There is no politician - and I mean none - who is better-placed than Ed Miliband to get us through this fossil fuel-driven energy crisis.
No-one in politics understands the energy system better. That’s why the billionaire fossil press hate him
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
When rhubarb flowers it's pretty - but also a sign of stress. The trick is to work out why... usually it's overcrowding (lift & divide clumps every 5 years then replant in a new spot to keep healthy). But this one just hasn't thrived so I dug it up - turns out the roots were rotting 🥺 #gardening 🌱
I planted this tree as a tiny whippy thing late one winter with my youngest daughter, then a teenager; we chose it together because she wanted a blossom tree. Now it fills the hillside with clouds of flowers. My daughter is now 24; every time I see it I think of her & smile 💚 #gardening #memories 🌱
Spotted out in the wild 😊 this was a fun book to write for the RHS, packed with tips & ideas for more sustainable ways to grow your own food 💚 www.waterstones.com/book/rhs-can... #gardening 🌱
Oops 😁 💚
If you have baby figs on your tree congratulations - you'll have a crop of ripe fruit this year (as long as there's no late frost) 💚 figs in the UK rely on embryonic fruits formed late the previous year to overwinter, so don't remove them if you're pruning #gardening 🌱
I know right? I'd have thought deer but only the lowest leaves are eaten... also interesting that they've left the veins, they usually eat the lot 🤔
Something's been eating the rhubarb 😳 well this is a first. I thought the leaves were packed with oxalic acid and v poisonous so something out there has a sore tummy today! I think it might be rabbits as there are a lot in this garden but they've never chewed the rhubarb before #mystery #gardening 🌱
There is much attention given to cherry blossom at this time of year... and for good reason, as it is very lovely. But for my money plum blossom is every bit as beautiful 😍 💚 #gardening 🌱
True blue, baby, I love you... 💙💙💙 the wonderful colony of wild English #bluebells in my rewilded orchard are in full glorious flower right now #gardening 🌱
Mowing the lawn; or as it's referred to around here, "collecting mulch" 💚 #gardening 🌱
The #houseplant propagation adventures continue! Discovered these weird nodules on my String of Hearts (Ceropegia) - turns out they're tubers 😍 I've now snipped some away with a short stem attached. Buried to half their depth in compost and... we'll see what happens 💚 #gardening 🌱 #plantsforfree
Salads on the way! I have a 3 pot veg system for babyleaf salads - sow half a tray of mixed salads each month (Feb-Oct), then transplant into a big 14" (35cm) clay pot. Once you have 3 pots sown you can just clear & resow pots immediately after last harvest to keep fresh leaves coming 💚 #gardening 🌱
You could try.. but it's risky from seed, might be too rich (and too water retentive). I'd try making a hollow in the manure, filling with potting compost & sowing into that - once they have a head start & are big enough to cope with high levels of nutrients they should love such rich soil 😊
Time to sow all the big stuff 😁 big, jungly pumpkins, winter squash & courgettes are among my favourite veg to grow 💚 seeds are big enough to cope with multipurpose compost (smaller seeds need finer seed compost) - sow on their edge or not, I've never found it makes a difference 😉 #gardening 🌱
Great thank you, will do! 💚
Thank you 😂 that was what I'd come up with too 💚
Uh oh 😂 there are peach and apricot trees trained against a trellis across the end of this polytunnel in a garden I look after... I thought they were doing pretty well (loads of peaches last year #nomnomnom).. and then I went and looked round the back 😱 any idea how to fix this?! #gardening 🌱
Aww thanks Jack 🥰
Such a privilege to be asked to give evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on the importance of leaving peat in the ground where it belongs 💚 #endpeatsales #peatfree #gardening 🌱 #horticulture @peatfree.bsky.social
Happy April! 💚 This month's #moon phases:
🌜1: waxing: flowers & salads
🌜2: full: rest
🌜3-10: waning: roots
🌜11-16: waning: rest
🌜17: new moon: rest
🌜18-24: waxing: leafy veg
🌜25-30: waxing: above ground annuals
#gardening 🌱
Such a feeling of anticipation right now 😂 I have a Clematis montana 'hedge' in the front garden along the lane, about 30ft long and a little unruly, and right now it is jam packed with fat little buds just flushed pink and getting ready to burst 🌸 #gardening is so exciting isn't it 😁 🌱
I find blackfly rarely get so out of hand they destroy the plants... but then I do have a very wild garden so lots of predators 😊 it helps if you sow them early (so they flower before blackfly arrive) or late (when the worst of the blackfly are over) - full grown plants in July are worst affected 💚
Oh no that's awful - I would miss them terribly 😢 well that's one positive about moving to a cooler climate 😊
Is there any seedling quite so pretty as a nasturtium? I grow lots - they're not only pretty, they're completely edible and both leaves and flowers make deliciously peppery salad ingredients (even the immature seed heads can be pickled and turned into ersatz capers 😋) #gardening 🌱
I love #ferns and this time of year lose my heart to them all over again 💚 I have several varieties from harts tongue fern (naturalised here and self seeding everywhere) to big handsome shield ferns - these little dinosaur tails are unfurling all over the garden at the moment #gardening 🌱
That's the kind of thing I'm after 😊 so good to see it can be done
Exactly... and from a political point of view the optics are terrible. Just about to move house & among top priorities for new place is ability to go off grid so I can disengage from this ridiculous system 🙄
This drives me crazy with frustration. I don't know how the govt thinks it will ever get the credit for all the alternative energy it's putting in unless it breaks this link with gas prices- we should be paying a fraction of what we are paying for our energy 🙄
First batch hardening off ready for planting outdoors 😊 now there's a greater temp difference between greenhouse and outside so I take 2 weeks moving them outside more & more each day: you can reduce that to a week or so by June 💚 but don't skip as otherwise seedlings get cold shock #gardening 🌱