Hurray hurray at last Jack Frost has worked his magic overnight and the garden looks all white and sparkily. We have been spoilt over the last few years by having snow and hard frost before Christmas. This year November and December have been so mild with even a light frost rare. The weeds are growing […]
Archive | 2013
Kidsinthegarden Top 5 Outdoorable Christmas Presents for Children
Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas and every year it feels as if parents have to work harder to counter the effects of screen time on children. You won’t see any of these presents advertised on TV, yet they are as much part of childhood as the latest toy. Packets of Seeds Packets […]
Magical Nightime Garden – Syon Park
We have just made a repeat trip to the Enchanted Woodland Garden at Syon Park, West London. We first visited this time last year and yet again it was a magical, enchanting and inspiring experience. The gardens are lit, spotlighted and hung with decorations. The organisers use the effect of changing colour, twinkling lights, […]
A Walk Around Stourhead Gardens
This weekend Professor Tanya Byron talked about family time in the Saturday Times. Top of her list were some very basic bonding behaviours such as walking together as a family, chatting and looking at nature. So our walk around the Stourhead estate in Wiltshire fitted the bill perfectly. We had intended to marvel at the […]
My Garden in November
We are definitely at the end of the flowering season in my garden. It’s all looking a bit tatty and floppy. There has not been a frost yet, but plenty of rain has fallen, so today there are photos speckled full of those dewy drops. The flowering season seems also to be a bit […]
Pumpkin Carving
Carving a pumpkin is now an essential part of childhood. We have always carved a small pumpkin at home. When I say we I mean hubby has usually using tools from the toolbox with the chisel featuring heavily. We manage a standard type of scary face, the pumpkin has never been able to better […]
A Toddler High Garden
This week I have tried a little experiment. When I am asked by people how to create a children’s garden I often say to look at it from a child’s perspective and if they have very young children think about placing items of interest at toddler height. When my 8 year old was tiny he […]
Apple Day
Sunday was Apple Day at our local organic farm and farm shop. They were not promoting their apples or anyone else’s apples. It was simply an opportunity for the local community to take their apples to be pressed and make lovely scrummy apple juice. We jumped at the chance. We only have 2 apple trees […]
My Garden in October
We have been having such great weather this September and October it feels more like late summer than autumn. However there are signs in my garden that autumn really has arrived. Everything is beginning to put itself to bed and there is a certain emptying going on. So I have resisted the temptation to […]
Pumpkins and Fairy Rings
There is no better way to spend a sunny Autumn morning than visiting Kew Gardens. This is exactly what we did last weekend. If you have never been it’s a fantastic place to pop into. There’s loads for children of all ages to do. If you are not a friend of Kew it’s a bit […]
Autumn Leaf Colour Game
We have been outdoors on this lovely dry week, but haven’t ventured far from home. Just a trip to the local DIY shop and spending time in the garden. While the garden is full of plop plop plopping sounds of the acorns falling from the oak tree next door there are not too many other […]
Harvest from the Hedgerows: A Tale of Blackberry Picking
We often stop and nibble blackberries from hedgerows when on family walks. We very rarely have any sort of container with us so we can collect enough to take home. So this weekend ,with a bumper apple harvest from the garden we made a specific date with our local hedgerows for a spot of blackberry […]
Willow Dens and Flower Meadows: Reaping the Benefits
We have tried something different in the garden this year. It has been really fun creating it and watching how things develop. We moved some fruit bushes freeing up a sunny plot of land about 10ft square. Rather than go for some of the obvious choices of perennial plants and shrubs or vegetables we thought we […]
Grandma’s Garden
We have been staying with Grandma for the last week of the summer holidays. One of the joys of visiting her is to see how her garden is growing. It always looks lovely. The garden was professionally landscaped about 12 years ago. This means it has lots of structure and interest. My mum is a […]
Harvest from the Sea
This week we have been having outdoor fun in Brittany and partaking in one of our favourite activities – searching for shellfish. This time though we weren’t crabbing but shrimping. Our first time crabbing this year was not at all successful, but we have since had some great catches. I have to admit that […]
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