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The Great Little Garden Blog
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Read more »Changing Trends at our Local Horticultural Garden Show
I am privileged to be a member of our local horticultural society committee and the last meeting included a line on the agenda saying ‘review the autumn show.’ So, we did just that.
It would be interesting to see how the following stark figures compare to your own show. At our autumn show, held on the day the Tour of Britain raced through the village, the actual numbers of exhibits were up but the number of exhibitors was down.
Less people doing more.
We had less people baking the cakes for refreshments but they took more money for the society. -
Read more »Our garden expert, Phil McCann, is feeling reflective as we begin the transition between the seasons. Here he explores how he feels as the seasons turn, what he will miss and what he is looking forward to. How are you feeling about the onset of autumn?
Goodbye, Summer
Yep, summer was a fantastic one with ice cream sales going through the roof, watering cans becoming the must-have accessory and my aching joints eased by the warm temperatures.Hello, Autumn
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Posted: August 29, 2018|||
Read more »Take Stock of Your Garden Successes and Failures
I know that New Year is the traditional time to stop and re-evaluate everything in your life but I reckon now, as summer ends, is also an ideal time to stop all that weeding, watering and worrying so you can look at your garden and decide what to do better next year. After all, you don’t need to rely on your memory if all your faults and successes are there, straight in front of your eyes.
Here are my own garden assessments for this summer:
No more parsnipsKeen followers of these blogs know the injuries that I’ve sustained in growing some pre
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Posted: August 22, 2018|||
Read more »The pumpkin has gone.
Not stolen or misplaced (no one could accidently lose that beast) but ...died.
Everything was going well until two days ago.
The discoveryIt was early morning and I did the usual round of watering - leaving the hosepipe dripping into the compost heap, home to the roots - followed by a quick check of the leaves and developing fruit. The fruit had been visibly swelling each day for the last few weeks. But two days ago, it hadn’t grown any bigger. This coincided with a drop in temperature so I wasn't too bothered. I reported back to the family.
‘T
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Posted: August 15, 2018|||
Read more »Danger in the Vegetable Plot
The wonderful thing about gardening is that we all learn something new every day. And for your own safety, my current lesson needs to be heard by all.
If you grow celery, parsnips, carrots or celeriac, please read on. Forewarned is forearmed. And you don't want to end up with forearms like mine.
Here goes:The tale starts with a potential comedic line. ‘I was gardening in my shorts’ which elicits the response ‘strange place to have a garden.’ But seriously, due to the hot weather I was pottering and weeding in the veg garden wearing short
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Posted: August 08, 2018|||
Read more »A Tale of Obsession
What’s the first thing you think of when you wake up? Mine is ‘the pumpkin.’ My family have given up on me; they despair at the time I spend simply staring at the developing fruit. They have actually walked away when I’ve been in conversation about the beast with friends. They are appalled at my ability to turn any conversation, any, to pumpkin growing.
‘How are things?’, ‘Keeping well?’ and ‘How’s life treating you?’ are perfect opening questions for me. (My answers: ‘Pumpkin’s growing well’; ‘The pumpkin is’ and ‘Not as good as I am treating that pumpkin.’)
However, ‘‘What do you think about Brexit?’, ‘Do you think Donald Trump should impose sanctions on Iran?’ and ‘What time is it?’ are slightly trickier opening gambits to steer to pumpkin chat, but I can. (
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Posted: August 01, 2018|||
Read more »Garden Survival Tips After a Heatwave and High Winds
The heatwave has done it’s worst (for now) and after the weekend’s rain and wind, the garden needs picking up and putting right. But your outdoor space is resilient, especially with some help from you.
Dead BranchesSome plants have suffered in the heat and will show signs of damage, Trees and shrubs could well have dead branches. This is their natural mechanism for survival. They shut down and sacrifice a twig here or there to save itself.
Cut such dead branches off where the live growth begins. Trace down a branch, scraping a
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Posted: July 30, 2018|||
Read more »Weeds – Nature’s Opportunists
Nature is a wonderful thing. Here we are, at the time of writing, and it’s baking hot, sunny every day and we are all flagging. Plants are getting droopy, hosepipe bans loom large and after-sun sales are out of this world. But some plants are loving it. Weeds.
Lawn weeds still seem to growing when all around them turn beige. But how come? All of the lawn, lovely grass or foe, receives the same pitiful amount of dew and zero rainfall. Yet weeds are green and the grass looks dead. It’s a case of survival vs opportunity. Dandelions have deep roots that go down a -
Read more »The Birds and the Bees
This is about the birds and the bees – the real birds and bees. The actual flying and buzzing kind. And more specifically the ones in my greenhouse. I haven't opened an aviary or apiary; it’s just the permanently open door of my greenhouse is too tempting for (in order of appearance and frequency):
- Blackbirds
- Bees
- And a robin
Blackbirds:
I reckon there is a recently fledged nest of these charming birds close to the greenhouse. Every time I walk up to the structure there is alarmed scuttling, scampering and scurrying of a wh
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Read more »The warm weather has seemingly increased the number of wasps in my garden. At the moment, they aren't the ‘buzzing around your head when trying to dine al fresco’ type of wasp - oh no, these are much more industrial than antisocial.
The current wasps are more ‘asking for permission to frack in your back garden’ than ‘a neighbour cooking sausages on an old barbecue to the disco beats of Boney M slap bang in the middle of a peaceful Sunday afternoon in what is turning out to be a scorcher of a summer’. These are serious.
