Gardening bore
Cluster sowing, beetroot recipes
Always one for trying something new (*cough* bullshit *cough*) I did something a bit different with my beetroot this year. I tried the ‘multi-sowing’ (cluster-sowing) method espoused by Charles Dowding, the guy who made no dig gardening famous. If any form of...
July in the veg garden (a deep dive)
Hello July, you cheeky motherfucker, creeping up on me without warning. I’m sure last time I checked it was still April. Now it’s high summer and the year is running away from me. It’s downhill from here to Christmas. You know that don’t you? Before we know it,...
Greenhouse reveal (sort of), and a June roundup
Like a D-list soap star cutting the ribbon on a new local Tesco, here I am unveiling our rustic greenhouse. Sort of. It looks very finished from the front, you see, but there aren’t any windows on the sides yet! In this 32°C heat, that’s not necessarily a bad thing...
We built a (very twee) garden shed
I say ‘we’. Our friend built it for us, as Rob has his hands full with the never-ending rustic greenhouse project, and I don't do manual labour. Anyway, didn't he do a great job? It’s based on the metal shed in Monty Don’s veg garden, which has always given...
Be more Blanche
We went back to the fabulous plant shop in Sofia last week. I mean, we were supposed to be in Sofia looking at ovens. (Our electric oven hasn’t worked for years and every time spring rolls around, when we no longer want to put the woodburner on just to cook...
Dumpster-diving window beggars
This is our life now. Every time we go out, we’re on high alert for abandoned wooden windows to finish off the rustic greenhouse. We eyeball people’s gardens as we drive by. We scour municipal bins. We tell anyone who’ll listen, ‘We’re looking for old windows. DO...
Springwerk, greenhouse progress and wild garlic
We finally had a warm, sunny, spring-like weekend, so we spent all of last Saturday and Sunday in the veg garden, attempting to impose some order on the chaos. It was hard work (werk schmerk). The first gardening weekend of the year is always murder on my back and...
Return of the Gardening Bore (again)
In a list-writing mood today (quelle surprise), so I thought I’d present you with an update on our Gardening Bore 2021 antics. If you’re new here, when we bought our Bulgarian village house it came with a large-ish (1/4 acre) garden – complete with some grass,...
April, is that really you?
My calendar, filthy liar that it is, is trying to convince me that it’s April. But that can’t be right, can it? How are we already a quarter of the way through 2021? How can time fly when none of us are having any fun? It doesn’t seem fair. As it’s April Fool’s...
Indoor gardening, or welcome to Gardening Bore 2021
Hello and welcome to Gardening Bore 2021, hosted by me, your favourite gardening bore. For anyone who’s new to the Auntie Bulgaria blog, Gardening Bore is an annual traditional in which I: Throw myself enthusiastically into sowing veg and flower seeds in spring....
Let’s see…
Hello! Yes, I’m still here and haven’t been carried away by COVID, yet. I know I’ve been neglecting the blog in favour of work and gardening (mostly work). But it’s not like there are lots of exciting new life experiences to write about. Every week consists of us...
Out in the garden – a photo essay
‘Photo essay’ being a grandiose way of me just inserting a load of pictures instead of crafting a logical collection of words. (It’s Friday. It’s sunny. We’re barbecuing. Who wants to be inside typing?) Here goes… In the veg garden Pepper sizing up the...