Saturday 4 August 2012

fever, Olympic and pruning


smoking hot! Monarda Gardenview Scarlet
If you want to stay fresh go back to school.  Others called continuous professional development, I call it dusting of the cobwebs and re-energising.   I've just spent a most glorious morning at Wisley Gardens on the Summer pruning of fruit bushes and trees course.  Though the day didn't start too well. 

I dropped the girls off at nursery and drove away with a skip in my step. Half way to Basingstoke I realised that I had left my purse in Holly's bag!  It had my ticket and RHS membership card in it so I couldn't even get into the gardens without it. So I high tailed it back to nursery, snuck in so that neither of the girls saw me and zoomed off again. Luckily I'd given myself 2 hours to get there and nipped into a parks space just in time to join the group by the gooseberries. 
Cordoned red currants, something to aspire to!
It was the hottest day in July and I had no hat, but really didn't care.   Now my garden is still a mess, I know and accept that, but these gardens fill me with awe and put me to shame, they are beautiful.  

The gardener who was leading the course was lovely, Becky Bevan, she made it all sound so simple (and it mostly is, with some complicated bits just to confuse). We started at gooseberries and red currants (these are pruned in the same way) then on to black currants followed by hybrids such as Logan berries.  We moved on to trained apples and pears, a particular interest to me since I have 3 overgrown espalier apples trees in my garden.   We finished with trained  stone fruit trees; cherries, apricots, plums. These are the most complicated to prune, but still Becky explained it with clarity and patience. 
stepped apple trees, great for small places
At the end I wanted to zoom back to start pruning my red currants, but was waylaid by the stunning riot of colour in the long herbaceous borders. I was so glad that I had my note book with me and was frantically scribbling down planting combinations while wishing my garden was SO much bigger that I could fit it all in.


Giant Echinops, (the blue globes) towering over the other plants

Phlox Blue Paradise, beautiful plants and great fragrance
Agapanthus Midnight Blue, such a rich clour
Hunger finally dragged me home and after a quick bit to eat I sharpened my secuaters and dived in to the currants.  A couple if hours later I'd cut out about half of the branches of the bushes and it looked so my lighter! 


wild red currant bushes
after pruning, so much lighter!
While pruning I'd also found some branches that had naturally layered themselves. This is when low branched get covered with soil and send out roots creating a new plant.

I dug these up with a few rogue raspberry canes and took them over to Holly and Lottie's nursery for their little garden.   holly was delighted that mommy was at nursery for the afternoon, especially as she was practicing for sports day. 



do they do the obstacle course in the olympics 


I am very proud to end this blog with a non gardening note. On the eve of the Olympic opening ceremony Holly won the obstacle race at nursery. 

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Anybody building an ark out there?

This was last week but I thought id post it anyway!!

Thursday 12 July
Well it's been truly British weather this week.  I had planned a night out with my sister to go and see a fire art installation at Stonehenge.   I was really looking forward to getting close up and personal with those ancient monoliths. 
I'm so upset that I missed this
It didn't start well, not only was it raining, and had been torrential all week, Lottie was teething and Holly just wouldn't stay in bed. 
torrential downpour drowning my plants!
Just as we had got both children in their own beds and quiet.  Bridget checked her email only to find out it had been cancelled due to high winds and biblical weather. 

We did the only thing sensible in the situation and opened a bottle of wine. 

The next morning we ventured into my garden to check the condition of the gooseberries. Bridget loves them,  (can she really be my sister?) so Holly showed her where they were and warned they they were spiky and couldn't understand why she couldn't eat them straight from the bush.  We sent Aunts Boo on her way with a bag full of ripe  goosegogs with the hope of seeing her next Friday at RaRa's. 
watch out they're prickly!


Not much has been going on in my garden work wise as its been so wet. Apart from feeding my hot bin and lifting some pots. My Casablanca potatoes were a great disappointment with only four pots in the bag, that's one less than I put in!!  But my Anya's have been great and very delicious, fabulously nutty and with a lovely bite to them. 
Anya Potatoes waiting to be eaten

Since all that rain two weeks ago it's suddenly turned glorious, it almost makes it worth it!  On Friday we hightailed it to Wales to see my mom(RaRa to the girls) armed with rhubarb, goosegogs and some beautiful Mayan Gold pots, beautiful golden flesh, but watch out they boil very quickly so you want to be careful that they don't turn to mush.   There we spent two heady days on the beach splashing in rockpools, eating ice cream and I saw my first starfish! 


happy days
not just a red bucket, there is a starfish in there


Back in the garden I've taken advantage of the sunshine by purging the weeds and finally trimming the hedge, though I've only managed to give it the sides of the short back and sides as I can't reach the top without a ladder. 
clear space for planting the sunflowers


But most of all I'm very excited that tomorrow I get to go to Wisley to do a summer fruit shrub pruning course. I'll report back after the course when I've hacked, I mean pruned my currants. 


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Black Gold!

Sunday
I have been digging, but not that deep.

No I haven't struck oil in the heart of Berkshire. I'm just very excited about my new toy.  Boys have their cars and power tools. Some girls have shoes, some have make up or even dresses. Me I have a hotbin composter!
not really appropriate for gardening


Silence, as the tumble weed passes........
all shiny and new

Okay so you may not see the wow factor of a black polystyrene bin but to me, this is exciting. As anyone who has a garden compost heap knows there are things you can and can't put in it.

  • Bindweed and brambles? NO! A garden compost heap just doesn't get hot enough to kill the roots and you'll end up spreading bindweed all over your garden.   
  • Meat and bones? NO! Do you really want to have to call the pied piper?  
  • And it takes so long. Well the hot composter, well it gets hot and hot kills the nasty roots and hot composts quicker breaking down the meat and bones so no lilting pipe music and you get to keep the kids. 

 I finally persuaded Bjorn to mow the grass before we lost Lottie in the back jungle, then filled the composter with its base layer to get it started up. Once the heat has got going we can chuck pretty much anything that is biodegradable in there.

 I'm checking the temp tomorrow!

 (Fast forward) Monday
It's tomorrow and already the composter  is 40•C!! That's so cool, er ..... I mean hot! So I've brought it some more kitchen scraps. Mixing it in with some bark chippings and this composter is going to be so happy. It's promising to give me compost in 90 days so watch this space.
some blogs have beautiful pictures........
the base layer for the compost

Friday
Well the rain is back with a vengeance and I am in the house with two toddlers with cabin fever. The solution to this situation, get creative.
Holly has been asking for ages to make a scarecrow. I had thought to make a small scarecrow out of Lottie's old clothes. I then thought that might be too creepy. So I rooted around and found some old long johns, tights and some fabric. Luckily I still had some stuffing from making toy rabbits  and lots of shredded paper. We had great fun with the shredded paper, most of it went on the floor but then where's the fun in tidy play!  Then Holly spent a while creating a rather scary face, it's as if she'd seen me falling out of a club at 6am back in the 90's.
So now our garden is protected by the princess scarecrow with her shimmery skirt and long johns, like some bedragled raver, as she slumps in the strawberry patch with the two sparkly windmills care of grandma.
someone is watching the house......

I just don't want to catch a glimpse of her as I draw the curtains at night, think Jason from Friday 13th!

Saturday 30 June 2012

Weeds and Deeds



A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds

And when the weeds begin to grow
It's like a garden full of snow

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. Its not that I've  been lounging on the sofa being fed peeled grapes my my daughters. (I've tried, they just sqwish them up my nose). 

there really are fairies at the bottom of my garden
I've mostly been dealing with sleepless nights from teething babies and toddler nightmares.   I have managed prop my eyelids open with matchsticks, drag my weary body into in the garden and have started and re-written this blog four times.  It's been so long now that i cant remember where to begin.  

Ah yes there was a hosepipe ban.  Drought and disaster looming while at the same time, water water everywhere, well definitely in my three water butts.  Then Thames water finally  lifted the hose pipe ban after some of the heaviest rain fall in May and June.   Being on a water metre means that I am still hoping that I don't have to use the hose pipe too much. 

With all the rain I'm tried to stay off the soil as much as possible, so as not to compact it and destroy the structure.  I managed to do some weeding, though it's a constant battle as they are growing ..... Well ...... like weeds!

I haven't cut the hedge yet as it was too wet and i cant find the hedge trimmer since we moved.  I haven't cut the grass, you guessed it, to wet. (though i probably could now) .  

So I thought its about time to get those reluctant gardeners back on track.  

I followed my own earlier advice and cheated. I didn't buy tomatoes as I had already sown some, I bought some pumpkin seedling and some chilli seedling. For the pumpkins I formed three little mounds, apparently they like to trail down little hills. To stop the slugs I put tumble dryer fluff round one, oats round another and the last had to fend for itself as the sheeps wool is in the post???  Now whether it was the high winds or the slugs the porridge oats lost. Slugs 1- Mum in wellies 0. (I now have two flowers on my pumpkins, so excited!).   The slimy ones have also been chomping their way through my lettuce and my strawberries.  So I went mad with the slug pellets all around the strawbs as I don't have enough tumble dryer fluff. (the td fluff seems to be working as my beans have remained intact). 

I digress. Reluctant gardeners I have a task for you. A simple and inexpensive was to increase the amount of plants in your garden, presents for friends or to get in the good books of the church/school/village fete committee. 
Soft wood cuttings. 
There are loads of plants that you can take soft wood cuttings from both perennials and shrubs. Too many to mention so here are just a few. 
Perennials
Erigeron - evergreen ground cover big blouse daisy flowers 
Penstemon - classic cottage garden plant comes in an array of colours
Nepeta - catmint I love it but do does my cat so I can't grow it in my gardened he eats it, rolls in it and goes nuts. 

Shrubs
Lavendula - what can I say, everyone know this one and it's a great way to get tons of it!
Buxus - only if you have the time and patience,  it's slow to propagate. 
Buddlejia - don't knock this train line plant it has some lovely cultivars and is great for wildlife.  Black knight is beautiful, deep purple flowers with orange centres
Hydrangea - aborescens Annabelle is my favorite big white pompoms

The soft new shoots on plants is what you are looking for. Preferably non flowering shoots as they will root more easily. 
from left: lavender, sage, ceanothus, flowering currant

Take off up to 10cm of a shoot just above a bud on the parent plant.
feeling a little cold: stripped of their lower leaves

Strip the lower few leaves so you have a decent length of stem to plant in the soil. 

I've used John innes seed and potting compost, but you probably could you a good multi purpose compost. 
please ignore my bad manicure!
Dip the cutting in some rooting powder or liquid then make a hole in the compost (fingers, dibbers, a pencil what ever suits). Then put in the cutting and firm it into the compost. 

Water well. 
now wait

I put two to three cuttings per pot (just because I'm tight!). 

Mine are in a sunny sheltered area in my garden as my greenhouse isn't up yet. But a window sill would do of you haven't got the space outside

Leave them for 6-10 weeks. Remembering to keep the compost moist. 

Then your only problem is finding places in your garden to plant them. 

I have cuttings of

Lavendula  Hidcote
Salvia officinalis
Rosmarinus officinalis
Ceanothus Concha
Cistus Sunset
Buxus semirvirens
Ribes sanguineum

I do get quite carried away taking cuttings as its SO easy!

just a few strawberries, red currants and sticks of rhubarb
my little star

I've also been collecting the strawbs and red currants which, even though we've been sharing them with the slugs and bird population of Newbury, seem to be an unending harvest.  Lottie like Holly before her has acquired a taste for red currants straight from the bush so it's a battle between them as to who will get there first, all fear of spiders and other crawlies banished. 
no spider can stop the intrepid strawberry hunter

Saturday 9 June 2012

Unwelcome Visitors


When I first got back into gardening as an adult I'd just moved into a basement flat in Camberwell which had a garden. It was mostly paving but had some borders and an enormous elder tree at the back.  As I was pretty poor I decided to grow all of my plants from seed. With no greenhouse and much to the annoyance of my boyfriend I had seed trays all over the kitchen floor. I had cleared the borders of weeds and just planted out some of the seedlings when I had to go on a two week tour with the dance company I was working with.   I was welcomed back by my very proud boyfriend who said he had been looking after my garden, watering and weeding. He took me outside to view his work, when I looked out in the garden I found a lot of bare earth. He'd weeded all of my seedlings. What could I say.......... 

As this dear boyfriend is now my dear husband, I thought I'd do a run down of the weeds in my garden, just in case. 

There are two main types of weeds, annual (grow, flower and die in one year) and perennial (the buggers that keep coming back). The former and quite easy to get rid of if you get them before their flower, the latter are a pain in the arse. 

(I'm using botanical paintings just to make them look nicer)


Perennials pains
Brambles
Mixed feelings on this one as blackberries are so yummy. But I think on the whole I'd prefer to forage them elsewhere .


Broad leaved willow herb
Quite easy to clear with a fork but can tear, leaving the roots behind for another year. 


Wood Avens
Annoying as it does look like a it's cultivated cousin until it flowers but quite easy to  lift.


Bindweed
is there any garden that doesn't have this strangulating pernicious pain! if there is I'd like to move in!  it seems that I have two types.  hedge bindweed Convolvulus arvensis, the white flowering one that most gardens seem to have, and field bindweed it travels along the ground pulling things down rather than twining up and strangling everything.  Both are as bad as each other. But I only seem to have them in a small patch so operation strangulation has begun.


Annuals
Goose grass
One of my favourite weeds on that it is fun to play with and quite easy to clear.


Common field speedwell
spreading suffocating, but pretty blue flowers.



Chickweed
Easy to clear with hoeing.



A tip I remember from Bunny Guinness off gardeners world was, if you don't have time to weed the garden properly deadhead the weeds to stop them flowering. That way you are at least stopping them from spreading.   But do go back and clear the weeds at a later date, otherwise you'll never get rid of them.

I must say that Bjorn is very proud that he can now discern many different types of plants, but he does steer clear of doing the weeding.

Sunday 3 June 2012


So I'm sitting here trying to stay calm, waiting for the dentist to fill my life with pain.  (2 fillings, I blame all that Ribena).  So I'm thinking of the lovely week I've just had filled with beautiful walks in stunning landscapes with friends and family. 

mown path through the orchard at The Vyne
On Friday I thought it was a out time I used that national trust membership that I got for Christmas. (thanks mum). So I packed a picnic, sun cream and picnic blanket(thanks again mum) and of we drove to The Vyne near basingstoke. Half an hour of windy roads and a dozen "are we there yet"s we arrived, bumping over the cattle grid.  I was slightly condemned that although I would love ambling through the beautiful gardens Holly might get bored.   In true jubilee/Olympic spirit they had a scarecrow trail through the garden so Holly had the time of her life searching for scarecrows and choosing her favourite. In fact she enjoyed it so much we had to take her Daddy there again in the Monday and we will be making our own scarecrow for the garden. 
Holly wasn't impressed with his cycling style

My second venture into sublime landscapes was a wonderful  surprise.  While visiting  my friend Marneta in Oxfordshire, not only did I get to while away the hours in her beautifully serene garden, but she took me to a capability brown landscaped garden just down the lane.  What a fabulous surprise that was.  
Grecian temple in the gardens


Immaculately restored with formal gardens around the house, spreading out into acres of landscaped views out into the Oxfordshire countryside. It never ceases to amaze me how Capability Brown had such vision. 

While out on our stroll with Ronnie Barker, a dog with special privileges. We came across some lemon sorrel, great in salads and other dishes too.  

Ronnie was quite taken with the Wedding Cake tree,
Cornus controversa Variegata
And so a mini wild forage began. We also collected some hedge garlic and by the time we go back we had enough for a small bowl of salad to accompany a beautifully healthy vegetarian lunch. 

my new friend
Back home in Newbury the wild foraging inspire me to get out into the garden and see what was on offer.  All my life I have. Even convinced that I don't like rhubarb, now it's in my garden I've been converted. Thanks to a simple recipe for rhubarb syrup. Holly drinks it as a cordial but we've also had it on ice cream and I'm waiting for a garden  party to try it with gin!

there may be a small child lost in there
Having spent so long in the back garden I have been ignoring the front which has turned into a bit of a wild meadow. So one evening Bjorn mowed as I edged. Though after it was finished it looked more like a moss lawn than a grass one. Ah well. Maybe that will be inspiration for my Japanese garden. 
short back and sides please


Monday 28 May 2012

Frothy Pink and Invasions


Okay so it's two weeks since my last blog (I feel like I'm in the confessional), but I've been doing so much I just don't know where to start. 

I planned a day out at RHS Wisely for some spring inspiration but it turned into a wash out.  It was pouring with rain but my friend Pernille braved the weather, which pleased Holly as she got to see her friend Francesca.  The pair didn't seem to mind the rain and still managed to roll around on the grass. 

sharing, caring friends
this is as pink as nature gets!
Wisely is a beautiful garden all year round and a firm favourite with young kids with the adventure playground and hot house root cave. 
Purple Toothwort; strange fruit indeed
The rhododendrons and azaleas were on top form with their loud blousey colours.   I also discovered (well not me personally, that would probably be a Victorian plant hunter) a rather curious looking plant at the foot of a large rhododendron, the purple tooth wort, Lathraea clandestina.  It was quite prehistoric looking in a dangerous triffid type way. A parasitic plant that lives off the roots of, mainly alders and salix but also other trees.   I do love it when I find things I've never seen before, quite by accident. 

Back home with a desire to get the garden looking more like a garden than a wildlife reserve, I mowed and edges the lawn. There's something wonderfully about the smell of freshly mown grass. While edging the lawn next to one of the borders I found a plant which made me stop in my tracks and change tack. 

Mint.

Now mint is an essential plant for summer.  In one word, Pimms. 
However, never, never, never plant it in a border. 
Always, always, always plant it in a pretty (and big) pot. 
It's a survivor i.e. a thug of a plant which will take over your whole garden and your neighbours gardens and completely put you off Pimms which is never a good thing. 

the border mid mint extraction
So as I said I changed tack and stripped out the border, apart from the lavender bush. This was in fact a good move as the congested irises needed  splitting. (I know it's the wrong time of year to split Rhizomatous Iris, July to September being the best time).  So the result is a bed clear of mint and irises that are a lot happier. 

Oh, a quick foot note on a previous blog, I checked the mouse nest and there was not a trace of mouse.  Now I'm counting that as a good thing, (no bones) so I think the parents went back to the babies and they are now jumping around my garden waiting for the strawberries to ripen.
the lights are on but no-one's home

Poking around in the back with the fruit bushes I discovered a bit of a disaster if you like gooseberries, which I don't.  American gooseberry mildew. Not sure why it's American? But it's mildew and that's bad. There's the non organic treatment, spray it with chemicals, or the organic treatment, cut out the affected parts, and in the future prime the plant to an open habit to let air circulate.  I don't like spraying fruit bushes as Holly tends to eat while she picks so the only option to me was to cut out the bad bits. Unfortunately this meant most of the three bushes disappeared. But my worry was that it might spread to the currant bushes, so I'd rather lose all the gooseberries than some of the currants. 
I don't like gooseberries even if they look sugar coated

I'd only kept them as my sister likes them, but as I'm the one who has to picking them and always end up filling the swear box when I do, I think they are going to end up on the bonfire.  Sorry Boo. X

Saturday 19 May 2012

May the fourth be with you


It's been a busy old week with the bank holiday weekend, Lottie's first birthday and my first dressmaking class, but I have managed to do a bit of gardening.

I can't believe my little Lottie is actually one year old, it feels like only yesterday that Holly was one never mind three and a half going on fourteen.  But the day arrived and not only did she get lots of presents she kindly gave us a present, her first steps.  Yes Lottie teetered precariously across the room to the pile of wrapping paper and proceeded to gleefully tear it up, so much for the dolls buggy!

As a birthday treat and with our new country living we decided to go to a local farms lambing weekend.  Holly was transfixed with the sheep giving birth, as was I (they made it look so easy).  There were faces to be painted, orphaned lambs to feed and piglets to be stroked, Lottie thought the piglets were the funniest things she had ever seen.  I was particularly glad to see the baby chicks and tried to encourage Holly to hold the loud little chicks.  I am a devious mother in that I am trying to use my children to influence their dad to agree to me keeping chickens.  So it was a case of "isn't the chick lovely,Holly." "see how soft it is." "would you like some little chicks?" "
Holly wondering if she could take Timmy home!
no one would notice if I just popped it in my pocket

After all this rain and the little bit of sunshine we had the garden needed seeing to, as it was not only the veg and plants that are growing. The weeds are getting tall! 

Before I could plant the lettuce I had to prepare the beds.  As I've previously said the soil is very good but full of stones. As it is such a big job I'm clearing as I go.  So I cleared the area for the strawberries and now an area for the lettuce, spinach and pak choi.  Rather than sitting there hand picking them all I've invested in a garden sieve.  I was amazed how many stones you collect so quickly.  Now I'm out there looking like I'm madly prospecting for gold, though it is rather good exercise for the wobbly waistline.    Gardening it's the new gym!

Even the elephant had given up picking stones
No stones, well not the ruddy great big ones at least
okay so my straight line cutting could do with
improving

my sieve full of stones, and a glimpse of my wellies!
With enough wood pigeons to feed an army in my garden daily, I've also bought some enviro mesh in the hope that I might feed my family, not the wildlife, so I only have to contend with the slugs and caterpillars. 

I've also earthed up my potatoes almost to the top of the bags now, so I just have to have a trip to the garden centre and buy some liquid seaweed feed.


Clearing the brambles from along the fence and espaliered apples it all looks a bit bare now so I'll be planning some plants that won't compete too much with the apples, good pollinators to encourage the bees and like it about dry.

While clearing the weeds and brambles I discovered a patch of raspberry canes why they would have been planted so close to the apple tree I have no idea, though they could have self seeded.  I'm going to leave them there for this season but will move them I the autumn to a more appropriate place.

The seeds that I planted two weeks ago are now sprouting.  The spring onions,  tomatoes,carrots and runner beans are all appearing and some of Holly's teddy bear sunflowers are also peeking through.

It's also not quite so rainy as it has been so watering is becoming more of an issue especially as there is still no hosepipe usage.  It's a good job we have two full large water butts.  So when I've finally got the kids to sleep I can spend a quiet half hour in the garden, listening to the sparrows twittering watching the sun go down.
meiow