Yes . It has been a while since I last blogged. Not that I have been idle. Quite the opposite, in fact. The thing is we’ve been having a bit of an overhaul of the Country Gate plot and garden. Plants have come – and some have gone in an effort to create a thing [...]
Archive for the ‘gardens to make’ Category
Salad days
Posted in container gardens, Local food, slow food, soups and salads, tagged companion planting, edible landscape, salads on May 15, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Three cheers for fennel!
Posted in herb garden, medicine chest and cleaning cupboard, school gardens, tagged fennel, fennel tea, home remedies, Roamn herb garden on January 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
It’s that time of year when a bit of over-indulgence may tip you over the edge. Listen up people! Forget New Year’s resolutions of abstemious diets. What fun is that? Think of me as your post-Christmas fairy godmother and let me introduce you to the wonders of fennel tea.Not uber-exciting at first glance, I grant you but [...]
Apple Days, chutney and a small homage to Downton Abbey
Posted in orchard, pantry, pudding club, tagged Apple Charlotte, Apple Chutney, Apple Day, Downton Abbey, Downton Pippin, October Half Term activities on October 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Our kitchen has been the site of an enormous apple mountain over the last week or so – which is all very appropriate considering that October 21st was Apple Day, when communities up and down the country celebrate the humble apple. We have but one apple tree of our own at the moment - a highly [...]
The Flower and Vegetable Show
Posted in gardens to make, Special events, tagged Flower and Veg Show, Gertrude Jekyll, miniature gardens on September 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It’s that time of year when allotment holders and gardeners up and down the country dust off the white plates to display the brightest and best (and in some cases,biggest) of their produce at the village hall. Yes. The season of the local Flower and Vegetable Show is upon us. I am competitive by nature, [...]
Soapwort……..what on earth is that?
Posted in herb garden, medicine chest and cleaning cupboard, tagged guerilla gardening, herbs, Jekka McVicar, plants for poor soil, Roman plants, soapwort shampoo on August 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
We like to grow something different every year on the allotment and this year we grew soapwort. I sowed some from seed for a Roman herb garden I planted up with primary school children and had a bit left over. Some founds its way into a sunny space on the allotment and the rest was planted guerilla-style [...]
St Swithun’s Day
Posted in feasts and festivals, veg patch, tagged St Swithun's Day on July 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
St. Swithun’s day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain St. Swithun’s day if thou be fair For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.’ Whether you’re weather watching today or whether you’re not -Happy St Swithun’s Day. May your next forty days be filled with sunshine – even if it’s of the [...]
Bee friendly
Posted in out and about, wildlife gardens, tagged bee friendly plants, Spring Fayre, Troughs at Avoncliff on April 15, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I’ve been so busy on the (recently enlarged) plot of late that I have rather neglected the blog. Where have you heard that before? Anyway with the allotment just beginning to come to the end of the hungry gap, 500 squash seeds and a load of salad coming on nicely in the school polytunnel, and [...]
A day of firsts
Posted in container gardens, family time, out and about, tagged Bradford on Avon Flower Show, gardening with children, minature gardens on September 14, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Last Sunday saw the first Flower and Vegetable Show in Bradford on Avon for some considerable time and many of the active growing community proudly displayed the fruits of their labours for all to see and some to pass judgement upon. One of the apprentice gardeners decided it was time to make her first foray [...]
A potted history of lavender
Posted in feel-good plants, herb garden, medicine chest and cleaning cupboard, tagged lavender, sleep pillows on August 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’m on a mission. One of the schools where I work wants to run a project to get the whole school gardening this year and because of the inevitable constraints of time and money I have decided to link this in with their history studies. Dreams of designing Dig For Victory allotments and Victorian Walled Gardens briefly floated through [...]
Sweet peas, the great shed debate and living the Regency life.
Posted in cutting garden, feel-good plants, tagged Aled Jones, Jane Austen, Sarah Raven, sheds, Stourhead, sweet peas on March 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yes. It is over a month since my last post. Despite living almost entirely in a parallel Jane Austen universe, (courtesy of a return to my directing roots) I have manged to achieve a moderate amount on the plot. Much as I would like to create the impression that work on the plot is continuous and organised, like most things [...]
