The Shrewd Gardener

For Clever Gardeners Everywhere

Avoiding slimy compost

The ideal is to be able to make one’s own lovely compost to feed the garden. This isn’t always so straightforward as you need to get the proportions right and get the correct micro-organisms to help you. Composting is a complex process where different families of microbes get their nutrients from the contents of the [...]

Inner city Jay sighted in London

I saw a Jay in London and it stayed still long enough for me to look closely at it.

Seen on the BBC website – Google trick tracks extinctions

This caught my eye a while back. The algorithm used by Google to work out rankings for pages has been applied (theoretically) to food webs.  the implication here is that if scientists can calculate the state of an ecosystem they will be able to work out whether the system is vulnerable to collapse. Of course [...]

Season of mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness is how Keats described Autumn. It’s nearly on us again and the signs are all around. The wasps are out of their nests, seeking sugary nutrition. The new queen wasps are flying, looking for new homes for next year’s brood. September means the Horse Chestnuts are ripe and have [...]

Wrington walled garden

It’s the last day of August and we’re visiting the walled garden at Wrington, a small village off the A38 and about ten minutes from Bristol airport. It was a bit tricky to find as all the signs you need are visible from the Bristol side and not from the approach from the South. We [...]

  • 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.

  • History

  • RSS What to do this week – The Guardian

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