Hapless is (almost) 1!

Monday is my first birthday - a year to the day that this blog began life. Sadly I'm away for work from tomorrow, so I'll be burning a candle in a hotel room in Fleetwood instead of getting my hands dirty in the garden and on the keyboard.


A year ago, I'd just met a fellow gardener / rower with a new found passion for growing veg and, Laura, thank you for encouraging me to have a stab at writing, I am still thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.


I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has written for and sent photos to me - friends, strangers and strangers who are now friends. Thank you too for the tons of comments, tweets and re-tweets, 'likes' and 'shares', and thank you especially to those of you who have shared your enthusiasm for this blog and given so much personal encouragement. Love it when you all get involved so keep the garden love coming.


To mark the occasion, here's a guilty pleasure for you all - a chance to show off in my new gallery inspired by an old post - or more accurately the title of an old post. Yes, it's a gallery just for you, the amateur. Introducing:

'Readers Chives'

Head on over, I've had one entry already from the reader who started it all...

And once you've cooled down from that, have a think about which fruit, vegetable, flower or, er, nuts you're most proud of growing, get out the camera and send over your snaps to Thehaplessgardener@gmail.com or tweet @Haplessgardener. Don't be shy...


Finally, I thought it would nice to re-post the first ever post, especially if you're new to the blog. It makes me feel strangely nostalgic. And of course, it has little to do with gardening really:

-----------------------------------------------------

Angry. Birds.


It's me that's angry.

I've seen the headlines, read the books, listened to Monty and friends and thought - a bird table, what better way to encourage wildlife in and help the old sparrow survive in these troubled times. And as a bonus they can deal with my snail problem. To be honest it's more than a problem (b*******) but that's for a later post.

So, save the planet, save my crops.

Except I never realised how hungry birds could be, a whole feast of nuts has been devoured every day!

At first I thought I was single handedly reviving Bristol's feathered population, but this morning I found a shameless crow gorging on my generous offerings.

A bloody crow! Not even good to look at, let alone useful in any way. Do they even touch snails?

So as the country suns itself in the easter heat wave, I'm here itching for a showdown with the crow. I can see why gardeners need to get out more...