It’s Saturday…and time for a gardening week review.

It has been a good gardening week with good weather, those bright and sparkling days of autumn, that very special light that comes in October - ten in the morning is the very best time when the fog and darkness clears and those strong shafts of light cut across the garden, almost like spotlights, and …

Strawberries and Garlic, Anyone?

"Reeking" is the word often used to describe how one smells from garlic. It is a word which carries with it an implication of something unpleasant, undesirable and unwanted and, though I disagree strongly with this description of the garlic aroma, I must admit to washing my hands thoroughly today after an hour handling garlic …

Nothing but Vegetables!

Gertrude Stein wrote, "A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then, after all, little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables." Obviously, Gertrude Stein was disappointed with her vegetable patch and, I suppose, it is hardly the most beautiful part of the garden. We seldom visit a garden with the purpose of …

Today was a Holiday!

Today is the June Bank Holiday, a national holiday, a day off work, a day to relax and take life easy before facing back to the grindstone again tomorrow. After eleven weeks remaining at home, not out even once, it was very much just another day, another anonymous day like so many before it and, …

Times and Gardens Pass!

When our children were young we regularly visited the gardens at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co. Cork. It fitted in with our regular outings to Fota Island and was a pleasant stop on the journey home. We were with the grandchildren in Fota earlier in the week and decided to drop in to Ballymaloe on …

Behaving Pheasantly!

Pheasants are a pleasure of our garden but not without their drawbacks. We have had them for several years and they have become relatively tame, appearing on time each morning, when I go to leave out the hens, and give them some rolled barley. They are always within reach in the garden during the day …