December 2007
Feeling wet, wet, wet! And a bit cold. We had a perfect little sharp snap, brilliant sparkly frosty mornings, blue skies, fab deepest orange sunrises. Now the Bath Christmas Market is open - it's raining and gales are predicted. Frost and then wet, so much foliage limply rotting and mouldering, so very English winter weather.

Whilst some things have retreated underground, in pots, hyacinths and Iris reticulata are tentatively poking their noses through the compost. Sweet peas sown a month or so ago are now 4 inches tall and will soon need the top growth pinched out. The aspidistra is in flower again - one flower in each pot, the purple star edged cup is at soil level, so easily missed.

In my parents garden Buddleja auriculata is in full flower against the side of the house. Another shrub in flower is Coronilla valentina glauca and glauca Citrina, Coronilla can be expected to perform on and off through the winter depending on the severity of frost that we get.

[02/12/07]


November 2007
Another calm, still, golden day, the gentle patter and phlup of falling leaves, gathering rooks on telephone lines, solitary crows flying missions, a sibilance of Long Tailed Tits, stalking heron in the middle of a field. No real frosts to speak of, so many things still expending themselves until that one cold hard night. The woods are beginning to look barer, the flare of still leaved individuals contrasted by the subtle browns that become our palette for the next few months.

Sowed some tree seeds which will stay outside and see what happens in the spring, Paper Bark Maple, Tulip Tree and Magnolia - have I got room for them? No!

In my mother's garden the yellow cupped Cassia is still in full bloom, the flowers on some hebe's and a colletia are attracting late Red Admiral butterflies for the brief hours the sun warms up corners of the garden. The bees are going mad for the lily of the valley scented mahonia.

Squash trials - not a good year, we grew the squashes and courgettes outside and with the cold, wet and low light levels this summer it took a time to get anything to set. Best performing courgette, Black Beauty. Rugosa needed a better head start and having much softer leaves probably would have preferred more warmth. Potimarron was the only squash to set properly and come through unscathed, Olive started well but then rotted off, Blue Banana didn't get much of a look in. Non F1 cucumber Long Green Mariacher cropped very reliably in the poly tunnel.

As plants around it die back the patterned leaves of the Arum are pushing through all shiny and new. The foliage of Muscari muscarimi is emerging strongly, powered by their large bulbs. Have finished putting my bulbs in pots, usual suspects including the dwarf Iris danfordiae, the yellow flowers are so cheerful and early, also Iris reticulata Gordon and Narcissus Ice Wings. I danfordiae is unlikely to flower again for you but it is worth popping a few in every year somewhere you can see them from indoors.

Time to start scouring seed catalogues!

[04/11/07]


October 2007
It is one of those beautiful, calm, blue sky golden, October days. The lowering sun casts long shadows, plants are gently starting to give notice that this is it now for 2007. Apart from the Cercidiphyllum which has gone, 'That's it, I'm outta here', all candyfloss scent and a muddle of heart shaped leaves on the ground. The Hostas are stripped ragged, it no longer matters. Spiders webs are betrayed by the light and the wasps befuddled, individuals slowing down, their energy seeping away - the future now residing in the new queens who will emerge soon. Last year we had an invasion of Crane fly, this year very few, boom and bust? Conkers, not so many either.

I was tempted by those autumn cyclamen at the local DIY store, a few of which now reside in a windowbox by the back door for the scent. The white one's generally seem to be the most scented. Are they artificially brought into flower now? Last years' have been in leaf all summer then the leaves just started dying away a month or so back, the corms seem solid and sound.

It is early October and in flower in the garden are, Dichroa febrifuga, Pelargonium sidoides, Dregea sinensis, Lonicera similis delavayi, Aster The Prince, Impatiens omeana and another species impatiens, the white persicaria is still going, a tentative astrantia, Colquhounia coccinea, fuschias and a couple of somewhat reluctant dahlias [Union Jack and Asahi Chojhi] , the mirabilis are just coming to an end, I don't think the miniature pomegranate is going to manage to open its buds.

Inside, the Christmas Cacti have started putting out a few exploratory flowers, the main show is yet to come. The cuttings I took in Spring are coming on nicely and the sorry remnant of the parent plant which collapsed has also put on a few buds.

Back out to enjoy the day ........

[05/10/07]

September 2007
Nights are closing in ........ end of the summer [what summer? some may remark] there is scent in the garden. Clerodenrum trichotomum now a large small tree, grown from seed, is nearly at an end but still beguiling. The 4 o'clock flower Mirabilis jalapa has just come in to flower. The flared trumpet flowers open late afternoon and are closed and gone by mid morning, the scent too is appealing. The local DIY store was filled today with the lemony sweet scent of the small cyclamen sold for autumn container planting. Someone's experiment with gladioli in pots for sale didn't work - sad looking pots with sparse foliage were on half price sale. I do grow glads in pots in a haphazard sort of way and have some flowers, the primulinus don't seem to mind it too much.

The Caryopteris has had less capsid bud damage this year, the fluffy blue flowers and silver foliage are lighting up the semi shade in the mid tier of my garden. My mother has had problems with Romneya coulteri, no sign of those lovely single white blowsy poppy flowers for a couple of years. This year she sprayed for capsid bug, et voila! Lots of flowers.
Last week I bought two very pinky Sarassa Comet goldfish to replace the one's some workmen killed with over zealous mortaring in the vicinity of the outdoor tank this spring. The fish have very quickly cleared the tank of mosquito larvae. Leaving a gap between re-stocking has also meant that the pond weed has established itself nicely at the fourth attempt.

My father was less than impressed with Strawberry Mara de Bois earlier this summer - but now tells me the later crop is absolutely delicious - amazing what a bit of sun and warmth will do!

Listen to the September podcast

[02/09/07]

August 2007
It's been raining, it's been pouring, old men have been snoring etc. Flooding in parts of the UK, cold grey days and sulking vegetables. Parts of the Med have been sizzling with uncomfortably hot weather - bad little Niña! Over the last few days we have had glimpses of what summer could have been, although today rain is expected later. The hot spell we had in April has obviously confused some plants or at least triggered earlier flowering. Dahlias have loved the moisture and early warmth and been giving a grand show since early July. In my mother's garden, the hot orange David Howard, deep purple-red spidery, Nuits de Eté and zingy scarlet Bloodstone have proved fairly hardy, certainly through the last few winters. Some shrubs and trees have also benefited from the extra moisture.

On my way to work there is a wild bees nest in a manhole, on cold grey days they are very dopey and listless, any warm day and the activity speeds up again. It also seems that the butterflies are maniacally making the most of these rare glimpses of summer. It is a very spidery year, I have layers of webs in the garden containing spiders of all different sizes. It was quite amazing watching one of the bigger one's despatching and wrapping an unwary wasp yesterday - extremely speedy!

Tomatoes and squashes have been under performing and blights have set in early on potatoes too. They are predicting potato shortages in the UK partly due to flooding and just the general wetness of the year. I am plodding through some re-potting, I have found that over the course of a couple of years John Innes can become claggy at the bottom of pots and plants begin to suffer. Hosta plantaginea in particular hates this and starts to rot off at the bottom and look very ill - cleaned up and re-potted she is starting to revive. An agapanthus grown from RHS collected seed flowered for the first time after 3-4 years which is pleasing, however Purple Cloud and a seed grown A africanus stubbornly refuse to flower for me, constricted pots have not worked, maybe it is the light levels generally in my garden, not just this summer.

Listen to the August podcast

[05/08/2007]

July 2007
We have had rain and more rain, but not as much as some parts of the country, it is 10:00am and the sun has come out, hooray! Yesterday was firmly grey and drizzly. Many roses have been caught badly, the older roses in particular fail to open and rot off. More Sweet Peas are out from later sowings - Wiltshire Ripple is a heavily speckled blackcurrant and white but I don't think it is as scented as some. My plants are coming on fitfully and the snails have decimated the annuals/biennials I was bringing on for sale - Wallflowers, Scabious Chile Black, Carthamnus, Cosmos all gone, everything reduced to pathetic stumps. I am also not convinced about the peat free composts for growing in pots especially.

Dahlias are out earlier this year, Bloodstone is proving to be a stalwart in my mothers 'exotic border' and in my garden Union Jack has so far survived significant snail attack. The Geranium palmatum has been flowering on stems 2 and more feet high which makes a great sizzly pink show.

The picture shows a bit of my woodbed, the plants featured whilst not entirely snailproof are more so than some, although most things with emerging juicy shoots are at risk in Spring. The Epimediums E x omeiense and rubrum apart from emerging shoots are generally trouble free; ferns no problem, astrantia and the big furry leaved Bergenia, B ciliata is so far untouched.

Yesterday evening I was watching two toads trying to get up the steep steps in the garden, they just couldn't make it and kept falling back - why did they want to scale the steps and almost simultaneously?

[01/07/07]

June 2007
May shot by in a blur and a flurry of potting on for the Bruton Packhorse Fair at the end of May. After a total washout on the Sunday, the Monday of the fair was happily somewhat improved - the sun even came out! Sadly the citizens of Bruton and surrounding area were not in the mood to purchase heritage vegetables. The early season meant a lot of people had already bought and also the heat had pushed other plants I had planned to sell to flower too early, so all in all only fair to middling. One TV archaeologist actually dragged his partner away from my plant stall before she even had a chance to browse - bah humbug!

The battle with my rampant climbers has well and truly commenced, Schisandra rubriflora has shot up an elder tree in a neighbouring garden and is threatening to block all the evening light, it actually flowered fitfully this year for the first time but is white flowered which I didn't expect. It has now had a severe chop. The Wattakaka [Dregea sinensis] actually seems to flower earlier and better for being cut hard back in the autumn.

The first proper roses I was able to pick this year were Madame Alfred Carrière from my Mothers garden, my choice of roses in my garden are not as beautifully scented. The first Sweet Peas to flower were in mid May from November sown seed, Hunters Moon and Percy Thrower. I have had my first strawberries [grown in pots] Red Gauntlet was the first to ripen but Hapil is close behind.

More potting on to do ......... the Carymoor open day is fast approaching

[09/06/07]


May 2007
And the 'fab' weather continues - Oh please rain on my parade! Often May announces its entrance with thunderstorms, expected at the weekend but obviously chased away to France. The freshness of May is there but there is a little parched feel too, that essential dripping moistness and soft haze is missing. The one good thing is it has really deprived the slithering hordes of essential fodder - but what carnage will they wreak when finally we have a wet spell? The June Gap looms, one of my Ma's bugbears, fairly mythical of late but a reality this year. Have just come back from Edinburgh and expected Scotland to be way behind the balmy South West, daffodils waving etc. - not so, we are almost neck and neck.

Most years on May 1st I report the Horse Chestnut candles are tight shut or barely lit, this year the petal snow is already drifting in the streets. I think the swifts are here - walking back from Oldfield Park just a few drifting high, loads of insects but a northerly wind.

[01/05/07]

Update - finally we have rain, leaves unaccustomed to the weight are lying flattened and the toads are on the move again. Maybe the laggard trees will be encouraged now into full leaf - the Ash has been well behind the Oak this year. It has almost felt like summer these past few weeks but the trees still to furnish themselves with leaves have given the lie to that [07/05/07]

April 2007
What fab Easter weather! Sunshine - bright but with a chalkiness to the light. Blackthorn is well out and buds are swelling and bursting all around. A few days ago there were Brimstone and Holly Blue butterflies on the wing. I am somewhat 'planted out' having potted on hundreds of plants for two and a half days. Getting ready for the Bruton Packhorse Fair at the end of May. Today I fancied some retail therapy and a 'pick me up' for the woodbed which has suffered the ravages of next door's builders. I came away from a garden centre in Bath with a couple of bunches of pondweed. I was looking for woodies like epimediums and Dicentra formosa, nothing! The Garden Centre was heaving however. A visit to a small independent garden centre in Gillingham was much more enticing a few days ago, I only went for more compost but came out with a pot of Muscari macrocarpum, its deep golden bells giving out a sumptuous and irresistable scent. I would have come away with more as the displays were so good - but I had work to do! My father did a bulb swap last year with Josephine Dekker in Holland and Irene Copeland and Butter and Eggs are both now in flower, the frilly Irene Copeland is the preferred newbie.

Seed germination is still a bit hit and miss, my peppers are all up but prone to draughts so I have to keep popping them back into the windowsill propagator. One windowsill propagator is warmer than the other, great for peppers and toms but other seeds are less forthcoming in the higher heat. Seeds sown outside in a cold frame in Jan and Feb now germinating include Jasione perennis, Scuttelaria incana, Lunaria annua and Sweet Cicely. Congratulations to Ina who has had an article on auriculas published in Dutch magazine Tuineren.

I am off to sink the pondweed!

[09/04/07]


March 2007
It seems that many plants are flowering about three weeks ahead of last year. I know this because I have been checking the dates on images taken with my digital camera. I visited the Bath Botanic Garden this morning and the Acacia dealbata is fully in flower next door to a single flowered prunus, last year I took the same view 3 weeks later. Magnolias are starting to burst their silky buds and the daffodillies are really coming into their own. In my garden Ypsilandra thibetica is also flowering earlier than last year. The fresh green leaves of the Moschatel are emerging and for a while will cover the whole wood bed until disappearing back underground in the summer.

The lion weather this year missed March by one day, the 28th of February was very gusty and rainy and has been followed by less extreme weather and even a frosty morning [we are only 3 days in ... more blustery rain is promised tomorrow]

Tonight is a full Moon, I am going to miss the optimal seed sowing slot again, not being an expert I think a waning Moon is not auspicious? On Gardener's World last night an experiment suggested that sowing by the appropriate phases of the Moon may actually make a positive difference to your vegetable crop. I do miss the allotment sometimes.

My seed order from South African company Silverhill Seeds has just arrived and very promptly - so I had better get them in the propagator fast! Things have been a bit slow generally on the windowsill germination front - I blame the lack of sun. So far I have Echinacea purpurea, Salvia pratensis, Purple fennel, Mimulus, Aquilegia viridflora and Matthiola incana up in varying stages. Outside in the cold frame Echinops tienschanicum is pushing up and some campanula have also appeared.

The heady rush of Spring will soon be seriously upon us - lush!

[03/03/2007]

February 2007
I had it in mind that February is the cruellest month - but I was wrong T S Eliot describes it as April. To me February is on the cusp between Winter and Early Spring - never mind. After a positively balmy January we have had two whole days so far with frost in the morning - accompanied by lovely sunny days rather than miserable grey murk. Still not a whisper of snow here this year nor in Nov/Dec last year.

Camellia Mayasoshi is in its first flush of pinky-red and white splashed flowers; the jarring but cheerful yellow of Acacia baileyana continues; Galanthus Brenda Troyle is slowly increasing - the plump white drops now number seven and when the sun touches them the propeller petals will lift for a while to reveal her skirts. The jade buds of Muscari muscarimi are beginning to show their promise and I think my first daffodil, Crewenna, will be out in the next few days. The Sarcococca is pumping out scent from the odd off-white tufty flowers which run along the thin branches.

Last week I heard a flapping against a window inside, and there from nowhere was a Tortoiseshell butterfly - where had it been? A little sadly I freed it to fend for itself in the cold cruel world.

The whump of envelopes coming through the letter box containing seed packets means I must start my first sowings, I am not sure about planting by the waxing and waning moon but it is definitely on the wane today - never mind. It is so tempting to carry on ordering the promise that is in every seed packet, but then one has to take action and continue to take action pricking out, potting on, putting out - so the season's cycle begins, again - comforting?

Global warming caused by humans, didn't we sort of know that? So now what?

[04/02/2007]


January 2007
A grey Christmas followed by wind and lashing rain over the last few days - nothing like gales to blow the old year well away! I have been tardy in my garden tidying and already the huge fig leaves are disappearing into the earth, aided by the worms. Others will take much longer to break down. On the allotments I used to dread hitting a seam of beech or plane tree leaves on the leaf mould mounds the council provided, they took forever to become properly usable.

As is traditional for this time of year I have been studying seed and plant lists but must inevitably curb my enthusiasm - I can only grow so much. The choice will be a mix of old favourites and some new challenges as well as some annuals for fun. The main vegetable seeds have come from St Marthe, lots of squashes and tomatoes. I finally got down to eating a Marina di Chioggia squash [Seeds of Italy]. Last year at a plant fair someone turned their nose up at Chioggia, well I thought it was fine, especially for more savoury dishes - golden orange flesh and a good keeper. Only problem is once you have started on these large warty beasties then you have to keep going - I had to eat rather a lot of squash in one week.

Today is a day for more cutting back and tidying - yet again trying to reclaim my garden from inappropriately planted climbers to restore more light and air - hasta la vista Lonicera similis var. delavayi - no doubt the Pyracantha and Rosa Souvenir de Madame Léonie V will extract their revenge - I find some plants especially roses are meaner than others, Lord Penzance is another.

In the park the old Arbutus on the main avenue has cracked and fallen. It was such a pleasure to see this graceful sinuous tree with it's ruddy bark - a most huggable tree, but now gone.

[01/01/2007]

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