Jennifer Brodie has a theory. That the obesity problem Britain – and, indeed the world – is facing is down to our bodies craving trace minerals. She believes that every time we harvest vegetables we deplete the soil, yet with traditional fertilisers we’re only putting back basic fertility – Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, AKA NPK. We’re…
Month: February 2016
Norwich’s Plantation Garden
“I don’t like the word ‘secret’,” says Roger Connah, chairman of the Plantation Garden Preservation Trust. “It implies it’s private. Henry Trevor wanted the public to enjoy it.” Public or not, the secluded Victorian paradise just outside Norwich’s inner ring road and left to sleep under a blanket of ivy for much of the 20th…
The Maid of February…
Crime Writers! Looking for an unusual way to kill off a particularly annoying character? Perhaps a Mary-Sue, a little too pure-as-the-driven-snow to be fun? How about making them more interesting by subjecting them to… ….DEATH BY SNOWDROP. In this blog, I’ll often talk of the joys of edible flowers, but here’s one I don’t recommend. In France this feisty…
Event Apples
When I first took the plot I’m on now, I was keen to get a row of cordon fruit trees in as soon as possible. I took up an offer by Pomona Fruits for a mini orchard, and, to give it its due, the six trees have grown strongly and all, apart from the Victoria…
What I really use my shed for…
Okay, so here’s the thing. My allotment site doesn’t have a loo. Come to think of it it doesn’t have a shop or any other facilities, but the loo’s the main issue. On my old plot it was so bad I’d have to work loo breaks into the day, setting out twenty minutes before I…
Event Number One, 2016: Forced Rhubarb
I’ve never known garden-forced rhubarb this early – 30th Jan – before, but then I’ve never known a winter so mild. I put the forcer over the burgeoning buds back in late November- normally they’re not even showing ’til January. It’s a rather lovely terracotta forcer I bought for home, but my garden faces north-east; rhubarb there…
The Event Gardener 