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The Village Grapevine Interviews and Garden Blogs

After repeated attacks by slugs & 🐌 the 🍺 traps have worked and at third time of asking my Runner 🫘 are up and away (aga...
30/06/2025

After repeated attacks by slugs & 🐌 the 🍺 traps have worked and at third time of asking my Runner 🫘 are up and away (again)

garden

🥔 Let’s talk… potato scab! 😬Dug up the earlies and spotted the dreaded scab? Don’t panic — it’s more common than you thi...
29/06/2025

🥔 Let’s talk… potato scab! 😬

Dug up the earlies and spotted the dreaded scab? Don’t panic — it’s more common than you think and mostly cosmetic. The skins might be rough or patchy, but the spuds inside are still perfectly edible (just peel them and carry on!).

Scab is usually caused by dry soil, high pH, or too much fresh manure. This year’s dry spring didn’t help — and some varieties are just more prone than others.

Tips for next time?
🌿 Keep soil evenly moist while tubers are forming
🌿 Avoid lime or fresh muck before planting
🌿 Try resistant varieties like ‘Charlotte’ or ‘Maris Peer’

Remember — scabby spuds are still good spuds! Just not the prettiest in the bowl.

Have you had scab this year? Or are your tatties blemish-free and smug?

🥔 First Earlies Are In! 🌱There’s nothing quite like the thrill of tipping out that first pot of earlies — little golden ...
29/06/2025

🥔 First Earlies Are In! 🌱

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of tipping out that first pot of earlies — little golden treasures dusted in soil and still warm from the sun. These are Rocket Sharpes Express & Swift, and true to their names, they were up and ready in no time.

Planted out in the chilly blush of March, they have been quietly doing their thing beneath the surface. A handful of seaweed feed, a watchful eye for blight, and a bit of muttering at slugs — and here we are.

Boiled gently with a sprig of mint and a good dollop of butter and sat on a plate next to salad and a piece of steak that’s dinner sorted.

Anyone else harvesting their first spuds this week? What variety are you growing?

Trying to stay out of the scorching ☀️ (34c) Having a flick through the best magazine I know of!!!And found a full page ...
29/06/2025

Trying to stay out of the scorching ☀️ (34c)
Having a flick through the best magazine I know of!!!
And found a full page picture of me!!!!

🍎🍓🥒🥔🍋🌽🥕🥦🍅🍄🍇🍏🥗🌰🍄‍🟫🫐🍐🧅

A very unusual thing for my picture to appear it’s normally just my words and pictures I’ve taken.

🥬🍠🫛🥭🌶️🧆🫜🧄🥝🍈🧅🍐🍋‍🟩🍏🍇🥦

And thanks to you can see and read all about when I paid a visit to Quarry Bank a property in Cheshire and engrossed myself in its fantastic kitchen garden!

garden

With an empty pot now the 🧅 have gone.Found these beauties hugely reduced Who said carrots had to be orange?I did a lat...
23/06/2025

With an empty pot now the 🧅 have gone.
Found these beauties hugely reduced

Who said carrots had to be orange?

I did a later sowing of these purple, yellow, white and the classic orange delights last year and they turned out well. Each colour brings something different: the purples are peppery, the yellows are sweet, and they all look stunning on the plate.

There’s something magical about growing food that surprises you when you pull it from the soil. Nature’s full of colour – you’ve just got to dig for it!

garden

Just pulled up these gorgeous red winter onions – and wow, what a crop! 🧅 planted last Autumn and grown through the cold...
23/06/2025

Just pulled up these gorgeous red winter onions – and wow, what a crop! 🧅 planted last Autumn and grown through the colder months, they’ve soaked up all that winter resilience and are bursting with colour and flavour. Sweet, crisp, and perfect for roasting, pickling, or tossing into salads. There’s something deeply satisfying about harvesting something planted in the chill of autumn, isn’t there?

And now they are off to dry out in the greenhouse for a few days!!

Tumbling Tom 🍅 have put a spurt on this last week! ...
22/06/2025

Tumbling Tom 🍅 have put a spurt on this last week!

Sweetcorn getting going finally.Did lose a few to 🐌 but the beer traps are out! ...
21/06/2025

Sweetcorn getting going finally.
Did lose a few to 🐌 but the beer traps are out!

Bloody Slugs 🐌 That’s nature for you best top up the beer traps! ...
21/06/2025

Bloody Slugs 🐌

That’s nature for you best top up the beer traps!

🧄 Garlic Scape Time! 🧄These curly little shoots are the flower stems of hardneck garlic in this case Porcelain Wight fro...
21/06/2025

🧄 Garlic Scape Time! 🧄

These curly little shoots are the flower stems of hardneck garlic in this case Porcelain Wight from , and snipping them off helps the bulbs fatten up underground.⁠
⁠
Bonus? They’re totally edible – tender, garlicky, and perfect for pestos, stir-fries, or even grilled whole. Harvested a bunch this morning and the kitchen already smells amazing!⁠
⁠
Grow your own and you get flavour and beauty in the same plant 🌿⁠
⁠

Homegrown joy in the making 🌱Potting on some Foxgloves today – grown from seed which I collected last year on a visit to...
21/06/2025

Homegrown joy in the making 🌱

Potting on some Foxgloves today – grown from seed which I collected last year on a visit to family in Hale up in Cheshire!

I’ve called them Hale Foxgloves (imaginative thinking!) and can’t wait to see those spires of soft bells next spring. Hopefully they will enjoy their new home, joining some other Foxgloves I potted on the other day!
Nothing more satisfying than nurturing a plant from seed!
⁠

🌼 MEET MEXICAN FLEABANE 🌼Erigeron karvinskianus — also known as Santa Barbara DaisyA wild-at-heart beauty that softens a...
15/06/2025

🌼 MEET MEXICAN FLEABANE 🌼
Erigeron karvinskianus — also known as Santa Barbara Daisy

A wild-at-heart beauty that softens any space, Mexican fleabane is the unsung hero of relaxed, natural-style gardens. 🌿

✨ Why we love it at :
• Cascades from walls, steps & cracks like it was meant to be there
• Starts white, blushes to pink — a colour-changing delight
• Long flowering season: May right through to the first frosts
• Low-maintenance, drought-tolerant & bee-friendly 🐝💚

📍 Top tip: Tuck it into paving, gravel, or walls — no perfection needed. It loves a bit of neglect!

💬 Seen it in full bloom spilling over a wall near you? Tag us!

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