Author: Eli

  • Let’s talk tomato plants and stress

    …and the stress I’m referring to is mostly that of the owner of said tomato plants. I have been seeing a whole heap of anxiety on social media over the last few weeks around tomato plants and the growers worry about how their plants fair against others. You know, the whole pressure of social media… Read more

  • April is when the garden really bursts into life

    April is most definitely when the garden really starts to get going. The dark, wet winter really seems to be behind us now, apart from the odd frosty morning, and most days are warmer and dare I say it, we’re evening seeing a little bit of sunshine. There are just so many exciting things to… Read more

  • Setting up the greenhouse for the summer season with my self-watering pots

    I think April might just be the most exciting and most infuriating month in my gardening calendar. The weather can be scorching sun on day and snow the next, as we’ve seen in Scotland over the last couple of weeks. And those changes are really frustrating when you are an eager little beaver waiting you… Read more

  • Hardening off your plants – it’s a bit like lifting lockdown

    By now I think most of us have at least some little baby plants and a whole lot of desire to get them out into the garden. So I feel it’s only right for me to jump up on that soapbox, with a little help from a small step, and shout, NO! Don’t do it!… Read more

  • Giving the cherry trees a new home

    As you guys know, we have a bit of a nightmare with trees in our garden. There are a couple of reasons, firstly the wind just seems to burn so much of the new, more delicate growth and secondly, we just suck at the whole tree in a container thing. Honestly, we are awful. So… Read more

  • The best way to organise a greenhouse

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    We aren’t all lucky enough to have huge gardens and enormous greenhouses, so we need to be a bit clever about how we organise the space, to make the most of what we have. I’ve done vlogs and blogs on this topic before and took you guys along as I set my greenhouse up for… Read more

  • Sowing under cover or what’s with the milk jugs?

    I swear, every time I turned on social media over the last few months, someone is sticking some seeds in a big plastic milk carton. What’s going on? The interwebs is a weird and wonderful place. So a wee bit of research (what I mean is I spoke to a friend who explained it) and… Read more

  • We’re trying some new strawberries

    Strawberries might just be our most successful harvest ever, since we got on top of the beastie problem, we’ve never had a bad year. So you’ll probably think we are mad if I tell you that we scrapped our strawberry bed and all the plants? Well not to fear, we are still growing strawberries, we… Read more

  • Repairing the raised bed covers

    It’s funny how easy it is to out off those little jobs that you absolutely know need to be done. We’ve been saying since last summer, “oh we better sort those netting frames.” But you know what it’s like… We out off and out off. Finally though, a morning of sawing and drilling in the… Read more

  • Getting my peppers and tomatoes started early: update

    There is still a level of excitement in the house over the fact that we have things growing. Helped I think, by the fact that they are in my office, so I see them every day. It’s pretty cool actually. And I do chuckle a bit at the fact that I am participating in all… Read more

  • Greenhouse insulation: will we bubble wrap again next year?

    January has given us everything the weather fairies could throw at us, rain, wind, snow, ice, frost and the odd sunbeam. But even better, it means we can finally give you that review of the bubble wrapped greenhouse. A few months back, we put messages out on all our platforms asking you guys to send… Read more

  • Starting seeds in early (indoors)

    We’ve had so many folks contact us this month asking what they can grow now in their greenhouse or if they can sow certain seeds. And you know what, I’m not surprised by all the confusion out there because it feels like everywhere you look, folk are planting things or showing off their seedlings or… Read more

  • Make your own potting mix

    Over the last week, I have been asked at least once a day for my recipe for potting soil. So I thought this was a good opportunity to share it with you guys, but also to talk about it and help us all get to grips with all the terms we see out there. Firstly,… Read more

  • 365 days later: 2020 in review

    I have never been so glad to see the number on the clock flip over to 00:00 – a whole new year. I say this in an entirely metaphoric way as I was in my bed asleep when the year passed, I’m not one for staying up late. But still, it’s been a hell of… Read more

  • Gardening doesn’t just stop because it’s winter

    As I sit here writing this blog post, it’s almost the longest day. It’s officially mid-winter, yet I’m just in from the garden, red cheeks and frozen fingers to boot. I would absolutely say yes, gardening has slowed down a little now we are deep into winter but it definitely hasn’t stopped. We don’t have… Read more

  • Propagation 101 – free plants

    This week we finally managed to tackle the first video in what is going to be a series on propagation. It’s a topic that has been requested numerous times as we are all trying to save the pennies and reduce the small fortune we are all guilty of spending on our gardens. Firstly though, I… Read more

  • Amending the soil in your raised beds

    It’s no secret to you guys that I get a bit down in winter when the garden is at it’s least productive and coincidentally least green. But sometimes you need to take the hit, because then you have the chance to make sure the garden has everything it needs, to be productive again. So that’s… Read more

  • An update on the bubble-wrapped greenhouse: was it worth it?

    As you guys know, we wrapped our greenhouse up in bubblewrap this year to keep it as cosy as possible without installing heating. We had 100% expected that by now we’d be able to give you a proper update on how it was standing up to the frosts and cold of winter… but to be… Read more

  • Unboxing and planting our massive spring bulb haul

    There is just a bit too much excitement going on around Ar Bruadair just now because the most enormous box of spring bulbs arrived in the post. And I mean enormous! It’s not often gardeners get to do an unboxing video but hang in there till the end and you can see me get over-excited… Read more