THE VANISHING OF THE BEES The alarm disturbs my slumbers at first light and I lie there in half-conscious limbo for half an hour or more, pausing the phone each time it rings to urge me on. Outside, birds are welcoming the new morning in their remarkable, dawn-chorus way. Woodpigeons’ lazy snooze breezes in through [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘greenhouse’
DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE VANISHING OF THE BEES
Friday, May 7th, 201022 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman BEDFORDSHIRE CHAMPION
Friday, January 22nd, 2010BEDFORDSHIRE CHAMPION A filthy morning weather-wise. Heavy rain and wet wet wet. I was at the computer for most of it. However, managed to get into the greenhouse just before lunchtime to try something a bit new and different – sowing onions from seed. Fellow gardeners I’ve talked to reckon that done this way makes [...]
Read More »13 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW, RARE DELIGHT
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW Half-way betwixt the High Street and Leyton Lane. All you can hear is the gurgle of water in some underground drain, tweets and scolds of blackbird and great tit, and the pitter-patter of falling snow: not flakes, but fresh-fall melts in mini avalanches from the tunnel of twigs and branches. Stand [...]
Read More »21 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE IRON GRIP OF WINTER
Monday, December 21st, 2009THE IRON GRIP OF WINTER Ground is like iron out on the plot. We’ll not be lifting roots for a while yet, save pot-grown carrots which are in the greenhouse to keep off the worst of the frost. I walked down the allotment field to the tinker-chime of feeding goldfinches in charming flocks. They love [...]
Read More »8 September 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman LONICERA NITIDA, GETTING ON
Tuesday, September 8th, 20098 September 2009 LONICERA NITIDA Temperatures are on the rise again. Misty this morning, but warm. Town has emerged from the murk but across the vale Melbury remains shrouded. Leaves are falling from St James Park poplars onto the grass and into the gutter. I hadn’t really clocked this annual event until walking up the [...]
Read More »4 September 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SOYA BEAN NEWS, STUFFED MARROW
Friday, September 4th, 20094 September 2009 SOYA BEAN NEWS When I planted soya bean seeds as directed on the packet back on 7 April it commenced trials of an unusual crop I’d not grown before. What stuck in my mind then, and is happening now, was the information that beans should be left on the plant and will [...]
Read More »21 August 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman BLACKBIRD IN THE GUTTER, BLOWSY BORDERS
Friday, August 21st, 200913 August 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman APPLE DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN, PIGEONS SQUABBLE OVER ELDERBERRIES, SPIDERS AT 10.15AM
Thursday, August 13th, 200913 August 2009 APPLE DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN Just had the first home-grown apple of this season. A Merton Knave. It dangled from a step over tree, or ‘single tier espalier’, which I’ve nurtured for seven years from a maiden whip in front of the south-facing greenhouse as a decorative and productive edge. It just [...]
Read More »21 July 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SOYA BEAN DEVELOPMENTS, LOVELY FARM SMELLS
Tuesday, July 21st, 200921 July 2009 SOYA BEAN DEVELOPMENTS I’ve never taken an umbrella out into the garden with my wake up cup of tea before, but I did this morning. More rain! There have been complaints about the recent weather from various quarters, including gardener friends, but not from I. Sure, I am harbouring concerns about a [...]
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