ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
It hasn't been a good week for gardening. Let's just leave it at that and move on. I'm off to Rosemoor today for the RHS Early Camellia Show. Glad I'm not competing, it's going to be very hard to find undamaged blooms. Bit like that finding six things for this, for starters I didn't really…
I claim no special knowledge of growing plants from seed. I’ve done a lot of it and I think I’ve had reasonable results, but I’ve had my share of failures too. There is an abundance of information available online about seed sowing, to the point that I wonder why I bother writing about my own…
This week has been a bit cooler and I might have expected the precocious spring to be put on hold. Not a bit of it, buds are swelling, in some cases breaking and there's a sense that we're into the growing season proper, leaving behind the usual early performers. One. Scilla luciliae. These are spreading…
First thing in the morning our garden is entirely in shade, one of the reasons I usually take the pictures for my SoS on Friday. I was elsewhere, it didn't happen, so my pictures were taken in shade after a wet and windy night. There's worse to come tomorrow and Monday, much worse. One. Narcissus…
I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at other people's Camellias for one reason or another. It seemed about time I focussed on my own. Don't ask me how many I have, I don't have a clue. There are several planted in the garden, more that I have had growing in pots…
The weather is behaving like April and my head is still in January. I hadn't cranked up my slug vigilance, which cost me a pot of lettuce seedlings this week, and I'm struggling to remember to keep checking what needs watering. Yesterday evening saw the first torchlight slug patrol of the year; the other side sustained…
Here's a fine thing, six on Saturday and I had done nothing until this morning. Being in the luxurious state that is retirement, I usually have it all lined up by Friday night at the latest. It was inevitable then that the weather would conspire to frustrate me, not that it's raining or snowing, just…
I'm hoping for enough of a break between weather events this morning to meet with a young couple who are going to take on half of one of my two allotments. I don't really need two whole plots but one isn't quite enough either. They're new to veg growing and both work full time, so…
It rained steadily all day Thursday, turning to snow in late afternoon. Any salt applied to the roads had been washed away so the snow settled and as the temperature dropped, froze, along with the slushy stuff underneath. Result, an inch or less of snow and impassable roads. I was very glad I didn't have to…
Yesterday the temperature was well up in double figures and there is no doubt the pace of things in the garden is picking up. I went out expecting very little to have changed from last week and found twice as many items as I needed. I'm not complaining, winter is plenty long enough and I'm always desperate…
garden ruminations 