INTRODUCTION

Dr Dinah Parums has been gardening from childhood, having grown up in north Derbyshire, England.

In the 1960's and 1970's, Dinah's mother created a garden which contained patios, containers, borders, trees, shrubs, fruit and vegetable, a pond and areas for wildlife.

This is a view of Dinah Parums' childhood garden.

Dinah has had small and large gardens, most of which have been started from scratch.

At the age of 10 years old, Dinah bought a little book for 1 shilling (1/- NET) which gave monthly instructions of what to do in the garden. It had 47 pages with black and white photos and was A5 size.

The book was called: Ward Lock’s Gardening Calendar: What to Do and When to Do It. In flower garden; rock garden; fruit garden; vegetable garden and under glass.

These 'to do' lists were useful as they gave a guide for each month.

So in this gardening site these things have been gathered together and written down as monthly guides.

In old gardening guides, monthly topics included; General Garden Work; The Flower Garden; The Vegetable Garden; The Fruit Garden; Shrubs and Trees.

In this blog, for each month Dinah has used a checklist format under the following headings:

THIS MONTH’S CHECKLIST (Ten Top Things To Do)
POTS & PATIOS
PLANTING & PRUNING
BULBS
BORDERS
TREES & SHRUBS
THE GREENHOUSE
INDOOR PLANTS
FRUIT GARDEN
VEGETABLE GARDEN
LAWNS, HEDGES & PATHS
SOIL
PONDS
WILDLIFE
CHORES FOR THIS MONTH

Included are photographs and occasional topics of interest as well as some links to helpful websites
and a bibliography. Small gardeners (ie. children) and gardeners of small gardens
will find the checklist style helpful.

A handy source of advice for specific tasks or problems can be found on the Royal Horticultural Society
website:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice