Gardening bore
New beginnings (an announcement)
If you’re wondering where I’ve been for the last month, I’ve been working on something very exciting. *Fanfare* *Pauses for dramatic effect* I’ve launched an Auntie Bulgaria newsletter over on Substack. What the hell is Substack? It’s a newsletter platform,...
An edible wander around the garden (it’s not as bare as it looks)
Come and take a little tour of the garden as it stands at the end of March. In my last post I shared a picture of the garden in its full summer glory (taken last year), and one of the commenters (hello Bobby) said they’d rather see how the garden looks now. Since...
Welcome to Gardening Bore 2024!
Don’t get too excited, because I haven’t exactly done much in the garden yet. Okay, I haven’t done anything in the garden yet. Even though it’s March, I’m still in that February mindset of beginning to think about the veg garden, but not quite being ready to do any...
What to do with all those Jerusalem artichokes
Yes, it’s the latest in my long-running series of ‘What to do with all those [insert veg that I’ve grown too much of]'. We’ve dug up barely a third of the Jerusalem artichokes and I’m already at a loss. What on earth do I do with them? I’m wracking my brains trying...
Putting the garden to bed, winter greens
Well, well, well, it’s mid-October already. Soon it’ll be Christmas, then 2024, then 2025, then 2030. And then I’ll be 50. Anyone else feeling their hair waft in the wind as time literally wooshes by? (It’s like that scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Sally is...
Revamping our Bulgarian summer kitchen
Delighted as we were with our rustic summer kitchen, I’ve been itching to give it a final zhuzh over the last year or two. We needed more worktop space. Part of the stone floor was too wibbly and uneven (and that’s saying something, since everything in our house...
Roasted courgette dip, savoury courgette muffins, and the aggressive giving away of vegetables
I dare not venture into the garden during daylight hours. The second I sneak into the veg patch, our elderly neighbour pops up on his side of the fence and yells (in Bulgarian), ‘Do you want some courgettes?’ Each time, I firmly remind him that we have four...
Mixed planting, finding my gardening style
Our first veg patch was in the style of a traditional market garden or old-school allotment – as in, rotovated earth with crops sown in long rows. We didn’t think too much about how we wanted the veg garden to look. We were new to gardening and our neighbour had a...
Planted up, garden zen
I knew if I moaned about the weather (see previous post) it would improve instantly. Tis the way of it. This week has been sunny and hot and settled – and finally the garden gets a rest from the grey skies and snail army. It’s a chance for plants to put on some...
Why does this summer hate me?
I don’t want to be one of *those* Brits. Those Brits who complain about the weather all the time (it’s either too cold, too hot, too dry or too wet for those people). But I have to get it off my chest, guys. I just have to. I’m going to explode all over my office...
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...