Camellias and Daffodils

Hello Friends ~~~

I had not realised that it is nearly two weeks since I wrote a peep! Where does the time go? So, here I am with some photographs ~ I hope you like camellias!

First, I will share with you a little story about how I came to almost hate daffodils ~~~ I certainly went off them for a good while, and I think you will give me your sympathy!

A long time ago I lived in a neighbouring village and my garden was tiny, nay, it was miniature to say the least, so there was not much room for anything. I was determined not to be without, so, amongst other things I bought thirty assorted daffodil bulbs and planted them in pots. They rewarded me well. Time passed and I moved abroad. I brought the pots of daffodils to my parent's cottage and my father decided to plant the bulbs directly into the ground. For many years the daffodils thrived. There were many sorts, from the straightforward all yellow, to some with vibrant orange centres, and some spectacular double ones.

The years went by, the daffodils multiplied into many hundreds of bulbs, and my mother began to tire of looking at so many during late spring when they die back and become quite untidy. They became an eyesore and seemed to hold back all the late spring and early summer flourishes of flowers, so, one day, with permission, I set about digging them all up. I carefully cleaned them, around five hundred bulbs, and put them to dry, ready for planting into many pots to place around the garden the following spring, and which could be removed out of sight when they were past their best. All of this took me several days but it seemed like a good plan ~~~ until, in early September of that year I went to pot up the bulbs and could not find them! Imagine my dismay to discover that, despite all my hard work, my father had found the bulbs just three days earlier and replanted them in the garden! I went off daffodils very quickly, I can assure you!

Later, I decided to dig them up again only this time I gave them away by the carrier bag full to willing takers. I think the Daffodil Karma Gods are now on my tail because the only daffodils that survive are a small handful of the beautiful double ones that are, sadly, so heavy in bloom that the stems just snap, so all I can do is cut them really very short and pop them in a vintage jug that seems just right for daffodils, to the point that we call it the Daffodil Jug ~~~

Last year, I ruthlessly cut the top off my earlier flowering pink camellia because it was getting too tall for the position and when we have strong gales or storms all winter long, it often looks as if it will just uproot itself and take off, so I took the bull by the horns and cut it back to half of its height. I think it shocked the plant because it has never been so full of these pink blooms that bring a vivid pop of colour to the late winter garden ~~~

Previously next door could not be seen behind the height of this shrub

This weekend saw the return of the much missed Gardener's World to our television screens.  Following Monty Don's sage advice, and the arrival of a delightful sunny Sunday afternoon, I shall begin tackling the thicket and mess that is the autumn raspberry patch. It will take a lot of work because my back was too bad to do anything last year so the weeds, mostly couch grass and brambles, have really taken hold. I cropped only what could be picked from the wall edge, so had barely anything to eat by way of fresh raspberries last year.  Here is the before picture, the after ones will follow next time, and I hope there will be a vast improvement.

Please don't judge me for the mess it is in! I suffered in agony for many weeks in two bouts of a very bad back last spring and summer and I am very eager to sort out this mess!

The local Council Garden Waste bin scheme has already started and it took me no time at all to fill it for the first collection, Thursday last!  Already, the next collection is half full and there is nearly a fortnight of clearing ahead of us. I have much more waste than I can feasibly manage right now! Heigh Ho! Such fun ~~~

Until next time ~~~
~~~Deborah xo

Some Very Good News

Gentle Reader~I have been absent for a while, three weeks, and I am sorry. You must think I have forgotten you.  I have not, but I have been keeping up with bits and bobs over on Facebook, on A Garden In The Shire page, but have neglected my blog ~~ I think the reason is that, as things slow down there is not much to write about.  I have been distracted by family matters, and I am also not wanting to do too much in the way of heavy work until I am certain my back is up to it. Also, my computer is struggling to cope, and I fear it will now be a while before I can replace it. Anyway, this will bring you a little update.

As the blog title suggests, there is some very good news, but I am going to hold that back until the very last moment! Oh! I am such a tease, but there we are! On with other news first~~~

There have been bags and bags of leaves to sweep up!  Oh, my have there been leaves.  These are all swept up into big bin liners, holes poked in the bottom for drainage and left in a corner where in a year or so they will have metamorphosed into beautiful, rich, crumbly leaf mould for the garden.  At the moment though, there is a slight problem.  We have a badger who is tearing the bags apart, presumably in a search for worms.  Not only that, but he, or she, is digging big holes in the lawn!  I shall have to work out what to do, but no harm will come to the badgers, I would rather put up with the holes in the lawn than hurt those lovely creatures.

I have started taking pictures of the sky again, from time to time, especially when something catches my eye, like this big, squiggly shaped cloud ~~

Or, yesterday evening, when after the greyest of grey days the rays of the setting sun set fire to the sky above and we were treated to one of nature's brilliant, bright displays~~

But I also like to see the paler skies too~~

Earlier in the week, I played a little magic trick on my Facebook page with these two photographs~~now you see it, now you don't~~for these were the two views from the bottom of my muddy lane looking out across The Shire~~isn't nature wonderful, perfectly hiding the rocky outcrop in mist, as if erased by some giant hand from above, only to put it back a short while later~~

There have been quite a few sunny days, and surprisingly the butterflies, which have been absent most of the summer, arrived in force.  Here are some lovely Red Admirals sunning themselves, making the most of the last warm days of the year before they hibernate until Spring~~

Here is a close up of this quite beautiful British butterfly~~

 

 The days have been sprinkled with dew, making chains of gossamer beads across the webs that scatter across the garden, and this one is a pretty backdrop to a spray of rose hips.  The Frances E Lester rambler has now set it's seed, and the hips are swelling and ripening well.  I hope the entire bush will soon be covered in such clusters, for that will make a very pretty picture.  Here, for now, is one such cluster~~

Late last year, I discovered, growing in between some paving stones, what looked like a small rose seedling.  Now, I have never seen a rose growing from a seed, but sure enough, earlier this year I found it again, only this time much bigger.  I resolved to move it, for it cannot be left to grow where it is, partly because I do not know how big it would grow, and partly because it is on the path. Before I had the chance to move it I hurt my back and could not bend, so the rose has grown much bigger. 

 

Last week, I managed, with much struggling, to get it out from its comfortable nook and I potted it up in some fresh compost with lots of rooting gel and other root~growth compounds and so far it looks quite happy in its new home.  This is about a week after the transplanting work was done ~~~

 

 

The courgettes have continued to harvest and give up their bounty long after I would have expected this year, and after a late start they have given plenty~~here are the last ones, sizzling in my cast iron griddle pan, in oil.  I later enjoyed them tossed in a delicate sage butter~~

 

 

The big, rosy red hips on the rosa rugosa give a glorious splash of colour, and later in the year they will help to feed the birds too~~ 



 

During the days I have not been clearing and tidying, I took a little walk around the cathedral and wandered into the Secret Garden, the healing garden around the back of the building, half hidden from view, and only known to those that stumble across it, taking the time to turn a corner and look.  There I found this mysterious doorway, half hidden by the planting around the edges and growing across~~

 

 

I love it, the mystery, the magic, the wondering if my grandfather ever stepped through this door during his time as caretaker of the magnificent and ancient building and grounds~~

 

Well, Gentle Reader, I promised some very good news, and here you shall have it!  Do you remember the dreadful state of affairs when my well meaning neighbour cut down my hedge, in particular the Elder trees?  Well, just the other day I found some tiny green shoots, miraculously shooting and regenerating from the stubby remains!  Here they are~~

 

I hope you are as thrilled as I am to see this!  Isn't nature wonderful?  I will monitor their progress carefully now, and make sure no one gets close to them with a machete again!

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

 

 

Mixed Bag Miscellany

Gentle Reader, in the four days since my last entry, there has been a mixed bag of weather.  The wild, wet, and windy weather of the weekend passed and the days have found gentler, kinder conditions, but not without some anomalies, like the bank of fog that swept in from the ocean yesterday morning, only to be replaced a few short hours later with warm summer sunshine that seemed blistering and left me melting with the juxtaposition of temperatures.

One of the bizarre things that seems more prevalent than usual in the garden is a strange little critter called a frog hopper.  Frog hoppers hide beneath a shield of 'spit', a frothy substance they secrete to keep themselves covered and prevent them drying out.  We call this phenomenon 'cuckoo spit' because it generally shows up on plants in the garden around the same time as the cuckoo bird arrives in Britain after it's migration from Africa.  Although they suck the sap of plants, the damage is minimal.

Here is Cuckoo Spit~

and I rinsed it off to reveal the tiny Frog Hopper underneath for you~

It soon replaced the 'spit' so no harm was done!

Every year, the sycamore trees that border my property drop their leaves in Autumn and over several days I am able to go out and rake them up.  I gather them into big bin bags, tie the tops and pierce the bottoms of each back to let moisture drain out.  Over the winter, these rot down to make a rich humus that can be added to soil or used as a mulch to suppress weeds.  I usually harvest several such bags, and once the job is done it is forgotten about until I come to use them.  Yesterday, however, I noticed a bit of a mess by the bags, and on closer inspection some have been torn open, scattering the contents to the wind.  The only thing I can think of that has done this is a badger!  I know there are several holts nearby, so it is entirely likely that one wandered into my garden again, as they have done in the past, in search of juicy worms~

I am still waiting for my runner beans and broad beans to germinate, but am happy to see that I now have three tiny courgette plantlets, so there is hope that there will be something to eat from the garden very soon.  I am preparing the small vegetable plot in earnest now, and today I ventured to turn back the weed killing membrane that I placed over part of the plot late last year.  This is how it looked a few weeks ago, you can see one of the yellow recycled inflatable mattresses I used~

and this is how it looks today after I turned back the two mattresses.  It seems to have worked really well, there are just a few white bindweed roots, squiggling across the surface like long, skinny worms.  They will soon be removed~

If you remember, I mentioned that I am using this area to hold plants for the borders this year, and this is how it looks now, after I planted out five healthy foxglove plants.  They will soon grow and fill out, and I hope they will be a natural weed suppressant~

These are the same plants just a few weeks ago, so they have grown really well~

Gentle Reader, the plants and flowers continue to open and delight, so here are a few for you to see tonight~

A double, cultivated poppy that looks like an old~fashioned ball gowned dancer waiting to waltz~

The fragrant David Austin rose Frances E. Lester, a beautiful, and highly fragrant, rambler that I have pruned into a shrub~it is covered in clusters of these delicate, pink blooms~

Another fragrant favourite, the rosa rugosa that I am making into a small hedge~

and another image of the lovely poppy, with colour singing out against the blue borage~

A peach coloured patio rose which I bought quite cheaply as it had no label.  A bargain purchase, don't you think~

My dwarf clematis, which trails rather than climbs, in a terracotta pot against a sunny wall~

So, Gentle Reader, I have brought you some of the strange, and some beautiful too . . Please stop by again to see how this garden grows, for I have been busy clearing the soft fruit patch and there is now some news to share from there.

After the Wind and the Rain

Gentle Reader, the weather was not kind.  Today there is change for the better, and after three days of wind and rain the clearing up begins.  It could have been much worse!  There are a lot of leaves down in my garden from neighbouring trees, and that mess must dry before I start to rake and sweep.  That is the sort of work I expect to do in autumn!

The main casualties are the oriental poppies, which do choose to bloom when bad weather seems imminent every year!  As I said in an earlier entry, the cold has held the blooms back so not too  many were open for the destructive forces of nature.  Only one lily did not remain upright, but I am confident it will recover as it does not seem damaged.

Here are the poppies after I had tried to tie them up, but there is only so much one can do when being buffeted by wind, and rained upon.  I did what I could, we will see how they recover, and it will be interesting to see what happens next year when they are staked early on~

but here is one that bloomed earlier~

 
I think it looks like a gorgeous, pink clamshell, don't you?

This is the stone hedge that forms part of my boundary walls.  It is a Pembrokeshire stone hedge, and may well be two hundred years, or more, old.  I have no way of telling, or finding out~

Until last year it was completely hidden by the ivy.  I removed most of it last summer, and since then I have trimmed it twice, once in the autumn and again in the spring of this year. It looks so much better now, and I am hoping that two half yearly trims will keep it tidy and in check.

Since clearing the lower half, I am delighted to see that nature is returning, and ferns and pennywort have started to grow along the bottom edge and in some nooks and crannies of the stonework.  I love both, and they are the sort of plants you see growing on a stone hedge in the wild countryside~

 
Further along, there are foxgloves and primroses too!

Sadly, I had to cut back much of the lovely honeysuckle that is spilling over from next door's side.  It is so pretty, and the birds love it, but it has a habit of winding around my washing line, clambering over my roof, and generally cutting out my light.  I have done a quick job today, just to keep it away, but think it will need much more drastic attention in the autumn~

In just thirty minutes I filled my garden weed sack!  Later, when it is dry out there I will have to go and sweep up all the debris that was blown in on the winds.  It is too wet and messy right now.  In fact, I doubt I shall do much more until it is dry.  I can be such a wimp!  There are petunias to pot up, so I might attend to those later.  You will see the pictures of those in a future blog, I promise.



Until the next time, Gentle Reader, I leave you with a female blackbird, who is always hopping around the garden looking for grubs to feed her hungry brood of chicks.