an act of resourcefulness, determination and creativity
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All articles filed in gardening
an airy sweater
Mel thinks she’s knitted herself a sweater but Kate has other ideas
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slowdown
Hello! how are you all doing? My migraines have been of the annoyingly recurrent / chronic kind of late, and I’ve been having to take things very easy – especially over the past week or so, during which my vision has been very skewy and I’ve had to limit my screen time. Not being glued…
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SHEDS one and two
Hello, it is I, Bruce. Today I am here to tell you about SHED. If you don’t know the meaning of SHED, I can reveal it is a strange wooden place with a distinctive smell in which humans like to spend a lot of time, particularly at this time of year. Here there are two…
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weed watching
There’s been a fine spell of weather in our part of Scotland, and we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the garden over the past few days. It is wonderful to see things sprouting and growing – especially the resilient blooms of flowers and plants in whose cultivation I’ve had no hand. I…
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tomatoes no more
I just wanted to write a quick post to record a few of our gardening successes . . .and failures, this year. Growing vegetables here has many challenges: the soil is waterlogged, acidic, and clay-ey; and this being west-central Scotland, the weather tends to be, more often than not, cold, wet and windy. Last Spring…
Read MoreGarden beginnings
One of the things that drew us to this house was the fact that it had a garden. Or rather, it came with a nice big blank expanse of lawn that might one day become a garden. I’m not too keen on lawn, but I’ve always liked growing vegetables, and was excited by the prospect…
Read Morepotential
These are my wonderful new raised beds. Soon they will be filled with a muthaload of topsoil and compost, and shortly afterwards will be home to my vegetables. The layout and space means that I and my wonky leg will have no problem getting around and managing the beds, and I took this photograph from…
Read Morefruition
This is the view from the top of our lane yesterday evening. The large hulking hill to the right is Ben Lomond, with the Arrochar “Alps”, including the Cobbler, to the left. The weather continues to be amazing. Everything is coming to fruition. My tomatoes are ripening. I am impressed with my peppers, also grown…
Read Moresweet peas
When Tom and I first moved in together in the late 1990s, we rented a tiny house in Sheffield that we affectionately dubbed “claustrophobia”. The tiny house came with a tiny garden, and I cut out a section of turf there and planted sweet peas. In the Summer, there was always a bunch on the…
Read MoreThe longest day
It is a beautiful time of year, and here in the West of Scotland we have been enjoying some incredible weather. Most days you will find me here . . . . . . knitting away on my current YOKE, looking at this . . . . . . and occasionally these . . .…
Read MorePottering
Tom is away, working in Ireland at the moment. I really miss him, but I am distracting myself by working very hard on my YOKES, and am enjoying pottering in the garden in my spare moments. I cannot use a spade (I have tried, and I just fall over), and we knew there was going…
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