Category Archives: Vegetables

New Year, new blog post, new garden plans

It’s 2023! Garden-wise January can be a bit of a grim month. Everything looks brown and soggy and the days are still very short and usually cold, offering far fewer opportunities to get outside and do anything more than tidying up fallen leaves or cut down decaying stalks. I do always get strangely excited aboutContinue reading “New Year, new blog post, new garden plans”

Quadgrow trial – part 1

Let’s talk tomatoes.  At the beginning of this year’s growing season I was lucky enough to be sent a Quadgrow planter, after spotting them at this year’s Garden Press Event in London (back when we are able to travel freely around the country – remember those days?!).  I was really impressed with the set upContinue reading “Quadgrow trial – part 1”

Get Into Grow Your Own

“Nothing tastes as good as home-grown!” – a familiar cry from allotment owners and keen gardeners everywhere. But is it true? And are you ready to find out for yourself? Why?There are many reasons why growing your own is a good thing to do – both for yourself, and for the environment. When you growContinue reading “Get Into Grow Your Own”

Time to plan…

It’s winter, but it’s not cold. Little green shoots are appearing – but they’re too early. Hellebores are emerging, the witch hazel is blooming and we even have a couple of snowdrops almost fully out in the front garden.  It’s SpringWinter – not cold enough to be properly winter but not light enough to beContinue reading “Time to plan…”

Flower & Food Festival

This is one of the highlights of my gardening year – Dundee’s Flower and Food Festival. I go every year and really enjoy being in the midst of the best of what our area has to offer in terms of plants, produce and food.  There are displays of beautiful plants and flowers, from amateurs, dedicatedContinue reading “Flower & Food Festival”

Learning lessons…

This summer I have been learning a few lessons.  Not the book-reading kind – I’ve taken a break from horticulture studies as I decided that it would be madness to add this to the summer agenda of school holidays, parenting, working, enjoying the heatwave and almost constant watering.  I plan to resume studies in SeptemberContinue reading “Learning lessons…”

Sow many seeds…so many seedlings

I’ve been on a sowing frenzy. Although I work part time and theoretically have two days each week to spend in the garden/greenhouse doing lots of lovely gardening…it never usually works out that way.  Family/work/home responsibilities often creep into this time and so I have to grab gardening opportunities with both hands and make theContinue reading “Sow many seeds…so many seedlings”

Planning…

It’s time to get planning.  For the past few weeks and months, a lot of ideas, plans and wish lists have been floating about in my head or, when possible, noted on my phone (Notes, Reminders and Evernote are the gardener’s friends for recording these on-the-go).  I’ve also sorted through the seeds I have leftContinue reading “Planning…”

Catching up…

Well it seems it’s been a busy couple of weeks since I last wrote a post.  Thankfully, part of the reason for that has been some lovely weather – when the sun’s shining I’m not inclined to stay in the house and stare at a computer screen, I want to get outside and garden! SomeContinue reading “Catching up…”

Sunshine and snow

It has been a week of VERY mixed weather, with the past couple of days seeing glorious sunshine…while little flakes of snow gently drift down from above.  Beautiful but c-c-c-cold. So I’ve been wrapping up some of my tender plants or bringing in those in pots which I’ve been hardening off, like geraniums and fuschia.Continue reading “Sunshine and snow”

Mr Smith

As promised in my previous post, just a few hours ago, I grabbed the opportunity to get out into the garden and I’m pleased to say it was a productive afternoon and evening. I had to dodge a few showers but I managed to plant out pea seedlings, as well as sowing new pea seeds.Continue reading “Mr Smith”

What a load of crap…

Literally. I have recently acquired a fairly large quantity of horse manure, via the Head Gardener (aka Dad) whose village, apparently, has a Dung Day, when local farmers will pitch up with bags of fertilizer which you can buy at a very reasonable price.  Et voila – horse manure for my raised beds! It’s a littleContinue reading “What a load of crap…”

Wee pea shoots

Great excitement – the first shoots are emerging from my peas! I reckon it really doesn’t matter if it’s your first time or your hundredth time planting seeds and watching them grow – those first little nubs of green pushing their way through the soil always give you a little rush of excitement; a senseContinue reading “Wee pea shoots”

10 minutes digging

Sometimes spending just 10 minutes in the garden can be just as satisfying as a whole day. This afternoon I grabbed the opportunity to do some digging – I’m anxious to prepare the raised beds for the new growing season and had a few spare minutes, so grabbed a spade and fork and got to workContinue reading “10 minutes digging”