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 …
Attacking brambles
Spent a couple of good hours in the sun down at the lottie, attacking brambles. Kevin and I were delighted to be joined by our friend Manishta, who for reasons best left to herself, thinks ‘brambles are cool’. Manishta, rugged …
Mulching experiment: update 1
A month after I first began the mulching experiment, here is the first update. Experiment 1: after 1 month For bed 1 (standard cardboard and compost mulch), you can see that the cardboard is starting to break down a bit. …
Mulching experiment
Green manure: Hungarian rye on the left, tares to the right. Will be dug in early Spring. It’s been the mulching time of year, well, more in Autumn, I’m just writing this up late! I decided to try experimenting with …
#Nov30 in Oxford
Updated 5pm: More pictures from the march and rally Proud to support all workers on strike today. I joined the Unison picket line in Rectory Road, Oxford, for a couple of hours. A couple of pictures from striking Oxford workers. …
Solving a thorny problem
Brambles – ugh! Like many gardeners, I am regularly at war with brambles. I cannot control the council land that my garden backs onto. Although the council have promised, a couple of times, to remove the brambles, this has yet …
Agroforestry talk – some musings
I attended an excellent talk on Agroforestry by Professor Steve Newman of the Agroforestry Research Trust (and BioDiversity Int.) last night, put on by Oxford Permaculture. Whilst I might live in an urban environment and won’t be setting up a forest …