Potato Day 2012
Happy at Potato Day Recently described by friend Manishta as, “my version of Xmas”, I went on my annual pilgrimage to Garden Organics 2012 Potato Day at Ryton. I love potatoes and I love going to Potato Day. Ryton generally …
The achievement of black plastic
After three years work, Kevin and I have finally cut down the worst of the brambles and the 2nd half of the lottie, not yet in cultivation, is now covered in black plastic. This feels like quite an achievement, though …
Mulching experiment: update 2
This is my 2nd update since first starting my mulching experiment in mid-November 2011. For bed 1 (standard cardboard and compost mulch), the cardboard and compost mulch has broken down much more since December. You can see that in December …
Making the most of enthusiastic bamboo
After sorting out the black bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, we had to cut down in order to fix part of the fence that was knocked down in last weeks high winds, I’ve ended up with another lovely bunch of black canes. …
Oxford Sow & Grow newsletter
For Oxford Sow & Grow, my garden advice business, I’m going to start sending out a regular newsletter with gardening tips and information on upcoming workshops. If you would like to receive the newsletter, email me on jgp@cooptel.net and ask …
Cultivate!
There is an exciting new food initiative in Oxford, Cultivate. It’s a new food co-op that is to be community owned, run and financed by people local to Oxford. I’m personally keen on Cultivate, not just because I know some …
Seed viability
It is the time of year when everyone is looking at ordering new seeds for the growing year. We should also go through our old packets of all seeds to see what we do and don’t have, before we get …
First day of the month in the front garden: January 2012
For 2012 I am going to blog about my front garden on the 1st day of each month. I’ll follow how it changes over the year, how much food I can produce from the space, and how my development plans …
Flowering late December
Following the footsteps of other gardeners, such as Patient Gardner and Veg Plotting, I took some photos today of what was still flowering, out of season, this late in the year. These are all from my front garden, which is …
Choosing heritage seeds
I never fail to get excited about the arrival of the next years Heritage Seed Library (HSL) catalogue. So many choices of wonderful sounding veg, often with great stories behind them. I’ve been a member for quite a few years …