This week, on the one very, very windy day, Maintenance had a huge bonfire. He was burning three large, variegated box balls which had succumbed to the box tree caterpillar, and burning was by far the best solution to getting rid of the branches which were inevitably full of pupating larva. The rational for digging …
Well, I have a feeling that we are going to have to rethink our gardening in England if this weather pattern is here to stay. Water conservation will be paramount. Gravel gardens will be the norm – I’m even wondering whether to turn the herbaceous borders here in to gravel beds because it has been …
As I’ve written before, in Japan the seasons are broken down into 72 micro seasons and given little titles. I find it quite delightful and, although their seasons may not be the same as ours, I like to see what they call them. So just a few examples from these two months:- April 5-9 Swallows …
GARDENING HINTS Feb/March 2025 If you have kept seed from last year’s half opened packets, provided you have kept them in dry cold conditions, they should be viable. But I also have seed from packets of unknown age and also some seed doesn’t germinate if it is not fresh. Instead of going to all the …
GARDENING HINTS Last week I had a glorious day in the sunshine dealing with leaves – there were so many! And still the lime tree, which is huge, was hanging on so there are lots more to come down. We are lucky to have part of the garden which we call ‘The Shrubbery’ where we …
GARDENING HINTS I’m sure that many of you will be searching the bulb catalogues now to put in your orders or going to the garden centre to buy your bulbs for the Spring, so now is the time to raise awareness about whether to buy organic or non-organic bulbs, rather like the choice you have …
GARDENING HINTS August/September 2024 What a strange gardening year it has been. The rain…. The low light levels…The cold! Still on the positive side our large dipping tank at the end of the greenhouse has been full to overflowing all year. Everything looks beautifully green. I think having too much water is probably better than …
Gardening Hints – June/July 2024 In the last issue I wrote about my discovery of the box moth in my box hedge, and my plans to use an organic treatment for it. Since then I have seen one moth which I was able to identify from the description on line, and found two caterpillars. I …
You can use 1 litre water bottles as simple 3″ pot cloches. Cut a 1 litre clear water bottle in half. Remove the top cap from the top half Cut some holes in the bottom half Place over 3″ pots as cloches. The holes allow areation into your pots.
Some loo rolls and empty milk cartons can be used to give your deep rooted vegetables an easier start in life. Save your loo rolls or make some tubes out of 3 sheets of paper stapled top and bottom. Cut a 2 litre milk carton in half. Use the bottom part of the milk carton …