Newsletter
Friday February 17, 2006
A field of blue poppies in the making - plus a few weed seeds by the look of it. All mixtures. Click the picture and you can read the packet labels.
Sue Beesley
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A treat for the lemon tree
A few weeks ago I tied down the one strong shoot on the lemon tree to almost horizontal. I picked this tip up from college as a way to make plants branch out, rather than keep sending one shoot upwards (in horticultural terms it's a way of overcoming
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Rain, crocuses and a wet nose.
Am stuck at home and indoors with a streaming cold (first one for years so can't complain). The high pressure and low temperatures of early Feb have made way for low pressure and rain - the barometer trace for the last 3 days looks like a downhill Olympic ski
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Rained off...
With almost no rain for three weeks I should be grateful for a good downpour - and I am - but it would have been good if it had rained yesterday, or tomorrow. Today was mentally booked as a proper gardening day, not a fence removal, ivy killing day, but a proper
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A few Friday lunctime snaps
A few glo-white snowdrops in sunshine The winter flowering cherry doing it's lovely thing. Purple Hazel (Corylus avelana 'Purpurea)
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A new home for the asparagus
The asparagus plants are winging their way to their new homes via Hilary and Ian at College. I'm sure they'll do better than they were here. 3mm of rain here yesterday - not exactly a downpour but better than nothing. Still only snowdrops out amongst the bulbs
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Winter drought
14 consecutive days with no rain. Just 23mm recorded in the whole of Jan. With my light soil I rely on winter rain to build up the moisture level in the subsoil. Still, plenty of spring left for that. At least the temperature has finally picked up to 8C, and
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The asparagus bed is no more
I've dug up the asparagus bed. I might have picked exactly the moment when it was going to produce a worthwhile crop for the first time, but that's the way it is. I need more space for crops that are useful for more of the year.
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Waiting, watching and rebuilding the shed.
Although the witch hazel flowered on cue, driven as it is by the day length, the flowers that rely on a little warmth for encouragement are showing little sign of enthusiasm. There are no crocuses open yet and even the snowdrops are still tight white buds. The buds on the
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A new vista
Thanks to mild dry weather I've made good progress digging out the ivy roots from the fence we took out last weekend. Another couple of days on it should clear it completely. The youngest Trillia excelled (and surprised) herself at sawing most of the fence up. With the
Newsletter
Monday January 16, 2006
I'm pleased with this as a winter view.... .... but you can see what I mean about too much lawn from this angle
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Winter scent
The signs of spring in the garden are scant, but the conservatory smells wonderful. I cut some flowering sprigs from the hamamellis this morning and also bought a Sarcococca confusa (Christmas box)at the college nursery. The combination of two is heady - almost too much. The vague plan is to