In mid June I bought a plant of Anemone ‘White Swan’ and planted it in an open but partly shaded spot that I thought would suit it well. Then came the hot spell. I tried to keep it from wilting but it really seemed like the moment my back was turned down it would go. I…
Author: Jim Stephens
Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast.
I love colour, it cheers me up.
Retired nurseryman.
Six on Saturday – 1/12/2018
Last week's publicly aired contemplation has become this week's action. I need to be careful what I commit to. There's nothing more in the cross hairs just yet. (Almost audible sigh of relief from a couple of frequently maligned plants) The ground is now very wet which is becoming restricting; there are things I want…
A rant.
I'm not really one to court controversy but a six on Saturday comment got all these issues churning round in my head and I just spent a bit of time writing a few thoughts down. Usually that would be cathartic enough and I'd save the file and forget about it but I thought for a…
Six on Saturday – 24/11/2018
Looks like it's going to be raining most of the day and the forecast for next week is pretty dire too. Tis the season for contemplative gardening for sure. The trouble with airing those contemplations on the world stage is that there's a bit of pressure to see them through. There are two contemplations and…
Adventures in Composting
It seems like bad form to blatantly take someone else’s blog idea and go off on one with it. On the other hand, it’s presumably the case that you hope your blog gets other people thinking or better still, doing something. When I read The Propagator’s blog about hot composting on November 7, it got…
Six on Saturday – 17/11/2018
At this time of year the "six things happening in the garden now" gets trickier. The things that are happening here are less obvious, less interesting and less attractive. It becomes the silk purse from sow's ear challenge. Right, excuses made, what have we got. One. Fuchsia 'Cornish Pixie'. Well, allegedly that's what it is. It's one…
Six on Saturday – 10/11/2018
This morning's alarm clock was a massive clap of thunder at 5:30, followed by a burst of tropical strength rain. Looks like that's going to be the pattern for the day, so not really gardening weather. Hopefully there'll be lots of sixes so I can indulge in some armchair gardening. The frost last week dramatically reduced…
Six on Saturday – 3/11/2018
Well, that was a week that was. The thermometer hit -3°C on Monday night. My Dahlias were blackened, top to bottom, just like it says in the books. In ten years or more of growing Dahlias, it's the first time I've cut them down after they've been frosted. In previous years I've just picked a…
Six on Saturday – 27/10/2018
I'm going to be up at RHS Rosemoor today for a meeting of the Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia Group, a rare chance for me to talk Camellias all day with some of the select few who share my obsession. It was a Camellia that set off the train of thought that led to this six.…
Allotment update – 24/10/2018
My alloment is divided down the middle by a windbreak. Each half is further divided into two, creating four sections for my four year crop rotation. It happens that this year one side of the windbreak is almost empty, summer crops having been removed and nothing put in to replace them, while the other side…
garden ruminations 