Back in my nursery days one question more than most made me pause to collect my thoughts before answering. What can I grow in a pot? They were surrounded by about 100,000 plants in perhaps 3500 varieties, all in pots. What I have come to realise is that for at least some of those people…
Six on Saturday – 21/7/2018
I spent many years working on a retail nursery where plants exchanging hands for money was pretty much what life was all about. Times have changed and this week was a classic example of a rather different way of doing things. On Wednesday I was at Trewithen Garden for an away day organised by the…
Six on Saturday – 14/7/2018
Growing your own food is very satisfying, eating it even more so. When you can pile a plate with salad, accompanied by a baked spud, nine different crops in total and all harvested that day from your own garden or allotment, then follow it with blueberries and raspberries, well that is hard to beat. This is…
Six on Saturday – 7/7/2018
The hot weather continues and the ordeal of keeping everything watered with it. There's lots happening and I keep changing my mind about what to include and what to leave out. My first tomatoes made it to the plate but not into the six. I nearly included a clematis but changed my mind. Improbably I…
Thoughts from two hours of shelling peas.
Water and the lack of it will be of concern to all gardeners while this hot weather continues. I’ve seen a couple of myths trotted out already and I haven’t really been looking. Water droplets on foliage do not act as a lens causing scorching. This is nonsense and can be safely ignored. Not that…
Continue reading ➞ Thoughts from two hours of shelling peas.
Six on Saturday – 30/6/2018
We chucked a few plants in the car this morning and did a car boot sale. £60 for a couple of hours seemed Ok. Might do that again. We've trying growing fewer plants and that didn't work. Great as it is to have lots of overseas contributors to this meme, it does have a down-side.…
Watering plants in pots.
You can't say it's not topical. I just potted on some of my tomatoes from 10 litre pots into 20’s. I should probably have done all of them, but I thought if I did alternate plants, then stopped the ones in the smaller pots while letting the others grow on, it should even itself out.…
Six on Saturday – 23/6/2018
There have been times when finding six things was a challenge; this week twenty six would be inadequate. What to put in, what to leave out; that is the question. One. Astelia chathamica. Aka Astelia 'Silver Spear'. This is a large plant in a prominent position that has come through at least fifteen winters…
Allotment update 18/6/2018
It's a day under four weeks since my last allotment blog and it was the comparison in the pictures above that prompted me to do an update. The growth rate in the last few weeks has been something to behold. I am now harvesting quite a range of crops and a few more are very…
Six on Saturday – 16/6/2018
It seems extraordinary that by next weekend the days will be getting shorter again. The last few weeks have seen everything happening at breakneck speed; growth, flowering and going over, but even now there are some plants that still seem to be emerging from winter. At a glance, the garden is very pink, dominated by…
garden ruminations 