ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
Last weekend Sue and I were at the Chelsea Flower Show on Friday and Monday. Most of the time we were helping to man the International Camellia Society stand so we didn't get to see much of the rest of the show, but talking camellias for hours on end is pretty much my idea of…
If you're reading this it's because I've managed to post it on some mobile device while away from home. Routine for many of you no doubt, but not for me. Which is not to say I created it on a mobile device, it was done a few days ago when I was still at home.…
The RHS Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia Group have, like everyone else, been largely unable for the past couple of seasons to have any sort of events programme. It was suggested that members post videos of their own gardens for other members to watch and enjoy. I did a couple last year and with our cycle…
Having finished our garden openings for this summer, I went out with my phone and took a lot of clips of things I thought looked OK, then tried to cobble it together into a video. As with taking photos using film, digital changes everything. You can take hours of appalling footage without it costing you…
If there was a people’s choice plant from our garden openings this summer then this would win it by a landslide. No one had seen it before, everyone wanted to know what it was and a few declared their intention to get one if they could. It comes from China where it was discovered by…
A couple of years ago I posted a piece about my water harvesting setup. I just read it through and realise that for most people it is much more complicated than necessary. I want to describe a relatively simple way to increase water storage, based on part of my system. Sue’s glasshouse has a footprint…
Continue reading ➞ Harvest time – 2, (water harvesting, that is)
This week saw some significant rain, which was very welcome except that most of the paths are now almost impassable. The curtain is beginning to go up on the last act for this year, with Asters opening, Nerine pushing up and Hedychiums flowering. With our NGS openings I've acquired a dead-heading habit that has stood…
I’ve had my allotment since April 2013 and have been a committed no-digger since about two years in. I could see what was happening to my soil, the good structure (aggregation into granules) that it had when I started very quickly started to break down. I stopped digging and divided the plot into beds about…
Continue reading ➞ Soil, getting it good and keeping it that way. 8/9/2021
With every week that passes there is a sense of the spring slowly winding down. It's a chilly 12°C here this morning but the weather has been benign and most things are holding up quite well but a day or two of wind and rain will quickly change that. I'm not talking Ida wind and…
It's the end of month 8, which seems a particularly appropriate to pause momentarily and take stock of how the garden has performed this year. The growing season has all but run its course for the year, there’s now a slow run into winter, eking out the flowers by dead heading and enjoying a few…
garden ruminations 