ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
At long long last we have some decent growing weather. It feels like everything is miles behind but looking at pictures from last year doesn't bear that out. There seem to be a lot of things on the verge of flowering and rather fewer actually performing, but serving up six helpings at this time of…
Nearly the end of May and we've yet to have a spell of really good growing weather this year. The forecasts have often suggested that things might be getting better only for it not to materialise, so I'm trying to attenuate my hopes for the coming week. Gales are particularly unwelcome and all you can…
Pruning books tend to be unhelpful when it comes to pruning Camellias, typically saying that they require no pruning but may be cut hard if it becomes necessary. It's not how I go about it. This is Camellia japonica 'Bob Hope'. This had grown as big as I wanted it to get by about six…
When I was writing this yesterday evening it was very obvious that another bout of rain was not far off. Increasingly heavy cloud was streaming in from the west, the Met Office radar showed it to be approaching fast and the forecast was for rain most of the night. Showers are forecast for the rest…
It looks like yesterday morning's frost may be the last and that we are going to get slightly higher temperatures in the next week or two. We had a good bit of rain overnight but less seems to have found its way into my storage system than I would have liked. A lot of things…
Weird it is. For a good part of yesterday the sky to the south of us was black with rain coming down in sheets. There were several claps of thunder though I didn't notice any lightning flashes. We had about five drops of rain, the rest missed us. Normally that would have been a good…
It's been more than five months since the last episode of this particular saga. I had taken down our polytunnel and was contemplating how to extend the greenhouse. It turned out that Elite, who made the original glasshouse, still make an almost unchanged model and that they would supply an extension kit. I placed the…
Continue reading ➞ The top corner project – part 5 – 27/4/2021
The greenhouse extension is done, all that remains is to sort out shelving and staging. It won't last but at the moment it actually feels spacious. Building has meant that apart from watering, all other gardening has been neglected, so I'm keen to wrap it up and get back to weeding, planting, pricking off, potting…
Most mornings this week there has just been a touch of ground frost and in desperation to get some space, a few risks have been taken. I planted tomatoes in my tunnel and have been putting things out by day then back in at night, or not if I'm feeling lucky. Planted a Begonia out…
It seems that this is the year it must happen. The oldest plant in our garden is an Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’ that was a young plant just a couple of feet tall when we moved in over thirty years ago. I know it’s the oldest because it is the only plant still left that was…
garden ruminations 