Snowing on a Sunday

I say Sunday, but it has been snowing around here for almost a week with sub-zero temperatures. This morning I peeked down to our front yard from the bedroom window and captured this picture of our low-level hedge of box, the evergreen waxed leaves showing under the dollop of snow, overlooked by the  cherry blossom.

We have been away from home for a while and a clear up of winter garden debris is well overdue. I could only manage to tend to the front yard which tends to attract litter from the adjacent road. Besides the remnants of last season's growth, I removed stubs of train tickets, ice lolly packets, Jaffa cake wrappers and other assorted bits of plastic and paper. My fingers had gone too numb to remove a few dandelions that had taken root over the uncharacteristically warm December days. Later.

On an earlier weekend, I gave the garage door and front door a fresh coat of paint in mail-box red. A second coat is needed but that will have to wait till the days get warmer. The fresh paint is part of an attempt to improve kerbside optics - that, along with plants in the front yard which seem to have established well over the last couple of years. Our miscanthus has self-propogated quite widely and we see little shoots scattered all across the front yard. Will need to replant them where we want them, closer to spring, I suppose.

Later in the afternoon, with the snowfall incessant, our backyard looked good enough to eat. Think gingerbread house iced with brandy butter, meringues topped with whipped cream and lavender dusted with icing sugar.

Of woeful neglect and lots of rain

This summer has been so busy for us that we have sadly neglected our garden and hence this blog too. In that time, our garden has just grown wild and not in a particularly good way. For the last four weekends all we have done is try to make amends and catch up with nature.

We started with fierce dead heading, filling the compost bin with spent mops of buddleia, alliums, hypdrangea, roses, geraniums and lavender. Was such a shame to bin armloads of such fragrant stalks but was reminded that I am too pressed for time to even think of pot pourri or anything similar.

Meanwhile, on the much-blogged-about back bed, a ferocious form of climbing weed had taken control of the walls, the shed and even the climbers we planted a few months ago. It was an arduous task pulling them out and all I could do was the lop them just below soil surface in most cases, knowing full well that they would make a nasty comeback. After we removed the army of weeds we had to install the trellis along the wall for the honeysuckle and passion flower climbers to grow on to. 

In another bed, clematis had run amok and had also been attacked by clematis wilt. Again, they were let down by our lack of care, with the climbing support provided, rather inneffective. So I just pared them down to ground level and decided to be better prepared next year.

At the end of each weekend, we would have very little to show for results but for some turned earth and clear space, but we had to plough on, quite literally.

I think I may have rescued a few crocusmia bulbs that had come unearthed and an anthurium that was struggling to survive. The anthurium had been planted four years ago, along with three others of its kind. They were crowded out by other plants in that bed, such as the fatssia and the viburnum, and eventually only one survived. Similar tale with the crocusmia, in the shade of the ceanothus. Pleased to have given both a better chance of survival by replanting them in pots. I also found some dahlia tubers in a packet in the shed, that had started to sprout. Potted them too. Several months late. Better in the soil than in the shed.

Another tedious task has been to pinch out aquilegia saplings from practically everywhere. As much as I am grateful for self-propogating plants, I do have to say, No Thanks, to this one.

Feel somewhat redeemed after four weekends of desperate claw-back maintennance work in the garden. There are some more tasks to be done. More next weekend.

On a more uplifting note, we have the most beautiful sedum bloom, pictured here in the midst of another downpour, and the cyclamen had started to make its appearance in a very fashionable pink - just what we need as the autumn takes hold.

Oriental poppies, not so flamboyant at night

Noticed that as the evening falls, the oriental poppy (papaver orientale) in our garden pull its petals over its seed pod in the centre in a manner that says it is ready to huddle up for the night. 


Certain types of plants, the poppy included, have a mechanism called nyctinasty, that allows them to open during the day and close at night. Scientists know how this occurs, but are not entirely sure why. Flowers and plants have their own circadian rhythm that allows this opening and closing. Experiments have shown how flowers and plants can open and close in complete darkness with change in light, temperature or other external stimulus.


There are a couple of theories that surround this. One is that flowers close at night to conserve energy for pollination during the day, when insects are most active. The other is that a flower closes its petals to protect its pollen from getting wet from dew. Dry, sticky pollen is more easily transferred to and by insects, improving the plant's reproduction prospects. The latter theory must definitely resonate with our poppies given the wet summer we have had so far!

Whole lot of planting going on

The weekend saw us plant trough loads of summer bulbs and root cuttings. Some of the bulbs and tubers (irises, dahlias) were not winter hardy so we planted them in pots so they can be overwintered.

The remaining needed soaking for 3-4 hours, and after a good soak, we planted them within various gaps in the borders. Delphiniums in blue, mauve and white between the lavender. More delphiniums along with purple african lilies and pale pink primula alongside the fatsia and behind the ferns. Multi-coloured lupin in the shade of the ceanothus along with white coneflowers. A yellow rudbeckia squeezed in between the clematis. Four crimson aquilegia in the new border along the back wall. Also sharing space with the aquilegia are some pink coneflowers. The pink astrantia made it to the front border near the oriental poppies.

Egg shells and tea leaves

For those of us who are unable to have a compost heap (and there are few compelling reasons for this, including laziness), I would recommend the shortcut of saving the egg shells and used tea leaves from your weekly consumption.

My grandma used to crush eggshells into her potted roses and I started to do the same last year. Eggshells are rich in calcium, add valuable nutrients to the soil and improve drainage. Strewn around the base of young plants, the sharp edges of broken egg shells also serve as a deterrent for slugs.

Recently, during a spring clean of my kitchen I found an old ceramic teapot that has a glued-up handle making it rather unsuitable for tea, but certainly could serve as a decorative storage for used tea bags in our pantry. Tea leaves break down to provide humus for the soil and they contain trace minerals that are good for plants.

Over the weekend, my tea pot and the egg-shell container were brimming, so I emptied the crushed egg shells around our roses and tore up the tea bags around the base of our peach tree. It is important to crush egg shells as finely as possible so that it breaks down more easily into the soil. Tea bags should be torn as most tea bags in the UK are not made of degradable material.

This weekend was the definite signal that spring is here. There are daffodils everywhere you look around the country and our garden is kicking into gear as well, with blooms of hyacinth and buds of cherry blossom and peach.

We planted three young climbers against the back wall, two yellow honeysuckle and a passion flower, supported by little tepee shaped stakes which should be adequate till we can create a trellis.

Have made first step towards growing our own veg. Sowed seeds for French beans, courgettes, basil, tomatoes, carrot and kale, and a few sunflower seeds too, and have left them to work their magic in little pots on a warm window sill.

To prune, or not to prune

Come Feb-March and I am always left wondering which plants I am meant to prune. I recently came across this rather useful phrase that goes, 'If it flowers after June, then Prune', courtesy Monty Don. The rationale being that these plants flower on new growth and if you don't prune them most of their energy is spent on growing the plant rather than flowering. Also explains why the cherry blossom which flowers in April does not care for a prune! Armed with this piece of wisdom and our secateurs I set off into our garden last weekend. The buddleja went down several notches and the clematis got a bit of a trim too.

Found tender, bronze miscanthus shoots in the front bed so I transferred them to the new bed at the back garden. If they grow anything like the grasses in front they will provide quite a feature. Meanwhile, Mr Macaron gave the barbecue a good scrub down, brought out the geraniums in the troughs and put up the hanging baskets. Felt rather pleased with our efforts and the garden looked cared for after the self-maintennance spell over the winter.

Shopping at a new food market this weekend, we found a packet of bulbs that seemed just the sight for our front bed. Our front bed lies adjacent to our red door and red garage shutter and we wanted to have blooms and foliage in colours that would complement it. So we needed little persuading to buy a pack that said 'bulbs in red mix' and Sunday afternoon saw us planting thirty anemone bulbs and fifteen each of crocusmia and gladioli. The packet says 'summer flowering', not sure if that means summer of 2012 though!

The front bed now has one cherry blossom, two rows of miscanthus, box hedging, a couple of oriental poppies, couple of red roses, heucheras, holly hocks, alpine plants and lots of sedum overlooked by a hanging basket of geranium and sweet peas. Quite the planting scheme if there ever was one!

The packs also came with red dahlia tubers, a species we have had no success with previously. Held back from planting it along with the other bulbs. Plus, there's only so much red our neighbours can take from the front bed!

Wrapped up the Sunday afternoon after a top-up for the bird feeders and spray of Bordeaux mixture for the peach buds. If we are spared the blight of peach leaf curl this year, we should have lots of Peregrine peaches this summer.

Winter colour