Something quite creative in this accidental bin lorry art.

Daily walk at Royal Marsden (Sutton) as I undergo conditioning chemo for my stem cell transplant on Wednesday. Came across the Marsden fox, I've seen him from my room window in the darkness, nice to get closer by day. #FoxOfTheDay

Last of the 2025 gardening... and probably until March (post recovery). Top terrace bed weeded and final tulips and daffodils in. Lavender moved and magnolia standards potted on. Dwarf fig potted on. Last year's Amaryllis bulbs repotted and popped into the garden cabin.

Green light for the stem cell transplant admission next Thurs. 5 days of chemo then the stem cells get defrosted & popped back in to rebuild my bone marrow. My heart isn't in tip top shape but strong enough to cope. Christmas Day will be spent at Royal Marsden. Might be home to see the New Year in.

Sandy soil here. Dahlias mulched and covered. #GardenersWorld

Spot the Head Gardener #GardenersWorld #Waterperry

Done a few big pots. #GardenersWorld

I haven't come across many children with cancer on my treatment journey but when I do it really breaks my heart. God bless Alan Carr. #traitors

Stem cell collection was a success yesterday, 400 million cells collected. No need to repeat a day today. Here's a weird thought, over 5 hours yesterday, all the blood in my body was taken out and put back in again. Twice.

I've always found tulips under grass to be a massive failure. But daffodils and crocuses seem to do well. #GardenersWorld

I don't remember #totp of the 80s being so repetitive each week. Did we run so low on acts and new music in the late 90s that the charts got stuck?

Lovely to see a border giving colour at the end of October. Nicely planned at Upton House gardens.

Weekend in cottage at Upton House near Edgehill in Warwickshire. Celebrating a gap between finishing salvage chemo and stem cell collection on 5th. Eldest popped down from Birmingham University for a night of charades and NT lunch today.

Rescuing #dahlias before the rain hits.

My mum has won the 2025 Bridport poetry award and £5000 in prize money for her poem Bird Child. So pleased for her and super proud. She's in Bridport today with MrsGrow to collect her award. bridportprize.org.uk/results

Monty growing mushrooms on #GardenersWorld - it's been a few years, possibly pre-covid.

I'm shuffling plants around this weekend. The sandy hillside back garden is proving to be too hot in summer even for many of my perennials and grasses. Going to relocate to partial shade at the front, roses too. Go with long lavender hedges in the back instead. #GardenersWorld

I was only just looking at my forget-me-not seedlings yesterday. Always good to pop them on top of spring bulbs, works in pots too. #GardenersWorld

Autumn windowsill.

In the Daily Express today dressed as Gandalf (with my 2022 pumpkin 'Gollum'). Article available online at www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2121...

Gardening by the moon is about as likely to be beneficial as gardening by my balls. Cold and compact? Sow your seeds. Hot and sweaty? Water the plants. There that's two chapters already.

Excited to have 4 weeks of 'normal' life to fit in between end of chemo cycle on 21st Oct and start of stem cell conditioning chemo on 19th Nov. Just a couple of days for stem cell collection to fit in. Got to get on top of all my spring gardening bed and mulching very early without overdoing it.

Can we just merge Thompson & Morgan, Suttons and the Organic Catalogue into one brand now? It'd save three lots of websites and three duplicated marketing emails being sent and received.

It is almost impossible to put together a bad #totp show in the 80s and early 90s. Each one is like a wedding disco. Says a lot about the state of music by the end of the century.

Very proud of my sister who features in Digital Camera Magazine today following her recent prize-winning photography trip to Estonia. She's such a fabulous photographer. I have suggested she goes back to our secondary school to give a talk.

Started on my spring bulbs. Early for me but planning ahead as I have December in hospital. Some Apricot Beauty tulips and Jetfire Daffs. Also repotted some big pots of generic daffodils using old tomato bag compost mixed and topped with stable manure. #gardening

Delighted to say that Tulleys Farm donated £1000 to my hospital's chemotherapy suite in exchange for my big pumpkin. My growlikegrandad site was hacked while I was ill last year, I managed to rebuild it today and put up a related post. www.growlikegrandad.co.uk/allotment/li...

New world record giant pumpkin from the Paton boys. 2818.9lbs. Crazy! 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Garlic sowing time for me is usually Boxing Day or near our shortest day. Sow on the shortest, harvest on the longest. Autumn can get very wet, so not worth risking the cloves in extra wet conditions. You still get the frosts in Jan and Feb for the much needed cold spell. #GardenersWorld

Now this is a family garden with a story behind it. A heart wrenching but ultimately joyful story. #GardenersWorld

Cancer sucks. Cancer in children is particularly cruel. As I approach a stem cell transplant in a few months, I find the way children get through the treatment to be so inspiring. 💪 What a brave lad. #GardenersWorld

Don't be so fuzzy about soaking tomato seed jelly away before storing seeds. In my experience, you can simply dry the seeds, jelly and all, on a kitchen towel. I've done this for years, and sometimes sow them with a piece of the kitchen towel. Not a problem at all. #GardenersWorld 🌱

Reusing the same seeds each year might help them learn to thrive in your environment, but is offset by the inbreeding over time. Good to bring in new pollen sources to cross breed and create hybrid vigour - new traits that you might be glad to acquire. #GardenersWorld

I think Butterfly Conservation reported 2025 as a good year for Jersey Tigermoth numbers. We had lots in the garden for the first time. #GardenersWorld

Rescued fresh dahlias from the rain.

Dahlia deadheads pointed. 'Cut off the witches' hats.' That's how I try and remember it. #GardenersWorld

To be fair, Double 99 vs Another Level 'Be Alone no More' was a speed garage banger. #totp And now to Gardeners World...

Garbage with the best song of the hour so far #totp

Pretty decent #totp tonight, all consistently average easy listening 😂

Rescued fresh dahlias from the rain.

My dahlias have reawakened after a mostly green 6 weeks. 2 of the smallest sunflowers too.

Delighted to say that Tulleys Farm donated £1000 to my hospital's chemotherapy suite in exchange for my big pumpkin. My growlikegrandad site was hacked while I was ill last year, I managed to rebuild it today and put up a related post. www.growlikegrandad.co.uk/allotment/li...

A great charitable gesture from @growlikegrandad.bsky.social www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-... #allotmentlife

Bought a couple of new roses today. Both 'Silver Anniversary', lovely fragrance. 25% off at Waterperry Gardens. Partly to cheer myself up after dropping eldest off at Birmingham University at 7am 😥

Every year I know fewer and fewer of the 'celebrities' on Strictly 😂 Four this year. It's a sign of old age without a doubt.

What to do with 0.5 kg of cobnuts... roasted and added to chocolate for a cake? Never had any before, the squirrel usually takes them all.

Just had a post chemo stroll around the garden (sandy soil). I've been too wiped out since Saturday. It is so dry out there. Crispy leaves galore. Got the boy giving life support watering to critical plants. Think I need to redesign the lot though. It is practically a desert. Banana has recovered.

Chopped off a 16 DAP open pollinated giant pumpkin today. It's in the wrong position and will just split due to vine tension in the current location. My main 2 hand polinations are further up on S curves but less than a week old.

Slugmageddon tonight. Already did a 9pm check on the community courgettes to dispatch 8 but returned at 11.30pm to dispatch 32 more. Checked on the greenhouse and found a couple inside with a welcome security guard nearby. Some kind of newt.

Yes that's right, I made it onto BBC1 straight after Monty Don at last. Points of View. Well, some of them 😉