or output, is uncertain at best. I'll give it a whirl before I throw my toys out of the pram. The last couple of days, especially yesterday, have been windy, so both the garden and I are looking a bit battered. I…
DIY
I just replaced the wooden decking at the back of our house. I have been putting it off for a while, partly from a conviction that it would last a little longer and that a few dodgy patches were not grounds to replace the lot. I have also considered replacing it with a different type…
Six on Saturday – 15/8/2020
If this weather had wanted to do one redeeming thing it could actually have given us some rain, which both garden and allotment need quite badly. All the heavy stuff has contrived to miss us or to fizzle out just short of us. I'm a weather radar junkie, there has been massive rainfall all around…
Six on Saturday – 8/8/2020
The major event of the week was getting a visit from our local NGS organiser, resulting in provisional agreement that next year we will be opening for the National Garden Scheme. I'm in shock, I don't think the full implications have sunk in. There are things I've been putting off that I'm going to have…
A video for August
It's over a month since I did my Spielberg thing so I've been out with the iPhone again, trying to capture the essence of the garden as it is now. Mostly I filmed it yesterday, with grey skies and a blustery wind. Today the grey skies and blustery wind were joined by rain. An ambient…
Six on Saturday – 1/8/2020
Summer holiday season in Cornwall is always manic and I tend to hunker down and steer well clear of the busy bits. Sue was down in Looe during the week and said it was heaving. If you know where to go you can avoid the crowds completely. It's a safe bet that you could sit…
Dahlias
I grow a dozen or so named Dahlia varieties in the garden and three or four up the allotment. For the last few years I have collected seed from some of them and sowed them in March of the following year. I grow them on and plant them out on my allotment around May. They…







