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Jubilee Garden Celebration
What else could it possibly be today, but a jubilee themed garden celebration. As Her Majesty the Queen celebrates an incredible 70 years as our Monarch. Fancy being in the same job for seventy years! I thought we’d do a look at the garden with a royal coloured theme. We’ll start with a collection of produce from the garden, in Red, White and Blue to get you in the mood. Purple – The Colour of Royalty As the official colours of the Jubilee celebrations are Platinum for the seventy years and Purple for royalty. I’ve decided to shout about all of the purple flowers and produce in the garden, and…
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Muscari
The grape hyacinth, as Muscari are commonly known. Really do resemble little bunches of grapes, but they are not in fact related to the traditional hyacinth. True Blue The intense blue of these little bulbs, is incredible. In gardening terms, any flower that’s a shade of purple, is classed as blue. These bulbs are true blue. The majority of our blue muscari, our planted in the woodland border. They seem to tolerate partial shade very well. You don’t find many properly blue flowers. Here I have two together, with the Brunnera in the background. At this time of year, the deep blue is ideal for setting off yellows of primulas…
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Early Spring 2022 – Let’s get back to the flowers!
Early spring is a wonderful time of year. It starts slowly with the snowdrops and hellebores. Incredibly the hellebores are still going strong, after all these weeks. Then the first of the crocus come out to join them. Suddenly, you can hardly keep up with things popping up, here there and everywhere. You notice the first odd flower on the primulas. It feels like the next time you look they’re covered in bright little yellow flowers. On a sunny day as you walk down the garden, you smell the hyacinths before you see them. Of course the bees have already found them. It’s so important to have nectar rich flowers…
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The bees are back in abundance
Dancing Under Falling Tree Blossom
Snowing in June?
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Time to bring the chillies in!
When we lived at our last house, we had no greenhouse, but we were desperate to grow chillies. We decided to have a go at growing them on the window sill. There was however a slight issue. The plants looked really healthy and were growing well, we just couldn’t understand why all these flowers weren’t producing fruit. Then it dawned on us, there were no insects in the house to pollinate them! We got one of my makeup brushes, and did a gentle dust on each flower. Eureka, fruit appeared! Keeping Chilli plants over winter All the guides talk about discarding the plants at the end of the season, and…
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The Joys of June
I’ve finally come down off cloud nine after my brief appearance on Gardeners World at the beginning of the month. I think I’m now at the end of all the teasing about wanting my autograph! What strange weather we’ve been having. No wonder us Brits never stop talking about it! The coldest rainiest May followed by a super hot dry June – until now….. The flower borders are loving this hot spell especially the roses, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen looking so good As for the veg garden’s all over the place, some things doing well – like the rhubarb. All that rain followed by this warm sunshine…
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Snowing in June?
Or just willow seeds floating on the breeze. Our beautiful blue sky’s last weekend have been full of drifting white clouds of what looked like snow. But with temperatures in the 20’s that would be unlikely! It’s willow tree seeds inside their fluffy white parachutes. For three days our skies have been full of it. We notice it every year, but this time there has been so much more than usual. My sister came over for lunch, and as we all sat in the garden it floated around us. Unfortunately this included landing in our food. We all commented that it looked like snow flurries, but rather than melt, it…
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Biological slug control, after a G&T
If you garden organically, then nematodes are really the only option if you want to kill slugs. Slug pellets are an absolute no no, as they are poison. They contaminate your soil and can lead to the deaths of beneficial predators of slugs like, hedgehogs, birds, frogs, or even worms. They can also cause harm to your pets. The RSPB offer advise on different methods for deterring slugs. Using Nematodes Firstly order Nemaslug, it should take two to three days to arrive. When it arrives, start by making yourself a nice Gin & Tonic. You need to have more than one to use up all of the tonic. Put the…
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Tulip’s – Rain stopped play!
The tulips were doing so well! Admittedly the single early’s had pretty much finished, but the Darwins, Doubles, Fringed and Lily Flowereds were hanging on in there. My late doubles were just coming out, so are looking a bit sorry for themselves, but fingers crossed they’ll dry out. When I’m asked what is my favourite flower? I always say tulips. It’s not exactly true as I think it’s impossible to choose, I love all flowers. But the tulip slightly stands out for me. Whether it’s because it’s so early in the season and we’re still desperate for bright colours after the winter? The different varieties of tulips I have, grows…
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Snowing in June?
The Garden Nurtures the sole
Biological slug control, after a G&T
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Snow in April!
Well that was the most extraordinary Easter weather weekend I’ve ever known! Talk about extremes. Hot sunshine, then only the third time I ever remember snow in April! Good Friday, was a beautiful sunny day, you certainly needed sun screen on. There was a little chill in the air, but good gardening weather for the time of year. Easter Saturday, it got so hot in the afternoon I resorted to shorts and bare arms. It was so hot in the greenhouse that I had to move my potting tray outside to work. Easter Sunday, another lovely sunny day quite hot again, but only if you were sheltered from the cool…
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The bees are back in abundance
The First Week of July
Tulip’s – Rain stopped play!
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The bees are back in abundance
Luckily the weather hasn’t been as bad as they predicted. We didn’t have the hailstones I was worrying about this time last week. The bees are back, with abundance! The garden is buzzing already. I saw the first hardy few, back in February. We try and have something flowering all year long for insects. These milder winters mean we pretty much manage it. The late flowerers last year were the Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle), Erysimum (perennial wallflower), the white penstemon ‘snowstorm’, Japanese anemones and most surprisingly was my white fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ which went on & on into December. Just a small gap before the snowdrops came out in mid-January. Followed…
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Snowing in June?
Biological slug control, after a G&T
Tulip’s – Rain stopped play!
