Cookery to the fore - an experience not to be missed

The Wot's Cooking purpose-built Cookery Theatre

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. If you have never experienced a cookery demonstration organised and presented by the Wot’s Cooking team, then you have missed a truly memorable experience. For a start, husband and wife team Katie & Glyn Johnson have their own fully-equipped mobile demo kitchen: all mod cons and purpose-built to allow everyone in the audience to see and experience what is happening live, on stage. Whilst Katie ‘presents’, Glyn is  behind the scenes taking care of the ‘technicals’. Last Autumn, I was so captivated, I could have spent the entire Show watching and thinking food.

Presenter and compere,
Katie Johnson of Wot's Cooking

This year sees an even more eclectic programme - with the Wot’s Cooking theatre at the heart of the ‘Taste It’ section of the Show. Featuring a range of knowledgeable practising chefs (some appearing at Malvern for the first time), who could fail to be inspired by the delectable selection of specialties they will be showcasing?  You will need to check your Show Guide for exact times. Bookmark any of the following …

Watch bread being made in the Cookery Theatre, 
and then buy something fresh and tasty - 
there's such a selection from which to choose

Appearing twice on Saturday (27th) is Rob Swift of Swift’s Bakery from Clee Hill, whose family have been baking artisanal and speciality breads since 1863. Rob is fifth generation and passionate about the bread-making process and their wide range of finished products: white, wholemeal and brown, French, international, speciality, and a particularly tasty-sounding ‘healthy eating’ range. Rob’s demos are always fun, and afterwards you can visit their stall to stock up on whatever takes your fancy.

Liz Knight at last year's Show

Also twice on Saturday’s bill of fare is Liz Knight of Forage Fine Foods. She uses ingredients plucked from her garden and local Herefordshire hedgerows. What a pleasure to discover that you don’t necessarily require expensive ingredients to create a feast when what you need is right there on your doorstep. Liz makes flavours and special seasonal treats, loving the taste of wild ingredients and the thrill of discovering new combinations of flavours - her products are a celebration of the best of the wild, adding a new, wildly irresistible dimension to home cooking.

Always popular - take your seats in good time, ladies and gentlemen

Whilst compiling this preview, I learned from Katie Johnson that Chris von Landkammer - head chef at The Elms in Worcester, is the most widely travelled chef that she has ever engaged to work with. Not in terms of Malvern to Worcester (a mere hop) but from as far afield as New Zealand. If the hotel website is anything to go by, you’ll be in for a treat, for he infuses many of their delectable dishes with touches of Asian cuisine garnered from his experience in the Far East.  Using the freshest of ingredients, and fruit, herbs and vegetables from The Elms’ extensive kitchen garden, he conjures up a daily smorgasbord of fabulous meals. What will he offer us in the Wot’s Cooking kitchen?

Calling all vegetarians - oh so tasty (pumpkins to the fore)

For the vegetarians amongst you, Lizzy Hughes of  Our Lizzy Cooking - a Malvern-based vegetarian cookery school - will be there to entertain you on both Saturday AND Sunday. She enjoys using a wide range of locally grown seasonal produce and loves exploring new ingredients whilst developing new recipes. She says, “Autumn is my favourite time of year. I especially love trying out different pumpkins and squash as they work so well in vegetarian dishes.” At the show she’ll be demonstrating a three course Autumnal feast will a warming Roasted Pumpkin and Chilli Soup, Squash and Spelt Risotto, Hubbard Squash and Fava Bean Casserole. (Lizzy also loves using fruit and will show the traditional Malvern Pudding using apples from her own tree.)

Fish - a refreshing change?

Tom Court of Sticky Fig Catering will be appearing twice on Sunday (28th). Established in 2013, their services have grown to include event catering, from intimate dinners to large celebrations, to weddings and parties in the privacy of home. Their aim is to provide the best quality food and service at all events, creating memorable experiences for guests. Sticky Fig is committed to sourcing the best local and sustainable produce from local suppliers whist being mindful of budget. There are bound to be plenty of useful tips from this midlands-based chef who is used to cooking for clients or with them in their home kitchen.

From seed to plate: metres rather than food miles

Andy Link - the award winning head chef, gardener and bee keeper at The Riverside Inn, Amestery (a rural Herefordshire restaurant) - aims to create a true hub for local seasonal produce, showcasing the best the area has to offer. As part of this the chefs have developed over an acre of land to create traditional and experimental vegetable, fruit and herb gardens - which even include their own bee hive. These working kitchen gardens are an essential part of their facilities, offering chefs the opportunity to experiment with different ingredients and plant types, whilst introducing new flavours alongside a great level of freshness, The result?  Some dishes travel only metres, not miles.  Andy says that during the Malvern Autumn Show, he will be “discussing the sustainable way in which the restaurant uses this seed-to-plate approach to create a few seasonal, home grown plates of food using only ingredients from the restaurant grounds."

Oh the shame of it!
 Even journalists have to eat!

Watching food demos is hungry work, or at least one craves food afterwards, or at any time of the day. There are plenty of refreshments on offer around the Showground, clearly marked on the map that accompanies your Showguide. As these are all conveniently located, there’s no excuse for not stopping for a bite and a cuppa – indeed, your visit may well benefit from so doing when you arrive, allowing you time to glance through the Show Guide and formulate a plan of what you most want to do; Cookery Theatre timetable included. Familiarisation can save time and possible frustration, allowing you to pack far more into your day out.

All images are copyright - with thanks to all the photographers who have co-operated with me to produce this cookery preview.


Just to remind you: Show opening times on both days are 9.00am to 6.00pm and there’s a free shuttle bus from Great Malvern rail station. There's also no charge for standard car parking.  Book your Show tickets online, or phone the ticket hotline (01684 584924). More next week - so do bookmark this page.

Show Garden Variety in 2014

Stages of Show Garden construction for the May 2013 Spring Show

With some awesome themes and evocative Show Gardens scheduled for this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, and in a new location on the Showground for 2014, I think back to last year’s build-up and the sheer ingenuity that will turn patches of sometimes muddy ground into desirable garden spaces. Whether it is bringing a message home, or creating a garden for the sheer joy of doing so, this year’s themes will captivate as much as in any former year.

Show Garden OS567, 'Shears & Chardonnay': 
Designer Jody & Tim Lidgard

Nine in all, and varying in size and shape, the names alone will inspire, and maybe have one guessing as to hidden meanings. Take ‘Shears and Chardonnay’ – a Woodland garden representing a corner or the end of the country garden where boundaries can often blur and merge with the surrounding lanes and fields in rural Suffolk.

Show Garden OS562, 'Blush': 
Designer Outer Spaces Design Ltd

Or ‘Blush’ – an urban retreat, with somewhere to sit and relax whilst escaping the stress of everyday life. A stepping stone path leads you into the centre of the space, which is a seating area enclosed by rendered walls. A sculptural piece consisting of stainless steel flowers on long stems forming a ‘ball’ is echoed throughout the space with living box balls. 

Show Garden OS565, 'A Fruity Story': 
Designer Richard Wanless Twigs Gardens

Secret spaces appeal to many gardeners faced with the everyday stresses of a busy life, so ‘A Fruity Story’ is sure to appeal. A modern yet informal kitchen garden, it provides somewhere to relax, to enjoy the fruits of one’s labours. Inspired by the new format of the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, the designer has incorporated three festival themes in the garden – Food and Drink, Grow and Taste and Heritage.

Show Garden OS566, 'Living with Parkinson's Garden': 
Designer Ruth Gwynn

The ‘Living with Parkinson’s Garden’ try to illustrate what it must be like to live with Parkinson’s disease Parkinson’s is caused by the loss of nerve cells in the brain. It leads to the main symptoms of tremors, slowness of motion and stiffness. Many sufferers experience feelings of frustration that they can no longer do simple everyday tasks easily. So the journey around this garden is intended to be deliberately difficult and frustrating. 

Show Garden OS568, 'Ooooh … It makes me wonder': 
Designer Teresa Rham Groundesigns

'Ooooh …. It makes me wonder’ should resonate with us all, for it reflects upon the one situation which we will all experience sooner or later – death. The garden depicts an imaginary, unearthly place – a location between the physical and metaphysical worlds, whilst at the same time providing a sense of security by replicating the ‘familiar’.

Show Garden OS564, 'The Quiet Garden':
Designers Angie Turner, Kristina Fitzsimmons & Patrick Swan

Raising awareness of the International Quiet Garden Trust whilst illustrating the ability of gardens to encourage rest, spiritual refreshment and meditation is ‘The Quiet Garden’. It is intended to provide spiritual refreshment by stilling the mind with turns in the meditation path requiring concentration – a diversion from daily worries. The Trust is a small charity which spreads its network across the world – gardens could be found in private homes, churches, schools, retreat centres and hospitals.

Show Garden OS563, Bringing Nature Home': 
Designer Graduate Gardens Ltd

'Bringing Nature Home' has been inspired by natural planting and shows how British native wildflowers can be incorporated into a more modern style of garden. The layout has a modern feel, leading out into the natural rural landscape beyond; with the naturalistic planting setting it at ease within the landscape. Wildlife friendly to encourage bees and butterflies, it incorporates a simple reflective pool, with drips of water coming down from the steel joist creating simple ringlets on the water surface.

Show Garden OS561, 'ROSY & Victory': 
Designer Samantha Willis Garden Design

2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War and ‘ROSY & Victory’ is an Edwardian-style design celebrating the traditional English garden, as inspired by the war poet Siegfred Sassoon. 

’’Return to greet me, colours that were my joy, 

Not in the woeful crimson of men slain, 

But shining as a garden; come with the streaming 

Banners of dawn and sundown after rain.” 

It’s a garden within a garden (typical of many a garden of the time, when small garden entities were fashioned within much larger acreage. 

Show Garden OS569, 'En su Casa en La Playa': Designer Villaggio Verde

Transport yourself abroad to the Balearics and the largest Show Garden ever to have been constructed at Malvern. ‘En su Casa en La Playa (At home on the beach)’ is a theatrical representation designed to evoke happy memories of summer and holidays in the sun. At the back of the beach house is a driveway lined with aromatics, and olive trees set into lawn areas.  At the front of the house are specimen rosemary densely planted along with agave, palms, yucca gloriosa and grasses. The beach house itself is surrounded by potted citrus and aromatics and enhanced with climbers. There’s even a paella hut.

Nine green gardens to entice you to Malvern
on any day from 8th-12th May, 2014

So lose yourself amongst these imaginative Show Gardens, remembering their new location near the West Gate, facing the Malvern Hills. And don't forget to book your tickets online to save you time. (You can even now print your tickets once you have booked.)

Welcoming Spring ...

At the heart of the Showground

“Hello again!” It’s so good to be saying that, after the gap between last year’s ‘Malvern Autumn Show’ and this, the first of my ‘RHS Malvern Spring Festival’ posts. And welcome to anyone who is visiting this blog for the first time; we hope you will visit regularly. Committed follower, or first-timer, you will find much to delight and inform you in the posts I have scheduled for the coming weeks between now and the actual show (8th-11th May, 2014).

It may still be grey and damp outside but ‘those hills’ are as beautiful as ever, and before long will overlook the most remarkable transformation. For the former Spring Flower Show at the Three Counties Showground is no more; the show is undergoing a sea-change – the first of which is a name change to the ‘RHS Malvern Spring Festival’. 

Such a wonderful location for a Showground, and
beautiful even on a grey winter's day

A selection of 2013 plant exhibitors

Under this new guise there will be a much wider focus on gardening, growing, show gardens, workshops, celebrity garden ‘know-how’, Plant Pavilions and seed suppliers and of course the RHS Malvern Floral Marquee (5,500 square metres: home for four days to over one hundred top nurseries). Plants and flowers galore – in fact, a plant-a-holic’s paradise. 

Garden-themed eating places will be popping up all over the 
Showground (this was actually part of a 2013 show-garden, 
and very appealing)

An almost equal focus will be placed on FOOD with guest chef James Martin cooking up a feast in a specially designed kitchen garden, and Irish TV chef Rachel Allen also on stage creating dishes using delicious local ingredients. There’s to be a new Food and Drink Pavilion in a huge marquee where you will be able to savour a fine array of regional, national and international delicatessen, and a Food Court in which to enjoy everything from French crepes and spicy fajitas to chutneys, ciders and beer. Plus an Artisan Market offering food from the region’s smaller producers; not to be missed, and very special. The Severn Hall is to become a conservatory-style eating area with a garden café. You can also enjoy a sensual Tea Experience, sampling exotic teas and tisanes from around the world in an authentic oriental garden lounge. Under wraps for now is an area that may well become the focal point of the Show for many.

You will be amazed at how this showground 'field' will be transformed

Plans are still unfolding. As they wing their way to me through cyberspace; it feels as if I am already turning the pages of a new scrapbook – one as yet to be created from which I can cut-and-paste onto this blog. It’s a new era for the Showground. I have been visiting and writing about the Spring shows for almost ten years and have never been so excited. With thousands of photographic images already on file, and various personal hand-made notebooks documenting these past years, I can see that in 2014 it will take me all of the four available days and a very special sketch-book to record the ‘RHS Malvern Spring Festival’.

Now that the Show Previews have begun again, do bookmark this Blog so you can enjoy future posts bringing you even more details.

An abundance of apples, pears and fruit of all kinds

What a display - fruit to perfection

What could be more Autumnal – and more in tune with the Three Counties – than the apple and pear harvest? And it is celebrated in style at the Malvern Autumn Show; you cannot escape the wonderful produce that producers from the counties of Worcestershire,  Gloucestershire and Herefordshire bring for your delight.

No room for fruit trees? How about a potted orchard?

Such bounty, such enjoyment, and just about everything you may need to know about growing your own orchard, even if it is no more than potted fruit trees on the patio.

Perry Pears in serried rows - a three-counties speciality

The exciting news is that this year many previously diverse aspects of the fruit harvest will come together in The Orchard Pavilion. So now, in one location, you will find a veritable cornucopia: the Festival of Perry, the Commercial Apple and Pear show, the Marcher Apple Network, the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, the Herefordshire Year of the Orchard Group, plus the apple juice competition, and what’s more, learn how to manage your orchard.

Buy from specialist nurseries during the Show

Celebrating the Year of Orchard: Orchards not only cover apples and pears but stone fruits – damsons, plums and sloes (have you ever made – and drunk – sloe gin? Goes down a treat on a cold, frosty evening). There will be stands selling dessert and cooking apples, tree nurseries, and small stands selling preserves made from orchard fruit.

Remarkable honey-bees

Don’t miss the Bee Exhibition – it’s always fascinating; bees are critical for pollination, or their would be no fruit; Also covered will be nut orchards., which were once prevalent on every country estate and even in cottage gardens, for nuts were once part of the staple diet; hazel nuts and cob nuts, walnuts and the sweet chestnut encased in hedgehog-like prickly green case. Roast chestnuts round the fire on bonfire night.

Lots to try and buy; locally produced and delicious.

Our Nuffield Scholar, Ali Capper, will give a talk about apples “from the tree to the fruit bowl”. With the late Spring and thus absence of late frosts, it’s been a bumper year for fruit, so if you come to the Malvern Autumn Show for no other reason, come and celebrate nature’s harvest and earth’s fruitfulness.

I just love this golden perry pear and had to fit it in somehow! I'm now taking a short break but will be back well before the Show (28th & 29th September) as there is still so much to tell you about.  Please check back the week after next and make sure you book your tickets, and come as early as you can, for there is SO MUCH TO SEE AND DO.

Meanwhile, as we have more images than we can publish in one short post, here's another of my collages to whet your appetite even further.

From judging fruit juice (I was roped in one year) to Merrylegs 
perry pears - and more - there is always so much to enjoy at Malvern

Top of the bill in the 'Good Life Pavilion'

Mary Berry, CBE
(image credit: Tim James/Mabel Gray)

It would seem that celebrated author, columnist, teacher and broadcaster, Mary Berry CBE, is flavour of the month in more ways than one. Bookshops have a number of her latest books on display, and another title is scheduled for release two days before the Malvern Autumn Show. And she is coming to Malvern - top of the bill and special guest on the Saturday (28th September).

Best known most recently for her part in the TV baking revival, and for her practical and healthy recipes containing lots of fresh ingredients, Mary is a household name, having hosted seven cookery series for Thames Television, and several others since. She is known for her views on family food for healthy living, so was the perfect choice of guest for the popular ‘Good Life Pavilion’. Said Sharon Gilbert, Communications Manager for the Three Counties Showground: “Home-produced food is one of the main themes of our Autumn event, particularly the grow your own lifestyle, which is still very much in vogue.”

A smiling Joe Swift

Although she will be sharing her top tips for delicious family cooking, Mary will also be talking about her passion for her own lovely garden, on stage with television gardener Joe Swift. Check your Show Guide on arrival for details. The ‘Good Life Pavilion’ is just one of a whole host of features planned for the Show. Indeed, the Malvern Autumn Show is now renowned as a celebration of country life, food and nostalgia on account of its charming mix of flowers, fruit and vegetables, exquisite crafts, local food with taste, and quality shopping. The Show organisers are anticipating a big crowd on both Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th. 

The Good Life in an edible show garden

The Pavilion is also home to five lovingly designed edible gardens this year, and there’s a brand new, complementary Plant Fair, for those with a real passion for unusual species grown by small specialist nurseries. The whole area is dedicated to promoting the secrets of living a happy, healthy life, beginning with the benefits of sowing, growing and eating produce from your own ‘back yard’ – even if that back yard is just a small collection of patio pots. The Show is only five weeks away - don't forget to book your tickets!

Taste it! Glorious Food at the Malvern Autumn Show

Local produce to tempt you

Fresh and local is the key for FOOD at the Malvern Autumn Show – and why not when it is held in an area so renowned for some of the finest produce this country has to offer. From fruit to vegetables, meat to pastries, preserves to sweetmeats and bread to chutneys, the three counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire benefit from an equable climate and a tradition of excellence in food production.

Doing the Continental -
tasty morsels from far afield, as well as local to Malvern

But being a cosmopolitan nation, the Autumn Show attracts exhibitors from far and wide, and beyond our island shores as well. Whether it's chillies or olives, continental meats or curries, or something even more exotic, your taste buds will tempt you to go sampling in the various areas of the Showground devoted to TASTE.

Let them eat cake! (It was delicious, too)

Head for the Avon Hall where the WI (Women’s Institute) are staging a ‘Bake Off and Crafts-Village Show’. It’s also home to the celebrated ‘Festival of Food and Drink’ and all related exhibitors; dozens of them. Come early if you can, these stalls will be packed, though the vendors never seem to run out of produce. Moving from stall to stall, your shopping bag will soon be bulging! And there are plenty of stalls to whet your appetite in other locations, notably a Local Arts, Crafts and Food Market sited on the hard-standing  area off Row 2 between the Wye and Avon Halls. 

Wot's Cooking with Katie Johnson and baker Rob Swift

Centre stage in the Avon Hall will be Cookery Theatre where Wot’s Cooking (with lovely Katie Johnson) will be hosting a series of cookery demonstrations throughout the Show. The theatre itself is a work of art, and Wot’s Cooking use different stages for the various events they attend around the country. The Autumn Show schedule is currently building, but following his appearance at 'The Malvern Royal', baker Rob Swift will be returning on Saturday with his entertaining bread making demo;  the Swifts family Bakery  celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.  Also on the Saturday, Katie has a super chap demonstrating all about fish including identification and sourcing (Tom Court from The Granary Restaurant, Shenstone, Worcs). On the Sunday Liz Knight, a fascinating foraging expert from Herefordshire, will feature ingredients she has foraged for in the lanes and at her home, and no doubt at the Showground too. We’ll provide an update on other demos as news arrives.

Refreshments courtesy the WI at reasonable prices

Watching food demos is hungry work, or at least one craves food afterwards, or at any time of the day. There are plenty of refreshments on offer around the Showground, clearly marked on the map that accompanies your Showguide. As these are all conveniently located, there’s no excuse for not stopping for a bite and a cuppa – indeed, your visit may well benefit from so doing when you arrive, allowing you time to glance through the Show Guide and formulate a plan of what you want to do. Familiarization can save time and possible frustration, allowing you to pack more into your day out.

Joe Swift (left) learning how to cook in the Good Life Pavilion (2009)

Hosting both days in the Good Life Pavilion (alongside the edible show gardens) will be the inimitable Joe Swift conducting an audience with Mary Berry – Saturday only. Mark Diacono, from his Otter Farm smallholding in Devon, will also be appearing: head gardener at River Cottage and author of the amazing ‘Taste of the Unexpected’, he is both knowledgeable and amusing.

Have a coffee when you arrive, or before heading home
(or at any time during your visit)

Shop till you drop! But if you’re seriously stocking your pantry and even freezer, do remember to bring along a cool bag, or even an icebox. More previews will follow in the weeks leading up to the Show. But please note that the images used were taken in previous years, and as every year is different, with different themes, there is no guarantee that a specific exhibitor will be at Malvern in 2013. Oh, and don’t forget to book your tickets now and save money – which of course you could spend on food !!

More good eating from other Malvern Shows
Don't miss this year's Autumn Show - 28th & 29th September, 2013

All images are copyright Ray Quinton and Ann Somerset Miles.

Harvest Produce on Show

The sun doesn't ALWAYS shine at Malvern, but there's still 
plenty to do and enjoy

As this year’s Malvern Autumn Show draws ever closer – 60 days to go as I write – there are still so many activities in the pipeline to which I want to introduce our Blog ‘followers’. The aim is to give you an idea as to what to expect, whilst introducing first-time visitors to the very wide variety of activities that you will find in the lee of the beautiful hills, on September 28th and 29th.

Veg to die for

It’s a Show for all the family, and a celebration particularly of HARVEST, in the fruit and vegetable sense. Produce that has been grown in gardens or on the allotment, reflecting the seasons no matter what the weather may have been. Lovingly transported to the Showground and displayed to perfection, it’s always fascinating to overhear onlookers’ comments as I walk around the various exhibits:

Giant vegetables to admire (but maybe not to eat)

Such as, “Our …. are better than that!!), or “Who would want to eat something THAT size?” But that is not the point. Whether you are looking at the work of amateur or professional growers, there is always something new to observe and many tips to absorb. Scientifically proven or ‘old wives tale’ matters not, you cannot fail to be impressed. This year the ‘UK National Giant Vegetable Championships’ are being held in the Harvest Pavilion – a ‘first’ for Malvern, as the competition moves to the Three Counties from Somerset. “It really is the battle of the beans, the meeting of the marrows and the conflict of the cabbages, and there’s a friendly, but serious rivalry amongst growers who sweat blood to produce the largest legume and keep their growing secrets close to their chest!”

Not the biggest of pumpkins; see right for a larger one

It’s the time of year, or will be, when Pumpkins are much in evidence, and word has it that this year there is to be a ‘Pumpkin Factory’ on the Showground. Quite what and where will follow in a later post, but rest assured, these flamboyant vegetables will be much in evidence, large and small, plain and striped.

A bit of fun - and not part of the Trug competition 
but in fact a very clever edible Show Garden

One of the beauties of the Malvern Autumn Show is that there are plenty of opportunities for amateurs to compete and display. Which is one reason that visitors will love the National Trug Championships, or to give it its full title the National Trug OF VEGETABLES Championship, which this year is being sponsored by Haygrove. And a bit of insider information from previous winner & Trug Championship event organizer, Mike Smith, who grows all his Championship winning vegetables under a Haygrove Garden Tunnel.  Mike says “I have been growing vegetables for showing for only 4 years, for the first 3 years using a small 6?8 glasshouse. After months of deliberation I decided on the use of a new tunnel." (Tip for competitors in local village shows; a tunnel clearly gives you a head start.) This year, there is to be a trug class especially for children.

If you want to keep chickens, you'll need a house and run

There’s also a complete section devoted to 'The World of Animals’, amongst which features productive chickens and ducks. The Poultry Marquee is home for the weekend to many breeds of domestic hens and waterfowl (geese, too). Chickens provide a regular supply of eggs and will consume meat scraps and surplus green vegetables, as well as many weeds. A large run is not necessary for a few fowl and keeping hens is a good introduction in creature care for children. And the eggs are useful, too.

Cuddling a cavy

Taking up less time than chickens to look after are rabbits and cavies – another reason to visit the World of Animals area with the family, with opportunities to talk to experts for advice, and the chance of cuddling a cavy (NB Sunday only). There’s an opportunity to buy rabbits and cavies whilst at the Show, but please be aware that ALL creatures are not just for birthdays or Christmas but require regular, daily ROUTINE care and attention for them to survive and thrive.

How are YOUR vegetables doing?

We still have much to tell you about; more will of course follow in future weekly posts as the details unfold. In the meantime, you may also enjoy the Moon Phase addition to the Blog (lower right hand-side). Although ‘gardening by the phase of the moon’ has its followers, the phases do also affect the weather, and that is vital for all gardeners.