It’s not uncommon to hear gardeners lamenting the lack of colour in their garden towards the end of summer. I’m quite pleased at how much colour I have still and confidently expect it to carry on for some time yet. Let me set out my approach and the principles I follow. Parks departments, and to…
Author: Jim Stephens
Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast.
I love colour, it cheers me up.
Retired nurseryman.
Six on Saturday – 24/8/2019
It's still only 7:30 and I've been out taking pictures in the garden. I usually have it all wrapped up by Friday but I was busy building a new shed instead and nothing may come between a man and his shed. It was a weird day, I popped out to buy some timber first thing…
Six on Saturday – 17/8/2019
Oh dear, more rain. It was supposed to be dry today. Friday rained all day. At this time of year a rainy day can be an expensive day. I sat at my computer, browsing Parkers catalogue, Peter Nyssen's catalogue, then Potterton's, Avon Bulbs and Ron Scamp's Daffodils, just to mention the ones with whom I…
Allotment update – 12/8/2019
I haven't had much to say about my veg growing this year and I have to admit that the weedy appearance of the plot suggests my enthusiasm for it has faltered a little. I don't think it has by much but I have probably not done as well this year as last, mainly because I…
Six on Saturday – 10/8/2019
Hmmmph! I don't like wind. Two days of wind and all the pot plants that are lying down start to turn sideways. I haven't been up the allotment to see how Dahlias and runner beans have fared. I've been pinned down indoors. It's not good for brevity. One. Fuchsia of the week is Fuchsia procumbens.…
Dahlias from seed
I have been growing Dahlias in the garden for years, plants that I have purchased from various places. In 2015, not on top of my dead heading, I picked off a couple of dead flowers from the varety ‘Orange Cushion’ and realised that they contained good looking seed. In the spring of 2016 I sowed…
Six on Saturday – 3/8/2019
Last week Chris in Canada featured six veggies and I all but promised him I'd do the same this week. Sorry Chris, I'll do a separate blog on my veg plot, there's too much going on here in the garden. One. Fuchsia of the week just had to be 'Vera Garcia'. Sid Garcia used to…
Fillers
In spite of being fairly densely planted, I still get gaps appearing in the garden for a variety of reasons. Maybe something has died or I’ve taken something out; something that came up early has died down or been cut down by mid summer or something failed to make the growth it was expected to.…
Six on Saturday – 27/7/2019
There's too much going on, I've taken photos of at least a dozen things and what makes the cut is pretty much random. I think maybe I'll do another blog on fillers, the plants that get added as the season progresses to plug gaps. That way I can perhaps whittle this lot down to six.…
Six on Saturday – 20/7/2019
I've rarely been so pleased to have rain; a good drop too, enough to fill the water tanks and give the garden a good watering. Knowing it was coming on Friday, my usual day for taking SoS pictures, I had decided on Wednesday that I would focus on the things we grow in pots and…
garden ruminations 