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Archive for the ‘Container veg growing’ Category

Sweet nothings

Posted in Container veg growing, Greenhouse growing, Unusual veg, tagged , on May 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Another lovely parcel in the post this week! I do like buying myself presents. This one was long and thin: just the right shape for ten straggly sweet potato slips. As you can see from the picture, they were none too happy when they arrived: that’s what spending a couple of days in a cardboard [...]

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Something to try at home

Posted in Container veg growing, Shows, Unusual veg, tagged , , on May 12, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Spotted among some spectacular displays of salad veg and herbs in the Floral Marquee at Malvern: the latest ‘new’ arrival on the veg-growing scene. This is Mexican tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum), and it’s only really new if you happen not to be from Mexico, where it’s been grown for hundreds of years, or indeed India, where [...]

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Marvellous Malvern

Posted in Container veg growing, Shows, tagged , on May 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Greetings from the RHS Malvern Spring Gardening Show! This is the first time I’ve been to this, the first major flower show of the season, but I’ve always wanted to. Not only is it in a fabulous setting at the foot of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, it’s also a real celebration of spring: flowers are fresh, blossom [...]

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Forcing the issue #2

Posted in Container veg growing, Fruit, Greenhouse growing, Propagation, tagged , , , , , , on February 24, 2010 | 2 Comments »

What a stop-start spring this has been. A week of watery sunshine got me all Tigger-like and bouncy in anticipation that finally, at last, the winter was over. Weeds were weeded, beds were forked over, edges were trimmed. Now it’s minus-goodness-knows-what at night again, blistering cold wind and sleeting rain all day. The allotment is under water, [...]

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Forcing the issue

Posted in Container veg growing, Greenhouse growing, sowing, tagged , , , , on January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Still confined to the greenhouse but too soon to sow seeds – what’s a girl to do? I need something to keep me going through the gardening doldrums, so I’ve decided to use a little force. By which I mean using the relative warmth of the greenhouse to persuade things to get going a bit [...]

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All tucked up

Posted in Container veg growing, Greenhouse growing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Winter must be on the way. Last week saw me running around frantically with armfuls of bubble wrap. This is an annual ritual which occurs only on the first day the words “frost” and “south of England” are mentioned in the same sentence on the BBC’s redoubtable and occasionally reliable weather forecast. The timing is [...]

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Something new to try

Posted in Container veg growing, Shows, Unusual veg, tagged , , on July 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Aren’t these pretty? I spotted them at the Hampton Court Flower Show this week and thought at first they were some kind of flowery sweetpea. Then I looked closer and saw those funny little flat purple pods. This is the lablab bean, and though I’d heard of it nobody told me it was so pretty. [...]

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Extreme veg growing

Posted in Container veg growing, Shows, tagged , , on July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

What I’d give to be able to say I grew this cabbage. Sadly I must own up and confess to snapping this one at that catwalk of the veg-growing world, the Hampton Court Flower Show. Don’t be fooled by the ‘Flower’ bit: this is all about growing your own, and you’re just as likely to [...]

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