Veg Plotting

Comfrey is a new crop on my allotment for 2014, though I won't be eating any of it. Since I started to install raised beds on the plot last year, I now need to make lots more compost to keep them topped up. That's where the comfrey comes in as it acts as a great accelerator when added to the raw ingredients in a compost bin. As you can see from the photo, my new comfrey bed is handily placed next to the compost bins in the middle of my plot. This is the variety Bocking14 , the kind which isn't so much of a garden thug, unlike the comfrey I see growing right next to the River Avon in town, which is giving the invasive Himalayan balsam there a run for its money. I'm growing it in a mini raised bed of its own made from some used car tyres I acquired ages ago. When I planted the comfrey out last year, I was a bit worried the couch grass nearby would invade the bed. The tyres plus an extra thick lining of cardboard and newspaper were my attempt to prevent this fro

The all important group photo - in the International Rose Test Garden . I'm a bit hard to spot because I don't have the rest of my avatar with me ;) 3 days, 80 bloggers, 90 degree heat, 15 gardens, 3 nurseries and hundreds of photographs. How do I begin to summarise the Fling? Like Victoria I tended to my own garden first, which helped to sooth the jetlag fug in my brain and let the sights, sounds and scents of my trip settle down more comfortably. Portland is known as "The City of Roses", so a large test garden is appropriate - the scent hits you smack in the face before you've entered the garden! "What can you learn by coming to the Fling?", was the question I was asked most often at Portland. The implication being that by coming from England - the cradle of all that is good about gardening - I should find all I need right here. Old Germantown Gardens - the only example we saw of the English style, which was primped to perfection.

Screen grab taken from the Food Programme page on the BBC website Whilst I was away, Radio 4's Food Programme broadcast a very interesting programme on Salad Leaves. The appropriately named Dan Saladino revealed that: The UK's demand for salad leaves is worth £600 million annually and demand is rising steadily for leaf production throughout the year Many of the salad leaves we buy are imported from Spain, particularly during the winter months Chlorine is still used extensively by some firms as part of the bagged salad process as spring water supplies aren't sufficient for what's needed A new indoor growing facility in Essex is the size of 10 football pitches. This is set to grow to 20 football pitches to meet increasing UK demand and to compete against imported leaves Soil cleansing is practised at the Essex facility to reduce pests and diseases (but also eliminates the beneficials) and fertilisers are added to the soil before each crop cycle Rose bay willo

Mount Rainier seemingly floats in the air - as seen from the Bainbridge Island to Seattle ferry I've just got back from an amazing holiday in the Pacific North West aka the Washington and Oregon states in the USA. The main purpose of the holiday was to join the Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland, but a long journey across the pond deserves to be made into a road trip, which is precisely what Victoria , Charlotte and I did. We flew into Seattle, where our friend  Marty Wingate had arranged an amazing pre-fling garden tour for us, including another visit to the Bloedel Reserve , plus the company of Dan Hinkley to show us around the legendary Heronswood. We then drove down the coast to Portland for the Fling. Here the organisers managed to squeeze us into an itinerary that included 15 gardens, 3 nurseries and one publisher (Timber Press) in a mere 3 days. Our final stop was in the heart of Oregon, where Victoria found the wonderful Airlie Farm B&B for us to have s

I've been hacking away at an enormous bramble up at the plot to try to get rid of it at long last. An unexpected side effect was uncovering lots of ripe gooseberries which had yet to be discovered by the birds. Therefore it was important to harvest these straight away before the pesky critters realised what was there. However, I hadn't expected to be harvesting anything and so hadn't bought any of my containers. My solution to the problem? An extra use for the gauntlets I did have with me. One gauntlet = half a kilo of berries, ready for making some delicious gooseberry fool later on. I discovered the next day I should have checked the fingers for stray berries before putting them on again ;)

My plant buying is governed currently by a wants list for the terrace borders and front garden makeovers planned for this year. It's interesting to see how my tastes have changed since I started this blog and now show up in the list. The pictured Astrantia 'Star of Royals' wasn't on there, but I couldn't resist it when I went to my local garden centre to claim my half price plant offer. I'd decided Trachelospermum jasminoides was the plant of choice for my claim, but then found that was on special offer anyway. I had planned to plant the Astrantia in the shady part of the terrace to replace the prickly  Osmanthus heterophyllus  'Tricolor'*, where Victoria and I agreed the flowers would do a marvellous job of lighting up the gloom. However, it was so gloomy when I removed the Osmanthus , I didn't have the heart to plant it there. Instead, I've given it a starring centre stage role in the top terrace bed, where I see it waving at me eve

Sloane Square has a fab new planting which was turning heads when I made my way to Chelsea Flower Show last month. Plenty of people were crossing the road for a closer look and then taking photographs, just like I did. It may have had a flashier, tropical themed cousin around the corner, but unlike this Chelsea in Bloom winner... ... it forms a longer lasting feature on the Square (at least until the store opens in September) and is designed to help save the bees :) I hope it'll be a permanent feature - watch this space.

Just a quick post for now as I haven't had time to do the project I'd planned for my tree following this month. I was going to lay a white sheet on the ground and shake the branches that stretch over our garden to identify some of the smaller critters which inhabit my tree, but I ran out of time :( Those branches are a constant source of irritation to NAH, who doesn't like them bending further over the garden under the weight of their now fully grown leaves. He's convinced they'll crash through our fence and onto the garden one day, just like what happened last December. I then remind him that those branches help to keep our privacy. It's a circular conversation we have at least once a month. NAH also says he needs to be renamed as 'The Drastic Gardener' for the purposes of this blog as he tends to act on his irritations without consulting me just before he gets started. So we have another circular argument on how his help is welcome, but cou

Work in progress on replanting the double terrace beds  ... the switch There comes a point in July - or June if we're very lucky - when the heat of the day means gardening activities switch to early in the morning and the evening. I love it when this happens as I'll happily spend a couple of hours up at the plot, then come home for breakfast and still feel there's plenty of time left in the rest of the day. Evening watering duties are also a pleasant way to keep cool and never a chore. The switch is even more important this year as I'm remodelling part of the garden. July isn't usually the best time to do this, but a knee injury earlier in the year prevented me from doing the work in April/May as planned. I find digging at 8am is quite therapeutic! If I'm up at the plot, then another glory of July is the golden last hour when harvesting activities take place. This week's stars are gooseberries and autumn - yes autumn - raspberries. I always for

A pause to take stock and refreshment after a long drive ~ in my brother-in-law's garden in Yorkshire last month on our way to County Durham. The picture effect is called Key Line and was done in camera.