December 2006
Here we are again heading towards the end of 2006 and waiting for the year to turn at the solstice. Overnight we have had strong blustery winds which have parted more leaves from their redundant moorings. The stems of the ginger, already frosted, have been laid flat in the direction of the wind, parted cleanly from the rhizome. The large Cotoneaster opposite which loses its leaves in spring has its silvered leaf backs turned to the direction of the wind and is looking a little blasted. Today is a day for tidying and putting more plants to bed. I hate to fast forward too much, but it won't be long before the snowdrops show themselves and Acacia baileyana starts to flower, the knobbly buds are already very apparent. The second sowing of sweetpeas, Wiltshire Ripple, which has maroon and darker speckles on a creamy background, is now showing, and I have pinched out the tops of the first sowings, Hunters Moon [cream], and Percy Thrower [lilac], to encourage more side shoots.

One of my Christmas Cacti [Schlumbergera] fell apart in mid flowering, a favourite for its golden flowers, possibly it was due to lack of water, I have taken leaf 'cuttings' which should start to root soon. It is somewhat more junior than a white one with shocking pink anthers which I realised that I have had for over 15 years. One of my orchids Oncidium ornithorhynchum has just finished flowering, a sweetie with sprays of small dullish pink flowers and a vanilla scent, this one normally lives in the bathroom which receives muted but bright light all year. Wonder of wonders a smallish green flowered Cymbidium has decided to stop sulking after 6 or so years and has produced a flower bud - this one was outside until the end of October to try and persuade it to do something. I have to admit that a couple more orchids are in decline - never mind.

More rain and wind is on its way ........

[03/12/2006]

November 2006
We have had our first spell of frosty weather, clear blue skies, golden light and crisp cold mornings. Once again Hedychium greenii has failed to make it into flower soon enough and now stems and leaves are browned and the life above ground ruptured. The seed pods on the other Hedychium have started to split revealing fleshy red seeds nestling in their scarlet velvet cups - slightly lewd and very eye catching! On the first morning of hard frost the Horse Chestnut leaves were raining down, the trees were shucking off leaves and stems as if they couldn't wait to shut up shop for the winter. Fuchsia flowers are browned and hang sadly, half of the Mina lobata [Spanish Flag] has succumbed, the rest is still in flower, but it is only a matter of time now. A few weeks ago I started to bring plants inside and noticed my Aspidistra Milky Way was flowering - purple star shaped cups just above soil level, very strange to see.

Today I took my first walk in the Bath Botanic Garden for a long while, a major makeover is underway in certain areas. The Glastonbury Thorn is in flower and berry at the moment, the medlars look very big and plump and the ginkgo's are starting to shed their golden fruits. The bees were making the most of the few white bells left on an arbutus.

I shall be sowing another lot of sweet peas this weekend. The aquilegia I sowed outside a few weeks ago have started to germinate. The lack of frost in October meant that I could take some late cuttings which were then put in a heated propagator, Aloysia triphylla [Lemon Verbena] and heliotrope were fast to root, but try as I might Salvia concolor refused to co-operate. This spectacular salvia reaches tree like proportions in one season with deep blue furred flower spikes in autumn, it seems pretty hardy too.

I went 'a sloe picking' two weeks ago, many were so plump the skins were already splitting. I then attempted jelly which would not set, I had to re-boil with the addition of the juice of two lemons - at least it stays on my toast now - intense damson flavour.

[04/11/06]


October 2006
And so it rains on and off this morning. My trip to SW France in mid September heralded the first significant rain they had had since spring, right in the middle of the grape harvest - and then came the Tramontane wind! The damp has prompted the late autumn flowerers into their display including a species begonia, Impatiens omeiana and the Saxifraga fortuneii is sending up knuckled buds for the late late show. Still in the wings for the even later show is Camellia 'Narumigata' and Correa 'Marians Marvel'. Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Alba' has flowered and flowered for months from late sumer - the thin tapering flower spikes providing some airiness in what is now a dark area again as the light levels fall.

Have started to comb the seed catalogues looking forward to next year. I am trying more unusual veg cultivars and different types of tomato mostly from Ferme de St Marthe including Tomato Teton de Venus which is slightly rude! [Buying direct is pretty much the same price as buying from the Organic Catalogue but there is a wider choice]. I don't think I will be growing Tomato Fox Cherry again as it had little flavour but it did have a very appealing pert 'cherry' shape [I am not sure if growing in the ground rather than pots would improve the flavour?]. I have also been investigating strawberries which I shall grow in pots as a little treat, Hapil seems happy in a pot and I have ordered Cambridge Late Pine and Mara de Bois.

The hedgerows are displaying an abundance of sloes, the outcome of the great creamy clots of blossom in April. Self seeded apples in glowing golds and rouge reveal their presence as well a great swags of rowan berries, hawthorn and dog rose hips. I have made crab apple jelly to savour through the winter and tomato jam from a Jane Grigson recipe which is just a bit weird.

Enough! - I must stop procrastinating and get on with some gardening jobs! [Except it's raining again - hard]

[01/10/06]


September 2006
Figs have ripened and the tomatoes in pots have finally started ripening a full 4 plus weeks later than the polytunnel grown toms. On a fig taste test Brown Turkey seems to be juicier than Brunswick but Brunswick lives up to its name and the figs are 3x as big. In the last few weeks the Cyclamen hederifolium have appeared which means for me Autumn is here again. The spiders now fat and large occupy strategic spots around the garden. One of my indoor orchids is also telling me that the light levels are changing as new flower spikes emerge.

The courgette in a pot is really not happy and is collapsing with mildew and not much of a crop.

I finally got round to repotting my auriculas, a job I shirked last year - dividing up the rooted 'carrots' and getting rid of older pieces. The roots of those grown in the John Innes 2 mix were much less vigorous than those in an ordinary multipurpose compost. A poorly rose in a pot, and on investigation no network of fine roots, shows me that my friend the Vine Evils have been at work and their progeny are already snug in the soil ready to hatch and munch through the winter so I will have to resort to a good drenching of Provado, especially as they really enjoy auriculas! Although there was no evidence of spring damage in those auriculas I repotted [I did lose one to the evils in the spring].

Seed harvesting has also begun - sometimes it is a bit tricky trying to work out what constitutes the seed! Some are finicky to extract like the geraniums - get it wrong and seed is flung across the room never to be found again. I intend to contribute to The Hardy Plant Society seed distribution this year as I have felt guilty about only 'taking' in recent years. I shall also muster the energy from some autumn sowings in the next few weeks - especially umbellifers, many of which germinate best when seed is fresh and sown outside in the autumn.

[02/09/06]

August 2006
Have the Swifts gone? The Swallows were busy today with wing stretching and displays of flying prowess but they won't be off for a while yet. The grasshoppers are making themselves known, even at Oldfield Park Station amongst the grass and Crow Garlic. My Spanish Broom was laid low by a heavy downpour, the weight of water on full blooms pulled the whole tree over - they seem to be fairly shallow rooted. I also managed not to heed my warnings of last month and have had a wonderful set of blistering welts on my arms caused by heat and plant sap - itch, itch!

My courgettes in a pot have finally started setting as have my tomatoes, Fox Cherry and Purple Beefsteak, which went into pots a bit late. I seem not to be the only one with courgette setting problems this year. Tested some of my Ma's green tomatoes, Aunt Ruby's German Green - which she wasn't impressed with, but fried I thought they were fine and a little different. Pantano, a beefsteak from Seeds of Italy has proved a hit, with good early yields and flavoursome and which has been rated by the family as better than Brandywine.

The continous sunny weather has made it worthwhile buying British strawberries this year so I have been eating more and have decided Elsanta is really not worth the shelf space [a work colleague reckons even after 2 weeks at the back of the fridge they still look good or is irradiation back??] - in supermarkets Driscoll Jubilee is quite tasty [M&S and Waitrose]. I bought a couple of Hapil and popped in a pot somewhat late in the season and I have to say one warm strawberry direct from the plant beats everything! I have also really enjoyed cherries from Brogdale in Kent - no airmiles there either!

Been eyeing up my Brunswick figs today - are they plump enough to pluck ...?

[04/08/06]


July 2006
Feeling hot! Hot! Hot! We are having a tropical heatwave, as they say ........ temperature is hitting 30°C, everything goes flaccid and gets stressed - you wouldn't know that last Monday it rained and rained and rained. I am hoping that the fresher weather they are promising towards the end of the week turns up for the Carymoor Environmental Centre Grand Open Day on Saturday.

Glorious in full flower at the moment is the Spanish Broom [Genista aetnensis], a useful if gangly tree [and short lived, mine is about 5 years old]. You don't really notice it until the rich yellow pea flowers open and then it has a similar 'wow' impact to an Acacia dealbata in full bloom. The bees are working the flowers, and in the cool of the morning large snails hang precariously from the slender branches almost popping out of their shells with the effort. Are the thin 'twigs' the flowers appear on technically branches??

Still getting to grips with the accumulated growth of many of the climbers and letting as much light back in to the garden as possible. I was cutting back yesterday and blisters appeared where a leaf had brushed my neck, remember to be careful with plants such as rue, euphorbia and in this case Heracleum lehmannianum especially on sunny days when the chemicals the plants exude can react with sunlight.

Over the last few days the scent drenched space which I originally set out to create has kicked in - however briefly. Lonicera japonica Hall's Prolific [later flowering than halliana and I think more scented] is mingling with Lilium regale, Trachelospermum asiaticum and the last of the Matthiola incana alba - delicious and sumptuous!

The spiderlings are fattening and the garden is filling with webs - shades of autumn.

[02/07/06]

June 2006
Had a good day at the Bruton Packhorse Fair on Monday, lots of interest in Tritelia ixiodes Starlight, Anthriscus sylvestris Ravenswing, various aquilegias, Geranium sessiliflorum Nigricans and G. pratense Purple Haze in particular.

Plants are rushing on apace, I can't believe how much growth an elder can make in its May push for dominance, stout shoots appear almost overnight threatening to block out even more sunlight from my garden - snip, snap off with their heads.

I think I have what is supposed to be a Southern Marsh Orchid but it doesn't look much like my wild flower guide illustration [it is not dug up from the wild in case anyone asks!]. Recently visited Bob Brown's nursery and he had loads of D fuchsii with so many spotted leaf variations one could become an obsessive akin to the galanthophiles but even more expensively!

The roses are starting to make their presence felt in the hedgerows and gardens. The recent wet weather and crafty cold winds have hampered blowsy Souvenir de Madame Léonie Viennot but she is now basking in the warmer weather and sunshine and I can also see how far she has travelled under the cover of the escallonia!

[02/06/06]

May 2006
The season is in full rush now and the Horse Chestnut trees are so very close to being in full flower, a few candles are already flickering at the bottom with opened blossom. We had rain overnight and now the sun is out, a glorious day for growth and expansion!

In my parents garden a group of Morels [a fungi that occurs in spring] randomly appeared, they do not look like a mushroom but maybe tripe or a crumpet with vastly expanded holes on a short fat stem. Having checked with a reference book first [Roger Phillips], the Morels were picked and consumed - very delicious they were too despite appearances.

The Blackthorn in the hedgerows are absolutely clotted with blossom as are other trees like the Amelanchier, was it the effect of the cold spell holding it all back or does it depend on last year's growing conditions? We haven't had the accompanying 'Blackthorn Winter' this year.

Sweet Cicely [Myrrhis odorata], at its best and freshest now, the leaves have a characteristic grey splosh where they meet the main stem. The leaves have an aniseed scent and flavour and can be used to reduce sugar required in stewed fruits and according to a recent correspondent in apple pies too. When I was younger I would have regarded it as rather boring, now I think it 'charming'. Mrs Grieve notes that a decoction of the roots in brandy is a valuable tonic for girls 15 -18 - I bet it is!

The newspapers have been full of items about the production of 'unseasonal' food flown in from Africa and Spain where the extraction of the water required to grow salad crops, beans and tomatoes is having and will have an even greater negative impact on the environment ..... food for thought.

Here's to a green May Day!

[The swifts are back, a small group doing low ariel sorties in Oldfield Park and others riding high in the cool gusty skies 02/05/06]

[01/05/06]

April 2006
Whan that April with his showres soote, The drought of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every vein in swich licour, Of which vertu engendered is the flowr .........
Chaucer's opening to the Canterbury Tales seems very apt today. The lifting of the cold weather has brought everything on at a merry pace, some of the earlier flowerers like Camellia Masayoshi playing catch-up. Every day the Wood Anenomes unfurl at least an inch, my woodbed ramps with Moschatel and things are poking and sprouting every which way.

The countryside too is yawning and stretching - after some vicious downpours, yesterday afternoon I bounced and rattled around various villages on the 767 bus from Frome, the sun shone and the fattening buds could be seen on the ash trees, daffodils nodded in gardens and pats of primroses glowed on roadside banks - it was all very picturesque.

The magnolias in the Bath Botanic Garden which were still just peeking from their bud casings on Friday have all burst in to glorious abundance.

A pair of Jackdaws are attempting nest making in my chimney which is bringing down showers of twigs and old mortar, it's the first time since I have been here that this has happened and I hope they move on soon to somewhere a little more suitable.

Spent much of the last two days checking pots, cutting back and pricking out, renewing acquaintance with my plants as they re-emerge and tutting over those that have perished, the penstemons have not done well, nor has the Anthyllis vulneraria.

[03/04/06]

March 2006
The earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone ........... not quite true but we have been held in an icy grip again which will see off some of the more tender plants which cannot hold out against the sustained cold and frost we have had so far this year. In the last week we have had blustery snow and quiet snow with hail in between, none of which has settled with us.

Last weekend I sowed more seeds and pricked out a few too. In some of last years pots seedlings are making their presence felt despite the inclement conditions. I also potted on my Opuntia robusta cactus which was not without peril! And I bought myself a Queen of the Night cactus which may bloom in my lifetime and one of the pillar forming ones.... I have never been very fond of cacti but am growing to like some, but only some. Visit the cactusshop.co.uk

Sadly I didn't take the picture of the acacia at Bormes les Mimosas but what a lovely patch of sunshine on a gloomy day. The A baileyana in my garden is still tight shut but so far not clipped by frost [touch wood].

[03/03/2006]

February 2006
I sowed some seeds indoors a few weeks ago and immediately we entered a cold grey period, some are therefore reluctant to germinate, others are stretching hard towards the light. Early risers in the heated propagator include mixed aeonium, Ptilostemon casabonae, Golden Strawberry and Heteropyxsis natalensis.

We have had a few sunny days but the high pressure is generally gloomy. The last time I remember a period of this sustained cold greyness was in London many years ago and when it lifted people visibly 'lifted' too.

Snowdrops and iris are up but 'held' by the cold.

Started to clean up my auriculas one top just came away - Vine Weevils ugh!

I applied for and have bought fewer seeds this year and I put in for the left overs from the Hardy Plant Society which has some interesting seeds which I wouldn't have actively chosen but shall now enjoy growing, these include seeds from Rose Blanche Double De Coubert, Meconopsis napaulensis and Scilla peruviana. There has been some criticism in the RHS magazine of the new charges for the admin of the seed distribution. I came to the RHS seedlist late but feel the choice is not as good as it was, but I presume it is a victim now of its own success and I didn't order this year.

Christopher Lloyd passed away this week.

[04/02/2006]

January 2006
Here are some of my gardening tasks and activities for this year ......

I must get out and about more with my plants at various local shows in 2006.

Work harder on the village garden soil - finally turn the cold compost heap after two years. Prune hard some of the trees as they start to mature.

Re-work what was the red bed into a looser and airier planting that can cope with sun and dry soil, winter exposure to south westerlies and where new plants get hammered by the resident mollusc population. I have been seeking inspiration from the Rix & Phillips book - Annuals. I will try more annuals including Statice Sunset and Sweet Sultan sown in plugs not in situ to give them a better start. Interplant more Linaria purpurea amongst the Stipa, Carex and Deschampsia and maybe root out more of the oriental poppies and other bits and pieces.

I resolve to start redefining my Bath garden. Dan Pearson one of my favourite garden designers wrote recently that it's not failure or defeat when you have to say goodbye [or au revoir] to plants, trees and climbers one has nurtured [having the energy is another thing though!] If anyone in the Bath area wants a free heavily pruned Drimys lanceolata, severely hacked back Heptacodium miconiodes or Buddleja saligna please feel free to contact me in the next month or they get recycled - please bring your own spade and transport!

And finally I want to visit my friend in Aude this year in late spring to savour the garrigue waking up!

Here's to good gardening in 2006

[01/01/2006]

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