Veg Plotting

Like Plant Mad Nige , I'm feeling a bit peeved at the moment. No, not at farmers like he is, but my local council. It would appear it's our estate's turn to have its public planting tidied up. Don't get me wrong, I usually would approve heartily, but WHY did it have to include all the lovely red berried Guelder-rose providing food for the birds AND all the dogwood and Salix stems that are meant to provide our open spaces around here with some winter interest? Surely the work plan this time around could have included just a quick tidy up of the dead or dangerous deciduous wood, plus all the evergreen trimming, followed by a visit in late winter (prior to nesting time and after the berries have been eaten) to complete the rest? They've made a good job of the evergreen stuff, even cloud pruning some of the nameless bushes we have - a nice touch above the ordinary don't you think? BUT we do have mass plantings of gold, green and red stems, which a couple of ...

Dahlias at the RHS Inner Temple Show - September 2008 There's been quite a lot of debate recently in the blogosphere about the RHS , where it's headed and the value of membership to its members. James has a particularly thoughtful article plus comments over at his award winning Blackpitts blog if you're interested in what's been said so far. It's been a timely discussion for me as my membership is due for renewal in January. NAH purchased it for me 2 years ago as a welcome Christmas gift. Last year I renewed it without a thought, but this year every purchase has to count, so here goes. Membership cost £41 this year and my benefits according to the RHS are: A monthly magazine ( The Garden ) rrp @ £4.25 - however, I believe the net value to me is nearer £10 , (not RHS' £51) when compared with other subscription bargains like Gardens Illustrated, who discount theirs and give away a free book. I'd also like to know how many non-membership sales ...

Stuart of Blotanical fame has set a 160 character challenge this month: to provide an answer to the question Why Do I Garden? Here's my response. It's: W onderful H ealing Y ear-round I nspiring & Creative D irty O utside G reat A ctive R ooted D oing not Vegetating E nvironmentally sound N ourishing ! Sadly it looks like Blotanical is no more, so I can't take you there via a link to discover hundreds of fellow gardening bloggers :(

Dr Who garden complete with TARDIS - RHS Show Cardiff, April 2008 How's this for the ultimate in garden sheds? A local landscaping firm is auctioning off their replica 10 foot tall TARDIS to raise money for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal. It was built for a Doctor Who themed float shown at Devizes and Pewsey's carnivals (note to self: must write about the local Autumn carnival season next year). One of the firm's owners was quoted in this week's Gazette & Herald : It would be a good Christmas present. We've had suggestions it could be used as an allotment shed, portable loo or a children's playhouse . The shed can be viewed and delivery is also promised - though to Joy's place in Canada might be stretching their goodwill a bit far. The reserve price is £80 (around $120 USD) and in view of the success of the TARDIS category in Shed of The Year , I'm sure it'll raise far more than that. Sealed bids should be sent to: Elm Tree Fencin...

...Sprouts I have to admit sprouts aren't my favourite vegetable, in fact I agree with an ex-colleague who described them as spawn of the devil at an office Christmas lunch a few years ago. Nearly everyone else looks at me like I've gone mad when I say I don't like them. They ask What DO you eat on Christmas Day then? and look at me pityingly. Answer: roast parsnips plus leeks and carrots freshly picked from the allotment usually. No problem. You may have guessed the picture illustrating this post isn't from my allotment. You're right - it's from next door's. I was most amused when Anna (thanks Anna - I'll link to you when your Blog's ready) contacted me a couple of weeks ago with the information there's an annual sprout festival held in Worcester. It appears a local chef there believes the sprout is a much maligned vegetable and is doing his best to redress the balance. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you more about it at the time, but it ...

As well as being a vintage year for autumnal leaf colour, it's been a great season for fungi around here, especially at my allotment. The weather plus my mulched prunings and next door's used pet bedding seem to have provided ideal conditions for various toadstools to thrive. The above picture shows a fungus that's new to me which I found growing near my apple trees. I've narrowed it down to either Stropharia cyanea (Blue Roundhead) or Stropharia aeruginosa (Verdigris Agaric) using the extremely useful Rogers Mushrooms website. However, from the description and photos there (or anywhere else) I can't really narrow it down to the species level - not surprising since the description of S. cyanea says it's often mistaken for the other one. Either way, it's not edible. I don't think it looks that appetising anyway - what do you think? Can anyone confirm which one it is? BTW Apologies for not replying to your Comments, messages and e-mails over the weeken...

This post has a touch of the You Ask, We Answer about it as it's in response to Zoe 's comment about the Friends of the NGS (National Gardens Scheme) being a shade on the expensive side in my first Bargains post. I'm happy to report I've now been sent details of the scheme for 2009 and can confirm it is a bargain: Friends of the NGS 2009 Thank you for your interest in joining Friends of the NGS. We have made a few changes to Friends for 2009 and I am delighted to announce the details. For just £8.99 a year, Friends of the NGS will receive: A copy of The Yellow Book in February 2009 which lists 3,500, mostly private gardens all over England & Wales which open to the public in 2009 and early 2010 Friends of the NGS Newsletter in Spring and Autumn Discount and promotional offers for NGS events, including for 2009 an evening hosted by Alan Titchmarsh 2 for 1 entry at selected attractions If you would like to purchase a membership for yourself or as a gift please call...

Since I re-designed my blog a few weeks ago, you may have noticed I've replaced my regular quiz widget with Black Boxes (on the left). I found it on Suburbia 's blog when I was leaving a comment and I decided to add it here for a while for a bit of fun. I love inserting my own either/or questions and also seeing whose blog I end up at. It's often the same one, but that's not happening so much now - I suspect more bloggers are playing. It also means the frequency of strangers turning up in my site statistics has increased lately. It's always worthwhile having a look at these sites, especially as you never know what bells and whistles they're using on their blogs which are a bit of fun or potentially useful. A few days ago I ended up at The Cow-Herd Speaketh!!!! , a blogger based in Bangalore, India. In addition to a very interesting article on Hinglish (the mixing of Hindi and English in India), the blog had a most intriguing widget - How Much Is Your Blog Worth...

Ever since I started my Magnetic Poetry strand back in January (the majority of posts on my Bad Poetry label), I've been debating fiercely with myself whether I would actually post today's entry. For the vast majority of my life I've been a most optimistic and happy soul and that's what usually gets portrayed here too. However, it wasn't that way on the 2nd November 2003. The signs were already there in my poems for September and October , but on that fateful day, I got absolutely no sleep at all - none for the rest of the week in fact. I was so full of adrenaline from stress at work, it was like I was completely wired open. I was shaking, my heart went haywire, it felt like I had fur being stroked on top of my head. It also felt like I was communicating with everyone from the other side of a misted glass partition. Naturally I couldn't have gone to work like that, so I called in sick. In time I recovered, slowly. But I never worked full time ever again. I...

Now most of the leaves are down, it's time to sweep them off the path and onto the borders to make a natural mulch. I've also asked NAH to do the final mow of the lawn for the year, so the sticky mass of leaves on there will be shredded into the grass clippings to make a good mulch for one of the beds up at the allotment. Apart from that, I'll probably take everyone's advice from last month - leave things as they are and say I've created the ideal wildlife habitat!