Jack's Gardening Adventures

The annual baton change Phew, how fast the 2019 gardening year went but how yo-yoing the weather was. Depending where one lives there have been record breaking periods of sun rain floods and gales and shortly before Christmas most of Spain was covered in snow. Almost a white winter but for many rain except on the Costa Blanca that enjoyed a sunny period except for Boxing Day. We even had temperatures of up to twenty seven degrees centigrade between Christmas and the New Year. Did the vegetable garden good. Seeds sown in early November finally broke through and leaf crop plantlets sown in October are maturing fast. However some plants in the flower garden were caught by a night of minus three centigrade a week before Christmas so the major annual cut back started yesterday to recover from New Year hangovers is timely. Luckily we had harvested the thin skinned tangerines just before the frost as they suffer more than mandarins oranges and lemons. Now it’s on to New Year resolut...

  Weather After a month of very variable weather in May with more than a normal months rain June has opened with an overnight storm but at time of writing now have dry pavements and a drying sky. Hopefully sunny for the Costa Blanca Gardeners Circle Garden Party this afternoon.Have now completed our summer vegetable plantings/sowings and by now are normally into the summer watering programme but to date the soil has remained damp naturally. Remember that in 1988 we had 12 days of continuous rain in June. With the stratosphere full of dust particles from the Iceland volcanic eruption, the tornados in the USA, the Libyan war and Japanese atomic power station disaster could it happen again? Certainly many , especially those new to Spain , are asking ‘When will the summer start?’. In the meantime gardens are very green and colourful with the last of Spring and first of Summer plants. But much forming fruit was knocked off by the heaviest of May storms and winds. A recent email ...

This is a special post from our friends at GardenHugs.com Organically Grown Gardening is one of the most popular and rewarding hobbies to pursue. One of the most rewarding aspects of edible gardening is that you get to directly control the quality of the food you eat. Produce which is purchased in a grocery store may have been picked days or weeks before reaching the store. Along its journey towards your plate, it may have been treated with chemical substances designed to reduce pests, increase the size of the fruit, or improve its appearance. Many people believe that this reliance on chemicals to produce our foodstuffs is dangerous to our health, and to the health of our planet. Gardening at home means that you are free to garden organically, using materials that occur naturally and have a beneficial impact on the environment. What Does Organic Gardening Really Mean? When we talk about organic gardening, what do we really mean? Organic gardeners have made a choice to avoid...

Raised garden beds are exactly what it says in the name. The raised beds can be made any height you like - so long as they are made sturdy enough. This may help someone to enjoy some vegetable growing who is having health issues such as bending over. Raised garden beds are also a perfect solution for the keen vegetable gardener who has limited space for planting. This system of vegetable growing is a simple way of improving the health and productivity of your vegetable garden while bringing the soil up to a comfortable level to work at. Raised beds have the added benefit of good soil structure and drainage - because you need not walk on or dig it, which enables the soil to warm up earlier in the season, giving you a head start on spring. This system is especially handy for people who live in areas with poor or shallow soil. Making your soil a better medium to plant your vegetables into is very important and is much easier to control in a raised garden bed. Gardening and espec...

Many gardeners coming to Spain soon run into trouble in finding out where to buy all their gardening supplies. Indeed the most frequent question put to us is ‘Where can I buy this, that or the other?’. The problem was even greater twenty years ago when we first came to Spain as there were very few garden centres and most only sold plants and did not have a shop. Today most have some sort of shop but rarely do they stock the full range of tools, fertilizers, sprays, vegetable seeds and plantlets, rubber boots for muddy days etc. that newcomers need to develop and maintain a new garden or revamp an existing one. And mail order and on-line internet gardening shopping is not as developed in Spain as in the UK and no allotment associations exist either. So where else can on go. The answer is to locate your local agricultural co-operative, animal food warehouse (normally signposted Pienso), irrigation specialist suppliers of garden/ small holding machinery such as rotovators, shredders, l...

These gardening tips really are a must for anybody - including landscape gardeners oxford area, who desires an attractive and healthy garden. If you're not applying them now, you a lot wish to. You'll no more question why others gardens always appear to appear better than yours. Provide Structure for Beauty Before you believe this gardening tip is simply too structured, continue reading. Next time the thing is a garden which makes you stop and appear, request yourself why it draws in your attention a lot. Should you look carefully, you will probably uncover how the garden has well-defined structures, edges and outlines. How are you able to do that together with your garden there are already? What are the pathways you are able to line with small gemstones? Can there be a spot you are able to develop a small wall? Think of lovely gardens less as just flowers, but instead structures lined with flowers. I drive with a house everyday which has a classic rowboat within their ...