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the blackberry garden

A blog about my garden, my inspiration to garden and things about gardening that make me happy.

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A drosera called Barry

August 16, 2018

carnivorous plants drosera capensis sundew plant

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Wordless Wednesday - bee off

August 15, 2018

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A celebration of 40 years of Mr Fothergill's

August 12, 2018

BBC Children in Need Capel Manor College Mr Fothergills plant trials Pudsey Royal Chelsea Hospital

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Tree Following August 2018 - The quince count continued

August 08, 2018

quest for a quince quincelets tree following.

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Book Review: from Blenheim to Chartwell by Stefan Buczacki

August 07, 2018

Chartwell Clementine Churchill National Trust Winston Churchill

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An interlude at Hanbury Hall

August 05, 2018

Hanbury Hall National Trust William and Mary

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End of Month Review July 2018

August 02, 2018

Clethra drought End of month review End of month view ukheatwave

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Alison Levey: Amateur, certainly not an expert, but obsessional gardener based in Leicester. I love writing about my garden, garden visits and garden related subjects. Member of the Garden Media Guild. Recently I have rediscovered my love of dressmaking, so now my non-gardening days are spent with my sewing machine.

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©Alison Levey and Blackberry Garden, 2011 to 31 December 2018 Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Alison Levey and Blackberry Garden with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Popular Posts

Product Review: Stihl RMA 339c Lawn Mower

Regular readers will know that I have reviewed a few products for Stihl from their domestic battery range. It was therefore a delight to be asked if I would review their new RMA 339c rechargeable lawnmower. I have not paid for this product but as ever my words and opinions are my own.
This is a handsome lawnmower. Stihl have until fairly recently made and sold lawnmowers under the trade name 'Viking', now they started branding them in the Stihl orange and white that we know and love.

This mower has a cutting width of 37cm. This is a good width for my lawns, not too small to mean it takes me a long time, but nippy enough that I can mow around things where I need to. It is quiet compared to non-rechargeable mowers and weighs in at 16 kg, which is quite light.

The first thing that made me like this mower was when I went to collect it.
It fitted in the boot. Admittedly the grass collection box has to sit on the passenger seat, but I had been worrying about how I would get it…

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 …

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