The Cottage Smallholder

 
I’ve nearly finished the planting in the newly made over garden but the long hot summer has wrecked the grass. With Lynn Keddie  – the photographer – arriving in a few weeks time I’ve been repairing and reseeding the lawn. If it doesn’t rain the lawn has to be watered twice a day. So I Read More »

 
For years I’ve used carrier bags when out foraging. They are convenient and slip into a pocket – so if you unexpectedly come across some hedgerow treasure you have a bag for your bounty.
However, it’s difficult to keep the neck of a plastic supermarket carrier bag open so picking has to be one handed. Earlier this Read More »

 
“It’s nearly the end of July. Surely there’s something we can eat from the garden?”
Danny was exasperated – forgetting that we have already munched loads from the garden in the past few months. Spuds, orach (German Mountain spinach), calabrese, turnips, broad beans, raspberries, strawberries, tayberries, loganberries, peas, lettuces and salad leaves.
But then I twigged that Read More »

 
This lovely hot summer and the pile of rocks that I dug out of the herbaceous borders have connived to wreck the lawn in the herbaceous garden. The grass paths in the kitchen garden aren’t too bad as they have been watered with the overspill from the borders. But when we peek out of the back Read More »

 
“Danny I’m thinking of renting some more land. We just don’t have enough space for all our projects.”
“I’m sure that you could rent some land very easily around here but let’s wait until we have maximised the space at home first. Our land is free.”
“But we have maximised our space – increased the size of Read More »

 
We have two compost heaps and a large traditional kitchen waste composter but still need more compost than we can make. So I started looking at the possibility of investing in a worm composter. The worm casts that are made create a great compost and the wormery also collects a liquid feed that can be diluted Read More »

We bought the Bosch Rotak 40 electric lawnmower to replace our ancient petrol engine model. Read how well it performed on our bumpy lawn and how well it coped with the ovegrown bits.

It’s all very well growing 2000 flower plants but having started planting them out in the herbaceous borders it was clear that I was quickly running out of space. Some of my large swathes of perennial plants just had to go. I cut the more rampant ones back and dumped the ones that I didn’t like 100%.  Read More »

What do you think this is? Well it’s not a bucket going to a fancy dress party dressed as a cardinal. This old metal bucket with the broad lid from a rainproof chicken feeder has transformed the dull process of cleaning my new gardening tools at the end of the day.
In the past mud clung to Read More »

 
Danny has been frantically busy for weeks now. So he swapped cooking for seven nights running (simple quick food) if I finished off his potato border and planted the spuds.
As you know I’ve started practicing biodynamic principles in the garden this year. I’m hoping for an increased harvest and a healthier garden all round. I Read More »