Monsters in the swamp (or frogs in the pond!) On Thursday 25 February our pond went crazy! Over 40 frogs appeared as if from nowhere and started to mate leaving huge “piles” of frog spawn. Spring has arrived! The earliest we have recorded frogs laying frog spawn in this pond in the 20 years since […]
Amber died last week. It was on Monday, the start of a new term. She had been steadily losing weight for several weeks, she had a lethargy about her though she did show signs of energy at times. She ate less and spent a lot of time watching the world go by or her sisters, […]
Today is the day of Chapel Allerton Open Gardens 2019 and this year we are taking part! Between 1 and 5pm our side gate will be unlocked and visitors will be able to tour our garden for a donation to a couple of local charities – St Gemma’s Hospice and Friends of Gledhow Valley Woods. […]
I’ve just had the joy of turning one compost heap into a new bay with the help of our new puppy Charlie. The compost looks fantastic this year, probably due to the introduction of chickens to the garden last year which has resulted in a lot of chicken manure rich wood chip which I have […]
Over the winter I have read about a number of greenhouse projects and so I thought I should do something about ours. As readers are aware, much of my garden plot is on an old cinder tennis court and we have found that raised beds on cinder don’t work particularly well. It’s the same with […]
Today I have lifted some International Kidney potatoes which are much larger than I expected, there is almost no damage to any of the tubers, we’ll be trying some of them tomorrow. In their place I have planted some Perpetual Spinach to see if we can get a crop before winter.
The summer raspberries are almost at an end, they have been very good this year. As each plant is cleared of it’s fruit I am cutting them out to make space for the new growth that will produce next year’s fruit. It will also give me a chance to repair and reinforce the supports for […]
