Category: More Gardening

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2020 Calendar of Specialist Plant Fairs, Festivals, Sales, and Swaps

Happy new year!  Happy new plants!  Here are the dates and details of plant sales, plant festivals, plant swaps, seed swaps, and other super opportunities to buy wonderful, locally grown plants at fantastic prices; as well as details of events where you can swap plants or seeds for free!  Great quality, rare, hard to find, special, and unusual plants can be found at the specialist plant fairs and other events that I have listed for you below, in this, my 2020 Calendar of UK Specialist Plant Fairs, Festivals, Sales, and Swaps!

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White Orchid BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial Update

Welcome to the fourteenth update from my White Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium.  In this update, it’s a pleasure to share the sparkle of this Aerangis hyaloides plant’s glistening flowers with you.  Yes – that’s right – this miniature orchid’s blooms really do twinkle in the sunlight!  I’ve also got a crystalline Ceratostylis pristina flower that you might be interested to see. 

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If you’re looking for ways to make a positive difference to the environment, why not build a pond?  Ponds support a vast range of wildlife, from the bottom to the top of the food chain.  Insects, invertebrates, amphibians, and birds, all need ponds.  These ecologically important habitats give us the chance to see dazzling dragonflies and get closer to nature.  Ponds grant us exciting opportunities to grow waterlilies and aquatic plants! 

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2020 Calendar of Specialist Orchid, Cactus, and Indoor Plant Fairs, Sales, & Swaps

If your garden is indoors and you’ve no outside space it can be difficult to find specialist plant fairs that sell orchids, cacti, and other indoor plants.  I’ve created this calendar to help you find these events, so you can turn your home into a plant filled oasis! 

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2020 Calendar of Specialist Plant Fairs, Festivals, Sales, and Swaps

Happy new year!  Happy new plants!  Here are the dates and details of plant sales, plant festivals, plant swaps, seed swaps, and other super opportunities to buy wonderful, locally grown plants at fantastic prices; as well as details of events where you can swap plants or seeds for free!  Great quality, rare, hard to find, special, and unusual plants can be found at the specialist plant fairs and other events that I have listed for you below, in this, my 2020 Calendar of UK Specialist Plant Fairs, Festivals, Sales, and Swaps!

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Things to look our for when you’re setting up a new Terrarium

I’m currently in the process of setting up a new terrarium, which is very exciting!  Don’t worry, I’ll take you on a tour of my new Tall Orchidarium in due course.  However, today I wanted to tell you about something unexpected that happened to me, while I was gathering together the materials for this new enclosure.

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Miniature Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium

Welcome to the twenty-third update from my BiOrbAir Review – Growing Miniature Orchids in the BiOrbAir!  Since my last instalment, the two plants that were really struggling – Diplocaulobium chrysotropis and Macroclinium chasei have both died.  But it’s not all bad news, I’ve got a few orchid flowers to share with you and I’m also celebrating that for this week at least, the tiny aphid species that has colonised the plants inside this terrarium is temporarily under control.

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East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing
Author: Meera Sodha
Publisher: Fig Tree Books
ISBN: 978-0-241-38756-6

I discovered Meera Sodha‘s recipe for Vegan Cauliflower Korma in Meera’s ‘The New Vegan’ column, in The Guardian, back in October 2018.  I’ve been a huge fan of Meera Sodha’s recipes, right from the first moment I tasted this delicious roasted cauliflower curry. 

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Christmas Gifts for Gardeners 2019

Christmas time is such a special time of year.  It’s a time for meeting up, celebrating, and showing our thanks and appreciation to those around us.

Make the promise of a day out together, to visit a snowdrop garden

Love and friendship are priceless gifts.  Why not gift the promise of a day out together in a magnificent snowdrop garden, in January or February? 

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Snowdrop Events Calendar 2020

Welcome to my 2020 Snowdrop Gardens, Talks, Events, and Open Days Calendar!  Here are the dates, and all the details of the openings of the most beautiful and magnificent snowdrop gardens across the UK, Ireland, America, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.  These gardens are all opening to allow visitors the chance to experience the joy of visiting their snowdrop collections.  

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The Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium

Welcome to the fourteenth and final instalment of my Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial – growing epiphytic orchids, from Madagascar, inside the BiOrbAir terrarium.

Since my last update, I’ve made the decision to empty my Madagascar BiOrbAir terrarium and re-plant this terrarium.  I found that the Madagascan orchids that I chose to grow together, inside this enclosure, required too strongly opposing growing conditions to make it possible to easily grow these orchids successfully in such close proximity to one another. 

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Creating a Wildlife Pond

I’ve always had a great interest in ponds.  To me, the underwater world is fascinating; I’ve been interested in aquatic plants since I was a young child.  I can still remember the feeling, when my heart leapt for joy, as I discovered a clump of Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) for the first time, whilst I was out for a walk with my Grandparents. 

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November Gardening Tips & Ideas

November is an exciting month, full of opportunities in the garden.  Take time out to enjoy the fleetingly beautiful glory of the moment, as leaves of burnished gold and crimson light up the landscape.  At this time of year, it’s important to plan ahead and to plant trees and bee friendly flowers, for future generations to enjoy.

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Garden Twine Trial

Twine is an essential product for gardeners.  This small, but vital product helps us to support, tie in, and train our plants.  Garden twine assists us as we hang up bunches of herbs, garlic, and onions, for storing and drying.  Twine enables us to mark out rows, and carry out all manner of garden tasks.  Whether you enjoy growing vegetables, fruit, herbs, or cut flowers, if you’re fond of tending herbaceous borders, or you enjoy taking part in any other form of gardening activity; twine is a universally useful product!

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Giving thanks for my Thanksgiving Cactus

Four or five years ago, two of my favourite people in the whole world gave me this lovely Thanksgiving Cactus.  I love this plant because I associate it with two people that I love very much but also because this cactus is a fun, easy going, and reliable houseplant that flourishes inside my home, in less than bright conditions.

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Plant Conservation: Why it Matters and How it Works
Author: Timothy Walker
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN: 978-1-60469-260-0

I felt that it would be both very timely and apt to write a review of Timothy Walker’s book, Plant Conservation: Why it Matters and How it Works, as this book presents a range of activities that we as individuals can do, to help to conserve the plants on our beautiful planet. 

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Autumn leaves

Autumn is such a beautiful season.  I love to watch the leaves on trees and shrubs, as they turn from green to gold, burnished amber, and an array of fiery autumnal hues.  Autumn leaves twirl and dance, as they make their descent, gliding and tumbling through the air onto the floor below.  It’s quite simply magical; autumn leaves are a blessing!

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Growing Garlic, Wild Garlic, and Elephant Garlic

Home grown garlic is one of life’s joys.  The best garlic is planted in autumn.  So, if you’re thinking of growing your own garlic, don’t delay, this is the time to plant it!

Garlic Growing Conditions

Over the years I’ve grown a lot of garlic.  The best garlic I’ve grown was planted in a free draining, sandy soil, in early autumn. 

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Moth Night 2019

Moth Night raises awareness about moths.  This annual event is a rather lovely invitation to everyone across the British Isles to stop for a moment and look out for moths – what moths are there in your neighbourhood, or your area of the country, this week?

The results from participants’ Moth Counts will inform Atropos, Butterfly Conservation, and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, of the numbers of different moth species, in the UK, at this time of year.

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Moth Night 2019

Moth Night is a fun event; it’s free to take part and open to everyone.  Most moths are night flying insects; they’re out and about doing their thing, while we’re usually tucked up indoors.  Consequently, many people miss out on seeing even a single species of moth, during the year.  This is a great shame, as moths are incredibly beautiful and very interesting creatures.