Earlier this year I brought my overwintered chillies out of the spare room and sowed a range of new seeds in the hope that I would be knee-deep in chillies by the end of the summer. I've been pleased with the results of what has ended up as a collection of 39 plants with 17 different varieties. … Continue reading Chilli Harvest 2016
It was too hot tonight to spend much time in the kitchen - what was needed was a quick supper for the family to eat in the garden. Salad is plentiful at this time of year, so add a bit of pasta on the side and job done. Pesto is great to mix with speedy … Continue reading Hey Presto – Pesto!
It's not been the easiest time in my life, but the past 5 years have been the making of me - mentally and physically. I've been a full-time mum for 7 years, having left the teaching profession to focus on being with the kids in their formative years. I've loved being at home, but have also had to deal with illness, … Continue reading Grow your way to happiness…
These days I spend much of my time in private and community gardens (and sometimes even my own) working with plants and I've learnt a great deal over the past few years about where garden plants will thrive, how they will combine with their fellows and when they will steal the limelight. But my knowledge … Continue reading Exploring wild flowers: 5 coastal plants with interesting edible histories
Ten years ago I went on the allotment waiting list. Local sites are heavily oversubscribed and I was expecting a substantial wait. Five years later, with one small child and another on the way I decided to come off the list as allotmenteering seemed unfeasible in the blur of family life. Instead we worked on … Continue reading Allotment 96B: New Beginnings
Welcome back to my potter through the changes in our back garden over the past 6 years. In the last post I considered the diverse aims of many modern gardens and their similarity to the older styles of cottage, potager and walled gardens - that of combining utility and beauty in one place. My garden is no different. We wanted … Continue reading My Hard-Working Garden: An Ongoing Transformation (Part 2)
Potager gardens, walled gardens and old-fashioned cottage gardens - all styles I love for their eclectic mix of vegetables, fruit and flowers. They can be seen as nostalgic, whimsical, outmoded; gardens which exist in an historical context, from time to time tempting modern gardeners into grand estates or rural open garden shows, but without contemporary relevance. Their visual, almost casual beauty belies … Continue reading My Hard-Working Garden: An Ongoing Transformation(Part 1)
To sow or not to sow? It has been a real labour of love overwintering last year's chillies in the spare room. It's the first time I've tried to grow chillies perennially and it's been mostly trial and error. First they had a bad case of fungus gnats, then greenfly. The room was filled with … Continue reading Old chillies v new chillies: how do you grow yours?