Home page for all of Mike Clark’s wonderful gardening articles!
“Potatoes fall into three categories as regards cropping. Early, Second Early, and Maincrop. If you want to be self sufficient, you probably want to grow all three. But for most purposes, Second Earlies can be ignored. And in a small garden, Maincrop potatoes occupy a disproportionate amount of space for a very long season. So most gardeners settle for a few Early ones. Does this begin to sound easier?” Mike Clark on which spuds to grow, when, and how!
“If I stopped a few random people in the street, and asked if they could name any varieties of potatoes, I bet I’d get a fair proportion of “Roast, Mash, Chips or (maybe) Duchesse”. I doubt if I’d get many Edzell Blues or Pentland Javelins.” Mike considers the humble spud – and tells you how you, too, can have fresh new potatoes at Christmas.
“Needless to say, like all Scotland’s native trees, birch in the wild has declined markedly over the last two centuries. Considered a “weed” among trees by commercial foresters, birch woodland has been felled and cleared to make way for coniferous timber crops. Yet it is still one our most abundant trees, relatively speaking. ” Mike waxes rhapsodic about a tree you can drink. Tree-hugging? More like tree-glugging!
“For some reason, many gardeners, whether novice or old hands, have a mental block when it comes to botanical (or Latin) names. Let me try to remove the mystery.” All those Latin names for plants explained at last!
“I know rhododendrons are only the tip of the iceberg at Inverewe. But I have seen some wonderful gardens in my time – and if anything out there compares with Inverewe at rhododendron time, I have yet to find it.” Would you believe that Britain’s best rhododendron garden is to be found further north than Inverness?
“You will require four basic ingredients, all of which need some careful advance planning. But all four can be home produced. Which, you must admit, adds a certain something to the occasion.” In celebration of British Expat’s first birthday, Mike tells you how to grow your own haggis!