Is it just me, or does everybody get a bit over excited when planning a border or planter in their garden?  Especially when wondering around our top choice nursery and seeing all the pretty plants in all their marvellous shapes, sizes and colours.  I get way too adventurous, overthink all my options and want to buy everything, regardless of the price.  This is where I run amok.  I want to buy every plant I can, mush them all into a border and I think it’ll look fabulous regardless. 

It’s okay to admit if you do the same thing.  We all do.  It’s part of the learning process of being a gardener.

Planning is important … Especially thinking ahead.

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To those who have been keeping up to date with our posts, firstly, thanks. Secondly, you probably read a post about a battle HSM had with a caterpillar. 

Box Tree Caterpillar, to be exact.

Well…It’s back. So it’s time to refresh our memories and give this a little once over again. 

Battle Of the Box. Letters to home style.

For the ‘Too Long, Didn’t Read’ people out there, skip right to the very bottom paragraph for a quick version of how to deal with Box Tree Caterpillar. 

Hopefully we caught it early enough this year that it doesn’t decimate our lovely Buxus this year! 

Happy Spraying! 

Noise, vibrations, debris flying around at insane speeds, very sharp slicey things, itchy burny irritant stuff. There’s a lot of things gardeners need to be weary of, so rather nicely people made and invented stuff to keep our hands and faces protected from the dangerous things.

PPE has a whole set of legislation around it, that’s how seriously it’s taken. I’m gonna go over the basics for gardening in general, things you’d need for almost every job , every day. So here’s a longer guide from the big brains at the Government if you to have a nosey, http://www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/ppe.htm. When you’re out in the field you can understand why it’s needed. I’ve been strimming and had stones flung into my shin, I don’t want to imagine what that would be like if that stone was on a collision course with my face.

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The seasons be a changing, spring is on the horizon, therefore a fresh year of luscious growth and beautiful new flowers is approaching us.

With this winter nearly over and temperatures rising, it makes it the prefect time to prune back some of the winter interest that we left up to give our gardens a little bit of wow factor as after Autumn passing. Plants like Hydrangeas, Dogwoods, Fuchias, Hellebores all show up really well after a little bit of secateur work (if you haven’t done already).

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I’m just going to be honest, those right angled, green plastic hooky things I don’t like at all. They aren’t that tall, you have to store them somehow over winter when they aren’t in use. I’ll give them the factor of longevity, they for sure have that going for them, that’s the only positive thing I can really say about them though to be honest. I find a lot of single ones just laying in a bed under a thin cover of soil a lot, looking like they’ve fallen over and been forgotten about.

However, they do serve a purpose; a purpose that this post is all about: Plant Supports. Very handy things in the garden that a number of herbaceous plants can’t really live without. I’ve put supports in for Echinops, Dahlias, Aconitum, Roses, Delphiniums, Rudbeckia Goldsturm. Not all of those necessarily neeeeeed support, they could just use a little helping hand sometimes if the weather gets the better of them.

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If you’ve managed to get this far into November without the daunting fear of having to sort of Christmas, please share your secrets with the rest of us.

For those, like me, that have been thinking and panicking about what we can buy our friends and family since the end of September, Christmas is quickly approaching and honestly, I have no idea what to get and no idea what I want this year.

I doubt I’m the only person wondering what to get people, or what to ask for, so in the spirit of Christmas, I’m going to lend you all a helping hand by making a list of gardeny things I’ve asked for in the past! This list will also help you choose what to get for all those green thumbed family members and friends you may have.

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A topic that should, could, would, will, be on the top of every budding gardeners to do list.

Build it, fill it, turn it, empty it, spread it, burry it, plant in it. All that stuff.

Compost in the garden serves many, many useful purposes.  A natural weed barrier and a feed in one. All made from the comfort of your own home! Seriously useful stuff, right?!

So let us run through the stages/processes/fundamentals (Hence known as S.P.F) of having compost. Sound fun? Good! Get your note pad out and start taking notes. And no sleeping in class again, David!

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If you haven’t seen on our amazing Facebook and Instagram pages, I went away for a long weekend a week ago. While I ventured and relaxed in the gorgeous settings of Cornwall, I spent the good part of a day wondering around and marveling at everything at the Eden Project.

Now, this post won’t be your usual newsy/advise giving post that I usually do, this one is just going to be about why EVERYONE needs to visit the Eden Project if they have the slightest interest in gardening. In short, it’s absolutely brilliant. Go. Stop what you’re doing and go!

Everyone has seen the pictures. The old Clay quarry that’s been magically transformed into a wonderland of plants and flowers and now has these bee hive like 2 domes in a hole in the ground. The transformation is quite the marvel.

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21^st July.

Somethings happening, Ma. We got word from the Sarge that something big is coming, something bad. No natural predators, toxic. We spotted a squadron of Moths buzzing around earlier, we didn’t see where they landed though. We don’t know when they’ll attack, but we gotta be on the lookout. Box Tree Caterpillar. Eating leaves and webbing. They’re the obvious signs we gotta keep a lookout for.

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Let’s place a bet shall we? £20 says if you looked into any of your neighbours gardens, I bet you’d spot an Apple tree in one of them. Apples are the most widely grown fruit tree of the lot, and it’s no surprise as to why, the blossom can look lovely, and people just like apples. With over 4000 cultivars to choose from, there’s sure to be one for you to eat, or to cook with.

Now when you look into getting your own tree, there’s several things to bear in mind.  Those 4000 types are split into 7 different pollinating groups, numbered 1 to 7. 1 fruits the earliest, and 7 the latest. Fan favourites Discovery and Granny Smith are group 3. The trick to getting apples to pollenate is to match them with something from the right group. Apples need a pollinator from an adjoining group in order to produce fruit, so a Group 3 apple tree would need a partner from either Groups 2, 3 or 4, a Group 5 would need a 4, 5 or 6 and so on. One from above or below the desired tree and all should be good.

Nature has cunning ways to help as always too, planting a Crab Apple (Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ to be precise and name one) covers ALL SEVEN GROUPS as it’s in flower for such a long time, so this is good if you only want one type of apple.

Now, fancy making me some Crumble, with custard please!

Written & posted by Stu