ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
I can't quite believe that my Vitopod propagator arrived as recently as 2020, it seems to have been around much longer. That might be a testimony to how many turnovers of cuttings have come through it since then, it's certainly a lot. I used to have a mist system, suspended over a sand bed with…
I put this in a Six on Saturday post in July 2024. Here is the entry: Saccharum officinarum ‘Rubra’ is the name I was given this under but no such name is on the RHS website so I’m unsure. It may well be ‘Pele’s Smoke’, which Tony featured a while back, or S. officinarum violaceum. It roots absurdly…
I had a bit of a tidy up in my greenhouse, sorting out my yound plants of Begonia 'Torsa'. Collected a lot of bulbils. Then I went round the plants of it I have in the garden and collected some more. I ended up with quite a lot, 473 to be precise. Growild Nursery had…
I don't propagate plants from cuttings on a massive scale and most of what I do is of easy to root subjects. I have a Vitopod propagator which gives me a suitable environment for a wide range of subjects and I have been using Melcourt Sylvagrow multipurpose compost as my propagation medium. Not everything I…
I've grown Amaryllis belladonna in the garden for many years. Some years they are spectacular, some they barely flower at all. Maybe our climate is on the edge of what they like and only a particularly hot year suits them, maybe I just let too much else grow up around them and shade them. What…
My mist system is not giving me the results I want. I had an infestation of fly larvae in it that started a few years back and slowly built to the point where I had to deal with it. I tried a few things to no effect so I decided that since the sand was…
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like…
I mentioned on Saturday that I’d sowed a lot of seeds this year. It may be of interest to some what I do with them if they germinate successfully. I use Sylvagrow compost for both seed sowing and growing on. It is supposed to have a base level of feed in it, but it is…
I have been a member of the Alpine Garden Society for a very long time and every year they produce a most impressive seed list which for one reason or another, I've never had anything from. This year that changed, I dipped my toe into the 5621 items on the list, picked my allocation of…
The picture above is of some carrots that I dug up on my allotment two days ago. As I explained back in June, I have taken to sowing carrots in deep pots and planting them out as an undisturbed pot full once they are a couple of inches high. I started to do this because…
garden ruminations 