This is 100% the wrong time of year to be sharing this link, but it’s something to bookmark for when the weather clears up again. We’re heading into autumn and the garden is starting to wind down a little… I mean, I can’t say it ever really got going for me this year but let’s go with it.

What could be better than finding yourself on a sunny Sunday in the supposed UK summertime, invited into the back gardens of some proper posh countryside houses in the heart of the Cotswolds? That’s what Bibury Open Gardens Festival promised and whilst the title is a bit grandiose and misleading, it was surprisingly fun.

We’re definitely seeing signs of spring everywhere, and if I’m honest some scary signs of summer even during February. The tentative blue skies mean it’s time to start thinking about the garden. I tried to be patient this year, just because there was a nice sunny day in Feb, I didn’t suddenly rush out and plant everything. I waited until March, until a couple more frosts had passed by, and then got things underway.

This is a great book - I’m lucky enough to have a bit more space than the three square feet discussed but even with that in mind, the book is really useful for thinking about what things to grow together, and what you can plant in succession to make the most use of any space you do have. A really useful reference to help with a bit of vegetable plot planning.

I feel like it’s been a slow start to the year, vegetable gardening wise. I somehow managed to start things off too soon, before all danger of frost had gone, but then also the things that I did time right have been so slow to start coming through. However, we are starting to see some greenery and things are looking more promising as the sun comes out.

If the weather is anything to go by, we’re fully into autumn now. We’re either having those glorious days where the sun is shining but the air is brisk, or it’s absolutely hammering it down giving the earth some much needed moisture. I’m seeing plenty of info out there about things you can still do in your garden, but I have to admit I’ve lost a bit of steam this year.

With any new hobby that you get stuck into, you can probably find a podcast out there that will offer up help, tips and advice. My increasing obsession with veg growing and gardening means I was quickly searching for green-fingered podcasts and this one caught my attention quite quickly. Epic Gardening is a mission founded by Kevin Espiritu and with a host of expert collaborators to get people growing more plants.

I’m not great at planning or being organised or looking too far ahead, although it’s something I’ve been working on for a long time (especially if the number of to-do apps I’ve reviewed on this blog are anything to go by). However, when it comes to gardening, apparently, a bit of forward planning is necessary.

Day 17 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Day 8 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

One of my favourite things about this year so far was getting to early spring and realising the desire to get back to my vegetable garden was back. Last year, I gave it a go but chucked it all in as a bad job after a disappointing haul of carrots. In my offline diary, I specifically wrote “and that might be the gardening over with. Bored of it now.”

Although I claim not to be someone who can watch a lot of different TV shows at the same time, I do seem to have plenty of different series on the go at the moment. There’s just so much good stuff out there! But alongside the new stuff, there’s always a spot in my day for something a bit older and a bit more relaxing… something to switch off to rather than get completely invested in.

Having previously tried a bit of gardening this year and not done very well, I’m more interested in the successes and failures of other people than I might have expected. Combine this interest with an enjoyment of gorgeous time lapse videos and you get Boxlapse - a YouTube channel that focuses on growing various veggies and showing how they evolve over time. I discovered these videos via Kottke, who recommended the red bell pepper video, but I personally adore this side on view of potatoes growing under the soil.

This is a very useful visual reference book for any budding gardeners out there. The first part kicks off with a beginner’s guide to keeping plants - where to keep them, how often to water them, the best kind to buy for particular areas of your house. The second part of the book lists a whole variety of individual plants and how to look after them specifically. Useful, and one to keep on the shelf for future reference as well.

Like many people, I spent some of my lockdown time in the garden: digging, planting, weeding, wondering, waiting. It seemed like a sensible thing to do, we weren’t allowed to go on any grand adventures, so why not go on a bit of a journey closer to home? I’ve tried growing things before, my so-called Great Gardening Adventure that resulted in a couple of tomatoes, a withered cucumber, and some strawberries that were brought back from the brink by strong advice from my mother.

A while back, my parents introduced me to the Mimosa pudica, otherwise known as the Sensitive Plant (or my new favourite name Touch-Me-Not). It’s a cute little plant that looks perfectly normal until you touch it, when it all curls up on itself like a hedgehog. I thought it was quite cruel to prod and poke at it, but it recovers in about ten minutes and then it’s hard to resist doing it again.

I’ve made lots and lots of New Year’s Resolutions before, both on the blog and in my head, and very few of them have worked out. This year, I changed the concept around completely and debuted the Life List - a long-term set of goals and things to aim at. Some are crazy, some are impossible, some are easy and most will take time. I figured a quick review for the year would be appropriate, with some thoughts on what is next.

The tomatoes did turn red in the end, and they were delicious.

Here we are, then, eleven weeks on, and my gardening adventure has come to its conclusion. Most of the stuff died. The lettuce seemed to expire. I cleared out the strawberry pot, and I was left with a weird Jekyll & Hyde tomato plant. The tomatoes are at least trying to turn red now. I am not sure whether I should pull them off and ripen them, or if I am supposed to leave them on there until they are red and beautiful.

I have just found out about a new park opened in New York called the High Line. I don’t ever intend on travelling to New York, but if I did I would want to go and see this. The High Line railway opened back in the 1930s, as a way to stop pedestrians getting knocked over by freight trains. The tracks ran alongside the big warehouses, allowing buildings to have openings straight onto the trains. Loading and unloading was supremely easy.

I appear to have grown a cucumber. I don’t quite know how this happened. One minute it was all leaves, then the yellow flower, and suddenly there’s a big, green cucumber growing. I did take some pictures last week but forgot to do anything with them, and I can tell you this vegetable has more than doubled in size over the course of a week.

Today we have a new and unexpected bloom: I think this must be part of the bell pepper plant, but I can’t be 100% sure. It’s very pretty though, and so far I have spotted two of these cute little flowers. The tomatoes are coming on very well, growing nice and strong, bigger than I expected. They are still green, so I am waiting for them to turn a lighter shade of red before snapping some more photos. I can’t wait to try one.

It is all about the greens this week, as the strawberry crop seems to have become non-existant all of a sudden. I only had about three or four delicious strawberries to eat. The rest were too small and went bad before I could get to them. I believe there are some new buds beginning though, so I will be patient once more. Meanwhile, I have turned my attention to the rest of the plants.

I have learnt many things this week, but the most important one is regards to keeping control of the plants. Up until now, and perhaps in response to being grateful they survived at all, I had let the plants grow and grow and keep on growing. The strawberry pot was reasonably restrained. It grew to a certain size and then some fruit popped out. However, the tomatoes got taller and taller until I was seriously beginning to think I’d have to trade them in for a more manageable crop.

More strawberry news, as this time… I ate one! That’s right, the reddened strawberry was red enough to eat, so I tried it out. It wasn’t perhaps as sweet as it could have been, but it was nice and juicy, with a great texture. Must be all that water! In other news, the remaining plants are still green and growing, and not a lot else. I want to see some other produce rather than just the strawberries, but I guess this will take a while longer.

Only my second update and I am already running a few days behind schedule, however I come to you with good news! My strawberries are not only surviving, but gradually turning red. In the end, I had to call the experts in, and my parents came to save the day. It turns out I really wasn’t watering the plants enough, and they needed a lot more than I provided. I learnt two very important lessons:

Now that I no longer keep up the BBC blog, I’ve found myself drowning in interesting tidbits that I want to share. So, this is that post, collecting together some of the latest things I have been enjoying from the vast collection of BBC blogs. Moderation: Let’s Talk it Over I know a lot of people get upset when their comments are moderated on a particular portion of the site. I don’t comment there, myself, but I do find having to skim through all those ’this comment was moderated’ really quite annoying. This post is a couple of days old, but they are actively asking for input on what would make the moderation process easier, so get in there and have your say if you’ve got an opinion either way.

The strawberries do not like their new home! The other plants are all doing okay. I hesitate to say thriving, but they at least still look green rather than a sickly yellow. My text message gardening advice service (my mother) said that assuming they are bedded in correctly, and I am keeping them well watered, there is little else one can do. I intend to give them some more attention, perhaps even talking to them. I must try and coax them back to the land of the living, otherwise the strawberry dream will be over before it has even begun!

Following on from my post about being a little bit more green, I decided to try my hand at growing some plants. As I pointed out previously: I don’t have a garden, I live in a flat, and I can’t grow things. This can only end well. I am shopping for seeds and… whatever else one needs to garden this week, so I will report back on my progress. I roped my green-fingered mother into visiting a garden centre with me, and at first I had modest plans. Maybe a few seeds and a bowl and that would be good. However, did you know there’s some pretty cool stuff in garden centres?

Earth Day was about a month ago, and I misssed it. I didn’t feel particularly guilty at the time because it seems to be a US holiday, but everything since then has been telling me how green I should be. Firstly, Boston.com’s Big Picture - which features sets of brilliant photos around a certain theme, if you’re not subscribed to this already, do so now - had some shots of Earth Day, which are really beautiful.