Life isn’t always as relaxed as we’d like it to be. Daily demands and pressures can leave us feeling tense, stressed, and exhausted. My favourite way to relax, recharge, and re-energise my body and soul is to spend time outdoors in a garden or allotment, or to take an uplifting walk outside in our beautiful countryside.
If you’re looking to unwind, make time to enjoy a pot of tea in the garden.
Welcome to the third part of my overview of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 (see part one here and part two here)……
Chilli pepper seeds are usually sown from February to the end of April. However, these vegetables command a long growing season, requiring sufficient time for the plants to mature and their fruit to develop and ripen. Accordingly, I find that chilli peppers are best started from seed sown in January.
Nurseries stock a limited range of chilli pepper plants in springtime, but gardeners who grow chillies from seed are blessed with the choice of a vast range of varieties.
I thought you might enjoy following one of my Aerangis citrata orchids through the course of the year; so I’ve been regularly updating this diary to give you the chance to get to know this orchid better. To make it easier for you, I’ve dated all of my photographs, so you can more clearly see the rate of this plant’s growth and development.
My friend, Gary Firth kindly gave me this Phalaenopsis pulchra plant, for my National Collection of Miniature Phalaenopsis Species, exactly two years and eight months ago. I must say, it’s always a huge relief when I don’t immediately kill a plant that a friend has given me! Consequently, I’m celebrating the fact that this orchid remains alive and well and I am delighted to be able to share my photographs of this Phalaenopsis pulchra specimen’s first flowering with you.
I love growing vegetables, it’s a truly wonderful, soul enriching experience to grow your own food! Sadly an increasing number of us are without the luxury of a garden or allotment and have nowhere to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers; while a great many others struggle to garden in small, often paved spaces, without any access to the soil.
I love our planet, I love plants and nature. I want to protect our environment. I want to live more sustainably. Sustainability is not a new desire for me, it is something that I have always aspired to. Firstly though I must tell you that I am far from perfect, I make mistakes and I am always learning. I want to improve, I want to make changes to live more sustainably and to live ethically.
I am a sentimental old soul, I treasure so many things that most folk would not think twice of throwing away. I also keep things, just in case they become useful one day. Yes, you could describe me as a hoarder!
I love our planet. I love fields, meadows, glades, forests, hills, marshlands, bogs, mountains, streams, rivers, and oceans. I love to see wildflowers growing in the wild.
Gardening can be as expensive an activity as you’d like. Whatever your budget it’s important to spend your money wisely on items you’ll find useful, indispensable or wonderful!
Specialist Plant Fairs, Seed and Plant SwapsVillage Fetes, Open Gardens, Gardening Society Plant Sales, Seed and Plant Swaps are all great places to buy plants at fantastic prices.
