ecoexplorer.co.uk

After a less than thrilling bank holiday shift today I made the most of the late afternoon sun by taking a trip to a local Pick Your Own farm. Tuscany, eat your heart out…

They do the usual row after row of strawberries as well as the less usual…

…marrows, runner beans, and sweetcorn. (more…)

These beauties have kept me feeling great about the garden despite it turning into a bit of a jungle this summer. They’ve been unstoppable.

It’s the first time I’ve grown beefsteak tomatoes and each plant has (more…)

Not everyone shares Wordsworth’s love of daffodils. But former Warwickshire Wildlife Trust chief exec Andy Tasker who has been accused of being a flower fascist for setting up the website I Hate Daffodils is quick to point out that Wordsworth was talking about native wild daffodils, not the ones we see these days, which Andy calls “yellow monsters”. And he may have a point…

Over the past 50 years a staggering 98% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have disappeared. According to Plantlife, since 1990 we’ve seen a

No wonder the butterflies and bees are having such a hard time.

Andy’s story seems to have struck a nerve with daffodil fans (it’s not often you’ll see a link to the Daily Mail here), but let’s cut the guy some slack.

He’s taking a bashing from Joe public just so he can highlight a wider problem of introduced species versus native. And he’s left me and my fella with the fun of recoiling in horror each time we see “yellow monsters” by the roadside. Mr Tasker we salute you.

Sienna Miller’s take on the UK’s potential to grow exotic crops. I guess she hasn’t put too much thought into where her roses come from on Valentines but she’d struggle to get them blooming in Blighty’s February frosts. She’s not a million miles off though. (more…)

Highlights…

a carnivorous pitcher plant

a rather phallic fly catcher from Akamba

Lowlights…

Hurrah! The first lady is planting an organic kitchen garden on the White House lawn. And this is the commendably crazy gang who put the pressure on to make it happen. Yes, they grow veggies on top of their big yellow bus…

No one’s claiming it’s (more…)

My attempt at recreating The Good Life in Coventry needs a little work.

A brief window of respite from the ice, snow and rain allowed me to dig up the rest of our efforts from the late summer sowing sesh. Everything in my square-foot garden had blurred into one so it was a game of Guess The Veg.

I stunted the growth of the carrots and parsnips by (more…)

Having launched the blog I’ve committed the cardinal sin of leaving it for a week with no posts.

Since Monday I’ve been either too drunk, too hungover or, more recently, too wrapped up with weekend visitors to get anywhere near the computer.

THINGS MUST CHANGE!

So here’s a two-minute video to put me back on the right track. This summer I moved house and got a garden for the first time. I rushed out, bought loads of seeds and planted an organic vegetable patch - despite knowing nothing about gardening. This is the first result of my greenfingered experiment.

Impressive, no?