What’s more Mediterranean than the rich, sensuous lushness of figs? If the splendid renaissance quality of the quince smacks of 15th Century Rome, the fig conjures earlier images of the Eternal City. Of aqueducts and villas, bath houses and arenas, senators and emperors and, yes, I’m afraid for me, at least, of evil Livia in I Claudius. For…
Month: October 2016
As Featured In…
I managed to exhaust myself on the plot last weekend, so went to bed early with my copy of Grow Your Own magazine. I was astonished to discover that Jane Perrone, editor of the Guardian’s Gardening section, co-presenter of excellent podcast Sow, Grow, Repeat, and author of The Allotment Keeper’s Handbook has recommended this blog in her column in the magazine….
How to Make a Garden Grow
William Heath Robinson and KRG Browne. Bodleian Library KRG Browne, William Heath Robinson’s long-time co-conspirator, is the first to admit that while he can “easily distinguish the scent of violets from that of a glue factory,” he and Mr Heath Robinson have not hitherto been known as “really first class gardeners”. Freed from the responsibility…
National Apple Festival, Brogdale
Two thousand, two hundred varieties. Two examples of each. And that’s not counting the new plantings in the next field.If you can’t find an apple you like in Brogdale’s National Fruit Collection, chances are you aren’t going to find an apple you like anywhere. I first went last year, where I met a fantastically knowledgeable…
Pumpkin Review
After last year’s successful batch of Crown Prince, which kept me in pumpkins through to May, I thought I’d branch out a little. I may have been a tad overkeen… Of course I stuck with Crown Prince. It is probably the best pumpkin I’ve tasted and it’s not a ridiculous size. It makes fantastic soups…
Mystery ‘Russet’
Here’s an interesting thing. As regular readers will know, I’ve recently been populating my plot with hand-picked carefully-chosen apples. But I have an interloper. I have no idea what it is but I will bet my best gardening boots it ain’t what it says it is on the label… I adore russet apples. I love…
Eager for IGA
In case anyone’s been wondering where I’ve been recently, it’s Berlin, watching the city prepare for the mammoth International Garden Exhibition next year, otherwise known as IGA (pronounced ‘eager…’). It’s going to be extraordinary. Much of it is already in place (what do expect from those hyper-efficient Germans?) but as the park closes for the winter, ready…
Blackberry Cascade
For years I’ve resisted growing blackberries. Somehow it seems sort of – well, cheating. Surely I should just get off my butt and forage a few? Trouble is, there aren’t that many decent brambles round South East London and what there is either gets picked bare or, tend to grow at, shall we say, ‘dog height.’…
Quincetastic
Quinces reek of the Renaissance. They conjure dreams of splendid feasts in a 15th Century Florence palazzo, or Dutch Old Master still lives, complete with dead pheasants and a jug of hock. I bought a little quince tree fourteen years ago when I first moved into my present home. At the time old fruit trees, such as…
Squeezing a Conservatory…
…into a teeny-tiny space. I live in a traditional Victorian terraced house (on the same steep hill as my allotment) and although I have always dreamed of a conservatory, frankly unless a) I’m happy to lose ten feet of my thirty-foot garden, and b) I win the lottery, it’s not going to happen. What I DO have,…
The Event Gardener 