Ho, ho, ho, here we go. Off again on the sleigh ride into tomorrow and who knows what. I get quite excited by the turn of the year and the smell of new adventures. 2018 didn’t turn out too badly really. December was a mixed bag, with one or two very cold nights, with theRead More
The doors close on the autumn, slammed at the finish by fierce winds and torrential storms that swept in from nowhere and were gone in an instant. There were gentle moments too, when warm yet watery sunlight stroked the land and persuaded the lawn to keep growing. Growth has stayed lush this year and inRead More
Isn’t it great when seasons actually deliver more or less what is expected? I felt that October worked and that the season had turned. There were a few cold nights, some beautiful misty dawns, the occasional bright watery days of sunshine and some very soggy rough moments. Things just got beaten up and then theRead More
The tide has turned and how very quickly, Autumn rushed in, the brutal heat of summer bringing the early surrender from an exhausted landscape. The trees tell of a desire to shed their leaves and rest. All across the garden there is a sense of shutdown. The harvest has been mixed, the runner beans croppingRead More
Encouraged by the boisterous mix of weather across August, we stumble ragged in to September. The beans took a hammering battered and bruised by sun, wind and rain they somehow still managed to produce a crop, early spuds sulked, but do look as they are bulking up a bit and all sorts of pests cameRead More
Well, that was a little testing, was it not? Days and days of blistering heat and hardly a cloud in the sky, quite extraordinary, nature does know how to play with the mind. Of course it’s been wonderful if you had nothing to do and didn’t have a garden to watch over. The transition fromRead More
Here we are again, turning the corner and heading back in the direction of winter. It’s crazy, the days really have raced. The gardens took forever to come alive and then a few sunny days kicked everything to life and in recent weeks conditions and plant growth have been tropical. Many a machete has beenRead More
So the weather continued to confound in the early days of May and weeks that were forecast as settled delivered surprises, with several frosts landing from nowhere. The shops and centres had been full of plants for weeks, but the public confidence waived. Then suddenly in the middle of the month there was an urgencyRead More
And the craziness continues… What a frustrating season, with gardens and gardeners all out of step. In mid-April the consensus was that we were three weeks behind with our planting and before much could be planted there was still the preparatory stuff. Every hole filled with water, so many of us have only just putRead More
Hooray, the clocks have changed and we can garden in the evening (if it stops raining). It’s actually good to see the back of March, what a month that was. The snow was totally disarming and the cold nights have been a test. Of course the thaw and the heavy rain has made the groundRead More