ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
That's both the summer solstice and the calendar midpoint passed. Half way through Wimbledon too and the Brits are dropping like flies. Blight in some of my potatoes too. A very ordinary summer. Picking six things in the garden at this time of the year is about choosing what to put in, what to leave…
I have a garden full of plants and I’m forever taking pictures of them. They get dumped onto the computer in folders with the date of their dumping to identify them. Eventually I go through them and delete the ones I don’t want.Looking back through photos I took a year ago I don’t always know…
We opened, we survived, we open again tomorrow. I did a short blog about the experience, which was a good one. We have nine more openings, taking us to 22nd August, so we have to keep primping and preening until then. We both found the whole thing very tiring and were desperate to get to…
Wednesday at 2pm was the appointed time. It came and went without anyone appearing, which was a little unsettling. We had signed up to open our garden for the National Garden Scheme, persuaded by the local organizers who were keen to add some smaller and perhaps more relatable gardens to their local offer. Small gardens…
Next wednesday is our first opening for the NGS so I thought that rather than pick out six individual items I'd go with six viewpoints. When visiting gardens there are always going to be things that have just gone over and things that aren't quite open yet; the sense that last week or next week…
Our first NGS opening is on the 23rd but we had something of a dry run with a group from Liskeard on wednesday afternoon. It all went well, which was a relief. Having spent weeks coaxing things along and primping and preening it all, it's hard not to feel a bit flat afterwards. There's plenty…
It's all coming on apace now, making up for lost time. Everything is filling out and bare ground is disappearing; a good thing, I don't like bare ground. Lots of things are in bud, like peonies, dahlias and hydrangeas and it's tempting to include the promise of things to come but the things already happening…
At long long last we have some decent growing weather. It feels like everything is miles behind but looking at pictures from last year doesn't bear that out. There seem to be a lot of things on the verge of flowering and rather fewer actually performing, but serving up six helpings at this time of…
Nearly the end of May and we've yet to have a spell of really good growing weather this year. The forecasts have often suggested that things might be getting better only for it not to materialise, so I'm trying to attenuate my hopes for the coming week. Gales are particularly unwelcome and all you can…
Pruning books tend to be unhelpful when it comes to pruning Camellias, typically saying that they require no pruning but may be cut hard if it becomes necessary. It's not how I go about it. This is Camellia japonica 'Bob Hope'. This had grown as big as I wanted it to get by about six…
