Mild, Mild Autumn

Is it me, or is this Autumn really, really mild? I don’t usually have Cos Lettuce still standing in the garden at this time of year. Even my Calendula is STILL going. There has been no sign of frost whatsoever and the last of my Tomatoes are still ripening, albeit very slowly. I’m a bit […]

Autumn Nature Table

I’ve been reading The Wonderful Weekend Book, by Elspeth Thompson. It’s full of great ideas on simple, feel-good type things that you might want to do at the weekend, like writing letters, having a real fire and baking bread. I think you’d go a bit mad if you did all of the things that Elspeth […]

Autumn Sowing of Cauliflowers

After getting over my grumpiness and admitting that the season is well and truly over I decided to cheer myself up my watching the ‘October’ episode of A Victorian Kitchen Garden. Harry looked a bit despondent too as he watched the temperature fall and stored his Apples in his (albeit totally fab) fruit store. Then […]

How to Build a Brick Coldframe

My coldframe is finished and ready for some Winter action. Only five months late but hey one can’t have everything. I had hoped to be growing Melon in there this year but it just wasn’t done in time. Firstly, the brick base wasn’t built so Under Gardener took care of that. Then there was no […]

Pot Up Some Parsley for Winter

Don’t forget to pot up some Parsley for Winter. Just dig up a few roots and pop them up in pots. Snip off half of the leaves so that they have chance to spring back and put them in your cold frame or greenhouse. There, they can over-winter and you’ll have Parsley all year round. […]

View From the Potting Shed

Here’s the view from my potting shed where I’ll be cowering from the weather for the next few months. I just cleaned the glass on the window which makes it look super-tidy but normally there are spider webs and stuff all over it. My Onions are hanging up on either side of the window. My […]

Ripening Pumpkins

A couple of weeks ago my Ghost Rider Pumpkin looked like this. It was fully green and unripe. Now it’s ripening well. However, the frosts are just around the corner and I’m worried it won’t fully ripen in time for Halloween (there’s still a patch of green on one side). The plant itself is dying […]

Autumn Tidy-Up Commences

I managed to get in half an hour in the garden today. I started to clear away some of the crops that were starting to look a bit straggly, like the Climbing French Beans and most of the Tomatoes (there are a few still left hanging on). But it was such a beautiful Autumn day […]

Plotting a New Strawberry Bed

My existing Strawberry bed is three years old. While it still has some life left in it, I’m plotting a new Strawberry bed already. I’ll probably leave the plants I already have in the ground for one more year, while at the same time starting a new one in a different part of the garden. […]

RC-1 Rain Collector

I love it when people take something that is universally U-G-L-Y and make it better. We spend so much time in our gardens – what makes manufacturers think that we want to look at a hunk of green (or black) plastic where our water butt must go? We don’t. We want to look at this […]