After researching and constructing a couple of Hugelkultur growing beds for our ‘growing for the future’ project at work recently, I decided that I’d put one in on our allotment as well. Hugelkultur – it’s a German word meaning ‘mound (or hill) culture’ – is a technique developed by Permaculture practitioners that is said to …
January has finally delivered a spell of cold weather – essential for helping apple and pear trees to break dormancy and set blossom at the right time, and for killing off slugs and other pests – and as this photo shows, Plot #59 is hunkered down and riding it out. The ground, when not frozen …
Last Sunday I girded my loins against the chill and headed down to Platt Fields Park in south Manchester for a day of restorative top fruit pruning. The session was organised and run by The Orchard Project, with The Friends of Platt Fields Park, and was led by Mark Simmonds, a Hebden Bridge based orchardist …
The one essential element that’s missing from the cottage(ish) garden that Jo and I have been gradually developing over the past three years is a source of moving water. We didn’t want to put in a pond – if only because we didn’t know much about pond planting or pond care – and all the …
We’ve been talking about reorganising the soft fruit on our main plot for a couple of growing seasons now. This year we’ve rolled up our sleeves and made a start. Raspberries First up: our raspberry patch has been a reasonably productive one for three or four years, but we’ve decided it’s time for a change. …
It’s still far too early to sow most types of fruit and vegetable seeds. Unless you have a well-appointed propagator / greenhouse / cold-frame setup and the knowledge to move and manage your seedlings to safeguard them through the tricky, all-too changeable first part of the year, the results are usually disappointing. Thin, leggy seedlings, …
Apart from a frosty start this morning, we’ve had another mild January so far and it seems set to continue for the next week or so at least. That means the ground is workable and although we’re moving more and more towards no-dig growing for our main plot, there are still some mildly invasive jobs …
Right, we’ll take it as read that it’s too damn hot and drier than a teetotaller’s liquor cabinet. Otherwise, things aren’t looking too bad down on Plot #59. As long as we can keep on top of the irrigation requirements, we ought to be able to keep everything alive long enough for the temperatures to …
Yeah, so, that was a busy few months. From sitting on my horticultural hands, wondering whether Spring would ever arrive, to a shift in weather from cold, wet and grey March to a dull-but-workable April. At long last it was sowing time, followed by pricking out and potting up time, with a whole lot of …
A timely reminder from Monty on last week’s episode of Gardener’s World sent me down to the greenhouse yesterday afternoon to check on our stock of over-wintered Dahlia tubers. Dahlias are perennial plants that over-winter by storing sugars in large tubers below ground. But these tubers aren’t particularly frost-hardy or water-proof, so they do require …
