Did a small shop in our local Tesco this morning for essentials, whilst OH went to chemist for a new prescription - which was ready for him! Wonders will never cease. We've had problems with this Boots shop ever since they took it over, way before this current crisis. We were however a bit naughty in driving back a longer route home as we were a bit worried about the car standing idle for so long and the battery running down. 3 miles at 20 mph once a week doesn't do it good at all. We really enjoyed getting out of the house, seeing all the daffs along the verges, trees greening and getting up to the dizzy heights of 50 mph on a nice straight bit with no cars in sight! If that makes us selfish, so be it.
We've been out on the terrace in the sunshine ... I even took my cardi offĀ
I've sown chillies (3 varieties but I have no idea of their names as they were gifts and I've lost the bit of paper), tomatoes - 4 varietiesĀ how did that happen? (Sungold, Crimson Cocktail, the freebies from the GW mag and some 'paste' ones from a friend) winter squash, courgettes, cosmos Double Click 'Cranberries' and some Swan River daisies.Ā Ā
My neck/shoulder is still ouchy so that's enough bending over the table on the terrace for today, especially after I cleaned the cooker hood earlier.Ā Ā
OH has dug a pit, lined it with soaked shredded paper and it's beginning to be filled with cabbage leaves, carrot peelings and apple cores ... the runner bean teepee will go on top of it in a couple of months.Ā Should really have started it sooner but hey ho ... He has also (at last) made an appropriate potting mix and put his cacti and succulents into the container he's made for them, and he's sown some nasturtiums along the border of the herb bed where he widened it the other day.Ā Now he's cutting the grass ... his idea!?!?!? š²
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
What's he after @Dovefromabove?Ā Cardi off - steady on.... It cleared up so I went out and did a few things. Cold though, so I had to come in to warm up my hands.Ā @PatE - there was an item on the news this morning, and I think it was from Oz. It was people dressing up to put their bins out. Hilarious. There was one bloke in a skimpy skirt and whatnot, who looked like he was enjoying it a wee bit too much though...Ā
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I like Adam Frost too and I love his house and garden, well done to him for working so hard and earning it. I like Rachel's new walled garden too, I hope we hear more from her, looking forward to seeing her progress. I hope @Nanny Beach sees @Dovefromabove's post about how Adam got where he is.
I defrosted the little freezer this morning ready for my Morrison's order tomorrow then I've been outside tidying a bit of garden and washing the wall where OH wants to put a garden mirror that he ordered online and has just arrived.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Hello @Pat EĀ Ā Venus is very bright in our evening sky at the moment š
@Busy-Lizzie ... I've found a bit more about Adam Frost and what has made him the chap he is ... sorry about the big quote, but I think it's worth reading and not everyone can open newspaper and magazine links ...
Ā "...Ā I went to school in Harlow; Iām an Essex boy, but I got moved to Devon when I was 15-years-old and that didnāt go down well. I left school with not a lot of options. Moving a kid from the East End to Devon is not the best thing to do. The choices were to become a chef, join the army or be a gardener. So I left home at 16 and got a job on the parks department. A couple of old lads, one called Jim and one called George, sorted me out. The more I gardened, the more I loved it. I came back to London as a landscaper and at 21 applied to work with Geoff Hamilton.ā
And then the fun began.
A complicated and difficult childhood had been spent in large part with two sets of grandparents; both of whom had been keen gardeners. āIf anything, I felt safe with the gardening and I sort of semi-understood it.ā It was his comfort, a place for tranquillity and relief.
He got the job with Hamilton, not realising how it would change his life. āHe was incredible. I didnāt have an idea how influential he was. He was decades ahead of his time, talking about peat-free and environmental issues before anyone else. He was a bit of a mentor for me, not in terms of telling me what to do ā when I was 26/27, he was still calling me boy. But he was a mentor in the sense of getting on and doing it. I only had to watch him to realise how to be a man. He led by example.ā
Working with Hamilton didnāt cast Frost into the spotlight, though it helped him understand the madness of TV. Instead, Frost paved his own path, largely by succeeding at Chelsea. There, heād be asked to do bits to camera, for The One Show or for gardening programmes. And, like Hamilton, TV producers discovered a man with the common touch; a broadcaster able to articulate clearly and connect with his audience.
āPeople like the story that Geoff opened the door, but thatās not what it was. It all started off slowly but gradually grew. It feels weird thinking about it even now. Iām a gardener, I still donāt think of myself as being a TV host. I just treat the whole thing as though Iām having a conversation with someone about gardening. I feel incredibly privileged. I talk about what I love, someone films me and they stick me on the box. Itās great.ā
The thing he enjoys most is being part of a team, with good cameramen, soundmen, producers and directors. He enjoys the banter, the sense of camaraderie. ā90 per cent of them are really good, fun, hard-working people.ā
There have been many stand-out moments, like interviewing Prince Charles about bio-security. āThat was pretty big. Me and Charles, it was a couple of gardeners having a chat, mate. It wasnāt the future king of England talking to some kid from Harlow. It was people trying to talk stuff through and looking at what we can do to build things for the country. Come his 70th birthday, I think people are realising heās a good guy who knows what heās talking about. He was laughed out but so much of what heās done is right.ā
He credits the remarkable Mrs Frost for keeping him on track. Sheās been the one who supported him when confidence waned or ambition wavered. āI donāt think most of it would have happened without my missus. In those little moments when you really need someone to back you and encourage you, she has. Sheās never been ādonātā. Sheās always been ādoā. She gives me a kick up the a- when I need it.ā
Heās proud to be following in the footsteps of Hamilton, his inspiration and friend. And he believes Gardeners World will survive for many more years. ......āMate, every garden is different. The climate and light, the soil and moisture, the way things interact with people and gardens. The world doesnāt end if you get things wrong. You just have to give it a go. And you have to remember that the answers are in the soil, the answers are all in the soil....āĀ Ā
Adam did also say that if you didn't have porous sacking a bin liner or compost bag would do - as long as you punch holes in for drainage.Ā @Nanny Beach needs to stop resenting the walls and pay more attention.
I have been fossicking in the ruin and found a large mirror glued to a larger piece of wood.Ā Don't want to use it in the garden but wonder if it might entertain our future hens if I use it inside their shed to keep out draughts.Ā @Dovefromabove ??
Thanks, Dove. I think that is what I like so much about him "Iām a gardener, I still donāt think of myself as being a TV host. I just treat the whole thing as though Iām having a conversation with someone about gardening".
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I've never tried a mirror in a henhouse @Obelixx ... are you planning on having a cockerel?Ā Our gander used to get very worked up when he saw his reflection in our French windows, seeing it as a rival, so I was thinking you might end up with a neurotic cockerel if he could see his reflection.Ā
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
No, just hens.Ā Don't want the extra alarm calls as someone round the corner has one and geese too.Ā Ā Just doing some lateral thinking cos I can't go and buy wood.
Posts
3 miles at 20 mph once a week doesn't do it good at all. We really enjoyed getting out of the house, seeing all the daffs along the verges, trees greening and getting up to the dizzy heights of 50 mph on a nice straight bit with no cars in sight! If that makes us selfish, so be it.
I've sown chillies (3 varieties but I have no idea of their names as they were gifts and I've lost the bit of paper), tomatoes - 4 varietiesĀ how did that happen? (Sungold, Crimson Cocktail, the freebies from the GW mag and some 'paste' ones from a friend) winter squash, courgettes, cosmos Double Click 'Cranberries' and some Swan River daisies.Ā Ā
My neck/shoulder is still ouchy so that's enough bending over the table on the terrace for today, especially after I cleaned the cooker hood earlier.Ā Ā
OH has dug a pit, lined it with soaked shredded paper and it's beginning to be filled with cabbage leaves, carrot peelings and apple cores ... the runner bean teepee will go on top of it in a couple of months.Ā Should really have started it sooner but hey ho ... He has also (at last) made an appropriate potting mix and put his cacti and succulents into the container he's made for them, and he's sown some nasturtiums along the border of the herb bed where he widened it the other day.Ā Now he's cutting the grass ... his idea!?!?!? š²
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Cardi off - steady on....
It cleared up so I went out and did a few things. Cold though, so I had to come in to warm up my hands.Ā
@PatE - there was an item on the news this morning, and I think it was from Oz. It was people dressing up to put their bins out. Hilarious.
There was one bloke in a skimpy skirt and whatnot, who looked like he was enjoying it a wee bit too much though...Ā
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I like Adam Frost too and I love his house and garden, well done to him for working so hard and earning it. I like Rachel's new walled garden too, I hope we hear more from her, looking forward to seeing her progress. I hope @Nanny Beach sees @Dovefromabove's post about how Adam got where he is.
I defrosted the little freezer this morning ready for my Morrison's order tomorrow then I've been outside tidying a bit of garden and washing the wall where OH wants to put a garden mirror that he ordered online and has just arrived.
@Busy-Lizzie ... I've found a bit more about Adam Frost and what has made him the chap he is ... sorry about the big quote, but I think it's worth reading and not everyone can open newspaper and magazine links ...
Ā "...Ā I went to school in Harlow; Iām an Essex boy, but I got moved to Devon when I was 15-years-old and that didnāt go down well. I left school with not a lot of options. Moving a kid from the East End to Devon is not the best thing to do. The choices were to become a chef, join the army or be a gardener. So I left home at 16 and got a job on the parks department. A couple of old lads, one called Jim and one called George, sorted me out. The more I gardened, the more I loved it. I came back to London as a landscaper and at 21 applied to work with Geoff Hamilton.ā
And then the fun began.
A complicated and difficult childhood had been spent in large part with two sets of grandparents; both of whom had been keen gardeners. āIf anything, I felt safe with the gardening and I sort of semi-understood it.ā It was his comfort, a place for tranquillity and relief.
He got the job with Hamilton, not realising how it would change his life. āHe was incredible. I didnāt have an idea how influential he was. He was decades ahead of his time, talking about peat-free and environmental issues before anyone else. He was a bit of a mentor for me, not in terms of telling me what to do ā when I was 26/27, he was still calling me boy. But he was a mentor in the sense of getting on and doing it. I only had to watch him to realise how to be a man. He led by example.ā
Working with Hamilton didnāt cast Frost into the spotlight, though it helped him understand the madness of TV. Instead, Frost paved his own path, largely by succeeding at Chelsea. There, heād be asked to do bits to camera, for The One Show or for gardening programmes. And, like Hamilton, TV producers discovered a man with the common touch; a broadcaster able to articulate clearly and connect with his audience.
āPeople like the story that Geoff opened the door, but thatās not what it was. It all started off slowly but gradually grew. It feels weird thinking about it even now. Iām a gardener, I still donāt think of myself as being a TV host. I just treat the whole thing as though Iām having a conversation with someone about gardening. I feel incredibly privileged. I talk about what I love, someone films me and they stick me on the box. Itās great.ā
The thing he enjoys most is being part of a team, with good cameramen, soundmen, producers and directors. He enjoys the banter, the sense of camaraderie. ā90 per cent of them are really good, fun, hard-working people.ā
There have been many stand-out moments, like interviewing Prince Charles about bio-security. āThat was pretty big. Me and Charles, it was a couple of gardeners having a chat, mate. It wasnāt the future king of England talking to some kid from Harlow. It was people trying to talk stuff through and looking at what we can do to build things for the country. Come his 70th birthday, I think people are realising heās a good guy who knows what heās talking about. He was laughed out but so much of what heās done is right.ā
He credits the remarkable Mrs Frost for keeping him on track. Sheās been the one who supported him when confidence waned or ambition wavered. āI donāt think most of it would have happened without my missus. In those little moments when you really need someone to back you and encourage you, she has. Sheās never been ādonātā. Sheās always been ādoā. She gives me a kick up the a- when I need it.ā
Heās proud to be following in the footsteps of Hamilton, his inspiration and friend. And he believes Gardeners World will survive for many more years. ......āMate, every garden is different. The climate and light, the soil and moisture, the way things interact with people and gardens. The world doesnāt end if you get things wrong. You just have to give it a go. And you have to remember that the answers are in the soil, the answers are all in the soil....āĀ Ā
https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/features/2019/04/27/the-world-doesnt-end-if-you-get-things-wrong-adam-frost-talks-ahead-of-bbc-good-food-show-and-bbc-gardeners-world-live-in-birmingham/
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have been fossicking in the ruin and found a large mirror glued to a larger piece of wood.Ā Don't want to use it in the garden but wonder if it might entertain our future hens if I use it inside their shed to keep out draughts.Ā @Dovefromabove ??
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.