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Wordless Wednesday - defrosting crocus

March 15, 2017

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A book review in two parts: Monty Don's 'Down to Earth'

Part 1 - the launch

I was delighted to be invited to a book launch for Monty Don's new book 'Down to Earth' which is published today by Dorling Kindersley. I was very excited about going to the event which was held at Ham Yard Hotel in Soho in their roof garden.
First things first, before Monty arrived the roof garden had to be explored. It is truly charming and packed with wonderful things. For starters, there are bees,
and bug houses,
chillies
and aubergines. The garden was well laid out and beautifully maintained. It was a fine venue for launching a book about gardening.
We were treated to these rather wonderful cocktails with flowers in them. They tasted as good as they looked and made the event flow rather pleasantly.
Then Monty arrived, looking rather dapper. Monty introduced the book to us and gave a short talk about how it came to be. Monty explained it was the first book he had not been commissioned to write for many years and that once started, it almost…

Tree following October 2017 - getting chubby

Oh the joys of writing about an actual quince, after all these years of waiting: to not only have a quince, but then I get to watch it develop and ripen.

Well, I say ripen, here's the rub. People keep asking me when I will pick it, when will it be ripe? Well how would I know! It is my first! So I turned to the oracle (RHS website) which tells me that:

"Fruit are ready to harvest in October or Novemberwhen they have turned from a light yellow to a golden colour and are extremely aromatic. Only pick undamaged quinces, storing them in a cool, dry and dark place on shallow trays." RHS

This gave me comfort as I can see that the quince is now changing. At first I thought it had reached a stage and was not going to get any bigger.
But now, as I check in on it frequently, I can see that it is getting rather chubby. It is developing middle-aged spread and has what is best described as 'girth'.
It is definitely getting rounder.
Now when I do pick it, what am I going …

Competition to win two tickets to the new Ascot Spring Garden Show 2018

There are few things more enjoyable as finding out there is to be a new garden show added to the calendar. I had heard that there was to be a new show, the Ascot Spring Garden Show (13-15 April 2018). I was delighted that I was contacted by their marketing team and asked if I wanted to offer two tickets as a competition through my blog. Regular readers will know I very rarely run competitions, but this seemed such a good opportunity and I am genuinely excited about the new show, so I said yes. Why should you want to win these tickets? The show promises: 35 specialist plant nurseries, that would be me queuing at the gate with no further prompt. There will also be 60 garden related trade stands. So if garden-shopping is your thing, then there is plenty to look at.
There will be show gardens, six by established designers and six by students from horticultural colleges. The college gardens are part of David Domoney’s Young Gardeners of the Year Competition. There will also be a pr…

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Wordless Wednesday - defrosting crocus

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