Yes, its a Foxglove I was wandering around the garden this morning when I saw this. I asked my “expert” what it was and was pointed at a page on the Kew Gardens website (kew.org) from January 2016. It turns out its an example of “terminal peloria” a well known but infrequent spontaneous genetic mutation…… Continue reading Weird Flowers and the Effect of a late spring
Category: Garden
June 2021: Garden Flowering
Whilst most of my posts are about the fruit and vegetables in the garden, at the moment the flowers are also doing well. Our garden is a “spring and early summer “ garden because the trees shade everything and dry out the clay soil during summer. So now is one of the best times with…… Continue reading June 2021: Garden Flowering
Home Gardening – June 2021 Update
Despite the cold and wet May, the tomatoes are all planted up unto their final containers. I haven’t done as many different varieties this year (not really sure why) nor have I as many plants as usual. However, a good mix of indeterminate (cordon) and determinate (bush) will see enough tomatoes for the year (unless…… Continue reading Home Gardening – June 2021 Update
Grey Squirrel Wars begin for 2021
I may have talked about this before but its something that gets to me regularly. Our garden backs on to a copse of trees and includes a large oak of its own (120+ years old according to the girth measurements). There are obvious advantages to this type of garden, lots of varied wildlife being one.…… Continue reading Grey Squirrel Wars begin for 2021
Tomato Sowing – 2021 & Cleaning the Greenhouses
Spring has sprung, the clocks have gone forward and the weather is warming up, my tomatoes have been sown and are beginning to show themselves. As usual, I have sown a mixture of ones I like, ones I haven’t grown before, and some to refresh my seedbank. Selecting the seeds for this last group is…… Continue reading Tomato Sowing – 2021 & Cleaning the Greenhouses
Big Garden Birdwatch 2021
Like many people in the UK I did the “Big Garden Birdwatch” last weekend watching out for birds in the garden. For whatever reason, this year was a “bad year” with the total list of birds being: Great TitWoodpigeonCrow I’m convinced that the birds know that its Garden Birdwatch weekend and hide away because in…… Continue reading Big Garden Birdwatch 2021
Split Apples
I don’t normally write about our apple trees (apart from the fight to stop magpies and squirrels eating them) but this is something new to me and shows how the weather has been somewhat strange this year. Split Discovery Apples As you can see our apples have split. We have (what I think is) a…… Continue reading Split Apples
Mid September 2020 – The beginning of the end
Whilst there are still quite a few tomatoes still to come, its obvious that the plants are well past their best and we can see that the end of the season is in sight. We pulled up the first of the plants today which (surprisingly) was Summer Cider. Our harvest so far has been much…… Continue reading Mid September 2020 – The beginning of the end
August 2020 – Report so far
Most things are doing fine. The tomatoes are cropping well with much the same weight of tomatoes as the previous couple of years so far. The 2018 crop seemed to peak in a few weeks time so it will be interesting to see how they compare. 2019 wasn’t a very good year overall, this year…… Continue reading August 2020 – Report so far
Tomato Progress & Selection
I’m always trying to think of different ways to compare the different cultivars. In the early days (when I was even keener) I weighed the harvest from each of the different cultivars to see whether there were significant differences that would influence my decisions as to what to grow. What I learned was that there…… Continue reading Tomato Progress & Selection