Evolution (20 OCT 2011)

When Donna posted about "Evolution", she started her analysis in the garden but finally had to take a walk to the Niagara Falls to find the true meaning of the word.

So I have two problems with this challenge : (1) the scope of this blog is confined to my back garden (2) I live in a suburb of London where you would struggle even to find relics of the past century. In fact, I would go so far as

Re-Introduction (02 OCT 2011)

Alistair commented on my previous post : “Revisiting what we have already talked about in the past is very difficult to avoid when garden blogging.”.  It was timely; I’ve been thinking about this quote all week … How many times can one observe a subject deeper or from a different angle before boredom sets in for the writer let alone the readers? When I blogged about nicotiana last October, it was

Borlotti Beans (31 JUL 2011)

A while ago, a small child visited with her mother.
She asked me if gardening was my job.    No.
...  if I wanted it to be my job.    No.
Why ... ? this and Why ... ? that.    I'd never met a child interested in gardening before.
She then explained that her teacher had given each member of the class a bean and a yoghurt pot filled with compost to take home.  Why a bean I thought ? ... don't

Slug (02 JUL 2011)

This is an extra, little post for the lovely One@Onenezz who sees goodness in all creatures ...

She reported that in Malaysia they have snails but no slugs and asked me to share some photos.

Even though there is evidence of the existence of slugs all over my garden, I hardly see them.

This weekend I was clearing out the iris leaves in my woodland area when I found a rather handsome, plump

Seedlings (12 JUN 2011)

There are engineers who get their hands dirty and those who don't. People have different opinions on which group should be respected as the real engineers. I suppose the same is true of gardeners, except that I am in a third category, the gloved gardener. I would love to skip out into the garden and rummage around in the soil without a care in the world, getting dirt under my nails, letting it

Foxgloves (03 MAY 2011)

The foxglove plants are at different stages of flowering now. When the buds are half-open they contain a lime-green hue, their lower lips uncurl to reveal hairy, speckled throats which funnel insects to their pollen. The plants in the sunnier positions grew well until April, then we had an unusually warm month with hardly any rain, during which they stopped growing and the leaves at the bases