with “Gardening”
I can remember feeling a bit embarrassed when I first got into gardening. You’d be forgiven from the reaction I got from some friends for thinking I’d decided to become a stamp collector, yodeller or Tory MP…
Yet, knowing you can grow at least some of your own food just by sticking a seed in some soil is one of the most empowering and life-affirming experiences out there. It’s also an incredibly easy, cheap (and fun) thing to do when you garden the badly behaved way…
This is a version of an article that appeared in my gardening column for Country Smallholding magazine in April. In certain permaculture circles it might be said that if something is damaging your plants, it’s less of a pest problem than a predator deficit. The idea being that in a balanced eco-system the likes of slugs, snails, aphids and weevils …
Kim Stoddart offers 2018 growing ideas to help beat the January blues Traditionally a time of year for looking ahead and detoxing after the excesses of the festive season, why not consider giving your veg patch a health makeover this year as well? Of course, home grown fruit and vegetables are good for you in themselves but there are some …
Kim Stoddart outlines the household items that can most easily be repaired When I’m feeling particularly disillusioned about the sorry state of the world, I find it helps to turn my attention to things that are within my power to fix. Potential money saving is only part of the picture because from an environmental perspective, the benefits of trying to …
How you can be in good company with a more free spirited approach to planting on your plot… Most gardening books will tell you about the importance of crop rotation ‘blah, blah, brassicas after legumes”… “waffle, waffle, potatoes first…” It’s a planting system that is undoubtedly sensible if a) you’re a market gardener and will be growing produce en masse or …
I had an interest in the great outdoors from a very young age. I can remember as a child being mesmerised, watching as hundreds of baby spiders emerged and spread themselves bravely across a web. I wanted to grow veg but my parents didn’t know how, so I threw carrot seeds in the ground recklessly, hoping for the best. Trying …
If you want to feel better in this increasingly worrying world in which we reside then go and stick your hands in some good honest soil. Forget about gloves, and everything else you have going on in your life, and get stuck in. Pick some up, run it through your fingers and get connected because the healthier the soil, the …
Having closed the door firmly on an absolute scoundrel of a year (2016, you know I’m referring to you), it’s time to stick my hands in some good honest compost and get ready to delight once again in the restorative magic of watching as new shoots emerge bravely from the darkness and into the light. Yes the world is in …
In her latest blog on seasonal food, Alicia Miller explains how they bring a taste of summer to their plates in late January… As we packed our Christmas vegetable boxes a few weeks back, it was apparent that the rootiest time of year was upon us – potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, swedes and celeriac are the staples of holiday meals. …
Let’s face it – January isn’t a popular month. In fact it’s widely considered to be the most depressing month of the year. We’ve also just had so-called ‘Blue Monday’ as it’s referred to throughout the media, although arguably this year that could have been changed to ‘Black Friday’ , certainly for all liberal-minded folk around the world. Dastardly politics …
It was the posh shabby-chic Christmas catalogue that came through the post a few years back that provided an incentive for me to start making my own festive decorations from items gathered from the garden. I balked at what they were charging for what (appeared to me) to be simply bits of tree with silver spray-painted on them…. Instead, with …