Tag: Growing plants
Pretty Flamingo
When Manfred Mann released Pretty Flamingo I was 12. I’m a bit older now but I still have a pretty flamingo. This is thanks to Gill Heavens, who sent her to live with me after I jokingly commen... Read More
Forward Planning
I have decided that enough is enough and that my “Plants I Want” list for next year is now complete. I will resist all attempts to increase this list by those who blog about Plants of the ... Read More
Please Be Seeded and I’ll Begin
These are the continuing adventures of the seedship enterprise currently occupying the only decent-sized window sill in the house and half the greenhouse. Regulars will remember that my initial seed e... Read More
Feeling Seedy (Seed Following 2017)
ANNOUNCEMENT: After a bit of fun and games, this blog has now settled down at a new hosting company and with it’s “proper” address: https://rivendellgarden.blog. There’s a sepa... Read More
SEED FOLLOWING FOR 2017
“In for a penny …..” they say. In my last post (well, the last before that accidental book review) I announced I was following a tree. In this one, I’m announcing that I’m going also to be f... Read More
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
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
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
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
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
Resilience
Someone I know doesn’t particularly like camellias. This may be because of their tendency to drop blooms all the time or, if you want to avoid the dropped blooms, their need for constant deadhea... Read More
Sowing the Seed
Up until last year (2014) I’d been a total coir freak (as regulars will know). Growing on in coir’s great but I had been mystified by reports of problems germinating seeds in coir as I’d always ... Read More
The shameless plug
I like summer bedding. A lot! And until 2012, I grew a few thousand bedding plants every year. One large bed was religiously planted with a bit over 400 begonias; 20 large wall planters each swallowed... Read More
Spending time in the garden
At this time of year, the amount of time I can spend in the garden is limited by the weather and my energy level. But though I may not be spending time in the garden, it is nevertheless spending time ... Read More
A glorious weekend
Thus far, May has been a month which is definitely not the “Month of Maying” and we’ve all been sheltering from the rain (or in the case of some I know, moving out of the flood zone) rather than... Read More