“To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul” Alfred Austin (poet) I came back from my holidays last weekend and one of the first things I did was visit the garden. It had really changed a lot. Despite the drought, everything had grown and a group had filled it with butterflies that they had made. Bloomer volunteers have obviously been busy while I was away. The dry spell has meant regular watering still. They look forward to rain being forecast so that they can have a day off. The grass is suffering from the lack of water. But as usual all the weeds/unplanned plants are doing well. The slugs seem to have liked being watered too, as I found signs of them eating the marigol

Grass is the cheapest plant to install and the most expensive to maintain Today we are a few days away from Judging (Britain in Bloom 'It's your neighbourhood' competition) and there is an awful lot to do! The Blooming Old Gardener was away and they had their work cut out last Sunday on their return. We have had some wonderful people getting involved with the garden lately, every element of the place is a testament to someone's hard work. As we have mentioned before, any help, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated. An hours weeding makes a huge difference, especially when the to do list is longer then three people's arms. In the garden, the grass has certainly looked better, but all o

"Hot July brings cooling showers, Apricots and gillyflowers." -  Sara Coleridge, Pretty Lessons in Verse As The Blooming Old Gardener, our usual blogger, is off on their holidays, I am blogging this week (Claire aka Wheelbarrow Wielding Lady of Runcorn, wearer of bright apron). It has been a busy busy time, and the weather has been relentlessly lovely, which has been great for the garden, but not so much for the grass or those of us that have been watering. Luckily we have had a great team of folk that have chipped in and helped out. The weather gods decided to be kind and we were granted a lovely bit of rain yesterday evening and this morning. Hopefully it will perk up the grass slightly a

"If the first of July be rainy weather, It will rain, more or less, for four weeks together." - John Ray, English Proverbs Well the first of July was not rainy, so does that mean that we will have 4 dry weeks together? There’s increasingly more plants in flower now. Planting brightly coloured flowers attracts useful creatures, like bees which pollinate the veg and other plants. Ladybirds also love the colour. And they are useful as they feed on those nasty aphids on our plants. Did you know that ladybird larvae can eat 150 aphids a day? Our pathway into the garden has started flowering now too. The footprints have sprouted, and there is a swirl of vibrant flowers by the seat. It’s really