A Year of Gardening Blogs – A Review
I find it hard to believe that twelve months have gone by since I started writing the gardening blogs for the Old Railway Line – twelve months which for many reasons, good and bad, we will never forget. However, as they say there is now light at the end of the tunnel and 2021 will see us returning to some sort of normality in both ‘life’ and ‘garden’ terms. The Old Railway Line has now reopened, not a moment too soon for many of us and we hope it will be possible in the not too distant future to resume our monthly gardening talks and to put the new activities room to its intended use. At the same time I will continue to write blogs, first of all to complete the gardening year with the ‘Garden in May’ and then to cover ideas and issues which haven’t come up in the last twelve months. Please feel free to suggest such topics by using the comments section to be found at the end of all the blogs.
At this point in time I thought it would be a good idea to review the blogs of the last twelve months for those of you who might wish to revisit certain ones or for people who are coming to the blogs for the first time. They fall naturally, I think, into certain groups- the ‘How to…’ group, the ‘Plant’ group, the ‘Project’ group and the ‘Month by Month’ group.
In the ‘How to…’ section I would include the following:-
Growing Cut Flowers for the House- April 2020
Sowing Seeds for Summer Colour- April 2020
Taking Softwood Cuttings- April 2020
Grow you own Fruit and Vegetables- May 2020
Planting in Containers- May 2020
‘No Dig’ gardening- In the ‘jobs’ section at end of The Garden in Nov. 2020
Pruning Roses- Feb. 2021
Composts- In the Garden in February 2021 and in Planting in Containers May 2020
The ‘Plant’ group contains:-
Fuchsias and Pelargoniums- June 2020
Hardy Geraniums- July 2020
My Favourite Shrubs- Sept. 2020
Trees for the Garden- Oct. 2020
Plants for Winter Interest- Nov. 2020
Plants for Difficult Areas- Dec. 2020
The ‘Project’ group contains:-
Gardening for Wildlife- May 2020
Garden Design- Part 1- July 2020
Garden Design- Part 2- Aug. 2020
Creating Garden Ponds- Part 1- Jan. 2021
Creating Garden Ponds- Part 2- Feb. 2021
Finally there is the ‘Month by Month’ group which started in June 2020 and will end with the May 2021 blog. These all begin with plants which are looking their best in each month and are largely based on plants which we grow in our garden as the opportunities to visit other gardens and garden centres were for some reason rather limited in the last twelve months! The monthly blogs all end with a look at garden jobs for that month, again mainly based on what we planned to do in that month in our garden. These are also supported by more detailed ‘job lists’ contained in the blog archives from April 2019 through to Nov. 2019 and then Jan. to March 2020. For some reason Joe, who posts all of these blogs on the Old Railway Line’s website, decided to give you December off for good behaviour but if you are desperate for things to do in December you can always look at the January list and make an early start! Also some of the monthly blogs don’t appear in the right month so look for August in July, July in June and May in April! Sorry about this but remember that no-one is perfect!
If you have any questions about any of the blogs or suggestions for future topics and issues please feel free to get in touch by using the comment boxes at the end of any of the blogs.
The next blog will be the ‘Garden in May’ based on our own garden for the final time to complete the full twelve months. From June onwards the monthly blogs will be based on a very different sort of garden which will give me the chance to talk about a whole new range of plants and planting ideas. More on this next month!
Until then keep safe and well, get to the Old Railway Line if you can and enjoy your time in the garden at this wonderful time of year.
Keith.