The Shrewd Gardener

For Clever Gardeners Everywhere

Welcome David Tennant to the world of gardening!

I saw a snippet in the paper that said the ‘Dr Who’ star is working on his green fingers, trying to keep his plants alive. Then I found a bit more later on DigitalSpy

BBC Science & Environment – Herbs ‘can be natural pesticides’

Herbal pesticides have been in use for thousands of years. Plants and herbs also have many medicinal uses and form an essential part of our every day lives.

Unexpected find in the hedge.

We spent the morning trimming the mixed hedge in the front garden. It is a mix of Eleagnus, Holly and Buddleia. Not that unusual but what really surprised me was the number of Crickets we found. I’ve identified them as the Speckled Bush Cricket [Leptophytes punctatissima] and the only ones we found were the females. [...]

National Trust Tree database

The National Trust in the process of building a database of trees in the UK. This is quote a big project and there are lots of related links on the web as I’ve been finding. The BBC have picked it up BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Plan for national tree database. There are [...]

Plants to avoid if you have children

* Euphorbia. It is a fascinating plant to grow and does well in poor ground. However, the sap is photo active. This means that if it gets on the skin and is exposed to sunlight it can cause burns. * Rue Ruta graveolens is an unusual low growing evergreen herb with unusual lobed leaves. It [...]

The RSPB: A spoonful of sugar could help our bees

Have you ever seen any tired looking bees in you garden. Well, the RSPB are suggesting that you help them with a little sugar water. Of course having plenty of nectar laden flowers in your garden would help too but this seems like an interesting idea. Why not give it a try next time you [...]

‘Forty-year wait’ for allotments – can you believe that!

According to this BBC report there are over 80,000 people waiting for allotment space in the UK. As you would expect the situation is worse in the big cities with London’s borough of Camden offering a staggering 40 year wait. So make sure you put your grandchildren’s names down today. Apparently about thirty percent of [...]

What makes a Shrewd Gardener

You can be a shrewd gardener in many ways but what underpins it is knowledge and what to to with that knowledge. You may be an indoor gardener, which I’ll confess now I’m not. You may be a greenhouse gardener or a vegetable gardener or a bonsai gardener. Even if you specialise you still need [...]

BBC – Earth News – Raindrops drive flower evolution

Found this article on the BBC website. Yun-Yun Mao and Shuang-Quan Huang of Wuhan University in China have been researching how flowers have evolved to reduce the effects of rain on their pollen stores. BBC – Earth News – Raindrops drive flower evolution. As pollen is essential to flower reproduction it’s essential to protect it [...]

What is a park anyway?

Sitting in Clissold Park in London,  it just looks like a great big garden. There are flower beds, water features (OK. Two large ponds), play areas, wonderful trees and lots of grass. There are great parks and gardens everywhere. Cambridge has a marvellous botanical garden, Ipswich has a great park and Derby has some lovely [...]

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  • About

    This is where I blog about my interest in gardening and ecology. There is always something to do in the garden all year round and as we have an inner city garden the tasks are a little different to rural spaces.

    I work as a software developer now but a few years ago I had my own gardening design and construction business.

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