Veg Plotting

Don't forget we "spring forward" into British Summer Time this weekend, so at last the evenings will be light enough for gardening :) The picture is of the clocks I found on the wall of one of the conference rooms at Yeo Valley HQ recently. Guess which one is showing the right time? Like their garden , there's lots of individuality and quirkiness to be found in this corporate HQ, which I loved. Have a great Easter everyone!

Just a quick extra post to thank Naomi for getting us all together for a superb and inspirational day at Great Dixter yesterday. Here we all are during our tour of the garden and taking lots of notes as Deputy Head Gardener Siew Lee shows us around. I'll be writing a more personal response about the day soon and I've lots of other snippets for Against the Odds , Breaking the Rules (and Friday Bench over at Sign of the Times ) to feature over the coming weeks. I'll be using this post to round-up the posts from the rest of the gang about the day as and when they appear. We had the privilege of being there when the garden was closed to the public, but you can go there from tomorrow :) First up is Jono - who's summed up many of my thoughts about Fergus Garrett's inspirational talk. Then Caro spills the beans on her Perfect Day :) And Gaz reveals which plants went home to the Alternative Eden  as well as giving  a guided tour . Veronica has a beautiful...

Easter is when many gardens open their gates for the season and at last we're spoilt for choice on where to go. To help you decide at this most special of times, I've coaxed Madame Zelda out of her sherry soaked dreams to predict the very one to suit you - I feel there's slightly more chance of a successful outcome this way than my original idea of using a map and her hat pin. To obtain the very best result she has cast aside her usual blue ball and is using her all-powerful magic blue mushrooms. I fear I may have woken her a little too sharply as she's seeing stars and has chosen to couch her reply using the signs of the zodiac ;) Oh my dear, the impenetrable clouds part to reveal a whirling firmament - a galaxy of possibilities only the deeper mysteries can resolve. [she pauses to poke at the largest toadstool with her gnarled finger which promptly falls over] Ooooh, such pretties and colours and lush green vegetation you can only dream about my lovely. But ...

Gayla Trail at You Grow Girl has started a creative writing club for gardeners called The Grow Write Guild . Every fortnight she's publishing a prompt. It's up to the reader to choose the medium in which to respond: writing, photography, artwork, a poem. Anything goes. The idea is to tell stories in some way, and that's great. The first one was posted a few days ago: My First Plant . I can't remember mine, but that's fine. It's OK to relate the story of the first plant which resonated with you, so that's what I'll do... My first plant ... was the humble radish at the age of 17. I know I was aware of and grew plants before then, but coming from a family of non-gardeners, not a single one has stuck in my mind. The radish was the first plant I chose to grow and I grew it at school for my A level Biology practical project. The Nuffield biology syllabus I studied placed a great emphasis on practical learning (e.g. we looked at Mendel 's original...

I bought two of these and asked for a review copy of the other ( The Speedy Vegetable Garden ) to fill some gaps in my 52 Week Salad Challenge Reference Library . Note : all three of them are suitable as general references, not just for salads. Martin Crawford is well-known for his work and courses about forest gardening . I've been pondering this system and the principles of polyculture Alys Fowler outlined when she spoke about Edible Gardens at Holt Farm last year. As a result I bought How to Grow Perennial Vegetables  to expand my knowledge of what can be grown for eating from this plant group. In this regard it doesn't disappoint. There are a few introductory chapters outlining why growing perennial vegetables is a good thing to do, plus the techniques and growing systems involved.  Finally a chapter on maintenance concentrates on how to keep plants in top condition, so pests and diseases find it hard to get a look-in. The bulk of the book is devoted to an A to Z ...

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 ...

On Friday, I visited The Edible Garden Show for the first time. Previously it's clashed with family celebrations and I'd also wondered whether such an early season gardening show would work. Well, it does work - very well indeed. Here's a taster of what I saw... I spotted this intriguing basket on the way in. Taking edibles to the show? There must be a story regarding those leeks... One of the show's strengths is the extremely full programme of talks. Here James Wong is in full flow in the Experts Theatre, which itself was full to overflowing whenever James appeared (apologies for the quality of the photos, the lighting was awful for taking pics!). I could have just sat down all day listening to talks here... and in the Cookery Theatre... and in The Potting Shed... AND in the smallholders area. The concept of edible was present at the show in its widest sense. As you can see even the snails are moving too quickly for my camera's shutter speed! I ha...

It's Red Nose Day... with a tomato! We break from our traditional Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day broadcast to bring you some salad based humour in honour of today's Red Nose Day in aid of Comic Relief... For starters, how about a quick round of an alternative  Gardeners' Question Time ? Q Why did the tomato turn red? A Because it saw the salad dressing  Q : What is small, red and whispers? A : A hoarse radish Q :  Why did the tomato go out with a prune? A :  Because he couldn't find a date And then there's... Knock, Knock Who's there? Lettuce Lettuce who? Lettuce in and you'll find out. A man walks into the doctor's office with a banana stuck in one of his ears, a head of lettuce in the other ear, and a carrot stuck in one nostril. The man says, "Doctor, this is terrible. What's wrong with me?" The doctor says, "Well, first of all, you need to eat more sensibly." BOOM BOOM! And finally - a h...