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I pricked out one pot of meconopsis seedlings at the weekend. They are barely past the seed leaf stage, but I read that they don't like being moved later, so I've done some now and will leave some until they're a bit bigger. I
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Though my faithful Nikon Coolpix has served me well, the difficulty of focussing on small subjects and the lack of aperture control has drawn me inevitably to a digital SLR. And what a joy it is. A pleasure to hold, responsive, compliant and inexhaustible, it surely delivers everything a girl
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Well we don't get it here often so of course we're excited. A good inch and half fell overnight. It's -3C and absolutely still. Some snow pics....
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The weather station recorded -6.8C overnight, with -4.4C in the polytunnel too. This morning the garden was encased in thin frost and very pretty too. But it's only been one night, and although the grass is solid underfoot, the soil is soft underneath a frozen crust.
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My blog entry for the 19th Feb informs me that I took some cuttings of Anthemis tinctoria 'EC Buxton' (they were actually just the trimmings from a spring haircut). Using the 'warm bottoms, cool tops' tip I picked up from college, I put an inch of
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Spotted a few at the bottom of the pond yesterday. As usual, too few females to go round. The water temperature is only 4C so I'm not expecting them to spawn yet. It was March 13th last year so it will be interesting to compare. It is bitterly
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To confirm what we surely already know, the two photos below show how much colder it's been so far this spring compared to 2005. For the past week the night time temperature has fallen to between 0-3C and daytime has crept to 5-6C on a good
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Took my RHS Level 2, PArt I this morning. Went reasonably well I think. A lot to remember and present in 1.5 hours. Like most exams, part knowledge, part memory, part the ability to express yourself under pressure. Doesn't necessarily prove you're good at gardening!
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The neighbours had their chimneys rebuilt at the weekend, and I asked the builders if they'd fill in one of our chimney pots which has been nested in by crows for the past few years. I wouldn't have minded rooks, but these hooded crows had taken
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One thing always leads to another in the garden. I tidied up a border area yesterday which led to some bits that might take as cuttings from the anthemis and lithospermum. So once I had some cutting compost mixed, I figured I'd have a go with leafbud cuttings
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With bright sunshine and almost 12C several bulbs decided to strut their stuff. Two sets of iris reticulata opened up (or similar), one purple, the other a dark carmine. No idea what their names are. Several clumps of white crocuses also did their bit. Had a bit of a weeding
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Just what a sick girl needs - some good cheer. Some of the meconopis grandis 'Lingholm' seeds have germinated. Apparently they are very prone to damping off so I must keep them cool and aired. Also a little box of magic arrived from Chiltern seeds. All mixture packets from