SPARROW HARK RESCUE

Wile working in the garden today i came across this sparrow hark sat on the floor as i got closer it did not fly off which i thought was strange. i got with in about 6ft of it before it ran off i realised then that it had broken one of it's wings so i went back to the shed to got a fishing net. i went back to where he was as i went to put the net over him he decided that he would like to have a swim in the lake and as you know birds don't swim. luckily i had the net to hand and quickly scoped him up we took placed him in a box. we took him to the local wildlife hospital where he is now being looked after. all being well he will be able to come back and be released in a couple of weeks.

MALVERN SPRING SHOW

i must admit i was a malvern spring show virgin until last year being more of a fruit and veg man. i have been going and exhibiting some of my wares with varying success to the Autumn show for many years now but never quite made it to the spring show. for one reason or another but last year the owner of a garden i look after offered to take me up there for the day to buy plants bench's and generally get some new ideas for the garden we are restoring. so i jumped at the chance to go especially when we where buying lots of stuff and non of it with my money makes it more. fun we set of about 10am on a glorious Sunny day all was going well until the
M5 came to a stand still with only the back of a lorry to look at for an hour. but once we got past the hold up caused by a lorry changing a Tyre and and an over excited wannabe police man (sorry highway patrol officer)decided to close the outside lane. it was non stop all the way to the lovely malvern you can't get lost really just head for the hills oh the big yellow signs help as well. we finally parked up in the public car park handed over our tickets and then we where presented with an array of gardening products and plants enough to make you go weak at the knees. OK a lot of the products on offer that make this job and that job apparently easier with which have fantastic demonstrations that make want to fro money at the man. but i must admit i have a few of these purchase covered in dust at the back of the shed. used once or twice and than placed in my tool grave yard but there are many brilliant stalls there. the first one was nature first a company i have had dealings with for many years these are the people to go to if you want a big tree they brought along a few fine specimens for people to drawl over. we worked our way through the miles of stalls to be presented with the show gardens this is what we came for not a leaf or flower out of place. show gardens always make you feel that you don't do enough in you own but show garden are of for showing off they are meant to be perfect some bit's are not practical in real terms but it is theater. you always hear the same comments there is no where to hang your washing, no room for a compost bin etc. but there is not meant to be it's a place for the brave i say brave because of the amount of work that goes into a show garden. i have built a few in the past and what ever time you think you need times it by three and its more nearer the mark. weeks and months of preparation goes in to thees garden and the hardest bit about is taking it all apart at the end. its not natural gardeners build garden to last but in the case of a show garden it takes longer to built the thing than the public take to look at it but they are worth it. especially if you get the ultimate gold medal sorry I'm rambling. we got a few ideas that we may try out planting combinations etc. we was then off to the floral marque you no when you are in there the sent off all the plants you don't get it any where else except at a show. a mixture of all the scents coming off the flowers not to mention the walls of colours from the magnificent displays. this is when it was a good idea i left the wallet in the car you can get carried away very easily with buying plants. which we did but i was spending some one Else's money which is always easier to do. after many purchase and a couple of trips back to the car when are hands where full and we had spotted another plant that we have to buy. it was time to go and that was it luckily we had brought the range rover other wise one of us would have been walking back home i am looking forward to going back to visit again to see whats new.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Skunk cabbage

GET YOUR CHILDREN GROWING

Ive been gardening now for many years its all i have ever known to do but it only started because of my dad. ever since i could walk i was taken to the allotment to help i probably was more annoying though. i helped fetch bits and pieces from the shed help him sow some seeds. pull up a few weeds and some veg plants to the announce of my dad i no how he felt now my daughter when see was 3 pulled up all my onions and left the weeds.



although she thought see was being helpful it is really annoying. eventually my dad gave me a little corner where i grew a few of my dads left over seeds and then proceeded to dig up most of them again with my toy digger. but i was out side in the fresh air winter or summer and although it my not of seen it at the time i was learning how to grow and garden. my dad was and still is into growing veg for showing so we spent every weekend of the summer at a different show as i got more keen i wanted to have a go at entering a miniature garden in to one of the shows.



the first red card i got was at barrow flower show in Cheshire i still have the card in a box under the stirs. i entered many shows after that i was always over the moon when i won a prize but there was also the added bonus of the prize money which was a great incentive to enter as many classes as possible.



like me my children have always enjoyed being out side and helping around the garden. they have also been round many flower shows a couple of years ago they entered the local garden club show miniature garden, jewellery made from sweets and a flower display they won many prizes like i did and like me the prize money is always a good incentive. we should all try and teach are children some gardening whether it be sowing some seeds and watching them grow or planting some bulbs or just getting them to make a miniature garden for your local flower show. what ever you do make it fun teach them about where their food comes from. may be let them have there own veg plot so they don't grow up believing that vegetables come from the supermarket. let them appreciate nature and the environment around them let them explore the woods or the Meadows to see what they can find. let them get dirty wet and covered in mud it all washes off and unlike some parents beliefs you child wont die from some horrible disease because they played in the soil. just teach them to was there hands before they eat there dinner generally the more you show them the more they want to learn. yes when they get to teen ages they probably will show no interest what so ever but they will always have that appreciation of what is growing around them. when there older and have a place of there own they will start to use the skills you taught them when they where small and then they will pass it on when they have children of there own.

Photo Of The Week

Ice Folly Daffodils

Spring Has Sprung

Today there has been a big change in the weather compared to yesterday when we where at the chippenham food festival the sun has shined all day long may it last although the forecast doesn't look good.
the combination of the rain with the warm weather has made the seeds in the veg garden pop there heads out of the soil. you no that spring is here when the first seeds of the year come through out doors.



in the greenhouse the seeds have been growing away for a few weeks now. the cell grown veg will only be a couple of weeks away before they will need hardening off before planting out.

THE THINGS YOU FIND WHEN PLANTING SNOWDROPS

we where dividing the snow drops last week and replanting them along the river when we came across some stones just under the soil. we scraped the soil of the top of them to find that the smallest was about 50cm wide and 90cm long. we got the digger out to find that they where also 30cm deep all nicely carved it turns out that they are some of the stones of the bridge that crossed the river at that point in the
17Th century. we have cleaned the stones up and put them to one side we will incorporate them some where in the garden at a later date.



under one of the stones in the clay there was the toes of a boot preserved by the clay. there was no bones inside all i can assume is that during construction the stone ended up on some ones foot no HSE in those days they got the foot out but had to leave the boot.



a bit further down we dug up a magazine of bullets probably dropped during the second world war by a solder walking past.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

GIANT MARSH MARIGOLD

SPUD MANIA

the potato planting season will be with us soon and our seed potatoes are all in trays in the greenhouse sprouting away. we have gone a bit over the top this year and have 70 variety's to go in we are going to plant 5 tubers of each. except for our main variety's such as swift, rocket, kestrel, king Edward, rooster we will put 10 each in as they are are main variety's for eating.
the reason we are growing so many is to compare them against each over in the same growing conditions all will be planted at the same time (well over a week) about mid march weather dependent.
we will then get fair results harvest dates, crop, disease and more important taste.
we will let you no how they are getting on through the growing season