A Very Warm Welcome to Independent Readers :)

Thanks for visiting after reading this weekend's 50 Best Gardens which I hope will inspire you to visit a number of them this year. I love garden visiting and you'll find more ideas here together with some useful links to help plan your visits.

You may also like to visit my garden from the comfort of your armchair: I put together a tour right here on the internet a couple of years ago in the style of a NGS visit, which raised over £1,000 for WaterAid.

Veg Plotting isn't just about garden visiting or vegetables: it's about the thoughts which occur to me whilst up at my plot. So it's more of an eclectic mix of gardening, vegetable growing, life here in Chippenham and anything else which I find interesting. Why not dive in and explore a bit further? You'll find a new readers section on the right hand sidebar to help get you started, or you can have a look at what's been on my mind this week by just scrolling down this page.

If you like wildlife gardening then you may be interested in the competition I'm running at the moment to win a year's membership of the RHS. Full details can be found here and the closing date is May 9th.

Regular readers have probably gathered I have something in The Independent today, which I'm very chuffed about. It's a joint effort with Victoria, who really should get the lion's share of the credit. She's been very generous about our partnership and explains what we've been up to in her usual delightful way here. Thanks Victoria for such a great opportunity - I enjoyed working on this very much :)

Comments

  1. Anonymous2 May 2010 at 20:24

    We are trying to suction all the info about England, its gardens, you and Victoria, everything so we will know what is going on when we arrive for Malvern. It is glaringly clear that you have been one very busy lady! :-)
    xo,
    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3 May 2010 at 09:17

    I thought that I recognised your name when I read that online yesterday. You list some wonderful gardens some that I've been to and many that I'd like to visit!
    Happy gardening! Flighty xx

    ReplyDelete

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Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

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Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
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Jack Go To Bed At Noon

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Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
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Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

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The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
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Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

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I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
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#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

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VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

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Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
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Make Use of Mildew

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Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

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The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
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The Resilient Garden

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Testing Times: Tomatoes

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