It was the first of September. The battle lines were drawn. I donned my armour (gardening gloves) and drew my sword (a rake). I surveyed my territory with the keen eyes of a veteran war strategist. I assessed the formation of the enemy troops, I determined my objectives. One wrong move and the weeds would win …
It has been a number of months since my last blog post. Summer has been and gone, the weather has changed and my life has changed along with it. It has been the hottest summer here in Ireland for over a decade. The days have been long hot and the nights humid and sleepless. I’ve …
I am often asked what it is I love about gardening. Why I spend my spare time ankle-deep in nettles, (don’t get me started on all the nettle stings I’ve had in the past week), why I go out in the rain and wind to pull weeds or plant seeds. I never quite know how …
I was working on the plot the other day when I spotted this on a wooden pallet. I’m fairly convinced it’s a butterfly chrysalis but not exactly an expert; If anyone can identify it, let me know.
It’s amazing the difference one weekend of hard work can make in the garden. Last week, I was beginning to panic at the lack of progress on the plot this year, I’m at least three weeks behind with my planting and the place was looking very bare and brown and boring. Something needed to be …
This morning, I went out to the plot with the intentions to plant and dig and weed and do those things which we as gardeners are meant to do, but I took one look at the plot and decided before I could reasonably do any of that, I needed to clean up my act. Amongst all my …
The weather this week has been almost unbearable, at least it has been for gardeners. We’ve had cold, some freezing cold, sunshine cold, snow cold, wet cold, a little-bit-less-cold-than-yesterday cold, then back to snow cold. Today is the 29th of March and it is currently 3 degrees celcius outside. Three! This time last year we were experiencing a …
