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Busy Gardening

Welcome to Busy Gardening

If you are looking for a gardener in Didcot, Abingdon & Wallingford (or anywhere in between) to help with those small jobs that others are not keen on then I can help. My name is Steven Bradley and I provide a small gardening service in and around where I live. Here you can find out a bit more about me, what I do and other (hopefully) useful and interesting information including how to get in touch!

Green Plant Swap Web Site

Don’t throw away unwanted plants, swap them!

What do you do with a plant that for one reason or another is no longer needed? Perhaps it has outgrown its allotted spot or has multiplied beyond belief but don’t throw it away just yet – try swapping or selling it through Green Plant Swap – a great website that brings together plants and people.

January Plant Bargains

Everyone loves a bargain!

This is the time when last years stock is being sold off by garden centre’s so if you fancy saving money on new plants, now is a really good time to visit. Whilst they might not look great now and to convince you, I have bought six plants this week and we will see how they are looking as the year progresses.

Galanthus 'Blewbury Tart'

Anyone for Blewbury Tart?

Don’t worry if you were expecting some baking related post. Read on and let me introduce you to a lovely variety of snowdrop you may not have heard of but can be found right here on your doorstep.

Leek, thyme and lemon stuffing

Leek, thyme and lemon stuffing

The Christmas Dinner table needed a quick and simple stuffing to bolster things and we settled on an leek , thyme and lemon stuffing adapted from a leek and sage stuffing recipe.

Allotment Crop - 23 December 2018

Hi ho, Hi ho, it is off to the allotment we go

A quick post, this was something we had been waiting a while for but with only a couple of days to go it was off to the allotment to gather some veg for the Christmas lunch.

Frost dates for Didcot and the surrounding area

Having some general idea of when they are here is going to help with garden planting and planning and for Didcot and the surrounding areas the first frost will be around mid October and the last frost around early May.

TV programmes worth watching

Thanks to the Internet you can enjoy gardening TV programmes from around the world so if you have a spare half hour, here are a few programmes you might like to try and catch.

YouTube channels worth watching

Garden Ninja’s YouTube Channel You will find Lee Burkhill’s enthusiasm infectious when you take yourself over to his Garden Ninja’s YouTube Channel.  It is full of interesting and engaging Read More

Local gardens worth visiting

Bear with me on this as I am in the process of writing up details (with pictures) of various local gardens that are worth visiting.

The tools I use (and those I don’t)

Having the right tool for a job ensures the task is done in the right way and that is what my clients expect of me.  A quick trip into Read More

Podcasts worth listening to

Make use of that time when you are digging over a plot and your mind wanders off to listen to gardening podcast. Here is a small selection of a few I like to listen to. I have also included a list of some others you might like to try.

Gardening Blogs & Websites worth visiting

With no shortage of gardening and horticultural websites to visit this list could end up being very long indeed however I am going to just jot down those websites I regularly visit or blogs I think worth reading.

My A-Z of Weeds

This is more for my own reference really and so here is my A-Z of common weeds I come across, their characteristics and some pictures so you can recognise your enemy and how to deal with them.

Mr B's Damson Jam - August 2018

Mr B’s Damson Jam

Along the edge of the allotments are a couple of damson trees which always have a mass of fruits on them. What to do with this free bounty? Jam of course!

Gnocchi with courgette, mascarpone & spring onions

Gnocchi with courgette, mascarpone & spring onions

As is usual at this time of year, no matter how hard you try, at the allotments courgettes are plenty.  In fact I am sure there is a Read More

Radish leaves with more holes than leaf

Radishes and me don’t agree

I am really not having a great deal of luck with my radishes.  In theory radishes are, after cress and strawberries, easy peasy to grow – unless you Read More

Support your tomatoes!

It is always interesting wandering around gardens of big houses and the vegetable plots in particular are always a great place to see how others do things.  One Read More

Plant pot olla

Results of the Olla experiment

Earlier in the season I came across the lazy-persons way of watering – Ollas – terracotta pots sunk into the ground next to your plants which reduce the Read More

Homemade Redcurrant Cordial

The redcurrants were ready for picking at the beginning of July but space in the freezer was already running low so what to do with all those redcurrants? As it was another hot afternoon I thought we should have a bash at making some redcurrant cordial.

A Bluebird Tends