gardening info- expansion of snails

Due to the resounding success of my snailery (don't believe it was a success than ask the kids who came to see it over the summer hols ), I have expanded the snailery by this I mean I've got a new state of art more mobile snailery into this you may be able to make out from the photos a new born snail called Briannette who was born to proud parents earlier in the year. Believe me I'm as proud as them as this proves that the snailery actually works,(surely there were no doubters I here you say), well there was a few but thankfully now converts. As I'm writing this, the snails work is coming to an end for this year as soon they will be hibernating and dreaming of helping this gardener make even more compost next year.

gardening info- vols visit

I had a very enjoyable day today on a visit with Landlife Wildflowers volunteers to Jodrell Bank where we were shown around the impressive arboretum by Becky and Phil (horticultural staff) at Jodrell Bank.One of the trees on display if you like was the Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum) a native of Central China. On the other hand a tree a bit closer to home shown to us was the Spindle Tree (Euonymus europaeus) the wood of this was used in the cotton industry to make Spindles. The berries however attract children but are HARMFUL so beware. The bark ,leaves, and fruit are injurious and no animal but the goat will browse upon them,anyway enough of folklore thanks JAN PELL on behalf of everybody for a very informative  day.

gardening info-what plants love best

One of the jobs today,( my actual favourite )was sieving compost which had come out of one of our tumbler composter. You can see from the photos how fine this compost is, ideal for seed sowing. Again this batch was made from kitchen waste,grass clippings, nettles used as activators to kick start the composting process and plant material. It is well worth us gardeners making our own compost as the rewards are worthwhile and if it doesn't go well at first keep at it,it's taking me 150 years to get this batch looking half decent.........................well maybe not that long.

gardening info- plants with a future

It just shows you even at this time of year Landlife Wildflowers can still produce 1st class wildflower plants for sale,take a look at these Cowslips which were dispatched only today,surely they are plastic, no way, they have been nurtured by dedicated Landlife Wildflower staff and volunteers and the plants every need has been answered,this is why you should buy your wildflower plants from Landlife based at the National Wildflower Centre.

gardening info-interesting visitors

Two interesting caterpillars at the National Wildflower Centre recently, the top 2 photos are of the Comma butterfly caterpillar and the next 2 are of the Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar,funny enough they were both found in the same area the really wild area of the centre where the hairygardener is most at home yes you,ve guessed it the compost area,they felt safe there with the hairygardener

gardening info- corncockle harvest

These sacks are part of the harvest of Corncockle (Agrostemma githago), the plant originating from eastern Mediterranean is a popular inclusion in Landlife Wildflowers cornfield annual mix. These sacks combined weigh approx 800-850kg

gardening info- veg salads and general gardening talk

A big thank you to everyone who came along to my workshop today at the N.W.C. I hope everybody enjoyed it I certainly did, the topics ranged from carrots to gardening (veg) for beginners. The photos show some of the equipment used and most went away with a pot of sown seeds and or strawberry or mint plants Thanks again

gardening info- mimicking a bee

At first glance I thought this is the smallest bumble bee I have ever seen but on closer inspection I discovered it is a hover fly  Volucella bombylans, a male. The female lays her eggs in the nests of social wasps and bumblebees where the larvae live as scavengers, feeding on debris and occasionally the hosts larvae.

gardening info- takin in the rays

These guys hadn't got a care in the world and were just takin in rays (God's in his heaven and everything right with the world)

gardening info-things on the wing

With the unpredictable weather we've been having it was nice to see these winged visitors that have visited us at the N.W.C over the last few weeks, I apologize for the quality of the photos (phone camera) but see if you can identify some of the visitors who regularly fly in to see us

gardening info-READ THESE WORDS

The Dalai Lama once was asked what surprised him most about humanity, and he said, "Man,Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money, Then he sacrifices money to recapture his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present the result being that he does not live in the present or the future,he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived" Enjoy the present for tomorrow never comes

gardening info-Court Hey

The brilliant wood carving in Court Hey was admired by 2 English Oaks,myself and John are really impressed with this Green woodpecker,lets hope it's the first of many works of art(beside John and I) to be seen in the park.

gardening info- hairygardener on tour

Earlier in year we went on tour to Stratford upon Avon and we went to Anne Hathaways cottage, well worth a visit,the grounds are brilliant, I'd walk barefoot to work there a truly inspiring place,hostas with no sign of slugs,I'm lost for words now you can tell I enjoyed our visit

gardening info catch up

In this particular post I'm playing catch up with a particular veg or is it a fruit,I've sown these seeds into compost held in paper pots, I've been using paper pots since me and Gandalf were at school together, always water them from the bottom letting the paper soak up the water. Will these seeds catch up wait and see( have a little faith baby) and the variety of these seeds well that would be telling. You can see the pot maker in the tray,best newspaper to use is recycled Garden News naturally.

gardening info- progression

The raised bed has progressed a little with the planting of leeks,shallots,cream marigolds,and the sowing of radish, lettuce seeds,a bit of space left for a couple of tomato plants me thinks. All these veggi/flowery stuff growing in recycled compost with comfrey leaves added to it.

gardening info-bumblebee house

We've added a bumble bee house to our various wildlife abodes doing our part to save the wildlife,probably a bit late for this year but it's there for late comers

gardening info- changing things

I've moved a raised bed to just out side the kitchen door for ease of access and its what we do every year is change the garden round and just by it I've planted up another alpine pot with fairy foxglove,lewisia,saxifrage,wooly thyme,sedun,alpine ragged robin etc. So far in the raised bed I've planted marigolds,shallots,sown lettuce,radish and more to follow soon.This is my first blog for a while as I've been away with the faeries but they've allowed me back into the real world for a while so I can catch up on blogging.

gardening info-composter

We installed a new composter on Friday,this composter composts cooked and uncooked food underground.The way it works is a large hole is dug and a basket is placed into the hole and the green cone is screwed onto the basket securing it into the ground and the waste is placed into the green cone. The way it works is the waste material rots under ground releasing the goodness into the soil by means of a liquid, The basket allows the worms and beneficial soil micro organisms to come and go,there is no smell as the cone is sealed so flies cannot get in, the cone is double skinned so generating heat which helps decomposition.Come and see it yourself at the National Wildflower Centre,seek me out and I gladly tell you all about this and all methods of composting.The basket is out of sight underground secured to the cone,in the bed where it is sited we are growing our comfrey.

gardening info-foster parent

You can never say for certain what's going to happen from one day to the next. Take today for instance, some lovely person donated these lovely plants to us at the Wildflower Centre, not your average wildflowers well not from this country,as you can see it is a fantastic collection of Cacti,this is were the foster parenting comes in. I have grown cacti in the past with a reasonable amount of success but they are not my forte, having said that I'm up for the challenge and I'll let you know how I get on.

gardening info- beds

Some of the raised beds expertly cleaned up by the Friday volunteers,already for planting up now guys,whats stopping you?

gardening info- sq metre yardening

Ran a workshop yesterday about sq. metre gardening or as it is now known sq. yardening,it showed and gave people  ideas what could be grown in a "yarden" with a twist because I also introduced a sq fruit yarden. In this I included fruit bushes grown with stawberries,edible wildflowers, herbs,(a minature forest garden) if you like.Also on display were 2 sq potato gardens simply made out of builders sacks

gardening info- putting plants

Putting plants to bed, a strange statement I grant you,but there is still a bit of a chill in the air so what I do is to just drape a blanket over them in this case a fleece (horticultural) blanket it keeps the chill of them at night,you wouldn't want you baby(ies) to get a chill,no? Well keep them warm and they will repay you!

gardening info-sometimes plants need

aSometimes plants need to stretch their feet (sorry roots),don't give up on plants which are not doing well as you might expect especially wildflowers. These poor little forgotten (perhaps forgotten is not the  right word) primroses could not be sold in this condition so I decided to plant them up in a wheelbarrow for a late Spring display, with some TLC and some of the Hairygardener's special plant food both plants and I will be bouncing around like Spring lambs,a sight not for faint hearted. Good gardening to you.

gardening info-paper pots

One of the best things I love about my sort of gardening is when I can use pots made from newspaper,it's great fun. You can start seeds in them and when germinated the plant stays in the pot and planted out into its final position so there is no check in the  plants growth,so go on buy a paper pot maker, you will not regret it, I've had mine for nearly 25 years.