Photo Mission Winner – Let’s Get Sowing

A little later than normal but here’s the winner of our last Photo Mission – Let’s Get Sowing. It’s a beautiful photo of some seeds about to be sowed by Nina Clarke. I particularly like the muted colours in the photo and the narrow depth of field that shows the different shapes and sizes of […]

Pear Trees in Full Flower

I’m so excited this year that we might actually (fingers crossed) get some Pears. I planted two Pear trees coming up for two and half years ago now. I trained them as oblique cordons (with means one branch on a 45 degree angle) because my garden isn’t big enough to sustain anything bigger. They’ve been […]

What I Learned About Seed

I’m just packing up the first of my books and I’m busy putting together my seed packets to put inside each box. This entails a lot of cutting, sticking, filling and pressing. It’s all a bit Blue Peter and I love it! The seeds I’m using are a Lettuce mix kindly packaged by Victoriana Nursery. […]

Ventilating My Coldframe

We’ve been having some unseasonably dry, sunny weather here in the UK. I’ve been out in the garden almost every day and everything has put on a growing spurt. My Tomatoes have been hardening off well in a sheltered spot, my Courgette, Pumpkin and French Bean seeds have sprouted. Heck, I’ve even got three Melon […]

Planting Seakale Thongs

Today I planted my Seakale. Seakale is one of those vegetables that you see on TV programmes about what the Victorian’s grew in their huge walled kitchen gardens. But it’s not the kind of vegetable that people actually grow. But I’ve always wanted to grow it and now’s my chance. I checked out where I […]

Roses at Sissinghurst

I went to Sissinghurst last week, one-time home of Vita Sackville-West, gardener, writer, Virginia Woolf’s lover – the norm. I actually went to see the vegetable garden but it was closed. I’m assuming there’s not much to see yet, like in my own garden. So I contented myself with looking at the beautifully trained roses. […]

Packaging Ideas for Jackson’s Garden

Three copies of my book arrived a couple of days ago. They are just the early copies before the main shipment arrives next week. I’ve been testing out some packaging ideas, as you can see. I wanted to create a natural look and ensure that most of the materials are compostable too. But I also […]

All the Things I Did on a Gorgeous Sunny Spring Day!

There’s nothing like a sunny day to give you a kick start in the garden. Today, was glorious and I managed to get all the jobs on my list done and checked off. The first ones to benefit were my Tomato seedlings who spent the whole day outside soaking up the rays. The Cauliflowers that […]

Sprouting Broccoli – At Last!

My Purple Sprouting Broccoli is finally nearing harvest. Honestly, you need the patience of a very patient saint to grow this thing. This year seems a particularly painful year. It’s already April and it’s only just purpling up. In previous years we’ve been eating it by early March. But, that said, I’m very excited about […]

Hardening Off Cauliflowers

The Winter-hardy Cauliflowers (Avalanche) that I sowed back in October in the coldframe have grown very well. And part one of the Cauliflower plan has been completed. I’m desperate for some room in the coldframe right now though so I potted some up a few weeks ago with a view to hardening them off to […]