by Laila on January 26, 2012
5 Easy Steps
When you are new to gardening and are planning to do your gardening organically then this is a great book. Bob Flowerdew (fantastic last name!) writes in an easy manner in five easy steps how to grow your vegetables, fruit, flowers, bushes and trees organically.
Lists
The book is colorful with great photo’s and drawings. There are a lot of lists, I love lists, they are easy to turn to when you are in doubt or need to reread something without going through the whole book. One of my favorite lists and one I have marked is “the companion planting for vegetables”. It sums up which vegetables goes well or does badly with other vegetables. Other great lists are two pages of which plants you could plant to attract beneficial insects and the advantages and disadvantages of different types of mulch.
Seeds
There is a big section about what kind of vegetables you can grow and Bob Flowerdew gives some suggestions of which seeds you could buy, which is great if you are not sure about what to choose when you are looking through the seeds catalogs for the first time.
Although I am not a novice gardener anymore, I am pretty sure I will turn to this book this year when I need to remember which plants are beneficial or great companions for my vegetables or to identify a weed that has come up or which kind of fertilizer I should use.
Maybe in a few years I know all this by heart but for now Mr. Flowerdew’s book
will remain my source and guide.
by Laila on January 21, 2012
This is a post from Guestblogger Bridget Elahcene. Bridget writes about her Life At The Villas (
@lifeatthevillas)
Stinging Nettles and Brown Canes
We moved into our house in early winter so the piece of ground behind the Villas that the estate agents had described as ‘amenity land’ was pretty much bereft of any vegetation – except for banks of stinging nettles and in one corner a cluster of brown canes standing about two metres tall which, being gardening rookies, we couldn’t identify and pretty much ignored …at least to begin with.
Japanese Knotweed
Months later, whilst chatting over a cup of tea with our next door neighbours, Sandra mentioned the bane of her gardening life – the Japanese Knotweed that persistently popped up in her flower bed on the other side of our shared fence. “Japanese what?” I remember thinking and our neighbour’s casual remark went on to provoke hours of research about the plant.
Japanese Knotweed (or JK as we now call it at the Villas) is a tall perennial plant which dies back in winter and re-emerges in spring. The red asparagus-like shoots start to appear in late March to early April and as they grow into canes the red colour turns into speckles on an otherwise green stem. The heart shaped leaves are bright green and about as big a your hand. In September the plants (that rapidly reach a height of two to three metres) develop abundant small white flowers that provide a good source of nectar for insects. Around November time the plant drops its leaves and flowers and the brittle hollow brown stems remain as an indicator of where the plant stood in the summer. The next year the plant will re-grow from the same spot out of what is known as the crown.
The story behind JK
The JK story started back in the nineteenth century when it was introduced to Europe as an exotic garden plant. Horticulturalists were attracted by its vigorous growth habit and its penchant to form dense screens. However it was not until as late as 1981 that the British government recognised its invasiveness and the problems that it was causing. It is now a worldwide menace.
