You really don’t need to spend a fortune on equipment in order to create a pretty garden. For many years I gardened on a very tiny budget. Of course it is lovely to have the fanciest pots and planters, and buy ready grown plants from the garden centre but it is possible to fill your plot with colour and vegetables in just one season. Doing it all from scratch is immensely satisfying, get your kids involved if you have them, get your partner involved and reach out to the community of gardeners around you. Start sowing seed early in the season. February to March is the time to get salad crops started, and choose what annuals what you fancy. If you are a novice go for easy to grow things like marigolds, chives, cosmos, antirrhinums, nasturtiums and sunflowers; climbers like sweet peas, morning glory and canary bird to hide an ugly fence or grow up rustic obelisks. The seed packet will be labelled as annuals and will flower in the first year. You can either sprinkle where you...

Troublesome bed last summer Last week, despite the temperature, I piled on my jumpers and ventured outside to clear away more winter debris. Once I raked away dead leaves I could see the new shoots thrusting up from the soil and felt instantly better. At this time of year it is mostly 'housework' - it is rather like tidying up the morning after a heavy party but without the beer cans. I managed to surface tidy every bed, and lightly forked a few. Then the rain came back and after being chased out of the greenhouse by a monstrous spider, I was housebound again. Yesterday, it was sunny for a while so I went out again and today although the sun didn't put in an appearance, it wasn't cold. I persuaded my old fella to take a short break from the bathroom he is installing and replace the greenhouse glazing that was blown out over the course of the winter - now, I am worrying it will get windy and smash it all over again! I've cut back the fuchsias and tucked them...

It is the last day of January and already it's been a tough year for me so far. The first month is always the worst; no money after Christmas, cold, long evenings, the garden assaulted by wind and salt and rain, not much fun on the beach in the biting cold wind. Since the end of autumn, as can be expected, we've had nothing but gales and rain, with just the odd bright day to keep us from total despair. I have always suffered with winter blues, perhaps I should live in a climate that allows you to garden all year round for it is the number one cure for depression. But now January is over; I have made it through the dark times, and can now venture outside to see what is happening. The bulbs are up, the daffodils just beginning to bloom, but unfortunately a nasty little mouse has eaten all the crocus I planted last autumn. (Note to self: Next year take precautions to protect crocus from vermin.)  Some things are blooming that really have no right to at this time...

A month of so ago my old fella and I were sitting on our swinging hammock, sipping coffee, listening to the birds, enjoying the sunshine and the feeling that all the major tasks we'd set ourselves for summer were over. I'd begun to toy with the idea of days out, walks on the beach, leisurely picnics ... "I've had an idea," he says, jerking me from my dreaming. "I'm going to build you a better greenhouse." "O - kaaaay," I said, interest piqued. old teeny tiny greenhouse interior (see massive phormium behind) When we moved I said I wouldn't need a greenhouse with such a comparitively small garden but that had quickly proved false and we soon realised we couldn't do without one. Luckily enough, early last year we purchased a small second hand one from a local swap shop. It was a snip at £20 and we only had to buy a few bits of glass to complete the glazing. I was thrilled with it but by spring it was bursting at the seam...

Add caption As well as writing my next book, Book three of The Beaufort Chronicles: The King's Mother, I've been busy in the garden. It is only our second summer here at Aberporth so we are only just beginning to discover how we will use the garden and prioritising what needs doing first. Last year, it was a case of clearing years of neglect and getting a shed up for John to fill with the useless junk he loves to accumulate. This year we decided our first major job would be the patio as discussed in the last post. This served to make all the rest of the ancient hard landscaping look rather shabby so this week we got the seating area beneath the trees gravelled, and laid the first part of the path in slabs matching the patio. There was a sort of existing patio beneath the trees but it had been badly laid many years ago using chunks of Welsh slate held together with ugly concrete. As the trees grew the roots had pushed up the slate making it hazardous and ugly, there was...

Luckily, I am not as behind with the garden as I am with the blogging! Last summer the garden quickly improved and by mid summer was almost the idyll we are  striving for. Since we have downsized from a small farm with three barns to a semi with just a garage and a tumble down garden shed we decided it was time to be building a new, bigger and better one. After all, a man has to keep his junk somewhere. Using just his brains and his brawn, John built it from scratch  - but of course, he'd never have done it without his ever willing labourer - me!  It is certainly a better building than the one that was there before - it is double glazed and insulated and will have electricity once he has got around to it. Since January this year, I've been poking around outside, uncovering shooting bulbs and tidying up. The pots of bulbs I planted have been lovely and the mild winter seems to have benefited everything. When I pruned the r...

Five days before Christmas we moved to a new home with a smaller garden, close to the sea at Aberporth. For twenty years we'd gardened high on a hill on a smallholding in Ceredigion. It was a garden  prone to high winds, heavy frosts and the biggest slugs you ever did see. The summer temperatures varied from zero at night time and 28 during the day and as for the winter - well, it was a lot colder then. This meant we were restricted to what we could grow. I dreamt of tall, stately cottage garden plants like hollyhocks, delphiniums, but I soon learnt that was not be. We made the garden at Ael Y Bryn beautiful but it was big, too big for John and I to manage as we reached our middle years. It was terribly sad to leave it but w e look forward to the challenge of a new, more manageable garden and although we've been here for just six months we are already learning lessons. This new 'easy' garden isn't going to be as straight forward as we thoug...