In these days of awareness of high energy costs, when it comes to home heating, is ivy for insulation (outside – obviously!) worth considering – or is it a creeping menace? I ended up talking to this chap at a party the other day. It turned out he was a planning officer. We ended up …
Mar 01
All-Natural is the best fertilizer for the garden I think I know what is the best garden fertilizer. Long ago I lived in a house in the country. I remember one day that our local farmer came out with his tractor and a hitched on muck-spreader – that long cylinder-thing that chops up the strawy …
Mar 01
Wait…Is that pot terra cotta or plastic? Container gardening is, obviously, just the thing for folk with patios, balconies, wee plots or those who simply can’t resist those glazed pots in garden centres. I caught myself just the other day admiring some handsome terra-cotta pots in a garden store. Just the thing to bring a …
Mar 01
It’s a to-do (maybe) list So, as I write this, it’s a lowering autumn day and garden tasks are on my mind. Winter is at hand. This is the time of year when gardeners make plans. (How many times have I said that?) Now, there are those plans for garden tasks which are fairly easily …
Mar 01
How thoughtful planting created a real haven The nicest garden I ever knew was in a city quite a long way from here. At least, far enough away so that the owner could never know if I wrote about it. It never opened to the public, not even under Scotland’s Garden Scheme. (This was also …
Feb 28
Some Gardening Observations A few thoughts on why do we garden, with a sprinkling of sanctimony and moralising. (Oh, I’ll get over it…) Assuming you are reading this because you got bitten by the gardening bug, how did you spend your time before? It’s still winter…but there’s a raised bed to fill. The easy way …