Dos Casitas holiday villa in Javea, Spain

25/12/2023

Merry Christmas everyone…..and wishing you all a very fruitful and bountiful 2024…..love from us and our little robin who came on a walk with us recently! 🎄❤️ See you soon!

11/05/2022

At last-some colour in the garden! Been busy so not managed to post much recently, sorry. Lots more to come but first sone gratuitous pics! 😊😊

04/04/2022

The Nemesias are growing fast. Here is the tray of nemesias. Sown on 16th Jan then pictures taken on 14 Feb, 22 Feb and 26 March. Ready to plant out once the weather gets better. It’s been cold and raining here since the start of March. There’s still time to sow them for this summer if you get your skates on!!

15/03/2022

Livingstone daisies -one of our fave bedding plants. I know they’re old-fashioned but they make us really happy. They flower in summer and open in the sunshine. Easy from seeds sown indoors now. The usual method-sown thinly in pots then pricked out (here into cells) grown on under glass until after the last frost (May-June depending where you live) harden off then plant grow and enjoy. Plant in full sun

12/03/2022

Building the no-dig raised veg beds. You can use the same method for non-no dig too. And flowerbeds. First we marked out the area and got sleepers, soil and compost. Then laid a layer of thick cardboard over the area. (Not shiny-printed or plasticised) We removed all sellotape and staples etc. This will help kill off grass and weeds by excluding the light. So there’s no need to remove the grass or weeds first which makes this so much easier! Then put down the sleepers and filled the raised beds with a 3 inch/10cm layer of soil topped up by about the same of compost. We planted direct into the compost-potatoes, cabbages, peas and lettuce. LOTS more to come-those seedlings we pricked out will go in there later when they get a bit bigger.

20/02/2022

Taking cuttings of dahlias for summer colour. Watch how to take easy dahlia cuttings (same process for all softwood cuttings.

06/02/2022

Taking cuttings of Chrysanthemums today. This method works for loads of plants-anything with soft new growth. Here ‘s how I did them. Cut shoots of new stems about 2 inches long. Remove all but a couple of leaves. This helps reduce water loss and rotting. Trim below a node (where the leaf joins the stem) so it’s not tagged. Dip the cut end in water then hormone rooting powder and then make a hole or slit at the edge of the compost about an inch deep. Push the cutting in and firm it gently. Then place the cuttings in a plastic bag, or propagator or windowsill. To keep humid. Not a hot sunny windowsill@or they’ll frazzle. You can also mist them with water a couple of times a day. They should root in a couple of weeks and you’ll know because the leaves will stop flopping and become pert and you’ll see white roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. I use 50:50 multipurpose compost and perlite. You can also use compost and grit. Why not have a go?

04/02/2022

Time to think about Dahlias! One of our favourite flowers, they come in lots of shapes and sizes from tiny pom-poms to giant basketball sized ones. And every colour imaginable except blue. Easy to grow. Here we are starting the Tubers early to get material for taking cuttings. You can also start them in pots indoors around March for planting out after the last frost, to get earlier flowers. Then they just keep on going until the first frosts of Autumn. You can buy tubers or rooted cuttings. online and tubers at garden centres soon. Why not give them a go in a sunny spot this year?

24/01/2022

New project!! We are building a new vegetable garden from scratch. Starting from grass and weeds we have begun making a set of raised beds for all our veg. Railway sleepers will contain two long borders which we are going to cultivate using the no-dig method…! First we marked out the plan on the ground and next we need to get LOTS of cardboard, soil, manure and compost to fill them. In the meantime we will also continue sowing all the seeds of veg to plant in there… big project but very exciting!! Stay tuned for more and why not grow with us? We will show each step from sowing, pricking out, potting on, planting, cultivating and harvesting.

23/01/2022

TwoGayGardeners go Med! First film this season as we start sowing small seeds, prick out seedlings and plan for this year’s crops.

13/06/2021

Hurrah! All the beds are planted and last to go in today were the nemesis’s which were the tiny seedlings I pricked out about 6 weeks and are now bushy little plants…..they will flower in about 2 or 3 weeks….Perfect day in the alloment!

10/06/2021

Amazing Laburnum tunnel at Preston Park Manor Gardens Brighton

09/05/2021

Tulips in Brighton. Great job Brighton council in planting thousands in f tulips in town. 😍 @ Brighton, England, UK

09/05/2021

Pearse pricking out tiny little nemesia seedlings. Beautiful summer flowers which will be in bloom from July. Transplanting them gives each plant enough space, food and light to develop before planting out in a few weeks time.

04/05/2021

Sone of our tulips this year looking fab! The red with black centre is “Appledoorn” the yellow is “Golden Appledoorn” both good repeat flowers every year so long as you plant deeply. About a foot if not more. And the pink one is the stunning “Weber’s Parrot”

04/05/2021

Getting the main top potatoes in the ground. These are Kerrs Pink, Isle of Jura and Carolus. They should be ready by August-September all going well.

03/05/2021

How to transplant seedlings so the have more room to grow.

29/04/2021

Getting all the brassica seeds down for growing on and planting out later in the spring. How many seeds do you need to sow? How many are too many?

20/04/2021

In this episode Alan shows how to take cuttings of chrysanthemums. This method can be used for most softwood cuttings and even bedding and houseplants to get more plants from one.

07/03/2021

It’s early March so it’s time to get sowing seeds of hardy and half-hardy veg and flowers. Here’s someone Alan’s been training showing how to sow chillies but the technique”s the same for most seeds. Its especially time to sow Mediterranean veg like tomatoes chillies peppers and aubergines because they need a longer growing season. Wait till April before sowing French and runner beans, pumpkins, squashes, courgettes sweet corn and melons as they like it warmer. Over to Pearse now 😊

28/02/2021

21/02/2021

One of the first jobs of the year. How (and why) to
your trees.