Garden Diary
New Horace Hotplate (hedgepig) video
This was videoed a few weeks ago. On average he only comes into the greenhouse for about 20 minutes; feeds, has a good long drink of fresh water and then leaves. His timetable is that he ussually comes in on the 2.30a.m. bus from Location Unknown. He is a creature of regular habits. hedgehog feeding Here is another taken just outside the greenhouse. Hedgehog entering greenhouse to feed.
Read MoreJune and July 2013
June and July have been incredible for us. Firstly we had our second open day where we raised another £256 for the NGS. It was a wet old day but we still had 44 visitors. It doesn’t sound a lot but imagine saying to someone that you had 44 people for tea and cake; different story eh? Then providence awards us with a swarm of bees for a second hive. July has been a month of watching what bees do. How they fill up so full of nectar that they almost crash land into the hive, or they do crash land in front of the hive, take a minutes breather and then make it to the hive after a second attempt. We’ve learnt how much they love borage. And we have had a taste of...
Read MoreJune 7th
Horace Hotplate update Horace is our hedgehog. I said I would report on how he has been doing and I have been too busy getting the garden ready for you discerning garden visitors! So apologies. Having brought him into the greenhouse still hibernating, our hedgehog woke from his deep winter sleep and filled his belly twice daily with cat food ( chicken and turkey or cat nuts) Now, he visits either every night or once every two nights. He no longer wants wet food but eats dried fruit and nuts as well as dried cat food and he seems most partial to almonds which I chop roughly first. He drinks much fresh water too. He comes in at around 2 or 3 in the morning. He feeds...
Read MoreMay 2013
The latest news! We opened up the garden on Sunday 26th on the National Garden Scheme for the second year. We placed bets on how many people we thought would come, starting at 56 averaging 160 and a wild out there bid of 250. Linda, Matthew’s mum won the prize of a bar of Green and Blacks chocolate for her seemingly outrageously optimistic estimate of 250. We had 265 people, of which 250 were paying visitors. …..and we raised £1000 for charity. Howz that? We have just had the two best weather days of the year so far and Sunday was one of them. And it was such a pleasure to watch people simply having a lovely time, sunning themselves, enjoying their...
Read MoreMarch 10th 2013
Hedgehog News! Matthew found a hedgehog hibernating in our walled garden. Let me introduce Matthew. He is 15 years old, lives round the corner, he loves olives and pan boli and he helps Finn and I most weekends in the garden. We were clearing last years herbaceous perennials and suddenly we heard the shout “hedgehog!” Lo and behold Matthew had found a Hedgehog Hibernation Nest with occupying hedgehog. This was mid march the weather was cold, wet and due to get colder and windier. I believed that a hedgepig at this time of year might be running out of fat reserves and meeting a whole new batch of cold weather just when in other years they would have come out of...
Read MoreMarch 15th 2013
Well, the exciting news is that I did actually receive First prize for the Amateur gardener award 2013 for Wiltshire Life. I feel quite humbled as the other two shortlisted on my table where both very experienced gardeners with so much knowledge. ( and by the sounds of it both had amazing gardens.) We three swopped our stories and we have all agreed that we will visit each others gardens this year. The awards ceremony at Marlborough Town Hall was a wonderful evening compared by the inimitable Sue Davies from BBC Wiltshire radio. ( she’s so funny) There were many awards; from best restaurant, best young initiative, best business, best green business, best carer...
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