Notes on growing ornamentals and edibles, and musings on other matters that interest me.
Thanks to VP for alerting us gardeners to Blightwatch. If you grow potatoes (me, 17 varieties this year!) or tomatoes and worry about blight, then this is the service for you. Read all about it on VP’s blog and then …
The second garden visit of our Shropshire holiday was to Wollerton Old Hall Garden in North Shropshire. Unlike the Dower House Garden, Wollerton is more like a pleasure garden. For me, the difference is that Dower House Garden includes food …
Dower House, Morville One of the reasons for choosing Shropshire for our holiday this year was in part inspired by the book: The Morville Hours, which I first read a year ago. The book, which is about the creation of …
Kevin and I got back from a week in Shropshire yesterday. Perhaps not an exotic holiday, but a lovely and relaxing one which was just what we needed. We did some walks nearby (see below), and hired a car for …
I love French beans, both climing and dwarf. One of the varieties I picked up when I attended Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots seed saving event last October, was ‘Ice Crystal’. This was given to me by Dr Simon Platten who …
My first attempt at Butterfly cakes: They tasted great too!
No, not the Split Enz song.* The lack of blogging is due to not just being too busy with two jobs, but also because the last couple of weeks have seen me in the wars. I, a) put out my …
It’s not often that West Papua gets on the news. Rich in resources and a highly biodiverse environment, but controlled with brutal violence by Indonesia (largely because of those resources), the West Papuan people undergo daily human rights abuses, and …
Kevin and I were in Sheffield on the weekend, at the WDM Campaigner Convention and AGM. It’s also WDM’s 40th year. Yay WDM! The picture is of a celebratory cake made for a recent Oxford WDM group 40th celebration. Made …
As mentioned previously, I’m experimenting with not pinching out the tips of broad beans this year to see if it makes any difference with black fly. So far my experiement is going well. I’ve had some black fly on a …