Journal: the curious means of sprouting an avocado stone
The curious means of sprouting an avocado stone As I embark on a wondrous journey through the year of 2014, I find myself without a map or a plan of any kind. I have therefore taken it upon myself to...
View ArticleSwapping Seeds
This is the parcel of seeds I received from my Seedy Penpal this week – it includes tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum), Potimarron squash, Courgette de Nice, Hamburg (root) parsley and scorzonera as...
View ArticleIndependent nurseries
Victoriana Nursery Gardens, in Kent I ordered some plants yesterday, from Thompson & Morgan. I’d seen their new ‘patio’ raspberry, ‘Ruby Beauty’, and took advantage of their Bank Holiday free...
View ArticleThe Botanist’s Pocket
A strange thing happens to you when you become a keen gardener or a botanist – you start to wander round stuffing bits of plants into your pocket. It might be a cutting you’re hoping will take root in...
View ArticleSowing cool chillies
My early sowings of pansies and cardamom (old seeds) have come to nothing, so today I turfed the plugs out into the garlic tub and sowed some chillies instead. Although the trend in recent years has...
View ArticleNew vegetable varieties from Marshalls
Marshalls Seeds have sent me a wodge of their new vegetable seed varieties to try this year. None of them fitted into the plans for my garden this season, so I have passed them on to new homes*. My dad...
View ArticleTendrils: 150926
Tendrils are my (ir)regular round-ups of the intriguing, plant-related goodness I find elsewhere on the interwebs. It’s my gift to you of a weekend of entertaining reading. First up, are you curious...
View ArticleTendrils: 151002
To kick off this week’s tendrils, my round-up of planty goodness elsewhere on the web, we’ve got a video of how to harvest wild rice, which comes from Idaho. There are more videos of the process...
View ArticleNasturtiums: the taste test
Towards the end of June, I received some seeds from Dobies to trial. I chose varieties that could be sown later in the year, but at the point at which they arrived I didn’t have a garden. The paving...
View ArticleSaving tomato seeds
Monty Don was recently explaining how to save tomato seeds on Gardeners’ World. I know this not because I watch it, but because his method (sticking seeds to paper towel) was roundly slated on Twitter....
View ArticleThe garden on the shortest day
I have been out in the garden a bit more over the last week. Rather than wait until later in the day, when I generally don’t feel like going outside, I have started going out to do something first...
View ArticleTendrils: 151225
Merry Christmas everyone! No doubt you’re tucked in front of the tv at the moment, or stuffing your face with roast turkey and stuffing. But if you’ve already succumbed to festive boredom then never...
View ArticleHow to store tubers for planting
The arrival of some ulluco (Ulluco tubers) tubers from Incredible Vegetables left me pondering how best to store them until it’s time to plant them out (after the risk of frost has passed, in spring)....
View ArticleHow to grow agretti (Salsola soda)
If there’s a plant that’s destined to explode onto the Grow Your Own scene this year, then it has to be agretti (Salsola soda). Agretti got good press last year as being a vegetable sought-after by...
View ArticleDo you want to save money at Victoriana Nursery Gardens this week?
Victoriana Nursery Gardens, one of my favourite suppliers, has some great offers on their website this week. You can save 10% on their range of vegetable seeds, 20% off most of their fruit range, and...
View ArticleFree vegetable seed tapes from Suttons
Suttons have developed a new range of vegetable seed tapes that make seed sowing and crop planning easier than ever. With their Seed Tapes Collection – Spring & Autumn, you can feed a family of 4...
View ArticleSea Spring Seeds
Ryan and I have just spent a few days in Dorset, and – apart from Friday when it rained non-stop – the weather was lovely. While we were there we popped in* to see Joy Michaud at Sea Spring Seeds, a...
View ArticleFree plants from Suttons
There’s still time to claim your free vegetable seed tapes from Suttons – two new collections designed to feed a family of four for up to 26 weeks! There’s no catch – you just pay P&P (and you can...
View ArticleMy first comfrey harvest
This is what the wild, self-seeded comfrey plant outside my front door looked like last week. It doesn’t look like that now, though, because I have cut it back and put the leaves to rot in one of my...
View ArticleWaiting for agretti
One of the new things I am trying to grow this year is agretti, Salsola soda. It’s a big hit with chefs, but still new on the UK food scene and virtually untried in British gardens. My early (indoor)...
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