Veg Plotting

The return of Mr & Mrs Robin to my shed - they've moved from above the door this year to take up residence on the shelf next to the Blood, Fish and Bone The pictured notice on the allotment gate Enough red veined sorrel on my neglected plot to make delicious soup A green woodpecker a mere two feet away when I got to the allotment yesterday - I'm hoping it'll help to tackle the ants on my plot Threadspider 's help in kick-starting this year's digging - my patch is starting to look cared for instead of abandoned. Thanks so much my friend :D

I'm finding it very difficult to heed my own advice from last Friday . Especially when the first bulb catalogue of the year has just arrived - 5 months earlier than expected - and I've been walking around the neighbourhood musing the guerrilla garden area could really do with some lovely dainty tiny daffodils as well as the big blowsy ones I planted nearly 10 years ago. OMG there's a 10% discount if I order now . That's a very canny strategy - send temptation my way when I'm admiring mine and everyone's blogged daffodils and serve it up with a bargain. I'm lost dear reader, totally lost...

Thanks for your patience re the strange looking left sidebar yesterday and today. Needless to say I've learnt a lot from the experience! As you can see I've switched templates to solve the problem and then edited it to regain the 3 column layout. I hope you like the new look: I'd been thinking the old one might not be too good for people with red/green colour blindness anyway and so changing colours was on my blog to-do list. Yesterday's problem meant it just happened a little quicker :) Many thanks to those of you who left supportive comments, helpful ideas and links to useful stuff over the past couple of days.

I sincerely apologise for the lack of veggie related posts lately. Unfortunately I've been unable to do anything to the allotment since returning from Bruges as I've aggravated an old back injury and my osteopath has banned me from doing anything strenuous like training for The Moonwalk , gardening, allotmenteering or anything involving stooping or carrying anything too weighty for a while. This has resulted in me taking a rather inventive approach to gardening, such as finding ways of doing it whilst lying down. Having a raised central area to the garden has also helped me to continue at one of the busiest times of the year. My friend C from choir has told my osteopath what I've been up(?) to (she's the receptionist there), who finds it all rather hilarious. One of the more bizarre aspects of this whole episode - apart from the imagined sight of me gardening in a prone position - is my treatment involves being pummelled around a lot whilst staring at walls festooned w...

My apologies if my blog layout is looking a bit weird on the left hand side this morning. I've tried several browsers (AOL, IE and Firefox) and the same problem - photobucket bandwidth exceeded - is showing on all of them. I think it's something to do with the 3 column blog template I'm using, but I've run out of time trying to fix it this morning. I will try again on my return this evening. In the meantime, if you see anything other than the Photobucket bandwidth problem, or if the blog looks fine for you, or indeed if you have any ideas on how I can fix the problem, do leave me a Comment. Thanks. I've pulled today's scheduled post - whilst the posting part of the template isn't affected, I'm sure you don't really want to view an untidy looking blog! Update: As I suspected the message is to do with the Photobucket URLs I'm linking to which give me a 3-column template in Blogger. These are held on someone else's Photobucket account, so unles...

My dearest garden blogging friends, My hearty congratulations to you all. It's spring and your gardens are looking fresh and lovely: there's lots of colour - especially yellow - plus lots of fluffy, fuzzy green is peeping above the soil and on all those branches. You've done a great job the past few weeks - you've tidied everything up, pruned and weeded where needed and now your plants are luxuriating under their new layers of mulch, compost and poultry poo. What's that..., you think things are looking a bit gappy? I urge caution dear reader. You may have overwintered enough plants to stock a small nursery; you may think it's time to give your garden a bit of a revamp; you may find lots of plants crying out Buy me! at your local garden centre, specialist nursery or plant sale. But remember, you are at your weakest point. You've spent all winter looking at catalogues, dreaming of your ideal garden and how different things will be this year. Your resistan...

A few days ago, a large padded envelope from Spain dropped importantly onto our doormat. It contained a big surprise - the pictured book above - a celebration of 20 years of s'Albufera , a Parc Natural (bigger in importance than a nature reserve, but smaller than a national park) in Mallorca. The reason why I'd been sent it? To thank me for the time I'd spent out there researching aquatic invertebrate populations. My name's in the book (as an investigacio and principal collaborador del Parc, doesn't that sound grand?), as are loads of stunning photographs like the one below. It sums up the memories I have of the place: the picture is of Ses Salinas, a now disused salt pan complex where salt was dried for use in cooking. Now it's one of the main feeding grounds for all kinds of birds (s'Albufera is a RAMSAR designated wetland), both resident and migratory, and it's also where two of my invertebrate sampling sites are located. Photo copyright: Miquel Ang...

...Jenny During March, my local garden centre issues a half price plant voucher for any plant in stock - yes any plant - including enormous cloud-pruned creations at over £1,500. Of course I can't resist an opportunity to grab a bargain: a couple of years ago I invested in a golden fastigate Yew (still to be planted), last year it was a Clematis x aromatica (also still to be planted) and last week saw me bring the lovely Jenny home (guess what - she's not planted - yet) to come and live on next door's garage wall. It'll be a lovely warm south-westerly facing spot for this self-fertile kiwi fruit to clamber up the trellis next to Clematis 'Freckles'. Emma Cooper lost her heart to Jenny last year and I have to confess her smitten posts influenced greatly my final choice of plant this time round. At £7 instead of the usual £14, she's got to be worth a try :) For other J uicy posts today, head on over to ABC Wednesday .

I received an invitation to an AGM yesterday. Usually these make me feel tired instantly and they tend to go straight into the recycling pile. However this one's different, as you can probably guess from its cover. How about the following agenda: 12-2pm - Bring and Share Lunch and Registration 2pm - Formal AGM 3.30 - Tea and Coffee Break 3.45 - Green Care Lecture - Dr John Hegarty from Keele University talks about the importance of access to green space for our well being, plus Danny O'Sullivan talks about the Leaside Wood Recycling Project he founded 5.30 - Break Out Time - have a look at Fordhall's information boards or go for a walk 7-9 pm - Barn Dance and Hog Roast In addition, younger shareholders who aren't interested in the AGM (though their parents might be) will have their own activities such as bug hunts and arts n' crafts. If only all AGMs could be so imaginative! The Fordhall Farm story is an amazing one. It's about a young daughter and son's ...

Click to enlarge image if needed. Clockwise from top left: 1. Estate entrance (also bottom, right picture) 2. Bund side view 3. A view of both sides of the road looking south 4. Ditch 5. As 1 6. Behind the bund 7. Gravel soakaway strip 8. A view of both sides of the road looking north When I first introduced this year's series on public planting , I was unsure whether verges should be included. I had 2 main responses at the time - yes, include them and what's a verge? I promised the You Ask, We Answer team would get on the case, so here at last is their preliminary guide to verges, aka shoulder if you hail from across the pond. Most verges in the UK refer to a narrow strip of grass at the roadside, just like the edge you can see in the first and last picture in the collage. On more major roads, the design gets a little more complicated and I've chosen one such example to show you - the one closest to my house - on the A350 Chippenham bypass, a mere 5 minute walk away fr...