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So as you know by now if you watched the GOTD programme, I came second to Katherine, who blew me away on the grafting and extended her lead on the tropical crops. Despite Joe naming me 'Queen of the Borders' I couldn't catch up with her
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Two days to go till the Gardener of the Decade is broadcast - BBC2 Friday at 8pm. What can I tell you in advance? I can tell you this much: Nine former GOTY winners were invited to participate - 5 accepted: me (2006), Bob (2007), Edwin (2002), Diana (2004) and
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It happens every day. There will be a moment when I need to lay my hands on my debit card, mobile phone or car keys. Or my secateurs, or grafting knife, or my favourite jacket, or a garden fork I used yesterday. And everytime the sense of relief when I
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It's only the 6th December and we've already had 7 nights of sub zero temperatures so far here in Cheshire. The greenhouse is holding up with the help of a valiant little fan heater, but the polytunnels have frozen over twice. One model of climate change
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We've had two days of freezing fog here in Cheshire. The greenhouse has dipped below zero - why the heater didn't kick in I don't know. I've given it the faulty PC treatment (power off and on again) and pleaded with it
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A year ago I joined a local choir - it takes the mind off gardening once a week and keeps the lungs well oiled. So this is an unabashed plug for a carol concert our choir are performing next week at St. Wilfred's church, Witton Street, Northwich. It
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I got my copy of Gardens Illustrated through yesterday. As ever it was full of jaw-droppingly gorgeous pictures, this time of frost-coated borders, with shrubs and herbaceous plants standing upright and elegant, apparently well into winter. Well, I took the decision to start cutting back our borders yesterday and since
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Fergus Garrett gave a talk at Arley Hall last week and I went along to listen. It was really good to see him again - he was such a help during the summer with our Tatton Show garden. As always, he was brim-full of passion about the fabulous garden at
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Yes, yes, I'm sorry, it's a cheap pun. But they do lay eggs and do help in the garden - in their own way. (That's the hens of course. Tracey is ever helpful, though she doesn't lay eggs, to my knowledge...) The
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Fallen leaves are the finest treasure a gardener can have, the raw material for the black gold that is leaf mould. Some magical alchemy of dead leaves, fungi and time produces the sweetest, cleanest, softest compost possible. And you can't buy it - you make your own or
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Our eight hens are laying beautiful brown eggs at last, though some seem to prefer to make their own nests on the compost heaps or under the conifer hedge rather than use their neat wooden nest boxes. I suspect the main reason is the onging henhouse power struggle in which
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We've been enjoying a 10 day mild spell, warm enough for t-shirts during the day and with overnight temperatures well above freezing. But it can turn in a few hours at this time of year, so it's time to get the greenhouse insulated and sort out