​Despite the terrible weather today and therefore only a cursory dash to feed the tomatoes in GH2, it has been all abuzz with wildlife in the garden recently.  Lots of butterflies - cabbage whites, red admirals, and the usual chaffinches, sparrows, collared doves, wood pigeons, squirrels and even the hedgehog on a couple of occasions. Also, an abundance of bees – which is heartening as recent news is emphasising the decline of this important contributor to global biodiversity, sustainability and the world’s general state of health.  Together with other insects, bees are responsible for plant pollination, which ensures the survival and diversity of food crops and medicinal plants.  I endeavour to do my small part and the majority of the plants in the garden are grown with this specifically in mind.

I am losing the will to live regarding MS OneDrive and Google Drive and syncing all the photos from my [android] phone.  My problem is, I think, that I have too many accounts and have no real clue how any of them work.  Subsequently I had a word with my fourteen-year-old nephew who is much more knowledgeable and found out what the going rate might be for some digital support cossetting and magical filing ‘in the cloud’.  

​As it is I have been meaning to write this update but was getting so frustrated with the aforementioned that it was becoming far too tedious to even contemplate.  It has also been an extremely busy few weeks – again, a case of nothing for weeks and then everything happening at once. 

However, after a hiatus of two years, and one thing I can tell you about, Paul and I managed to make the most of one of my 50th birthday vouchers!  Obviously travelling out of the local vicinity has been curtailed until recently and although the majority of people are sensible there is a percentage that are idiots – whatever the situation, and always will be.  However, we found that it was fine in London last week.  We stayed in the ‘leafy suburb’ of Chiswick so it was pretty civilised anyway, but even when we went on the Tube (3 stops…. and so expensive!) everyone wore masks and kept at a civilised distance.  The hotel was set-up well too, as were all the coffee shops and restaurants.  It goes to show, though, how much money is spent on food and drink even when only away for 36 hours. I would estimate that we spent over £100 on eating out and regular beverages.  Madness! Still, we haven’t been able to do anything like that for months and months so in the grand scheme of things it all levels out.  We both enjoyed Kew Gardens but the six hours of walking around (including getting there and back to the hotel) suddenly kicked in and my legs and ankles were very tired!  Actually, the next day I did feel a bit sore.  But, then again, that was probably the most consistent walking I have done for months too. 

The Temperate House at 628ft (191 metres) is the world’s largest Victorian glasshouse; “As temperate plants, all the species contained within its walls need to live in conditions above 10oC to survive. Despite being the foundation of much life on Earth, many of these plants are under threat”.
The Temperate House was designed by architect Decimus Burton and iron-founder Richard Turner. The Temperate House, opened in 1862, and is Grade I-listed. It covers 4,880 square metres, has a staggering 15,000 panes of glass and is 19 metres high at its tallest point.

Impressive it might be and full of weird and wonderful plants, but my favourite part of the whole site was the Kitchen Garden [link].  I feel quite confident that my small veggie patch complemented the Kew ethos:  Crop Rotation, Companion Planting and No Dig method!

Every spring I might have a surfeit of seedlings but cannot compete with Kew’s statistics from 2018 when they grew over 130 different cultivars of vegetable, more than 60 different edibles and sowed over 2000 seeds!
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I probably cultivate similar numbers but in WEEDS!