Blossom Time in the Garden

Climate change has brought forward the blossom-time of our fruit trees. Plum, cherry and pear appear first followed later by the apple blossom. It is a somewhat nervous time for the fruit grower because a late frost can severely reduce (or eliminate) your crop.Flowers have opened on the Concorde Pear...

Asparagus Season - Early?

It will soon be time to start enjoying our home-grown asparagus. The first spear of 2025 appeared on the 30th March ...Photo 1: Early Start to the Asparagus Season 2025 (photo taken March 31st)This is the second earliest appearance of the first spear coming just five days later than last year's (2024)...

A Trip to the Theatre

 March 30th 2025 was Mothering Sunday, otherwise known as Mother's Day. A time for children everywhere to show their appreciation and love for their mothers, moms, mamas, mommas, mummies, mums, mummys, mams, etc.With our children being either on holiday (USA and Japan), some distance away (Reading...

Start of the 2025 Kitchen Garden Season #4

 In Part 1, I described the setting up of my indoor heated propagator (20 - 23 ℃) to start the germination process for cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, aubergines and courgettes.Photo 1: Indoor Heated PropagatorOnce the seeds have germinated and appear above soil level, they can be moved to...

Start of the 2025 Kitchen Garden Season #3

 It is 21st March and the weather has warmed sufficiently to plant out the seed potatoes and onion sets. The weather forecast indicates a low probability of frost.Potatoes - I'm planting 'Premiere' this season as they yielded a good crop of largely disease free tubers when I last used this variety...

Start of the 2025 Kitchen Garden Season #2

Due to a lack of diligence and conscientiousness on my part, there are a few essential and important jobs that need to be completed prior to the new season. Some, if not all, of these jobs could have been done at the end of the previous growing season in October/November. Somehow, I seldom find the...

Start of the 2025 Kitchen Garden Season #1

  Now Spring has finally sprung, I can get enthused about this year's work in the kitchen garden. Encouragement came in the form of the warmest day of the year (21 ℃) so far on 20th March (Figure 1) ...Figure 1: Daily Maximum Temperatures (1/1/25 - 21/3/25) for Hereford... though not the suuniest;...