Emily's Garden

Struggling a bit

2011-12-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hello again. I'm struggling a bit with the garden lately - which makes me sound as though I'm elderly or frail, but what I mean is I'm finding it hard to get on with it. No excuse. I'll be blogging about it more here soon though.

In the meantime you could read about my adventure on Ben Nevis here if you fancy:

http://thehillsarefaraway.blogspot.com/2011/12/first-winter-climb.html

Right: a garden post will follow here soon! Happy Christmas.

Latest progress

2011-04-25T12:58:00.001-07:00

Here's how a few bits of the garden are looking just now. These pictures were taken well into the evening with little light left so they do look a bit dingy - sorry. I won't have time to post for a few days now and things change so quickly just now that I wanted a record today.

First the front. The left is working pretty well (needs weeding obviously, but balance of plants is how I like it):

The right has a few gaps caused by failures. I think I'll get another acanthus to go near the wall, to match the one on the left. I'm pleased that foxgloves have reappeared here though.

Here's the pond. Still haven't fixed the leek (ie above this level - it's not dropping all the time). I've risked moving a couple of pots out.

This bed is now too shaded by the hedge which must be drastically cut back. Pippa is coming out of a place she shouldn't have been in... Nice bluebells though!

I love this - it's a japanese painted fern. Obviously it's just getting started for the year:

One of my least favourite jobs is tidying the greenhouse. I put it off so long that I have sown most of my seeds in the conservatory, but this does make some sense as it's so much warmer. Anyway, I did tackle the greenhouse eventually:

I've just finished weeding the fruit cage:

I've planted onion sets, and also a courgette which thanks to the lack of rain is growing away slug-free so far, in the veg garden but there's not much to see there yet. So here's a view back from the apple trees:

And back again, taken from just outside the greenhouse:

More pics

2011-04-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Nice to see your comments again. I have onions and courgettes in the veg garden now (I'm gambling on the weather re the courgette).

Rob, the tree is an olive. I think we've basically lost it, sadly. I'm not sure why - too cold over the winter maybe. Also perhaps olives don't like heavy clay but that's my excuse over rather a lot... and one of them was in a pot so that hardly applies. :( I'll give it another month or so though. Then I'm thinking I might just put a clematis up it - with maybe something to shade the base. It's a nice shape. But we had originally planned to get anoher fruit tree for there - if I can find a small damson, I'd love one. Not sure whether they do them. I miss damsons.

Sorry not to get round many other blogs just yet - I do intend to, only as you can imagine I'm busy trying to chase my tail.

A couple of pretties:

How things look at the moment

2011-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I haven't posted here for a long time so here are some pictures of the garden at the moment. I'm out in it most days and enjoying it very much.

Note: Please do click on the pictures to see much better versions, which come up straight away.

This is taken from a window in my study. The apple tree (blossoming) in the middle of the picture is about two thirds back in the garden: the little bit of fence just to the right is before you get to the vegetable garden.

The first bit of garden you come to - the patio and the pond:

Where you came from - conservatory, and the herb bed - looks a bit bare because it's just been weeded but will fill out very soon:

Two views of the square garden which you come to next - the weeding here isn't finished yet...

Then you get to this bit, in pretty much the centre of the garden:

This is just to the left. The chicken wire and trillis on its side are where I'm trying to keep Pippa off some new plants, and from scrambling over a low fence. They'll be gone soon! She doesn't live in the kennel, by the way - it was left by the people before us.

At the back is the vegetable garden. Most of the veg is still in the greenhouse (which I'm not showing because it's a mess - I'm not showing the fruit cage either!) It's funny how much the camera shrinks things: these beds are each 12 feet by 4:

And then back:

Snow report

2010-12-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

I took these pictures nearly an hour ago and already there is noticeably more... (You can click on each of them to see them much better.)

Schedule

2010-09-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I devised a schedule for working in the garden. I've done a couple of days at it and so far it's pretty good.

I think 2 hours per day is good to aim at. At the moment it could use loads more but I have other things to do too, and if I spend more time on it, I just make work for myself.

So: one hour per day on daily things (30 minutes in the veg garden, 15 each in the greenhouse and conservatory). Then the other hour is on something else each day (well, in practice 2 places, but differing daily is what I mean).

At the moment I don't get to finish anywhere, which is frustrating, but on the other hand it stops me getting obsessive about one little patch and letting the rest go without attention entirely.

Non-gardeners think this amount of time is incredible. I know that certainly the way our garden is arranged is very labour-intensive. Nobody grows vegetables or raises things from seed unless they have an interest in it, and a fair bit of time to spare.

I'll post again about how it's going a bit later!

Current state of play

2010-09-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the back door at about 8am.

Visit to Victoria's garden

2010-08-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Victoria, who writes Victoria's Backyard - http://victoriasbackyard.blogspot.com/ - opened her garden as part of the yellow book scheme on Sunday. I imagine lots of people reading this will be regular readers of her blog anyway, so you'll know - and she also writes in the Independent I think. Anyway, it's one of my favourite blogs to read so of course I went to see it.

Victoria's house is in south-west London, on a street of houses of similar size, large early 20th century, all very civilized and leafy.

There was a table in front of the house where 2 young adults (can't call them children, too old) were very politely selling tickets. Then I went up a narrow side passage, along the left side of the house. I was met as I went into the garden by a little secluded seating area with cannaes and other lush exotics surrounding it. Just to the right was a further paved area, along the back of the house, and the garden stretched out from that. It is rectangular but a good bit wider than most English town back gardens. There is an area of grass in the middle and planting around it. The plants look exotic but I think many are hardier than they seem. Near the house are two huge phormiums which frame the view into the rest of the garden. There's a raised pond to the right, a shed hidden discreetly in the far left corner, and several small seating areas nestled into the sides.

Many, many pots are fitted in amongst it all, and several quirky touches - rusted metal mushrooms in one place, metal lilies, and a very sweet ceramic cow (but when I admired this I found it was left from a previous owner - trust my unerring taste!).

It all works so, so well to make a satisfying whole, but it's fascinating to examine in detail too. The plants have body, substance to them, each seems to be something in its own right - not just part of a big wavy border. Each fits in with its neighbours by contrasting texture of leaf and form, like a subtle jigsaw. It isn't an all-green garden, - there are some flowers, mostly very bright jewel colours - but these are highlights rather than a glaring mass. It isn't weird or way-out - I can't imagine anyone hating it - but it is very much a style that appeals to me. I haven't quite grown into the desire for such an exotic feel yet though.

Victoria was talking to everyone, being very friendly. She looked much younger and less formidable than I expected! I really liked meeting someone whose blog I have read for a while now, and it was good to connect up the garden and the person, to be with her in it, like being able to talk to an artist right there in front of their pictures, and in their own house too. In fact it did feel slightly intrusive. I felt like a welcome interloper.

I took some pictures but very few - of course there are lots of good ones on her blog itself anyway. It was both inspiring and encouraging. I'm so glad I went.

Very, very excited

2010-08-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from visiting the Chilli Fiesta, an event B and I have intended to go to for ages. But but but... although it was great fun, the big thing for me was the location. PLEASE click on the pictures to enlarge them - I can't find a way to make this page set-up show them any bigger and they look far better at a larger scale.

West Dean College (http://www.westdean.org.uk/WestDeanHomepage.aspx) which teaches arts and crafts, has amazing gardens. It's a big estate now run as a charitable trust, over 6,000 acres in total, 90 of them near the house. There's a park with lots of fine old trees, and a walled garden with a huge range of glasshouses, loads of trained fruit trees, vegetables of course, flowers grown for cutting, and two main colour-themed borders. I was blown away - by the extent of it all, the care, the passionate thoroughness everywhere. The borders were exceptional - I liked them far more than anything at Wisley. There was also a huge pergola, which when I looked the place up later on the web I read was designed by Harold Peto in about 1900 and is 300 feet long - it feels it! I took loads of pictures as you can imagine but it was terribly crowded. So here are a few as a taster, and I will sort them out and post the best I can manage ASAP, but B and I agreed we would go again some time when there's no event on to have a better look round.

Blue at Wisley

2010-08-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went to Wisley and for the first time ever, didn't enjoy myself. I admit I wasn't in a great mood and hadn't eaten any lunch, but I did assume it would just lift me as it always does.

It seemed full of children, because of the school holidays, and by the time I got there they were all getting bored and crotchetty. I do understand why parents want to take children to a place they actually like themselves, and maybe hope they will grow up to enjoy too, but I felt overwhelmed by all the noise. Only places with running or falling water seemed to appeal to me this time.

I was comforted to see that their unwatered bits of grass looks far worse than ours (oooh, catty woman!), and was very taken indeed by a hydrangea paniculata, but - huge, but I wonder if I could keep one smaller with pruning?

The thing is though, I just hate gardens in August - always have. No idea why really. All the plants seem to be flopping and a bit past it - but I'm aware they aren't actually all like that, it's partly my perception. Earlier today I took our dog for a walk along a river bank and it was absolute heaven. I loved the rather orchid-like pink flowering weeds, some deep pink some much paler, over 4 feet high, and the dog enjoyed paddling repeatedly as we went along the bank. So I'm not all glum :)

Urgent: garden closing

2010-06-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is for anyone in the South-east of England who could possibly get to Sussex before the end of June. You may well have read this elsewhere, but PLEASE visit Leonardslee Garden if you can before then, especially if you've never been before. It has been sold and will be closed to the public from the end of June.

I went to see the garden today, will post pictures as soon as I've sorted them out. It's a gorgeous place - 200 acres all set over a beautiful steep valley with a series of narrow lakes around the bottom. The star plants to me are the trees, planted with great thought - you could hardly take a bad picture of this place. As if the garden itself wasn't enough, there's also a huge doll's house exhibition and a collection of very early motor cars. All that for £6.50! - oh and a restaurant, gifte shoppe and also a big proper plant nursery just down the road.

Water iris

2010-05-27T13:53:00.001-07:00

What is the word for -

2010-05-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

anthropomorphism, only with plants?

I was talking to a shrub today, whose I identity I'm not entirely sure of but I think it's a deutzia, and telling it that I remember when it was only so high - showing it, you know, with my hand. Then I heard myself...

Anyway, here's a picture of one of its arms - sorry, branches. I was going to show you a snap of the whole plant, obviously, but I'm a bit ashamed of the mess round the bottom so this will have to do for now. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Primping and preening

2010-05-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with layout a bit this evening - what do you think? I remember Carrie saying a while ago that dark text on a white ground was hard to read, so I hope this is better. Anwyay, I've tried so many combinations now that I can't really see them properly any more. Tell me what you think!

A great year for...

2010-05-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

It seems to be a brilliant year for nearly everything. There just a few exceptions I've noticed. The irises aren't all that plentiful round here so far, I don't know whether it's still early for them or they didn't quite get what they wanted at the right time.

The chickeweed is having a marvelous time of it. Bindweed not so bad as some years. I think this difference may be because chickweed copes with a dry spell better.

My few adventures into tulip planting have been very successful; it remains to be seen how well they will come up again though.

I'm looking forward to pulling up the forget-me-nots so I can have a good weed round, but I'll give them a bit longer to set seed yet. I know this sounds silly - they're so common, so invasive, but one year, I didn't, and then we didn't have many for a couple of years after that and I missed them a lot. They look nice with so many other things.

My beer traps for slugs are doing very well, but I do resent spending the money on beer for them!

PS I find all this daylight confusing. It's like suddenly playing in a position right in the middle of the pitch, and not being able to orientate myself. How do you know when to stop, when you've been at it for ages and it's still not just daylight, but sunny?!

Conundrum

2010-05-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

We've just watched Doctor Who. The episode we saw was "Amy's Choice". I enjoyed it very much - more than I often do - but what struck me was that in the parts filmed in the village, it starts of summertime, with sunshine and roses and flowers in the beds, but by the end the hedges are bare and the roses look all too obviously shipped in. So what I'm wondering is whether they did in fact film the whole thing in the winter and it just happened to be a sunny day to start with, or whether the change was deliberate as the atmosphere of those scenes grew darker. If you've seen it, did you notice this, and what do you think?

(More news about Emily's garden later)

Seeds

2010-03-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today I sowed the following in heated propagators in the conservatory:

Lettues, Bronze Arrowhead
Celery
Courgettes
Cucumbers, Mini White
Broccoli Raab (like broccoli flavour but leafy)
Parsley (french)
Basil, Holy Green
Lettuce, Reine de Glaces
Gourds mixed
Courgettes (yellow)

Getting everything ready to sow, including sorting through loads and loads of seeds, took *ages*. Am quite chuffed to have the first lot on though.

If you know that some of these are duff/ shouldn't be in heat/ shouldn't be sown now.... I'm not sure I want to know!

Overheard in a Surrey garden

2010-03-14T10:36:00.001-07:00

"Look, I am the human. I am in charge here. I'm trying to help - are you listening to me? If you scratch me again, I won't just put you on the compost heap, I'll put you in the wheelie-bin, so there."

March.

2010-03-07T11:04:00.001-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, this is March. I'm telling you that, because if I don't you will almost certainly mistake it for January.

Only the first of these photos was taken in the garden, the others were out on walks. Or slithers, as you might call them.

A little triumph: I had always wanted snowdrops in the garden and it took me three years to get them settled, but I think they're here to stay now:

Ashdown Forest:

Closer to home, Holmwood Common:

The only greenery to be seen on the trees is lichen:

Four Wents Pond, Holmwood Common

Writing

2010-02-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Sorry it's been so quiet on here lately. I will be adding a few items to my writing blog over the next couple of days. They're not new but they have appeared elsewhere and I want to gather them together.

http://snappywords.blogspot.com/

I will be back here to write about gardening shortly.

PS Erm, apologies if the first isn't quite what you expect to read of me. It's actually very tame by my standards but I know expectations and context make a big difference. Hopefully it's OK.

Some work

2009-11-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

First bit of proper work in the garden for a long time. Cleared and mowed two areas of lawn; aired and put away the patio umbrella; got some leaves out of the pond and to my great pleasure saw a live and well looking frog/toad. Noticed that the sprouts are coming on nicely, which is gratifying.

The garden is in much better shape than this time last year. There are no bald or dead bits of lawn and the borders are in better shape too. I rather wish I'd got my bulbs in before the leaves fell, but never mind.

Saw a couple of tiny, very early flowers on the winter jasmine. Our main holly tree also has more berries on it than I've ever seen.

Yesterday I put some bulbs in little pots to grow on indoors. One will go on the landing, the other in the conservatory. It may be too warm in the house but I'm hopeful. We don't keep it tropical! They each have 1 tulip in the bottom (purisima) and some dwarf irises just above. Last year I had a gorgeous scented hyacinth called Woodstock but I can only find it growing rather than as a bulb and I'm too mean to buy it that way. Edit: ooh I see Avon Bulbs have them. Mmmm...

First attempt at making wine

2009-11-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Late on Friday afternoon I decided to pick our grapes. It was forecast to rain the next day and I didn't want to pick them wet. I'd left them as long as I could because I'd read that getting them to be sweet enough is meant to be very difficult.

Picking them wasn't the easiest job in the world; next year I'll have to get either the vine or the rose to go somewhere else!

The following day I settled down to prepare them. I had to get the grapes off the stems, and separate out any that were mouldy, as well as any other foreign bodies that had come along for the ride. It took ages, and in one afternoon I touched more snails and spiders than I ever have before...

Then I mashed them in batches with a potato masher, then put the whole lot into our apple press. The juice was a gorgeous colour, and quite soon the press was too.

My husband suggested we sterilise the juice with a Camden tablet and use artificial yeast, but I wanted to leave the juice natural. The risk is that it might well go peculiar if things weren't clean enough, but if it works I think the result will taste more interesting. So we compromised by adding extra artificial yeast as well, but not sterilising.

We put the pulp in too, in a bag made of muslin. This is what it looked like at the end of yesterday:

And this is what it looks like now:

So something's working!

Spotted today at home

2009-10-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

Some more pretties

2009-09-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

For some reason the rock garden feels like the heart of Wisley to me. I read recently that it was first made in 1912:

Part of the new glasshouse: (I won't show you any of my pictures from inside it, they weren't much good, but I loved it so much we went back there together 3 days later and my husband's pictures are much better so I'll ask him if I can show you one or two of them.)

I hadn't seen this Chinese pavilion before for some reason:

I loved these pots of grass but couldn't see their name anywhere - does anyone recognise them? I bet you will, please tell me what they are!

(Incidentally my favourite plant on our 2nd visit was gaura Whirling Butterflies.)

Finally, I don't normally like cannas but I think they look great here:

Spotted at Wisley

2009-08-28T13:57:00.001-07:00

This was my favourite dahlia at Wisley, and this is where I saw it (worth clicking on to enlarge:

The trial fields. I'm sorry that my hand shook as I took the picture of the other side:

I don't normally like these but I think they look amazing en masse:

Wisley

2009-08-26T13:11:00.001-07:00

Today I went to Wisley. I had such a good day... It was a bit of a bonus really. My husband is currently working near there and for practical reasons I needed to drop him off by car today, so the opportunity just arose.

I got there early so I had a little drive through the narrow lanes around there. I went over a couple of very picturesque canal bridges, round many windy corners, saw a ruined church... it was all very lovely, reminded me a bit of Constable's pictures. I hadn't realised from the main road route that there was as much countryside just there.

I will show you some of my pictures. I got terribly excited and just snapped away at whatever caught my eye, so they're not great and they don't include many of the major features, just the things I liked most on this visit. I've decided to do it over a few days because there are rather a lot.

First off: from the car park (as you can tell) this is the back of The Laboratory: I think the slightly ricketty-looking greenhouse at first floor level caught my eye, considering how many sophisticated and extensive greenhouses there are further into the garden... [Edit - actually I don't think it's ricketty, but it still looks amusingly out of place amongst the mock tudor chimneys]

Then I paid my entrance fee (£8:50, the best value attraction I've been to for as long as I can remember). My first sight was then these glorious agapanthuses:

In the last year or so I have been strongly attracted to very simply plantings like this.

Every time I go to Wisley I follow much the same route. It's a bit of a ritual to me. I look at nearly everything, even though I know certain things will be more in season than others. I find that as well as seasonality, my taste and interest will have shifted a bit too.

So the next thing I see after this is the huge double borders. This was the first visit in which I managed to see any appeal in them. Previously they have been either in early growth, or even if full-grown, have seemed just a great lumpy mess to me. To me, the secret is to look along them, even squinting slightly. I find they appeal at the level of a picture, mainly through colours. So if you walk right up to them and peer at them, it's just like dots on a screen.

This was my favourite plant in them, clematis kaiu:

And these were my favourite parts of the borders:

(I'm afraid I have shrunk them so you can't see much detail - you will do as you're told, reader!)

Tomorrow, the trial fields and other adventures.

and another one -

2009-08-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Mowed and cleared the bits of lawn today. Picked up quite a few apples; I'm putting them straight on the compost at the moment because when I get to them they're usually pretty manky. I did find one ripe on one of the trees though - the tree that is always our earliest, and ate it. It's a red letter day each year when the first apple is ready.

This was the second mowing of the lawns in this week, and the second of the far end in a month. There was far less grass to come off, and I will lower the blades a bit next time. Surprisingly, the grass is looking very good - to me, perhaps it helps to have "realistic" standards!

I've got the chance now also to assess some of the growing season. The star flowers have been sweet peas and snapdragons. The morning glories have been excellent - indoors, oddly enough; not much good outdoors. The little lantana I bought was a great move, along with the foliage plant - forget which but nothing unusual. As Bob said somewhere, it's been rather wet for petunias. The echiums have done well though. The veg hasn't been terribly good but then neither has the vegetable gardener! The pond is running beautifully, water clear as a bell, and to my eyes the garden is looking good. As I say though, it pays to squint a bit...

Today

2009-08-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Fed the fish.

It rained.

I'm trying!

A couple of Wednesday evening photos

2009-07-15T12:21:00.001-07:00

Morello cherries

Last of the sunshine

If you could start again,

2009-07-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

If you moved in tomorrow to a new garden, as big as you like, in your choice of site, where would it be, and what would you do?

A story

2009-07-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

[Ahem: not quite Sunday School material, and if you think you know it, I'm afraid you probably do]

A farmer stopped by the local garage to have his truck fixed. They couldn't do it while he waited, so he said he didn't live far and would just walk home.

On the way home he stopped at the DIY store and bought a bucket and a tin of paint. He then stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem - how to carry his entire purchases home.

While he was scratching his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She asked, "Can you tell me how to get to 16 Mockingbird Lane ?" The farmer said, "Well, as a matter of fact, my farm is very close to that house. I would walk you there but I can't carry this lot."

The old lady suggested, " Why don't you put the can of paint in the bucket. Carry the bucket in one hand; put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in your other hand?"

"Why thank you very much," he said and proceeded to walk the old girl home. On the way he says "Let's take my short cut and go down this alley. We'll be there in no time."

The little old lady looked him over cautiously then said, "I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won't hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and have your way with me?"

The farmer said, "Madam! I'm carrying a bucket, a tin of paint, two chickens, and a goose. How in the world could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?"

The old lady replied, "Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the paint on top of the bucket, and I'll hold the chickens."

Getting there

2009-07-05T15:00:00.001-07:00

Just this photo for now, but I'm pretty pleased with how it looks.

Did loads

2009-07-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

I had a very good afternoon in the garden today and did loads for the first time in ages. Have got the patio all tidied up. Also worked on another area but can't remember where - ah yes, I cleaned out the pond again.

Pictures to follow tomorrow after I've mowed the lawns and when the sun's up.

The Heat

2009-07-02T12:21:00.001-07:00

It has been slightly cooler today. I took the temperature out on the patio, but in the shade, yesterday,and it was 32. In the conservatory even with all the windows open that we can, it's a good bit hotter than that. Any book or whatever left in there gets warped by the heat, and just walking through it is unpleasant.

I've done some work each day in the morning, from about 7:30 to 10, but after that it's too hot for me. I'm OK in the heat if all I have to do is sit about, but I get woozy very quickly if I try to be active. It feels rather pathetic really. I cope with coldness far better.

I could go out in the evenings, but I don't. I feel lathargic. Maybe if I had a bit more gumption I'd do it. Anyway, since apparently I'm lacking in that department, I've been a bit alienated from the garden for over a week now.

The sweet peas have done magnificently, indeed they carry on that way. The echiums are doing very well too (ie little bedding ones, not the huge perennials). Also the pink rose over the pond, which is blooming for the first time properly this year, is a delight: it seems to hold its flowers for ages.

The pond is very clear, and we have two clematis in bloom, neither of which have been really visible any year previously.

I will take some pictures tomorrow if I'm not busy being burned to a frazzle!

Waving

2009-06-30T13:18:00.001-07:00

Hello, Just a quick post to wave to everyone. I've not gone away, I've just rather run out of oomph in terms of this blog. I could blame the weather or whatever but it wouldn't convince me, I don't know about you! I will be back more frequently soon.

I had wanted to enter the garden for a competition, just a local thing, but it wasn't anywhere near ready. I mean long-term ready. So I think I did the right thing in not, but I feel a little deflated.

Even so I'm aiming to bring things to a reasonably tidy state in about a week or so and take some pictures. We shal see...

Rose

2009-06-23T15:15:00.001-07:00

My screen is fairly dark so I find it hard to get colours right. This rose is so, so beautiful - as dark as I've ever seen and velvety, with classic rose scent.

Yesterday

2009-06-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

A tiring day. The main job was dealing with the pond. B helped me to lift the pond plants out. They were all fused together, very heavy and overgrown. The electricity cable to the pump was right through the middle of them. I turned it off and then set about freeing it. It took what seemed like ages, bent over on the side of the pond which felt precarious. Unlike most garden jobs which can't go horribly wrong, I was anxious the whole time not to pierce the cable with my secateurs; even with it turned off, so it wouldn't be dangerous, it would have been very expensive and a right hassle to damage it. Got it done in the end. I stood holding the loose cable, and feeling as though there ought to be some more dramatic result - but what was I expecting, a 24 gun salute?

I picked up the little apples that had fallen, as the trees prepare to concentrate on the main crop. This is the first year I've got round to doing this, before I've just gone over them with teh mower or trampled them in over the next few weeks.

Inspiration

2009-06-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we went to visit some friends. They are over from Canada and staying with his parents in Colwall, on the Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills. It was great to see old friends again, to meet their children, and to hear Marcus and Ben playing music together again - after only half an hour's jam in 4 years, they did a slot at a blues club, and went down very well. But as well as all this, Marcus's parents have an amazing garden. These pictures were very quick snaps and they only show some parts of it - only after I'd left did I realise I'd missed out some of the main areas, but they give a vague idea.

I tried to summarise for myself what the main appeal of the garden was, as an exercise because otherwise I tend to feel so overwhelmed that I can't relate it to our own space and find any way to learn from it. I like the fact that from the main vantage point (which to me was the conservatory) there was a clear focus: the central bed.

This had strong but simple colour, coming at the moment from a natural version of gladioli, and also sustained interest from several well-used bird feeders. Around this point a large area of lawn gave a feeling of space, with the edges of it curving in different directions out of sight which made you want to explore. When you stepped out into the garden the paving was both securely flat and smooth and also pleasing to look at, so that it brought the interest of the garden right to your feet.

A path curved along the house around tall plants that lapped up against the walls, with climbers ascending to a balcony above.

The boundary consisted of a rich variety of established shrubs, with just enough variegated, silver and russet colours to add richness but not over-complicate, and a glorious cedar tree was a great bonus in a distant garden. And to cap it all, the village cricket ground lies beyond the far hedge.

The conservatory contained many cacti and succulents and this made me realise that plants like that would be a good choice for ours too. In the immaculate vegetable area, edged in box, I saw scorzonera growing, which I'd never seen before, and in the greenhouse, aubergines. Blime!

So it was all a great spur to make our own garden feel more unified by the sense of care and sustained attention. Maybe I'm not explaining this very well. The grotty bits in ours look like dropped stitches, detracting from the whole. But maybe this is something that is much more noticable in one's own garden.

And I was given a souvenir: a nice little chunk of a very pretty blue-flowered plant, which looks like a larger garden variety of one of my favourite weeds. I will show you this when I have it settled into its new home.

Gardens of dreams

2009-06-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

What garden do you see when you close your eyes?

I think of a garden in winter, with heavy frost and low light. My feet crunch down a gravel path between solid dark evergreen walls of hedges. At intervals a gap in the hedge opens to show a perfect flat lawn and beyond it clipped box pyramids; maybe some variegated holly to lift things just a little. At the end of the gravel path, a beautiful elaborate wrought iron gate with dew-covered spiders' webs spangled through it.

Or a hammock strung between trees, and all around it a sea of tall swaying grasses, seedheads intermingled with the tops of poppies, cornflowers, and the big daisies. Butterflies shimy through it all and bees hum - everywhere but in your glass of homemade lemonade as you doze in the hammock.

Or a grotto with a waterfall and ferns. Shiny slippery rocks, a carefully placed mirror, it's edges hidden by creepers, and deep-pile moss making hillocks where you can reach to bounce your palm on it gently.

One of those trendy modern seating areas - a firepit in the middle, chaiselongues around it, little hanging lanterns, a tiled floor, and lots of night-scented plants - evening primrose, nicotiana, and a canopy of honeysuckle.

Or a lovely big hen-run!

(PS In reality what I mainly see when I close my eyes is large clumps of whatever weed I've spent most time pulling up that day)

Getting there...

2009-06-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures.

This is a "tell it like it is" shot of the pond. The main plants have either toppled in or have rooted out into the pond. I tried to hoik them out today but the electric cable is growing through them, and since I am the most accident prone person you've ever not met, it was clear I should wait until my husband is around to help.

The pink rose around the filter chamber is still fairly new - I think this is her 2nd year. She will look stunning maybe next year or the one after, you'll see - if you're still reading this! She is Raubritter (Kordes of Germany, 1936). She can be a climber but she also scrambles about happily, as here. Again, she's very healthy which I appreciate, and totally hassle-free. No scent but that's not essential to me in every rose. She'd look nice with something growing with her - I think one of the white shade-loving cranesbills maybe, on the left. There won't be space for anything to scramble with her by next year.

This is a tiny bunch of the echium I mentioned growing from seed a few months ago. It has come on really well.

This is the far end of the patio just at the moment. Needs weeding and tidying, but I'm pleased with how the containers are coming on. I've just moved some so that they get more sun. (Pippa looks a bit odd here because of how she was rolling - she loves lying and rolling on the lawn.) - I should also explain about the pots. Only a few are going to stay there, most are being used to raise plants in that I will then put in the borders. That's why they look rather a jumble.

I love the anticipation:

A better day

2009-06-13T13:51:00.001-07:00

This rose is Phyllis Bide, introduced by a firm called Bide in 1923. The flowers do get a bit tatty when they've been open for a while, but in the sunlight they look a wonderful luminous golden pink, and the foliage is glossy and healthy even for people like me who never spray.

And I was very pleased with these too!

Today I watered all the containers and the greenhouse; took lots of cuttings from a tradescantia houseplant; turned the main compost heap; tied up a big plant; and mowed all the various bits of lawn.

I thought you might like to see how our novelty chard is doing (my husband, seen here kindly doing duty as a yardstick, is 5ft11 tall):

I'm also over the moon with this plant. It's crambe cordifolia, which I have been trying to grow for 5 years. Three times it was killed by slugs; last year it managed to survive, just; this year the more mature plant put up the top growth you can see here. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's a huge airy cloud of tiny flowers. The surrounding planting is too low because I didn't realise how big it would get (and weeding will be done here soon!) but even so I'm very chuffed with it.

Getting back to gardening

2009-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today I did a brief stint of real work in the garden for the first time in ages. I began by deadheading a climbing rose I have trained along a fence. It became clear there was a lot of dead wood in it which wasn't so obvious when I pruned it a few months ago, so I cleared most of that out. Doing it carefully took ages: I had to keep going to the back of the little fence to get at bits from the other side. But I always allow gardening to take ages, that's how I like to do things, I am very spendthrift with time.

Then I picked sweet peas, contemplated one of the compost heaps for a while (which needs turning), and then picked all the white currants. I made juice of them and froze it in ice-cubes, as being the form of them most useful to us. Can't remember what I did with them last year. It was 120g. We always get far more of red ones, and blackcurrants. We also had a few blissfully woodlouse-free strawberries, and some mini-cucumbers.

The garden has got to a rather scary stage. I look around at it, and it feels like a child of mine that has gone from childhood to a rather wild adolescence when I wasn't looking. I'm proud of it, but I feel much less in charge than before!

Playing

2009-06-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite gardeny things to do is putting flowers in vases. I can't really call it arranging! I particularly like this with flowers that I'm about to have to cut down for some reason, because it feels neat and frugal, and also with odd things - like the fatsia leaves here.

This is today's other attempt:

Unfortunately the peonies had short stems so I couldn't use a vase as tall as I would have liked and it all looks very clumpy. Never mind, it was great fun!

I would appreciate any tips on getting better at arranging. A lot of the books I see seem to show results I don't really want to aim for - I like things to look informal, but frankly these two are far better than I normally manage, they're flukes, and often it's very frustrating to have lovely flowers and know that I could have done much better with them if I had a clue what I was up to...

Coudons

2009-06-09T06:22:00.001-07:00

The year after my parents moved to France there was a heatwave. It was so unbearably hot that my parents found it hard to take. They decided to buy another property higher up, to have somewhere to go to escape the heat.

Coudons is a hill village, 10km away from Quillan. It's at 870 meters, which may not sound high compared to ski resorts but it makes a big difference to the climate. Here you can see the last of the snow on Madres, the nearest mountain. There are a few bears and many wild boar in the forest that begins here and stretches for thousands of acres, where some in the French Resistance hid.

In this part of France it is very common for people to live in either flats or small terraced houses, with little garden space. In the hill villages there are barns amongst the houses, on the same streets, with the same thick walls and shuttered windows. Families sometimes have an area maybe twice the size of an allotment on the edge of the settlement, or further out, which also belongs to them. They usually grow vegetables on it. In my experience such plots are immaculate, but you never see raised beds, it's always traditional rows. Tradition rules here: they usually plant by the calendar of saints' days, but also taking into account the moon phase. If this sounds odd to you, you should see the quality of the veg it produces! Our house in Coudons is on the edge of the village and we own a small patch of field just next to it. Here is my father strimming it: he did the first circuit and I finished the rest. (Honest!)

Then Ben put up the hammock, and tested it:

The nights are quiet there, except for the sound of tree frogs. We had hoped to get a good view of the stars but the daylight was so long that we were asleep before the stars were fully out.

The next day we went for a walk, up past our neighbour Julien's potatoes. If you compare these with my father's Quillan potatoes, you can see about 3 weeks difference made by the change in altitude. It may sound idyllic here, but it's harsh in the winter.

We passed fields of sheep and cows, and this big hawthorn just finishing flowering. The track is very white, and the ground has a lot of quartz in it.

Then back down to the village:

Quillan

2009-06-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

My parents live mainly in Quillan. This is in the far south-west of France, south of Toulouse and Carcasonne, at the foot of the Pyrenees. They have a very large house with a busy road at the front, a big garden and a railway line behind it. (2 trains a day - we wave at them, and the dogs bark until they go away - it always works!)

This is the part with the flowers, and some peach trees, with a fountain built by my father:

This is part of the vegetable area, and the hen house. They have only 1 hen left now: she is 6 years old and still lays every 2nd day. The henhouse is so big in order to be able to stand up inside when you're cleaning it out. It's in the middle of the garden so you can let the occupant(s) out to each area in rotation.

And these are the geranium cuttings. They are the first cutting my father ever took. I read Bob's instructions out over the phone to him! They haven't done much though, since they were taken in mid April. Half have already died and been thrown out. I wonder what's going wrong?

This is the outdoor oven my father built. He said he was going to make a barbecue but he thought all the ones he could find plans for were pathetic little things, and designed this himself. He tends not to do things by halves.

This is what it looks like inside. A wood fire is lit to the left, then the food cooks on the right, either as the fire burns, as an oven, or as it smoulders with the door open, as a barbecue. These are red peppers being grilled:

Pictures from setting off

2009-06-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Portsmouth to get the night ferry over to St Malo. This was a treat: it's a French boat with good food, and I love going to sleep on a boat.

The pictures are just snaps, taken from the car or in a hurry, but anyway: these are the garden-related ones:

Some unusual seaside ground-cover spotted on a Portsmouth roundabout:

B and Pippa looking at an urban waterfall in the redeveloped dock area:

Some planting I loved:

And finally, spotted in the crew's quarters on the boat, a very well-traveled little plant:

I'm back!

2009-06-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hello, I'm back. We've been on holiday in France fro two weeks, visiting my parents. Did you miss me? Dirt Princess gets the prize for noticing!

Lots of pictures to follow, although not many are of gardens so they mostly won't go on this blog.

The garden here was watered by someone for us and has grown amazingly! Loads of things are in bloom and to my great pleasure I'm not too late to see the peonies and the pinks.

This evening we are looking forward very much to a curry and then going to sleep in our own bed.

Someone else's poem

2009-05-22T00:42:00.001-07:00

I've just read a poem I loved, here

Did less than I should have

2009-05-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today I went for another nice walk (more pictures on my other blog) and did some shopping. Then I cut down the stocks today, so make space for tomatoes and snapdragons - not common bedfellows but this isn't a common garden! Then I mowed the lawn. Tomorrow will be very busy...

Where am I going to put them all?

2009-05-20T15:25:00.001-07:00

These are the seedlings I have yet to find a home for. Trying to match plant to place is like a horticultural jigsaw with lots of special rules. By the way, I am not looking for new homes for either of the animals!

Yesterday Pippa and I went for a lovely breezy walk in the Ashdown Forest; you can see pictures of it on one of my other blogs, here.

And since I don't spend my entire life in gardening clothes, this is me last night, helping B with a photographic lighting experiment. Glamorous, isn't it? From 10:30 to midnight in a multi-storey car park in Crawley.

Planting out an olive

2009-05-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Today I planted out one of our olive trees. It's been in a pot for several years and I find it very hard to keep it sufficiently watered. A couple of years ago it nearly died because of this and although it's getting better again, it hasn't fully recovered. It was outdoors in its pot this winter, just as usual, and seemed not to suffer for it. So since watering seems to be more of an issue with it than cold, I've decided to try it in the ground. I planted it in a bed that is a little raised but still fairly lush, so I hope this suits it. I have asked the surrounding apple trees to be nice to it! This year it will have tomatoes around it in the bed, to make it feel more at home.

Other than that I pottered about with pots. I've bought lots more petunias - I just love them. Next year I'll grow my own. Some of these are a stunning deep blue, like midnight blue velvet.

I've got my beady eye on the "in bloom" competition the town runs for houses (and other categories). I'm very aware that the garden is still nowhere near tidy enough, but I hope it will be! Well, tidy by my standards anyway... it's never going to look like a city park. Hence all the petunia madness, to be honest. And I also just love the way these and the helichrysums fill out - it's like putting something raw and horrid looking into the oven, and then taking out a beautiful golden, risen cake!

Anyway, here are a few more photos from today.

This little rose is Phyllis Bide (Bide, 1923) - she's actually a rambler, I have her not-very trained along part of the front fence. To be honest I wouldn't plant her again because I only like the flowers in the early stage of opening, but she has lovely foliage too:

Look out Tesco

2009-05-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

and no doubt Saatchi & Saatchi will be seeking out my talents too...

*** Update: I have now sold 4 lots of 3 for 2!

Peony puzzle

2009-05-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

I wonder if someone can advise me what to do about these 2 peonies. Please ignore the weeds!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Both of these plants were in the garden when we moved in. They have not flowered in 6 years. I assume they are peonies: the foliage looks like that, and they put up shoots just like my "proper" peony (which I bought and which does flower). Every year, having a memory like a seive, I get terribly excited as I see their shoots come up, forget they don't flower, and am freshly disappointed by their non-performance.

Help!

Pictures

2009-05-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Wordless Thursday, if you like. Only of course I've rather spoiled that already!

Retail therapy #2

2009-05-13T16:11:00.001-07:00

A grey drizzly day. Good for the garden but it got to me a bit. And I fancied having a go at this bedding plant lark, so I took myself off to the garden centre, where I spent ages rambling up and down and eventually selected this little lot for just under £20.

I'm particularly pleased with this one, a lantana camara which is actually perennial (but tender). They get quite big - up to a meter.

This is my first container planted up (fennel, pelargonium, petunia and helichrysum. It doesn't look great at the moment but I'm hoping it will fill out in a while.

A satisfying day

2009-05-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

We had another very blustery day today. It must be very upsetting for the birds - I hope not too many nests have been blown down.

I began the day by feeding the conservatory and outdoor pot plants. I only feed the solely ornamental ones; the edible ones have to make do with homemade compost, until I make up some comfrey liquid. Then I had a good look round everywhere and pulled up a few weeds.

Then I spent a while in the vegetable garden. I hoed a corner bed; it was hard set and difficult, even though it's had loads of compost dug in. Later I watered it to soften it, put some canes in and planted the cucumbers. I worked some general purpose compost into the hole for each to give them a start.

The I planted out sprouts, more leeks, cavolo nero and bunching onions. I weeded round the peas, and did a lot of tidying up around the place because I don't think I'll be out for another couple of days.

Then I mowed the lawn. I did part on the lowest setting but I don't like the look and feel of it: none of our bits of lawn is very flat and even though the mower didn't scalp, the ground feels more lumpy with very short grass.

A helpful beginner's guide to flower arranging

2009-05-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

Arranging flowers is something that many gardeners try from time to time, but it can be tricky to do with real style.

Try this

Happy days: flowerbeds reviewed

2009-05-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

(PS - I'm sorry this is so long. I will keep things shorter in future.)

Plant of the moment - a poppy. No idea which. A gift from our friend Deirdre about 5 years ago. My kind of plant - corker of a flower and lovely foliage too.

Before I go any further, I want to add a link to a wonderful post on one of my favourite blogs.

Now, where was I. I've been busy for a few days because my mother came to visit. It went off very well and she is now safely home again. She liked the garden, although she did comment on how many borders there are... but she liked the way the garden can't all be seen at once and is there to be walked round.

This made me think it was about time I posted some pictures of how each border looks at the moment. I decided to take some pictures after today's jobs which were mainly watering, because I thought the plants must be dry in the wind, and planting out my black poppies. These are the "big guns" of my little arsenal of annuals, and from saved seed too, so I hope they settle in happily.

Anyway, here are all the planted areas, snapped just as they were this afternoon without any prettification for the camera:

First off, the worst bit. This is the current state of the veg area. So if I turn up making nasty carpy remarks about your immaculate and fecund plots, you'll know why. I'm sorry. All it needs is more work really but I've lost about 6 rows of things to weed competition so I find it tough at times. I'll get there.

Then the front. This bit I'm pleased with:

The other side is less successful just now. The small rhododendron has a disease at the roots and needs to come out. The dicentra near it is also doing badly. I'm trying not to worry about this area. I might put a hydrangea in to give some belated symmetry with the other half of the front. There's far too little space but that's never stopped me yet!

Then the main part of the garden. Here's a bad picture of the herb bed - sorry, the light was bad for it but I want to include every area in this posting:

Next up. This has a couple of gaps but I don't want to fill them up now, I want to wait until I know what I want for some colour a bit later.

A quick close-up of the brunnera, one of my favourite plants:

The bog area, in need of weeding as ever:

Into the square garden, and left of the bench. I love sedums; I'm looking forward to seeing the pale one here once it's settled in. There are Milkmaid nasturtiums and black poppies in here too; we shall see...

and the right side. More black poppies and some foolishly-placed golden rod. I can't remember what colour the hardy geranium is so finding out will be fun.

I've shown this bed recently:

This is the area adjoining it. Some goodies to come in here!

I suspect that's more than enough, so I'll take a break there and post the rest tomorrow.

A break-in

2009-05-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

An eventful afternoon...

I trimmed the clematis up the side of the front door which had grown more than half way across the door. I did some general weeding, the quarry this time being mainly bindweed and dandelions. I did some watering around the conservatory and greenhouse. Then I shredded a load of wild rose prunings - rather a nasty job, got a few scratches. Finally I cleared and mowed the bits of lawn. I intended to do quite a bit more but I was feeling a bit wobbly so didn't hurry things.

Just as I was finishing up I heard Pippa barking, which is unusual. I went into the house and heard a scratching on the front door. So I opened it suddenly - to find it was actually a neighbour who was just accidentally scraping his wing mirror against a nearby telegraph pole. I commiserated with him over the damage and as I did so, heard the front door slam behind me. He kindly lent me a small step-ladder which I used to climb onto the wheely bin at the back of the house and then onto a very narrow wall, topped with trellis with roses climbing through it. From there it looked a long way down. I slithered inelegantly down via the conservatory window-sill. I hope I don't ever have to pursue a career as a house-breaker, I'm really not cut out for it!

My mother-in-law who visited over the week-end has kindly sent this picture she took of muggins reprimanding the leeks for their inadequate growth. I am sitting on a stool you can't see, not the edge of the raised bed. Yes I know you can't see any leeks either - that is exactly my point. I have planted some more.

Book shopping

2009-05-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

I've still not been back in the garden properly, I hope to do so tomorrow.

Today we were in London for a few hours. I spent the time having a walk up some of my favourite back streets and going to a second hand bookshop - so no change there then! In said bookshop (Quinto, Charing Cross rd branch) I bought: "England", mainly black and white photos by Edwin Smith, whose work I love; "Foliage Plants" by Christopher Lloyd - given how keen I am on avoiding naff things like flowers, ahem; and "Hortus Revisited" which should top up my taste for double-barrel surnames and small wood engravings. This little hoard came to £12.50. Would it have been better spent on plants? Well not the Edwin Smith book anyway.

PS Here is a link to some ES photos, so you can see what I'm on about.

What I'm up to

2009-05-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Just at the moment we have a visitor staying so we've been out enjoying ourselves. Not that gardening isn't enjoyable, but you know what I mean.

So yesterday we went out to this. Today we watched some cricket at the local ground up the street, then went to Brighton for a walk round North Laine, fish and chips on the beach, and then this in the evening. Tomorrow it's a curry buffet for lunch, then either Tilgate Park or Leonardslee.

We don't normally do so many things though, it's all quite busy!

Why do you write your blog?

2009-04-30T01:48:00.000-07:00

I've been wondering about this lately. Well, not so much why others write theirs, as why I write mine and whether this is sufficient reason. I write it for myself, and if others enjoy it that is the icing on the cake. This sounds a bit perverse, but I read something similar in another blog I can't find again now, so it's not just me!

There are two reasons for this. Presenting an account of what I have done in public helps to motivate me to get something done in the first place. Secondly, I live a rather isolated life and publicising my gardening endeavours changes that a little.

I want only those people to read it who actually care about it, so I deliberately try to resist prettification and tricks that might make it more appealing. On the other hand, I hate to think that people might comment because they feel sorry for me, if for example there are no other comments to a particular post: I want them to comment because they had something to say, just as I do. And yet I want reading my blog to be enjoyable for the ones who put a little effort in, so quite often I sneak my nicer pictures in a little further down a posting, as a reward! At other times I weaken and feel more attention-seeking, and I pick a tricksy title (ahem, like this one) and some eye-candy (of a strictly horticultural kind, usually) to start off with.

Originally I didn't intend to blog every day. In fact the plan was quite specific and different, and the blog's URL gives it away. I have an old gardening book, from the 1930s although my edition is 50s, which sets out tasks for the garden on a weekly basis (with further sections on what to do generally over a month too). I wanted to try to keep to it for a year and I thought this would make a good, structured blog. But when I began on the garden it quickly became clear that it needed so much remedial work that there would be no time or energy left to get round to the tasks specified. Now, it seems that perhaps I will manage it some time in the next few weeks, which is very exciting to me! I will say more about the book when that time comes.

But I wonder why other people blog, and what they get out of it, and whether they get in quite as many existential tangles over it as I do?

Plants planted

2009-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got my new plants into the ground. After a huge amount of weeding, I was happy at last that it was ready, and here they all are waiting:

And here's the bed after with them in place:

Out of interest, here's what the bed looked like in January of this year (the lovely white foliage plants were euphorbia but they didn't really like the shady damp ground)

Even in the winter, the fence is less visible. About 4 years ago I planted a dog rose and a field rose either side of the apple tree. Well we all make mistakes. I haven't dug them out but I have cut them back hard. The growth the dog rose puts on each year is formidable! The cutting back and planting of a greater number of smaller plants here has helped the proportions, although it won't really be settled in for a couple of years of course.

urgent warning - read now

2009-04-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

To English gardeners - in Surrey we have 2 degrees forecast for tonight. If like me you have put tender things out, you might like to put something over them or bring them in if possible.

To Granny's, and back

2009-04-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

This week-end we went to see my husband's Granny (and other family). She is 92 and has lived in the same house and garden for about 50 years. This is one of her lilac trees.

On the way back we let the dog out at a motorway service station, and the area round it was surprisingly nice:

Butterfly confetti

2009-04-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired I can't remember exactly what I did today. The main thing though was clearing space to put out my new plants. I thought this would just be some light re-weeding, but it became clear I should cut back the two climbing roses (ahem, they being a dog rose and a field rose!).

So the plants still aren't in the ground, and I will be busy with other things for the next few days. I will post again soon!

a little closer...

That was quick!

2009-04-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I will show you what was inside tomorrow.

Meanwhile here's the current view from my study window:

And finally here's a colour-tweaked version of Pippa from yesterday, showing that she's not really a hen!

PS middle picture now brightened

More photos

2009-04-22T14:20:00.001-07:00

More photos they said - so here they are.

(The main work I did today was watering in the morning - all the pots, new seedlings, and things I've moved; then in the afternoon beginning to cut down the hypericum. I've done most of the top of it, so I'll tackle the roots tomorrow and I hope to get the soil improved and the rose in.)

Thank you all very much for the comments by the way - a longer reply follows tomorrow!

Spot the two helpers here: one bounds around, the other supervises:

This view looked a lot prettier by the end of the day when I decided to move our indoor geraniums out, but I forgot to take a picture then and I wanted to include this one today because it was the first day this year that I put the parasol up.

More excitement

2009-04-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

First off, can anyone tell me what butterfly this was, who joined me for my morning cup of tea?

I didn't get a good shot of the apple trees today, but here are a few bluebells to be going on with:

Today I was over the moon to receive a cheque from my father to pay for some new plants. So I took out the list I'd made for whenever, and began mulling it over again. I decided to use the opportunity to buy all new plants - ie nothing that I'd ever had before. I had a very enjoyable rummage through a couple of books, and after a while ordered the following from Long Acre Plants:

3 x Asarum europaeum (this is mainly foliage, kidney shaped leaves, shiny, called wild ginger)
2 x Tricyrtis formosana 'Dark Beauty' (these are called toad lilies, they flower in autumn and look fascinating)
1 x Tricyrtis 'Amanagowa' (similar to above)
2 x Uvularia grandiflora var pallida (these flower in the spring, cream coloured slender dangling flowers)
1 x Uvularia grandiflora (same but in yellow, a month apart)
1 x Speirantha convallarioides (white spikey flowers in spring, evergreen)
1 x Geranium nodosum (a mauve hardy geranium)
1 x Athyrium niponicum var pictum (a fern)

So I'll see how that little lot stands up to my tender mercies! They're to go in a bed of fairly damp shade. I know people say you should get 3's or even more of things, but I'd rather get more different things and split them after they spread out a bit. I'm very excited about growing some new plants, it feels like getting to know new people. (some of us should get out more...)

This morning I planted some leeks, twice: once the wrong way and once the right way (make a hole with a stick, place the leek in and fill with water). My husband said please do ask if I'm not sure about anything - but I had no suspicion there was anything special about how to plant leeks!

Then I went to a local nursery and bought 7 alpines. I've put them in an old china sink for now but I know they will get too big for there; I'll plant them on eventually.

Then I mowed the lawn, took Pippa out for a short walk since it was her first in nearly a month (just out of her season), and then - spotted our first borage flower. I love borage: we put the flowers with mint leaves and chunks of lemon in a jug of water. I also put them in ice-cubes to cheer us up in drinks over the winter. I took this picture in the evening and the flash went off, which is why the colours are a bit odd, sorry.

Some ideas from Nottingham

2009-04-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in Nottingham Arboretum, which is more like a public park in some ways. Here are some of the things that really struck me:

This shows the kind of planting I really like. I love the height, the volume, the contrast in texture and density, the substance of it all. Evergreens can be a bit stolid but with fireworky-grasses like this, it's much more fun to look at:

Here what I like is the beautifully harmonised colour tints - all soft pinks and smokey browns. Not necessarily my favourite colours in themselves but I think they've been put together very well:

And finally, these tulips - cups of light, but they would be so much less successful without the pansies and greenery:

It's happened

2009-04-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today, with trees full of apple blossom above deep forget-me-nots, the garden is afloat again. A strong current carrying me along, and all I have to do now is keep my head up! (photos to follow tomorrow)

Things I am going to get rid of

2009-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

As soon as I have time, I can't wait to see the back of the following plants:

1. Spirea douglasii. Utterly horrid huge thing with muddy pink dusters of "flowers". Graham Stuart Thomas on it: "This shrub is one that nurserymen delight in including in cheap collections of shrubs" - I can well imagine, it suckers like nobody's business.

2. A hypericum, planted less than 2 feet from a holly and a lovely spirea arguta. I ask you!

3. A common viburnam. I planted this, I didn't realise it wouldn't flower and fruit like a garden variety. I don't hate it, it grew fast and hid the fence just as I wanted it to, but it'd done it's job.

So, what to replace with? 3 will be a red chaenomeles that I have already in a pot. 2 - now we're getting exciting, this will be a blue hibiscus. And... [drum roll] the hypericum will provide space for my favourite rose, Ophelia, and some euphorbias which I adore but they find the rest of the garden too damp. O's roots will go down far enough to find the water (which is never far here) but they will like the driest surface we have.

PS I will also sadly get rid of our broom. Nearly all of it is dead and the part that isn't gets massacred by snails. It won't be replaced because the hebe next to it has already squeezed it out.

A down and up day

2009-04-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

I had a tough time this morning. I was weeding the big curved bed, which I did thoroughly three weeks ago. It got to me, because I found it overwhelming, since I'd done it so recently. This time it took me about a quarter as long, but I forgot that detail when I was busy throwing a strop. I rang my mother and bleated at her about it, and then I felt better.

Now I have planted part of it up with things moved from elsewhere in the garden. 2 fennels, although I have a feeling these might not thrive because the tap roots were deeper than I expected. 3 clumps of iris sibirica - very robust plants, I love them. 1 very thuggish cranesbill, which has deep burgundy flowers - starting now. 1 hellebore seedling from the front garden. 2 alchemilla mollis found on the compost heap. All of these are real bruisers, will fight off the weeds for me with some hoeing around them. Then lots of little echium seedlings to grow up through a rose that is scrambling on the ground.

The pictures aren't from the same place, but you get the idea. It ain't Chelsea, but then I wouldn't want it to be. The apparent space in between is partly used by the smaller plants, which are tiny still, and partly for things to grow into.

Next door: quite something to contend with.

And a bonus picture - a little heuchera just planted out, and a bluebell that will be pulled up soon.

PS - forgot to include in the list of things planted, 2 clumps of black poppies grown from seed I collected 3 years ago.

Do you think seedlings actually breed?

2009-04-14T14:20:00.001-07:00

There seem to be more and more seedlings every day, even if I don't sow any more!

At the moment this is my favourite plant - a viburnam judii, with the most gorgeous perfume:

I thought you might also like to see this snap of Velvet, just about to drink from the pond:

And finally this is a front garden in a village near us. I am determined now to sow deep red wallflowers and plant creamy white narcissi and some more primulas, for next spring:

Words of wisdom for you

2009-04-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

I am able to impart two gems from recent experience:

1. Nymans garden in April is pretty much heaven on earth, especially if you like camellias and magnolias. Some pictures follow; out of interest - the house you see is not as old as you might think, this part was early 20th century. It was destroyed by fire in the late 40s.

2. Putting industrial quantities of couch grass into your compost bins over a 3 month period is stupid. I didn't know what it was. I do now.

Leaves

2009-04-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

Every year I forget how different trees look with leaves on. Not so much trees in particular actually, but how different everything looks when they do. It's like putting the furniture back into a room.

I notice it most in the garden. Our apple trees are stealthily coming into leaf: they seem to change most quickly over night. Out on walks, many paths are actually brighter in the winter, when the leaves have fallen - an inversion that pleases me.

This afternoon we plan to go to Nymans (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-nymansgarden2). It won't be the same if the sun isn't out but I hope we go anyway. I believe they also sell some plants there........

PS A couple of houses on our street have small areas of lawn in front of them which haven't been mown yet this year. Each is now studded with cuckoo flower (cardamine pratensis). Our next-door neighbour though, whose garden is wild from the half-point back, has none. I think they need mowing to simulate a meadow. I love this flower and have tried moving some into a border but they don't really like it. I'd like to leave a patch of grass - they just appear from nowhere round here if you leave it.

Cull of blogs

2009-04-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

Now, a tricky subject.

My list of blogs I read has got too long. To read them all would take me several hours a day. I'm going to remove many of them.

If this includes yours, I'm very sorry if you are disappointed by that. The reason is not that I don't find what you write interesting - I wouldn't have added you in the first place if I didn't - but that I simply don't have enough time.

It's difficult because I'm afraid it probably will include people who do comment on here. I'm sorry that I can't reciprocate fully, but gardening (and blogging) is only one of several things I have to get through each day, The others are nearly all far less enjoyable, but needs must I'm afraid.

Now I will grit my teeth, and get on with this cull.

Guess what...

2009-04-08T13:18:00.001-07:00

... yet another busy day!

It rained overnight, and the garden looked so much the better for it today. All washed and freshened up. No doubt this applied to the weeds too but never mind!

First thing, I found out that Whichford Pottery will give me a credit note for the pot of theirs that broke over the last few winters. I don't know how much for yet, but I spent a pleasant time over breakfast with their catalogue.

Then I went out and spent ages tarting up the patio. I binned the broken pots, planted out various plants from them, and filled others with self-sown pretty things to look nice over the week-end (mainly forget-me-nots, and something I had hoped would be dicentra but I suspect is welsh poppies).

I planted out 2 of my very numerous tomato plants. I know it's very early but if we lose them, the are plenty of reinforcements. They're under a light movable cold-frame at the moment.

Finally a picture of what the boggy bed looks like at the moment, with another of what it looked like on the 10th January.

Another busy day

2009-04-07T13:26:00.001-07:00

I did 6 hours today. It was meant to be our last sunny day before the visitors arrive, but I think the forecast has changed now. At this rate they'll have to eat, sleep and everything else out there - the house will be a tip!

I finished the herb bed. I made a note to take cuttings of the purple sage which is looking elderly. I love sage plants and so do the bees. Then I weeded the bog garden - hard work. Weeded in the square garden, then moved some self-sown nigella there from the pea-bed. Mowed. Planted out some peas. Did 3 lots more weeding. Moved the patio furniture back into place.

In my next life I will be a non-organic gardener. Either that or I'm going to cultivate solely and deliberately, weeds.

I took another round of photos today but not until after 7pm. It seemed light to the eye but not to my camera! I will take some more another time.

Did too much

2009-04-06T12:56:00.001-07:00

It was always going to happen at some point: I did a bit too much today and I'm shattered. It's the extra daylight that fools me, it makes me keep going longer.

I didn't start till about 10:30. Went up the street with the wheelbarrow to buy 2 big bags of mixed compost, for potting on seedlings. - and some tea-bags since we'd run out and that's a crisis in our house.

Then I did some watering indoors. I finished off digging out the weeds and grot from the patio, weeded a few pots, and weeded the path up the side of the garage. I weeded the big oval flowerbed, then another bed, divided some plants in it, planted out another, and weeded about half of the herb bed. At that point I conked out; it was about 7:10. Not all that long but it was more work than I would ask of someone else, which is a measure I try to keep in mind.

Pictures will be by courtesy of my husband since I didn't have my camera out today, but I will post them tomorrow.

Some people can't keep away!

2009-04-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Too much happened today not to blog about it...

1. I found a dead frog in the pond and had to fish him out with a net. Loads of the frogspawn has - do you say germinated? though, and is wriggling around.

2. A robin got stuck in the fruit cage and had to be let out.

3. While digging in a completely different bit of the garden, and one recently created, I found a label for a rose which is nearly 30 years old and which I've never known the identity of. I was over the moon. It is called Deep Secret - or originally Mildred Scheel - bred by Tantau in Germany and introduced in 1977. She's about 4 feet tall, very healthy, a hybrid tea, with dark red flowers with golden stamens and a gorgeous perfume. Flowers from late June until the heaviest frosts. I have several pictures of it but none represent the colour properly, which is a bit deeper than blood - sorry to be gory!

Offline

2009-04-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be very busy over the next week, getting the house and garden ready for visitors, so I will be offline for most of that time. If I don't pop up on your screen before it, have a good Easter.

Company in the garden

2009-04-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today as I was weeding, I felt I was being watched. Can you see him?

These days I rarely see birds in the garden while I'm out, although I see many from the window. Clearly Mr Robin had spotted that my feline companion was out for the count!

Busy day

2009-04-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

I was in the garden today from just before 9 to nearly 5, with about an hour's break in total - which was also spent in the garden.

I tidied a veg bed near the tool shed which had become rather a dump. Some things get moved around from one place to the next, and until the leaves come more, they're unsightly wherever I put them. Rolls of chicken wire are the main culprit, but they will be used soon in a new fence.

Next I tidied another area, by the main compost bins, for the same reason.

Then I weeded inside the big glass cold frame. Not my favourite job - I'm so clumsy, I have a horror that one day I'll fall into/onto it but it's too big to move easily.

More tidying after that, mostly in the veg garden. There's a lot to be done in there, I will be spending a full day there tomorrow.

I planted out the astilbe's I found still growing in pots, and also a heuchera, and weeded some of the bog area.

I planted up the remaining sweet peas.

Then I tackled the pruning of a big shrub rose. I am very keen on roses and compared to the rest of gardening, I know a fair bit about them. This means that our roses clearly displaying signs of neglect is embarrassing. Still, I don't do gardening for show, it's just a nice spin-off, and I am hopeful that the plant will have benefited as well as my garden-cred...

I then shredded all the prunings.

Next I tidied the greenhouse.

I put the heap of ivy we pulled out of the hedge last autumn in the bin.

Then I mowed the lawns.

Finally I began on weeding but I was pretty tired by then. It feels odd to be tired when it's still good daylight!

And then I took the pictures. These aren't especially flattering: the idea is to try to show exactly what you see as you walk round.

But at this time of the year, the best flowers are at the front:

Odds and ends

2009-03-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

A lot more seeds are coming up now - I think I'm most chuffed with the echium, since I love them so much. They're great in containers because they actually prefer to be pretty dry.

I began this afternoon (was busy otherwise in the morning) by starting to clear the patio. I don't use weed-killer on it so I weed it by hand and I'm fastidious. I know my husband finds the effort I put into this amusing and to be honest it is a bit daft but there you go.

As part of this I also weed all the patio pots, move them and clean underneath, and so on. As I was emptying one big pot I must have knocked the switch for the pond pump next to it. I have half an ear on the outflow all the time now (after last summer's disaster) so I was shocked and worried when it stopped, before I twigged what had caused it! But this put me in mind that I needed to begin clearing out the filter chamber.

Cleaning the filter is a piggy job, with one saving grace. The water flows through 4 different compartments, with filter medium of increasing fineness. The work is actually done by microorganisms that live on the medium, so when we clean it out, we do it one chamber per day, so as not to remove all the necessary good bugs. Therefore I get fairly messy over 4 days, rather than totally disgusting in 1!

I'm intending to post some pictures of the garden tomorrow. My father-and-step-mother-in-law are coming to visit for Easter and they like gardening, so I'm looking forward to showing it all to them. It's good to have a fixed point to aim for.

Rose pruning

2009-03-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Today I pruned nearly all of the roses. Aimee Vibert, Ophelia, Picture, Margaret Merrill and x Richardii are all done; the big original one remains to do. I'm leaving the dog rose, the field rose and the two climbers at the front for the time being.

PS in case you're wondering - no, this didn't take all that long, although I did get the shredder out and deal with all the prunings and so on. The roses havent' been done properly before... ever. But mainly I was ill, which is minor but that's why I spent a lot of time reading (Real England by Paul something)

Even quicker!

2009-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today I weeded the pea bed. (We were busy for a lot of the day with other things.) It's just under 11 degrees indoors at the moment, so we're warming ourselves in the mental glow of saved pennies and carbon units!

Quick note

2009-03-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note, since I did say it would be daily...

Today I was in Crawley for an OU tutorial, so I walked through the main park. This has some very good planting in it: lots of shrubs and so on all done so as they feel really satisfying through the year. The parks in Crawley are pretty special to be honest - one day I'll show some pictures of Tilgate park, where they have everything a park should have. Today I mainly noticed the magnolia stellata's - very strikingly placed each one beside a bigger evergreen, which showed them off beautifully.

Tea in the garden

2009-03-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

Seeds

2009-03-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

A lot of the vegetable seeds I'm growing don't seem to be well known. This could be because they come from here:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/

I realise they're not the cheapest around, but I like their approach. I'm a bit of an idealist. I'd rather go without a few nights out and get my stuff from people I feel sympathy with.

seedlings

2009-03-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I potted up 32 seedlings of tomato Grushovka. Hmmm. Not sure what I'll do with that lot - or more particularly, with the total of nearly 100 tomato plants I'm going to end up with! I'm hoping to sell some of them, but I know it's the kind of thing loads of people have a surplus of. We'll see.

It is blackthorn by the way - in my post below - and it's my favourite thing in the garden at the moment. I must move the hyacinths from in front of it though. They're white too so they don't clash that way, but it makes them look dumpy and artificial, and they make its airy, fragile blossom look too diffuse.

Good to be back

2009-03-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'm back again after a nice weekend away visiting and a day doing written work, and it does feel good to be in the garden again.

The photo is of the blossom on one of the treelets I planted about 5 years ago. They form a tiny stretch of mixed native hedge. I used the plant postcode database to select them: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/postcode-plants/ It was an idea suggested to me by one of my favourite gardening books, English Plants for Your Garden. It's been a 100% success - these trees are droughtproof, windproof, and have loads of insects and so on on them without getting eaten in an unsightly way. I wish I had more space for them.

Today I prepared one of the vegetable beds and sowed mixed lettuces, turnips, lamb's lettuce, cabbages and rocket. I also mowed the lawn. I see that candytuft and some naturtiums have germinated, and allyssum, and that the crambe cordifolia is growing again. I must put a slug trap out for it.

The Pond

2009-03-19T15:34:00.001-07:00

Someone asked whether we have fish in the pond. You bet we do! We inherited 4 koi in our previous house, and we grew very fond of them, so we made a pond here.

We wanted a depth of nearly 5 feet for protection from heron. We tried digging the hole ourselves but it began to fill with water very quickly and frankly was jolly hard work. We got a builder in; I assumed he'd use a machine but he sent a man with a spade and a wheel-barrow! Said man worked like a trojan and in 2 days excavated a hole so neat it looked like something computer-generated on screen.

The hole was 5 feet deep; the pond is now a little less because of its linings: first sand, then old carpet, then heavy butyl liner. There is a shelf for marginal plants along the long edge, and the liner rises and dips again beyond that to make a marsh strip. A filter keeps the water fairly clean and oxygenated. Neither our dog nor our cat have disturbed the fish; we have seen heron visit the garden (an awesome sight!) but the fish have not been killed or injured by them.

Our set-up is a compromise: it's not the koi enthusiast's ideal, because we have plants in, we allow frogs etc (which can bring parasites), and we rarely use chemicals in it. It works very well, in our eyes. There was a major problem last year when I didn't report to my husband in time that the filter pump had stopped working. Half the fish died from lack of oxygen. I later learned that fish live much closer to the margin of feasibility, in terms of how they breathe, than we do, and so oxygenation is a key point. I still remember lifting out the dead fish each time I go near the pond, but I hope this will lessen.

I absolutely love the pond. I wish we could have a waterfall but I understand this is not easily arranged because of technical problems (essentially the filter chamber is configured wrongly for that to work, it's hard to see how we could have one without replacing the whole system which would be daft).

Progress up hill.

2009-03-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Another lovely sunny day that saw me in a foul mood for no reason. Doing anything feels like peddling a bike with the brakes full on, but I got a fair bit done.

I went up the street to the local hardware shop (a fantastic place that sells everything) and bought a 10l top up of seed compost. Not cheap but I buy something there fairly often on the "use it or lose it" principle.

I fed the conservatory plants with the new stuff I'd bought. It doesn't go as far as I thought - their definition of a standard watering can is half the size of our two main ones, which I don't think of as super-sized!

Then I cleared the lawn, and settled down to sowing. I sowed one pot each of things; if/when they come up, I'll sow more. Heartsease, campanula pixie blue, alyssum, statice, echium, nepeta, crambe cordifolia (AKA slug banquet), candytuft, black poppies (I adore these but they failed last time, suspect theyre dead and they should be sown in situ I know), godetia, night-scented stock, white snapdragons, and cornflowers. These seeds are between 3 and 6 years old, it amazes me they work at all. So far the best have been morning glories and snapdragons.

I dug up a dead acanthus mollis. The crown is brown, rotting and smelly. I couldn't see anything in the soil but I dug up a fair bit and have put it in the landfill bin, not the council compost one. I'm a bit worried about this. It's right next to where the privet hedge died. We replanted that last autumn with hornbeam, and every single one has taken and is in bud - nearly in leaf. Nothing else near seems affected. I hope it's nothing serious. We have an acanthus at that front that is very successful; the two I planted on this other site never came to anything.

I sorted out the canes - this took ages. Then I planted a row of 9 sweet peas along the back of the bed where the acanthus died. They are a potential-suicide squad: I will see how they get on. I put beer traps out for the slugs.

Tomorrow I'm away for the week-end again.

a nothing day

2009-03-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today I'm feeling pretty down, and as a result - or maybe it's the other way round - I've done nothing in the garden. I opened up the greenhouse, enjoyed the sunshine, watered some trays, and thinned some more snapdragons. But nothing else. For no reason. But tomorrow will be better.

Ah - one thing - we went shopping to Homebase, and I bought some plant food for the houseplants. This was because I read of Bob's feeding his at work and reckoned it would be a good idea. Ours are in a sorry state, (they haven't been fed since I bought them, up to 6 years ago) so I think they'll be very grateful to him!

Oooh - PS, some good news I had forgotten. I have a miserable collection of plants in pots that I found when weeding the borders, bought by me in afluent times but too lazy and stupid to plant several years ago. I couldn't bring myself to throw them out, so I weeded the tops, put them in a nice sunny place, and kept an eye on them - and now 4 out of 6 are showing signs of life! These are two phloxes and two astilbes. The two still asleep/dead are achilieas, to there's time yet for them to wake up too, perhaps.

Naughty

2009-03-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

I confess: this picture is not of our garden, and I haven't spoken to the owner either... But I took the photo from the pavement and I'm not saying where it is, so I don't think that's a huge invasion of privacy. I think it's super. I love the tiny bit of grass! And it's fairly "real" too - you can see roses and delphiniums ready to take over later.

Well, back at the ranch. Yesterday I tidied the conservatory. There was, ahem, quite some scope for this. During most of the year this is our main living room, but it does tend to accumulate stuff in transit to other places (the garage, the utility, the dump...)

We had beautiful sunshine yesterday, same today, and it's set to continue for several days! I'm so happy about that.

The cucumbers I sowed only 4 days ago are now nearly an inch tall.

I spent ages thinning snapdragon seedlings. In future I must mix them with sand I think. I also thinned some mystery seeds I collected a couple of years back but forgot to label. They germinated fantastically - wonder what they'll turn out to be? I find thinning a tiring job though.

Today I sowed "Milkmaid" nasturtiums, although I find these plants always seem to grow better when self-seeded. If I'm organised this year I'm going to sow some annuals in the autumn, since that's what "nature" does and I have a feeling it may work well. They'll probably have to be in the highly unnatural environment of indoors though.

I also sowed Golden Sweet yellow-podded mangetout, Bleu de Solaise leeks, Sanda brussels sprouts, Ishikura Long White bunching onions, and Nero di Toscana tuscan kale. I sowed the finer seeds with great care, my experience of thinning filling my mind!

[Quick note: a few days ago we bought some unpasteurised milk from a farm about 2 miles away, and it tastes wonderful - if you get the chance and you're not in vulnerable health, do try it.]

Bliss

2009-03-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today my husband did lots in the garden too. He strimmed all the edges - this is quite a job given that the garden is rather bitty and complicated. He also put up a new temporary fence. And then he read and kept me company. We had lunch outside for the first time this year.

I cleared and mowed the lawn. It lookes much, much better for it, with the edges done too. I took photos of the whole garden (not pretty ones, just as a record). I sowed 2 trays of echium - a bombproof plant I love. The first vinca flower is out.

And I took a photo of this butterfly.

A garden pay-back day, it was wonderful.

Slugs slogged

2009-03-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

I can inform you that low alcohol beer is both appealing and fatal to slugs. The count from my 2 littls traps this morning was 16, in each one. I'm pleased I caught them, but I'm surprised there were so many about already.

This little victory aside, it was a day of small jobs. I cleared the lawn, thinned my celery seedlings, and prepared a new set of 3 pots to go on the patio table. I'll add a photo of these soon - I left my camera plugged into the computer by mistake and it lost its charge.

I went to the nearest mini garden centre. They have several types of euphorbia I would dearly love. I don't like being a fan of such trendy plants but then that in itself is a naff way to look at it really. I bought a little hyacinth though called Woodstock, a purple colour and an amazing scent, I'll try to get some of them to plant later.

Oh and another good thing: I found a peony. I was fearing that either Pippa had kicked its shoots off or it had died but in fact I had buried it under the mulch of compost I added a weeks or so ago. I carefully moved this a little to the side, since I vaguely remember peonies are not suppposed to be buried too deeply. This is a pink one; my favourite, a white, did die about 3 years ago. I would love another.

I was thinking of going to Kew as I pass through London this Friday but I see entrance costs £13! Worth it for a full day maybe but only in the main growing season. This is a shame because Kew would be nicest to me out of it, to see things in the glasshouses.

A few more seeds

2009-03-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

This was a shorter day in the garden because I had list-making and shopping to do.

I turned the very last of the compost - as expected, there was more space after it had settled over night.

I tied in my sweet peas. There was a slight nibble of damage to one of the leaves so I put out slug traps. The beer is low-alcohol, because it was cheapest: I hope the slugs get drunk enough!

Then I moved all the tomatoes and celery into a normal propagator, since they'd germinated well. I sowed Miniature White Cucumbers, more Telephone peas, and some mixed stocks. I'd prefer to sow flowers of single colours but I'm not buying any new flower seed this year. This packet said sow by 2006 but I find they come up pretty well despite that.

The indoor jasmine has just started to flower and the scent is intoxicating.

And a couple of white hyacinths are blooming, so here's a photo of one. The geranium behind is one of my favourite plants. I love cranesbills - their habit, their foliage, and their resiliance. This one flowers a beautiful blue colour and looks lovely with the pink rose above (Gentle Hermione). Sadly the stachys that was so nice near them gave up the ghost, I think it found the soil too heavy. I know I could change this but I'd rather plant more stachys in a drier part of the garden, I don't like trying to change the world too much for plants (unless they're pinks, for whose scent I do almost anything!)

Reclaiming ground for a potato patch

2009-03-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

I began the day as usual: even before I put the kettle on, still in my dressing-gown, checking my seedlings. Lots of tomatoes have come up, and celery, and more snapdragons and peas and beans. Fantastic!

After too much fiddling about indoors, I turned the compost heap. This was really tiring and I had to do it in three stints.

Then I turned my attention to where I'd like to grow potatoes. Ideally I'd have sorted this out earlier, but there's been such a backlog of major clearing to do that this is the soonest I found I could get to it.

This is how it started off:

I put all the clobber elsewhere - chicken wire, piles of sticks, old incinerator, and plastic cold frame. I lifted some stones and bricks out and kept them handy because they were part of The Plan. I found a toad and many toadlets and took a tea break while they hid themselves again. Then I spread compost over the area I will be planting in:

I covered it with weed-proof fabric. This wasn't the right shape so I had to cut it about a bit, and then weigh it down with the bits of brick. Finally I put some old compost bags down on the areas that will be path, since I want to be able to lift the weedproof in a couple of weeks, and covered the bags with bark.

Seen from the other end:

When I think of the scale on which my father plants potatoes... - he'd cover more than half our total garden! Last year he lost the lot because he accidentally got weed-killer on them. Being pretty much organic, that's one problem I should be without.

PS the shrubs along the back are a ribes, a kerriea, an evergreen, a hibiscus which I love, and a potentilla.

PPS for anyone craving some colour at the moment, I've just seen this posting from "My Mother's Garden", especially the third picture down - I love the profusion, and the height.