Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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Background information
My articles classified..
- 12 tips to save time in the garden (12)
- A musing: odd thoughts (21)
- A Select Vietnamese flora (3)
- A-Z of Garden Trees (23)
- A-Z of Perennials (26)
- Aussie Greens- gardens, parks and open spaces visited in trips to Australia (2)
- Blickling Hall- rebirth of the Walled Garden (88)
- Blogging (13)
- Climate change and gardening (68)
- Community Gardening (114)
- Dear Walter – letters/info from Old School Garden (81)
- Design (394)
- Design My Garden – Tips to improve your plot (12)
- Eat Me: guides to growing and using food plants (5)
- Feature plants (189)
- Floral Roundabouts (4)
- Four Seasons in One Day- series on climate change and gardening (5)
- Gardening and Gardeners: historical snapshots (42)
- Gardening equipment and tools (67)
- Gardening techniques (392)
- Gardening Therapy (3)
- GQT: your gardening queries answered (43)
- Great Gardens (180)
- Great Gardens: Scotland 2016 (6)
- Grow your own food (157)
- Growing Children- series on school gardening (7)
- Haveringland Churchyard (1)
- Health (15)
- Hebridean Hop- a tour of some Scottish isles (4)
- Heritage Gardens & gardening (285)
- Historic landscapes (129)
- John Evelyn's Monthly in the Garden (12)
- Local Food (21)
- Monthly Top ten gardening tips (12)
- Mrs. Murphy's Laws of Gardening (14)
- New Zealand 2019 (19)
- Norfolk in poetry- Jack Kett (13)
- Open Spaces (54)
- Over My Head- looking up at architectural detailing (8)
- Permaculture and sustainability (8)
- Pests and diseases (28)
- PicPosts- great photographs (810)
- Plantax- the stories behind plant names (21)
- Planting Patterns- wow factor pictures (41)
- Play (205)
- Playful Landscapes- examples (9)
- Portuguese Gardens (31)
- Power of 7- tips (24)
- Recycling projects (111)
- School and childrens' Gardening (82)
- Soils and soil improvement (62)
- Style Counsel: snippets on garden styles (13)
- The Essence of Gardening in 12 Objects (12)
- This and that (1,610)
- West Country Gardens (24)
- Wildlife and Nature (418)
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Recent Posts
- Fighting to Reduce Climate Change Anxiety
- Gardening 101 for Beekeepers
- (no title)
- Home Composting Guide
- Slow down and embrace nature – how to create better cities when the pandemic is over
- Spring Cleanup Checklist for Yard and Garden
- #FungiFriday: a grave situation — Daniel Greenwood
- What did the Nettlefolds do for Christmas? — Winterbourne House and Garden
- Great estates: the changing role of trees in the municipal housing landscape — Municipal Dreams
- Collaborative approaches — The official blog for the North York Moors National Park
- Jekka’s Favourite 12 Herbs for Christmas — Jekka’s – Jekka’s Blogs “All About Herbs”
- A Chance Encounter — PlayGroundology
- Edinburgh’s 1919 Act Housing, Part II: ‘Healthy Houses for the People is the Best Public Health Insurance’ — Municipal Dreams
- The Science of Sustainability — Specifier Review
- Never Gets Old — PlayGroundology
- Say Hello to the 2020 Collections Trainees — Shine A Light
- Council Housing in Preston, Part II: ‘Changing Fashions in Planning’ — Municipal Dreams
- Preston’s Council Housing, Part I to 1939: ‘Compactness, Convenience and Taste’ — Municipal Dreams
- ‘Green Care’ – a positive push from Covid
- Climate projections show extreme UK’s weather will become even more extreme — Official blog of the Met Office news team
- Cottingham’s Council Housing, Part II from 1930: New Forms of Housing Provision — Municipal Dreams
- Decorative Arched Footbridge, Desert Wash, East Ruston, Norfolk — Susan Rushton
- Local Candidates Asked About Well-being of Children — PlayGroundology
- The Role of the Women’s Housing Sub-Committee: ‘Homes fit for Heroines’ — Municipal Dreams
- Taking advantage of good weather: Getting loads of stuff done — Vanha Talo Suomi
- The Susans Cope With Drought — gardeninacity
- What’s up? — NewEnglandGardenAndThread
- Are You Sitting Comfortably – 15 — greenbenchramblings
- Climate Change: The perfect fuel for wildfires? — Official blog of the Met Office news team
- ‘Till we have built Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land’: Women’s Influence on State Housing in the Era of World War 1 and After — Municipal Dreams
- Storm Alex, so why not Storm Aiden? — Official blog of the Met Office news team
- October in the Garden: Top 10 Tips
- Green Flag Award- the Judge’s Gardens Competition
- It’s gardener vs. gardener season — GardenRant
- Darwen’s Jubilee Tower — Susan Rushton
- Jekka’s 6 top steps to “Grow On” your herbs — Jekka’s – Jekka’s Blogs “All About Herbs”
- If Summer Could Go On Forever — leaf and twig
- Plant Spotlight: Salvia involucrata ‘Hadspen’ — Winterbourne House and Garden
- The Garden at the begining of Autumn — The Cynical Gardener
- Will Covid-19 change the future of building design? — Specifier Review
- Atlantic tropical storms forming at a record pace — Official blog of the Met Office news team
- The Sussex Weald: where all the mushrooms are — Daniel Greenwood
- Report on nature-based solutions for the climate emergency published — Specifier Review
- My Lockdown Re(dis)covery
- End of the Dog Days — Vanha Talo Suomi
- Transformational public service development plans approved in West Suffolk — Specifier Review
- How changing urban streetscapes reflect post-COVID 19 outdoor cultural trends — Specifier Review
- Council Housing in Greenock, Part II, 1918-1945: their ‘Ain Wee House’ — Municipal Dreams
- #FungiFriday: weeping conk at Ickworth Park — Daniel Greenwood
- Quinta de Ventozelo — Salt of Portugal
Recent Comments
Anonymous on PicPost: Carrot, my foot! 18 Surprising Hydran… on Plantax 16: Hydrangea the wate… Nigel Boldero on Poppyland: A Victorian romance… Anonymous on Poppyland: A Victorian romance… Anonymous on Plants to die for… Isabella Childress on PicPost: Forest, but not as we… Happiness Factor on Is child-friendly planning a l… zidane on Top Tip: On a Pedestal- make m… Claire Gillespie on Transforming an indigenous gar… Nigel Boldero on GQT: Pleached hedges Top Posts & Pages
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A-Z of Garden Trees A-Z of Perennials Blickling Hall- rebirth of the Walled Garden Climate change and gardening Community Gardening Dear Walter - letters/info from Old School Garden Design Feature plants Gardening and Gardeners: historical snapshots Gardening equipment and tools Gardening techniques GQT: your gardening queries answered Great Gardens Grow your own food Heritage Gardens & gardening Historic landscapes Open Spaces Pests and diseases PicPosts- great photographs Plantax- the stories behind plant names Planting Patterns- wow factor pictures Play Portuguese Gardens Power of 7- tips Recycling projects School and childrens' Gardening Soils and soil improvement This and that West Country Gardens Wildlife and NatureBlog Stats
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Some of my blog followers
Blogs I Follow
- Finding Nature
- Families Connect
- Norfolk Green Care Network
- Discover WordPress
- Susan Rushton
- Unlocking Landscapes
- Alphabet Ravine
- MU Library Treasures
- TIME GENTS
- Vanha Talo Suomi
- Marigolds and Gin
- Bits & Tidbits
- Rambling in the Garden
- The Interpretation Game
- pbmGarden
- SISSINGHURST GARDEN
- Deep Green Permaculture
- BloominBootiful
- Winterbourne House and Garden
- greygoosedotco.wordpress.com/
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Calendar of my posts
Old School Garden 
Brilliant design idea. You could put the plants that need most water in the centre by the pool moving out wards to the edge where plants that need least water could be planted. Love it.
Hi Malc- nice thought! 🙂
Hi – interesting photo. I agree with Chez, some permaculture writing advocates non-straight lines. The reasons given are things like creating more ‘edge’ , but I’m not really convinced (tho I love a lot of permaculture ideas, and am studying it!) I think its great to be reminded that veg gardens don’t have to look like the ones we’re used to – ie straight rows, lots of bare soil; there are lots of perennial, polyculture, or forest gardens growing lots of food productively, that don’t look anything like this. But that said, there are good reasons for straight rows too – easier to tend, to harvest, to move between etc. I’m planning a new veg garden and did think about making some curved beds, but decided I’d just be doing this for the sake of being different. I’m sticking with rectangles…Tho there will be polycultures and perennial veg as well!
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I see what you mean about ‘edge’ but I guess you’d use more ground as paths? The kitchen garden here is along straight lines, but non uniform size/shaped beds; I used this plan to make it more visually interesting but it does have its disdavantages in terms of different bed widths and ‘awkward’ shaped corners, but I’ve adapted my growing patterns to cope with this; e.g growing triangular patches of flowers to add colour and attract insects. I’m gradually installing a series of plastic hoops over the main beds to provide the option of various crop protection/ warming covers, but these are all having to be customised for each bed, so it’s a bit more work. I’ve also started to diversify my patterns within these beds – e.g growing smaller blocks of different things to ensure a steady supply and avoid gluts…these can also be closer together to avoid large areas of bare soil and keep the weeds down! Thanks for following my blog 🙂
Intriguing – this reminds me of permaculture gardens
Hi, thanks- in what way?
The circular pattern. I read a book on permaculture once that advocated for gardens designed as a series of circles, so that everything followed a circular pattern – planting, picking, moving the circular chicken coop over the garden. It was a fascinating idea.