I meant this to be a monthly snapshot, but there has been slippage, my last allotment post being at the end of July. That was just after we'd had the first rain for ages but before anything was showing any benefit from it. My runner beans had cropped well through the hot spell, sustained by…
Author: Jim Stephens
Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast.
I love colour, it cheers me up.
Retired nurseryman.
Six on Saturday – 8/9/2018
I was going to go and collect my onions from the allotment but it's just started raining. Today may not be the day I had planned. Tomorrow we're off down west to the rare Plant Fair at Tremenheere and a jolly round the Dahlia field at Varfell. I'm expecting it to be one of the highlights…
Dahlias
The honest truth is that I don't have much to say about Dahlias. I grow quite a lot, I love them. When I say quite a lot, I have around two dozen in the garden, almost all named varieties that I've bought, plus 56 seedlings that I've raised myself which are growing on my allotment. The…
Six on Saturday – 1/9/2018
I usually have to pretend I'm writing on a Saturday but not this week. A blizzard of a week, possibly; disorganised, certainly; bit of a sense of things slowing down, not so much changing from one week to the next, let's go with that. Six reflections on the colour red. One. I had a row of…
Top corner.
My polytunnel is tucked as far into the top corner of the garden as feasible but there is still a fair sized space behind it. Until late May the space was home to a large Magnolia, two large Camellias and a mix of hazel and cotoneaster, all making the tunnel rather shady. The Magnolia was leaning at…
Six on Saturday – 25/8/2018
The weather is completely back to normal, a bit of this, a bit of that, nothing to remark on. Except that the effects of the hot spell are still playing out, with early flower here and renewed growth there, meaning that it doesn't quite feel normal. At least there is more colour about now, with…
How to prune apples.
I read a blog the other day entitled ‘How to grow Alstroemeria’ which started with an apology for its pretentious title, used because confident titles attract search engine attention. I imagine there is a lot more written about pruning apples than growing Alstroemerias, so confident or not, I’m not expecting the world to sit up…
Fuchsias; a good word for.
Fuchsias are a terrific group of plants for providing colour in the late summer /autumn period, especially in gardens that are a bit on the shady side. In this garden they have the further great merit of not being touched by slugs. Just need to sort out the capsids. We have a good number, both…
Six on Saturday – 18/8/2018
I don't have lawn in my garden, so in theory I don't have the regular chore of mowing. However, since nothing's ever that simple, I do mow next door's, except he's now gone into a home and his mower has been given away so I had to do it with my strimmer. Then I went…
Six on Saturday – 11/8/2018
Oh it's definitely changed now. Needless to say we get fed up with rain far quicker than sun but it's good to have the pressure of endless watering and badly stressed plants lifted somewhat. Autumn seems to have arrived while summer still has a few weeks to run so with two seasons overlapping I had…
garden ruminations 