Sue's garden

Unusual companions

2012-01-02T18:44:00.002Z

Although Christmas's weather was very dull and dreary it has been so mild that the garden seems to be in a complete muddle. Friends tell me that blue-tits are investigating their nesting box, the birds are all singing as though it was spring and this morning I photographed this brave little Iceberg rose bobbing in the wind above some flowering winter jasmine, which is, itself, quite early.

Purely by accident (or was it magnetic force?) I have managed to spend the only 2 sunny days we have had over the holidays in the garden. There was - and still is - so much to be done, particularly by way of pruning, clearing fallen leaves and last year's growth but I have been trying to resist the temptation of too much tidying as I want to leave some things for the birds to use for their nests and I'm not at all convince that winter isn't yet to come. Green finches, blue tits and a gold finch were among the prettier visitors to the garden today and there is almost always a red kite soaring about over head these days. One less-desirable result of my clearance attempts has been that a pigeon now manages to sit on the arch and lean across to the bird-feeder to help itself to sun-flower seeds. Not at all what I had in mind!

Had a great session pruning some fairly large branches from the Judas tree and the hazel, although I think the latter still has to go. I have plenty of small saplings popping up all over the place (thank you squirrel) as well as some in pots to replace it if I feel the need, although this is largely sentimental attachment as the original tree came from my brother's house around the corner.

I decided to experiment with raking the moss from the lawn while it is still dormant which - hopefully - will give the new grass a better chance to grow when spring really comes.

Here are a few wintery details.

Rose leaves reflected in a full water butt

My own bit of frozen planet

2011-12-10T13:07:00.001Z

Winter finally hit the south east this week with some serious frosts. This morning's beautiful clear blue sky accompanied some of the lowest temperatures we've had since the spring, barely breaking 5 degrees on my outside thermometer. Time to break the ice and take the tops of my ceramic bird baths in for shelter, but not before enjoying the beautiful ice shapes, patterns and reflections which formed in them.

Frosts at last - and a black cap

2011-12-05T19:05:00.001Z

Last week we finally had a decent frost which set the last of the leaves falling and made things seem right again for the time of year. At last everything is going into its winter retreat.

I was delighted to draw the curtains to see a black cap sitting next to a black bird on Saturday morning, then a chaffinch, a blue tit, sparrow, rook and red kite all in close succession. But the black caps are my real favourites, the male with his smart black hat, the female with her pink blush cap. I haven't seen them for the best part of a year.

Planted up the last tulips bulbs and enjoyed some rocket and land cress from the greenhouse. Then put my feet up. Seems like tie to hibernate now!

Ladybird interest

2011-11-28T10:06:00.001Z

Not much happening in the garden this past week. Things are very gradually shutting down in readiness for the inevitable cold - although a small number of French beans are still growing in the green house and my first ever pak choi are coming on nicely.

But I did find a 10 spot lady bird and it reminded me of a fascinating programme about them I heard on BBC Radio 4 - The Living World, November 20th. It explained why we so often find them apparently hibernating in upstairs rooms! I am a great fan of The Living World even though I often manage to go back to sleep trying to listen to the Sunday morning edition.

Bulb planting and treasure hunting

2011-11-20T17:05:00.000Z

Fucshia Dollar Princess (?) through the kitchen window

As if Dan's "hour of power" at Oakley Court first thing on a Saturday morning wasn't energetic enough yesterday I decided that a serious day's gardening was due and set out on a clearing and bulb-planting exercise until it got too dark.

I always enjoy sweeping up leaves and cutting back perennials (although I am leaving most of the latter for a while as a lot of things are still growing) and there are real treasures to be found amongst the dried leaves and seed heads. Yesterday I found a tiny poppy seed-head skeleton and a beautiful perennial sweet pea which had also rotten back to its delicate framework. Holly skeletons are also prized finds and they all have great photographic potential even thought they do rather clutter up the kitchen.

I planted the tulips really densely this year and tried to remember to put the shorter, earlier-flowering ones to the front. I still finished up with a bag of 25 Princess Irene which I will have to plant in pots and didn't quite get round to finishing my planting at the front. The soil was moist but not too heavy and easily mixed with a good few handfuls of bonemeal.

Mum told me that squirrels have been digging up the bulbs she has planted which set me thinking, so I firmed down the soil well and strewed holly and a thick layer of fallen leaves over the areas I planted. I'm sure it won't make any difference to squirrels but it may deter cats!

I have decided to leave the dahlias in non-tulip areas in the ground to over-winter as an experiment. I am still drying and cleaning the ones I lifted which should be ready to put into store next week. Some of the tubers are huge so I really hope I am successful this year. Maybe I could divide some of them to give away or do some swapping...?

There is little left in flower now; evergreen honeysuckle, the odd rose and a few early flowers of winter jasmine but the hardy fucshia opposite my kitchen window (Dollar Princess - I think...) is still giving me a great show. They go in and out of fashion but I still really like them in moderation.

Mean, thrifty or green?

2011-11-12T17:38:00.001Z

Golden wisteria and a carpet of hazel leaves but the dahlias are still green and budding...

Every so often I become aware of having inherited a little of my Yorkshire Dad's "waste not want not" philosophy. I don't think it's meanness, I just hate waste and equally hate being exploited. This tends to come to the fore in gardening activities, plant labelling being a prime example and as at the weekend I finally decided I would have to start lifting the dahlias - green and thriving as they were - to make space for tulips I realised that one of the things that was making me procrastinate was the labelling issue. Last year I spent ages making labels for my dahlias from old wooden lolly sticks. What a waste of time - they all faded! But this year I was really chuffed to find that the labels I had made with indelible marker pen written on to strips of cut up plastic milk bottles were mostly still legible next to the plants when I dug them up. So I have wrapped each tightly around the remaining stub of stem with a bit of garden wire or string re-cycled from the plant supports. Great if they don't fade over winter; will have to remember to check them.
Digging up the tubers was satisfying work - enjoyed equally by a hungry robin! It also threw up another dilemma - what to do with them over winter. The last 2 years have been fairly disastrous as I failed to protect the tubers from 1. extreme cold and 2. mildew. So I began lifting them and putting them to dry on a rack in the greenhouse still pondering the best method. Happily, a lovely guy I was shooting with on Sunday, who runs his own landscape gardening business near Portsmouth, had a bright suggestion - a garage - the ideal compromise.

Next weekend I will have to finish the job and get down to some serious decision-making with my tulip combinations. It can't possibly be as warm and sunny....

Tulip planting time

2011-11-05T18:04:00.001Z

I read in The Garden that November is the right time to plant tulip bulbs. Having just taken delivery of a batch of over 200 from Parkers (www.jparkers.co.uk) I think it's time someone told the weather to give us a good hard frost so I can lift my dahlias - which are still growing in the space I need for my tulips! I suppose I could cut them down and plant very carefully around them but somehow I don't feel confident about leaving the dahlia tubers in the ground as I suspect we may be in for another hard winter.... There probably wouldn't be room anyway!

I've gone for powerful contrasting colours again. Oranges are Ballerina, Jimmy, Apricot Beauty and the gorgeous, smaller-growing Princess Irene which is flame orange with purple hints. Purples are Ronaldo, Burgundy, Purple Dream, and Purple Prince. As I couldn't resist them I also ordered some Marilyn - white with deep pink stripes which were such characters last year and seemed to last for weeks and weeks. Lulu has also given me some Dolls Minuet - deep pink with a fine green stripe - which, unusually, have a fine scent so I shall plant them in a pot near the house with the correct mix of John Innes No.2 and grit - and see how that works out.

Am being seduced by the prospect of winter-flowering clematis (another article in this month's The Garden) and thinking about getting a Cl. napaulensis which is such a winter treat that its. leaves die back in the summer. Sounds like I might be able to fit that in!

Sarah Raven is offering some luscious dahlia collections (at a price!) in my favourite colours - the pinks purples and reds with some good oranges thrown in for contrast. I love her sense of colour.

Another star plant - Coronilla valentina citrina

2011-11-02T19:16:00.000Z

I popped in to my Mum's at the weekend and saw a coronilla valentina citrina I had brought back for her from a photography shoot - for a "green" car braking system !! - had burst into flower. I am generally very unenthusiastic about yellow flowers but this is such a delicate pale lemon yellow and such a remarkably fragile-looking plant to flower at this time of year - and most of the winter if it behaves like last year - that if I had the space I would get one myself! It even smells divine.

Oh for some more space....

Wootten's have these on special offer at the mo. along with some gorgeous irises I also don't have space for. Boo hoo!!

See www.woottensplants.co.uk

Autumn treasures

2011-10-29T13:27:00.001+01:00

Autumn's pink fireworks

2011-10-24T08:50:00.001+01:00

If I were to write a shortlist of garden "must-have's" it would certainly include Nerine bowdenii. Just as almost everything else is fading these shocking pink flowers burst into brilliant life like fireworks brightening up a dark sky. Given to me by my next door neighbour I tend to forget about the corms amid the dense chaos of my flower-planting and certainly don't give them any special attention but they are remarkably good-humoured about it.

Nerine's grow best planted shallowly in a sunny spot where they can get nice and hot during the summer. I must remember to transplant some to where I can see them from the house next year.

Another "must-have" is evergreen honeysuckle Lonicera Japonica Halliana which seems to me to have flowered at virtually every time of year but is currently flourishing and wafting its gorgeous scent around the garden. Smelling it always makes me feel happy and it's a great addition to any little bunch of odds and ends I can find for the house.

In the greenhouse the beans, rocket and land cress are doing very well.

We had a first light frost this week but it didn't touch the dahlias - even though I had rushed out with a torch to pick the best of the last blooms! It has been incredibly dry with hardly any rain for weeks but the leaves are still hanging on most of the trees incredibly well, the colours barely beginning to turn. Only my little amelanchier has shed its leaves so far.

More remarkably, I am still picking a few raspberries and strawberries!

October mist and worthwhile days out

2011-10-17T21:22:00.000+01:00

Sculpture at Waddesdon Manor

On Saturday there was really never a single hint of a cloud in the sky and a beautiful day it was to visit Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury. The leaves were only just beginning to turn but the low afternoon light showed off some of the Rothschild's sculpture collection to its best.

Unsurprising then that Sunday dawned really misty. But the sun had broken through by lunchtime. Couldn't resist these comparative shots. Will not be featuring this view for a while!!!!

Visited the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham - such a gem. The current exhibition features drawing studies and 4 very large paintings of ship building on the Clyde during World War 2. They are on loan from the Imperial War Museum. The small but exquisite gallery is open virtually all year round and has a fascinating archive available for visitors to brows as well as prints and cards for sale. An amusing audio visual presentation brings Spencer's character to life in the context of the village where he lived and worked. Well worth a visit. /www.stanleyspencer.org.uk/

Autumn harvest

2011-10-10T20:58:00.000+01:00

Some of the late strawberries have ripened to the most beautiful and delicious I have had from these plants. The French beans in the greenhouse are also doing very well - when I manage to stop the slugs and snails from chomping on them.

There isn't all that much left to do just now except clear up fallen leaves, enjoy the dahlias and the odd little delights which surprise - including the discovery that my Clematis Pistachio that I thought had died is actually sending up new shoots (a bit late!) and the nerines are bursting into life among the dahlias - a strange and rather garish combination!

Beautiful Pompon Dahlia Natal

Still haven't solved the mystery of the "sawdust" accumulating under the dead cherry tree but have posted an ID request on bbc's Ispot.

Stag beetle maybe?

2011-10-07T16:46:00.000+01:00

"Sawdust" on fungi on decaying cherry tree trunk

I am finding the piles of "saw dust" down the sides and at the base of my old, dead cherry tree trunk are growing! Seeing some hornets building a nest in an old tree in woods at the weekend prompted me to mention this to a game keeper. He said it might be stag beetle larvae eating their way into the trunk to hibernate. I looked for holes but can't see any.... It really looks like someone has been sawing branches off - but they haven't!

A second crop of strawberries!!

2011-10-02T19:11:00.000+01:00

While for the most part I have simply been enjoying the wonderful Indian summer which seems - miraculously - to actually have materialised with temperatures well into the 80's both yesterday and today, I have also noted some very extraordinary occurrences. In particular, I have a second crop of strawberries developing. Not just tiny little things but a really healthy-looking lot which actually promise to be better than the first.

In addition, there are primroses - both the true and hybridised varieties - flowering. A very strange year indeed.

The dahlias are at last all in flower and flourishing - enough to take a good bunch round to my Mum once a week without making an noticeable difference and the air is still filled with the scent of honeysuckle which always seems to have had strange timing habits. Even as the first leaves of the amelanchier are turning and the odd autumn crocus is popping up cheerfully the grass is still growing fast. The garden is still rewarding to eye, nose and palate. Enough to make yet another apple and raspberry crumble again this week. It will be strawberries and cream next!

Dahlia review

2011-09-17T17:01:00.005+01:00

Just about all the dahlias are in flower now (except The Baron), so I have been reviewing my selection. In terms of height I think I have made better choices although the intermittent harsh rain and winds of the past couple of weeks have proved my staking to be inadequate. Several times I have found plants flattened to the ground but luckily they all seem to have survived. The trouble is, I hate seeing plant stakes. I will have to invest in an improved system for next year - even if it's only a really good batch of tough twigs from the cob nut tree when I take it down.

In terms of colours, I have been a bit too subtle - for me. There are rather too many whites - nice but a bit too sober - and I really need a complementary note to the pinks and reds, preferably a rich orange somewhere. Could do with some really good mauves/purples too. Jura has turned out to be a bit too much like last year's Hayley Jane and I was really disappointed that Rose Cottage nursery never replaced the 2 of 3 The Baron which failed to grow. I hope it was just an oversight on their part. I will remind them of it if I order from them again. Otherwise the dahlias are a cheery bunch.

Object lesson for 2012 - be a bit bolder and order earlier!

I will be posting pics of the individual varieties in due course....

In the "working patch" behind the greenhouse I was astonished to find a second crop of strawberries coming. Must protect them from the huge slugs which have been appearing for the last fortnight. Have just made a crumble with some of next door's lovely apples and 4 small stems of rhubarb I thought I shouldn't waste.

Squirrel stand off

2011-09-11T18:48:00.000+01:00

I came down this morning to see part of the cob tree wildly thrashing about in a manner which reminded me of my first sighting of a beaver in France who had given himself away by frantically waving a small sapling from side to side as he battled to break it off. He succeeded before promptly plunging into the river with it. What a delight!

The squirrel activity was not so heartening. Regardless of the time I rushed down the garden clapping my hands and shouting shoo and soon came face to face with the creature about 8 feet above my head. For what seemed like minutes we stared at one another before finally he gave in and - still clutching a cluster of nuts in one paw and hissing and chattering - he hurtled off into the Judas tree before a rather ungainly leap onto the fence and off. I am pleased to say he does not seem to have been back today!

Cob nuts or no cob nuts?

2011-09-10T17:02:00.002+01:00

Suirrel-devoured cob nuts!

An article in this week's Metro answered my question about whether my tree is a hazelnut or cob. It's a cob. But my disquiet at the thought of cutting it down and loosing the lovely harvests of nuts was rather settled last night when I went down the garden to find shredded cob nut calyxes and nutshells all around. A squirrel - or more! - has beaten me to it. (I know it's squirrel damage rather than mice as they simply tear the whole thing apart and bite into the shell any old how. Mice do it nice and neatly making a little round hole - goodness only knows how. I don't have an issue with the mice - they are not so greedy!

Cl Princess Diana

The torrential rain during the week had beater some of my favourite dahlias to the ground but they seem to have forgiven me and have survived being tied upright again - much more securely. They have shot up during the past few weeks. Of the two clematis I planted in pots Diana seems to be doing best. Charles seems to be sulking - I may have to move him.

There was a good dish of raspberries to be picked and I climbed up my ladder to pick the best of the Cox's which were threatening to fall on the greenhouse.

Aquilegia seeds from Sicard in France are coming up well.

The seeds I have been planting are coming up both in and out of the greenhouse. I am intrigued to know how well things will do planted this season for next. An unwelcome discovery was that the seeds I have been nurturing indoors for about a year have not come up - the earth is just growing moss! I am thinking of just sticking them outside to let them take their chances - they couldn't do worse!

First fall of nuts

2011-09-04T19:05:00.000+01:00

The weather forecast actually correctly predicted a fine day yesterday and I really made the most of it with a thorough tidy up in the garden. The new grass seed I put down has taken really well - although I realised the very strong growth underneath the bird feeder is actually a very dense crop of wheat! Still, it blends in well.

Put more Miracle Grow on the dahlias, planted a grow-bag in the greenhouse with assorted salad leaf crops, picked a reasonable bowlful of delicious autumn raspberries and collected the first hazel - or cob nuts - I still haven't figured out which. They are quite hard to find amongst the dense growth but worth the effort both to eat and also to limit the number of saplings which emerge each spring. I must have pulled up about a dozen this year....

The best part of the day was early evening, settled with my book and a glass and reading until the dusk became too dense to read. Good job I made the most of it. This morning we got absolutely drenched shooting in woods. It reminded me of the jungle rain storms I had been reading about in Ingrid Betancourt's book about her captivity in the Colombian rain forests "Even silence has an end". It smashed a few dahlias but I am surprised how fresh the garden is still looking for late summer.

August Bank Holiday

2011-08-29T19:05:00.000+01:00

It has hardly been sun-bathing weather but the long weekend has turned out much finer than anticipated. I even had lunch in the garden today (Bank Hol Monday!). Compared with previous years the most predominant feature of the garden is how green it is. I have hardly had to water - except taking the landlord of a pub with wonderful flowers" advice and watering regularly with Miracle Grow (regularly for me being I managed 2 fortnights in a row).

After a slow start the dahlias have started fulfilling their promise and my efforts in pinching out the growing shoots and flowers seem to have resulted in shorter much bushier plants with plenty of buds. Not all of them are out yet so I have yet to assess the success of the pinks, reds and whites colour scheme. Next year I must find a really deep purple - I know they exist. I am growing Arabian Night again - a gorgeous deep red - but it suffers from weak stems which mean the flowers flop over. Must find an alternative next year.

Extraordinary - lunch in the garden!

Dahlia White Star

Dahlia Edinburgh

My replacement Prince Charles clematis and the deep pinky-red tulip-flowered Princess Diana (yes, it WAS an accident) I have planted in deep pots and placed in the (erstwhile) herb/rose garden, the pots shaded with old roof tiles. I am hoping this way I can feed them well and stop the ants getting too badly into the roots (I put ant powder in the base of the pots!). So far, so good.

As everything has been growing so fast there's been a lot of cutting back to do and on Saturday I went round to my neighbours and did a massive cut-back of things which were growing over from my side. It looks a whole lot better and will help prevent the fence from being forced apart by too much ivy, hops and R. Kiftsgate. I have now really learned my lesson about fast-growing plants to screen things. Treat these situations with patience and caution. Time passes very quickly in gardens.

This also applies to the tress and shrubs I have planted. I have been having a serious review and decided that the hazelnut tree will have to go, the Judas tree needs a major cut-back and one of my hibiscus also needs removing. It's flowers are really pretty - a deep mauve-pink late in the summer - but it has grown so tall that I never see the flowers, only when they have died and drop off onto the grass where they quickly decay into a soggy, sticky mess. I will keep one and cut it back but give the garden a bit more light from the other.

I'm hoping this reduction in tree-dominance will give me more light and encourage the roses to grow a bit better too. Eight foot echinops are dramatic and make lovely heads for cutting but I'd rather be able to have a better crop of roses at eye level.

One climber which is very well-behaved is the eccromocarpus scaber I grew from seed last year - which miraculously over-wintered. I would put it down as a must-have in any garden!

Eccromocarpus scaber

The aquiledgia seeds from Martine in France have started germinating and I planted some seeds of astrantias today. Am also experimenting with French beans in Grow bags in the greenhouse.

Wildlife note: Have seen the mice scampering about around the garden again and had to break hard to avoid a big hedgehog crossing the road nearby on Saturday night. A big splendid fellow.

The unexpected

2011-08-16T22:20:00.000+01:00

I went down the garden to look at the first dahlias but got seduced by the maturing allium seedheads... How often is it the joy of the unexpected which gives us the most pleasure in a garden?

Sun and showers

2011-08-07T18:00:00.003+01:00

It must be the school holidays again! So much for an afternoon in the garden - every time I stick my nose outside it starts raining again. Not that I'm complaining. It's much better than watering. It can also be quite beautiful. Everything shines and the garden has a green glow and a smell of things growing which is quiet energising. I can almost hear the snails shouting out in celebration at their good fortune!

I picked my first green beans this week - and they really do taste better than shop-bought. So I planted a few more in the hope they will keep going until the frosts (horrible thought). I also picked my last sweet peas. I pulled them up in despair. Mildew, yellowing leaves and very few straggly flowers were not what I had in mind but I think the problem was down to lack of regular watering. Another "must try harder" if I can really be bothered....

Spent several hours pouring Miracle Grow on the dahlias, pruning and tidying - not least the hop which really has its own plans - not least wrapping itself around some incredibly tall globe thistle flowers. I was at the top of a step ladder when I took these 2 shots.

This group of fading globe thistles reminded me of a bunch of unruly teenagers.

A few nuts have fallen off the hazlenut tree - very early and rotten inside when I cracked them. There are a lot more to come, promising a good crop if they hang on.

Very tasty

2011-08-02T21:11:00.000+01:00

Did I say that Rabbity from the other neighbour's garden never tried to get out? Well, as Saturday proved, I was wrong. I was doing some tidying up when I looked up to see this friendly fellow bounding towards me - before he turned round and had a good nibble at some plants I had just bought for the studio tubs. No real harm done but initially I foresaw a potential repeat of the previous rabbit incident - except this time the neighbours were out and I had shortly to go out shopping.

I needn't have worried. This rabbit is very friendly and once he had sat and let me stroke him for some time he had a bit of an explore before being apparently shocked to see how bold the horrible hairy cat from "down the end" is when there isn't a dog about and soon shot back under the fence from whence he came. I then filled in the gap!

Another pleasant surprise this weekend was the discovery that at last - after well over a year - the seeds I have been trying to propagate by carefully following the instructions of periods in the cold followed by periods in the warm - and then again - have finally begun to show signs of life. I had to think hard to remember that they are Tropeolum speciosum - a lovely perennial climbing nasturtium with small deep red flowers and Lilium formosanum - a white autumn-flowering lily which I could not find for sale as either plant or bulb. Now I have the huge responsibility of nurturing them to maturity. Still, it's a less responsible task than rabbit care - even though yesterday I was sorely tempted to adopt a small black and white dutch rabbit from the local pet shop who "needs a loving home"....

Lots of tidying up over the past couple of weeks and cutting the gorgeous heads of alliums and poppies to dry. Anyone like some? The French beans are making valiant efforts to produce a handful of beans enough for a small feed and the autumn fruiting raspberries have started to ripen. Also an exciting package of seeds of purple and white aquilegia arrived from Domain Sicard in France. I am hoping they stay true rather than cross-polinating with my varied collection but will hold some seeds back just in case.

Last but not least the dahlias are beginning to show colour. I am so looking forward to them this year.

ART

2011-07-30T12:22:00.001+01:00

No, not Art, ART - the Agroforestry Research Trust. The organisation is a registered charity in Devon run by the energetic and much-talented Martin Crawford based on the concept of Forest Gardening or Agroforestry., i.e. "the integration of trees/horticulture to create a more diverse growing system." Find out much more at: agroforestrey.co.uk

ART publishes a quarterly journal covering such topics as Truffle growing, Trees and shrubs yielding edible oils, The importance of bees in nature, Forest products from insects. Some of them are fairly whacky ideas but equally fascinating and inspiring.

But I am mentioning it now because I have recently received their annual catalogue of Fruit trees, nut trees, plants, seeds, books and sundries and I strongly recommend any enthusiastic gardener to get it. Not only does ART aim to offer the most comprehensive range of fruit and nut plants in Europe - everything from an extensive range of apple trees to mulberries to ginko and pecan nuts, grapes to goji berries, but it is also a fascinating read. This is obviously where I discovered the origin of Mahonia aquifolium as an edible fruit plant but where else would you discover Aquiligia vulgaris (Columbine or Granny's bonnet!) listed under Vegetable and salad plants. Three varieties of fuchsia are also sold for the fruits!

ART runs courses and can also be visited - it is definitely on my list.

My first apricot

2011-07-17T17:46:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I dodged the showers in the garden (having got drenched going for a walk!) and picked my first ever, one and only, apricot. It looked very unpromising with some deep brown scars from irregular watering but it was absolutely delicious. I will definitely make the effort to protect the flowers from the frost next year.

Deceptively peaceful-looking evening view

2011-07-14T20:38:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately, it's not as peaceful as it looks. Hence view from inside...

Blacks and whites

2011-07-10T19:12:00.003+01:00

I was having my constitutional first cup of tea in the garden yesterday when I wondered what the crashing about by the house was and to my delight discovered that the blackbirds have not forsaken me and my mahonia bush. There was one beautiful glossy black male doing his best to get a good tuck in - but not very quietly!

I picked a few handfuls of loganberries, the remaining red gooseberries - ouch! - and then the black currants - only a pound and a quarter but just enough to make a few pots of jam, my first ever black currant jam. I was surprised to discover that you add water to the fruit - but it worked out OK, only OK. I think I should perhaps have picked the fruit a little less ripe and made allowances for the small quantity in the pan as it cooked very fast and set so quickly I had to scrape - rater than pour - the last potful out of the pan. Still, it was a start.

More picking flower buds off dahlias this week to encourage stronger growth and I remembered to give them a good feed with Growmore. Elsewhere the different forms and textures of foliage are coming to the fore with a few exceptions such as bright red crocosmia Lucifer, a prolific clematis "Minuet" hiding from the house behind the trellis (bad design move!) and the white perennial sweetpea providing about the most prolific flowers at present.

Normally white, this Iceberg rose has been discoloured by the rain

The odd, quaint, bloom sometimes provides the most satisfaction at this time of year.

Of burglars and berries

2011-07-03T17:57:00.007+01:00

Mahonia berries

Ivy, rampant roses and clematis seem a brilliant idea when you plant them - but they are also very good at taking over, forcing their way between fence panels and shading out just about everything in a space-limited garden - unless you are prepared to put in the hours and collect the scratches. I spent a very large part of a beautiful Saturday pruning and have just about succeeded in getting the jungle under control. Satisfying. Pity I can't go out and enjoy it today - there is just too much noise!

Fierce spiny thorns on gooseberry

Next on the list is picking the gooseberries and black currants. This week brought a revelation about gooseberries. I have always thought you had to cook them with sugar to make them edible but a friend told me to just leave them on the bush until they are almost falling off - and he is right - they are divine. No sugar necessary - at all! But their picking is not a job I relish as their prickles are so fierce - more like spines. In fact when there were some attempted burglaries in the area I was most distressed that someone had jumped over my (high) fence and demolished half of my precious pink gooseberry bush. But maybe I had the last laugh - I bet in REALLY hurt! That was the last straw before I decided to get a burglar alarm fitted (not that it will help the gooseberry bushes much!).

Another very spiny plant that produced the most beautiful berries is mahonia, also known as the Oregon grape as apparently the berries are edible, although I have not plucked up the courage to try them. Usually I don't get chance as the blackbirds go crazy for them - developing all sorts of unblackbirdlike acrobatic tactics of hanging upside down, jumping and diving at them. This year - for some strange reason - they are leaving them alone!

Mahonia berries showing very spiny leaves

Swifts and lillies

2011-06-30T22:19:00.000+01:00

Lilium regale

I notice that the RSPB are on the look-out for sightings of swifts. I was only just wondering what these dynamic swooping, peeping birds were - I always confuse swallows, swifts and martins - but now I know and I am very chuffed that they have been whizzing about in the most dynamic fashion over my garden for years and particularly this week.

It has been a good week for unusual flying things. I had to rescue a bat which was flying in a panic round the gym. last night - to the horror of the staff!

The garden is really way ahead of its self this year. So much so that it is almost about to enter what I think of as its high summer quiet patch, before the dahlias and late shrubs get going. Best at the moment are the regal lilies which, along with honeysuckle, are filling the air with heady scent. I could never have too many of them.

Lilium album reflecting in bird bath

Lilies with Rosa Pat Austen

Favourite fruit tart...

2011-06-27T22:14:00.000+01:00

On Sunday I made a fruit tart which I had thought to photograph - but it didn't last long enough. Using up some rich sweet pastry (with ground almonds) and an assortment of fruit - mostly picked on Saturday - it made an irresistible treat. It has to be made with fresh fruit or it lacks texture. I usually use red currants and raspberries but this year it was an assortment of 7 things - red and black currants (the very first of the season), raspberries, loganberries, strawberries, fraise de bois and pink gooseberries. Good job this mix of fruit is only available once in a while!.

Dorset cottage windows

2011-06-24T10:56:00.000+01:00

We just spent a lovely weekend with my sister-in-law at her cottage in Dorset. It was Netherbury's Gardens Open weekend and - unsurprisingly - we had a Sunday of torrential rain but luckily we had made the most of Saturday!

Sadly, it was probably the last time I shall visit the cottage that my brother and sister-in-law restored as reluctantly Lulu has decided to sell it.

It is a happy cottage with 250+ years of history, a delightful cottage garden and some picture-perfect windows - as you can see.

Rambling Rose

2011-06-10T07:15:00.001+01:00

When I bought the rose labelled "Kiftsgate", it seemed like a great idea. It is a common mistake when starting to plant a small garden to buy things that will grow fast but there has been a lot of time when I have wondered at the wisdom of this purchase. I'm now not even sure it IS Kifstgate. However, I have now decided that I don't care at all how dominating this rampant beast is - it just turns the garden into fairyland for at least 3 weeks every June. It is just about at its most explosive best just now. I thoroughly recommend it!

More crazy poppies

2011-06-05T19:00:00.002+01:00

Mutant poppy centre in Saturday's sunshine

as above, today, fading in the rain

What a business woman - redcurrant story

2011-06-05T18:43:00.001+01:00

Having had a surplus of redcurrants for the past several years, this year I thought I had come up with a bright idea to get some recompense for the hours and hours it takes to pick them. So, I rang up the Waterside Inn in Bray and asked if they would be interested. Chef was duly asked and said yes, they would like them if they are not too acid. Hmm, well I thought it was worth a try. So I wrapped the bowl up and beetled off to Bray this morning. The charming young lady on reception said she would take them through and came back a few minutes later with my empty bowls (I had also taken a handful of alpine strawberries literally because I thought they would probably really appreciate them) and said: "Chef said they are very nice. Thank you very much." I left chuckling to myself that I will never make a business woman, although I did have the presence of mind to leave my number and say I had some more but I would like some recompense for them. Still, it is rather nice to know that the guests at the Waterside Inn are enjoying the fruits of my gardening labours - literally!

Here is a little shot of the very first pickings of raspberries and redcurrants last week. I can't pick any more just now as - happily - it is raining!

Rain on mutant poppies

2011-05-30T20:12:00.004+01:00

I ramble on too much. Here are some pics of the most astonishing poppies - and another allium christophii, for good measure.

Late May views

2011-05-30T19:29:00.003+01:00

View through arch as Kiftsgate begins to open

This bank holiday I have been perfectly happy to see it rain although the garden itsself doesn't seem to have minded the dry weather and everything is still way ahead of usual. One advantage of the dry weather has been that things haven't grown quite so out of control this year meaning less rushing out and staking things dripping with rain. Also the grass has just about stayed green but hasn't needed cutting every 5 minutes. Maybe all this is about to change....


Clematis and roses - this IS a bit of a jungle

Here are some general views as a contrast to this time last year. Perhaps the most significant thing I have noticed is that for the first time the left hand side of the garden seems to be doing well - probably as it has more light since next door's high conifer has been removed.

Not a garden for tall people - the honeysuckle does its own thing and smells divine

The left side of the garden is flourishing - much helped by things which have self-set

Dahlia planting

2011-05-30T19:11:00.000+01:00

I am so glad that last weekend I spent a whole day digging up tulip bulbs and planting my dahlias.   Some of them - from Rose Cottage Garden - were quite small but the ones I bought early from various garden centres were getting so advanced that I actually had to pick out flower buds from some of them.

This year I have gone for a much more harmonious colour combination going through from white in various forms via the pinks and purples to very deep reds which go toward black.   I am already wondering if there will be enough contrast but I'm hoping the softer balance might give a more continuous feel in my tiny space.   I have also tried to find lower-growing varieties and am aiming to pinch them out to keep them smaller....

Varieties are:
White Star, My Love, Jura, Eveline - all basically white
Seduction, Orfeo, Purple Gem, Le Baron - basically pink - magenta. 2 of Le Baron haven't come up so I have asked Rose Cottage Plants for a replacement....
Edinburgh - deep purple tipped white
Natal and Arabian Night - deep red
Nuit d'Ete - very dark crimson

Luckily we have had some lovely rain since I planted them....

Early allium christophii

2011-05-17T22:07:00.004+01:00

A few wonderful "bonus" hours in the garden this week have given me time to observe just how far ahead everything is this year - a good 3 weeks. I would be worried that there will be no colour left by mid June if it weren't for the fact that the dahlias are coming along so rapidly that I have had to start nipping the tops out.

I think I like the promise of things to come almost as much as when everything is in full bloom. Is it the anticipation or the sadness that they will soon be over? Maybe a bit of both. The allium christophii just bursting forth definitely fits the former - as do the white peony buds. The white rock rose treats me with delicate buds and delightful fallen petals. The only thing is it's growing so far over the path it is almost becoming a hazard...

I am very pleased with the roses this year. I gave them a very thorough spraying one still day in early April and there is very little sign of mildew and very few black spotty leaves. Gave them another, less thorough, spraying this evening. Bayer's MultiRose certainly knows its stuff. "Kiftsgate" seems to be reaching further than ever and is threatening to cover almost everything given half the chance!

The self-set foxgloves are so user-friendly. They seem to transplant without any complaint - given a few days of good watering. I seldom notice how beautiful the bee guides are but I did today!

"Let me in..." Chaffinch visitor

2011-05-17T08:26:00.000+01:00

If the rabbit wasn't enough of a surprise, for the past couple of days I have had another unexpected visitor but this time one who actually seems to want to be let in to the house.

A chaffinch has taken to perching on a wayward stem of clematis armandii hanging across the kitchen French windows and keeps tapping on the glass. I wondered if he could see himself reflected in the dining room mirror but I don't think so (have tried closing the door between!) and he even went around to the side window to try it too!

While it is very amusing, I hope he gives up soon - in favour of a more productive pursuit.

Either way it will teach me to keep my windows cleaner. (It IS a bit of a standing family joke!)

Unexpected visitor

2011-05-10T08:55:00.000+01:00

Luckily I was going to work late this morning because when I looked out on the garden I noticed s furry gingery creature happily sniffing around it turned out not to be the unwelcome ginger cat but my neighbours' rabbit!

I let him have a bit of an explore - interested to see how much damage a rabbit might do (I've always thought I'd rather like one but that rabbits and gardens don't mix too well...) and he wasn't too distructive - a bit of digging in bare patches and a bit of parsley chomping - before cornering him in the greenhouse and asking my neighbour to take him home. That proved fairly tricky!

Rain!

2011-05-07T20:05:00.000+01:00

Today we finally had rain - the first for at least a month, a really good soaking and my first rose is out - Zepherine Drouhin. The Clematis Montana hasn't so many flowers this year although the second cutting from my Mum's which is now trailing about over the old dead cherry tree trunk is doing well and its flowers seem to be scented - a delicious soft powdery sweetness, very faint.

Almost all of the tulips are finished and I am trying to decide whether to just dig them up and give them away or try and sort them out and keep them. The first batch of dahlias have come on so well they really need planting out!

Not a lot of colour just now - the most cheerful things are the first batch of alliums, the common peony and the many-coloured aquilegia which never disappoint.

Hoping for more rain tonight!

A week at Sicard, South West France

2011-05-07T10:43:00.003+01:00

Have just spent a beautiful, peaceful week at Domain Sicard, a lovely gite owned by the most delightful couple. Ironically our weather was better in the UK but it didn't matter. Martine and Wout have developed their garden little by little from scratch so that it has areas of planting which gradually blend into the surrounding counrtyside. The most magical thing for me is a path which winds up the hill behind the house, carefully strimmed into the grass to guide you but not interfere with the environment, to a little bench with wonderful views over the surrounding hills. This is also about the only point you can get a telephone signal!

Shade planting

Evening view

Wild flower meadows blend into surrounding countryside

View from the top of the garden

Wild orchids

Early morning tea and tulips

2011-04-22T13:17:00.002+01:00

It was hot in the garden by 9.00 am this morning. Everything is coming out at once and the tulips will be over in no time. But I am really enjoying them. They are so much more exciting than what you see in the catalogues as they really do their own thing. No controlling nature!

Special spring herbs

2011-04-20T10:43:00.000+01:00

I Love Lovage and Sorrel too...

There are two slightly unusual herbs which grow well in my garden and whose first emergence always inspires me to cook my favourite recipes with them.

One is Sorrel which I make into the easiest possible of soups - tomato and sorrel - with the added bonus that it is equally good hot or chilled with a little crushed ice added.

The other is Lovage - a rather large and potential thugish plant resembling celery in appearance but with a decidedly aniseedy flavour. While the young leaves are edible, the stems are best used for flavouring. I use it in another very easy but delicious casserole with onions, garlic and dry Martini(!) - adapted from a Judith Hann recipe for Guinea fowl - which works equally well with corn-fed chicken.
I have just discovered Hann's Herbs: http://www.hannsherbs.co.uk/tours.php Looks like the most wonderful day out either to the garden or cookery classes - and she was lovely to work with.

Parrot tulip Rai

2011-04-08T22:38:00.002+01:00

In the past week the tulips have come on at the most dramatic pace. The ones in the front border which catch the afternoon sun are looking quite scorched. Two pots of parrot tulips have grown in very funny shapes - following the sun - but what a joy they are. Here are a couple of images of Parrot tulip Rai. They were a last-minute decision but I am so very happy I indulged myself.

A bundle of noisy sparrows

2011-04-02T10:23:00.000+01:00

Just been alerted by a great loud cheeping in the garden which had to be sparrows. Mixed up in the branches of the bay hedge it was hard to tell how many there were - at least 4 or 5 - all seemingly shouting and tumbling over one another before they all flew off in equally raucous manner. I hope some of them come back to nest!

Mid March frost

2011-04-02T10:19:00.000+01:00

One morning I came down to find this frost had caught me and the garden by surprise - having put out my bird baths and failed to cover over the plentiful blossom on my little apricot tree - its first proper flowering. The bird baths are fine but I thin I may have lost most of the apricot crop. It also dissuaded me from planting dahlia corms which I put off until the end of March.

March has whizzed by

2011-04-02T10:14:00.002+01:00

So much for good intentions - March has whizzed by and now we are into April and everything is bursting into life so fast I can hardly keep up with it. But there are a couple of visually noteworthy events I have managed to photograph.

These pictures were taken at Savil Garden on March 5th. Most things were rather behind but there were some wonderful skeletal leaf and twig forms I could never have spotted otherwise:

Wood mouse

2011-02-07T20:25:00.002Z

I was thrilled to see an old friend in the garden this weekend. During the summer I had regular sightings of wood mice who seem to have made their home in the shrubs just in front of the french windows. They seem to love peanuts and the place I see them most often is on a bird feeder which they share mainly with blue tits. I don't know who is most afraid of who!

When I first saw these long-whiskered, white-bellied little mice I was a bit worried they may want to come into the house but although one brave creature actually ran under the kitchen step I was sitting on to steal sandwich crumbs one day, they have never ventured in.

They just provide the most wonderful entertainment.

A hint of spring maybe?

2011-02-05T12:12:00.000Z

I have enjoyed the pansies in my window box all through this painful winter but I had a lovely surprise on Friday morning when I drew the curtains. Two blue iris reticulata which had been tight buds the night before were wide open. On the window ledge they are at my eye-level, sitting looking cheerful as I write. So uplifting.

A clean sweep

2011-01-01T18:13:00.000Z

It seemed like a good day to go out and sweep up the thick coating of hazel leaves which were covering the grass and have a bit of a tidy up of the paths and paved areas too.   Although it was nearly dark by the time I finished, I think it will look a whole lot better tomorrow and maybe I have unearthed a few more goodies for the birds.

In the greenhouse I am astonished to find that the salad "cress"and coriander IS still growing along with a few other potted tender plants.   They seem to have survived the frozen soil.   So too has the parsley and land cress growing in the garden!!!

On a less positive note I decided to check my dahlia corms in the shed and oh, woe... they are not in good shape.   After all my efforts I will be buying afresh in the spring.   Never mind, it will be fun to choose some more! (and a lesson learned for next year....)

Redwings

2010-12-18T14:40:00.002Z

Just saw my first redwings for the winter - they always seem to come with the snow.

Snow!

2010-12-18T14:15:00.000Z

Garden in snow 18th December

Having entirely missed the opportunity of posting about the joy of picking coriander from my greenhouse 2 weeks back, I went down the garden this morning to discover that I don't think I'll be doing that again for a while as, even in the greenhouse (a strange murky place under its covering of snow), the soil in the growbags is rock hard.   Never mind, it was a good experiment while it lasted and proved that greenhouse-grown "leaves" can survive quite a bit of frosty weather before they give in.

I was treated to a very extraordinary experience today.   We have had a good 5 inches or so of snow but today is the day for me to bring in my Christmas tree and I thought I'd better get on with it before it disappeared all together.   So I had to get first a broom, then a paint brush to brush off as much snow as possible before bringing it into the house - all the while battling off more settling!   Anyway, its in now and has just about stopped dripping dry in the hall.   I just hope the shock won't be too much for it!

I am trying to take care of the birds.   Seeds and nuts in birdfeeders are easy but ground food is more tricky as it gets buried in the snow so fast.   I have chopped up some dried dates which the blackbird seems to be enjoying.

Bulb planting and since...

2010-11-30T20:44:00.001Z

Since I used up all the space on my laptop and had to have it "sorted" by very helpful Apple Genius in Regent Street, I am a bit out of date with my posts.   So here is what should have been posted early in November.   Up-date to follow (with snow news!) very shortly....

It has turned very cold now.   All my fragiles and garden furniture are out of harm's way but there is still a lot to do and so little light to do it in!

Have finally managed to get all bulbs planted.   In the herb/rose garden are tulips Ballerina and Burgundy (as per last year) but this time with Jimmy & Ronaldo - Parker's speciall offer!   In the main "border" are Orange Emperor, Marilyn, Maytime and Doll's Minuet.   I have packed a couple of pots with a crazy-looking new parrot-style tulip, Rai and squeezed another 25 allium Christophii in any spaces I could find.

A quick trip to the garden centre provided dwarf Irises (mixed), miniature Narcissus Minnow and a pack of mixed shade mauve pansies which I just about managed to cram into my window box before it got dark!

The garden is generally looking very green and brown - with just the odd splash of colour, mainly from the nerines and a few late aconitum but the winter jasmine is also in full flower and very cheery - it's a wonderful screening plant and incredibly well-behaved, even if it seems to flower when it wants to!

Biggest surprise to me was that I picked about 1/2 lb of raspberries today - what a treat!.

Small pleasures

2010-11-05T08:29:00.000Z

Even though it has turned mild again, I have put away the tops of my ceramic bird baths for protection against possible frost damage. It's a pity but a worthwhile precaution. Diana Roles' ceramics are technically frost-proof but if water freezes in any spaces, part thaws and then re-freezes, it expands and that is where the damage can be done. Pieces that drain or are smooth-sided are OK but I'm not taking any risks!

On the plus side, revealing the base of this piece has opened up more opportunities for the acer leaves to catch in cobwebs!

October - work to be done

2010-10-29T10:09:00.005+01:00

I had some crazy idea that I would be able to whip the dahlias out and pop in the tulips - in a matter of a few hours!!!! In fact just labelling the dahlias proved to take almost that long. Now I see why people buy expensive metal tags which they leave on plants - permanently. Anyway, I think I sorted them all out. The next thing was to allow time - in the right location - for the worms which refused to be made homeless to decide to wriggle out. Then came the small matter or hanging the tubers upside down for a week to allow them to dry out. Hmmm - makeshift arrangements in the greenhouse took a bit of thinking out but I was glad I hadn't chucked out all the old shelf supports. One greenhouse-length piece of wood balanced on some garden chairs seems to have done the trick!


Dahlia tubers drying on make-shift shelf in greenhouse

The first bach of tulip bulbs took longer to plant than expected as some multi-coloured osteospermum I had popped in as colour bedding have suddenly put on a new flush of blooms so I had to carefully dig around them. Another lesson there.

In the greenhouse the winter salad crop and herb seedlings are coming on quite well. Will soon have to decide whether to harvest some as "cress" or just thin out. May experiment with a bit of each.

Progress of winter salad crops in growbags in the greenhoue

The nerines are certainly worth growing. Sicne they are such a shocking colour I may even put in some orange ones for next year. That would be interesting!

More crazy nerine shapes - they are so worthwhile - however LOUD!

Last luscious blush of little acer (unnamed seedling from Westonbirt arboretum)

First frost

2010-10-24T08:23:00.000+01:00

So we have had our first heavy frost - on the night of the 20th - which has put paid to all the cheerful exhuberance by turning the dahlias black.    My temptation was to whip them all out of the ground so I could put in my tulips but apparently the dying foliage has to be left at least a week.
Instead I spent some time having a serious think to try and remember where I envisaged the tulips going.   The front border has emerged fairly unscathed from the house being decorated (very handy having a decorator who is also a gardener!) and the white paintwork at the bottom will provide a great backdrop for tulips so I put in all the bulbs I rescued from 2009/10 plus some new "Irene" - then remembered the crocuses I had dug up so shoved them in - they will have to take their chances.
There is some new colour - evergreen honeysuckle has started its second flowering, winter jasmine (very early!), the nerines are opening, a few late roses and most stunning are the acer leaves which have turned a luscious coppery crimson.
Red robin has been exerting his territorial presence and I finally saw a squirrel yesterday.
Now preparing myself for a lot of work next weekend.

What a mess!

2010-10-16T12:38:00.000+01:00

Suddenly the garden is looking pretty much of a mess! So much for hopes of cutting the grass - I think that would make a big difference. Still a lot of growth and quite a surprising amount of colour but I think this is the real turning-point. I fact tonight's predicted frost prompted me to be quite ruthless about cutting handfuls of gorgeous dahlia blooms - so this will probably be it for dahlia pictures this year!!!

I am posting a picture of the progress made by the nerines which shows just how much growth has begun to slow.

There are still PLENTY cobwebs (seen here catching the light behind crocosmia leaves) - must be a very good time of year for spiders, although I have no idea why. Are they fattening themselves up for winter?

Nerines

2010-10-10T18:48:00.000+01:00

Nerine buds

It did turn out to be a beautiful sunny day - if rather windy. Pruned forsythia, swept up some fallen leaves, picked a handful of raspberries and collected a few more nuts. So had something else. Before I realised the nuts were worth gathering I was throwing them into an empty pot. They have all gone!
Too wet to cut grass but gave 2 garden chairs a rub over with WD40 (yet another use of this wonderful stuff!) and put them in the shed for the winter.
Sitting with door open onto garden at dusk descends!

Changing hues

2010-10-09T16:45:00.000+01:00

Sadly, we are back to the time of year when I only get to see the garden at weekends and there has been a definite change towards autumn in the past week.   The amelanchier has begun to shed its leaves and the acer is turning.   Everything is just beginning to look a bit messy. I so hope the promised sunshine materialises so that the grass dries out enough to cut.   That always tidies things up!

But there are still little surprises.   The autumn raspberries are putting on quite a crop although the rain has turned them mildewy before I could get to them.   My growbags in the greenhouse are full of little seedlings of lambs lettuce, American land cress, rocket and leaf coriander (cilantro) - exciting!   Must remember to get more perpetual spinach to plant outside before it gets too cold - such a worthwhile veg..

My tulip bulb order arrived from Parkers last week- plenty of work to look forward to there.   Lovely bulbs.   I am impressed with Parkers.

The dahlias are still going strong, the rather strange buds of nerines are pushing their way through, the autumn crocuses and Japanese anemones are in bloom and a few stems of late aconitum have flowers for about the first time so I'm glad I didn't dig them up last year.

Today I picked a tiny bunch of delicious-smelling sweet pea mattucana and nasturtiums including a gorgeous rust-coloured one.   Also despatched another 3 lily beetles and missed one.   They are certainly prolific.

Dahlia "Seduction"

2010-10-08T17:23:00.000+01:00

Or ... seduction by dahlia.

Steam and cobwebb

2010-10-03T09:11:00.000+01:00

Saturday morning was astonishingly bright - if very soggy. While many things were battered down by the heavy rain others shone with gathered water droplets including this cobwebb caught against the light above a fence steaming in the warm sunlight.

Wet weekend

2010-10-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

Let's hope this weekend won't be as wet as it is forecast to be!

Late September view on a grey day

Late September

2010-09-26T08:46:00.000+01:00

I was concerned we might have a frost this morning - it was so clear last night.   But it's just chilly and very windy.    The wind has blown almost all the petals off my herbaceous clematis and it looks set to do a lot worse today - everything is thrashing around rather unsettlingly!
Mid-week's sunshine must have helped warm some of the seeds I planted in the greenhouse into germination as there are tiny green specks showing and the rhodochiton and clematis seedlings seem to have put on a spurt of growth.
The first - maybe the only! - flower on my cup and saucer plant (cobea scandens) has now turned its beautiful purple colour.   As I tried quite hard with it this year I am concluding that its east wall positioning isn't allowing it enough sunlight.   What a pity!   It's such a fun plant I must have a go with it somewhere sunnier.   More flowers are coming on the eccremocarpus - so hope they manage a little flourish before the frosts come.   Another lesson there - to plant them earlier next year.
Collected another small cache of cob nuts yesterday.   Something has evidently eaten some (will try and identify what from shell remains) and there are doubtless going to be a few more seedlings in due course.   I am keeping one or 2 in case I have to replace this tree as it's growing at such a pace.
The autumn raspberries are making many more buds and I picked a small handful of fruit to add to my cereal today.   They are big, round juicy fruit, quite different from earlier season ones.
Just had a visit from a collection of great tits, blue tits and greenfinches - even saw a great tit on the bird feeder with a greenfinch.   Unusual as greenfinches are usually such bullies.

Changing light

2010-09-25T10:13:00.001+01:00

Another surprisingly sunny Saturday morning - a completely clear blue sky when I went out around 8.00. But the light has definitely changed to the sharper, lower, more contrasty quality of autumn. The amelanchier and potted hydrangea leaves are definitely beginning to turn. Some very heavy rain showers have battered the taller annuals and I'm very glad I picked that bunch of dahlias mid-week. Still no frosts though.

Lily beetles again

2010-09-25T09:01:00.000+01:00

I have been surprised just how many lily beetles I found on my L. regale this year. I have obviously missed a lot as this is what one stem looked like the other day. The closer shot shows the orangy-coloured larval stage which disgustingly covers itsself in its own excrement! Apparently this stage lives for a couple of weeks on the plant leaves and then crawls to the ground where it pupates and finally emerges as a beetle a couple of weeks later. The beetles can over-winter! Wish I had paid a bit more attention earlier in the year. For more info and a survey see: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Science/Plant-pests/Lily-beetle

Matucana

2010-09-19T18:57:00.000+01:00

Decided today that I must be more disciplined about my planting - mainly with regard to colour schemes. There really isn't space to do all I want here so I shall try and learn from this year's wild enthusiasm for dahlias and limit myself a bit. Still, it has been a greatly enjoyable experiment. I think I will try and keep the rose and herb area to a colour palate similar to that in this shot of sweet pea Matucana which has suddenly come on really well in the past week. I wonder if it was responding to the tomerite I gave it last weekend? Will have to experiment. Anyway, this palate with a slightly deeeper orange than Noordwijk's Glory (which is such a pretty shape). Maybe see what Sarah Raven recommends....

Had to water the garden today as it is so dry. Also planted up some grow bags in the greenhouse with a small quantity of lambs lettuce, corn salad, land cress and cilantro (leaf coriander). Hopefully they will get going before the days shorten too much and give me a bit of winter greenery. Also having another go at growing Lilium Formosanum and Tropaeolum Speciosum from seed - also planted today.

Picked up quite a few more nuts and shelled and toasted them. This was a very bad idea as I have eaten a LOT!

Little nut tree

2010-09-19T10:01:00.000+01:00

Something may have "got" the squirrels! Having been plagued by them stealing nuts and even wrecking a bird-feeder on occasions, this year, for the first time, I have a small harvest of decent-sized cob nuts from the little tree which grew from a seedling in my brother's garden some 20 years ago. Seeing some lying about on the ground I nearly ignored their edible potential - as they didn't rattle I took them to be empty but in fact just the opposite is true. I may even make a nutty merignue!

Surprisingly fine day yesterday but there was tidying up to do after some strong winds during the week. Have decided that shorter dahlias might be a better idea next year - less work and some of the big ones are a bit dominant. On the other hand shorter ones seem more vulnerable to ear-wigs - shook another one out of a flower pot trap yesterday (very effective method!). They also need a lot of water. Although I'm sure it's rained here since last weekend I realised that some dahlias were wilting by the afternoon - and recovered after a few cans of water. They have responded well to a feed of Tomerite last weekend. Just hope the frosts hold off a bit longer. While I am on the dahlia topic, I was surprised to find one really healthy-looking plant of d. Seduction is producing blind buds - must look into the cause.

Hot spots

2010-09-15T22:08:00.001+01:00

One of the most satisfying aspects of gardening, for me, is the joy of the unexpected. Things just happen. It is a constantly evolving canvas and sometimes you wonder where on earth the paints came from. I certainly never expected a patch of such fiery hues as this dahlia grouping to find a home in my small patch. The first shot was taken in the early morning, blooms still heavy with rain, featuring Karma Bon Bini, the second (following tomorrow) mid afternoon as I was trying to sit down long enough to enjoy a small bottle of beer - an impossible feat for a gardener (the sitting, not the beer).

Joining KBB is Cactus Nuit d'Ete and orange Pompon New Baby. In planting are also Cactus Tutu, Natal, decorative Arabian Night and decorative Seduction. But I can't get a decent shot of the whole lot together!

Early September jungle

2010-09-15T08:49:00.003+01:00

Oops, nearly called this autumn jungle, but let's keep it as late summer. The early summer sun, followed by wet July and then more sun when the children went back to school (!) really seems to have suited the garden and it's flourishing just now.... So here are a couple of views.... with dominant blues! Dominant reds to follow.

Rosa Pat Austen through Clematis Wyevale

in brief

2010-09-13T21:58:00.002+01:00

Such a wonderful day yesterday - all of it spent in the garden and so glad I did as it looks like that might be the end of summer - ouch.... Needless to say, lots more pictures to share but I ran out of time and computer memory.

But, in brief; the first flowers have appeared on one of my eccremocarpus seedlings, a tiny heartsease pansy has self-seeded and opened its first bloom, I emptied out some earwigs from my earwig trap (luckily only the one shop-bought dahlia has succumbed), evidence of my laxness over lily beetles has resulted in some disgusting grubs and shredded leaves (photo to follow - I said I'd share the bad as well as the good), rhodochiton seedlings have at last started to make progress since I put them in the greenhouse, treated to a generous late spray of rosa Pat Austen, enjoyed the company of a crazy starling over breakfast, found another blue hero - caryopteris and LOVING my clematis Wyevale and dahlias. I so hope we don't have the threatened frosts to bring about an untimely end to them.

Oh, and spent all this evening agonising over my tulip order from J Parkers, who seem very good.

Pics to follow....

And back at home

2010-09-06T19:32:00.000+01:00

Dahlias still haven't all come into flower but have definitely not been a disappointment. Will be extending the range next year - trying not to miss ordering in good time! (although tulip ordering now has priority).
The recent rain and following sun have worked wonders with clematis Wyevale and it is just one mass of flowers.
Picked first blackberries and autumn raspberries.

White cactus dahlia Tutu with (probably) waterlily Requiem and various including Cl heracleifolia Wyevale in background.

Garden visit - Barrington Court

2010-09-06T18:46:00.001+01:00

Went to a very special house and garden at the weekend - National Trust's Barrington Court in Somerset. The 16th century house, once owned by the Lyle family (sugar people), is empty - except for Lyle's extraordinary collection of wooden paneling! I loved the atmosphere and the fact you could soak it up without having reams to read about precious furnishings.

The gardens are worth a visit in their own right - part-designed by Gertrude Jekyll (advice "by post"!). Even in September there was masses of variety - a delightful, airy white garden, some lusciously-planted herbaceous stretches and a waterlily garden overlooked by the restaurant which was positively bursting with fiery hues including dense beds of dahlia Grenadier. I shall be looking out for that. There is also an extremely productive walled vegetable garden and some whacky features like the umbrellas. Here are a few shots.

Hop picking

2010-08-31T20:39:00.000+01:00

Hop picking summons up images of long hours of hard labouring gathering the hop harvest for beer-making. Hops do smell wonderful - if you like beer that is! I managed to time my own hop picking alright this year, while they were still fresh and green and in between the showers so I did not have to bring them in wet! Just enough to drape about in the kitchen - gives the place a nice country feel.

The picture shows a few stems which clambered their way up into the amelanchier. I brought a few of these down with the aid of a step ladder and a walking stick but most will have to stay until the tree sheds its leaves and I can see what I am doing!

Unreliable i.d.

2010-08-29T18:42:00.001+01:00

How many of us have not carefully tended a sickly-looking seedling only to find out that what we have been tenderly nurturing some wayward imposter that has been lurking in the compost! I can accept that. What is more frustrating is carefully planting, labelling and growing on tubers which are labelled as one thing and come up as most definitely something else. Take, for example, what I have been confidently calling Cactus dahlia Natal which turns out more likely to be Orfeo and what is this cheeky soft magenta with the red stripes? Colours are inevitably subjective but shapes? Can a waterlily shape turn into a cactus, a pompon into a cactus? Still it's all good fun and I was delighted when this stripey fellow opened up right next to my small clump of old-fashioned sweet pea Matucana. According to the records it is Requiem but it looks a bit more exciting than that. Will have to be doubly careful with labelling next year - just in case!

After a particularly heavy downpour the sun came out on this sunny example of what I am confident is Karma Bon Bini. Not what anyone I know would expect me to have in my garden but she's so cheerful who could object?

Shy pink

2010-08-24T19:55:00.000+01:00

Peeking out from a fairly dry patch beneath a Choisya and a rather rampant clump of variegated ground elder I just spotted a delightful clump of pink cyclamen - truly heralds of the "a" word.

First hops

2010-08-23T20:28:00.000+01:00

As the rain clouds seem to have blown over, decided to trade gym for garden and was well rewarded.   The fish blood and bone I spread yesterday has been well watered in and my efforts in staking up dahlias etc seem to have been worthwhile.
More new things to see included the first flowers on clematis pistachio - another must - peeking out from the dense leaves of winter-flowering jasmine.   Picked the first blackberry and a few stems of hops in anticipation of more ripening before the rain turns them brown as happens so often.   I desperately need to replace the dry brown things collecting spiders in the kitchen.
A poetic close to this brief sojourn was an almost perfect silvery moon against a pale lavender sky.   What price half an hour in a garden?

Breakfast view

2010-08-22T08:35:00.000+01:00

This morning I got up early to watch the day begin - because I wanted to and not because I had to! But it was so dull I went back to bed to moulder and listen to the radio. Delight! - there was Lionel Kelloway on the Living World talking about beavers in Scotland, reminding me of a wonderful evening in the Ardeche sitting outside a restaurant in the middle of nowhere overlooking a river and suddenly spotting a small sapling frantically waving about from its base. It proved to be a busy beaver who we watching about his business for a half hour or so. A magical evening.

When I did get up the sun had started to break through catching the rain droplets on the garden furniture I seldom get to use....

August blues

2010-08-21T17:33:00.022+01:00

No, not a complaint about the very muggy weather but this is to flag up three wonderful, trouble-free blue-flowering late summer plants that I would never want to be without. All of them seem to be very easy to grow in my soil and seem to thrive on neglect. I have a bit of a problem with remembering the names so will be back with more details later...


Herbaceous Clematis Wyevale

Cl. Wyevale with Rose Warm Welcome

Ceratostigma Wilmottianum

Clematis Arabella

August and the "a" word

2010-08-19T21:31:00.000+01:00

A dear friend of mine had an unfortunate liking for the word "autumnal". Unfortunate in that she used to trot it out with regard to the weather when I was desperately trying to pretend it was still summer. I thought of her today as I wrapped my (horrible) fleece around me and set off, secateurs in hand, to see what has been going on during the past few days. The grass is certainly greener - and will need a cut for the first time in ages - but there is a distinct hint of the "a" word in the colours of the leaves and in the air... But there is still a lot of colour as this view from the rose/herb garden shows.

New dahlias are continuing to treat me (didn't realise I had so many white ones!) and I looked after them with a bit of dead-heading. Diana's "Feuille" ceramic piece acts as a wonderful foil to their showy heads....

Saw three lily beetles on the regal lily foliage but only managed to catch one. Oh dear....

August rain

2010-08-14T17:04:00.002+01:00

It has to rain in August, doesn't it. Some May/June sunshine followed by a drought and then as soon as the school holidays start - hey presto! Still, today I love it. The heavy showers are interspersed with brief flashes of sunshine and it's mild enough for me to keep popping in and out of the garden to see all the good this delicious rain is doing. Not even many slugs and snails about yet....

The dahlias are coming on just fine, so here is pink and white cactus dahlia Hayley Jane to say hello. (The flower in the background has its back to us.) I have managed to get a great deal of pink in the garden this summer which is a bit shocking as I'm not really a pink person. But it's fabulous in dull weather. Even a hydrangea which arrived white has gone pink in spite of my best efforts to turn it blue by adding iron filings to the soil. Maybe I need to bury some rusty nails right into the soil?

Diana's bird bath by the house looks particularly striking in the rain - as well as being a good indicator of precipitation when I'm not here to see it for myself.

I blame Sarah Raven

2010-08-06T09:18:00.000+01:00

A shot I took the other evening as the dahlias are beginning to "do their stuff". It's very exciting as, although I labelled them all very carefully when I planted the tubers, I have almost completely forgotten which I planted where and the labels are pretty much buried now.

It's all a bit garish - I blame Sarah Raven's "The Bold and Brilliant Garden" for that. It inspired me to get into dahlias several years back. But they are just so good for keeping colour going through the difficult late summer period. The crocosmia - just the bog-standard sort - in the foreground provides a great foil and just does its own thing.

Delicious Rain

2010-07-31T07:27:00.000+01:00

Yes, at last we have lovely gentle rain. I had forgotten how absolutely delicious it smells after everything's been so dry - like the early mornings of hot summer holidays in France. Can't ever remember being so happy to get up on a Saturday morning to rain....

Happy as a bee in pollen!

2010-07-29T16:16:00.003+01:00

Normally I wouldn't think of posting another 2 pictures of bees - and on the same plant (Echinops/Globe thistle) - but these fellows were so covered in pollen and looked as if they were having such a good time, I couldn't resist it. In the background of one are the first to open of my shocking orange dahlias. Dahlia pics to follow soon.

I was pruning and tidying today when I made a lovely discovery. The Clematis "Pistachio" which I thought had succumbed to the hard winter has 2 sturdy new shoots and even some tiny flower buds - so I may have a late-flowering clematis just where I wanted it after all! Still looking for a relatively small-flowered mid-late season variety - most of the white clematis on the market seem to be fairly huge....

The less lovely discovery was a lily beetle. It's easy to forget about them once the luxury of their flowering is over. I would love to find some later flowering lilies to extend the season and read about Lilium Formosanum in Christopher Lloyd's "Garden Flowers" but my first attempts to grow them from seed were a miserable failure. I think I rather overdid the copper fungicide spray. Will have another go.

Busy bees

2010-07-25T18:09:00.000+01:00

I just read in the RHS magazine that bee numbers are up. It certainly seems to be the case in my garden. Now the echinops are in full bloom there are masses of bees and hover flies busying about them.

Still no rain here - in spite of substantial cloud-bursts round and about. I can really recommend Maidenhead to people who are not so keen on rain!

Black and white

2010-07-21T18:12:00.000+01:00

In contrast with my redcurrant crop, I picked the sum total of my black currants and white currants in about half an hour. Never mind - it's a much bigger crop than last year. Spreading the bushes out to give them more light has obviously been worth the effort....

Hedgehog!

2010-07-16T21:43:00.000+01:00

What a reward for venturing out on a soggy night. My suspicions have been proven true - THERE IS a hedgehog who passes through my garden, at least one. At about 9.15pm I heard scuffling and scrunching and there on the path was a very smart, quite young-looking hedgehog clearing up my snails for me. I followed him or her for quiet a while as it pottered about and finally went under the fence next door.

Other firsts this week were a wonderful, decent precipitation of rain which seems to have done my eccremocarpus seedlings far more good in 2 days than all my weeks of careful watering and I picked my first French bean. Now I am going to eat it!

Gooseberries and dragons

2010-07-10T16:15:00.000+01:00

My goodness has it been hot - and no rain for ages.   But lots of things have been enjoying the sun - not least my pink gooseberries.   There is only a small crop this year since a would-be burglar climbed over the fence and landed on the one bush, demolishing half of it (I hope it hurt!!!) but plenty for a gooseberry pie tonight - with ice cream....

The garden is beginning to go into its high-summer phase now with fiery shades to mark the season.   Alas I have lost quite a few treasures to the hard winter but other things are looking promising.   Along with the first dahlias in rich reds, pinks and orange, crocosmia "Lucifer" has spring into action this week, nodding its huge stems like small fire-breathing dragons.

Managed to choose one of the hottest days of the year to start digging up my driveway, removing paving slabs and underlying concrete to put it all down to gravel.   Madness.... but good exercise!   Great to have the cool and tranquility of the back to retreat to!   In the process I had to cut down a whole lot of aquilegia seedheads from plants in all different blue-white-purple-pink shades.   Anybody want any seeds?

For the birds and the bees

2010-07-05T17:48:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention that my wonderful Kiftsgate rose has been a MAJOR attraction for bees. There must have been literally hundreds on it some days....

Another thing they love is the honeysuckle whose scent is so delicious. Here it is as a backdrop to a clump of Globe thistles - also bee favourites when they finally burst into dainty blue flowers...

Summer begins to turn

2010-07-04T20:51:00.003+01:00

With the longest day passed there have been so many changes and so much to do, it's hard to keep up with it!   Having enjoyed 2 weeks of picking fruit for my breakfast, the raspberries have virtually finished now and I picked the last of approx 17 lbs of redcurrants yesterday,   But the loganberries have started to ripen so my breakfast fruit supply has been uninterrupted! Sheer fluke but great.

The regal lilies are in full swing now and my first dahlia has come out in the past couple of days - a lovely deep red.   I never have (yet) got round to making a plan of which ones are which but most are doing well and many showing coloured buds.

Most of the roses have finished their first flush and I still think the most spectacular feature of the garden is the Kiftsgate rose which has lasted beautifully for a full 2 weeks plus and relatively healthily this year. But I am still perplexed by the fact that it turns pink as it ages which really does suggest it isn't Kiftsgate but something else.   I must look into this further.   Anyway, here are 2 shots of it taken 2 weeks apart, which show what I mean!

Early morning light

2010-06-30T18:53:00.000+01:00

With this amazing hot weather the early mornings have definitely been the best part of the days and I have been cherishing my trips to the end of the garden to pick raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants for my breakfast.

Throughout the week the garden has been full of scent and buzzing with bees - there must have been literally hundreds on my R.Kiftsgate. While the alliums are going over and the first flush of roses, the lilium regale are stretching their wonderful trumpets towards the sun and I have been carefully wrapping hop tendrils around them to keep them in some sort of order.

My dahlia plants are coming along in leaps and bounds - those planted and brought on in the greenhouse doing markedly better than the one I planted directly into the ground which has suffered badly from slug attacks.

Attached are a couple of first light images - dew on a crocosmia leaf and early sun on Clematis Etoile Violet, alliums and geraniums.

Putting redcurrants to use!

2010-06-28T15:40:00.001+01:00

Redcurrant time

2010-06-23T22:34:00.002+01:00

I am astonished by my one redcurrant bush. Each year it produces a bigger crop and poses quite a major task finding time for picking - let alone deciding what to do with the fruit. There is a limit to how much redcurrant jam one can eat and most of one's friends seem to be on a diet of some sort. This year I have started taking the fruit in to work to distribute! But I can't be ungracious and ignore my prolific bush's generosity so most evenings I am spending at least half an hour fruit-picking - about 11 lbs so far... This one bush is in its third home and other than a regular feed of potash and fish blood and bone, it seems to need virtually no attention. Maybe the proximity to next door's cats and dogs helps keep the birds off - who knows....

It has been really hot today so after planting out a few more straggling dahlias and some penstemons I accidentally acquired on my way home today, I watered thoroughly, not least as my grass seed seems to have taken - hoorah! I expect now the slugs and snails will be out there drooling and licking their lips....

Return from the country of big skies

2010-06-20T19:12:00.000+01:00

We came back from our week in France yesterday. Saw 2 wonderful gardens, both very different and basked in the space and peace of the Normandy countryside. Rabbits (many! and of all sizes - very endearing), red squirrels, a family of rooks, nesting thrushes, fly-catchers (a first for me) and many more birds just in the cottage garden. So we really relaxed and made the most of it. Info. to follow.
I was a bit nervous about the state of my garden when I returned but this is how it looked from the kitchen. Needless to say I have spent the entire day on it today - including picking the first of MANY redcurrants.

Pretty pink ...

2010-06-10T16:19:00.000+01:00

This wonderful little perennial, very similar to a woodruff, was given to me and I completely forgot what it is.... However, a bit of research proved it to have several names - most of them very easily forgotten! Phuopsis stylosa or Crucianella stylosa seem to be options as are "long-styled crosswort" or "creeping crosswort". But I think I will stick more inaccurately to pink woodruff.

It is a very amenable little fellow though - tough, but not invasive and easily divided. It is happy in this lightly-shaded spot edging the brick path. I think it would grow a bit more compactly in more sun.

Bees....

2010-06-07T07:30:00.000+01:00

I am so happy to have LOTS of bees - at least 4 varieties of honey bees and some bumble bees. They seem most attracted to the comfrey and loganberry flowers. When it's quiet the air quite buzzes with them.

Not too many more lily beetles so fingers crossed I haven't missed been missing them.

No more than a spit

2010-06-06T20:39:00.002+01:00

I was so looking forward to a good down-pour! OK, so not much good for my neighbours' barbeques but they can cope.... We literally had no more than enough to make a pattern of spots on the ground.... So I have had to water my most recent acquisitions, planted today - purple herbaceous Clematis Lord Herschel, a dwarf Salvia Gregii, Savannah Purple - which has the most astonishingly black-currant-smelling leaves and an unusual white geranium whose label I have lost already!

But it has been beautiful gardening weather and the lack of any extremes has kept it all pretty much controllable. The white paeonies, roses and clematis are all trying to outdo one another presently and geraniums are coming into their own. Hard to do it justice in a photo, so I won't try.... Here are a few details in stead. They show R. "Warm Welcome", left, a self-set opium poppy and a classic-shaped bud of R. "Iceberg" - a plant given to me by my Mum who bought it in Woolworth's! It's a worderful, reliable scented white rose which seems to flower most of the season.

Chelsea chop

2010-06-05T09:25:00.000+01:00

I don't really have enough of anything to do much Chelsea chopping but I have experimented on some campanulas and picked out the tips of my dahlias which all seem to be looking healthy.

Made a very early start pruning this morning - while it was still quiet - and was joined by Mrs Blackbird and her three rapidly-maturing youngsters.   I had put out some apples left over from work.   She tried feeding the young with apple but it seemed to disintegrate too easily on their sharp beaks. Then she had a go at showing them how to eat it.   Oh dear, far too much trouble....   Far easier to wait for Mum to feed you.   They all seem quite familiar with me and will come within a few feet.

Pruning clematis and general tidying plus massive clearance of ivy from fence as my neighbours cut their side back - apparently completely.   Sadly the honeysuckle, just about to flower, has gone too.   Glad I took some cuttings....   But I do have a lot more light.

Dirty window

2010-06-01T21:27:00.000+01:00

No, the Bank Holiday sun didn't last.   But it was plenty fine enough for an early-morning dash to the garden centre pre-crush and a very long afternoon planting out dahlias.   Some are still very small plants in the greenhouse and a few haven't sprouted at all, but I have plenty - well, I should have plenty!

When I came in for a mid-afternoon cuppa something was amiss in the dining room.   Things knocked off the window ledge and dirty dollops sprayed about on window, floor and chair suggested I had had a bird visitor trying to make its way out through the plate glass window.   But no harm was done and a thorough search revealed nothing so I guess all is well.   Shall have to remember to shut the French doors next time.

My neighbours have cut back the ivy and honeysuckle on our adjoining fence to reveal 2 empty birds nests.   My Mum's neighbour was more unfortunate and upset a nest of robin fledglings with her pruning.   An object-lesson to hang on that bit longer before too much tidying-up....

Sparrows!

2010-05-31T07:55:00.000+01:00

There were no less than 8 sparrows all together under the bird-feeder at 7.30 this morning, 7 young and one adult male who visited briefly. Briefly, because although the young ones were feeding quite happily on their own, they mobbed him for food as soon as he appeared! Don't know where they are nesting but I do hope they stay.

The sun is coming out - but it's a Bank Holiday...?!

Rain at last

2010-05-29T20:27:00.001+01:00

In spite of it being wet and quite chilly during a visit to the Rare Plant Fair at Kingston Bagpuize house today, we have had some delicious rain this week - just before things really started drying out.    I put out most of the dahlias to harden off today so they have had their first proper watering.   I am awaiting the on-slaught of slugs and snails but hoping all the baby-bird feeding will see them put to better use!   The blackbirds have three very bouncy, chirpy young who seem to delight in hopping between perches in the shrubs near the house and a family of sparrows seem to have discovered a good spot for easy feeding under the bird feeder - a delight.

Picked my first roses today and the last (common) paeony.   Rosa Madam Alfred Carrier has settled in very well after being moved.   I think I am lucky as I understand from friends that they don't like being disturbed.   This year some stems of my R Kiftsgate look-alike have found their way over the arch to join her so it should be a gorgeous mingling of white turning pink-tinged with the hint-of-apricot white.

The clematis montana is virtually finished now but the mid-season flowerers are all starting to open.   My only loss to the winter was Pistachio which was very nice so I think I'll replace it - and find out if it was the winter or the positioning it didn't like.   I lost a lot of allium christophii too although some are flourishing so it's hard to imagine that was down to the cold.   I MUST replace them, they are such good value for their wonderful seedheads.

Bought a new low-growing clematis today from grower Marcus Dancer www.clematisplants.co.uk who told me he is developing 2 new colourways of Clematis Arabelle which I maintain no garden should be without - a dark purple one and a mauve-pink.   I so need a bigger garden....