ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
It's that time of year when the chaos seems to build week on week. Everything is growing like mad which means seeds are sown, pricked off, potted up, potted on; pot plants get potted on, cuttings potted up, glasshouses emptied out, more plants bought, potted. It's not like there was any spare space to start…
I lay awake on Wednesday evening listening to two hedgehogs mating just outside. Yes, I'm happy to have hedgehogs and very glad they are breeding. I wish I knew where she was going to have her babies so I could keep well clear. They were at it for at least 45 minutes. Shameless. One. Primula…
Here are six more ferns from my garden. I thought I could go through most of them in a few weeks in spring but it is only when you set out on such a task that you realise how quickly some emerge and how slowly others. That's a good thing; it extends the period over…
On Wednesday we had a decent drop of rain, the first useful amount for a while, and when I pulled the curtains in the morning it was as if the windows had been cleaned for the first time in years. I stood there for a while, taking it in, and started noticing things. Come Saturday, said I,…
With a bit of luck the short return of winter forecast for this weekend will spare the far southwest; frost at this stage of the great unfurling can do untold damage. Just now it's raining, but just a passing shower methinks. One large oak tree at the southwest corner and a few overgrown shrubs are what…
I just did a count of the ferns I grow and found I had 23 forms growing in the ground plus another 10 in pots. There are a couple of wild native ferns around, nearly-weeds being allowed to masquerade as garden plants. That’s too many for one blog and besides, they don’t all look their…
I'm off to another show at RHS Rosemoor today, the RCM Group Main Rhododendron and SW Branch Competitions. As usual, my main focus is the Camellias, which a month or so ago seemed likely to be all over by now. However, when I did my volunteer day at Mt Edgcumbe on Tuesday I was pleasantly…
Oh my, what perfect gardening weather, I'm knackered. Finding six things wasn't a problem though, it's all happening. One. With a strong sense of not having a clue what I was doing, I pruned my 'Victoria' plum tree. Shortened all of last year's shoots to a couple of sideshoots and thinned it out some. There…
I'm away gallivanting. Judging Camellias at the RHS show at Savil Garden. Which means I'm away from my computer and confined to an iPad. If I can pull this off it'll be a miracle. One. The blue riband class in camellias is the twelve. Twelve perfect blooms. Tragically the competitors who had staged their exhibits…
It's been a while since I posted anything about my allotment. We've had some very mild weather and things are maybe a little ahead of where they'd usually be, but not by much. Last year I sowed peas on 13 April; today I sowed this year's, three days earlier. I'd sown a strip of Italian…
garden ruminations 