The Joys of Alstroemeria
Do you ever find yourself in the position of having a clear favourite plant? Over some nearly 50 years of gardening (I’m not that old; I just started before I was born!) I’ve had a few. In the day... Read More
New Rake on the Block
I heard about a new magazine on the block and decided to try it out. But what I got wasn’t exactly a magazine. The first thing that struck me was the smell. Whether due to paper, glue or, more proba... Read More
You put your foot up for a minute ….
May doesn’t like me. Don’t know why but it’s always in May that if something’s going to go wrong, it goes wrong. No ladder breaks while I’m up it, except in May! I don... Read More
Plug Review 2016
As regulars will know, I grow a lot (a hell of a lot) of annual bedding plants from plugs each year. I don’t have the hassle of germinating seeds and as the plugs arrive just as things are getti... Read More
I’ll Procrastinate Tomorrow (Maybe)
Putting procrastination off isn’t a bad thing. There are way too many things on my “I’ll get round to it” list and I’ve got to do something about that. Like that collecti... Read More
This Old Crock Doesn’t!
There’s long been a debate about whether you should put “crocks” in the bottom of your containers or not. My view is that it’s a lot of hot air. This post was in my “when... Read More
Lawn Feed Ain’t As Cheap as Bird Seed
Not all nitrogen is the same! I bet you didn’t know that! If you think about it, though, it’s obvious. Nitrogen, at room temperature, is a clear, odourless gas. So how do we feed it to pla... Read More
A Spring in My Steppe
At last. Spring has arrived, accompanied by a water-butt-emptying lack of rain. Just before the weekend, we were supposed to “get it”. What we got was a storm in a teacup. Well more like a... Read More
That Corporal Jones Moment
Don’t panic! The words bounce around inside my cerebral void – we tenors have resonance where our brains ought to be, don’t you know? Don’t panic!?????? Fat chance!... Read More
Sherleek Holmes and the Garden Savings
This is the first instalment of an occasional series in which I’ll delve into the mysteries of the companies that trade under several linked names and/or how the choice of where you shop could h... Read More
The Boring Bit
At this time of the year, most of the blogs I follow are full of stories about planting out the chitted potatoes, protecting chillies from late frosts, netting over the emerging brassicas. All the exc... Read More
RHS: The End and Goodbye
I had already decided that this would be my last visit to the RHS Cardiff Flower Show. My first visit some years ago, left me thinking it could be better; then it did get better (well David Domoney wa... Read More
Disappointment
I’ll get a refund. The supplier won’t hesitate. But I’ll never know whether it was bad packing at the nursery or bad handling by the courier. Just a shame that 3 boxes of plants, ea... Read More
Bees knees and coconut oil
My dad had a boy on the burning deck rhyme for just about every occasion. He also regularly used the “bees knees and coconut oil” quote though I never knew why or what it mea... Read More
Gardening with Scrambled Egg
No, I’m not going mad. Here at Chez Rivendell, scrambled egg plays a big role in fighting slugs! And it’s not the only odd thing with which I garden. Sometimes a bit of eccentricity not on... Read More
Planning for Growth
‘Tis plant-growing time. We’re all madly sowing seeds (or buying plug plants or a mix of the two) with abandon. Well, the flower growers are; veggie people are probably getting ready to pl... Read More
Using hashtags (#) to zero in on Twitter
Apologies to my regular readers who’ll have had an email about this post. This will only be of interest to a limited number of people who don’t already know how to use hashtags in Twitter ... Read More
How I Became a Gardener (Possibly)
I often wonder what it is that decides when someone will become a gardener and someone else won’t. Is it in the genes? Or is it conditioning? This is my theory about me. In my young years, lunchtime... Read More
Eating the Heating
One thing any greenhouse owner has to think about is what will be grown in the greenhouse and, if plants will need a minimum temperature, how to keep it warm. I’d mention that, at the moment, I ... Read More
Rewinding (Part 5: The End)
I was on a roll now. While still young and fit enough, I was going to take care of big things with a view to spending the rest of my life enjoying the easier pleasures of the garden. So with my new ra... Read More
Weekend Weblink: 21 February
It’s nice to be in a minority occasionally. And I find I’m in one because old Ben Higgledy, curator of the Higgledy Garden, is convinced that over 90% of his customers are female. Indeed h... Read More
Book Review: Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds
All gardens are linked to people. The more famous include Great Dixter and Christopher Lloyd, Sissinghurst and Vita Sackville-West, and Hidcote and Laurence Johnston. In my review of Victoria Summerle... Read More
Rewinding (Part 4)
Having got as far as I could with the raised bed thing and now waiting for delivery of the final tonne of topsoil, I decided to indulge myself with a bit of variety and demolish one of my old garden s... Read More
Rewinding (Part 3)
Ah, the joys of scheduling. I knew WordPress could do it but my approach has been to write, publish, sit back. That, I think, is one of the reasons for my inadequate output. I would think to myself &#... Read More
Weekend Weblink: 7 February
I was reading an article by Dan Snow the other day (those who know me will know that I like articles/programmes by Dans) in which he bemoaned those that criticise Twitter. A lot of what he wrote gelle... Read More
Book Review: Of Rhubarb and Roses (The Telegraph Book of the Garden)
These days I watch very little television unless a programme comes from a Scottish garden or has a Dan in it. I like Dans – Dan Snow, Dan Jones, Dan Cruikshank present some pretty decent history pro... Read More
Rewinding (Part 2)
How many hours would it take you to complete a three-dimensional jigsaw of 1745 pieces? If your jigsaw is made of WoodBlocX, the answer is a leisurely few days. My plan for the former shrubbery involv... Read More
Weekend Weblink: 31 January
OK, so I’ve had a brilliant idea for upping my blogging rate. I’m going to pinch some other blogs. Not really! In one of those revealing moments you get while standing naked in front of a ... Read More