There must be gardeners who never grow things from seed, just like there are gardeners who don’t compost stuff. If gardening is about growing stuff you simply cannot get more engaged with the process than by sowing and growing seeds. I have a list of the seeds I hope to be sowing in 2019. It…
Six on Saturday -29/12/2018
Last six of the year. Taking inspiration from Jane's king parrots last week I have been trying to take pictures of garden birds. We hang a couple of feeders of sunflower seeds out for them and mostly get flocks of goldfinches hoovering them up from dawn to dusk. I started taking pictures from the house, through…
Six on Saturday -22/12/2018
I have to admit I'm not highly motivated to get out into the garden at the moment. My task for the week has been to sort out the 18,500 photos of Camellias I took in 2017. Done, phew. Now for 2016, not so many, just under 10,000. It would not be true to say that…
Chimeras
In Greek mythology a creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake. In plants, and indeed animals, it refers to an organism which contains two or more genotypes. In plants this is typified by variegated plants such as Box or Pittosporum, which may have a…
Six on Saturday – 15/12/2018
After this there's just two more sixes to go and we're into a new year. It's cold and there's not a great deal happening in the garden, though I have camellias flowering, three sorts outside and four in pots. Some I have used before and don't want to repeat for now. For two of them…
Six on Saturday – 8/12/2018
Well, I don't know about the rest of you but my garden seems increasingly to be the only sane place left in the world and it's frustrating when lousy weather stops me getting out there. 11.5°C and raining just now. Nothing seems to encapsulate hope more than sowing seeds and watching things grow. Let's start…
Some you win . . . .
In mid June I bought a plant of Anemone ‘White Swan’ and planted it in an open but partly shaded spot that I thought would suit it well. Then came the hot spell. I tried to keep it from wilting but it really seemed like the moment my back was turned down it would go. I…
Six on Saturday – 1/12/2018
Last week's publicly aired contemplation has become this week's action. I need to be careful what I commit to. There's nothing more in the cross hairs just yet. (Almost audible sigh of relief from a couple of frequently maligned plants) The ground is now very wet which is becoming restricting; there are things I want…
A rant.
I'm not really one to court controversy but a six on Saturday comment got all these issues churning round in my head and I just spent a bit of time writing a few thoughts down. Usually that would be cathartic enough and I'd save the file and forget about it but I thought for a…
Six on Saturday – 24/11/2018
Looks like it's going to be raining most of the day and the forecast for next week is pretty dire too. Tis the season for contemplative gardening for sure. The trouble with airing those contemplations on the world stage is that there's a bit of pressure to see them through. There are two contemplations and…
garden ruminations 