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the blackberry garden

A blog about my garden, my inspiration to garden and things about gardening that make me happy. UK No: 1 Garden Blog 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 (Vuelio). Garden Media Guild Blog of the Year 2019

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Showing posts with the label grow your own

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A visit to the Fothergill's Trial-field 2025

August 07, 2025

cooking inspiration Fothergills grow your own Mr Fothergills new plants plant trials

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Book Reviews - Gardening Books perfect for your New Year's Resolutions

December 27, 2024

Book Review Container planting gardening books grow your own growing fungi Sarah Raven self-sufficiency Vegetable Growing winter gardening

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Work in progress - renewing the veg garden

September 15, 2022

garden project grow your own No Dig veg borders veg garden

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Book Review: The little book of Crops in Small Spots by Jane Moore

Book Review Container planting container veg growing grow your own grow your own food Jane Moore new book The little book of Crops in Small Spaces The little book of Crops in Small Spots

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The Veg Diaries - as summer ends

September 11, 2021

broccoli Cabbage Duncan cabbage growing Climbing bean Monte Gusto grow your own grow your own food growing lentils lentils veg diaries veg garden veg growing

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The Veg Diaries - harvesting and planting

August 23, 2020

container veg growing Container vegetable garden Container vegetable graden grow your own grow your own food grow your ownfood vegetable trials

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Garden Media Guild Blog of the Year 2019

Alison Levey: I have been writing about my garden on ‘The BlackberryGarden’ blog since 2011. I am an amateur and somewhat obsessed gardener and I am based in Leicester. I write about my own garden and what inspires me to garden: gardens I have visited, plant fairs and garden shows. I also review garden related books and products. The Blackberry Garden is not a ‘how to’ blog, the aim is to talk more about the enjoyment of gardening and it is read by people who garden and people who do not, all readers and followers are very welcome.

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End of Month Review November 2025

and then December started knocking on the door. Winter is coming, it feels like it has already arrived though the weather has oscillated between mild and sunny to cold frosty and rainy. November has been an all weather month. All weather apart from snow so far I suppose. The garden is cold and wet and thinking about Spring. I look at the colours of the emerging cyclamen leaves and love the glitter of their silvery finery. Every year more and more pop up in the garden. From a few pots planted over a few years there are now so so many. It is a joy. I can wait for Spring but seeing these now gives me real hopes for it. A couple of limp, soggy looking snowdrops keep appearing. They don't look hugely happy which is a bit of surprise as snowdrops expect to be cold and a bit soggy. Maybe they are awake just a little too early and not prepared for Winter yet. I am not sure I am prepared for Winter either. The lawns also hav...

Hamamelis - light in the darkness

When I had the front and side gardens cleared in September 2024 this opened up a lot of opportunities for me and the garden. The front garden has been work in progress with lots of bulbs and several roses being added. There is still space to be filled and I expect that to happen this year. (Last year escaped me somehow....) The side garden has been largely overtaken by verbascums which when they flower this year I expect to look rather wonderful. I have planted a couple of things by the fence but otherwise I have done very little (did I mention last year escaped me somehow?) One of the things I did do was plant a Hamamelis intermedia x 'Aphrodite' where the Rowan tree had been. This space is plumb in front of the kitchen window and whilst I do not want the view blocking like the tree did, I did want something to look at. Admittedly the hamamelis might grow to be about 12/13 feet tall but I can keep it pruned when it gets large. I also have a t...

Gone over, but not forgotten

There are still buds on some of the roses, I doubt they will come to much, but there they are, clinging on for every moment that they can. Meanwhile in the lounge, the last cut of the roses are looking a little, erm, dry. I keep walking past them and thinking 'I must deal with them'. I keep walking past them and thinking 'for heavens sake chuck them on the compost and clean out the favourite vase ready for next year'. Does this happen? It does not. Instead I start to walk past, pause and step back and look at them and think that in this dried state they have beauty. Of course dried flowers have great beauty, this is not news, but these are accidental dried flowers and are the product of inactivity rather than deliberate choice. Y et now they have become a deliberate choice. Now I look and make sure I notice them and they make me smile. I am not casting them out as I see their new beauty. This is not the beauty of them forming from buds, this is not the beau...

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©Alison Levey and Blackberry Garden, 2 February 2011 to 31 December 2026. 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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