Nikki Dillon's Page

We go away for 10 days in January, so I try hard to arrange things in the garden so that there is not too much of a glut around this time. Mixed results at the moment - the climbing beans are climbing fast but no flowers yet, so that's good; the tomatoes have a few just starting to ripen but not many, good; cucumber growing but only flowers at present, good; celery regenerating as we pick it; BUT, the courgette is going nuts as are the lettuces. Parsley and spinach are going to seed. I'm… Continue

Spent the day in the garden again. It was freeezing at 9am, but so warm by lunchtime I was out in a T-shirt. The veggie patch is looking great! Of the four raised beds, 3 have been topped up with compost etc either in autumn or over the winter, but the 4th has never been topped up and has got really low. I moved the young cauliflower and broccoli plants out of it into the spaces left by the ones we've harvested. There are still leeks and last year's spinach left in the bed, but we're slowly… Continue

Saturday was too wet to go out, and today I was busy, but managed 15 minutes in the garden. I managed to complete a job I should have done months ago - tying up last seasons new raspberry, loganberry and boysenberry stems. I had cut back the old stems after fruiting last year, but somehow never got round to the new stems as they came up, so they were lying all over the kids' play area at great risk of being used as whips, lasoos, reins, goodness knows what else. Anyway, now they are neatly tied… Continue

Typical! It's been warm and sunny here in Cambridge all week whilst I've been at work, but now the weekend is coming up the forecast is for rain.



Those lettuce, radish and pak choi seeds I put in the garden last week are already germinating!



No more caulis for a week or two, but the broccoli is still going strong. The leeks are still rather skinny, but a few could be harvested next week. Carrots have been great but won't keep us going for many more weeks - must remember to… Continue

Wow what a lovely weekend! Back in England we would close our back door in October and pretty much leave it shut until March, but here we were this weekend eating our lunch outside, sowing seeds and generally messing around in the garden. The caulis, broccoli, spinach, carrots and lettuce are being harvested now, and I'm wishing I had staggered the planting a bit, as they'll all be gone in a few weeks. This weekend I planted some rocket seedlings, and sowed more seeds for carrots, spring… Continue