ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
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…
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…
Somewhere in the hidden recesses of my memory is something about William Robinson and the need for every gardener to set aside an acre or so of their garden for woodland. I have tried, but with a garden of around one eighth of an acre in total, I have failed. My woodland consists of the…
One) I know it's only an optical illusion, but plants are set off better by moist dark soil than pale dry stuff. After last night's deluge, which combined the most sustained lightning I have seen in my life with rain akin to the tropical downpours I've seen in Australia, moist and dark wasn't a problem.…
One. I was going to start with a picture of dead cabbages, the rootfly having munched their way through two rows. But it was raining and going up the allotment in the rain to take a picture of dead cabbages didn't do it for me. Two. Papaver bracteata. Every year this monster astonishes me anew.…
A week ago, I went to Barracott Plants on a plant hunting expedition, coming home with enough goodies to write a blog about, which I duly did. Trouble was , a couple of things I'd been wanting I was unable to find and the nursery owner was away so I was advised to come back.…
You know how it goes; you go to a garden, Rosemoor in this instance and see a plant you simply must have, Polygonatum x hybridum 'Betburg' on this outing. You get home and look at the RHS website to see who is listing it; excellent, a nursery quite close by, Barracott Plants, at Gunnislake. Thought…
