Veg Plotting

Those of you reading yesterday may have thought I'd flipped and gone off into some sort of surreal fantasy. Well, I was feeling the same way myself. I'm still not sure if I've been dreaming all of this, but the constant pinching of myself assures me that I really am here. Yes, a TV researcher did come to choir on Monday evening. Yes, she did invite us over for a custard pie fight last night. Yes, I did go - with 2 other choir members, a friend, plus 10 people from Neston Players who'd also had a similar invitation Monday lunchtime. Unfortunately I can't show you anything of the fight itself - you'll have to believe me that the pictured innocuous looking building does indeed house a television studio. I'm not allowed to publish any photos until the programme is aired - around September time. The surrealness continued well into yesterday evening - the studio is also part of a massive Ministry of Defence complex, completely deserted when we ...

... Orchids As well as the show gardens I've been featuring this week, the RHS Show in Cardiff had 2 marquees filled with specialist nurseries exhibiting their wares. The David Stead orchid display was a masterclass in displaying choice specimen plants to their best advantage and deservedly won gold. Noodle your way over to Mrs Nesbitt's place for other choice ABC photographs.

Last Monday I met Esther Montgomery . In the event she might bring Ming along with her, I thought it best we meet on safe, neutral territory, so we mutually agreed that Poundbury Garden Centre 's coffee shop would be a super place to meet. Looking at her blog, it seems Esther was worried about me too - I'm not an axe wielding alien from Saturn , but I did have my Swiss Army Knife (well concealed) just in case. Frankie from Veg Plot was nearer the mark - according to Belbin's team role assessment test, I am indeed a Plant (Resource Investigator too). Unfortunately Ming was nowhere to be seen, so I can't bring you any stunning revelations about him, nor a sneeky photograph - you'll just have to make do with Esther's portraits. Esther was great - a witty, charming, straight talking companion. I decided not to probe too deeply about her blog - a large part of its pleasure is our daily episode fix as the mystery slowly unravels. Those of you who are a little puzzl...

Last night at choir practice: Hi, I'm from Touch TV and we're doing a series for the Discovery Channel on the Human Body. One of the episodes is looking at laughter. We all found this very funny and laughed - right on cue. Yes, we use up 341,000 calories during our lifetime just in the act of laughing. Amazing - this could be the new diet we've all been waiting for! We'll have 1,000 custard pies at our studios in Neston tomorrow [totalling 341,000 calories] and are looking for volunteers to come along to fling them at each other. I find this idea strangely irresistable...

Another favourite garden from the RHS Show in Cardiff and featured on Breakfast News on the first day of the show. It was designed to be a lesson in slug avoidance without needing to resort to chemicals, hence it's name Slugger Off!!! Students from Heronsbridge Special School worked with a garden designer to realise their project and it will be rebuilt at the school after the show. Planted with slug resistant plants (listed on the leaflet eagerly provided by the students), the garden had lots of lovely touches such as the nestboxes in the shape of buildings and the handmade pots hung in the trees to nurse along seedlings until they are robust enough to be planted out in the garden. I particularly liked the idea of using snailshells as cane toppers (see the bottom left hand corner of the picture) - another way of exacting some revenge in our war on snails ! The students were very keen to show me which parts of the garden they'd help to design. I asked one boy where he...

'A pint of your finest, Landlord please' - picture courtesy of NAH. Our closest pub on holiday happily turned out to be the Royal Standard in Upwey , listed in The Good Beer Guide for the past 10 years. A magnificent resident eagle owl greeted us on the way in with several who whooos ? A sign of randiness apparently. The resident cat Puss, turned out to be very affectionate and talkative - just right for a couple of cat owners missing their own pair (or purr?). Whilst her name isn't particularly original, the pub's landlord told us it's the only one she'll answer to. The bar had an unusual feature for a pub - a cat flap . Apparently the landlord had to install it when they had three rescue cats. Whenever a dog came into the pub, the cats would leap over the bar, including climbing up customers' backs if any of them were in the way. The cat flap's installation has subsequently prevented much flying of fur and kept many a customer's temper just th...

The couple I met who'd designed this show garden were most enthusiastic about what they'd done, but extremely nervous as they were about to hear the results of the RHS judging. It's a garden celebrating the 125th anniversary of Cardiff University and every aspect of the design had a meaning and connection with the university. Each of the original departments was represented in the bespoke sleeper steps; the plants were chosen for their connection to the university's research - for example daffodils for Alzheimer's treatment, chillis for cancer; recycled material such as PCs and bell jars were used as planters and cloches. Even the bicycle had a meaning as the first chancellor of the university went everywhere by bike. This was my favourite garden for a number of reasons - those given above, plus the fact I studied at Cardiff for a year in the 1990's. Also, I may have had a hand (literally) in the materials used for the garden. On our last field course, we spe...

This post is especially for Joy , a self-confessed Dr Who fan. It was taken at the RHS Show in Cardiff just over a week ago and was awarded the best Show Garden, attaining RHS Silver Gilt standard. This garden also appeared at Chelsea last year , but was more appropriate for the Cardiff show as Dr Who is filmed in and around the city. It's actual title was A Garden in Time and was a garden of 2 halves. The first half (pictured) was contemporary in its feel and reflected the current incarnation of the Dr Who series. The second half represented a garden from the 1960s (all square lawn and serried ranks of annuals plus vegetable plot - just like many gardens in Chippenham currently) which is when Dr Who first started. The pictured TARDIS had just been switched on by the garden designer (also pictured), was revolving and playing the Dr Who theme tune. A few seconds after this picture was taken, the garden designer was inundated by dozens of primary school children, all fans of ...

My garlic glut is planted out now and sprouting strongly on the allotment. I have some preliminary results to share with you from my experiments in February . This is to see if fridge or freezer treated garlic can be used successfully in the event of us having insufficient winter cold to encourage bulb formation. Garlic in the freezer Don't bother - as dND predicted, the cloves' structure was damaged. They turned squishy and orange and are now on the compost heap. Garlic in the fridge These were placed in the fridge the same nights as frost was predicted, but taken out of the fridge during the day to simulate the same daytime warming as the outside garlic would be getting. They were unharmed by the experience and were beginning to sprout when planted out on the allotment. Garlic left outside My experiment's control group - left outside during the whole period and then planted out in a block on the allotment. They experienced 10 nights of frost and like the fridge garl...

... Not in Use This is the sign that adorns our loo door up at the allotment for 5 months of the year. Whilst we're lucky to have a water supply, it's turned off in November for the winter to prevent burst pipes and leaks. It's only just been turned back on owing to the cold spring we've been having. For other ABC Wednesday pictures hop on over to Mrs Nesbitt's Place .

Has anyone else noticed there were in fact 82 gardens featured? Tell me, which garden would you most like to visit and why?

As promised yesterday, I have more Awards to tell you about and pass on. Just because these are in my second post on the subject, it doesn't mean I value them less. I've been enjoying getting to know my fellow ABCer Suburbia over in Bristol and it comes as no surprise she's been recognised as giving 'Good Chat'. Her blog is a lively one, as are the comments she leaves over here. It's great to find that she thinks the same about me. There doesn't appear to be firm guidelines on passing this award on, so I'm going to nominate Flighty - another dear friend who always leaves great comments here, gossips away over at Flighty's Plot and encourages non-Bloggers to start blogging. I'm also nominating Joy - I get at least one cheery message a day from her over at Blotanical as well as her regular comments on here. Finally, I'm giving this to Anna in the hope it will encourage her to start blogging as soon as time permits and to thank her again for...

Tuesday is Earthday, which this year focuses on global warming via its Call for Climate campaign. First celebrated in 1970, it has expanded rapidly - according to the Earth Day Network one billion people will be celebrating today through events, educational initiatives and campaigns in over 170 countries. Will you be one of them? Logo courtesy of The Earthday Network.

I appear to be getting quite a few Search Engine hits lately on the theme of 'small garden ideas'. Poor people, they will have gone away a little disappointed so I thought I'd put up the courtyard garden displayed at the Ideal Home Show recently for anyone else who happens along later. I've always liked moongates and stream bed style planting - here small mound forming alpines and herbs were used to provide a planting tough enough to remain relatively interesting for the 24 days of the exhibition. Surprisingly about a quarter of the exhibition space was given over to gardening - mainly spa pools and patio furniture unfortunately. The garden pictured above was part of the Eco Home exhibit. This also had another, smaller courtyard garden featuring recycled materials to use as e.g. garden mulches. The accompanying blurb also talked about using the garden pond as a means of raising enough fish to feed a family for a year. However, neither pond nor fish were actually shown...

Well it's been quite a week for VP here. I'm quietly typing away and a whole nosegay of awards and accolades fall into my lap. I'm really pleased - I write my blog to be the kind of magazine I'd enjoy reading and it's really good to know that many of you out there like what I do. Constructive criticism is also welcome. In order to thank everyone properly and to pass these beauties on, I think it's going to take more than one post to deal with this little lot. Firstly, thanks to David McMahon over at Authorblog . He has a regular feature called Post of the Day , where he nominates his best reads. David has given me an honourable mention twice this week for Signs of Tinseltown and Hollywood Inaction . Thanks David - coming from an author, that's special praise indeed. Passing this award on is easy, just check out David's blog and say g'day - he also welcomes your nominations for the award. Next up to give me an award was Viooltje - a lovely, recentl...

Another example which thoroughly justifies my nomination as the worst garden blogger poet over at The Garden Monkey . I'm secretly quite proud of this, but it's early days yet re actually grabbing the award. Last week's effort garnered my nomination, but my spectacular early efforts in the genre here and here have been overlooked. They show why I need my Bad Poetry tag. This is just one category in the funtastic Fork n Monkey awards. You have until May 16th to vote. Note that some element of gardening must be included in any blog nominated. The full set of categories are: Best Writing Favourite Cat Blog Favourite Seedling Photo Favourite Snap Without Crackle or Pop Heather Mills Al Fayed Award Jeeves Award for Worst Dressed Celebrity Gardener Most Entertaining Garden Website Most Interesting Self-Portrait Most Unusual Vegetable Based Blog Not the Greatest Poetry in the World (mine!)

...Moss Way back in January when I was out taking pictures ready for World Wetlands Day , I spotted this rather pleasing combination by a neighbour's garden. I loved the contrast of the rich greens of the moss against the bark, berries, box and even the pavement. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see that there are at least three species there. Just don't ask me to identify them! Have a look at Mrs Nesbitt's Place for more pictures on the theme of M.

NAH isn't called Non-allotmenteering Husband for nothing. Usually his sole contribution to our food production is ensuring the grass gets mown from time to time. However, his aunt in Poole gave us a Mantis Tiller last month, so I've managed to persuade him into another useful plot based actvity involving a gadget. Sadly Gwen has had to give up her plot now (third generation allotmenteer no less and my inspiration) and was only too glad to pass the Mantis on to us. Luckily NAH is an engineer, so was able to get the tiller working again. It was a close run thing - there was a certain temper lost this afternoon (believe me it's best to evacuate the area when this happens) which got placated by a swift ice cream of the Magnum variety (phew!). The Mantis isn't everyone's cup of tea , but it worked beautifully this afternoon, seeming to spite Fred at plot 20's dire warnings about our clay and the machine's light weight. Now I can plant the held back spuds tomo...

In honour of my first Garden Bloggers Blooms Day , I wanted to give you something a bit special, so I've created a new Slideshow for my sidebar entitled 'April Flower Shower'. It shows you flowers from both my garden and my allotment, though I have to confess the cherry blossom's from round the corner, the pink magnolia is the view I have of my neighbour's new tree from our garden and the potty cats had me in fits of giggles at my local garden centre last week. I couldn't resist them and I hope you enjoy the show! Whilst I was selecting the photographs, I noticed that my pear blossom had a rather nice visitor I hadn't seen when taking the shot. I love it when that kind of thing happens - so I thought I would show it you again to illustrate my GBBD post.

I've been over to Swindon today for my regular volunteer stint at Heelis , the National Trust HQ. I'm now at a bit of a crossroads there as I've been offered a meaty new volunteering role - the management of the volunteer programme for the Gardens Survey Project. This is a flagship, 3 year project being undertaken to survey 100 gardens. It involves plant surveying, GPS mapping and digital photography. The offered role ticks a lot of the right boxes - it makes use of my skills in abundance, builds on the planning advice I've given to the project thus far and is far more interesting than the archive sorting I've been doing (and moaning about) lately. However, I'm not leaping at the opportunity. To me the role described looks like a full-time one, not 10 days induction followed by a day(ish) a week. A couple of the other volunteer roles appeal much more to me - Plant Recorder and Photographer. These are property based and look like they have a better fit with the g...

[Fanfare] This is my 250th Post - I guess I'm not a blogging newbie anymore :)

In response to Threadspider's comment last week , here's proof that Skimble does indeed bring us presents of the reddest Photinia x fraseri 'Red Robin' leaves he can find. As you can see he's contemplating going and getting the next one. He always brings us red rubber bands too - I wonder if cats can see in colour?

Gardeners weren't left out from the ideas shortlisted for the Innovations section of the Ideal Home Show recently. First up was an idea to save watering can overflow. I'm forever off to fit in another quick task whilst my can's filling up, only to return to find I'm also watering the patio. I won't attempt to explain how it works, but you can click on the image to enlarge it if you feel like reading the blurb... Those of us used to using springform cake tins will be kicking ourselves for not applying the same principle to the humble plant pot - would we be millionaires by now? Maybe, maybe not... Finally, not strictly speaking a gardening idea, but it gets to the heart of solving many a gardening tea break disaster. I suspect Nicey and Wifey might have a word or two to say on the subject... What do you think of these ideas? Do you think any of them will actually hit the shops? Have you got an idea of your own? If so, perhaps you need to enter next year's compe...

I tootled off late this afternoon following the tinseltown trail to see The Wolfman filming in Lacock. OK, I had a bit of a thing about Sir Anthony Hopkins as a teenager (in his classic BBC serial/Alistair McClean action hero phase), so I was really after a glimpse of the beknighted one. What struck me was how so many people (at least 50) can do what seems so very little for so long. The pictured extras were positively animated compared to what didn't happen for most of the hour I spent there. The fact that we were outside and most of the filming was inside the Tithe Barn probably didn't help either. In addition, the crew's communication system was less obtrusive than Monday's, so I suspect they heard all sorts going on through their earpieces. They did react, rather zombie-like in my view, to unheard commands from time to time. Sometimes this resulted in a series of barked orders - 'Stand by guys, let's lock it up',... 'Rolling',...'Cut there...

Hustling bustle slows To Temple tranquility Stately sentinels salute Relics in their midst Roses for rememberance Simple blossoms bloom A pause in city life Complete with birdsong Scattered thoughts Gather around me I'm at peace Time to pause, to reflect Sirens shatter stillness I walk on.

...Lights I couldn't resist this de light ful kitty at the Ideal Home Show last wednesday. It was part of Number 1 Lower Carbon Drive , a full-size house built to show the latest ideas for greener living. There was lots of advice available too. The purpose of the cat? A visual representation to show each one contributes 10 watts of energy to a home. Just think of the heating bills we're saving with two! Do go to Mrs Nesbitt's Place to find other ABC Wednesday pictures.

Yesterday saw my return to The Botanic Nursery for their monthly plant workshop on unusual plants for lime tolerant soils. I think most people were put off by the snow flurries and hail, but as you can see, most of the time was spent in delightful clear sunshine. I was the only one there so 1:1 tuition was on offer for topics of my choice. The nursery's transformed into a mass of green since my last visit. The glasshouses are full to bursting with choice plants - they're exhibiting at no less than 3 shows next week - one in France plus RHS London and Cardiff . By the time I catch up with Terry at Cardiff next Friday, I suspect he'll be exhausted. The pictured area was being 'tidied' ready for the next batch off plants to be set outside for hardening off. Alison was pricking out so industriously whilst I was there, I think they may run out of space quite soon. I asked about my 'challenging' RHS seeds - Terry was much more relaxed about them and suggested ...

Unlike the last time , I managed to take a picture of the 'secret' sign at the end of our road yesterday. It's one of the cryptic clues left for the latest film crew to find their way to Lacock from the M4. On Thursday, the village will be graced with the presence of Sir Anthony Hopkins , who is starring in The Wolfman , a remake of the 1941 film. The Tithe Barn and High Street will be used for the scenes and judging by the signs a little further along the road, it looks like Castle Combe will also be used. We've also just heard that Dame Judi Dench will be returning to Lacock later on in the year to film a Cranford Christmas Special for screening in 2009. Exciting isn't it? Last night we had our first choir social event - a meal at the Flemish Weaver in Corsham . On arrival, I found myself in the middle of another filming event, for Tess of the D'Urbevilles starring the latest Bond girl. The street opposite the pub was transformed (oh why did I leave my ...

I was feeling rather left out when most of the UK's garden bloggers posted their pictures of snowy gardens, fields and snowmen yesterday. So here's the light dusting of snow Chippenham experienced for all of half an hour this morning. Canadian readers in particular will be falling about laughing at how such a pathetic amount is newsworthy. However, this is the only snow to have settled here so far this winter, so do indulge me - just this once ;)

Work in Progress - Cornus pruning in the front side garden. You can also see where the public land begins on the left - land ripe for Guerilla Gardening ... Do you get kind of twisty about your garden at this time of year and want to change e verything ? Me too. The cure? Get on with spring cleaning the garden, especially pruning. My perennials have been cut down to let their fresh green growth stretch into the newly created space. The late flowering Clematis are cut back to newly sprouting buds. My climbing roses were cut back to their framework branches in February. The final job is to prune the shrubs such as Hypericum , Potentilla , Perovskia , Fuchsia , Teucrium and Cornus. I completed the job today - a little later than most years, but the recent cold weather has held things back a little. In doing so I've realised that there are several key stages to my approach with these shrubs: 1. The Nervous Nibbler A bit of a twig here, a shoot there. The odd dead branch removed. ...

One of the weirder aspects of the Ideal Home Show was the Madame Tussauds Celebrity Bathrooms display in the Bathroom Ideas section. This comprised of 5 different bathrooms replete with wax dummies - often posed as far away from the bathroom furniture as possible. Only J-Lo and the Louis Walsh/Simon Cowell combos were dressed in bathroom gear, the rest were dressed as if they were going to an awards ceremony, such as the pictured George Clooney. I took this picture just before closing time. Earlier on in the day you couldn't get near him for 'women of a certain age' queuing up to have their pictures taken. I felt it was just plain creepy - I haven't really liked things like this ever since being scared to death by The Autons in Dr Who as a child. I still have nightmares about being trapped in an old fashioned department store being chased by mannequins to this day. On Friday evening NAH and I watched Michael Clayton on DVD - a much better (and thought provoking) wa...

On Wednesday, NAH and I decided we needed a bit of joint R&R and so we went 'up to the smoke' (London) to visit the Ideal Home Show , which ends today. Our last visit was over twenty years ago when we had a long weekend in London to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Our souvenirs that time were a magnetic window washing kit (meant to be used for simultaneous outdoor and indoor window washing, utterly useless so thrown away) and a mincer (of the meat variety) which has languished in the back of a kitchen cupboard ever since. Surprisingly it's the show's centenary year , which seemed to be the perfect excuse for a return visit. It's very hard to categorise the show. It's a weird mix of department store, educational/thought provoking exhibits and taking part in a really dreadful TV shopping channel - Nicer Dicer anyone? The show's centrepiece is usually some mock up houses. Latterly these are more like Portakabins than houses, but a Dream Home ...

Today marks the start of National Pet Month here in the UK. So what better way is there to celebrate this event than by posting a picture of Jess in the garden this week?

I'm a day late in posting this as we had an early start and late finish yesterday in order to go to the Ideal Home Show in London. I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it, just for the picture taken on the B&Q stand to illustrate my April Fool's Day roundup. More about the show itself in later postings. I was pleased to see so many Garden Bloggers out there in a playful mood on Tuesday and thanks to those of you who left a comment on my small contribution. Jodi over at Bloomingwriter killed two birds with one stone by re-writing the opening lines of my favourite poem ( TS Eliot's The Waste Land ) for her Garden Bloggers Muse Day offering thus providing links to several jokes, including the splendid Daffogerberas and mysterious Indian artefacts I'd also seen in Nancy and Carol's gardens. I loved Aunt Debbi's tale concerning her monkeys' constant attempts to con her; Matron's new type of apple was a delight, as was Phil's astonishing ...

…Kitty cats Having put our two cats Skimble and Jess up on the sidebar, it’s about time I introduced them to you properly. And what better place than ABC Wednesday where I’ve been struggling to find a suitable letter K out there? They’re our second pair of cats, a brother and sister born in January 2001, who joined us in late February the same year from a nearby cat rescue shelter. Sadly we left their mother plus 3 brothers and sisters behind, but they all found good homes – we know they must be good because of the owner vetting process we had to go through! Both are going through the ‘spring madness’ at the moment: Jess chases randomly about the house and Skimble has found his tail again and chases it incessantly. Skimble’s also bringing us regular presents of the reddest Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ leaves he can find in the garden. He announces their arrival with much fussing and meowing. This habit’s so pronounced, we call each one a ‘Very Important Leaf’ (VIL). Jess is named a...

Along with the 'flying penguins' on this morning's Breakfast News , it seems that pigs really can fly today. Unlike flights recently from Heathrow's brand spanking new Terminal 5...