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Tag: growing dahlias
Hanging baskets – time for a bit of a refresh
When the garden is in bloom there is no better antidote to the blues. Bright, colourful flowers and a bit of sun may just be the best thing in the world. However, this weekend saw us give in and accept that the hanging baskets needed a wee bit of help. They weren’t horrendous, I mean… Read more
A walk around the garden with a selfie stick – June update 2019
It’s been a good while since we just went for a walk around the garden and talked about what’s happening, so come for a walk with me and a go-pro on a selfie stick. Read more
Jade plant cuttings – an update on my adventure
I have a very happy update for you, my jade plants are now all very happy, which is such a relief for me. It’s really hard to get over in a blog post, just how much I was worrying about my plants after I almost killed them with love. But happily,y all the plants (… Read more
Greenhouses: glass versus polycarbonate. Is there much difference?
I wrote a blog post a good while back now asking if an unheated greenhouse really made much difference and I think having one here in the cold, wet north really was a great tester. In that post, one of the things I commented on was the fact that I had no experience of the… Read more
See ya suckers!! Pruning tomato plants for better harvests.
I suspect this may be the most talked about, googled and youtubed piece of advice for gardeners growing tomatoes, but also the one which is surrounded by the most confusion. Pruning your tomatoes. The thing is, it actually doesn’t have to be confusing or complicated, here is my simple guide to tomato plant pruning. Pruning… Read more
Bakewell tart – it’s tasty, easy and nothing beats homemade
You guys know how much I love a slice of Bakewell tart with a cup of tea. I’ve even shared my homage in the bakewell muffin, but it occurred to me this week that I’ve never actually shared my Bakewell tart recipe with you guys. Shocking oversight, so since I fancied a wee slice today,… Read more
From bald to lush – winning the battle for a lovely lawn
This time last month we let you in on our battle to get the lawn looking lush again after my incident with the fertiliser (and I used too much), which left huge bald, burned patches on the front lawn. Well I’m pleased to say we won that battle and we now have a lovely lush… Read more
Dealing with weeds the Kate way: with a butane torch
This blog posts has been at the back of my mind for a while but I think it’s probably that time of year now where it will be something you guys will be interested in, cause lets be honest… weeding sucks! It’s boring, time-consuming, can be backbreaking and definitely kills your knees (and your nails).… Read more
One year can I just have a nice lawn without the battle?
I must admit, the front lawn is my nemesis. When it’s looking good, our front of house is stunning and gets so many complimentary comments from passers-by, but… it is so much work. When we moved to Ar Bruadair all those years ago, there was no lawn at all. It basically doubled as a car… Read more
Potting on your seedlings
We are potting on our tomatoes but this process applies equally to other seedlings, peppers etc. It’s time, our tomato seedlings are starting to look strong and healthy, but I’m very aware that they will soon be too large for the tiny little starter pots I gave them. If we allow this to happen, the… Read more
Hot cross buns: traditions and silliness (oh and a recipe)
Kate is a big fan of hot cross buns, I, to be honest, don’t really see what’s so fantastic about them. But hey ho, that doesn’t mean I can’t experiment with making some so Kate can have a treat. Just in case you live somewhere in the world where hot cross buns haven’t already appeared… Read more
Banana bread with a peanut butter twist
I’m going to call banana bread a useful cake. Yup, useful cause you know how sometimes you end up with random left over bananas that look less than attractive? You know, the ones that sit lonely in the fruit bowl at the end of the week all brown and yucky? Well this recipe is a… Read more
Using propagators to start your seedlings off & how to move them from propagator to greenhouse to outdoors
We have had a few questions in comments and on twitter recently about our set up in the greenhouse and how we use the propagators so I thought it would an excellent opportunity to talk to you a bit more about the process from start to finish. The first thing I want to point out… Read more
Compost, how to use it & when to sieve it
If you haven’t been following our adventure with composting over the past few years you won’t know that we started off with the big, standard-type compost pile at the back of the garden (build from odds and ends of wood) and are now using a swanky hotbin composter. So we’ve had to do lots of learning… Read more
Pruning and repotting Jade plants
I was given a cutting from a Jade plant about 10 or 11 years ago, it was tiny, maybe a couple of inches tall and I did what most of us do and stuck it on a windowsill and forgot about it. Watered it occasionally, when I remembered. This was back before I got excited… Read more
Naughty elf on the cocktail shelf – festive greetings from Kate & Eli
https://youtu.be/Oe7GHbnsBqE Espresso martini for one Read more
A wee tipple to add a glow to your christmas festivities – EGGNOG
Now eggnog isn’t something traditional to us, although we did grow up with something similar called a “snowball” using advocat, which is made from brandy, eggs and sugar, so pretty much eggnog. We’ve spent a bit of time researching eggnog and recipes because we were worried about getting things wrong and offending one of our… Read more
Panettone – Italian Christmas Bread
We all grow up with family traditions based around certain times of year – birthdays, special events, cultural holidays etc, but as an adult, you get to choose which traditions you carry on and share with your family or indeed which ones you choose to leave behind. The creation of our own family traditions has… Read more