It can’t be August already surely? There has been a mistiness to the passing days, that has smudged the detail and had many of us puzzling over what day of the week it is. With the gentle easing of lockdown we will see clearer shapes and the return of punctuating routines. Thank goodness for theRead More
The British climate doesn’t do half measures does it? Most notable through early June was the intensity of the sun. We all felt at ease about the planting, confident that the frost was left behind and then a fireball appeared in the sky and everything cooked. Any carelessness with watering saw things fry. Many hoursRead More
A whole season swallowed up by COVID and time to think about the what to do next in the garden. The Spring in the main was pretty good and the interest in gardening lifted hugely as people, locked down sought occupation. There were many new to the task and most I suspect will be pleasedRead More
Mmmmmmm…so we waited for the rain and then it came, the perfect fillip for new plantings. The beans romped and everything puffed up and grew masses of leaves. The turn around was amazing, at the start of June, the message was that rainfall was at an all time low and then within days the newsRead More
The sting was certainly in the tail of last month, my goodness there was some treachery, particularly around the middle of the month, when a watery sun offered thin disguise to a cruel wind, that cut through everything. Every other person drawn by the deception nursed a cold. The pollen was lively too, with HazelRead 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
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
Well, August was a funny old month wasn’t it? The heatwave seemed long lost by the second week and it rained. The nights began to close in too and there has been a real feeling of autumn some days, with the temperature dropping close to single figures. There were berries everywhere you looked, with hedgerowsRead More
Wow, that was a hot one! The dry spell was punishing, indeed quite debilitating for a day or so and just for a moment gardeners stopped. We sold a lot of ice cream. Every splash of rain raised the humidity too, which has been great for the pests and diseases. Crops have continued to grow,Read More
April bounced along, in fact it flew once Easter had arrived. The late Easter was the starting pistol and we had the benefit of a few weeks of light evenings ahead of it to prepare. So many people use it as the start time for gardening, so there were many lined up for the chargeRead More