Veg Plotting

The YAWA Dictionary: adding meaning to your garden blogging. NB Items without a link are in the pipeline YAWA Dictionary definitions: Dictionary kick-off post Amendment Aubergine Biscuit (aka Scone) Butt updated Canning Collards Compost Cowslip/Celandine Crane Escarole Fava beans Flats Greaseproof paper Grit Hell Strip Jacket Potatoes Ladybird/Ladybug Lasagna Gardening Mangetout peas Rutabaga Sultana (plus raisins and currants, don't forget the other meaning!) Secateurs Squash Stick of butter Volunteer Wasp/Yellowjacket Wick Yard YAWA full service articles: Original YAWA kick-off post Allotment Butt Bramley apple Chia Pets Hoar frost Hollow tine aeration Jam, Jelly and Cheese Marmite Mushy peas Parsnip Verge Zones Miscellaneous Articles: Your Gardening Year Ahead - a horoscope for all years and seasons from our esteemed Madame Zelda Of Moons, Sixpences and Bedsocks - answers to questions arising from Madame Zelda's pr

Here are the rest of the places where I have a presence on the interweb... Wherever possible I've kept the same Avatar aka Profile Picture aka Favicon across the web, so you know it's me :) Blogs Sign of the Times - my regular photojournal. Not many words, but plenty of pictures VP's Open Garden - raised over £1,000 for WaterAid in 2008. Still available for you to wander around my garden and allotment Meet at Malvern  - a record of bloggers get togethers at Malvern spring and autumn shows in 2010 and 2011. It also gets updated when I visit the show and has links to other bloggers' posts for those times. It can also be used as a resource for visitors in general or for anyone wanting to arrange a meet up in future.  Box of Delight - an archive of reminisces and things to make me smile, with the odd bit of creative writing thrown in for good measure. Not updated very often Twitter My chatty twitterid is @ Malvernmee t (my first for

Just like the in real world there are plenty of gardening 'clubs' and forums found online. They're great for finding like minded people plus lots hints and tips about all things horticultural. There's also a few places where you can find other gardening blogs like (and unlike) this one from around the world. Here's a small selection. If you have a favourite not listed here, tell me about it in the Comments below. Gardening Clubs and Forums Allotments 4 All (A4A) - a great forum for all things fruit and veg - mainly UK Folia - a social personal garden organiser with a worldwide membership Garden Network - a forum for both horticulture professionals and amateurs - mainly UK GrowVeg - another GYO forum, not quite as popular as A4A My Garden - the RHS forum Shoot - personal garden organiser, plant database and online community - mainly UK UK Veg Gardeners - great food growing community, but I'm biased as I'm a founding member! Blog L

In 2009, as part of my You Ask, We Answer offering, I put together a monthly events diary highlighting some of the more unusual garden or food related customs and events held around this country. Celebratory days and our main garden shows were also included. Whilst the specific dates aren't applicable for most of the entries in subsequent years, it still forms a useful guide to use as a starting point for potential visits and exploration. The website links given for each event will enable you to find out the dates for this year. Note that the monthly summaries below aren't exhaustive, but are just to give a flavour of what's available. January - Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, Wassailing, Potato Days, RSPB Garden Birdwatch February - Snowdrops, Bramley Apple Week, World Wetlands Day, RHS London Show, Fairtrade Fortnight, Shrove Tuesday (date varies depending when Easter is and can be in March), Rhubarb Festival March - Daffodils, National Science Week, World Water

Awards... In 2009 I was a finalist in the Garden Blog of the Year category at the Garden Media Guild 's (GMG) annual awards. James Alexander-Sinclair won again, but I was pleased to hear my name read out at the awards lunch and for James to recommend this blog during his acceptance speech :) In 2011 I was a finalist in the Horticultural Channel's inaugural awards . It's rather good because nominations and votes come from the public. I'm also proud to be a contributor to the eventual winner, The Guardian Gardening blog :) In 2012, Veg Plotting was again a finalist in the GMG's Garden Blog of the Year . Runner-up to the mighty  Guardian Gardening Blog is fine by me. In 2013, Veg Plotting had its third finalist spot, making it the most successful blog not to have achieved the winner's prize. Acclaim for Veg Plotting... BBC Countryfile magazine said: The best blogs are based around a central passion but allow the author to digre

Thanks for visiting Veg Plotting and welcome :) This post is a quick tour of my blog to highlight some of its key features and I hope it'll help you to quickly feel at home. You'll see to the right there's some summary Pages to help you get started which includes a bit about me plus an introduction to my garden and allotment plot. Just click on the Home Page link to bring you back to my blog. Clicking on the Veg Plotting in the box at the top of the screen does the same thing. You can do this wherever you've got yourself within the blog to get you back to where you started. Staying on the right and below the Pages there's a selection of some of my Popular Posts to give you an idea of the wide range of topics I write about. You'll also see a little further down I've put a Translate button just in case you feel more comfortable reading this in another language. If you wish to home in on a particular subject, there's a Search box you can use at the

I don't have a mega publishing deal... yet - contact me if you'd like to offer me one ;) In the meantime I've had the opportunity to do a little light publishing and reviewing as follows... First forays into publishing I learnt a lot by about writing and the process of publishing with my contribution of a chapter to award-winning author Niki Jabbour's Ground Breaking Food Gardens .  I produced a plan for producing year-round salads in the tiniest of spaces. You can read about how it all happened here . I got quite emotional when I found the book on display in a tool shop in Toronto at the start of  2015's Garden Bloggers Fling. It was the first time I'd seen it in a shop, rather than my own copy. My first foray into publishing was gathering up my posts about Chippenham into a Blurb book, called ABC of Chippenham . Blurb is just one of the mind boggling number of self-publishing options available. This project was to satisfy my own curiosi

I've contributed to national newspapers, lifestyle and specialist magazines, and lots of websites and blogs.  Here's a list of my work to date. Just like my blog, the range of subjects I'm commissioned to write about is broad. National Newspapers The Guardian Weekend: Gardens: small spaces   ak a Big Ideas for Small Spaces - 15th December 2012 Take a Seat - Benches - 8th June 2013 The Independent   (with Victoria Summerley): 50 Best Gardens  - 1st May 2010 Lifestyle and Specialist Magazines GMG News (Garden Media Guild's quarterly magazine): How Social Media Circuit Opens Global Garden Gates (summer 2015) Regular articles on social media for 4 years Green Places  magazine book reviews* Biophilic Cities  - July 2011 Kidland -  September 2011 Woodland creation for wildlife and people in a changing climate  - October 2011 Designing for Play -  November 2011 Designing with Microclimate -  December 2011  Small Green Roo

My articles published so far on The Guardian 's Gardening Blog: Kingdom of Plants 3D - 25th May 2012 My Malvern Show - 13th May 2011 Best Autumn Gardens - 15th October 2010 Spuds you'll like (about potato days) - 20th January 2010 All is not well in the gardens of our dreams - 25th August 2009 Got a glut? Try mangetout and mint soup – 14th July 2009 How to spot the arrival of summer – 1st June 2009 Hot composting: trying out the green Johanna compost bin – 5th May 2009

Privacy Notice I'm committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of anyone reading or commenting on my blog. This Privacy Notice explains how Veg Plotting collects and uses information when the blog is used. If you require any more information or have any questions, please contact me at Vegplotting at gmail dot com. Hosting of this blog ( Veg Plotting ) This blog is hosted and the software provided by Blogger, which is owned by Google in the USA. Because the software is provided as a package, blogs like Veg Plotting using this software are limited in the extent to which they can add to or modify its functions. This includes not having the ability to add opt in/opt out facilities for blocking cookies, which you may have seen when viewing websites. For Google's Privacy Policy click here . What are cookies? A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded onto your computer when you visit a blog or website. Once a cookie is

I don't reserve all of my best content for Veg Plotting , some of it's found in my guest posts elsewhere. It's great to have the challenge to write something suitable that's different to my usual style. I've written guest posts for... Publishers, companies and organisations Battlesbridge Mills Garden Centre BBC Gardening Blog Gabriel Ash Garden ER (TV programme) Garlic and Sapphire (Sarah Raven's company blog) Heritage Open Days Blog Reader's Digest The Garden Furniture Centre The Guardian Gardening Blog Other Blogs Emma Cooper's Gardening Blog Encounters With Remarkable Biscuits Fennel and Fern The Garden Monkey's Book Flange The Sea of Immeasurable Gravy thinkinGardens UK Veg Gardeners We Love This Book Work From Home Wisdom  (answers to interview questions) A full list of links to my guest posts are listed below. If you’d like me to write one for you or to commission an article, drop me an email at vegplot