Berry Good Show

At the beginning of 2019 we moved from South London to Hertfordshire just because we like making our lives as difficult as possible when we're moving house ...its kind of our thing.

The main perk was that I gained a balcony for the first time and the opportunity to design and create my own mini garden from scratch. This was great for 2 reasons; one being I was able to hone my garden skills daily, helping out with my garden withdrawal symptoms .

Two was that I could basically create my own little nursery to supply the garden with constantly. This actually started a little before moving because in my old apartment I received a small Gooseberry bush twig all the way from sunny Estonia.

[Gardening Tip]

I mentioned last time out that I am old and I forget things so please forgive me if I have already given this advice before. When you want to have more of a plant that you already own or a friend may be growing, there is a budget way to do just that.

So my partner brought me this gooseberry cutting with the hope that I could grow her favourite gooseberries from back home in my garden. I was definitely up for the challenge but it's not something I knew much about. However it is actually really easy to do if you just follow some very simple steps.

Cut the the plant just below a set of leaves and remove the lower leaves from your chosen cutting and place it in soil or water. If in water, once you have roots about 2-3cm long you can plant up in a pot and you should have a new plant soon. If in soil as soon as you see the plant growing you know it has rooted ... easy peasy.

Now let's address the berry shaped elephant in the room ...My display pic is of blackcurrants and blackcurrants are not a berry, they are a currant ...I know!! However they kind of look like berries and 'Currant Good Show' is a terrible title, so suck it :).

With that piece of business out of the way I can begin to wrap up by mentioning that I added a few decorative chrome balls to the rockery, that were inspired by another garden on my work commute. I just really like the way the smooth round surface reflects the much more natural soft surroundings. (The sharp eyed among you will see my photo-taking mug reflected in the photos below)

In my next post I will tell the story of how and why the stack of pallets in the last photo are in my garden ...I promise it will be berry good.