Amandine - Oxford garden coach

The trials and tribulations of my allotment plot:
😃 AMAZING having a full pond again
😃 Fantastic seeing lushness and green again
😃 Harvested the very first garlic bulb from my no-dig bed that's been improved with bunny bedding (herbivore manure and straw)

😥 All my Allium seem to have leaf miner so time will tell how well garlic stores
😥 Squashes are back under cloches with single digit temperatures forecast around the middle of next week

😡 Slugs and snails are back decimating everything
😡 Muntjacs have managed to get in my deer-fenced asparagus beds and (astonishingly) left the asparagus alone but ate most of the leaves off my strawberry plants

Clematis isn't the easiest plant to propagate so it's very exciting to have a healthy rooted cutting and another one producing the first tiny shoots.

The cuttings are C. armandii and 'Winter Beauty', it'll be interesting to see what works!

Carrot thinnings with hummus are my go-to late morning snack and I have a Guinea pig friend who loves the green tops (I hear you can make pesto with them but I haven't tried myself).

I've been running Oxford Garden Club for a year now and it's a wonderful community of like-minded gardeners!

I run the Whatsapp group, organise and run garden club sessions (at Flo's café and in Florence Park or on my allotment in the spring-summer) and share my professional expertise through learning sessions on a variety of horticultural topics.

It's a popular group and we've now reached full capacity for full membership but there are a few online membership spaces available.

Get in touch with me on [email protected] if you're interested in joining the Whatsapp group.

Some gluts are better than others - been eating homegrown asparagus for 2 months and still not sick of them.

Keep 'em coming until the summer solstice ☀️🌿

Clay soil in Oxford.

It's not all bad as it remains moisture and nutrition but it goes soggy in winter and turns into concrete in summer (or spring nowadays) and it needs constant additions of organic matter to improve its structure.

Before you blame watering or bad luck, grab a handful of soil from the bed and squeeze it. What it does in your hand has already narrowed down which plants will ever settle in.

Sandy soil feels gritty and falls apart the moment you open your fist. It drains fast and holds little, so deep-rooted, drought-adapted plants belong here: lavender, rosemary, yarrow, and sedum. The same plants rot in anything wetter.

Clay soil feels sticky and rolls into a long ribbon. It holds water and packs down hard, so it wants tough-rooted survivors that push straight through it: baptisia, asters, daylilies, and ironw**d.

Silty soil feels smooth, almost floury, and stays moist and fertile but compacts over time. Moisture-lovers settle in fast: blue flag iris, swamp milkw**d, ferns, and Joe Pye w**d.

Loam holds its shape, then crumbles when you press it. It is the balanced soil that drains well and still feeds roots, which is why it grows almost anything, from tomatoes and peppers to most perennials.

Squeeze a handful from each bed before you buy another plant. Match the plant to the soil you already have, and most of the guesswork falls away.