Source: https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/health-benefits-of-gardening/ As the characteristics of a neighbourhood can affect the experience of a homeowner, the features of a garden can affect the wellbeing of its plants. Noisy neighbours can disrupt life, whereas quiet neighbours can allow for relaxing living. In order to run a peaceful garden, the needs and wants of each plant must be met and its environment must be tailored accordingly. Companion planting, also known as intercropping, is a common way of ensuring that the environment of a plant is beneficial to its well being. It has been ... read more
Make The Most Of Your Summer With A Low Maintenance Garden
Spring is just around the corner, which means that summer is on the horizon. In the height of the summer heat, you may have longed for the cold crisp mornings that winter brings. But now they’re here you start to find yourself longing for the days where you can drag out that big sun hat and garden recliner to enjoy a refreshing glass of iced tea (preferably long island, but regular will do just fine). Though it is possible to enjoy your garden in the cold, everyone knows that it is far more inviting in the summer. Having a beautiful garden takes a lot of time and effort, and if you’re someone ... read more
Growing cress
Another thing that Little Miss C and I got up to whilst we were stuck at home was a spot of gardening. LMC always wants to help in the garden, but children want to see results very quickly so it can be hard to keep their enthusiasm when things don't grow as fast as they would like. Growing cress from seed is quite good though as you can see a day by day difference, but at the same time it also makes children realise that things don't grow instantly and they need to have a bit of patience. It was with great pride and determination that she filled some old yoghurt pots (thank you again ... read more
Yeo Valley – so much more than just yoghurt!
Sometimes a physical change of scenery can help you clear your head and see things clearly and that's exactly what happened to me yesterday. I was lucky enough to be invited, along with a handful of other bloggers, to visit Yeo Valley - home of yummy yoghurt and some equally yummy farmers (well, so says their TV adverts!) - to find out more about the company behind all the yumminess and their way of doing things. When I recently wrote here about wanting to use my blog to find out more about the people and things that make me smile this trip was exactly the sort of ... read more
Garden leeks
With all the warm and wet weather that we've had recently the garden has been shooting up, but it's also been difficult to spend time out there gardening due to it being so wet. Our veg plot is ready for things to be planted, but to be honest I'm a bit behind schedule in doing so. However, there are a few crops still in the ground that have been growing at speed recently. A long, long time ago I had my first attempts at growing leeks from seed and after a very slow start I'm delighted to say that the above photo shows the first of the crop brought in to our kitchen for ... read more
Damson gin – the finished product
It's nearly six months now since I started telling you about our efforts with our first batch of damson gin, but now that I'm seeing this year's blossom on the damson trees in our garden it's got me thinking about how we can use this year's harvest and I'm already hoping it's a good one. Back to the gin though... We made two batches in the end and thought that we'd bottle up the first one in time for Christmas - both for us to sample some and also to make some homemade Christmas presents. This bathc must have had about four months in the kilner jar, so not as mature as it could have ... read more
Garden treasure
The weather has been somewhat mad these last few weeks. Baking hot sun and meals eaten outdoors has suddenly been replaced by snow, hail and torrential rain. Quiet what all the plants think I've no idea. The garden's started to wake up after winter and it's lovely to see new shoots appearing, blossom on the trees and splashes of colour too. Yesterday I spotted this lovely treasure which has managed to survive not only the weather, but also a very enthusiastic toddler you regularly rampages round the garden! There's something special about snake's head ... read more
First shoots
Every year there's something particularly exciting about seeing the first shoots of the year emerge in the propagator. This last week seems to have given us a taste of spring time weather (if you ignore the freezing temperatures that we're still having at night) and it seems fitting therefore that I can see these on my kitchen window sill right now. From left to right I'm growing mixed leaf lettuce, alicante tomatoes (free from Lakeland last year IIRC) and peppers. Looks like I'm going to need to transplant some seedlings soon! ... read more
Making the most of the good weather
After the snow earlier in the month this warmer spell recently has been a wonderful change. We managed to spend a large portion of the weekend in the garden and the fresh air made all of us feel so much better. It also gave us the opportunity to get quite a few jobs done that we've been putting off since the autumn. Weeds were cleared, the apple tree pruned and dead leaves swept up. We also finally assembled and put up one of our Christmas presents - this lovely birdhouse made from cardboard! Over on UK Nature Blog Mr C has told you all about it and he'll also be reporting ... read more
What will you do for money?
Don't worry this isn't going to be a post about whether or not you'd sell your body for money or anything like that, but I am wanting to hear what jobs people are prepared to do to get some extra money. As everyone knows economic times are tough here in the UK and there are plenty of people who have recently been made redundant. It is hard to find a new job, especially if you want to work in a specific sector or on certain days of the week to fit in with childcare. I realise that things will differ widely across the country and that here in Hertfordshire we're fortunate to live ... read more