Gardening bore
Rhubarb wine (because I’m obsessed with fermenting)
Earlier this year I started brewing my own ginger beer, following instructions in the River Cottage Fermentation Handbook, and I’ve been making batches regularly ever since. My ginger bug – the ginger and sugar concoction that’s used to kickstart fermentation –...
I sowed too early, and other garden woes
It’s a rookie error, really. Getting excited at the first flush of warm weather in March and sowing lots of seeds. Seeds which then develop into seedlings right as the weather turns cold in April – which it inevitably does – at which point they either grow too...
Not fast, not furious: Learning to love slow compost
Once upon a time we were fully intending to follow the ‘fast’ or ‘hot’ composting method, where you turn your compost regularly to aerate it and speed up decomposition. That was the idea. We pretended to ourselves that we would diligently turn our compost every...
Get this garden started (PS. I hope you like lists)
We’re off, Gardening Bore Gang. I’ve sown the first seeds. I’ve cleared the veg beds of last year’s debris. I’ve been catching up on Gardeners’ World episodes… It’s safe to say I’ve recaught the gardening bug. It goes this way every spring. March rolls around and I...
Goals for our Bulgarian garden, 2023
Seems a little early to kick off my annual Gardening Bore witterings, but no. March is nearly here, and with it the ritual of starting new seeds and clearing last year’s mess from the veg beds. (If you’re one of those people who do a big garden tidy-up before...
Lessons from the garden 2022
I’ve not been very Gardening Bore this year, have I? (On here, at least. I regularly bombard Instagram with pictures of tomatoes and courgettes.) Anyway, for those of you who come here for the garden porn, I apologise. Let’s give you a little fix to tide you over...
In the veg garden
Let’s check in on the veg garden, shall we? Because I realise I’ve hardly mentioned it since April, which is not very Gardening Bore of me at all. It’s been our best year yet for the veg garden. After we expanded it last year to make some extra new beds in front of...
A predictably unpredictable Bulgarian April
It’s a tale as old as time (or, more accurately, as old as this blog): I write about the excitement of kicking off the new gardening season and, sure enough, the weather says, ‘Nuh-uh. Here, have some snow. And some frost. Would you like more snow?’ Needless to...
Welcome to Gardening Bore 2022
If you’re wondering where I’ve been all month, we went to England for two weeks, which was rather nice actually, and I got COVID, which wasn’t so nice. Not that I was very ill, luckily. It was more inconvenient than anything, isolating in a house with a partner who...
David Pumpkins
There’s an old Saturday Night Live sketch with Tom Hanks where he’s playing this bizarre character called David Pumpkins. (Google it. It’s weird as shit.) And I think about that weird-ass sketch, and his funny suit, and the dancing – oh God, the dancing – every...
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,...