My Tiny Plot

One lucky little boy has a new Garden House at My Tiny Plot. I was saving the space under the deck to make a fern garden or rockery one of these days. But honestly, I’m not that into non-edibles and I’ve been stalling with this project like a schoolboy avoiding homework. It seemed like a chore. Then one day I was watching Jackson playing in the garden and I noticed that he spends a disproportionate amount of time ‘messing’ under the deck. Poking things with sticks, chasing the cats, picking up dubious items and looking like he might eat them. The usual for a two-year-old.

That’s when it struck me that the space under our deck would make a perfect play house area. And… it would release me from the chore of having to make something of it. Genius!

It would have to be a bespoke house since it was to fill such an unusual shape. So, I rang a local joiner that we’ve worked with before and he came and he built Jackson a gorgeous Little Garden House complete with window boxes and everything. We even had electricity put in so he could use it more out of season if he wants to. We’re so happy with it and Jackson is, as you can imagine, over his little moon.

How much time do you spend doing this in your garden? Not much I’ll wager. I reckon I spend less than 2% of my time in the garden relaxing. We as gardeners are doomed to toil. I can’t sit still for more than two minutes together. Chances are I will see a weed that needs pulling, or see a gap that needs filling, or remember those seeds that need sowing. Can you ever enjoy your garden like a non-gardener would?

Anyone have any tips for how to relax in your garden more? Does anyone manage it? Or are you all busy bees like me with a bench that’s ‘just for show’.

I’ve been offered two free tickets to Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham, 16th - 20th June, but I can’t make it :( So the tickets are up for grabs. They’re yours if you agree to take some lovely photos, and write a short piece on the show for My Tiny Plot. Please email me a link to something that you’ve written online and ideally an example of your photography. May the best man (or woman) win!

I’m just packing up the first of my books and I’m busy putting together my seed packets to put inside each box. This entails a lot of cutting, sticking, filling and pressing. It’s all a bit Blue Peter and I love it! The seeds I’m using are a Lettuce mix kindly packaged by Victoriana Nursery.

It seems like the most simple and obvious thing in the world; to put some free seeds in with a children’s book about growing vegetables. But actually it has been one of the more complicated areas of producing Jackson’s Garden. I thought you might like to know what I learned.

Firstly, you can’t just package up seed willy-nilly and sent it all over the world. This much I had already guessed but I didn’t know how tight the guidelines were. You cannot send seed outside the EU, fullstop. Inside, the EU you must be a registered seed packer with Defra in order to distribute seeds. Each packer ensures that his or her seeds comply with EEC rules on seed quality.

So…this all means that me, little ole me with my tiny plot, is not really Defra’s idea of a bona-fide seed packer. But so long as I know someone who is (enter Victoriana Nursery) then I can send the children some seed - hooray! So it all worked out in the end.

Since discovering all this I have been noticing other non-seed distributors and how they do it. Example, Cath Kidston’s new range of seeds is packed by Thompson and Morgan.

And this gorgeous little box of Culinary Quirks seed by Hen & Hammock, uses seed provided by heritage seed supplier Thomas Etty esq.

Interesting huh? How does this all work in America, or Canada or elsewhere. I’d be interested to know.

Goodbye Anna Maria. We’re travelling back to the UK today after a wonderful family holiday. It’s been one of the most amazing holidays I’ve been on. Idyllic location, fun times with family and totally relaxing. This is our pet Heron. He comes every day to fish off the deck here. This morning he was up super early to say goodbye to us. We’ll miss you buddy! See you next year :)

I’m sure the weather will be very different at home but I’m excited to get going with the new growing season. After seeing all the beautiful gardens here I’m raring to get back and start some sowing! And I’m eager to see how my coldframe seedlings are doing and whether my Peach frame is still standing :) I guess I’ll find out soon!

So I’m in Miami right now. And I’m having a nice time walking to the beach and back, playing in the pool and eating waaay too much French toast with eggs and maple syrup and butter!
Infact we were walking back from the breakfast diner today and then we saw it… the place where we will live in my dreams forever more.

A 1937 art deco home, currently derelict and in need of some serious lovin’. Five bedrooms, no kitchen (hey who needs a kitchen anyway), double garage, gorgeous wrap-around garden and … as if this was the least of it… within a short stroll of the beach. I mean… what’s not to like?

Okay, so it might need a bit of work. Okay so it might need a lot of work but I’m game! If only for the chance to grow Tomatoes for eight months of the year. What I can’t understand is why this house has been on the market for almost a year. Can’t they see how beautiful it is?

So, anyway back to earth. It won’t be mine. Even though Under Gardener did say that he would buy it for me if he had the money. And even though I did have to break it to him that no matter which city we travel to in the whole world, I ‘will’ find a house to buy, no matter where it is.

But I hope someone buys it and makes it into the beautiful family home that I have already imagined in my dreams.

Quite a few people have been asking me about my reference to Percy Thrower, and that fact that I use his book ‘In Your Garden’ as my sowing and planting bible. So I though I would make a post dedicated to Percy. The book is old! It was first printed in 1959 but I think the impression I have was printed in 1960. Nothing like some up-to-date, cutting edge gardening data eh?

The reason I like it so much is that it breaks up the year into months and then into weeks. Most books will tell you what to sow in what month according to where you live. But this one tells you what to plant this week. It’s brilliant! Of course, he is a little part of childhood too, being the Blue Peter gardener on TV in the 80s.

So for example, here’s an extract from January (fourth week).

“As soon as the Brussels Sprouts have been gathered, the stalks should be cleared from the ground unless there is a shortage of Purple Sprouting Broccoli or Kale in which case a few Brussels Sprouts may be left to produce young shoots for gathering later on.

Herbs such as Sage and Thyme can be replanted and large clumps can be pulled apart into small pieces with roots attached. The bushes can be cut down to within 9 inches of the ground and plenty of young shoots will grow up from the base…”

But, being a gardener in the 60s he also recommends spraying your crops with all kinds of nasties, poisoning the mice that eat your Pea seeds and dusting Turnips with DDT to kill flea beetle! Ho-hum you can’t have everything can you?

What I especially like are the black and white photos that have been hand finished in pencil. Why, I’m not quite sure but someone has taken a lot of time making these photos into a kind of eerie half reality that I just love.

The sad thing is I think it’s out of print. The only books I can find on Amazon are second hand or from collectors. I’m not sure you can buy it new anymore.

So that’s my gardening bible. I read other books, of course, but I always go back to see what Percy’s up to this week. It’s like an addiction I have.

What’s your gardening bible?

My Dad is always nagging me to feed the birds. I’ve always resisted because, well, enticing the poor little mites into the garden with the promise of food only for them to be then hunted down and eaten by my evil house pets is not my idea of benevolence. But… it is snowing and they do look terribly hungry and a little bit bored too. So I thought, let’s help the little chaps out.

So I decided to look online for an easy-to-make-at-home bird feeder. I found a recipe, and it erm… required the following: Lard, Suet and bird seed. Well I have the bird seed but since I don’t live in the 1940s I’m all out of LARD! Who the heck has lard in their cupboard anymore - people who are on a ‘die quickly’ regime? Anyway, let’s not get this out of perspective.

Another one required a pine cone that you smear with peanut butter and then stick seed to. A-ha! now we’re talking. I didn’t haven’t a pine cone (don’t get me started on that one too) but I did have, wait for it… an Apple!

So I made some holes in the Apple, put a string through it. Smeared it with peanut butter and…

rolled it in bird seed. Well it looked good. Whether the birds will appreciate it remains to be seen.

At the risk of sounding repetitive mtp has been deluged with more snow! And for the benefit of our friends outside the UK I know it’s just snow and yes I’m getting a bit too excited about it. But honestly, it’s not normal. Not round these parts anyway. I took some photos of the Winter wonderland. The birds have given up the ghost and gone back to bed. Quite right, good idea!

I’m not one to shout from the hills about my birthday (she says, creating a whole post dedicated to that very subject!) but today was nice. Nothing special, just nice. I got lots of cards from family and friends which always makes you feel special.

My amazing husband brought me a piece of original art from San Francisco ‘and’ a T-shirt that says “Reality is for People Who Can’t Handle Science Fiction” - what’s not to like?

I got these beautiful flowers (including the essential ornamental cabbages) from my bestest friend. Plus a spa voucher from the guys at the office!

And…this beautifully handmade garden centre voucher. This one intrigues me. I love the fact that I have developed ginger hair and I’m carrying a pitchfork for some reason. Lovely!