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No matter how small my garden is, I will always grow food. It's not about price, or even quality. It's about the immediacy of walking up the garden, picking something and eating it straight away. I always pick when the crop is very young - quantity
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As predicted the temperature soared on Wednesday - the weather station hit an all time high of 33.8C. You could have sold shade by the square foot at Tatton and there were some frayed tempers as people vied for the top spots in the covered cafes. What of the
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Last year's high of 30.6C was blown away today with a high of 33.4C. It's still 32C out now at 5pm. And tomorrow is forecast to be even hotter. I'm due at Tatton RHS Show - I think I might go first
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With much work on there's just been time for a few quick snaps today. I might get out later for a bit of deadheading etc. The purple phormium has flowered for the first time and what a striking sight it is. For our next garden I'm
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This lemon tree is my first proper plant 'patient', applying what I've learned this year on the RHS course to treat it. It was badly shaped, sick with scale and dying back five months ago and it's now healthy and vigorous. I will admit
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This area has been in the process of mental planning as a prairie garden for about a year, ever since the squashes succumbed to cucumber mosaic virus last summer. It faces south with the conservatory on the north side and is 4.5m long by 3m deep at it'
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One thing ends and another begins. Just as I'm rueing the fading of the spring border, two of my summer favourites spring into life. Purple hazelnut fruits with their surrounding frill are just beautiful with the light behind them. And I love the vibrant, complex flower of Monard
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With the temperature reaching 30C by lunchtime, I've taken to getting up at 7am and putting in a couple of hours in the garden first thing in the morning. Once it gets too hot I've retreated to the home desk to get some proper work done.
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It's too hot out to do anything vigorous and England kick off against Portugal in an hour so I took a few more pictures to keep me busy. DB likes this pretty yellow Anthemis 'EC Buxton'. It does look great against the lavender and purple phormium
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The late evening sun caught this flower through the trees. Cephalaria gigantea stands high above everything else in the border, but is so delicate and airy, with a light leaf base that causes no problems for anything around it. It's hardy, reliable and flowers till autumn. I love
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I took the final part of my RHS Level 2 exam today (formerly the General). Trickier than I expected but I think I've done OK. What with revision, wet weather and keeping a promise to sort out the neighbours garden I've not done much in mine.
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The reason I usually put close-up pictures of flowers on this blog instead of wider shots of the whole garden is that there is almost never a time when any major part of the garden is sufficiently tidy and photogenic. I've decided to put that right, so I&